Everything Has a Shadow

Mystical illustration of yin and yang, light and dark.

A conversation at a recent dinner party is stuck in my mind. I half-joked that everything that seems really good in life often has a dark underbelly. A wise friend who has studied Carl Jung recognized a profound truth about this. Every good thing, by nature, has to have a shadow side. Another friend expressed upset at this thought. Why can’t something be fully good?

I often resist the concept of good and evil, because it is so subjective. What is good for the lion is evil for the gazelle. Good is the total of the things we want and the ways we want to be. Evil is everything we don’t want and don’t want to become.

At the same time, there are social norms that broadly dictate the things that we, collectively, find good, pleasant, and desirable, and things we abhor, fear, and avoid.

Why must everything have a shadow? Why is it that every good project, community, job, or situation seems to have some dark past or hidden, unfortunate truth?

According to Jung, the shadow is both personal and collective in nature. That is, each of us has within ourselves repressed weaknesses, fears, and destructive urges. However, Jung also believed that humanity possesses these same traits in a more general sense. To me, it seems reasonable that organizations and social groups would also have that same collective energy.

The notion that every charity foundation, every political party, every university, and every religious organization has a shadow side is unsettling. It is good to know that Jung taught us that the shadow is not only negative. Within the shadow is the potential to shine a light on those difficult traits and, within them, to find repressed strengths and talents, and to heal.

The shadow, whether personal or collective, is made up of the things we prefer to hide. Yet, these fears and dark truths only do damage when they are hidden. When we can see the truth about ourselves, we can heal our insecurities and allow our intelligence and creativity to operate freely.

When we do not acknowledge the shadow, it grows. When we do not recognize our past wrongdoings or acknowledge our fears and weaknesses, they grow and begin to drive our motivation.

Nations, groups, and individuals all have a shadow side. When we can see the shadow and integrate it into the whole, we can free ourselves from the damage it does. When we hide the shadow, growth and healing are never possible.

The StaarCon 5 Imagining of Pixie Arcana. Art and composition by Stacey Williams-Ng, backgrounds by Animix.

The StaarCorner

One of the great advantages of a year-long online conference is that it allows us to explore seasonal themes. Tomorrow, Thursday, November 13, join Serena Fox for her monthly Mystic Lounging at 5:30 pm ET. Bring your cards and an open heart, and enjoy some conversation, magic, and sacred play.

On Sunday, November 23, join me, Christiana Gaudet, at 7 pm ET for Winter Tarot. We will discuss all the ways we can infuse tarot into our holiday traditions, and do some holiday-themed tarot exercises.

We are still accepting applications for beta testers for StaarCast, our permanent online home for live classes and recordings from all your favorite StaarCon presenters. We expect StaarCast to be live and ready to join by the end of the StaarCon 5 AfterGlow on January 26, 2026.

If you have a StaarCon 5 ticket that allows you to watch recordings of presentations from the conference, please note that we have until the end of the AfterGlow to view those recordings.

One very popular not-to-be-missed session was Jennifer Cooper Steidley. Jenifer is an artist who has designed two tarot decks. She is also a certified second-degree black belt in Taekwondo. Her presentation on tarot and martial arts was fun and fascinating. Make sure to see it before the end of the AfterGlow, and get ready for new, fabulous sessions on StaarCast.

Jennifer Cooper Steidley at StaarCon 5.

StaarCast News

This week, the development team is performing final testing before we open the site to the beta testers.

The site will provide a permanent location to save the live recordings created at StaarCon and continue the AfterGlow after the live event concludes.

We want StaarCast to serve as a permanent, year-long convention held in the virtual world. StaarCast members and in-person attendees will have the opportunity to view recordings or participate in virtual events during StaarCon 6, and then after with an annual membership to StaarCast.

StaarCast presenters will be able to use the meeting rooms, chat with members, and create scheduled presentations!

Planned updates to StaarCast will make it even more user-friendly, allowing virtual attendees to view a single presentation or recording on demand, among many other improvements we've made based on your feedback.

To sum it up, the StaarCon 6 Main Stage events will be broadcast live on StaarCast, where possible and practical. They will be available as recordings after the live events conclude. StaarCast members can access the recordings with a monthly or yearly subscription, or pay-per-view. StaarCast presenters can use the meeting rooms to create recorded classes or workshops that can be shared by StaarCast members.

Pamela Phillips and Hippy Pippy at StaarCon 2024.
Christiana Gaudet poses at StaarCon in a Christiana Gaudet t-shirt.

Friends doing tarot together.

Shadow Work with Tarot

Shadow work is an expression coined by Carl Jung. It entails discovering and revealing the hidden parts of yourself. Tarot is an excellent tool to help us with our shadow work.

Whether with a specific situation or in a deep inquiry into oneself, it is easy to ask questions and pull cards. When we interpret these cards, we are not making predictions, nor necessarily referencing generalities about our lives. Rather, we are using the images and our intuition to dive past our personal defenses and into our darkest truths.

We can ask to see what we don’t want to see. We can examine the causes of our fear, shame, and anger.

These are readings best done with plenty of time to contemplate, whether alone with a journal, with a professional, or with a few very good friends.

Autumn Arcana Class Two: Every Picture Tells a Story - November 18th @ 7 pm.

The Week in Review

If you missed our multistream last night with Kimberly Scheurer, The Medium That Rocks, you can watch the replay.

On Tuesday, November 18, at 7 pm, I will be teaching an all-levels tarot class at my Stuart office. Every Picture Tells a Story will teach tarot interpretation skills that will work for you regardless of your level of knowledge or your preferred tarot deck. Class size is limited, and only a few tickets are available. Please get yours and join us for class!

From Around the Web

The Hermit’s Mirror has a fabulous spread and a downloadable workbook for shadow work.

StaarCon 2021 and 2024 headliner, Benebell Wen, has written about the obligations creators may or may not have to their communities.

StaarCon 2024 headliner Emilie Munez has written a helpful post about how to make the most of our November 2025 Mercury retrograde.

A friend left out of the group.

Communities

When we understand the concept of the shadow, we can appreciate the great dichotomy inherent in human interaction. We all have unpleasant characteristics, and are all capable of great courage and compassion. Positive relationships develop when we spend time with people whose flaws are not egregious and feel tolerable, or even endearing, to us.

This is true of individual friendships and intimate partnerships. It’s also true of the social groups, academic organizations, houses of worship, and clubs we join. Sometimes the leadership is bad, and sometimes the problem originates from one unpleasant individual. Sometimes, there is a hidden dark history or unsavory practice.

We often discover that a problem exists within a friend group or an organization due to the behavior that is tolerated or encouraged. We need to see and remember what we see and not make excuses for what we see. I have never spoken with a person who had a bad interpersonal experience who didn’t have a gut-level sense of wrongness from the very beginning that they tried to suppress.

We often ignore the intuitive warning because we desperately want to believe we are a part of something good. We always regret our decision to override that warning.

If every group of people has the potential to be unsavory, what sort of communities should join? I think there are different ways of being problematic, and we will all find some are worse than others. The expression ‘Pick your poison’ feels profound in this context. What are you willing to tolerate?

Perhaps the most dangerous behaviors driven by the shadow are those that would erase or rewrite the past in ways that absolve us from accountability and prevent us from growth.

Unseen hands leafing through a calendar.

Upcoming Events

Weekly Livestream Events

Monday 9:30 am: Your 3-Card Weekly Reading

Friday Noon: Your Friday Weekly Wrap-up

Saturday 12:30 pm: Saturday Psychic Sampler

Sunday 9:30 am: Tarot Topics Newsletter Recap

Watch on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram! (internet willing!) Schedule subject to change without notice.

Christiana Gaudet and Teri Salomoni.

About Christiana Gaudet

Card and Craft, Inc.
Southeastern Tarot Artists and Readers, LLC.

Christiana Gaudet

770 SE Indian Street Suite 10
Stuart, Florida 34997-5604

Locations in Port Saint Lucie, West Palm Beach, and Stuart, Florida!

Email cgaudet@cardandcraft.com
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Private telephone, Skype, FaceTime, Zoom, and in-person readings and instruction are available by appointment.

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Schedule Appointments, Mentoring Sessions, or Purchase Gift Certificates Online!

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Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 8 Issue 46
November 12, 2025

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