Boy, do I get e-mail about being DARK! Dark, dark, dark...why so dark? Webrings that won't allow "dark" sites. "Lighten up!"
Kids...listen...there's so much fluff-bunny paganism on the 'Net, do you really need me chiming in with more?
Now, I'm not a Satanist...not that there's anything wrong...
I'm not going to steal your black cat on Hallowe'en
I even subscribe to the Wiccan rede!
But I think that Paganism is a spiritual path that embraces connection, complementarity, duality, globalism, pantheism, chaos, and all the stuff that Yoda tried to keep Luke from turning to. You know...the Dark Side (cue the scary music).
You'll notice, however, that Yoda (and, boy, can I not believe I'm resorting to a "Star Wars" analogy) doesn't prevent Luke from confronting his shadow-Vader in the Jungian cave. He knows that embracing the light without understanding the existence and the seeming usefulness of anger, lust, aggression, and the rest is meaningless.
We are still, after millions of years of human evolution, blessed and cursed with our dark half. We would fail to explore if we were not impatient and envious. We surely would allow tyranny to flourish if we were not chauvinist and selfish. And our loved ones might perish if we were not driven by the need to defend a home to the cost of our lives if necessary. It is a most perplexing vicious circle...until evil is bred out of the human race, those very qualities which often serve it best may also recognize and confront it earliest. Pagans who have recognized and integrated the "dark side" into a balanced and evolved whole may be, to my way of thinking, a key part of the way forward.
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