“…don’t be hard on yourself because there is an ego trip involved or a rush and you’re milking it. Just notice yourself with poignancy. Be compassionate. You’re a poignant human. And you’ve got all your stuff. You’ve got lust, greed, hatred, ill wills, agitation and doubt. That’s what you are doing here. If you didn’t have those, you wouldn’t be here. That’s who we are. That’s this plane of reality. There are other planes, where others don’t have all those things, and you’ll have plenty of chances for that. So don’t worry. Enjoy this one. Be human. Try being human.” ~Ram Dass, The Listening Heart Retreat

'...Just as treating the dark night as a problem to solve is not useful, attempting to give the client a “better perspective” is also detrimental. The pull of the dark night is to go down, down into the darkness and pain that has been ignored and covered over through conditioning and control.

Though common in western culture, going “up” actually violates the client’s inherent body wisdom and further delays the inevitable meeting. Similarly, pointers to the absolute such as “You are awareness” or “You are not the body” are often a spiritual bypass and can actually be used to evade a true meeting of what is rising.

Positive thinking and manifesting are also not useful, as the material that is rising has life energy invested in it, and will not be thrown off by an attitudinal adjustment. What the soul of the client is after is not a temporary influx of light, but a thorough deconstruction of the false that results in the embodiment of a light that shines through the darkness...'
- Jeannie Zandi, "Dark Night: The Breakdown of the Mythology of Me"

A Brocken spectre, also called Brocken bow, mountain spectre or glockenspectre is the apparently enormous and magnified shadow of an observer, cast upon the upper surfaces of clouds opposite the sun. The phenomenon can appear on any misty mountainside or cloud bank, or even from an aeroplane, but the frequent fogs and low-altitude accessibility of the Brocken, a peak in the Harz Mountains in Germany, have created a local legend from which the phenomenon draws its name. The Brocken spectre was observed and described by Johann Silberschlag in 1780, and has since been recorded often in literature about the region. However it can be seen in any mountain region. The "spectre" appears when the sun shines from behind a climber who is looking down from a ridge or peak into mist or fog. The light projects the climber's shadow forward through the mist, often in an odd triangular shape due to perspective. The apparent magnification of size of the shadow is an optical illusion that occurs when the observer judges his shadow on relatively nearby clouds to be at the same distance as faraway land objects seen through gaps in the clouds, or when there are no reference points at all by which to judge its size. The shadow also falls on water droplets of varying distances from the eye, confusing depth perception. The ghost can appear to move (sometimes quite suddenly) because of the movement of the cloud layer and variations in density within the cloud. The head of the figure is often surrounded by the glowing halo-like rings of a glory, rings of coloured light that appear directly opposite the sun when sunlight is reflected by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets. The effect is caused by the diffraction of visible light. Source: Wikipedia

"We are born to liberate an aspect of human suffering carried by our parents. Failing to do so we become them and the battle of distraction rattles on." ~ Ramana Spencer ओम

Shadows, of course, are intangible, and do not occupy any specific volume of 3-dimensional physical space, even though they can be observed as occurring in physical space. Thus we tend to think of them more as illusions, and rainbows do not themselves show that physicalism is false.

Sacred Whore /Sacred Heart

love the quote... have often 'joked' that our ancestors are all praying to pieces that we step up and DEAL with the big black bag they dumped on us so they can finally move on. Alas, most of us internalize the Shadow and end up distracted, believing we are "unworthy".

"Examine your disdain, your jealousy, your lust, your fear,
your disappointment, your greed, your prejudice. Keep in mind: We can impact not only ourselves but also others just as much by our thoughts as with our deeds and words. Examine them all. Become intimate with the practice of mindfulness especially when you're triggered and in pain. This is the only way to prevent and pull back our harmful projections (which can become a form of unconscious sorcery). This is the only way to create a wakeful world of brilliance rather than maintaining a world of SENSELESS suffering."~doña Río de Gracian~

"The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the
projection of our shadow onto others."
- Carl Jung

‎"Shaman" - "A person prepared to confront the greatest fears and shadows of the physical world." And depending on the results: "A healer who has experiences the world of darkness and who has fearlessly confronted his own shadow as much as the diobolic of others, and who can successfully work with the powers of darkness and light." (J. Sams, 1988)

You nights of anguish.  Why didn't I kneel more deeply to accept you,
Inconsolable sisters, and, surrendering, lose myself
In your loosened hair.  How we squnder our hours of pain.
How we gaze beyond them into the bitter duration
To see if they have an end.  Though they are really
Seasons of us, our winter...
-- Rilke

"Pain and conflict are, to a large extent, the result of a discrepancy
between the way we think others should treat us, react to us, and
appreciate us, and the way they actually do. Many of our miseries are
thus rooted in self-pity, the most worthless of all human emotions." 
--Ann Davies, Qabalist teacher

“Come, come, whoever you are. Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times Come, yet again, come, come.” -Mevlana Jalâluddîn Rûmî

"Disappointment is communication from your inner being that that which you are focused upon is not what you are wanting."  (Abraham, disc #2, track 8)

October 4, 2008 newsletter regarding new moon in Scorpio
http://www.astrowisdom.com/thisnewmoon.htm

So, truth-telling will be real, but tempered with compassionate understanding on this New Moon in Scorpio. Hopefully the intensity of ritual work that usually characterizes a New Moon in Scorpio will be accompanied by a feeling of coming home to our essential goodness. These planetary aspects will deepen the intensity of your ritual, as well as all actions taken in support of your intentions during the two week waxing phase of the Moon.

Along with the aforementioned aspects, a practical, healing-centered Saturn in Virgo reminds us that this is a night to commit to truth-telling as a tool for healing. Use a mirror in your ritual. Take a long look at yourself; go all the way inside your skin, inside your mind, inside your heart. Are you doing and saying things that create fear, alienation, dissatisfaction, and despair in others? What thoughts and actions have you put energy into that are now coming back to haunt you? Are you supporting people that create pain and suffering for you and for others? Are you too afraid to deal with them properly or let them go all together?

Look at your fear, where it comes from, what makes it worse and what eases it. This is the optimal night to face your fear head on and make a commitment to letting go of unhealthy and tortuous relationships, jobs, behavior, and habits. A New Moon in Scorpio shows you the truth, shows you your vulnerabilities, and your powerlessness. But it also gives you the strength to let go of destructive behavior patterns, make changes, and learn to be powerful in a positive life-supporting way.

The Shadow Knows, Making Our Peace with the Darkness
http://www.twinmiracle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=303&PN=1
(site found while searching for a Ferrini quote, see below)


As discussed in the previous section, it is often our nature
(especially us 'Lightworkers') to avoid the Shadow and to be afraid of
the Dark. (For a great exploration of this concept, check out Debbie
Ford's "The Dark Side of the Light Chasers," and also the work of
Jelaila Starr). However, to ignore our Shadow, to pretend we don't have
a Dark side (individually and collectively) makes it all that much more
powerful. During the Night periods of the Mayan Calendar, we are to
bring Light INTO the Darkness. We are not to pretend it doesn't exist
or hide from it. This is one of the invitations of the 5th Night - to
make our peace with the darkness. 
 
 
"Suffering requires us to descend into ourselves. As
there is no other way out, we are obliged to call on the power of the
soul and spirit. When we succeed in doing so, instead of groaning and
crying out in rebellion, we exhale a delicate perfume." - Omraam
Mikhael Aivanhov

 
 
"When there is nothing about yourself or anyone else
that you are afraid to look at, the darkness has no more hold over you.
Then you can walk through the darkness and be the light. To pretend to
be the lightbearer before you have faced your own fears is to be a
pretender, an unhealed healer, a sham. All unhealed healers eventually
come off their imaginary pedestals. Where there is only the pretension
to light, the darkness still prevails. To be the light you must embrace
the darkness. Your darkness. Everyone's darkness. You must come to
terms with the ego mind and see its absolute futility. You must learn
to look at fear with love in your heart. Your fears. Your sister's
fears. The rapist and murderer's fears. You must know that all fear is
alike and all fear betrays a lack of love. And you must learn to answer
with love. Love is the answer to your deepest sense of separation. Not
someone else's love. Your love for yourself. That is the light." 
- Paul Ferrini, "The Silence of the Heart"

 
 
"Pay attention to your pain: keep feeling the grief, the
fear, the dread, the loneliness, whatever it is. Stay alert and stay
present with your whole Being, with every cell of your body. As you do
so, you are bringing a light into this darkness. This is the flame of
your consciousness." -Eckhart Tolle 
 
 
Soul evolution occurs when a soul is able to immerse
itself in a dark and difficult situation and in the midst of that
situation, find the way out. Similar to the temples of initiation in
ancient Egypt, the one that comes to mind is the Temple of Kom Ombo.
This temple was known for the initiation in which the initiate had to
dive into a pool swarming with hungry crocodiles and find the hidden
doorway out of the pool before running out of air or being eaten. The
door could not be found by using the external eyes, only by seeing
through the inner eye, the third eye as you call it. Earth offers the
greatest opportunity for soul evolution because it is a free will
planet. This means as creator gods and goddesses you are allowed free
reign to create the greatest and most intense tests of initiation using
the forces of Light and Dark. The greater the challenge, the greater
the growth. - Jelaila  Starr
www.nibiruancouncil.com/html/2004_perspective.html#_e dn3

 
 
 
"I often dream about falling. Such dreams are
commonplace to the ambitious or those who climb mountains. Lately, I
dreamed I was clutching at the face of a rock, but it would not hold.
Gravel gave way, I grasped for a shrub, but it pulled loose and in cold
terror I fell into the abyss. Suddenly I realised that my fall was
relative; that there was no bottom and no end. A feeling of pleasure
overcame me. I realised that what I embody, the principle of life,
cannot be destroyed. It is written into the cosmic code, the order of
the universe. As I continued to fall in the dark void, embraced by the
vault of the heavens, I sang to the beauty of the stars and made my
peace with the darkness." - Heinz Pagels, physicist and mountain
climber

 
 
Prayer and Love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart is turned to stone. - Thomas Merton 

 
 
"One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night." - Kahil Gibran





We are the night ocean filled with glints of light. - Rumi









SHADOW SCHOOL

You're a gorgeous mystery with a wild heart and a
 lofty purpose. But like 
all of us, your psyche also harbors a portion of
 the world's sickness: a 
mess of repressed longings, enervating wounds,
 ignorant delusions, and 
unripe powers. It has been known by many names,
 including demon and 
devil. Psychologist Carl Jung called it the
 shadow. He believed it was the 
lead that the authentic alchemists of the Middle
 Ages sought to 
transmute into gold.

*

"I am superior to you only in one point,"
 Narcissus tells Goldmund in 
Hermann Hesse's novel Narcissus and Goldmund.
 "I'm awake, whereas you 
are only half awake, or completely asleep
 sometimes. I call a man awake 
who knows in his conscious reason his innermost
 unreasonable force, 
drives, and weaknesses, and knows how to deal
 with them."

*

Astrologer Steven Forrest has a different name
 for the shadow: stuff. 
"Work on your stuff," he says, "or your stuff
 will work on you." He means 
that it will sabotage you if you're not
 aggressive about identifying, 
negotiating with, and transforming it.

*

"You have to recognize the demons or else they'll
 annoy you like 
mosquitoes. But if you acknowledge their
 existence, if you say, 'All right, 
here's a cookie, go sit in the corner,' then you
 can go about your work 
and you don't have to go into depression because
 of it." --James 
Broughton, as told to interviewer Jack Foley in
 The Alsop Review, "Big 
Joy: Octogenarian--An Interview with James
 Broughton," 
http://tinyurl.com/k4ech

*

"The unconscious sends all sorts of vapors, odd
 beings, terrors, and 
deluding images up into the mind; for the human
 kingdom, beneath the 
floor of the comparatively neat little dwelling
 that we call our 
consciousness, goes down into unsuspected Aladdin
 caves. There not 
only jewels but also dangerous jinn abide: the
 inconvenient or resisted 
psychological powers that we have not thought or
 dared to integrate into 
our lives." --Joseph Campbell, *The Hero With a
 Thousand Faces*

*

The shadow is not inherently evil. If it is
 ignored or denied, it may become 
monstrous to compensate. Only then is it likely
 to "demonically possess" 
its owner, leading to compulsive, exaggerated,
 "evil" behavior.

*

"Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in
 the world as an event," 
said Jung. If you disown a part of your
 personality, it'll materialize as an 
unexpected detour.

Everyone who believes in the devil is the devil.

*

"Nothing determines who we will become so much as
 those things we 
choose to ignore." --Sandor McNab

*

"There is no generally effective technique for
 assimilating the shadow. It 
is more like diplomacy and is always an
 individual matter. First one has to 
accept and take seriously the existence of the
 shadow. Second, one has 
to become aware of its qualities and intentions.
 This happens through 
conscientious attention to moods, fantasies, and
 impulses. Third, a long 
process of negotiation is unavoidable." --Daryl
 Sharp, Jung Lexicon: A 
Primer of Terms and Concepts; also available at
 http://tinyurl.com/znxn3

*

"The shadow is not only the dark underside of the
 personality. While much 
of it consists of inferior, primitive, unadapted,
 and awkward qualities, it 
also contains vitalizing instincts, sleeping
 abilities, and positive moral 
qualities that have long been buried or never
 been conscious. These 
unacknowledged personal characteristics are often
 seen or hallucinated in 
others through the mechanism of projection."
 --Daryl Sharp, Jung Lexicon: 
A Primer of Terms and Concepts; also available at
 
http://tinyurl.com/znxn3

*

"The best political, social, and spiritual work
 we can do is to withdraw the 
projection of our shadow onto others." --Carl
 Jung

*

"Suffering can't be avoided," James Broughton
 told Jack Foley. "The way 
to happiness is to go into the darkness of
 yourself. That's the place the 
seed is nourished, takes its roots and grows up,
 and becomes ultimately 
the plant and the flower. You can only go upward
 by first going 
downward." --James Broughton, as told to
 interviewer Jack Foley in The 
Alsop Review, "Big Joy: Octogenarian--An
 Interview with James 
Broughton," http://tinyurl.com/k4ech

*

The alchemists said the magic formula for
 enlightenment was Visita 
Inferiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum
 Lapidem, or "Seek out the 
lower reaches of the earth, perfect them, and you
 will find the hidden 
stone" (the treasured Philosopher's Stone).
 Jungian psychologists might 
describe the process this way: Find the ignorant,
 wounded parts of your 
psyche, perfect them, and you will awaken your
 hidden divinity.

*

"The great epochs in our lives are at the points
 when we gain the courage 
to rebaptize our badness as the best in us."
 --Friedrich Nietzsche

*

In the best-known version of the Greek myth,
 Persephone is dragged 
down into the underworld by Hades, whose title is
 "Pluto." But in earlier, 
pre-patriarchal tales, she descends there under
 her own power, actively 
seeking to graduate from her virginal naiveté by
 exploring the intriguing 
land of shadows.

"Pluto" is derived from the Greek word plutus,
 meaning "wealth." 
Psychologist James Hillman says this refers to
 the psyche-building riches 
available in Pluto's domain. Hades, he says, is
 "the giver of nourishment to 
the soul."

*

The goddess Hecate also lives in the underworld.
 According to poet 
Robert Graves, she is the mistress of sorcery,
 "the goddess of ghosts and 
night-terrors, of phantoms and fearful monsters."
 On the other hand, he 
notes, Hecate "presides at seed time and
 childbirth; she grants 
prosperity, victory, plentiful harvests to the
 farmer and rich catches to 
the fisherman." 

How can a single deity embody such seemingly
 contradictory archetypes? 
Graves: She symbolizes "the unconscious in which
 beasts and monsters 
swarm. This is not the living hell of the
 psychotic, but a reservoir of 
energy to be brought under control, just as Chaos
 was brought to cosmic 
order under the influence of the spirit."

* 

In the New World, it won't be your material
 wealth that will win you the 
most bragging points. Nor will it be the
 important people you know or the 
deals you've swung or the knowledge you've
 amassed or your mate's 
attractiveness. What will bring you most prestige
 and praise in the 
civilization to come will be your success in
 transmuting lead into gold--
how thoroughly you have integrated your shadow
 and tapped into its 
resources.

*

Here's a corollary to Jesus's injunction to love
 thy neighbor as thyself: "I 
will love the dark, difficult side of my
 neighbor--not just the attractive, 
friendly side--and I will encourage it to express
 itself in constructive 
ways."

*

"If only it were all so simple! If only there
 were evil people somewhere 
insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were
 necessary only to separate 
them from the rest of us and destroy them. But
 the line dividing good and 
evil cuts through the heart of every human being.
 And who is willing to 
destroy a piece of his own heart?" 
--Alexander Solzhenitsyn, *The Gulag Archipelago*

*

Ancient legend says that a giant cobra--normally
 a fearsome predator--
shielded Buddha with its expansive hood as he
 meditated in the wilderness 
during a terrible week-long storm. 

~~~~~~~~~~

That is why the word "dui" is so important. It reminds us that
opposites are not mutually exclusive but are actually pairs. If we have
sadness, then happiness will come too. If we have love, we will also
have to deal with conflict. For all our learning, we will have days
where our philosophical outlook will be tried to its breaking point.
For all the peace of meditation, we will still have to face work,
illness, and stress. There is no path in life that only stands on one
side of a pair and never ventures into the other. ---Deng Ming-Dao  (from Jonathan Zap)
(contemporary Taoist)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape from those who dream only by night" -Edgar Allen Poe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you’re really listening, if you’re awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly.
- Andrew Harvey

You think your pains and heartbreaks are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who have ever been alive.
- James Baldwin

BECOMING A SPIRITUAL REVOLUTIONARY
by Andrew Harvey
http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/interviews/int_20021219.shtml

The entire
 world is now going through a massive crucifixion on all levels. 
It's
 going through an environmental crucifixion. Hundreds of species are 
vanishing
 every month. It's going through a personal crucifixion. There are 
two
 billion people living on less than a dollar a day. It's going through a
 
crucifixion of all the patriarchal systems. 

Look at Enron 
and what it has shown us about Corporate America. Look 
at the 
Catholic Church's scandals of pedophilia and what it shows us 
about 
authority. Look at the growing disillusionment with politicians of all 
kinds.
 All of the systems are being exposed as illusory and fantasy-ridden, 
as
 deeply corrupt and exploitative. 

There's another kind of 
crucifixion going on: crucifixion of purpose and 
hope. Everybody is 
totally bewildered. They know that the world is 
potentially on the 
brink of total apocalypse. There's a tremendous danger 
that as 
people wake up to the horror of what is going on, they will run 
into
 political extremism or into fundamentalism of one kind or another. 

So
 it's extremely important that the wisdom of the 'dark night of the 
soul'
 gets across, because if people understand the necessity for this 
crucifixion,
 and understand that it's preparing a resurrection and 
empowerment, 
then they will be prepared to go through it without too 
much fear, 
trusting in the logic of the divine transformation.

The 
Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths shared with me his experience of the 
dark
 night of the soul. He said he was sitting outside his hut one day 
when
 he felt as if a hand hit him on the right side of his being. He had 
suffered
 a massive heart attack that destroyed what he described as his 
patriarchal
 mind and gave him access to a much deeper elaboration of 
Oneness 
with all things. 

He said, "It's a very strange thing, but when I
 thought of surrendering to 
the Mother I of course thought of Mary 
-- I often say the 'Hail Mary' -- but 
it was Mary as the Black 
Madonna that came into my mind. She is the 
mother of the earth as 
well as heaven, of the body as well as the soul, the 
mother of the 
subconscious, the hidden, of all those powers that the 
'masculine' 
mind represses; the Mother of the sacred darkness. In Her the 
Western
 Christian vision of the Divine Mother and the Eastern one merge 
and
 meet; you can think of her as both Mary and Kali, both preserver and 
destroyer.
 From that time on, I have turned to Her again and again. 
Invoking 
Her strength and grace, I find, makes the 'birth' go so much 
faster 
and more cleanly."

The power that is doing this to us is coming 
towards us simultaneously 
with terrifying destruction and extreme 
grace and prosperity. The 
destruction is, in fact, a form of that 
extreme grace. It's quite clear that 
humanity is now terminally ill,
 and can only be transfigured by a totally 
shocking revelation of 
its shadow side. And this is what we're living 
through, these shadow
 sides exploding in every direction because we have 
done nothing but
 betray the sacred in us.

We have lacerated the sacred in others.
 We have betrayed the sacred in 
an orgy of fundamentalism. We have 
brutalized the sacred in nature. We 
are now terminally destructive.

So
 only an almost terminal destruction that reveals to us the full extent 
of
 our responsibility in this destruction can wake us up. And that is what
 
is happening, and it will get worse. It's bound to get worse. But 
it is only 
being done to us for our own redemption.

Those who
 turn to the Mother in total faith, those who turn to the Black 
Madonna
 in total admiration, those who realize the mercy behind the 
violence
 will be given extraordinary protection, strength, and revelation. 
They
 will be empowered in the core of themselves to become what 
everybody
 who has a heart and a mind must now become--a spiritual 
revolutionary
 devoting their entire life and all their resources to the 
preservation
 of the planet. 

Finding the Black Madonna, in whatever form you 
want to find her, 
realizing the massive task that she's doing and 
turning to her for 
protection is now crucial to the preservation of 
the planet. It's extremely 
important that people really come to 
understand the feminine and turn 
towards it, because it's our 
betrayal of the feminine in ourselves and in 
the divine that has led
 to this crisis.

- Andrew Harvey, in an interview with Colleen 
O'Connor on the Grace 
Cathedral website at http://tinyurl.com/3avtf6
Copyright
 Andrew Harvey -- All Rights Reserved