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>If you're only doing them without the Jungian part, then you're practicing new-age spirituality, which is also fine of course, but not the same thing.

Yeah, this.

It would be encouraging if the 'new agers' (not said disparagingly, I used to self identify in such a manner) understood this.

......................................................................


OP, good answers in ITT, as to approach.

A practical tool for aiding this is keeping a journal.

Depending on background, situation (age, etc) and available resources therapy might be worth considering.

With Jung's model there's a personal shadow and a collective aspect. This is not easy to distinguish.

Keep in mind, when Jung writes about this process, more broadly individuation not just 'shadow work', he is speaking to and out of a therapeutic context usually conducted relationally and dialogically alongside another. He also spoke of an age, a stage in life when it seems to more naturally occur. But I'm not sure how that holds today. Individuation, and the encounter with shadow in its more dramatic forms can be prompted by varying events and life experiences it seems irrespective of life stage or age.

Many of us are trying to do this work on our own. There's some differences.

Here's some words from Jung that seem pertinent, even if they don't exactly go into the how of the process. Of note is how he speaks of a disturbance here, which it strikes me you are in (following your self description):

>The collective instincts and fundamental forms of thinking and feeling whose activity is revealed by the analysis of the unconscious constitute, for the conscious personality, an acquisition which it cannot assimilate without considerable disturbance. It is therefore of the utmost importance in practical treatment to keep the integrity of the personality constantly in mind. For, if the collective psyche is taken to be the personal possession of the individual, it will result in a distortion or an overloading of the personality which is very difficult to deal with. Hence it is imperative to
make a clear distinction between personal contents and those of the collective psyche. This distinction is far from easy, because the personal grows out of the collective psyche and is intimately bound up with it. So it is difficult to say exactly what contents are to be called personal and what collective. There is no doubt, for instance, that archaic symbolisms such as we frequently find in fantasies and dreams are collective factors. All basic instincts and basic forms of thinking and feeling are collective. Everything that all men agree in regarding as universal is collective, likewise everything that is universally understood, universally found, universally said and done. On closer examination one is always astonished to see how much of our so-called individual psychology is really collective. So much, indeed, that the individual traits are completely overshadowed by it. Since, however, individuation is an ineluctable psychological necessity, we can see from the ascendancy of the collective what very special attention must be paid to this delicate plant “individuality” if it is not to be completely smothered.

CW 7, para. 241

It's a slow process, be patient. Learn how to hold intensity, density, of consciousness and your particular discontents. Learn how to be present and hold to whatever is with you and comes up. Each little insight is important. There is always more.

Learn how to read your dreams, figure out what your particular symbolic language means (the journal as aforementioned can help with tracking this). The shadow is a regular feature in dreams as much as in projections and behaviour.

One of Jung's methods involved working with dreams. Another was employing a technique, active imagination, but he had a caveat about this; ego integrity and strength is a requirement.

There's an image process and there's affect and embodiment attendant. These are entangled.

If you're dealing with issues of addiction and/or non-sobriety perhaps a 12-step program isn't amiss? (interestingly Jung was an instrumental influence in its founding).

As to books, Jung's work is dense, it can take a while to work through it and gain some clarity about his model and concepts. If you're at the beginning start with the recommendations here.

In relation specifically to the shadow, another reader in the sub recently recommended this book: Meeting The Shadow. It includes some material from Jung himself but is a compilation of multiple authors (I haven't read it in a few decades so I can't comment personally about its content).

There's a couple of compilations of excerpts from Jung's Collected Works volumes that might be helpful too. One on dreams simply called Dreams. The other concerns active imagination, also excerpts from the CW, compiled by Joan Chodorow; Jung on Active Imagination.

I've been studying him on my own for a while. I was a philosophy and religion major in college and never studied psychology per se. i first encountered him in a Psychology of Religion class. I don't really recall my first reactions to his writing but i know it was not until i was "reintroduced" to him that I really became hooked. That was later when I was studying Gnosticism; which is an incredibly interesting area to research in conjunction with Jung since Jung was able to make incredibly astute and accurate statements concerning the Gnostics with only scraps of original material and the writings of detractors that has survived, but the modern reader has the ability to consult the dead sea scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Index; a wealth of original source material that Jung could only dream of having access to. I've basically been reading his collected works since this time and I have yet to come across such a viable world-view. After a life-time of interest and study of philosophy (in college it was mostly Eastern thought (for Jung's take on the wealth of Eastern symbolism, but probably more interesting also his take on why westerners are drawn to eastern religions (and ultimately why its probably not very useful); see Commentary on "The Secret of the Golden Flower" found at the beginning of Alchemical Studies)) I had found what I was looking for in psychology and I continue to encounter passages in Jung that seem to be perfect explanations for the reasons behind the reality I encounter daily.

If you've already located the Jungian analysts in your city, then a next step might be to email all of them and ask them what they think about your project of learning active imagination and how they think they could be helpful for you. Maybe then meet with a few of them that give you the sort of reply you'd be hoping for and see which of them feels like a good fit for you, that is, does this person feel like someone I could trust, feel safe with, learn from, etc.

Analysts responses to your interest may vary. My analyst told me that in his training it was frowned upon to teach active imagination to a patient/client until they had done enough psychological work that the analyst had a sense that the patient/client could do active imagination without being overwhelmed by the unconscious with disturbing, disorienting, images and emotions. Also, like you, I've been practicing vipassana for years and have come to see Jungian analysis as it's own wisdom tradition that has an individual inner component and an equally important interpersonal/relational component with the analyst that works through stages of analysis leading to transformation.

"In Jung’s approach the first phase is ‘confession’, during which time the patient shares their story, experiences and problems with the therapist. Secondly, ‘elucidation’ involves working out the transference relationship which may involve interpretation. The third stage of ‘education’ extends the insights and expands them into the social, behavioural and archetypal dimensions, while the fourth stage of ‘transformation’ assists the patient in the process of individuation (Samuels, 1990, p.177)"
Samuels, A. (1990). Jung and the Post-Jungians. London, England: Routledge.

Anyway, I wish you good fortune in your exploration. Neither vipassana nor Jungian analysis is quick, but in my experience, both lead slowly toward greater insight, freedom, and wholeness.

Also, the following books may be useful in learning active imagination on your own.

Jung on Active Imagination edited by Joan Chodorow https://www.amazon.com/Jung-Active-Imagination-C-G/dp/0691015767/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RQMWTAA2HM0C&keywords=jung+on+active+imagination&qid=1562245928&s=gateway&sprefix=jung+on+active+im%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-1

Robert Johnson - Inner Work https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Work-Dreams-Imagination-Personal/dp/0062504312/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=robert+johnson+inner+work&qid=1562245758&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Barbara Hannah - Encounters with the Soul https://www.amazon.com/Encounters-Soul-Active-Imagination-Developed/dp/1630513504/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=hannah+active+imagination&qid=1562246007&s=gateway&sr=8-4

>Do you think it's possible for an archetype to "wake up" out of necessity?

Insofar as they are stored responses, yes. Basically, an archetype can be activated and it will then canalize other psychic contents to achieve its ends.

>now I'm stuck with all these conflicting feelings and impulses. I'm desperately trying to take care of everything and everyone, help anyone that might or might not need it, feeling angry and drained.

That does not sound like an archetype. If you are trying to take care of others, it is likely a misdirection from yourself. That is, you yourself require care and help but refuse to admit it. So, to cover it up, you start helping others. This is a "Survival Game," according to Eva Delunas in her book Survival Games Personalities Play. This fits perfectly if you are an SJ.

If this seems right to you, you ought to calm down and take a good look at yourself, and ask close friends and family what it is that you need most. You do not have to agree with them, just listen to them, take some time off, and think about the points they bring up. It might even be worthwhile to read that book. And remeber what they say on airplanes: To help others, you must help yourself first. You cannot help someone else if you yourself have passed out.

One other place to start, as did i was, was Von Franz's alchemy. She gives the layman a good foothold, from egypt to st thomas aquines's big vision, the rising dawn, aurora consurgen. She also did another book devoted solely to the rising dawn, a book i am eagerly waiting for, shit should be in within a week.

What i learned from that? shit, one thing, the book is available, although partially, in pdf form on the internet. anyway, she breaks down some alchemical illustrations. i do not have the memory to break 'em down, but they are apparently the basics. There is the alchemist at the mountain http://www.cgjungstl.org/images/PsychAndAlch.jpg you have the blind seeker and the shitty journey ahead. all leading to the phoenix, the rebirth, idk, like i said, i'm an artist not an intellectual. The shit i learned, idk, got absorbed but it's hard to articulate (one could argue that i didnt learn shit) but it is a great starting point.

Her second book on the subject is said to be... it's lessons nullify the need to read mysterium. like i said, i am still waiting for that fucker...

i also need to start taking notes. But goddamn http://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Introduction-Symbolism-Psychology-Studies/dp/091912304X, are some the passages beautiful. I have a lot of notes...

Idk, like i said, i'm an artist and not a scholar, but it is a great book, great passages.

I identify with this a lot. There's always something to research, something to study, some distraction that makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something when I'm really just procrastinating.


The key is to just get started, I know that sounds like no advice at all, because the whole point is that you can't get started. 'I know what to do, so why don't I do it?' That whole thing. Easiest way to start getting past that:
Commit to 5 minutes of work, right when you think of something you should do.


"I need to work on this Excel model for work, but really I should go watch a Youtube video on the proper functions to use for it, that would help me get it done faster."


Commit to 5 minutes of just starting, tell yourself that afterward you will allow yourself to go watch the video. In my experience most of the resistance is anticipatory anxiety, and once you get started actually doing work you'll continue to do so.


I have spent years, like you, looking for some breakthrough, some event, to help "fix" this aspect of myself. Recently come to the conclusion that it is not an event, it is a process. A continual, constant, unyielding process.


Are you a middle child by chance? This is a very common occurrence in middle children.
I recommend this book regardless:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465016901/?coliid=I1IGTGRCI4ZPIC&colid=3P9G7HPN0FU02&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth - Robert A. Johnson

Johnson gives very clarified and flexible steps to be used in analyzing dreams along with how to use active imagination. This is the most structured and easily understandable reading for analyzing dreams and active imagination I have found.

I think some of the answers are missing the mark here. Try this book if you have the time.

I found it best illustrated the balance between unconscious and conscious. From my memory it might be easier to understand the other extremes away from individuation. On one extreme you have someone consumed by the unconscious. Impulsive people controlled by emotions and ruled by superstition, completely ruled by their animal impulses and archetypical motivations. At the other extreme you have entirely logical and completely detached people. These types are likely to be sociopaths, very calculating and often confused by why others let emotion get the better of them, they see no need for legends, myth, and story.

The other comments are not wrong in that Intuition, feeling, sensing, and thinking need to be balanced. That is just a smaller facet of the bigger picture. By balancing these four attributes one can better search within ones self to see the separation between mind and spirit, unconscious and conscious. Once you can do that you can further yourself down the path of individuation and achieve a balance and self actualized state.

I find a great litmus for where someone stands is looking at what desires define them. Do they obsess about something? Do they follow some cult or ideology, perhaps even a TV show or novel? If so they are being consumed by unconscious desire. Is the subject more inclined to rational thought? Do they scoff at tradition and are more focused on some material needs/gains? Then they are probably dissociative from their unconscious desires.

By balancing between these two states of mind the binary self becomes whole. Only then can someone individuate.

Yeah fam I got you.

Book:
Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062504312/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_n9JODbDYYQEJR

Site:
http://www.bodysoulandspirit.net/hypnagogia/what/hannah.shtml

I prefer the book to the site, but the site is pretty decent.

Active imagination is something that for the first X amount of times that you do it, it feels like nothing is happening or that you’re doing it wrong. But just be consist at it and do it for like 10 minutes before bed and eventually you’ll get it and you’ll go “woah”

The shadow is just a place in your psyche. It's filled with anything that's been repressed, taboo'd, or any behavior not condoned by "normal" society. I'd read Bly's "Little Book on the Human Shadow" as he provides a really good intro.


Everyone's shadows will be similar, but different. For example, depending on the culture you're raised in, different things will be taboo'd. Or, your personal dispositions will lead you to certain behaviors, which you may find undesirable, so you yourself send it to the shadow domain.


Take this in consideration that what I described is the equivalent of cocktail-napkin-math. The shadow, its projections, and all things revolving around that can get pretty complex. I just put a dot on the map and those books will help you find the trail.


Bly's Book -- https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Human-Shadow/dp/0062548476/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=little+book+on+the+human+shadow&qid=1572911764&sr=8-1


King, Warrior, Magician, Lover -- https://www.amazon.com/King-Warrior-Magician-Lover-Rediscovering/dp/0062506064/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3BFOJK9R67ANN&keywords=king+warrior+magician+lover&qid=1572912042&sprefix=King+warrior%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-1

This is great.

I'd like to buy the book, could you help me locate the book, please? Is it taken from this book?

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Jungian-Psychology-Analytical-Foundation/dp/0691152055/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?keywords=jungian+basics+1925+seminar&qid=1554943665&s=gateway&sr=8-2-fkmr0

I am just beginning to read up myself.

Introduction to Jungian Psychology: notes on his 1925 seminar has been a great intro personally

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Jungian-Psychology-Analytical-Bollingen/dp/0691152055/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504464478&sr=8-1&keywords=introduction+to+jungian+psychology

'Demian' by Herman Hesse is a great novel that has a lot of influence from Jung. It's a quick read if Jungian fiction interests you at all.

Looking forward to hearing more suggestions.

In a Gnostic-Christian capacity, the apocryphal books, which are collected in the Nag Hammadi scriptures (https://www.amazon.com/Nag-Hammadi-Scriptures-Translation-Complete/dp/0061626007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543247818&sr=8-1&keywords=nag+hammadi+scriptures) talk about the demiurge to be the god of the Old Testament who represents a diety who is unconscious of the fact that he is NOT the supreme, all-creating godhead but rather something being sometimes malevolent, caught up and identified within himself and his so-called creation. Christ was sent here to liberate us from him or our own unconsciousness on a path of individuation towards the self in which Christ himself is a symbol of.

​

So the joke is comparing a semi-conscious, ego-dominated being (us) to something truly whole and conscious which would be the symbol of the self.

​

Knowledge of the demiurge predates Christianity too. So there are other sources for info on this "diety". I believe he is spoken of in Greek mythology as well.

So far all I know is within these small videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNwwHxpB-dkzeeyLTJKco49tokvT25dt3

In a similar method one might use mythology to observe reoccurring themes in human values and archetypes this guy does it with movies and connects it to the contents of this book which describes 4 archetypes having to do mostly with masculinity.

I personally identify most strongly with the magician and perhaps the lover as well altho mostly with the shadow functions of the lover sadly

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Iron-John-Book-About-Men/dp/0712610707
https://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Warrior-Magician-Lover-Rediscovering/dp/0062506064
If he's not much of a reader there's a great YouTube series on King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by 'Like Stories of Old'. About 10 minutes each and examines how films portray these male archetypes.

If you want a great foundation re: how to 'approach it from a good angle', try Richard A. Johnsons' book, Inner Work.

There is an excellent book that will give you a fantastic introduction into deep work:
https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Work-Dreams-Imagination-Personal-ebook/dp/B002SVQCUG

I'll copy/paste my recommendations from another thread:

Start with with the autobiography Memories, Dreams, and Reflections. And then follow the references to other works of Jung and other Jungians from there.

After you read through his autobiography, I think it's actually better for a beginner to go directly to the works of other Jungians.

Read anything and everything by Edinger. In particular, Ego and Archetype, The Creation of Consciousness, and The New God-Image.

Neumann's Origin and History of Consciousness.

Robert Johnson's He, She and We series to get a better grasp on the masculine and feminine archetypes and the interplay between them.

This book (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/087477618X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0) which is a compilation of essays across various authors (including Jungian analysts) elaborating on the concept of the Shadow and how it plays a role in one's life. Cannot recommend this one enough.

And finally, Robert Moore's King Warrior Magician Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine. He even as an individual book on each of the individual archetypes, but those are extremely hard to find, and very expensive. You can probably find the audio lectures online though.

Edinger's Anatomy of the Psyche may be a good read for you :)

Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth is apparently good. I haven't read it yet but I've been recommended it many times.

You might take a slower start.

One of his first followers Marie Loise von Franz wrote a smaller book on his psychology and alchemy.

Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology (Studies in Jungian Psychology) https://www.amazon.com/dp/091912304X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_o311AbA92C7QG

Then tackle Psychology and Alchemy

And then you can realize that you aren't yet prepared for his opus the Mysterium Conjiuctonis.

Have fun!

https://www.amazon.com/Meeting-Shadow-Hidden-Power-Nature/dp/087477618X?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffab-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=087477618X

This is a collection of essays about the shadow by different Jungian thinkers and practitioners. I was recommended it and have recommended it to others.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0691150486/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487145214&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=dreams+carl+jung&dpPl=1&dpID=414MzRZ4bjL&ref=plSrch

This has already taught me several things and I've only started the book.

Sorry, oh, and here.

This is my sarcastic way of pointing out that I'm talking about a chapter from a book. The relevant part isn't more than some ten pages, but I'm not going to type them out.