the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” (Carl Jung) 

I am hearing more chatter 

and more importantly, more folks are actually coming to me, lately, 

to purposely, overtly deal with their dark-side...

shadow, 

despair, 

deep fear/pain/shame, 

addictions, life out-of-control...

Instead of:

- I want to be fixed, well, happy, successful, abundant...

- Well, what I really want is a silver bullet to make things like they used to be, or better, or great...

Folks these days are more likely to say: 

let's deal with my dark side.

Um GREAT, and Hallelujah.

I see this as a very good sign for them, for me,

and a useful turn going on in our culture.

“The shadow goes by many familiar names: the disowned self, the lower self, the dark twin or brother in bible and myth, the double, repressed self, alter ego, id. When we come face-to-face with our darker side, we use metaphors to describe these shadow encounters: meeting our demons, wrestling with the devil, descent to the underworld, dark night of the soul, midlife crisis.” (Meeting the Shadow)

If we want to be Light.

If we want to shine Light in this world.

If we want to expereince who we really are: Whole and Complete in God.

If we want to really do, what we are here to do - what no one else can do...

Then we must say: hello darkness, my old friend.

Turn and face the dragon(s) that have been chasing us.

Make friends with our shadow.

In our Soul Evolution on this planet - individually and corporately - After living to the ultimate end of our Logical Consciousness and delving our Soul (Psychic) Consciousness;
On our way to Christ Consciousness and the beauty of Consciously living as One in the Reign (Kingdom) of God;Lies the Dark Night of the Soul - where our darkness is deeply realized and integrated. (my very poor paraphrase of Putting on the Mind of Christ: The Inner Work of Christian Spirituality)

In everyday terms, 

We must Learn from our despair, resistance, hate, hopelessness, doubt, anti-God... 

before we Heal and Grow through it, into Glory.

“The shadow, when it is realized, is the source of renewal; the new and productive impulse cannot come from established values of the ego. When there is an impasse, and sterile time in our lives—despite an adequate ego development—we must look to the dark, hitherto unacceptable side which has been at our conscious disposal….This brings us to the fundamental fact that the shadow is the door to our individuality. In so far as the shadow renders us our first view of the unconscious part of our personality, it represents the first stage toward meeting the Self. There is, in fact, no access to the unconscious and to our own reality but through the shadow. Only when we realize that part of ourselves which we have not hitherto seen or preferred not to see can we proceed to question and find the sources from which it feeds and the basis on which it rests. Hence no progress or growth is possible until the shadow is adequately confronted and confronting means more than merely knowing about it. It is not until we have truly been shocked into seeing ourselves as we really are, instead of as we wish or hopefully assume we are, that we can take the first step toward individual reality.” (Meeting the Shadow)

Where we trip, really is our treasure.

Let's Dig.

When we do, we are blessed.

And our world is also blessed by the fruit of our deep work.

“The shadow, when it is realized, is the source of renewal; the new and productive impulse cannot come from established values of the ego. When there is an impasse, and sterile time in our lives—despite an adequate ego development—we must look to the dark, hitherto unacceptable side which has been at our conscious disposal….This brings us to the fundamental fact that the shadow is the door to our individuality. In so far as the shadow renders us our first view of the unconscious part of our personality, it represents the first stage toward meeting the Self. There is, in fact, no access to the unconscious and to our own reality but through the shadow. Only when we realize that part of ourselves which we have not hitherto seen or preferred not to see can we proceed to question and find the sources from which it feeds and the basis on which it rests. Hence no progress or growth is possible until the shadow is adequately confronted and confronting means more than merely knowing about it. It is not until we have truly been shocked into seeing ourselves as we really are, instead of as we wish or hopefully assume we are, that we can take the first step toward individual reality.” (Meeting the Shadow)

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