Knowing The Darkside
Published by Mistic under New Age, Personal, Psychic, Spirituality, Stregheria, Wicca on January 21, 2008
Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions. — Dr. Carl G. Jung
Jung had a brilliant way with words. I do not. I choose to be blunt about the dark side.
You have a monster inside you. It is mean, vengeful, spiteful, angry, greedy, ugly, blunt, manipulative, rude, crude, impatient, negative, and just plain nasty. You have a dark side. I have one too. Everyone does.
Our dark side is primarily in our subconscious. If you don’t believe you have a dark side, it’s because you learned how to suppress it well to obtain acceptance. If you don’t think you have a dark side then you are not taking responsibility for who you really are.
The dark side can grow, it can get bigger and bigger as we have a daily dose of denial. It is so deeply buried within us….. and the more we deny it, the more it actually comes out in some way. Thinking happy thoughts doesn’t change anything about the dark side. It still remains and it eats your “happiness” for breakfast. The more you protest against the dark side, the stronger it becomes.
How can I explain it more directly? Here is an example…. You can tell yourself to believe “Today will be a positive and good day where I am comfortable and things go my way”. But the minute you have a fight with a neighbor, your friend, your spouse, your partner, your child, etc…. you have turned to the dark side. Changing your thinking will not change your life completely, that is only a band aid. It’s just too easy of a solution, because the dark side can steal our thoughts at any moment…. subconsciously. You’ll never see it coming. It is far stronger then you think it is. Stop fighting it. Fear is not the answer, the inner child is not the excuse, and parental influence is not the problem. It goes even deeper then what pop psychology wants you to believe. Give the monster a hug.
Repressing the dark side of ourselves is likely to take us into situations where it will overwhelm us. When you avoid conflict, when you run from a confrontation, when you hide your true selfish desires… you are repressing it. When you tell yourself that money isn’t important, that you love everyone, that you didn’t do anything wrong…. You are repressing the beast. And the beast KNOWS it.
The dark side does have positive aspects within it, but you will not find that if you cower from it or repress it. The dark side can be discovered, accepted, understood, researched into, and expressed at the right places and times. The beast must get some sun, it must be expressed, because it will not sleep forever. Ultimately, our dark sides can help us to grow spiritually, and it can allow us to change the behaviors instead of just the thoughts. The beast has a purpose that you will never discover if you hide from it.
A witch knows all of this, at least hopefully they do. A witch works to balance the core of their own personality and is never afraid of the shadows. We feel at home in darkness, we work to control our inner monsters. We can’t deny their existence, we know the forces and the energy they possess. We embrace our dark sides; we go deep into our own underworlds to figure out what created our personal monster. Only then will our magic be powerful, only then will our thoughts not betray us. Separating the light from the darkness is just…… another separation in our lives. A witch must never allow their being to be separated.
