Dark is not always evil, Light is not always good

Dark Nights, Embracing the Shadow, Awakening, and Flipping the Paradigm

I know my shadow and that I am viewed as overly rigid at times when I feel certain of something, which I find interesting that this is perceived as negative. I’ve peeled away many old beliefs and am always open to (un)learning, yet within me there are unshakable knowing’s that I will not waver on, like bodily autonomy, as one example.

Our society has become extreme in an outer display of black and white thinking, while inwardly losing empathy and living in a strange apathetic stranglehold where expressing anything about anything puts you in a box where the door is shut and the key is thrown away, because if you believe one thing you must believe another… assumptions abound.

I wish I had mentors or resources that helped me navigate and understand these concepts earlier in life, but it seems I was meant to learn the hard way, so I write this for me, but also for anyone that feels scared, alone and confused.

I write this for the little child that never feels heard.

I write this for the one in despair contemplating suicide.

I write this for the one who feels rejected by the world for parts of themselves with which they are trying to love or make peace, but are told is bad.

Our world has become filled with displays of extreme emotional immaturity and an inability to understand nuance, to see another’s perspective or reconcile differences both internally and in relation to each other.

Good and Evil are used interchangeably with light and dark and I think it’s time to break this paradigm for it is not serving us any longer.

Everything you are afraid of in the darkness is what will liberate you and dissolve the fears that have taken hold.

We’re indoctrinated to believe “dark” is bad from a very young age.

The new age pushes you to ascend from the physical realm and disassociate from the body. Religion wants you to “look to the light” always point your gaze up…. Do you ever stop to ask yourself, why?

To descend is to reach into the soil and connect with the energy of the Mother. The mother that weeps for us to find her embrace again, to remember that she is here too. The muddy child climbing trees and making mud pies knows the joy, freedom and love in this connection, yet we grow up often becoming pulled further away and into the sterile walls of buildings and beliefs that have sanitized our thoughts and souls.

I cannot talk about the dark night, nor shadow work, without also talking about good and evil, dark and light, for all is intertwined.

Perhaps, the reason we need a dark night of the soul is because the suppression and confusion around darkness is so misunderstood.

“...it is almost always the case that whatever has wounded you will also be instrumental in your healing.” ― Robert A. Johnson, She: Understanding Feminine Psychology

The reason for the indoctrination of the dark as evil is because many characteristics present in the darkness are ones of rebellion to an outer authority that most certainly does not want you following your inner compass. Because of this, the “system” that overlays society teaches you to run away from parts of the self that are necessary for wholeness and carving your own path. The dark is demonized in an effort to control. The more you fear the unknown, the aspects of Divinity that present inside chaos, in letting go, the more the collective mis-understanding of the shadow appears.

The attack on our freedom, on our food system, convincing people there is an “invisible enemy” floating around trying to kill us, is an attack on nature, thus, is an attack on humanity because we, too, are nature. But this idea that nature is “dark or evil” feeds the hands that sell the fear. Just turn on the TV (no, don’t do that), but you’ll see the wolf in sheep’s clothing ever present, so lovely and convincing, just like we try to convince ourselves sometimes of things that aren’t true, or wear a smile that hides sadness.

The villain is not always evil, the saint is not always good, we don’t always get the full story, so things will always be misunderstood.

At the same time, the monsters everyone blames for the problems of the world is not really about the making of an elite group of controllers as much as it is each individual’s avoidance of the shadow made manifest through the collective unconscious. If you want to change the world, it truly starts with knowing yourself and making peace all that you avoid.

The shadow and the so called “dark” traits are intertwined and connected to our power, purpose, pleasure and protection. This is why the darkness is always shown as bad, because to stand in your own power, follow your own purpose, connect with your innate desires through your God-given senses and protect yourself as a sovereign being does not make you a compliant follower of another. Everyone wants to talk about the light, but I know that it is in the darkness where the greatest light shines.

The greatest paradox I have found was that descending down the ladder into my own darkness and meeting my shadow is the way of true ascension. To flip the inversion is to see that down is up. In physiological and energetic terms, the kundalini, sacred secretion and/or chrism oil cannot rise up the ladder of consciousness if it is not first seated, rooted, grounded down. The “seat” of the soil/soul cannot connect to the head/crown by way of the heart if both aren’t united by way of the dark, and thus, the light. One never even needs to know this consciously for it to be, it is in living with pure intention, thought, good deeds and integrity that helps it come to life, as such, someone completely unaware of this concept, or seemingly unconscious, can actually be more enlightened than someone who can see through the veil. Because of this notion, or idea, it is imperitive to recognize that we cannot know where another stands by merely perceiving them, everyone’s path is not supposed to be the same.

As such, true enlightenment is not a process of ascending but in descending, for the true light, not the false light, lives deep inside. The spark of Divinity is not just a hero’s journey of conquering obstacles before us outwardly, but the heroine’s journey of our innermost being.

To find harmonious union of the opposing forces requires a sense of curiosity and self-awareness.  The alchemical wedding is not just a mystical experience but a tangible aspect of awakening that opens the doorway to see with greater awe and discernment.

When you ignore your shadow, you feed it, as such you might feel drained or depressed in the same way confrontation, which many avoid, can actually fill you up with energy and be used as motivation.

Everyone wants to go to the light but the greatest gold lives in the night.

Feeling in the body is what flips the process of healing and alchemizing wounds, not intellectualizing. Yes, at first that contemplation of discovery helps bring awareness and understanding to a situation, but to shift it is releasing it from the body through feeling. Over time less triggers happen and you will get faster and faster at regulating and moving through them.

So, what is a dark night of the soul anyway?

It’s awakening…which is a wake, a mourning, a funeral, a death. This is often viewed as a cracking open of the inner hidden world, the unconscious, to see the things we don’t like about ourselves, so that we can also see what unpleasantries the outer world is revealing to us. It’s going into the deepest part of ourselves to find acceptance, to find love, to find what we need to address and work on, to let go or forgive….and then using this new awareness to take action in making change in our lives so that we don’t repeat those same patterns. It’s seeing how you may be blaming others instead of owning yourself, reclaiming all the power given away through poor boundaries, people pleasing, bad choices and poor reactions to unfavorable circumstances.

But this is not the whole story. The deeper aspect of the dark night is about integrating our shadow. The dark, like the light, has an aspect of neutrality within it, each holds good and bad depending on how embodied and wielded by the individual.  We need both to be whole and balanced, to step into greater spiritual maturity and self-responsibility.

“We are presently dealing with the accumulation of a whole society that has worshiped its light side and refused the dark, and this residue appears as war, economic chaos, strikes, racial intolerance. The front page of any newspaper hurls the collective shadow at us.” ― Robert A. Johnson, Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche

The shadows are parts of the self we reject, repressed emotions, painful experiences, disempowering beliefs and aspects that are feared or deemed unfavorable. To integrate these parts into consciousness is to become more whole, not perfect, not without error, but fully human.

Ignoring the dark aspects of self often means making choices from fear. Many people in fear of the “controllers” in the world perpetuate the cycles by giving so much energy through this fear to that with which they do not want that they lose the gift available in the present moment.

A dark night is painful. It’s an arduous task, not for the faint of heart, and can suck people into places they may not return or recover from, places they need to go into with a centered and grounded mind, places that are actually both terrible and wonderful.

A dark night of the soul is like a vacation pit-stop to the underworld, and it’s the only stop in the way to where you really want to go.

In times of revelation truth shines a light on what is hidden, not just in the outer world, but ourselves. This truth is painful but freeing and healing.

Truth carries in it a Divine frequency, it stirs something in you, it’s a carrier wave of authenticity. You know when you hear it, or feel it, it can hurt when it meets dissonance, but always frees as it is in this pain that the shattering of what limits us begins to dissolve. The shattering or dissolution is important, this is the destructive phase of creation, without it, your true self cannot emerge.

A dark night of the soul will ask you to face triggers, an opportunity to ask yourself, why am I triggered, what is this showing me? Our triggers are also a calling of courage, of finding your voice and learning what drives you, your values, desires, and principles.

Ask yourself:

• Do you go along to get along, even when you know something is wrong?

• Do you play the “sugar and spice and everything nice” game to avoid confrontation, embarrassment or discomfort?

• Are you made of something deeper invoking courage, love and truth?
  Do you know what your toxic traits are and when you are projecting them?

• What do you lie to yourself about?

• When are you hardest on yourself and where does that stem from?

There are things of this world that are absolutely true, held so by the Divine Laws and Principles of the Universe, but it is our lack of seeking for this truth that can get us lost on the path to enlightenment, to true self-realization. The reason some begin to seek this wisdom is that it is hidden WITHIN us and also hidden from us, often in plain sight. You might feel drawn to dig into ancient texts, mysteries, allegories, parables, and wisdom traditions, but ultimately it is an invitation to go on a quest guided by, and always available to us, of an inner calling.  All of it is written in our bones, knowing is now.

We are ALWAYS living the book of Revelations (“Revealing to the Nations”) as the

veil lifts and shows itself. This lends itself to a responsibility, one of doing The Great Work, of being a living example and living life the way we wish it to be, despite what it is. Can you find beauty in each day, in unlikely places? Can you see the Creator’s fingerprints and whispers all around you?

Once you start to uncover what is hidden, you will no longer be the same person.

Our lives have been infiltrated, our minds molded, all aspects of life guided.  Deceit is part of our reality, the false reality, the illusion and it is serving a purpose, just for you, it in itself is a gift because without it, you cannot see beyond it.

A dark night of the soul means being open to the possibilities of what might be different than you had initially perceived, and most importantly, what is your part in it coming to be. As our perception expands, things get curiouser and curiouser, and this can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you choose to frame new information presented to you.

On a collective scale, a dark night can feel like the end of the world, but it’s just the end of the world you perceived, the new world is the one you find within and create in your own life, thus there is always an old world and always a new one.

Here are some signs you might be in a dark night of the soul:

·     You find yourself dwelling on past failures and feeling stuck. What you used to love feels lackluster, different. You can’t find the answers and aren’t even sure what you’re looking for anymore.

·     You feel like there is no hope or fulfillment. You might be in a nihilistic period of the process where it seems like nothing matters and are always asking yourself, what is the point?

·       You feel like a victim and can’t see how to make a difference. You suddenly want to “save the world” or play martyr.

·       Daily responsibilities become difficult; motivation feels absent.

Know, you are not alone. Stay curious and you will come out the other side with relief and new eyes. Also, I am not here giving any advice on what to do if you need to get help for depression, please seek out someone suited to guide you.

All human events are rooted in the law of cause and effect . . .. –Paramahansa Yogananda

Everyone is capable of both good and evil, until this is accepted it can be difficult to hold compassion and not to project your own shadow upon a “they” in anger and blame for all the world’s woes. One must attune within themselves, their role in the collective unconscious panorama in order to release the feeling of needing to carry around the weight of the world. The choices we make under fear carry consequences that are often not what would be encountered by those made with reason.

There are many types of dark nights of the soul, but all are another layer in the process of peeling back the layers. The deeper you know yourself, the more you can discern the world around you and the struggles plagued by humanity at large without being drained by the insanity of it all.

I’ve been curious about this topic my entire life, it’s written in my destiny, in the stars. Before I understood the indoctrination of the “school” system, I studied psychology and forensics. I wanted to understand how people could do such horrible things. It wasn’t until many years later that I could see how this all was connected and why it spoke to me. A truth or dare to dance with the devil that sits on our shoulders, to face the dragons within, to begin to navigate life with a new sense of wonder, not just about what “others” are doing, but myself.

A dark night is a true test of faith, a doorway to the unseen, an invitation to step into the void of unknowing and emptiness and wait there patiently…knowing the answers will arrive, but can’t be contrived, you must sit there in stillness and grow roots. When your roots have reached the darkest depths, you will slowly begin to emerge from this “hermit” phase and grow wings a little bit each day until one day you can fly.

The darkness awakens the beauty and awe of being alive. It clears away all the things that no longer serve in a grieving, dissolving, letting go. It’s painful….it can be a long process that happens in phases, even years.

Part of this experience is cutting ties and releasing all things tethered to you that are pulling you off your path, not with vengeance, but love…all that hurt you, people, your own behaviors, situations, and memories…cut it, let it bleed out on the floor, let it leave a scar as a reminder of your new found courage. The knife that cuts is also the tool that marks the path to greater wisdom and healing.

The shadow is so misunderstood, it’s not just about “evil.” The shadow side of life holds so much healing and beauty, it’s how you know and appreciate the light, it’s how you experience awe, it’s where the treasure-chest of gold hides knowing most will not dare to go excavating there for the prize.

To become your own (k)night is to learn to love the parts of yourself you grew to hate, where you take off the armor and find the amor (love)…it’s knowing when to protect or when to reflect for the true battle is one’s own.

The more aware you are of your own darkness the more you can see it in others. At first one may be “black pilled” and get stuck in this phase of awakening, becoming angry, bitter and always spending time looking for a monster out there instead of the one inside. Yet, the more this becomes integrated, the more compassion and love you can hold for others for where they are on their own journey. Everyone has different lessons to learn, different obstacles to overcome…everyone. You might not be able to walk in their shoes but you can love them in the ones they are wearing, even if it means loving from afar.

Wherever you are on the journey, you can make it through…but there is a reason Awakening is called A-WAKE, it’s not just recognizing the government debacle, the pharmaceutical industry as a carbuncle, but it’s grieving all the parts of you that were lost, masked, manipulated, and deceived.

I can’t talk about awakening without mentioned the shadow. It’s too bad the term Shadow-Work, like Light-Work, has been given a bad name. One cannot find harmony between light and dark without understanding the shadow. True “light-work” is not avoiding the darkness but giving “light” to the “shadow.”

Everyone wants to run to the light but the light will burn you if you aren’t willing to see truth, in the same way, the dark will envelop you if avoided.

We live in duality because it serves a beautiful purpose, not because everything and everyone is evil, not because only enlightened souls are of the light.

The light is also not always benevolent, it has duality, a false light aspect, which is connected to the false ego, the unhealed wounds. The dark is the same, it is not always malevolent, it, too, has duality, a sinking in to vices and being controlled by forces instead of being the sovereign authority of your own life. The false light is the outer deceptions, the lures, the idols, the shiny objects. The un-integrated shadow is the inner deceptions, self-denial, or self-sabotage. Both reveal unconscious behaviors and wounds that control us or give way to finding harmony s between them.

There is beauty in both, but often there is great imbalance because the dark side is so misunderstood and feared.

“To honor and accept one’s own shadow is a profound spiritual discipline. It is whole-making and thus holy and the most important experience of a lifetime.”
― Robert A. Johnson, Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche

Like people pleasing, which is not really about other people, but merely looking good to other people or keeping the peace to avoid confrontation, when you feel yourself getting drained by those around you, by the world, it’s often a sign that you are masking your true self. The more you know yourself, the more you no longer feel drained by the world, the messy ridiculous insane world.

When you feel triggered by someone, it’s your shadow ready to reveal something to you. If you run away from this, it will follow you around like an alligator nipping at your ankles, if you run towards it and really look at it, it will go away back into the swamp.

The more you look at it, the easier it gets, though the spiral continues and things you thought you had healed may come back around again asking you to see another part of it.

 No one has to get stuck in an endless self-help healing all the time if you just deal with things as they come up instead of stuffing them down.

I know this may sound impossible, but it can become a fun and enjoyable exploration of self as an observer of what is, instead of always looking for what’s wrong.

Shadow aspects reveal triggers in funny ways. For example, if someone is asking you to tone yourself down because they don’t want to see an aspect of themselves in you, it’s not about you, it’s about the fear of the reflection they are seeing.

We need the dark traits that live within us because they help us when in their mature form, it’s when they are used in the wrong way, unnecessarily or to initiate harm, that it is wrong.

This is the same with the light side. If you ignore the truth of your feelings because you always feel you must “stay positive” or else bad things will happen, you’re denying reality, suppressing or numbing out emotions and not listening to the message your body is giving to you. Staying positive can be used as a form of gaslighting and fear of confrontation. This is a harmful trait of the light. 

However, being truly positive, looking for the lessons, blessings, silver linings and seeking to cultivate this in your life from a genuine place can bring a more joyful disposition and desired outcomes.  Constant positivity is exhausting and brings about spiritual bypassing, a temptation to escape reality. This often promotes the belief that nothing is real and fosters numbing out through dissociation under the guise of spirituality.

Have you ever seen someone who has a job you would not want like washing dishes or trash collector and they are always joyful?  These people have learned (knowingly or unknowingly) to cultivate joy in the face of tasks that aren’t fun and/or choosing to see the beauty in the mundane aspects of being. After all, sometimes our purpose is not a grand making of millions but a catalyst for love or truth that can reach millions through a single moment of exchange.

When Triggers Arise, It’s an Invitation to Deep Dive.

Like the hermit coming out of the cave, the integration of our darkness helps to see with a more zoomed out lens then come back into the world as the change we want to see.

This whole process is necessary because when we don’t understand our darkness it can consume us. When we can’t understand the beauty that lives in the dark, we miss out on the void of potential that waits like floating on a body of water while staring into the heavens.

The dark and light can be enemies, but in harmony are the closest of companions.

Sometimes you’ve got to float, sometimes to flow. Sometimes you’ve got to take, or throw, a punch (real or metaphysical) or even lay low. Sometimes you’ve got to be a fool in order to know. Sometimes you’ve got to feel sorrow, sow the seeds of tears, in order to grow.

I’m only skimming the surface here, but to understand the usefulness and importance of the darkness in our lives, let’s examine a few traits associated with the masculine and feminine around this.

Traits of the dark feminine are:

CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION: When you try to control everything, it only creates more chaos. We need chaos because it gives mystery and surprise, it helps us tear down things no longer working and it is a fuel for creativity to birth something new. Without chaos, life would cease to exist, it is the wind clearing a path, it is the vortex of purification, the twin sister of stillness as the storm brews and the center remains calm, each hold the other in the creator’s palm. When out of balance this trait can be unnecessarily destructive and harmful.

There are plenty examples of the immature and unhealed aspect of this trait plaguing humanity.

AUTHENTICITY: The dark feminine understands that to be truly authentic is to be imperfect and let all parts of yourself exist, even if misunderstood. To be authentic is to be real, honest, to shed masks once worn to make others feel comfortable. It’s just simply learning to BE fully yourself, even if that means being perceived as a villain in someone’s story that can’t make sense of you, that isn’t ready to see in themselves parts of themselves being reflected back or parts they wish they had the courage to show. This trait allows all emotions to exist in the entire spectrum, not hiding parts of the self that aren’t pleasing, but letting them move with the tides knowing that to be authentic is to allow both the messiness and tidiness to exist.

The inversion of authenticity is masking, people-pleasing and avoiding looking at things we don’t like. Think about the literal “masking” pushed in 2020 and beyond, a collective representation of the ultimate denial of self, made manifest in a smothering of one’s individuality, voice, and expression through a display of grotesque proportion.

PASSION AND SENSUALITY: The dark feminine understands that life is a sensory experience to be devoured through all the senses, to live with passion and vitality. This is about the embodiment of our physicality, connection with nature and the intuitive guidance given to us through the feedback and dance of the senses, inner and outer notes communicating with each other.

When this is out of balance there may be a tendency to only focus on the light, ascend, deny the material realm completely, including our physical being, to escape. This can also manifest in manipulation and seductiveness in an attempt to control others or become prisoner to pleasure, ultimately becoming consumed by it through things like porn, gluttony, addiction, etcetera. When we no longer stop and truly savor life, enjoy a meal, and instead sit in front of the TV eating, it turns off the senses and creates a numbing out of the actual experience before us. The gratitude of these things in the greater gifts they bestow, instead, become an insatiable hunger to fill a void that can never be filled.

REBEL OR WILD WOMAN: The rebel is the woman who instigates, a catalyst, leader, provocateur…. this is necessary to confront what stands in her way. She does not bow to authority and is called difficult because she won’t comply or go along to get along.

The negative of this is people pleaser and can also be out of balance when you lose a sense of discernment, grace or class by not realizing how “letting it all hang out” may affect others or not be representative of the best parts of you that you really want to become and show up as in the world.

True authenticity also requires restraint, not denial, it’s about responding and presenting with the purest intention, not feeding the worst parts of ourselves to the world on a platter as an excuse to justify the wounded shadow as an ideal of acceptance.

We’re told as women that only our “light” traits are good, to shut up and be a “good girl.” I’ve experienced this in much of my life, and I know I’m not alone. You can see this in all aspects of life; religion, business, education. We’re taught that a lady is ONLY soft, gentle, submissive and nurturing. The feminist movement is another inversion of women wanting to break out of the paradigm that denies the so called “dark traits,” but trying to “be like a man” or be “equal to a man,” but this is not the solution, it’s just another opposite inside the land of opposites.

The new age goddess movement plays right into this, love and light superficiality that avoids the depth needed for individual and collective change.

If you call yourself a light worker, yet have never met your shadow, which light are you guiding people too, exactly?

Traits of the dark masculine are:

VIOLENCE: Violence is only evil, when initiated for harm. A man capable of violence as a form of protection, however, is a positive use of this dark trait. 

When there is no discipline, or maturity around this concept, fury rises up and is channeled in the wrong way. Knowing you are capable of it, if required, to defend, is necessary for survival.

A good man is a very, very dangerous man who has that under voluntary control.” ― Jordan B. Peterson

POWER:  Power comes with a cost and when not wielded with an integrated shadow and benevolent spirit, results in an attempt to control by fear (as we see play out now in these ever-tyrannical times).  Healthy power is the dark masculine trait of a man who can hold his stance with a calm reverence while watching the fool blab.  Using power, while maintaining integrity and not being afraid to be stern, nor offend, is that of a wise leader instead of an authoritarian overlord.

ASSERTIVENESS: This dark masculine trait is that of a man who asserts his will, not from a place of greed or control, but one of confidence, self-trust and self-reliance. He need not puff up himself for his false ego and fears of rejection or losing something, but merely to be in authenticity and wholeness as an independent, accountable and responsible being.

Like the dark traits of women that have become suppressed and inverted, so to has this been misconstrued and grossly displayed in a world now where men think they are women and, as during the “plandemic” where I watched many males (not men) mask up and comply to tyranny, probably because they, too, lost touch with the goodness of the dark traits within that they have been told are ‘bad’ in so much of entertainment, media and social conditioning. 

There is so much beauty in darkness. A baby grows in the darkness of the womb, lovers kiss or make love, restoration happens in sleep, the stars twinkle. We close our eyes to meditate and see within. We close our eyes to find the way to life again. We close our eyes to dream in an imaginary realm.  Sometimes to close them is really to open them.

Light and Dark traits each have their positive and negative attributes, too far in one direction can influence in the wrong direction. You can be loving and kind, but still have a backbone and directness. You can be thoughtful and still set boundaries. You can be a rebel with deep compassion for the collective.

No matter how much you intellectualize or understand the dark night it’s not an easy process, nor it something you necessarily seek out. It seems to come when you are ready, at least that was my experience, though I certainly never felt ready. I don’t know why some are more apt to undergo its transformative call than others, but I wish I had understood it long before I did.

The maturing that happens in this process, which feels so heavy, actually invites the inner child to become more alive again, to let those playful parts return inside that ebb and flow, joy and pain, love and suffering, laughter and tears…. all on the same pendulum.

Remember, just because you went through a dark night and may have more clarity of vision, does not make you superior to your fellow humans.  Do not be overcome with spiritual ego and delusions of grandiosity. We’re all different, carrying different wisdom as a piece of the whole, facing different challenges, but in the end, we’re here having a human experience and the most spiritual thing we can do is let each have their own.

I encourage you to explore why we’re told darkness is evil and only light is good. Maybe, like me, you’ll find this really doesn’t make sense, there are examples of both good and evil that live in both dark and light.  These are two polarities within each of us that can be used for good, with integrity, or spiral out of control in selfish gains without care for others.

There are esoteric and mystical layers to delving into the shadow, but I really find the practical aspect more useful. You need not get lost on the never-ending road of rabbit holes, but simply get right back to living life with more fullness, forgiveness and fortitude…more goodness.

(art by Jodi Fuchs)

To me, balancing these forces it not about living in an apathetic shadow of “grey” but dancing with the polarities that are a natural part of a healthy existence. Accepting the mystery gives room for the knowing, we can’t have one without the other, yet going too far in one direction keeps the shadow growing.

Emotional maturity rises up from releasing the need to always transcend and alchemize, to always look for flaws, but to find wisdom in middle path that holds us steady as we weave in and out of all that connected in the cosmic dance. Seeking what is uncomfortable is akin to skipping over a tower moment that will, instead, be forced to come by way of Divine intervention.

Instead of running away to the light, try sinking into the darkness and letting go of fearing the unknown. At the same time, never go into a dark night without bringing a light, for you do not want to drown in one extreme, let the pendulum swing…but soften its cadence. And never tread into the light, without recognizing the darkness that waits to help you find your might. On the road to your best self, or whatever that looks like for you, may the darkness of your shadow transform into a golden outline for all the parts that make you uniquely you! Your shadow is not just what needs to be healed or brought to awareness, but where insight to your greatest potential resides.

If you lay in the dark quiet of the night long enough, or sit in meditation, you’ll begin to see in the dark and know there is light there, there is sound, chaos hovers around stillness, the stars shine only because they are given the opportunity by way of the dark.

With the love that lives inside both the light and dark, may you find harmony in the dance and peace in your heart,

~ Angela
The Irrational Sage

I call this video below “Afraid of the Dark” and I recorded it many years ago (not intending to share) during a power outage where I finally began to understand the importance of this work. It’s nothing poignant really, but a moment of “play” as the shadow loomed in the background as if to dare me to let it overtake me, but the thing about the shadow is, it disappears when the lights go out. ;-)

Here are some books I recommend (I have no affiliate links just sharing)
Meeting The Shadow
Romancing the Shadow
Owning Your Shadow
The Golden Shadow Method
Transmuting Triggers
Your Golden Shadow
Psychology of the Unconscious
Dark Feminine Energy
Dance with your darkness
How to get through the dark night
Archetypes and the collective unconscious