Marie von Franz on The Shadow
The shadow is not the whole of the unconscious personality.
It represents unknown or little-known attributes and qualities of the ego . . . aspects that mostly belong to the personal sphere and that could just as well be conscious.
Marie-Louise von Franz, “The Realization of the Shadow in Dreams,” in Meeting the Shadow p34.
I believe that I understand the shadow is defined as that which is not known, is really that which IS known to us but that we may (prefer to) be blind to. In other words, it consists of the aspects of our ego which have developed to help us cope and survive in the world and are so a part of our substrate that we do not see them in any way as separate from ourselves. These pathological aspects of our character would prefer to remain “hidden”.
But the greater unknown is the possibility of who we are if these mechanisms were stripped away, which can only begin when we bring them into our awareness sufficiently to acknowledge how they run us in the world.
Check out this great blog about Carl Jung’s visionary work as described in The Red Book http://www.carl-me.com