Product Description

"In Tarot Shadow Work, Christine Jette bravely takes the practice of tarot readings to new depths and places many people fear to go. She shows us how we can use the cards to trigger awareness in ourselves of troubling aspects of our lives and histories, and then go beyond discovery to use the cards as tools for healing. This is part of the work that needs to be done with tarot in this new century."
—Rachel Pollack, author of 78 Degrees of Wisdom and the forthcoming Shining Tribe Tarot

Deep within our psyches, the unconscious holds our forbidden feelings, secret wishes, and creative urges. Over time, these "dark forces" take on a life of their own and form the shadow—a powerful force of unresolved inner conflicts and unexpressed emotions that defies our efforts to control it. The shadow takes its shape from a menagerie of archetypes, each recognizable throughout time and around the world—troubling characters who thrive within our persona. The shadow is sabateur, martyr, victim, addict, sadist, masochist, or tyrant; all the dark figures that prey on the lighter qualities of the human personality.

The shadow also represents those latent talents and positive traits that were banished from us at some time along our life path: artistic, musical, athletic, or creative talents. An undeveloped ability, a dream that has gone unexpressed, a fantasy of what might have been—these too make up the personal shadow, the lost parts of ourselves.

Tarot Shadow Work shows you how to free yourself from the shackles of the shadow's power. Through tarot work, journaling, meditation, creative visualization, and dream work, you will bring the shadow into the light. This book is ideal for those who are in recovery from a serious addiction or illness, as well as any person seeking a deeper understanding of his or her true self.
    
By exploring the dark and uncharted territory of the unconscious mind, you will work towards understanding and integrating the shadow. No prior knowledge of the tarot is required. You will learn to use the cards as a tool to help you break free from negative patterns and self-destructive behavior.

Once we realize that we are made of both light and darkness, life will start to make sense. When we accept our dual natures, we stop sabotaging our own efforts and learn to be compassionate with others and with ourselves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #503892 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Diane Wilkes
"Hats off to Christine Jette--she has something new to say--and she says it cogently, with depth, passion, and compassion."

Lori Vallis, Host, Bella Online Tarot
"I would recommend her book to anyone... on a spiritual journey, to anyone interested in learning more about themselves..."

From the Author
Spring 2006

Shadow work is putting the past to rest, with all its pain, sorrow, loss or regret, so we can get on with our lives and learn to live joyfully. I like to think of the shadow book as mystical therapy or a grief workbook. Because I borrow heavily from 12-Step programs, it is also a book of recovery. As with all my work, practical advice, psychology and mysticism peacefully coexist.

The phrase 'new age' is an umbrella term used to denote a whole range of interests including health and well-being, many forms of therapy and self-help, esoteric practices such as astrology and tarot, nontraditional religions and spirituality, concern for the environment, respect for nature and feminine wisdom. To some, it is synonymous with fluffy, feel-good nonsense. To others, it offers another way to look at the world. I am disheartened when reviewers feel the need to bash beliefs that differ from their own.

Llewellyn is a niche publisher of new age books. Tarot Shadow Work was published by Llewellyn, therefore it is a new age book produced by a new age press. Please do not buy my Llewellyn books if you are searching for mainstream treatment of the subject matter. I am always disappointed when reviewers find no value in my work. I can only hope that Mr. Frost returned the shadow book for a full refund.

Amazon does not allow personal web site information in the commentary. For a link to my web site, go to Llewellyn, click authors, and my name. My site carries expansions on all of my books, including how to use an entire deck of tarot cards for shadow work.

Thank you for your continued interest! CJ

Customer Reviews

It's a treasure
The full shadow work cycle with this book took a lot of time for me (about a year).
And I have to say it was a great experience.
Though author mentions words like 'Dark Goddess' protection', actually there is almost nothing 'pagan' in her book (IMHO). She repeats again and again: "No ritual is sacred unless it is sacred to you". You can find pagan stuff on the verbal level, but in practice it's all very rational, deeply based on Jungian psychology and common methods of self-helping.
"No magic comes from cards, the magic only comes from you", Jette says.
'Shadow altar', 'circle of protection', any ritual or stuff you can use must only help to concentrate yourself on 'shadow work'.
'Protection' is very important word in this context. "Remember, you are safe, protected and can leave any time", author says. The process is very hard and painful. If you are Christian (as myself, for example) you can ask our Lord or Virgin Mary to protect you. If you don't believe in God (or gods and goddesses) at all you can easy explain 'Dark Goddess' as an archetype, a part of your own psyche knowing wisdom which your Self doesn't know yet. So it can guide and protect you, too.
I have to say this book already changed my life someway.

Too Much New Age Clap-trap
I bought this book based on the unanimous positive reviews here at Amazon. I'm glad I got a used copy, because what I received is a volume of weak-minded New Age pabulum. I thought it would be interesting to see how the symbols of the tarot might be used for shadow work, but I was expecting--hoping for?--something considerably more rigorous and credible, something with the clarity and common-sense applications of, say, a Robert A. Johnson book. But, unlike Johnson, Jette is not an analyst, and so we get a lot of pseudo-pagan nonsense about casting circles of protection and crystals. I can't take seriously declarations like, "Onyx can cause depression in some..." or "Rose quartz radiates universal love," or "Diamonds hold, absorb, magnify, and transmit pain." Is there really any clinical evidence to prove this, or is the author just passing along the standard gruel that she has read in other Llewellyn publications?

The author's method uses only the trump cards. I guess the standard wisdom is that the major arcana represent archetypes, and the Jungian psychology on which shadow work is predicated also relies on archetypes, but that seems to be as much of a reason that we get for limiting ourselves to 22 of 78 cards. It seems arbitrary an unnecessarily restrictive. After all, the entire deck presents a much wider range of experience than the 22 cards do, and to limit ourselves to the major trumps just because they have been historically referred to as "archetypes" seems silly and illogical. The unconscious--where the Shadow dwells--speaks the language of symbols, and there is no reason whatsoever to assume that it can only respond to the symbols presented in the trump cards.

The author claims to be non-sectarian in her presentation, but that seems to really mean that she is non-religious, at least in the sense of any mainstream religion. But her repeated references to "Crone wisdom" and her exhortation to call upon "Crone power" during shadow work belie that. The rituals she presents use wiccan rhetoric. Here's an example: "I ask that the Dark Goddess...bless and protect me during this rite. I ask for wisdom, guidance, and comfort as I deeply mourn my losses. I release the past and I am free. This is correct and for the good of all. May it harm none. So shall it be." Non-sectarian, my eye.

I don't really have a problem with the use of ritual, or candle-burning, or any of that. I don't think this stuff works in any supernatural or magical way--and there is certainly no credible evidence to suggest they do--but the unconscious does seem responsive to the symbols of ritual, and I think a good argument can be made for making healthy, life-affirming rituals a large part of our lives. But calling on "Crone power"....well, I don't think so.

This book is written by a woman and seems aimed primarily at women, although that might not be obvious on first reading. I don't think it excludes men, but where gender-specific issues are brought up, they tend to be female issues like rape and menopause and domestic abuse. That's fine, I guess, if you're a woman, or a Sensitive New Age guy who responds to the nurturing warm fuzzies this book throws around. I'm not that kind of guy, though, and don't respond to it--that is my own subjective experience, and not a problem with the book, which is free to find any audience it wants. (Readers might object that the crystal-healing nonsense is also free to find its own audience, and in a sense they might be right, but I think it is a completely different thing to pass off crystal-healing mumbo-jumbo as therapy.)

I still think that the symbolism of tarot might be used effectively for shadow work, and that the author's idea was a good one. Jette is sincere in what she offers, and her writing strong. She seems to genuinely care about helping people.

Keys to the kingdom...
In TAROT SHADOW WORK Christine Jette suggests there are many ways to encounter and deal with the shadow side of the psyche. What is the shadow, and why should one care if the shadow knows or thinks it knows? According to the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and his onetime associate Sigmund Freud, the persona or face we present to the outside world is not the sum of what we are. Even the conscious thoughts we hide from others are not the sum of a psyche. Much of what transpires throughout the course of a lifetime is hidden from consciousness--repressed, projected, denied, or dealt with via other ego defenses designed to shield one from unpleasant truths.

Ever wonder why you form an instant and apparently irrational dislike for someone, or why you scream in rage over the most trivial happening, or why you experience a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when you hear a certain song or smell a certain perfume? In a more reflective mood and under the right circumstances you can access the unconscious processes that affect these reactions. "Tarot Shadow Work" is the opposite of analysis-i.e. it is art not science, and as far as I am concerned, the perfect way to approach and use information hiding in the irrational unconscious.

Jung suggested the Tarot deck as a way to tap the unconscious. Each of the 22 cards of the Major Arcana corresponds to an archetype, a universal symbol recognized by the unconscious. For example, the Empress represents fertility, motherhood, nurturance. Each of us reacts to those notions differently. If you were nurtured as a child, the Empress might evoke feelings of warmth and contentment. If you are a harried mother with six kids, you might not have the same reaction to the Empress, no matter how much your mother loved you.

Each archetype has a light (yang) and dark (yin) side. Jette has developed an assortment of techniques and approaches using the Tarot to facilitate contact with the unconscious and the light (higher self) and dark (shadow self) that lie within. Contact with the unconscious allows one to address grief, anger, and loss that generally underlie unsocial behavior and/or obstruct the individual from becoming all he or she can be. The unconscious can reveal hidden talents, desires, and needs.

Jette is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, and much of her text is peppered with information from the Big Book and other 12-step literature as well as the writings of Jung and a variety of new age healers. If you're poised to work a fourth step inventory or using the tenth step on a daily basis, you will find much useful information in TAROT SHADOW WORK.