Shadow Work with Tarot

What is shadow work with tarot?

Shadow work with tarot means using the cards as a mirror for the feelings you push down, the reactions that keep repeating and the parts of yourself you find hard to look at. The idea of the “shadow” comes from the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung: the traits we refuse to accept in ourselves, push out of awareness and then often see in other people. For Jung the shadow is a universal archetype, present in everyone, simply waiting to be seen. Shadow work tries to know those parts without blame and to bring them more consciously into life.

The clearest sign of the shadow is projection. If a friend’s self-promotion irritates you out of all proportion, perhaps a wish to be seen that you have pushed down sits under the irritation. Shadow work reads that reaction not as a flaw but as a clue: what is this thing that bothers me so much telling me about myself?

The shadow is not made only of dark traits. Talents, wishes and courage that were hushed as “too much” in childhood are pushed there too: laughing loudly, standing out, saying no. So shadow work sometimes finds not an anger but a forgotten strength. A quality you admire in someone else is often one you also have but have not allowed yourself to live. Integration means reclaiming these suppressed strengths as much as the darker sides.

Tarot is a strong tool for this because its pictures give a voice to the figures inside us. The chained figures of the Devil can show the ties that hold you; the dark water of the Moon, the fears trying to surface; the Tower, defences being shaken. In shadow work these cards are not a verdict but an invitation: “What am I avoiding looking at here?”

Shadow work is not a reading of the future. It does not ask when something will happen or what someone else thinks; it asks only about you, your reactions and where they come from.

Shadow work with tarot in eight steps

1. Choose a safe, quiet time

Don’t do shadow work when you are exhausted, angry or very fragile. Give yourself an hour, put the phone away and choose a time after which you can rest. A glass of water, a notebook and some quiet are enough.

2. Pick one theme

Shadow work does not run on scattered questions. Choose one repetition that bothers you: the same kind of argument, the same kind of jealousy, the same flash of anger. Write the theme as one sentence: “Why does a friend’s success sting me so much?”

3. Use the Shadow Work spread

The Shadow Work spread has five positions: the main shadow theme, the repressed emotion, the source of this shadow, how the shadow affects behaviour, and the path of healing or integration. Read the positions before you turn the cards and think about what each one will ask you.

4. Read hard cards as mirrors

Hard cards are natural in shadow work. The Devil describes not evil but a tie, an obsession or a need for control that holds you; the Tower not a ruin but a moment of awareness when your defences crack; Death not a loss but a habit that needs to close. Read the card as a question, not as a charge against yourself.

5. Turn each card into a journal prompt

Turn the card in each position into a question and write the answer. If the Nine of Swords lands on “repressed emotion”, your prompt might be: “What worry keeps me awake at night but goes unspoken by day?” Don’t correct yourself as you write; the shadow shows in the uncorrected sentences.

6. Look gently at the source

The “source of this shadow” position often points to the past, a teaching or a need that went unmet. The aim is not to blame someone but to see where your reaction was learned. Seeing where a reaction comes from is the first step to changing it.

7. Connect the cards

After reading the five cards one by one, look at the links between them. The repressed emotion and the effect on behaviour often read as cause and effect: a fear hidden inside becomes an attitude outside. The source and the healing path are often opposites: a soft strength facing a learned harshness, an open word facing a learned silence.

8. End with one integration step

The fifth position, the path of healing or integration, calls you to act. Turn it into a step small enough for this week: a conversation, a boundary, a letter to yourself. The shadow is integrated not through grand decisions but through small, repeated steps.

Example: the sting of a friend’s success

The theme: “Why does a friend’s success sting me so much?”

1. Main shadow theme: the Moon. Fears and illusions. The success is real, but the story you tell yourself about it is coloured by an old fear.
2. Repressed emotion: Six of Wands. A wish to be recognised and applauded, pushed down because it felt vain.
3. Source of this shadow: the Emperor. A strict structure: perhaps praise that came only with perfect results, or a voice that said ambition was not for you.
4. How the shadow affects behaviour: Seven of Swords. Going it alone and half-truths. You hide your own projects, then quietly measure yourself against others.
5. Healing / integration path: the Sun. Showing yourself as you are, joy that does not need hiding.

Together. The story runs like this: a wish to be seen, learned to be unsafe under a strict structure, now hides behind secrecy and comes out as a sting when someone else is seen. The cards do not accuse you; they show where the fear began and what the jealousy protects. The Sun suggests the way through is not to want less but to let yourself be seen.

A week later. Rereading the journal, you notice the sting is sharpest when the friend’s success is in the same field as your hidden project, which confirms the Seven of Swords: what you keep secret is what you compare. Shadow work often moves like this: one reading opens a question, and the days that follow bring the answer.

The step. This week, show one person something you have been working on in secret, and congratulate your friend without adding a “but”.

What to avoid in shadow work

• Using the cards as a weapon against yourself. Shadow work is self-awareness, not self-criticism. If a card makes you feel bad, turn it into a question.
• Fearing the hard cards. The Devil, Death or the Tower do not announce a disaster; they show where to look.
• Placing all the blame on the past or on others. The source position gives an explanation, not an excuse. Today’s reaction is yours to work with.
• Trying to solve everything in one session. The shadow opens layer by layer. Work with one theme, then let what you noticed settle.
• Doing nothing after the reading. Awareness that never becomes a step stays where it is. Choose an action, however small.

Keeping the work going

Shadow work once or twice a month is enough. In between, draw a daily card and note the question “Where did I see my own shadow today, and in whom?”. What bothers us most in others is often what we do not want to see in ourselves; this question puts that mirror in front of you each day.

When you are ready, open the Shadow Work spread in the Larisa app: write your theme in the question field in one sentence, choose the five cards from the shuffled deck, and write a journal prompt for each position before reading the interpretation. Then read your answers alongside it.

For staying objective when you read for yourself, see reading tarot for yourself. The shadow often speaks in dreams too: dreaming of being chased is the shadow’s most familiar scene, and the pursuer is usually a part of you. The Seven of Cups, which is about telling illusion from reality, is a card worth sitting with in this work. And for the tradition of reading the card left at the bottom of the deck, see the shadow card.