Shadow Work in Ancient Egyptian Magic
Molly Hankins January 29, 2026
In Biblical terms, the Egyptian concept of ‘shew’ is expressed as a revealing of what’s hidden, whereas ancient Egypt’s great mystery schools are thought to have treated shew as the shadow-self that needs the light of consciousness shone upon it in order to be integrated. Author, vocal coach, and archangelic channeler Stewart Pearce explained the nature of shew in his book Angels and the Keys to Paradise. He writes that to name individual aspects of our shew is to, “identify that aspect of self that dwells far from the light, and therefore is the part that most desires reintegration with the light, with the collective soul.” This yearning to merge the seen and unseen worlds is natural. If we are all sparks of consciousness from the original Creator, we are not designed to ignore what we create. Pearce contends that integration of all our creations is essential to our development both spiritually and magically.
“Thinking and feeling negative shadow complexes sabotages our creative energy within the dynamics of the universe. Carl Jung suggested that, ‘One doesn’t become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but rather by drawing the light into the darkness, and creating a light filled consciousness.’ As we identify, purify and redistribute the energy of our shadow from within, more space is created within our cells for light to reside,” Pearce explained. From the perspective of Egypt’s mystery schools, physical changes occur as light is shown in the darkness of our psyches. The idea of ‘light’ here is not a metaphor because light is considered intelligent, and bringing this higher intelligence into our beings by consciously calling in the light gives us access to both expanded awareness and magical abilities.
The magic Pearce refers too is defined by the famous occultist Aleister Crowley as, “The science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.” Developing this capacity means shedding light on any shame or regret blocking the light of higher intelligence, and therefore blocking our ability to act as co-creators of our reality. Pearce believes that what Egypt’s mystery schools were pointing to with their emphasis on integrating the shew is that our shadow can be a portal to the Creator and to working with what he calls ‘Source Energy.’ Consciously shining light on our shew disrupts the ‘karmic holding patterns’ living in our tissues and keeping us in the karmic wheel of repeated reincarnation in order for our consciousness to evolve. Shew work allows us to choose our own path to conscious evolution, rather than relying on the karmic algorithm to furnish experiences for us that force us to evolve.
“If we bring enough of our shew out of darkness we can begin working directly with collective consciousness to affect change on a global scale.”
This shew integration process, which Pearce also calls “dissolving our darkness,’ has certain thresholds to cross as our consciousness evolves. With each milestone, we can begin using our will to create effects at a global and even galactic scale. When we reach enlightenment, we gain the ability to co-create directly with Source Energy. Over the course of many lifetimes, if we bring enough of our shew out of darkness we can begin working directly with collective consciousness to affect change on a global scale. Pearce, who channels the archangelic collective that provides much of the information in his writing, believes we must dissolve 85% of our darkness in order for our will to begin expressing at the level of global consciousness. Symptoms of having crossed this threshold include drastic upticks in synchronicity and seeing ideas we thought were unique to us expressing within the global collective.
Once 90% of our shew is integrated, we can work at the galactic level. This essentially means that we become pawns on the chessboard of life with a sufficiently developed consciousness to be worthy of being played by higher dimensional entities, known in ancient Egyptian mythology as gods. In previous articles on the nature of personal alchemy, we explored how alchemizing our negative emotions prepares our being for magical practice and the ability to “hold” more high dimensional intelligence within our physical vessels. Our ability to co-create and perform magic with greater impact comes from working with increasingly powerful higher dimensional intelligence. From this point, we gain intelligence by virtue of our expanding access and integrate even more of our shew, so we’re heading towards the 95% threshold of enlightenment.
When we’ve cleared enough shew to be able to embody our own higher consciousness and share consciousness with intelligent beings far greater than ourselves, our vessels are prepared to hold the light of Source Energy. This is where we cross the threshold of enlightenment, and as Richard Rudd of the Gene Keys says, the process of getting there can be blissful and playful. Of course there is suffering along the way, but we help each other find bliss and play anyway. Only the presence of undissolved shew can cast darkness enough to block the light, and only when we are able to face those parts of ourselves by consciously seeking out and integrating them, can we begin integrating with Source and experiencing higher consciousness on Earth.
As author and channeler Tom Kenyon put it in his book The Hathor Material, “The goal is not to merely ascend to another octave. The goal is to live our lives as fully and as richly as possible, constantly surrendering to the greater power of love and awareness. Our advice would be not to concern yourself with timetables and phenomena. They will take care of themselves. Besides, they are of such cosmic proportion as to be immune to your thoughts and interventions. It would be far more beneficial to change those things you can, and what you can affect is the amount of love you bring to the world." That change starts with loving the parts of ourselves, of our shew, that we’re afraid or ashamed of.
Molly Hankins is an Initiate + Reality Hacker serving the Ministry of Quantum Existentialism and Builders of the Adytum.
