Embracing the Dark in a Lightworker World

Let us start with a story…

The great Sufi master Nasruddin was on his hands and knees searching for something under a streetlamp. A man saw him and asked, “What are you looking for?”

“My house key,” Nasruddin replied. “I lost it.”

The man joined him in looking for the key, and after a period of fruitless searching, the man asked, “Are you sure you lost it around here?”

Nasruddin replied, “Oh, I didn’t lose it around here. I lost it over there, by my house.”

“Then why,” the man asked, “are you looking for it over here?”

“Because,” Nasruddin said, “The light is so much better over here.”

— — — — — — —

Spiritual Awakening.

More individuals are feeling a shift into greater consciousness — emergence from a deep slumbering of their soul. This new state of “awake” is met with greater curiosity.

More folks are choosing to turn towards the lessons of the Light.

They shy away from the Dark because it brings back memories of the Dark Night of the Soul — an event that brought many of us to our awakening.

So they abandon the Dark. They believe their work is finished in that realm.

In Jungian psychology, the Dark is known as our Shadow Self — it includes everything outside the light of consciousness, positive or negative.

That’s right, not everything in the Dark is bad. It just gets a bad rap.

There is actually significant wisdom that people are leaving behind in the Dark.

In a person’s quest for Light-filled promises, they miss important lessons and answers that can bring even greater awareness and awakening.

All because they fear the Dark.

You see…the Light is comfortable.

It doesn’t ask us to take a hard look at the parts of ourselves that we don’t like (others don’t like). It doesn’t ask us to examine how our beliefs and behaviors may be causing harm to ourselves and others.

So people continue to spend their energy and resources to force the answers to emerge from a place of Light.

And then they wonder why they still haven’t found “the key” to what they seek.

There is a universal limitation to the promises of manifesting unicorns and rainbows by leaders, mentors, and coaches of a light-filled movement.

To reach wholeheartedness, it is essential that we ALSO examine and integrate (or release) even the most undesirable parts of ourselves — because that is where some of the greatest lessons exist.

We need the Light and the Shadow.

Deep down, we know we need dedication to the Shadow realm to find answers to what we seek.

But there’s that Fear again.

Fear of this “bad” and “scary” place. A knowing that we will likely feel discomfort — that in this place we will have to face the unknown parts of ourselves and are uncertain in what we may find.

And that scares so many of us.

What people forget is that we need both, one cannot exist without the other.

Dark is the absence of Light.

Light is the absence of Dark.

Both represent our being — the conscious and the unconscious — and our connection to forces greater than ourselves.

Both are our teachers. By doing only Lightwork — we remain incomplete — only partially awakened.

The gifts of the unconscious are innumerable. The hope is to shifts these gifts into a state of consciousness, so we may reap them and spread them beyond ourselves.

To nourish your potential and complete the circle of your wholeness, embrace the Dark with the Light.

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