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Healing Qualities of Darkness

What is your light quotient?

Light is luscious, feels wonderful and energises us with power to accomplish tremendous things for humanity. Even so, too much light burns us out. Too little leaves us feeling oppressed, uninspired and depressed. The right amount of light is not a fixed degree but rather an expression of what we are capable of handling at certain phases of our soul journey.  I absolutely love the light, but I recognise the need to practice wisdom in our quest for spiritual radiance. 

It might sound bizarre to say, but if you have been exposed to a lot of grief, anger, shame or guilt early on in life, you may need to learn how to tolerate happiness as you heal into a new way of light-heartedness. That tolerance may eventually transform initial awkwardness and unfamiliarity into comfort and celebration! 

If you are learning to work with higher spiritual energies, you’ll absolutely be familiar with the adjustment process. Increasing the light quotient in our being basically means that we are bringing the matter of our body (physical and subtle or energy body) to consciousness. We become aware of instinctual drives and find ways to refine and direct them in constructive ways. We allow our issues to rise up and we work through them rather than run away from them. We outgrow the past. We purify ourselves spiritually through that process – less holding on within and more spaciousness opens up. Then more spiritual light can enter.

As our light quotient increases, the amount of spiritual energy purely circulating through our body changes. Where there was once a block, there is now flow. Often there will be more movement, sensation and dreams may reveal the energies that were once trapped in that part of the body. Further release then occurs, as though a precious vase was being washed with a powerful flow of pure water, overflowing, and cleaning it from within. Layer after layer of grit or grime is purged up and out, until the inner space is completely clear and unobstructed. Then the vase is ready to receive. Pure water that enters can remain unsullied.  The vase is like our soul and the pure water the blessings of spirit.

Flying High and Diving Deep

During such a process, we may vacillate between feeling high and free, and then plummeting down to depths of anger or frustration again as the purge takes place. This is the natural weaving of the soul, through light and dark in our own being. It is how we heal and grow. Nature shows us this – winter is essential to life, just as the summer is too. 

As we evolve spiritually, we don’t just move in circles, repeating the same patterns. We may revisit old material many times before we are ready to let it go, but when we are healing with the soul, we are actually viewing and experiencing that material from a simultaneously higher and deeper turn of the spiral. We will know when this happens because we see things differently, can respond differently, feel more inner balance and steadiness, and are moved more by compassion than by fear.

The light in balance helps us see what we need to see, have the energy to work through it, and provided that we take time in healing darkness, we will become ready for even more light – and the process continues.

White Feathers and Soul Voices

Inspirational and uplifting, white feathers are a symbol of angelic protection and spiritual presence, and the white-feathered goose or swan is the sacred vehicle of the goddess Saraswati. She is the manifesting power of voice, of intentions translating into form, overcoming all odds or obstacles. 

Her preferred methods to promote enlightenment include music, dance, singing, prayer and chanting, reading and writing. Saraswati is the gift of creativity, expression and spiritual learning, the ultimate outcome of which is evolution into complete spiritual freedom. We embrace Saraswati when we write, speak, journal, play and pray, dance and sing, and learn spiritual teachings – all with an intention to connect to the sacred. 

With this highly creative energy of the Divine Mother we can embrace the light and bring it into the body. When we are ready to journey into the dark depths of our inner world for healing, we can also utilise these practices to feel connected to that which is supportive, nourishing and peaceful, a welcome respite when we are dealing with deep wounds or facing traumatic events in our lives or in the world around us. We can experience darkness as a transitional space through which soul healing can occur, guiding by an inner spiritual light that reassures us even when we don’t know what is going on, or how things are going to work out, it is safe to continue our journey. 

Healing Darkness

Darkness is sometimes used as a synonym for negativity however these do not have the mean the same thing. In the same way that the positivity of the light can flip into a problem if it is out of balance, so too can we suffer from absence of sufficient darkness in our lives. But we need the right kind of darkness, the healing darkness.

Healing darkness is spaciousness, it is the presence of the devouring divine mother that consumes decay and outmoded thinking and pushes us into spiritual winter, so that we can dissemble and eventually re-emerge in a new way at the soul’s spring time. 

In healing darkness, we confront the painful patterns of our suffering and work towards the release, the endings, the letting go. It is the absence of light but not the absence of love, wisdom and healing potential. The body sleeps best in darkness. It holds a potentially restorative quality. This applies to the mind that can find rest in emptiness and the soul that can be nourished when we embrace an inner healing journey with some degree of privacy, away from enquiring minds and distracting influences.  We go within to discover what we do not yet consciously understand but need to bring to awareness in order to heal. 

Healing darkness is representative of the essential transitional phases that we go through when growing spiritually and expressing ourselves creatively. The very definition of creativity is to bring forth something from nothing, something hitherto unknown, unmanifest. That requires darkness – the symbol of not being able to see, of not knowing and a willingness to endure that not knowing for however long is necessary. The seed that incubates in the darkness of the womb is a testament to how necessary and valuable the darkness can be.

The forms of the Divine Mother that have the blackest skin – such as Kali Ma in India, Black Tara in Tibet and the Black Madonna shrines throughout the world, are considered sacred refuges for protection against the most extreme negativities. 

Think about the absorbency potential of a black hole. I imagine that as Kali’s mouth open wide and ready to devour. When there is a spiritual facet to that destruction, it becomes the destruction of obstacles, the destruction of ignorance, the potential for complete release and spiritual rebirth. One name for this process when it is a precursor to truly transcendent divine union is the Dark Night of the Soul. Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane wrestling with his desire to avoid his destiny and his eventual surrender into it is a rich example of the darkness as a pathway towards greater capacity for light. 

Wild and Misunderstood Lilith

Another face of the potentially healing power of darkness is Lilith.  She is often feared and reviled and misunderstood, but she is actually a symbol of fierce embodied truth that we need to become spiritually free. 

Lilith represents the journey into the pain in order to break free from the structures in our lives, in our own minds and belief systems, that enslave us. When we dare to walk the symbolic Lilith path of authenticity and truth, we can accomplish closure of karmic cycles, and experience the themes of completion, evolution and transcendence.

Lilith dismantles societal conditioning that begins for most humans during early childhood and initial schooling, revealing where trauma may have lodged itself in our nervous systems, mental patterning and communications. Her way of truth encourages us to become present – to breathe, to drop into the body, and be with our feelings so we can deal with what needs to be faced, rather than be distracted by whatever new thing is on the horizon, for there will always be new things to play with or pursue, and eventually unchecked distraction will escalate suffering, not alleviate it. 

Distraction is when Lilith tends to make her presence felt as a crisis of consciousness. She will only tolerate so much before she issues her cosmic call out and demands acknowledgement of deeper painful truth so that appropriate responsive activity will begin to reroute dysfunctional activity.

Much courage will be needed, but with that courage, and wisdom, the healing darkness can be a valuable part of our soul journey. We often learn things through suffering that could not otherwise be known. When it is time to leave the suffering behind, we can carry that wisdom with us. 

Negative Mother and Dark Mother

We can mother children, we can mother ourselves and each other, we can mother our world, and our dreams and business, projects and paths. Mothering is the quality of providing nurturance and authentic attunement, guidance and protection. 

The negative mother can show up in human form as the devouring mother who doesn’t respect the boundaries of her children, using them rather than loving them. That pattern can become a source of enormous pain but in the healing process can transform from a negative experience into a dark initiation into profound soulfulness. 

An adult who has worked through the disturbing terrain of childhood or other abuse can become an incredibly compassionate, creative and encouraging presence in the world. These souls are the spiritual offspring of the Black Madonna. They seek truth and depth and because they have already traversed inner terrain that required enormous course, they can become fearless and empowered. They often have enormous strength and courage within, and a heightened capacity to adapt no matter what obstacles arise. The vast spaciousness in the soul that was carved out by the abuse, is transformed through healing work into a powerful container to receive spiritual inspiration and unusual creative ability can be one of the many spiritual gifts that these souls develop as they heal. 

The dark mothers such as Lilith and Mother Mary as the Black Madonna guide us deep into reflection on mother love, on finding truth with compassion about our mothers and our own capacity and desire for mothering, and the simultaneously confounding and confronting truth of patriarchal disregard for the role of mothering in the development of secure, mature individuals with resilience, and healthy, supportive social culture. 

The capacity we have for mothering evolves through a soul healing journey. It is not an automatic biological inevitability. Where our mothers were wounded and that wounding was not resolved, their ability to mother will have been impaired, and the child’s nervous system then carries forth the effect of that wounding, which in turn becomes part of social culture. This is why as we heal individually, we also contribute healing energy for our culture. Healing is personal, deep and private and simultaneously transpersonal, societal and far-reaching.

Healing Ancestral Lineages

Matrilineal epigenetics has demonstrated that the stage is set for altered gene expression in a child when that child’s mother is still in the grandmother’s womb. Consider that for a moment! This is the power of grandmother’s legacy.

Various religious and spiritual teachings from the Judeo-Christian traditions to Indigenous American spiritual traditions speak of the spiritual significance of 7 generations. Eventually, scientific discoveries seem to back what mystics have been yabbering on about for thousands of years, for now, science at least graces us with acknowledgment of the interrelationship of 3 generations. Many of you who have been doing deep work on ancestral healing won’t need scientific proof of what you already have experienced yourself. The maternal or other ancestral wounding patterns tend to arise in dreams, in body work, in our own ways of being.

Many brave and compassionate souls have incarnated to help heal traumatised ancestral lineages through their personal soul journey in order to create healthier legacies and a healed culture for the greater good. When we are one of those souls, we just know we are in a soul relay race of sorts, carrying the baton of consciousness forwards for ourselves, for our mothers and grandmothers, and the future generations, as we tend to our healing. We know that the energy generated through our work fuels the spiritual rebirth required for humanity to thrive.

Wounds of the Feminine

We need Lilith at this time to acknowledge and regenerate from personal and collective trauma. Lilith is depth and embodiment. She heightens sensorial intelligence and bodily intuition. 

With so much double speak and conflicting information, we need Lilith’s encouragement to be embodied so we can tune into our own inner knowing and energetic sense of what is happening at a deeper level and respond without fear, trusting our inner intuitive compass to guide us. 

Without that embodiment we end up with paranoid theories and fearful suspicion at every turn. Whilst it is wise not to trust in untrustworthy systems, instincts that do not have a safe home within the body to find peace and stability will perceive threat in almost everything, causing unnecessary distress. 

Lilith can help us recognise and express the truths that become evident through presence. What we cannot process can show up in somatic symptoms, especially in children. Lilith is the patron of honouring of the wounds of the feminine, of the children who have not been protected, and the need to heal and evolve beyond the consciousness that creates such devastating betrayal, abandonment and abuse in our human family.

Getting into the healing darkness

One way to get into the healing darkness is to seek spiritual sanctuary for renewal and the strength for rebirth in the sacred birthing space of the cosmic void. The cosmic void is akin to the Divine Mother’s spiritual womb. It is a place of gestation, which is essential for any kind of birth, and spiritual rebirth is no different. Time, space and holding, in intentionally declared sacred space for the purpose of healing, allow us to align with Lilith’s wisdom and find our authentic voice, and empowerment. Set aside the time for reflection and the work of prayer, creativity and journaling. Even fifteen minutes can be enriching and the return on your sacred investment can be considerable. 

When we get into the Lilith truth of the body, we will rebel against collective patterns and traditions that do not honour authenticity and freedom. There may be stirrings and discomfort within us and most likely in the world around us, yet we can honour these as part of the soul awakening process. With compassion we can continue to evolve spiritually, growing in consciousness and in our capacity to care for ourselves and each other. 

Lilith will demand that you are true to yourself, but although that can cause some growing pains, in the long term you will thank her for it. 

We celebrate the wisdom of Kali and Mother Mary in the Kuan Yin Transmission and these wild divine beings also find their way into our Saraswati Healing program and the Rosa Mystica course. These courses are just some of the offerings in our Community of the Sacred, where you will find a warm, wise and welcoming group of humans who honour individuality and connection, and are working together to bring spiritual benefit to our planet.

 

Gratitude for Image by Melanie Delon featured in Alana’s Divine Circus Oracle

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