While its function is vastly misunderstood, Negative Energies have their place in spirituality. It has long been theorized and taught that those who reach only for those things that are referred to as pure, good and full of divine light are worth seeking out or having divine understanding. There is an unfortunate flaw in this thinking. This world is based upon balance. Yin/yang, male/female, light/dark, good/evil, etc. These things are acknowledged by every faith and religion, but not every spiritual path promotes an acceptance of the negative side to these things. Too many times the sole purpose of a path is to seek out and destroy that which is judged as negative.
Without Men, women wouldn’t know the joys of motherhood. They are a must but they are also our opposites. Without Darkness, we could never attempt to understand the light. Without Evil, good would just be another banal state of being which occurs day after day. Without these contrasts, there is no reason or room for spiritual growth.
Take my husband, for example. Sometimes, I wanna be on him like a sugar-crazed ferret on a yo-yo. Other times, I want to sit in my own space, lick my own fur, and contemplate the meaning of a dust mote caught in the sunlight. If he were to feel dejected, or rejected over my withdrawl - my need for personal downtime - I would also react negatively for having my personal time begrudged me and the whole atmosphere would take on a negative tone. Thankfully, with My geryn, things like this do not happen.
Too many times I have seen people take things people say and deem them as negative when in reality, they were trying to "help" by being "honest." The bombing of the Twin Towers was negative. The Civil war was negative. Telling people that they are going to go to hell if they don't “get right with God” is negative. Some might even say that expressing yourself in such a way to release the tension of having to deal with an unpleasant situation is being negative. The question then becomes to what did these things lead.
The bombing of the twin towers led to a more united nation here in the US. I can honestly say it was only the second time in my years, that I couldn’t go into town without seeing a flag hanging from a rearview mirror, antenna or stuck to the back window in sticker form. It matured us, from a nation of hedonistic, self-centered, money-grubbing, over-xtianized bigots. While those depictions still fit us as a nation, we are no longer naive about it.
The south forgot that New York was full of Yankees and sent as much aid and assistance as they could in the attempt to help save Americans. For once in our long history since the Civil War, we were not worried about the color of the skin of the person working beside us. We didn’t care what the parental lineage was of the person who was just found alive and we didn’t care if they were Christian, Jew, or even Pagan. What was important was that another soul survived.
The civil war was a horrible event which brought freedom to a group of people who had long been oppressed because of the color of their skin. It brought new opportunities to people who had never before had any chance for advancement. But, it also destroyed as many lives as it saved.
Telling people they are going to hell opens up doors of discussion that can help to bring enlightenment if the person who said it doesn’t have a closed mind to other possible beliefs and are willing to listen. The same can, of course, be said of the person who was just told they are going to hell; although, in My opinion, the one who is told this is the victim in that scenario.
Lastly, there is negativity in speech. We all have our own perceptions of everything around us. We all come from different places and different views. Yet, often times we cannot get past the way things are worded in order to see the truth of their words.
If we open up our hearts and our minds and focus on one simple idea: Yes, this person had a bad experience and because of it, they do seem negative to me. This negative feeling comes because I feel as though I belong to a general expanded part of that group. What does that tell me about this person? What does my reaction to what they said say about me?
Tolerance of others means that we have to tolerate the intolerant as well. We don’t have to accept name-calling or physical attack because of it. But, we do have to accept that from where they sit at the moment they have yet to let go of whatever pain, fear or anger on to which they might be hanging still.
There is a theory that people only affect you if there is a lesson to learn. If what they say or do is above you or below you, it will not have any effect on you at all. It is only when there is something inside us we need to learn that others actions actually get a reaction out of us. "Call me something I'm not, if you want to get my attention." Based upon this idea, in order to have true spiritual growth we must be able to stop and think ok what is this trying to teach me instead of just labeling whatever was said or done as being negative and ignoring it.
That label of negativity helps in ritual work when you need to have yourself focused on the work at hand and not the failure of the work at hand. But, it has no place in describing people. It works well in describing electricity and magnates but it has no place in our views of events. Truth be told we can never truly say we are tolerant until we can learn to let go of the labels that make us intolerant. Labeling some actions and statements as positive and others as negative or as good or bad is what still separates us into groups instead of allowing us all to simply be people.
As humans, we must always strive to rid ourselves of the labels that limit our spiritual growth. I believe I have shown here how allowing ourselves to succumb to the label of negativity we are limiting our own growth. We have been taught to stay away from things that seem dark or negative. In truth, those things have a place in our world. Dark Paganism, as it is sometimes called, has a place in restoring balance and order when that balance has gone so far into the light that you find yourself blinded. Life must have some negativity in order to achieve balance. It is time we stop looking at it as a bad thing and start seeing it for the positive aspects it offers us. From the darkness came the light, from chaos came order, and from negativity came spiritual growth that lead to positive energy.
May the Goddess darken your path just enough to allow you to known when you've seen the light.
CONTINUE.
