The Dark Side

It was a while ago my husband was watching the latest Star Wars movie - I forget which, as I’ve sort of lost interest of late. Anyway, by way of making conversation he asked me, ‘Would you be Jedi or Sith?’ And slightly strangely given that I literally grew up on Star Wars and role playing the old movies in the playground, light sabres and all, I said, ‘Sith, Dark Side’.

And he said ‘Yes, I thought so’.

So at least we’re in agreement about that.

And I didn’t really think much more about it, as it was just a bit of banter. But why did I say ‘Dark Side’, I mean those guys are evil, right?

But it was more one of those off the cuff truths in that, what is even worse than Dark for me, is self righteousness, and people who won’t acknowledge their dark side. If you admit to being in darkness, at least you can be saved. If you are self righteous - urgggh. It’s a hard, cold place to be.

Isn’t this the dialectic of humanity? This is why, until the last few of us transcend our duality, there will also be bad guys, playing the role, to teach us humility. It’s like being kept in detention - the bad guy teacher will keep you back until you learn the lesson. And then you realise that they are just you in another guise. A reflection of your own, repressed bad guy.

So what to do?

First, you need to own it - the darkness. Whatever you see in them, is also in you. This ownership gives you compassion, and through compassion, and forgiveness you dissolve the aspect of yourself you judge in others. This then sets them free to let go of the behaviour you dislike.

You need to acknowledge and air the darkness inside you, and find out how to release and transmute it. Your darkness contains your power, authority and highest potential. It’s doing its best to not let you see it at all. It’s trying to annoy the hell out of other people and push them away so that they don’t see it.

You sort of think you know who you are, but the real you, the divine you, is probably more like the opposite of you, even if you’ve been on the spiritual path for a while. Because being divine is nothing like being ‘spiritual’. Being divine is not being ‘moral’. Being divine is completely mindbending to most people because it’s not of the mind - it’s a paradigm shift in way of being. Being divine is not about getting out of here and going somewhere better. If you are divine, in acceptance, are beyond duality, why would you want to be anywhere else?

There are a lot of good reasons to be here.

Once you have transcended polarity, you can play with polarity and actually begin to enjoy it instead of being threatened. It is more fun to manifest from a state of physicality, because you get to play more with the questions: how is the divine going to get this thing to me?

For eons people have disowned the body as being base, as being something to be overcome, something to ultimately leave behind. This is the karma of the spirit, rebelling against the restrictions of the body, the sense of separation. It is the ego that rejects the body, that is too good to be here, to get its hands dirty. It is THE most destructive belief, because it cuts you off from the big story, your own vehicle for accessing the divine. The body is an illusion, but it’s one that can take you home. The wisdom you need is all there, in your DNA, your molecules, in the spaces in between.

But while you think you are somebody, while you are identified as this or that, you are not in your highest power. While you are identified as ‘this’, by definition you are not ‘that’ and therefore in separation. If you embrace and heal all of yourself, you are much closer to embracing and healing all of that which you see in others.
Your dark side contains the gift. The part of you that is your strongest asset.

What is your greatest weakness, your biggest bugbear, your repetitive Groundhog Day ‘I can’t get past this’ karma?
It could be your greatest strength.
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