Human nature is called dark and evil just because we are vengeful but we are also the only being on the planet to take care of other animals. My view is true happyiness comes from perfect balance between our darker more sinister selves and our lighter more caring selves.
I believe in the Ying and Yang, Light and Dark. I belive that everything needs to be balanced. Light and Dark in both our lives and our Craft.
Blessed Be!
Personally I believe light being electromagnetic energy, and dark being lack thereof.
To get into my philosophical beliefs as a graeco-roman pagan the use of light and dark expresses the difference in character. Many things in the religion are expressed through personification and turned into stories or myths.
So light often describes what's obvious or what is openly there or sometimes even boastful.
Dark often refers to what may be hidden, unexpected, misunderstood, or quiet.
Light describes extroverted character, and dark describes introverted character.
An example may be the light and dark aspects of our gods. For instance Hera, a light aspect of her is motherhood and a dark aspect of her is jealousy or pride. Don't take dark and light as the difference between good and bad because you also have examples between different gods. For instance Hera is often depicted with light but actually has a worse reputation than Nyx who is often depicted in darkness as being the goddess of night.
Sorry for the double post but I sort of believe in the Yin Yang philosophy as well, however I tend to call it inevitable opposites.
Where there is one, there is the other. Where one doesn't exist, nor does the other.
Therefore for light to be perceived darkness must also, for darkness to be perceived light must also.
Same goes for order and chaos, you can't have order without chaos and so on.
Re: Dark and Light, Thoughts By: WhiteRav3n / Knowledgeable
Post # 10 Jun 17, 2012
Except for wizhard's random trolling, this has been a great topic! I think we are all pretty much in agreement. And Dem, I just finished telling my daughter the Alegory of the Cave by Plato (my own retelling for a six year old's understanding). I didn't think of explaining the metaphorical meanings behind dark and light. Nice addition.
I'm very much a night person, I love the dark. Psychologically speaking, I believe it really does compare to what Dem is speaking about. To me the dark is quiet, hidden, and, containing a lack of perfect sight, forces us to utilize our other more subtle senses, allowing for creativity, intuition, and critical thinking to take over. But the dark isn't for those who have many fears or much guilt, because when you are alone with nothing more than your thoughts, they can become your worst enemy. Nothing is there to distract you or shield you from your shadow Self. Only those who have accepted their shadow Self and try to retain balance with it, can step into the dark and feel at home.
Not sure if my post made it obvious or not but I love darkness for those very reasons, WhiteRav3n.
And it was a pleasure, Goken...especially to see no one getting riled up or offensive.
Re: Dark and Light, Thoughts By: Artindark Moderator / Adept
Post # 14 Jun 18, 2012
I agree complitely with what Whiterav3n said .To me good and evil lies in the eye of the beholder and the way he understands what is good and what is evil .To me my shadow self was the ultimate evil send to me to plague me day and night i just was not mature enough or wise enough to see anything else behind it .No i feel lucky that i was aware of it and it made me grow and develop faster just because there was no escape for me .Darkness forces us to deal with things that are not too pleasent for us but non the least we need to deal with them .To have a true understanding you should have gone through complite cycle of life and darkness ,because those compliment eachother and they have different lessons to teach you .Knowing only good will make you unbalanced and too soft and gentle ,knowing only bad will make you aggressive and without compassion and peace .We need balance and the balance is required through going through cycles and coming out of them more wise and strong it is not about being stuck forever in one point (either good or bad ).Development requires movement of the body and movement of the thought and emotions .Movement is our friend and it is opposite of stagnation .I wish we could judge people less and learn more from their experiences no matter of their nature .
So it is very strange for me when people take some very extremist position and start bashing everything that does not agree with their way ,being stuck in it like forever .Truth is that to each and every of us happen good and bad things it is never only one of the opposites ,there must be reason for that for sure .
