Shadow Work Prompts for Each Sign

Shadow work prompts for each ascendant - descendant pair blog poster

What is shadow work and why is it beneficial for us?

Shadow work is a self-development psychological tool that helps us understand, love and accept the different aspects of self within us better. Why do we have different ‘selves’ within us? Because we break into a million pieces during the process of socialization, that’s its entire point.

Example – you’re 2 months old crying for your mom, she picks you up a minute later and in that minute your tiny brain feels alone and abandoned. To preserve yourself, you create a split of consciousness. You now have a part that’s afraid of abandonment even though seemingly nothing tragic has happened – mommy just needed a minute to get into the room. When you grow up you are constantly afraid of people leaving you and your partners keep abandoning you and you don’t understand why.

Second example – you’re 5 years old and your friends hide your ball from you and won’t give it back. You feel like your boundaries have been crossed but they outnumber you and your parents aren’t around to help you. You feel alone and to protect yourself your consciousness splits again – the part of you who feels hurt is suppressed, the part of you who wants to protect you takes over and beats up two of the kids. When you grow up you don’t even realize why you’re so protective of your personal belongings. Every time your roommate misplaces an item of yours you feel betrayed and angry and you don’t realize why. Your protector part takes over and you yell at them for something seemingly meaningless.

Another set of examples – I have an aspect of self that loves my career and puts my work first. I also have an aspect that loves her family and friends and wants to give them the time they need. I have an aspect who is afraid of conflict. I also have an aspect who likes to be argumentative. You get my point. The idea of shadow work is to understand each of the aspects within us well. The benefits from that cannot possibly be listed in one article, but to name a few: feeling whole and complete, accepting yourself more, healing your inner child, becoming more balanced, loving yourself better, understanding your triggers and reactions, wants and needs, understanding others better, knowing who you are, attracting better more compatible relationships.

The process I use in my personal life that has helped me tremendously is Teal Swan’s Completion Process. I usually follow the instructions in her book and it works great for me. You can also find shadow work/ parts work instruction videos on her Youtube channel. What sets this process apart from others is the care and self-love she has implemented in it. And I believe these are the most crucial steps. If you don’t approach this process with the feeling of wanting to get to know yourself better, with curiosity, patience and understanding, then why even do it? If your intention is to ‘fix yourself’ and punish the parts of you you consider ‘wrong’, how will your inner parts that are in resistance to you react to that?

The idea of this process is to use your triggers to your advantage. For example, say I’m that person who gets mad at others for misplacing my stuff (the above example). If that happens, it’s a trigger. When I feel betrayed about it, I need to sink into that feeling of betrayal instead of suppressing it and feel it in my body. I then need to remember what the first time I felt this way was. The earliest memory that resurfaces is the one you need. You can play out the memory in your mind. Then your job is to join your inner child in your memory as an adult, validate their emotions (that’s crucial) and fulfil their needs in the situation. If they want a new set of friends, imagine them for the child. If the child wants you to step up and take the ball back, do that. There’s no limits here to what you can do to ‘fix’ the memory for your inner child. The idea is to make the child feel protected, loved and to make them realize you have their back now. This process, per Teal’s book, continues with taking your inner child to a safe place and then integrating them back into your body if they feel okay with it.

This is obviously just one way to do this. Below I have listed shadow work prompts as questions depending on your AC – DC signs that you can use to tune into parts of yourself you may have suppressed. You can just read them and think about what they mean to you. You can write about it, discuss the questions with someone, pretty much whatever feels right for you. If you need more insights into your astrological chart to assist you in this process, don’t hesitate to contact me for a reading or follow me on instagram where we often discuss such topics in stories and PMs!

How is your Ascendant – Descendant pair tied to this process?

If the sign on the ascendant is our public self, how others perceive us and how we perceive ourselves, what we believe to be ‘right’ and ‘true’, the descendant depicts our shadow self. Our fears, our hidden aspects, what we don’t even realize is within us. They always go in pairs and they are always 180 degrees apart in opposing signs. The ascendant is in the constellation that rises East at the time we are born (hence-rising sign), the descendant is the constellation that sets West on the horizon (shadow, just like if the Sun would set and you wouldn’t be seeing anything).

The reason why the descendant is related to relationships is because it is opposing us – it depicts everyone ‘other’ than us. In addition, in this universe based on the law of attraction, we attract people (‘others’) who reflect our qualities back to us. That includes both the qualities we associate ourselves with AND those we have suppressed. This is where the fun begins. Other people often trigger us by reflecting our own suppressed qualities back to us.

For example: if you are annoyed with your boyfriend for acting selfish, how are you selfish with others, or did you go to the other extreme and forget to put your needs first? If your friend abandoned you, in which area of your life are you abandoning yourself? Or do you tend to neglect other people? This is not to say if you have been a victim of negative behaviour you shouldn’t react, distance yourself from someone or change your situation or blame yourself for it. The blame for treating you poorly might be someone else’s and you have the right (and encouragement) to respond accordingly, but the responsibility to heal yourself from it is always yours.

A common misconception in astrology is that the 7^th house (descendant) is only thoroughly considered in relationships or marriages. It’s actually all that is ‘other’ from our self and the shadow it casts if we don’t develop this opposing energy is actually translated into all areas of our lives one way or another. It’s often the energy we find most difficult to tune into, so we attract others (in all areas of our lives) who embody those same qualities we need to integrate. Really blunt examples: A Virgo AC – Pisces DC can’t let go so they attract irresponsible people. A Libra AC – Aries DC can’t be assertive so they attract violent people. A Capricorn AC – Cancer DC is afraid to be emotional so they attract emotionally unstable people. And so on. This of course would depend on your entire chart, the rulers, aspects, etc. so definitely don’t take it literally.

Shadow work prompt ideas per Ascendant-Descendant pair:

Find your ascendant in this list and use the listed questions as shadow work prompts. Try to go as deep as you can and self-reflect without blaming yourself or worrying about your negative emotions. The idea is to get to know and understand your hidden selves better, to love and integrate them and feel whole and fully accepted by yourself.

As a second step check your Moon and Sun signs in this list as well – then the shadow would be the opposing sign, same as with the ascendant-descendant pairs. You can of course use all questions regardless of the signs in your chart – as you know, we all have all archetypes and energies within ourselves, the question is to what degree have we integrated them?

♈Aries Ascendant – Libra Descendant

Are you afraid of losing yourself if you dedicate yourself to someone in a relationship?
Are you afraid of being taken advantage of by others? Why do you assume so?
Do you believe you can achieve more on your own than if you are surrounded by people?

♉Taurus Ascendant – Scorpio Descendant

Do you have the urge to gloss over issues instead of facing the demons inside you?
Are you afraid of exploring your mind and psyche? Why?
Are you afraid of losing your material stability? What would happen if you were left with nothing?

♊Gemini Ascendant – Sagittarius Descendant

Can you trust your intuition or do you rely on others’ opinions on what’s best?
Do you have a strong belief system? If not, why not? What do you believe in?
Can you truly have faith or do you always need to see proof? Isn’t it possible that something could be ‘true’ even if we don’t fully understand it?

♋Cancer Ascendant – Capricorn Descendant

Can you see yourself as an authority figure?
What’s your relationship with your father like? Identify the part of you that has the same qualities as him. Could you integrate it better?
Are you afraid you can’t reach your highest potential and achieve what you want in life? Why?

♌Leo Ascendant – Aquarius Descendant

Can you be present and supportive with others or do you only think about what you want to say?
Can you see yourself as part of the collective or do you believe you’re better than everyone? Why?
How can you as an individual benefit society with your skills and talents?

♍Virgo Ascendant – Pisces Descendant

In which areas of your life are you controlling and why? What would happen if you let go?
Can you let someone else take care of you for a change? Can you depend on others without feeling guilty?
How long can you spend without being productive? Do you feel guilty about resting and why?

♎Libra Ascendant – Aries Descendant

Can you feel good being alone in your own presence and your own energy?
Do you believe you have the drive to make yourself happy in life? In which areas of your life are you afraid to take action?
Are you afraid of being direct and assertive?

♏Scorpio Ascendant – Taurus Descendant

What would you advise a friend or a loved one if they had the same level of self-esteem as you?
What’s your relationship with money? If money was a person/friend, would they like what you think/feel about them? Would they want to be in your life?
Do you truly believe you deserve the abundance you want? If not, why do you not deserve it if other people do?

♐Sagittarius Ascendant – Gemini Descendant

Is there an area in your life where you think you know best and you disregard others’ opinions? Why?
Is it comfortable for you to question your beliefs and faith? Why/why not?
Can you commit to one person, one job, one place? What would happen if you did?

♑Capricorn Ascendant – Cancer Descendant

What’s your relationship with your mother like? How are you like her and how are you different?
Do you believe you have to be successful to be worthy? Why?
Is it easy for you to tune into your emotions and be open about them? What would happen if you did that all the time?

♒Aquarius Ascendant – Leo Descendant

Can you let yourself be the center of attention? What would happen if you did?
Can you admit to being selfish sometimes? Do you see that as ‘negative’ or do you realize it’s healthy to put yourself first?
Do you tend to hurt others by being too detached?

♓Pisces Ascendant – Virgo Descendant

How can you bring order and clarity into your life, your plans, your relationships?
Can you take responsibility for putting yourself in a position to feel like a victim or do you tend to only blame the outside world?
How do you differentiate between what’s real and what’s an illusion?