When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves. ~Viktor Frankle

Last week the world witnessed the tragic events in Newtown, CT. To lose so many young souls at once is difficult for us at any time of year, but set against the back drop of holiday festivities, creates an especially tender and tense time.

So many people have written about Connecticut or shared their two cents on social media, I didn’t feel there was more for me to add. But what I keep finding myself sharing in private conversations is my sense of the importance of simply feeling what you are feeling.

So I wanted to write about that. That and the transcendence of opposites.

The combining of opposites into something brand new and whole.

Living in a Paradoxical World: Is This a Place to Celebrate or Does It Need Purification?

Source: Chakra Center

The greater the tension, the greater is the potential. Great energy springs from a correspondingly great tension of opposites. ~Carl Gustav Jung

The events in Newtown represent extreme and opposing forces. On the one hand we have:

• Innocence and youth
• School children
• Educators
• Noble deeds
• Brave heroes

On the other hand we have:

• Guns and violence
• Mental Illness
• Death and endings
• Tragedy
• Loss

How do we deal with these extremes? It is so tempting to reduce our complex world into a lowly place of choosing sides, making black and white conclusions and searching for blame. It’s as if we live in a world with two opposing paths — a path of light and a path or darkness — and the need to choose one or the other. You may spend most of your life on one of these paths (ignoring, condeming or avoiding the other), or you may find yourself switching between them at different times.

The following is my description of these two paths, which is oversimplified, but will illustrate the point for you. (A thank you to Joanna Powell Colbert for her Gaian Tarot images.)

The Path of Light and Joy

 

When you walk the path of light and joy you focus on the positive. You see the world bathed in a heavenly glow. You nurture gratitude in your heart. You are a happy for no reason force of nature. You believe that everything happens for a reason, and that reason is a good one. The world is full of glorious creations, rainbows and sunshine.

This is where you will find:

• Light Workers
• Gratitude journals
• Law of Attraction

The Path of Darkness and Pain

 

When you walk the path of darkness and pain, you see the world as a suffering place. You are full of negative thoughts about yourself and others. Guilt and shame are central to the human condition. Disease and poverty are reflections of our inherently flawed nature. While on this path, you need to resist temptation, confess your sins and rely on discernment.

This is where you will find:

• Dark Arts
• Guilt and atonement
• Punishment for sins

Walking a Middle Path

 

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

~Carols, Hymns and Song in 1863. John Henry Hopkins, Jr.

What if, instead of choosing one of these two paths, you hold the polarity of opposing forces, without resisting or falling into a knee jerk reaction? With patience, you allow the yin and the yang to act on you, knowing that you will be gifted with a new awareness that inspires growth, wisdom and a deeper truth. Let’s call this walking a middle path.

The middle path is where you accept what is happening while letting go of the need to judge it, label it and make conclusions. This path is about feeling what you are feeling. You welcome life mysteries that lie beyond your limited awareness. Here you find poets and starlight navigators. You are willing to walk with a vulnerable heart and be cracked open and transformed by events beyond your control. You cry healing tears, feel moved by humanity and humbled by grace.

This is where you will find:

• Truth
• Wisdom
• Blessings

As we heal from last weeks events, I invite you to walk a middle path. Digest as much or little of the news as is right for you, feel your feelings, cry and cry again, light a candle, and listen to music.

If the tension between the opposites can be held long enough without succumbing to the urge to identify with one side or the other, the third, completely unexpected image, one that unites the two in a creative new way, comes into view. (Source: psychandnature.com)

 

Tagged as: Carl Jung, Gaian Tarot, healng, holiday spirit, light and dark, middle path, Newtown CT, Star of wonder, yin and yang