Potential Shadows of Thelemic values:
As von Franz describes, in Christian circles being sweet, kind and polite are top priority values, and those qualities are assumed to conceal one's hidden feelings, which are their direct opposite—like jealousy, frustration, and so on. In Thelemic circles it's about being "free, loud and adulterous" or very intellectually sophisticated - and those things are used to cover up one's feelings of inadequacy and lack of freedom (freedom from compulsions and various types of mental anguish—insecurities, and so on).
One way to extract Shadow material is by understanding the hidden aspect of ourselves that is attracted to some of the Thelemic principles.
For instance, sexual liberation aspect which seems to be the initial and fundamental attraction element for so many people, esp. those looking to rid themselves from controlling and conservative upbringing. It is good to remember that external things we are running away from are often embedded in our unconscious, so they go wherever we go, and they will haunt us until we root them out ourselves; once truly integrated we no longer need to seek remedy outside of ourselves.
So relative to this aspect, typically women overidentify with Babalon who is wild and sexual, and men see themselves as the Beast. Jim said it well when he emphasized these are offices we can temporarily assume, rather than something we overidentify with full time. So the Shadow aspect in people who want to be seen as the "Beast" would be addiction to sex and sense pleasures, promiscuity and validation that can arise from promiscuity - feeling oneself to be alpha ("wining" biologically in the animal kingdom is related to having many female partners); so here it's not about liberation but about indulging one's addictive tendencies and gaining validation while being free from (at least conscious) guilt and shame, which normally accompany such behavior in mainstream society.
For women who want to be perceived as "Babalon", it's a quick way to get attention in the easiest way possible (flashing our goods) and the audience of hungry "beasts" is there to elevate it to the spotlight and assign the label "Goddess" to what is otherwise, more often than not, a person acting out from the place of need or hunger, rather than realization. So here, wish for sexual liberation is hijacked by neurosis of low self-esteem, sense of inadequacy, fear of abandonment, cry for attention, loneliness, feeling that “I am not good enough”, or “I am not enough”, :I am not valuable”; also feeling of inner void/hunger that seeks fulfillment from without—rather than finding that well within (which actually automatically happens if we truly embody Babalon/Beast which can only happen when we put ego/personality’s fixations aside).
As Jung pointed out—psyche has compensatory nature - whatever we try to impress upon others - such as "I am confident", "I am beautiful", etc. indicates that deep inside, or in our unconscious, we feel we lack those things. Attempts to behave a certain way to control how others see us - to inspire them to see what we wish to embody (as opposed to just being/acting naturally without agendas) is an example of a contrived, compensatory behavior. Hence, ego is always looking for an audience - someone else to reflect for me what I wish to be or believe about myself. Yet no amount of praise helps us arrive at that fulfillment. We can get 100 praises and 1 piece of bad feedback or criticism and if we are not integrated, we are fixated on that one negative voice and it ruins our whole day.
However, we have to start somewhere - we act out for a while and then as we do the work, eventually and hopefully, we start to see these impulses for what they are—and then we can begin to transform them.
Of course, we are not solely responding to things from the Shadow side; there is always the higher Self that plays a major role in what we are drawn to. In fact, the Self will put us in situations where our Shadow gets exposed so that we can have an opportunity to integrate it.
