Carl Jung on Shadow Work: Volumes 1 and 2: Practical Exercises, Advanced Practice, and the Path of Individuation

What happens when the parts of ourselves we ignore, reject, or fear begin to speak?

Carl Jung on Shadow Work: Volumes 1 and 2 brings together both volumes of this Jungian shadow work series in one combined print edition. Drawing directly from Carl Jung’s own writings, this book offers a grounded, practical, and deeply reflective guide to one of Jung’s most important psychological ideas: the shadow.

In Jungian psychology, the shadow is not simply the “dark side” of the personality. It is the hidden, denied, rejected, or undeveloped part of the self. It may appear through projection, emotional reactions, dreams, relationship patterns, envy, fear, shame, resentment, moral conflict, creative blocks, or the uneasy sense that something within us remains unknown. To work with the shadow is not to destroy it, but to bring it into consciousness so that it no longer rules us from below.

Compiled by Sara San Angelo, this combined edition guides readers from the foundations of shadow work into more advanced Jungian practice. The book is designed for readers who want more than surface-level self-help. It is for seekers, students of depth psychology, therapists, writers, artists, spiritual explorers, and anyone drawn to inner work, individuation, active imagination, dreamwork, and psychological wholeness.

Volume 1 introduces the shadow through primary-source selections and discussion from Aion, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Psychology and Religion, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Man and His Symbols, and other key Jungian texts. Readers are guided through the meaning of the shadow, how it forms, how it appears in projection, why it becomes more powerful when denied, and how it can become a path toward self-knowledge.

The first volume also includes twelve structured shadow work exercises that move from beginning to advanced practice. These exercises help readers notice emotional triggers, explore dream figures, recognize disowned qualities, map persona and shadow opposites, conduct moral inventory, reflect on the collective shadow, and begin the lifelong work of integration.

Volume 2 moves deeper into advanced shadow work and the larger path of individuation. It explores the golden shadow, active imagination as Jung developed it, alchemical transformation through nigredo, albedo, and rubedo, the shadow in intimate relationships and transference, the work of the second half of life, the relationship between the shadow and the Self, and Jung’s controversial treatment of evil in Aion and Answer to Job.

This book offers:

A complete two-volume Jungian shadow work guide in one print edition.

Primary-source quotations from Carl Jung’s Collected Works with full citations.

Twelve reflective exercises for beginning, intermediate, and advanced shadow work.

Clear explanations of projection, persona, anima, animus, archetype, active imagination, alchemy, the Self, and individuation.

A grounded introduction to the golden shadow and the hidden gifts we project onto others.

Practical ways to recognize emotional triggers, relationship patterns, dream symbols, and disowned parts of the personality.

A thoughtful discussion of evil, the God-image, and Jung’s psychological challenge to one-sided ideas of goodness.

For readers of Robert A. Johnson, Connie Zweig, James Hollis, Robert Bly, Marie-Louise von Franz, Edward Edinger, Murray Stein, and anyone interested in Jungian psychology, archetypes, dream analysis, depth psychology, inner healing, and self-knowledge.

Shadow work is not a quick fix. It is not about becoming perfect, endlessly positive, or free from darkness. Jung’s path asks something more honest and more difficult: to make the unconscious conscious and to move toward a more complete relationship with the whole self.

For more Jung books by Sara San Angelo, visit her author page.