I once dated a guy that told me he was trying to get to the light by crossing the darkness. At that point in time he was sleeping around on me and I thought it was a shitty excuse for his actions. Now, years later, it totally makes sense and I’ve come to realize he was right. It’s impossible to understand who we really are if we don’t face our own darkness and heal it.
Truly coming into the light means making peace with all the darkness that is inside us and letting it go. Is it be possible to do it without going through it? I suppose anything is possible, if you are lucky enough not to have it pull you under. If you are lucky enough to stay above it, removed, detached- but I believe that this way, you may never fully let it go and so you will ultimately always have a shadow that can surface whenever you least expect it.
This year, 2016, we are witnessing a lot of social darkness surface worldwide, but especially in the U.S. and in countries of conflict. It can be quite scary, but I honestly believe it is all coming up for healing. If the broken pieces don’t surface then they can never be fully mended. This is what the Goddess Kali is all about. Kali was born out of anger.
Durga, a motherly diety, became so enraged that the rage burst forth from her head as a another fully-formed diety -Kali- who went wild, eating all the demons she found on her path. So that’s exactly how our own inner darkness can burst forth- from rage. What we do with that rage will either destroy us or destroy our demons, depending on how we channel it. At other times, rage which we suppress or maintain hidden can inadvertently burst forth on us from external forces, who are really just mirroring the rage we have hidden from ourselves.
In Kundalini yoga, there is a kriya that can be practiced to release inner anger. Most people who are alive today are holding on to some deep-seeded anger… why is that, you ask? Well, because most people alive today have lived many lifetimes, and the sorrow, pain, injustice, etc… can still be stuck in there somewhere in our energetic field, waiting to be purged. All those things which go un-dealt with remain in our akashic records and we carry them around for as long as necessary to learn the lessons they each hold.
Another good way to release anger is through forgiveness. There’s also an ancient Hawaiian technique to heal through forgiveness called the Ho’O’pono pono. It requires only that we utter these four simple phrases whenever we come into any sort of conflict with anyone:
“I am sorry.” “Please forgive me.” “Thank You.” “I love you”