Prompts
Shadow work prompts for grief: The Void
Shadow work prompts for grief ask about the losses you moved past instead of mourning. Not only deaths. The dream you stopped mentioning, the version of yourself that ended with a chapter, the friendship that faded without a word. These prompts make room for grief that never got its turn.
Updated October 2026What is The Void for?
In Soul Arc, The Void is one of 12 prompt themes. The app describes it as "Grief, loss & what was left behind". It is carried by the The Healer archetype, which means that if the quiz places you there, the first of your daily prompts comes from this theme.
Grief goes into the shadow when there is no permission for it. The relationship was complicated, so you were not allowed to miss the person. The loss was ordinary, a job or a city or a plan, so it did not seem to deserve mourning. Or you simply stayed busy, because feeling it looked like it would swallow you. The Void theme is for all of that.
The prompts are gentle in wording and heavy in effect. 'If grief had a shape, what would yours look like right now' sounds like a creative exercise. It is not. Expect the answers to be slower to arrive than in other themes, and expect some of them to be about losses you had not counted as losses.
This is not a theme for a bad week. Come here when you have some steadiness, a closing routine you trust, and time afterward to be a little quiet.
Eight shadow work prompts for grief and loss
These 8 prompts are quoted word for word from the Soul Arc app. They are in the order the app keeps them.
- What loss have you never fully sat with because it felt like it would swallow you?
- What dream did you stop mentioning because wanting it started to hurt too much?
- Who are you grieving that you're not allowed to grieve because the bond was complicated?
- What version of you died in a chapter you've never properly mourned?
- What would you have to stop staying busy with in order to feel what you've postponed?
- What ending are you still secretly waiting to be reversed?
- If grief had a shape, what would yours look like right now?
- What have you lost that you still reach for in quiet moments, forgetting it's gone?
These are 8 of the 12 prompts in The Void. The app has all 12, and 144 prompts across 12 themes. On the free plan you get 3 new prompts a day. Soul Arc Pro opens all of them, with a picker by archetype or theme. See the FAQ for what Pro costs.
How should you use these prompts?
- Name the loss precisely. 'The year I stopped painting' is a loss. 'Everything changed' is not an entry.
- Write what you still reach for, out of habit, that is not there. That reflex is where the grief lives.
- Let the answer be short. Grief entries are often three honest lines, not three pages.
- Plan the hour after the session. Something warm, something physical, someone nearby if possible.
- If a loss is recent, or you have not slept or eaten properly because of it, this is a theme to do with a licensed therapist or a grief counselor, not alone.
New to this? Start with what shadow work is, and end every session on purpose with the closing routine. The full set of 144 shadow work prompts covers the other 11 themes.
What does a good answer look like?
Prompt: What dream did you stop mentioning because wanting it started to hurt too much?
Entry: "Having a kid. We tried for three years and then we just stopped talking about it, and I stopped talking about it with myself. I'm fine. We have a good life. But I still look at the small bedroom and think of it as the room. I never told anyone I still call it that."
Umbra might ask: "What would it mean to say the room's name out loud?"
Umbra, the companion inside Soul Arc, answers with one question that points back to your own words. It never gives advice, and it never tells you what your entry means.
Which archetype carries The Void?
In the app, each of the 12 archetypes carries one theme. The Void belongs to The Healer. The app sums that archetype up in one line:
You were made to heal. Starting with yourself.
Its light and shadow traits, and three of these prompts, are on the archetype's own page. An archetype counts as mastered after 5 of its prompts.
What if a prompt brings up too much?
Grief can arrive all at once after years of waiting. If that happens, stop writing and let it be a feeling rather than a task. Be with someone if you can. If the grief is tied to a recent loss, or it does not ease over days, a grief counselor or licensed therapist is the right place for it. If you are thinking about harming yourself, reach a person now.
These prompts are for self-reflection, not therapy. If you are thinking about harming yourself, reach a person now. In the US, call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), or text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line).
Questions people ask
Is grief part of shadow work?
Yes, when the grief was never allowed. Shadow work looks at what you pushed out of awareness, and unmourned losses are some of the heaviest things there.
Can I use these prompts for a recent death?
Carefully, and probably not alone. Fresh grief is not a shadow. It is a wound that is still open. These prompts are better for losses that went underground, and a grief counselor is better for a loss that just happened.
Why do I feel numb instead of sad?
Numbness is often how grief waits. Several prompts here ask what you have postponed feeling and what staying busy protects you from. Start there, slowly.
Which archetype in Soul Arc carries The Void?
The Healer. If the quiz places you there, the first of your 3 daily prompts on the free plan comes from this theme. Its light and shadow traits are on its own page.