Through the Darkness – Into the Light
November 17th, 2009 |
GoodTherapy.org Featured Column written by Judith Barr, MA, LMHC
Click here to contact Judith and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile
We live in a world that is frightened of the darkness. A world that doesn’t understand and therefore is frightened of the darkness. As a consequence of holding the fear at bay, that fear gets distorted into hatred of the darkness, denial of darkness, scapegoating of the darkness. And in scapegoating the darkness, we also scapegoat anything or anyone that triggers in us memory of the darkness – memory of a conscious or unconscious experience of the darkness within us that needs to be explored, healed, and transformed. We live in a time where we are all going through darkness in some way communally and individually. Just like anything else, this passage can be misused and abused, or it can be used well and for magnificent good!*
We live in a culture where darkness is not tolerated. It’s not tolerated physically: there are lights on twenty-four hours a day! It’s not tolerated emotionally: many people will do anything to get away from pain! It’s not tolerated mentally: so many use their minds to manage and control what are too often thought of as dark or negative emotions – the painful emotions people try to get away from and get rid of! And darkness is not tolerated spiritually: too many people use the spiritual – prayer, chanting, meditation, etc. – to get away from and transcend the pain we need to go through rather than escape. Responding in this way to the darkness, we perpetuate a duality that splits us apart, within and without, and keeps us from integrating, from becoming whole. Responding so to the darkness, we deprive ourselves of the riches it has to offer: among them wounds reaching to be healed, strengths calling to be discovered, gifts longing to be developed. Read the rest of this entry








