Is fear of darkness the opposite of love and light?
You've probably heard many times that fear is the opposite of love, but still, this may not be a concept that makes sense to everyone. I'd like to explore the meaning of this idea so that we can gain some more understanding of its relevance and how we can apply it to our lives. People talk about ''love and light'' as being one side of a polarity, but where does fear fit into this? In the spiritual community, there is contention over whether the focus should be placed on 'love and light' - the beautiful, good and high vibrational aspects of life, and whether it is healthy to deny the darker aspects. The deeper I delve into this idea, the more I am feeling that to deny the darkness is to deny reality, and that to deny reality is to be in fear. So, if fear is the opposite of love, fear of the dark must take us further from the light. It is when we are able to look at the darkness without fear, that we grow closer to a place of love.
Love is also a difficult concept. To my understanding, love is a way of being. Love is being in a state of appreciation and gratitude. Love means taking other people and things as a part of ourselves so that the decisions and actions that we make are for the greatest good of all. If you live in a state of 'being love', you are able to appreciate yourself, your neighbour, your partner, your children, society and nature, and also your lessons, your pain, your setbacks, your disappointments and your obstacles. You learn to embrace the contrast, recognizing the beauty in the way the dark contrasts with the light allowing it to more fully be seen. Love is about a deep compassion for yourself and for everyone and everything in the universe. When we take others as part of ourselves, understanding that we are all from the same source, compassion becomes our natural state.
My understanding is that the role of a lightworker is not to deny the darkness, but to transform it into light. It is to be able to throw light at the darkness, or to wrap a halo of light, like a warm hug, around the darkness to heal it. It is being able to recognize our own dark aspects, because we are human and we have them. If we think that to be spiritual means that we must live only in love and light, we deny our own pain and then we suffer because our need for healing is not being addressed. We need to understand that we are all connected in our ability both to love and to fear. When a space is filled with light, there is no room for darkness, and so darkness is pushed away. So, we must have compassion for those who are experiencing darkness and for the darkness itself, to embrace it without becoming it, and to heal it and transmute it so that it is 'loved away'.
In our society, there are many people who work with the darkness. We might think of mental health workers, trauma therapists, social workers, foster carers, doctors, nurses, police officers and military personnel. There are people in these professions who are willing to work with the dark, to transcend their fear of coming into contact with pain, suffering, distress and even evil, because they have a calling to help others to heal. They know that they are strong enough to use their brightness to light the path for those who have lost their way. I believe that we need to develop this strength too, as we will not be able to feel true, deep levels of joy until we become unafraid of the darkness. Because love and light come from source, which is pure love and light, they are much stronger than darkness. The more connected we are to source consciousness, the stronger we become. How beautiful it is to know that if we choose light, darkness can have no power over us, and that we are strong enough to overcome it and even transform it for ourselves and others.
I'm not suggesting that we should spend our lives looking for darkness. We just need to allow ourselves to be aware of its presence in ourselves and in the world. When we embrace darkness, we embrace truth, and we become open to the truth of others' stories. This enables us to connect with people, society and the earth on deeper levels. We become strong enough to really hear others, and through our capacity to hold their energy, they feel heard. Imagine the close, nurturing, authentic relationships we could have if we were fully able to tell the truth to one another, knowing that we would truly be seen. When there is nothing hidden, light is able to shine through. A society in which we were all vulnerable and truthful and courageous would be flooded with light, and would be able to collectively lift us all. On the waves of this light, it would be easy to fly. We would be free to express ourselves and take creative risks with confidence. Our capabilities would become almost unlimited.
So how can we do this?
To become stronger in our ability to face the darkness without losing ourselves in it, we need to develop habits of thought and feeling that keep our vibrations high. This means that we must practice the art of living in appreciation and gratitude for all of our experiences. Rather than spending too much time in self-pity or negativity, we can take these emotions as information and use the information to determine our next step. We could ask ourselves, ''What action could I take in this moment to help me move through this negativity and have a more positive experience?" By doing this, we build a repertoire of constructive strategies to draw on during these moments. Pretty soon these become habits that barely require deliberate decision. Our default actions and decisions become positive rather than negative, which enables us to feel good more of the time.
Living in appreciation and gratitude helps us to feel good, and feeling good helps us to live in appreciation and gratitude, so once we have set this wheel into motion, being love and light becomes easy. And remember, once we are living in love and light, we can face the darkness without being affected by it. We can then lift others out of darkness with our light. It is incredible how powerful we are if we can only learn to tap into our abilities. When we become love, we have no need to look for it in outside sources, as we are already whole. At the same time, when we are healing others with our light, they will fall in love with us, as they will come to love themselves and their lives and will be emanating love from themselves. So, being able to hold and transmute darkness will mean that we will never feel a lack of love, and rather we will feel appreciated, valued, nurtured, seen and safe.
Let's create a world in which we are not afraid to show up as ourselves, with all our imperfections and vulnerabilities. Let's contribute to a world in which the light is valued, honoured and respected. If we can live and work from a place of positive intentions, making all our actions for the good of humanity, the light will win. A society that encourages action towards personal gain at the expense of others is an inverted society. A world with winners and losers will never be satisfying. Imagine if we could all be winners. People say that when we sit with our pain, we are able to work through it. Similarly, if we sit with the darkness in our society, we will be able to work through it. As a result, if we do this, we will soon be living in a world with much less darkness. This new, brighter age has been predicted and expected, and we are already living in it. It's time to wake up to the incredible opportunities that await and welcome the new world. It's time to be the light!
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