‘Much Begins Amusingly and Leads into the Dark'

The Shadow archetype is the obverse to self-identity – it is the Other to all we think we are. Shadow may be defined as that with which we do not identify, that which is rejected as ‘not me’. To struggle with the Shadow and to confront the abject, is one of the tasks of individuation – fulfilling one’s potential as a unique human being. Throughout The Red Book (Jung, 2009), the record of Jung’s self-exploration through fantasies and paintings begun in 1913, Jung reports his struggle with many opposed and rejected parts of his nature such as the feminine in himself, the banal, the irrational and magic – all that Jung consciously rejected but now finds he has to include in his being.