# Where Light Falls: Shadow Work Cards Drawn in Chalk and Charcoal Meet Where Light Falls — 50 chalk-and-charcoal shadow work cards about what we show and what we hide. Spreads, questions and ways to use them. **Shadow work cards** help you look at the parts of yourself you usually keep out of sight, without forcing anything into the open. [**Where Light Falls**](https://mindtrays.com/decks/mindtrays-where-light-falls) is a new MindTrays deck of 50 chalk-and-charcoal drawings on black paper. Each card shows what the light touches and what stays in the dark, and you decide what that means. A thin line of light under a closed lid. A moon lit exactly halfway. A small chair throwing a shadow three times its size. No words, no people. Just ordinary things, half shown and half hidden, and the question the deck is named after: where does the light fall, and what did it leave out? ## Shadow Work Without the Drama "Shadow" can sound ominous, as if there is something terrible waiting in the basement. In practice it is quieter than that. The shadow is simply what doesn't get shown: a feeling you set aside, an anger you learned was not allowed, a strength you never use because it once got you into trouble. That is why the dark part of each card is not the bad part. It is the part the picture hasn't shown yet. The deck invites looking, not digging. The person holding the card decides how far into the shadow to go, and stopping at the edge is a perfectly good answer. If you are new to the idea, our introduction to [shadow work with cards](https://mindtrays.com/blog/shadow-work-cards) covers the basics. ## What's Inside the Deck The 50 cards are grouped into seven movements of light, so you can put a single theme on the table: - **What we hide** — a closed box leaking light, a drawn curtain, a cellar door left ajar - **What we show** — a spotlight on an empty stage, a glowing shop window - **The edge between** — a half-open door, a half-lit moon, a bridge disappearing into fog - **Shadows that follow** — a toy chair with a giant shadow, footprints leading into the dark - **Small lights** — a single match, a firefly, one lit window in a dark tower - **What light reveals** — a web caught in a torch beam, a crack glowing like a silver line - **Light returning** — dawn on a peak, a sprout in a sunbeam, a lantern rising Because every card holds light and dark at once, the conversation never stays only on the problem. Pairing a "hidden" card with a "revealed" one is where many of the insights happen. ## Why Chalk on Black Paper Most decks start with a white page and add colour. These cards start in the dark and add light, and that reversal is the point. Monochrome drawings with lots of empty black space are calm on purpose: quiet enough for difficult topics and for long silences. There is nothing bright to distract from what the person is noticing, and nothing to tell them how to feel about it. ## Three Spreads to Start With ### 1\. Lit and hidden (2 cards) One card for what I show, one for what I keep in the dark. Simple, and surprisingly revealing when you place the two side by side. ### 2\. Moving the lamp (3 cards) Where the light is now, what stays in shadow, where I want the light. A good spread for change: you are not asked to eliminate the dark, only to decide where to point the lamp. ### 3\. The shadow's gift (4 cards) The shadow, what it protects, what it costs, what it could become. This is the classic shadow-work move: a trait you push away usually guards something, and it often carries a resource you have not claimed yet. ## Questions That Work With These Cards - Where does the light fall in this picture, and what does it leave out? - If the shadow could speak, what would it say? - What would change if the light moved a little to the left? - Which part of this image is more you: the lit part or the dark part? - What small light do you already have? ## Who It's For Therapists and coaches can use the deck for masks and roles, shame and secrets, fear that is bigger than its cause, and grief, where finding the small light that is already there comes before looking for the dawn. It also pairs well with [parts work](https://mindtrays.com/blog/parts-work-metaphorical-cards): a closed box can stand in for a part that isn't ready to speak. In groups, each person picks what they are bringing into the light today. On your own, draw one card in the evening and journal what it showed and what it left out. The deck runs in the browser and on a shared board, so it works [in online sessions](https://mindtrays.com/collaborative-mode) as easily as at a table. ## A Note for the Sceptic These cards don't predict anything and don't carry fixed meanings. This is not tarot. A half-lit moon means nothing by itself; it means something to _you_, and that meaning is what you work with. The cards are also not a substitute for therapy when something heavy comes up. They make it easier to start talking, and a trained professional helps with what comes next. ## Try Where Light Falls [**Open the Where Light Falls deck**](https://mindtrays.com/decks/mindtrays-where-light-falls), pull a [free daily card](https://mindtrays.com/daily), or [browse all MindTrays decks](https://mindtrays.com/decks). Notice where the light falls, then ask what stayed in the dark. _— MindTrays Team_ --- [View on MindTrays](https://mindtrays.com/blog/where-light-falls-shadow-work-cards)