The Gift of Darkness
It is at Samhain, perhaps more than
any other time of the year, that we as a culture, confront darkness.
Why is this? There are a multitude of answers; because the nights
have grown longer, the veil between the worlds is thin, or maybe it
is because this time of year has become a cultural metaphor for the
darkness within ourselves.
Samhain is a time of mystery, when the
veil between the worlds is thin, yet also is the veil between our
light self and dark self. It is here on this night, that culturally
we confront our hidden selves and revel in them. Unabashedly and
unashamed on this one night of the year we draw our masks from our
spiritual selves and place them on physically, then rush head long
into the dark and glorious night!
Yet there is much more to confronting
our dark selves than a costume and paint. Author Timothy Roderick
writes of a time, in the not to distant past when the cowan called
the craft of magick the “black arts”. Black signifying
forbidden. Those who would not venture beyond the light places,
called it thus. As witches we should be able to walk between the
worlds of light and dark, we should confront and embrace both. It is
because of the shadow, that light can be seen, and understood to be
light. Yet do we always remember this?
I am bout to give
you a great gift..--the gift of darkness. You have lived with it all your life, yet you
have ignored it, feared it, shunned it or in some other way denied it. But it
has never gone away; gifts from the Gods rarely do.”
(T. Roderick, Dark Moon Mysteries)
Our darker selves complete each of us.
It is the Yin to our Yang's , each containing one within the other,
giving depth to our characters. If we, like in many of the new age
and Judeo/ Christian religious teach, focused solely on our light
selves, we would stagnate and weaken. Where would change and growth
come from? We drawn not only knowledge but strength from our dark
selves. We learn through challenge and adversity to become more than
we are now.
The dark brings
change. It reveals what was once thought forbidden in knowledge.
(T. Roderick)
By confronting and accepting our
darker selves we can look into that element of our consciousness that
is made of “significant fears, memories, emotions and experiences”
that over the course of our lives, we have in one way or another
rejected and held back from “flooding into our waking
consciousness.” It is by doing this, that we can not only heal
ourselves, but learn and grow. Knowledge truly is power. It is
through knowing our darker selves that we can exercise healthy
control and discipline for areas of ourselves that need a bit of
work. Suppressing, ignoring or even trying to extract our dark
selves, rather than acceptance, only allows for more extreme
manifestations. All of our fears, dark memories, emotions and
drives, never really go away. They only simmer beneath the surface,
until they can manifest, just outside of our control.
So as the veil grows thin, perhaps
rather than looking through to the other worlds, draw it aside and
look into yourself. Get to know this dark side and in doing so, know
yourself more completely.
Happy Samhain!
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