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Sounds True: Insights at the Edge

Connie Zweig: “Meeting One of the World’s Leading Experts on the Shadow”

Sounds True: Insights at the Edge

Tami Simon

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.61.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As a new generation joins the search for understanding and meaning in our ambiguous and uncertain world, there's a growing resurgence of interest in the Shadow—Carl Jung's famous term for the aspects of ourselves that hide in our unconscious yet often drive behaviors we'd rather not repeat. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with acclaimed Jungian therapist and author Dr. Connie Zweig about her life's mission to help us grow in self-awareness and move toward personal and collective healing by learning how to work with the Shadow.  This aha-moment-filled conversation explores: meeting the Shadow on the spiritual path; ego formation during childhood; the concept of repression and the problem with the closet metaphor; why the Shadow hides—and when it erupts; "romancing the Shadow"; three cues to explore with respect to compulsive behaviors; "Shadow characters" and the practice of personifying aspects of the Shadow; the intergenerational aspect; engaging Shadow work at midlife; the superego; projection in relationships; sharing our secrets; money, sex, and power; shifting from a persona marriage to a Shadow marriage; the Vedanta tradition and the teaching on leshavidya, "the remains of ignorance"; the moral development missing in many spiritually advanced practitioners; illusions, idealizations, and archetypal projections; why the first reaction to meeting the Shadow is denial; Shadow projection in the politics of our times; step one: self-examination; bridging inner work and outer work wisely; how to practice "holding the tension of opposites"; cultivating nonduality in your own psychology; the "third thing" and the transcendent function; and more. Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0

The shadow leads us around looking for the missing parts in us.

0:07.0

And we find them, we think we find them, in the other person.

0:11.0

That person is so independent, she'll never be needy.

0:15.0

That guy is so strong, he'll take care of me.

0:18.0

Or whatever the fantasy projection is onto the other person and then

0:23.8

often what happens is people get married in this romantic projection phase and then they

0:32.0

wake up one day and they go oh my god this isn't the person I married. What happened?

0:48.6

In this episode of Insights at the Edge, my guest is Connie's Weig, one of the world's leading experts on The Shadow.

0:57.4

She's a retired Jungian therapist and co-author of the acclaimed books, Meeting the Shadow and Romancing the Shadow. With her book, The Inner Work of Age, shifting from role to soul, Connie extends her

1:05.5

work on the shadow into midlife and beyond, and explores aging as a spiritual practice.

1:13.1

And then with her book, Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path,

1:17.9

Connie extends shadow work again, this time into the areas of religion and spirituality.

1:25.7

Connie herself has been practicing contemplative disciplines for more than

1:31.4

five decades. And I'm so grateful to have this chance, Connie, to talk to you now. It's a real treat.

1:39.4

Thank you. Me too. Thanks for having me, Tammy.

1:44.2

Your soul's mission, you could say, is to help people, or at least one aspect of your soul's

1:50.5

mission, is to help people do shadow work.

1:53.3

And here at the beginning, I'm curious what your own reflections are on a life, your life, that has this central focus.

2:05.0

How come?

2:05.6

How come this is your torch to carry?

2:11.1

That's a beautiful question.

2:12.4

I think it's important for each of us to contemplate that question.

...

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