---
title: "Shadow — Jungian Psychology | 4th Tarot Glossary"
url: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/shadow
description: "The personal 'dark side' of the psyche—all the qualities and desires one tends to reject or remain ignorant of. Integrating the shadow brings vitality…"
lang: en
---

Back to Glossary (https://4thtarot.com/glossary)

Jungian Psychology

# Shadow

The Jungian term for the unconscious aspects of the personality that the ego does not identify with. The Shadow contains both negative qualities (impulses judged unacceptable and repressed) and positive qualities (capacities left undeveloped or projected onto others). Shadow integration — making the unconscious conscious — is among the most fundamental practices in Jungian psychology. In the 4th Tarot, shadow work is built into the system structurally: every reversed card meaning addresses a shadow dynamic of that card's upright energy.

## Appears in These Spreads

### Shadow Glimpse

1 card

Shadow
https://4thtarot.com/spreads/shadow-glimpse

### Shadow Integration Path

3 cards

Shadow union
https://4thtarot.com/spreads/shadow-integration

## Related concepts

dark side

rejected self

The Devil

The Moon

hidden aspects

repressed desires

darkness

blind spots

what we deny

projection

evil within

## More in Jungian Psychology

- Abraxas: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/abraxas
- Acceptance of Evil: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/acceptance-of-evil
- Active Imagination: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/active-imagination
- Anima: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/anima
- Animus: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/animus
- Archetype: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/archetype
- Archetypes: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/archetypes
- Collective Unconscious: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/collective-unconscious
- Compensation: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/compensation
- Complex: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/complex
- Confrontation with the Unconscious: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/confrontation-with-the-unconscious
- Coniunctio: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/coniunctio
- Creatura: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/creatura
- Daimon: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/daimon
- Divine Child: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/divine-child
- Ego: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/ego
- Enantiodromia: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/enantiodromia
- Eros: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/eros
- Fantasy: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/fantasy
- Forethinking: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/forethinking
- God-Image: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/god-image
- Hero: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/hero
- Individuation: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/individuation
- Inflation: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/inflation
- Integration: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/integration
- Libido: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/libido
- Logos: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/logos
- Magic: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/magic
- Mandala: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/mandala
- Mater Coelestis: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/mater-coelestis
- Nekyia: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/nekyia
- Persona: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/persona
- Phallos: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/phallos
- Philemon: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/philemon
- Pleroma: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/pleroma
- Projection: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/projection
- Quaternity: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/quaternity
- Rebirth: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/rebirth
- Sacrifice of the Hero: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/sacrifice-of-the-hero
- Salome: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/salome
- Self: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/self
- Spirit of the Depths: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/spirit-of-the-depths
- Supreme Meaning: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/supreme-meaning
- Synchronicity: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/synchronicity
- The Irrational: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/the-irrational
- Transcendent Function: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/transcendent-function
- Tree of Life: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/tree-of-life
- Wise Old Man: https://4thtarot.com/glossary/wise-old-man

## Structured data

```json
[
  {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "DefinedTerm",
    "@id": "https://4thtarot.com/glossary/shadow",
    "name": "Shadow",
    "description": "The personal 'dark side' of the psyche—all the qualities and desires one tends to reject or remain ignorant of. Integrating the shadow brings vitality, honesty, and wholeness.",
    "url": "https://4thtarot.com/glossary/shadow",
    "inDefinedTermSet": {
      "@id": "https://4thtarot.com/glossary#termset",
      "@type": "DefinedTermSet",
      "name": "4th Tarot Glossary",
      "url": "https://4thtarot.com/glossary"
    }
  },
  {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
    "itemListElement": [
      {
        "@type": "ListItem",
        "position": 1,
        "name": "Glossary",
        "item": "https://4thtarot.com/glossary"
      },
      {
        "@type": "ListItem",
        "position": 2,
        "name": "Shadow",
        "item": "https://4thtarot.com/glossary/shadow"
      }
    ]
  }
]
```