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The Dark Side
GeorgeLucas is an amazing story teller. His series of "Star wars" movies has not only entertained us, but made generations stop and think about the deeper issues of mankind's humanity. Episodes I-III tell the tale of how a young boy, Annakin Skywalker, grows to be a promising Jedi warrior only to turn to the dark side of the "force" (for us that is the Universal Life Energy) as a young man becoming Darth Vader. In episodes IV-VI, it is the story of Annikan's children, mostly his son Luke, who must face his father in a death match to save the universe from the darkness it has survived in for 20 years.
Annakin Skywalker was "the chosen one", the one prophesied to bring balance to the force and restore well being to the universe. There was a fatal flaw in his training, however. The Jedi who taught him told him to let his emotions go unnoticed, disregard them, they can only serve the dark side. The dark side fed on emotions, grew stronger with rage, greed, and power. By suppressing the energy that these sinister emotions provoked a Jedi would be stronger than the dark side by living in a higher moral energy.
Trust your feelings, bring forth your senses- but don't allow the emotions. Hmmm, that sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
Annakin grieved his mother, he felt tremendous guilt over her death, the hole was never healed where she lived within him. He feared for his newly pregnant wife, PadmeAmadala, for he had foreseen her death. The dark side, it was promised, would give him the knowledge that would help him prevent her death. The very thing he felt guilty that he could not do for his mother. The scars that he carried were being cut open to reveal the unhealed issues that created havoc within him. He attracted what was most vocal in his being-ness.
In the end, the tragedy was that the very thing that he felt would have saved his beloved wife was the thing that killed her. Annakin turned to the dark side for love and Amadala died of a broken heart for losing her beloved husband to the dark side.
Luke Skywalker's training was far superior, as I'm sure his Jedi masters Obi-wan Kenobi and Yoda had plenty of time to think about what went wrong with the father. Luke was forced to see his dark side in a cave, an etheric Darth Vader challenged him, evoking his deepest fear during a training session. Decapitating the invader, Luke discovers that he is the one inside the armor, not Vader, that all of his fears are manifest by him, through him, because of him. He faced his dark side, the hidden emotions, the trapped energy that can kill.
Vader and Luke meet in a show down of epic proportions, magnified by our own attachment to the hero. Luke, knowing that Vader is his father, cannot kill him. Without fear he sees him as Annakin, his heart is revealed. Vader, being seen for who he truly is, and being loved enough not to be destroyed, refuses to kill Luke. Love restores him to even a fragment of his former self. Instead, he eradicates his jailer, the one who has had control by illusion for decades. In the end, Annakin removes the mask that has been shielding him from truth for so long, seeing with his own physical eyes the beloved child of his true love. Healing occurs, and Vader is taken to be with his former masters on the other side of the veil. Luke has restored balance to the universe once again.
Our lesson from this brilliant story is one of integration. The dark side and light side are equal in value. Imbalance occurs when one dominates, and the universe eternally seeks homeostasis. Fear left in the energetic field creates chaos, fear embraced and healed creates love.
"The reverse side also has a reverse side" Japanese Proverb
Everyone has a shadow self buried deep within our subconscious. It is the dark side, the supposed ugliness that shows itself during our unguarded moments. Societal unacceptance of natural feelings act to bury our negative emotions. We attract unhealthy experiences by suppression of the shadow self, by the power that we give it when we pretend it does not exist. Our subconscious thoughts are our base line motivations, left unintegrated with our public selves and our spirit selves, it will manifest in a variety of ways. We blame others for the reoccurrence of our dark side, as our ego blinds us to the actual cause. It is by balancing of our light and dark sides that we become whole.
It is the shadow that defines the light. It is the yang to the yin of our souls. In order for us to heal our emotion/mental levels, it is imperative that we not only acknowledge our dark side, but with loving compassion, integrate it into our known personality. Now is the time to develop this real relationship between your two sides. Once the negative personality traits are given access to light of day, and not hidden by the cover of night, they will decrease in intensity and power. If not brought out into the light to be known, they will continue to harass us like spoiled little brats who want a cookie!
By consciously acknowledging our shadow side- the mean polar bear death machine- we render it powerless by revealing its true nature- the loveable koala. Face your unknown truths for they are as much a part of you as your nose. Take back your power from all that would steal it from you.The amount of energy needed to hide our shadow is depleting. The "energy vampire's" can no longer suck the life's blood out of you if you do not allow it to happen.
The yin /yang is a symbol of the Universe in balance.
Yin is the empty space in which yang is drawn into. Yin is empty, yang is full. The yin or lighter side is feminine, the moist void where spirit dwells to birth creation. The yang or darker side is the masculine, the arid earthbound energy seeking to impregnate to seed of creation. It is Om/ yang in Korean, heaven and earth, black and white, good and evil, male and female. All things have a yin piece and a yang element, as well as being one or the other in relationship to something else. The sky is yang (up) in relation to earth but yin (down) from the stars.Yin means "cloudy" where yang means "sunny".
Yin and yang are in constant dance mode as they maneuver through all things. Homeostasis, or balance, is kept by the dynamic interplay between the opposites. As my martial arts instructors have repeatedly said, "Balance in all things is essential for success". We, as multidimensional humans being, are constantly shifting and shaking towards a new level of consciousness. We are always seeking to be filled when we feel empty, only to empty ourselves to be filled again.
By facing our shadow side without fear we lovingly embrace it by accepting it as part of ourselves. By going into the void during meditation, we bring the spiritual aspect into us. Thus we heal our entire structure: emotionally, physically, spiritually, and mentally. Nothing exists without coexisting with the exact opposite. How can you know light if darkness was not present, how could you know what love is if you could not compare it too hate? The yin/yang has a dot of the other side in it, as nothing is completely absolute, we are all one. Be aware of both sides of your spirit nature, as an imbalanced inner self leads to an imbalanced person.
Meditation to meet and integrate your dark side:
Sit comfortably, and begin to breathe into a meditative state. When you are prepared for this adventure, begin by seeing a door with your minds eye. This door is embossed with your name. It looks to be made out of heavy dark wood, with a rusted handle for a doorknob. Grasping the handle causes the door to open away from you. It creaks with its own weight as it is pulled open from behind.
There stands your dark self, the shadow side of the soul that you have hidden behind a lock door. The anger is evident in the soul's eyes. It has been secreted away when all it has ever wanted to do was to help you evolve. Its size is directly proportional to the time it has been ignored.
Apologize to this aspect of yourself, asking its help and promising not to disregard the huge amount of wisdom it possesses. Ask if there is anything it wishes you to know now, and in love accept its lesson.
When you are ready to emerge from the meditation, return slowly and fully ground. Work with your shadow self often, it will appear in your ordinary reality as well to assist in your ascension.
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