Our Shadow

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 11 Jun 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Musicman	11 Jun 2002
Hi, The following comment is not aimed at anybody in particular, it's just a general statement I am making. I am sick and tired of so called 'people who live in the light' in the sense that they don't balance their lightness with their inherent darkness. if anybody here on the forum knows, the famous Swiss physcologist Carl Jung emphasised the importance of 'owning our shadows' the dark side to our selves, which is the inherent forces of life itself. You can't have one without the other. What annoys me with these people are the ones who only seem to want to only face love, see a utopia ideal of the world without any suffering, evil or whatever. Life is made up of everything. If they don't want to experience that sort of stuff, then they would be dead! Life has ceased for dead people. Who can honestly say here that they don't ever suffer from 'dark thoughts or evil thoughts' feel anger enough to hurt someone, have sinned in a moralist sense etc. We are all humans and the more me strive to be perfect the more the dark side of ourselves will overpowers us. If we want to live as decent and true human beings then we need to acdept first and foremost this side to ourselves and by doing this then we will be on the road to 'transcending' ourselves. A little like the 'middle road' of Buddhism. We have to stay on the path between both extemes but by living from our centres then evil will have no power. haven't you noticed how the more 'religiously upright and moralistic' a person is, the more they seem to be caught, found out etc, of doing the most 'immoral, inhuman and terrible things' to fellow human beings. So I wish all these people that live in a fantasy world of 'living only in the light' will come to their sense and see the beauty and understanding of the two sides of life itself. Blessed Be

aeonx	11 Jun 2002
Musicman: I find your statement quite unfair. I agree to your opinions that one must not forget our dark side(s), but one doesn't have to express it to others. I have, of course, my dark sides, but I don't run around announcing it. The label you put on people wanting to see only love in the world, is unfair. I think that these people, like me, are aware of their dark sides, but, again like me, won't proclaim it to the whole world. We don't need to lay our darker and deeper burdens on others to feel complete or to 'feel' our dark side. Besides, there are not only 'love, peace & happiness' in Aeclectic. Many share their problems, especially spiritual and mental problems. Those 'people who live in the light' may need to take this approach, in order to work through their darker personality. One doesn't have to concentrate on that 'one is evil' to connect with one's shadow. Just my thoughts anyway. ~aeonx~

Diana	11 Jun 2002
aeonx: Musicman said in his first sentence "The following comment is not aimed at anybody in particular, it's just a general statement I am making." So I really believe he is talking about a certain tendency in the world, and was not talking about Aeclectic people. Musicman: I agree that nothing exists that doesn't have it's opposite. Light and darkness, joy and sorrow, love and hate, peace and fear. I think it wise to harness all these energies and understand them and use them wisely. Those people you talk about, the "religiously upright and moralistic people", they are so busy trying to shut out the "dark" side that it forces itself on them. Shouting "here I am! you can't get rid of me!" Only they don't see it as the dark side, because they refuse to see any darkness. Then as they don't recognise it for what it is, they do evil when they would do good. Oh dear.....

zorya	11 Jun 2002
"only when one is ready to peer into the darkness will they be given the gift of the light" - unknown

raeanne	11 Jun 2002
Hi all, There was a episode of the original Star Trek TV series where Captain Kirk was split into two individuals, the light side and the dark side. The so-called “good Kirk” was so kind, sweet and pleasant to everyone. The “bad Kirk” just wanted to please himself by getting drunk and trying to rape one of the female crew members. The interesting thing about this show was that the good Kirk lost his ability to command. The strength to make life and death decisions doesn’t come from the good side. How could an all good person send someone else on a mission that might get them killed? A lot of our strength, backbone, and ability to stand up for ourselves comes from the selfish dark side. Anyway, the show finally had the good Kirk embracing the bad Kirk and they were rejoined in the transporter. It was an interesting show.

Umbrae	11 Jun 2002
Reanne: Good call.

Houklani	11 Jun 2002
I have to honestly say that I disagree with you, Musicman. Please don't take my comments as an attack, because they certainly aren't meant to be. But since you put up this subject for disscussion, I feel inclined to share my own views. Of course every person has a dark side, but that does not mean we have to compromise with it. I believe that the goal of humankind is to reach perfection, a very Christian-like view, no? :D But I think it makes sense all the same. However, I believe that the closer a person gets to spiritual perfection, the more he/she will be attacked by evil spirits. An evil spirit has only one goal: to make others just like itself. Why should it bother with people who walk the middle road, when there are others that might slip out of reach if it waits too long? Instead an evil spirit would try its hardest to bring down the ones who are higher, and because they have risen so high, their fall is much greater. So the middle road is somewhat safer for the time being, but in the end it leads to nothing but disappointment and unsatisfaction. Smiles, Houklani

Sam	11 Jun 2002
I totally agree! If, life was just all fun and games, I would be soooooooooo bored!

catlin	12 Jun 2002
Life is not "all roses" good/bad, light/dark, in short all these dichtonomies are just 2 different sides of the same medal. You would not recognize the pleasant things without the unpleasant ones. When I visited other boards, I realized there seems to be a strong tendency whether to "be fluffy or not to be" at the moment.

Musicman	12 Jun 2002
catlin, I just looked at your number of posts and for this one it says 666! What a coincidence is that! Topic titled Dark Thoughts receiving a reply from post number 666... Blessed be

catlin	12 Jun 2002
Hi musicman, Yep, I just discoverd it myself and I felt inspired to post in the spirituality section about it.

The Our Shadow thread was originally posted on 11 Jun 2002 in the Spirituality board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Spirituality, or read more archived threads.