The Dark Side of Love and Light

turtlesvoice.blogspot.com...

Years ago I began signing Love and Light with my signature, it wasn’t something I had read or had been exposed to previously, it just came to me. Later, I discovered that groups of self-professed spiritually enlightened folks were also sharing the words Love and Light and I began using it less and less. One reason for that reaction is I get a little nervous if I find I am following great hoards of people, because I do believe the path is very narrow. Secondly, I began noticing that the idea of Love and Light was being used as a weapon of sorts, a measure of superiority – a way to imply that the Love and Lighters were elevated above those around them.

The evolution into the odd time we are living has been subtle and pervasive and occasionally I am able to step back a bit and see the continuous thread of changes - from the free love and drugs of the sixties, the sexual revolution and drugs of the seventies, the self adsorption and drugs of the eighties, the self-help invasion and pharmaceuticals of the nineties into the chaos of the new century. We have lost our base, our footing, we are standing on crumbling ground and yet many of us are no longer aware it is dissolving under our feet.

It seems we believe we are evolving into this kinder, gentler Golden Era of time, yet we spew our Love and Light in a patronizing way, secure that those we are speaking to are less evolved than us. We have closed our minds and much worse, our hearts to hearing with compassion the experience of those we profess to love. We imply if they have suffered ill intent in their lives it must surely be their own fault – they called it into their life by their inability to control their own thoughts or by deeds done in a past existence. We read the self and spiritual improvement books pushed at us, never questioning the agendas behind the success of said books and then we simply take the whole book as fact. Our love has turned shallow, our good deeds simply a check mark on a list of goals and our light is being extinguished by hate and cliquishness called evolution and enlightenment.

Our personal boundaries are being pushed aside by this new political correctness and we have learned that there is no wrong or right, there is simply perception and karma. And this really works well for those longing to keep us in our place, if we can’t look outside and see bad or ill-will, then of course we have to accept that we are responsible for all traumas we endure, thereby freeing those seeking control from any responsibly in our demise. If a vaccine causes us harm, it’s not the fault of the vaccine or the maker of the vaccine or the agenda that makes us take the vaccine, it was something we brought on ourselves. If hundreds of thousands of people are homeless, it’s not the fault of devious mortgage practices, the greed of those making decisions with our money; it was the struggling homeowner who brought the loss onto himself. If a protester is beaten and maced at a peaceful protest, it’s not the government’s use of law that is suspect, it’s the person who is not happy with the way of the world that is guilty.

We are out of balance with the duality in ourselves and in the world. We can’t be all love and light all the time, it is a wasting and exhausting attempt to try and it comes out to others as both patronizing and passive-aggressive. We are dual; we were given emotion, a range of feelings to express our individuality. To suppress so many sides of our being in favor of preaching only one is like getting a box of 64 crayons and using only one color. We are meant to blend our special variety of feelings and emotions into a calming wave at times and at others, a formidable force - we are not meant to lap lightly at the shore - change, in this world, does not come from a gentle, tentative touch.

What we don’t see is that we are imprisoning ourselves, those seeking to manipulate us no longer have to prod us along the path, we are doing it in the name of self improvement, self enlightenment and the so called “approved” mental health and we believe it was our own choice. We hear wake up being touted by all who have an opinion and waking up is a good idea, but the message of what we are waking to is different with each voice that speaks it. We are told to wake to the delusions and lies, but who decides which are truths and which are lies? We are told to wake up to our spirit and our power, but how can we know our power if we can’t untie our own delusion and lies? What we must wake to is our darkness, as well as our light, our good deeds, as well as our bad, our arrogance, as well as our compassion and our intentions, both positive and negative. We must make the journey within and see all the colors inside of us before we can begin to discern the events outside of us.

We must ignore this wave of political correctness and ask the hard questions, express our opinions and understand we don’t just have to accept things because the world says we do – there is no power in idle acceptance. We must consider the objectives, with blinders removed, of those whose actions affect us. We must stop seeking gurus and become our own leader, take charge of our lives and our destiny and not just follow the one that speaks the loudest or claims to have figured it all out. None of us down here have figured it out; if we had it all figured out, we wouldn’t be here. Very few reach true enlightenment, but many of us are graced with it, briefly and tantalizingly, for a few glorious moments and then, as it was meant, the search begins anew. And the more we profess to possess this elusive truth, the further it recedes from our grasp.

There are a lot of vampires collected in the spiritual and truth worlds, ready to steal our energy and deflect our progression and we can know them by the way we feel after being exposed to them. We can recognize the hope and energy thief by the hardness, fear and lack of empathy that begins growing inside of us, hidden under pretty words of love, light, tolerance and acceptance. We can identify this draining force by the way our options appear to grow less numerous and our energy explodes and then is extinguished, leaving us fatigued. The light inside of us is full of depths, it is multi-colored and can flame up and burn like any fire, but we must free ourselves from believing the pre-packed and profitable ideas, laced with hidden agendas and handed to us as truth.

When we decide that bad things happen to another simply because in their weakness they called it upon themselves and the reality of that pain can have no outside motivations or no underlying thread of intent, we are punishing the victim and rewarding the power of victimizer. When we overlook the pain another is suffering and believe that as long as we stay focused on the positive and keep our own thoughts in order we can escape the trials of dismay, we are falling into the realms of selfishness and callousness. And when we see another in agony and conclude that it is their past existence coming to even the score, we are closing the door on compassion and freedom.

We cannot grow if we hide our eyes from the painful truths, we cannot blossom if we feel all bad things brought to the masses or the individual are deserved. How can we see the positive when we are covering our eyes in an attempt to avoid the negative? The positive simply can not exist without the negative and to be a whole, spiritual being we must taste both and not call it anything other than what it is.

That was truly inspiring. Thank you for sharing

[edit on 21-10-2008 by destiny-fate]

I don't often get to hear my own opinion expressed on the web, even in the alt press, but u nailed it here. I find the L'n'L 'movement' far too complacent, self-serving, and in denial of the shadow. Their are lots of exceptions of course. Star & Flag.

Thanks guys! Awful nice to know that I am not alone in the thinking. Peace.

Nicely said, im sure there are many who agree.

I feel the problems many people in the 'spiritual' movement are facing these days is that they remain judgemental and ego-dominated despite their intentions to be otherwise.

If someone is serious about ceasing judgement of others they will realise how hard it is and how much we all judge.

I personally approach the manner by reasoning that people who are committing evil acts and the like are simply making poor choices. I also believe that past (parallel) lives impact the current existance but there is no need to ram this down someone's throat as the OP described.

I also see the 'spiritual elitism' growing as more and more people get involved through entry points such as The Secret and the like. The newcomers may find it easy to get caught up in the 'love and light' while not really taking the time to fully understand what that means.

Modern society encourgaes judgement. It also encourages the ego to take centre stage.

i would say i am in stage one of beating both the ego's dominance in my life and my tendency to judge others - it is hard going, but it seems to be the path that works for me.

Without death there cannot be life.
With dark there cannot life.

I embrace this universal truth and am trying more and more to live that truth - once again, i feel letting go of judgement and the ego are major steps to living this truth.

And finally, truth - to me - is known when i not only hear it but FEEL it throughout my being. Our souls know truth, we do not. Hence, as the OP said, we must first go within to truely comprehend the world around us.

[edit on 21-10-2008 by srsen]

Excellent post with a lot of truth to it.

I find myself recently obsessed with another dualism that I think we get in trouble with, especially those of us who tend to think a lot. Mind vs. body.

And I think the imbalances in the two dualisms: light vs. dark and mind vs. body, are related.

Not in the pseudo-Catholic, crypto-Gnostic sense that mind=light=good and body=dark=bad. I think it's more complex and subtle than that. And it's on my mind a lot recently so I wanted to throw it out there.

Thanks for the post

Great post, OP! I've been so fed up with this "love and light" delusion of New Agers that I was actually going to write a book about it.

From '99 to 2001, I lived in Sedona, AZ, the mecca of New Age flakes... and I was one of them. At first, I felt extremely attracted by the seemingly non-judgmental and loving attitude of those "highly spiritual" people. They felt almost Jesus-like to me... until I realized that they were just as egocentric and uncaring as the next guy but covered it up with their "love and light" bullsh*t.

They were the greatest friends to have, as long as you were always positive, completely undemanding, and never had any problems. But woe unto you if you went back into "normal person" mode... they just couldn't handle it.

For example...

... you voice your disappointment that they didn't show up when you invited them for dinner: "You know, I'm living in the moment and I can't make any plans. I never know what Spirit has in store for me. Let go of your expectations, sister, and live in the Here and Now. If you learn to truly love yourself, you won't need those expectations anymore."

... you have a problem and want to talk about it: "Sister, God is love, the Universe is infinite love. That's all that matters. Everything else is just an illusion."

I also realized that very few of the New Agers I knew actually walked their talk. The bard who sang about romantic love was a womanizer; the "preacher" who thought himself equivalent to the Hopis' White Brother neglected his little daughter and exploited women to support him; the psychics who professed to have direct connections to highly advanced beings were, under their thin veneer of spirituality, mean-spirited, nasty narcissists.

I still believe in many of the basic New Age principles, i.e., how the world works. But I think it is necessary to approach this stuff in a down-to-earth way, not floating five feet above the ground at all times. I also think for many, pure "New Ageism" is nothing but an escape route from their own, "inconvenient truths."

Most New Agers, I noticed, are scared to death of the dark side of all things and try to avoid it at all costs. Most of all, they're scared of the Shadow (as C.G. Jung called it), the dark side within themselves. The healthy thing to do would be to look their own Shadow straight in the eye, accepting what they see and dealing with it, so that they can integrate/shrink it gradually. Instead, they act like little kids that are afraid of monsters under their bed: they pull the covers over their head and hope the monsters will go away. On top of that, they also pretend monsters don't exist.

Many New Agers, if you ask them about it, will tell you that "ultimately, there is only the light. Light is our ultimate truth. The Creator is pure light..." etc. etc. This, IMO, is downright dangerous. I have personally had experiences with what I call the "Dark Side" (the external shadow as opposed to the internal one) and it does exist, I assure you. I'm talking about the "agents of darkness" here, as in demons, evil spirits, etc. They can also possess or influence people. I've been there, seen it, not nice.

My theory is that New Agers -- many of which do spiritual practices designed to make them more intuitive/psychic, "connect with other dimensions," or "raise their vibration/consciousness/awareness" -- involuntarily turn themselves into virtual beacons in a world of gray shades (from the viewpoint of the Dark Side).

Many great spiritual role models (Jesus, various saints, Buddha?) had to battle with evil spirits trying to "turn" them. I believe you need to be forearmed and protected if you want to be victorious in such a battle. If you practice those "sensitizing" spiritual exercises without knowing how to defend yourself, you make yourself vulnerable to attacks/attachments from the Dark Side. And for some reason, souls on the path to spiritual evolution seem to be irresistible to them... like some kind of trophy, compared to the souls of "unrefined brickheads."

I've seen sooooo many New Agers (especially gifted, naturally psychic ones) under the influence of something very, very dark. I've seen someone's face literally shift and being replaced with another, darker one. I've seen a small demonic-looking entity cling to someone's neck. I've had experiences with the human minions of the Dark Side and barely got away with my life.

I believe the Dark Side cannot just possess or attach itself to anyone -- they have to trick us into it somehow. To that end, they have three tools:

1) Temptation
2) Fear
3) Denial

Temptation aims at the fulfillment of your greatest desire. That's how they got to me at least twice. Sometimes the approach is even more direct: I heard directly from the "face-shifter" I just mentioned that "If you only make a small commitment, you can have anything you want..."

If they can't get you that way, they try scaring the living crap out of you... which, if they're successful, can make a hole in your aura through which they can gain access.

Denying that the Dark Side even exists is another of their favorites. It means you're letting down your guard and opening yourself wide to all kinds of negative influences. People who don't believe in the objective existence of the Dark Side don't shield themselves (from what?) and, being completely unarmed, become easy prey for those entities.

All of this might sound way out there, but it comes from decades of personal experience, not some BS I've read in some book. So, believe me or don't, but this is what I've learned the hard way.

[edit on 23-10-2008 by sylvie]

[edit on 23-10-2008 by sylvie]