Brilliant Darkness: Embracing the Shadow

Celebrating the beauty and lessons of the Winter Solstice

We all avoid the darkness.  We fear it.  It’s been hard-wired into us since the dawn of our species.  Predators and terrible things come out of the darkness.  Darkness and shadows are more than a metaphor, hiding every type of evil.  We’re clear—the only thing that’s kept us alive is the glow of the fire … the light.  

But has our obsession with the light kept us from seeing the gifts of the darkness?

The Winter Solstice, the Longest Night, is a time of darkness, yet the focus of the winter season always seems to fall on the light.  What would it be like to honor the brilliant darkness without hiding from it? 

What are the gifts and lessons of the blessed dark?

Darkness is the great equalizer. 

The differences that seem so glaring in the light of day fade away when the darkness embraces us.    The “shadow side” of ourselves is the term often used to describe the uncomfortable places in our own psyche, the hidden pieces we hide from the world (and even ourselves).  Yet if we allow ourselves to slip fully into the space of beautiful dark, there is no contrasting light to judge us.  In the brilliant darkness, we can love those quiet not-good-enoughs, the secret-shames, the un-caring un-forgiveness.  In the vast expanse of loving dark, we can revel in the “everything-I’m-not” and the “never-will-bes” of life, dancing with our secret self.

It is easy to think that because the darkness provides the opportunity to experience the evils of the world that darkness itself is evil.  Yet anyone who has taken a stroll through the woods deep in the night, knows how wrong this thinking can be.  Our pulse might gallop at the rustling of leaves, our teeth might chatter at the howling wind, but deep inside we feel the rightness of the forest all around us.  This darkness is not the presence of evil, but the space between all things, the deep breath, the much-needed rest so often missing in our lives today.

The brilliant darkness is not only the absence of light—it is the great expanse which holds every point of light in existence.  Without it, each individual luminescence blends into a great oneness.  While some might idealize this oblivion, the darkness gives us the separateness that allows for identity.  This duality allows us the opportunity to test ourselves against “the other”, providing an incredible range of possibilities—the experience of being alive.  

As we dance with the shadow side, we become truly ourselves.  As we dig up and un-bury the brilliant darkness in ourselves, our Light shines ever brighter.  The brilliant darkness is not the place of festering evil, but a glorious expanse, teeming with life and Love.  It is the great tabula rasa, the blank slate, from which unnamable beauties create themselves in every moment.  

Only when we embrace the darkness—the true darkness, shimmering with possibility—can we become whole.

Wishing you all the beauty of the brilliant dark this season.  May the Winter Solstice bless you.