What is shadow work?

Shadow work is the practice of looking honestly at the parts of yourself you usually hide, deny or judge, which Carl Jung called the shadow. Instead of getting rid of them, you get to know them, so they stop running things from the dark. In spiritual alchemy it is the black stage of the Great Work, the first part of turning lead into gold.

The shadow

Jung used the word shadow for the side of the personality we do not want to see in ourselves. It is not only the bad: it can hold anger and envy, but also strength, playfulness or ambition that we learned to push away.

One sign of it, Jung noticed, is that the traits we judge most harshly in others often live unseen in us.

Why alchemy?

Jung spent years on the old alchemy books and saw their black stage, the nigredo, as a picture of meeting the shadow: the matter blackens and breaks down before anything new can grow. That is why spiritual alchemy puts shadow work first. In Lead to Gold, gates 1 to 5, Calcination to Putrefaction, are shadow work.

What it looks like, day to day

Seven shadow work prompts to start with.

Noticing a reaction that seems bigger than the moment, and asking where it comes from.
Writing about a mask you wear, and who it is for.
Asking whose voice your harshest inner critic sounds like.
Looking at a trait you judge in others, and where it lives in you.

What it is not

‘Shadow work is not about getting rid of parts of you; it is about letting them work together.’ It is not a race either: missing a day never puts the fire out. If it stirs up more than you can carry alone, talk to someone you trust.

In the old masters’ words

“Our most precious stone is cast forth upon the dunghill.” Hermes Trismegistus, The Golden Tractate

In Lead to Gold

Lead to Gold: Shadow Work gives you ten quiet minutes a day: a short lesson, a guided exercise with slow breathing, and a shadow work prompt with questions to go deeper, saved in a private journal that never leaves your phone.

Last updated October 24, 2026.

Lead to Gold: Shadow Work, on Google Play

The alchemists’ Great Work, made into ten quiet minutes a day: twelve gates, a private journal, and a line of wisdom from the old masters. Free to download, for Android.

Get it on Google Play

Keep reading

Shadow work prompts: where do I start?: Seven shadow work journal prompts from the first gate of Lead to Gold, one a day, with questions to go deeper and how to use them gently.
Why did Carl Jung study alchemy?: Carl Jung read the old alchemists as describing inner change. What he found in their books, the nigredo and the shadow, and why it shapes shadow work today.
What is putrefaction in alchemy?: Putrefaction, stage 5 of the twelve stages of alchemy: the dark before new life. What the alchemists did, and what it means for you.