Shadow work journal prompts, drawn from your birth chart

Shadow work is a term from the psychology of C. G. Jung. The shadow is what we do not want to see in ourselves — and so we meet it in other people: in what irritates us, what we envy, what we judge too quickly.

Shadow work does not mean fighting it. It means noticing it, giving it a name, and asking what it was protecting.

Prompts to start with

• What quality in other people irritates me more than it should?
• What do I envy in someone, even a little — and what would it cost me to have it?
• In which situations do I react in a way I don't recognise as my own?
• What was I told as a child that I am not allowed to be?
• What do I do so that nobody sees that I am afraid?

Why a birth chart helps

General prompts are a good start, but the shadow is personal. Read through Jung, a birth chart points to where the tension in you is likely to sit — which forces work against each other and which part of you tends to stay in the dark.

With a free account the app gives you a shadow profile from your chart, your current shadow according to where the Moon is now, and a journal with daily questions drawn from your chart. You can try each of them free.