Shadow, Light and Redemption: Explaining Evil

Sometimes, people find my ideas bothersome…

…because I say that we should keep striving to use EVERY mistake as a lesson–even if people end up dying as a result. Hello, manslaughter?

…because I say that whatever happens is “right” by the nature of the fact it happened. What about rapists and murderers? Am I not telling their victims to suck it up and accept these events as “learning opportunities?”

Maybe you won’t agree. That’s beyond fine! At the core of my philosophy is considering the human spiritual journey as a highly personal and ever-evolving event. My ideas will change over time. Hell, if I’m living right, they SHOULD change. But I speak to where my thoughts are now, because this site is a chronicle of my own journey.

I consider “God” to be the essence of the Hermetic concept of “the ALL,” the unknowable spiritual force that comprises the sum total of all that is. You cannot pick and choose what has “God” within when you deem everything as part of the same whole, with divinity running throughout all existence.

I don’t believe in accidents, coincidences or mistakes in the sense of random mishaps. Instead, I believe certain, significant life events are chosen by a soul before a given incarnation as a path to mastering specific lessons. This is why different people have different astrological charts, different gifts and challenges. For me, this conceptual structure bridges the philosophical quandaries about when the Law of Attraction appears to fail and why God (however you perceive God) would allow evil.

Does that mean I’m endorsing and excusing evil? Of course not!  But I do see darkness as part of the whole of how Spirit sometimes manifests. In my mind, this is the answer to the elusive WHY evil exists. The darkness only makes sense if serving a purpose.

I find truth in the Hermetic principle of polarity.

“Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are  identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet;  all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.” -The Kybalion

If your concept of “God” is the spirit that encompasses all that is, then ugly as well as beautiful is part of the same whole. There is no light without shadow. If you see human life on the physical plane as a sort of “soul development school,” you’ll see a function for the dark, even if you choose to walk in the light.

Love is a very high vibration. The most compassionate and loving people I’ve met throughout life are usually people who’ve suffered the greatest pain. I could see it as horrific injustice (and it IS, in many senses of the word), but I can also see this as a manifestation of their higher self’s decision to master advanced lessons in the current physical incarnation. Which perspective is more empowering?

I want to be part of helping people find ways of living BEYOND pain. What good does victimhood do? Yes, there is evil perpetrated but if you define as a victim, anger and despair become chains to whatever it is we do not want to experience. Why reinforce bondage?

When I encourage a broader view of harsh experience, my hope is to find relief and grow the light through the process. The more extreme the experience (on either end of the light/dark spectrum), the more power it inherently contains. I aim to redeem shadow by transmuting it to light, utilizing the power residing within deeply impacting experience. There are lessons at the edge of Hell not readily available elsewhere. It’s with the choices made of Free Will throughout this life that such intensely powerful energy gets expressed in ways we define as good or evil. That’s Karma and an entirely different discussion.

This perspective allows me to sometimes talk to people who have moral codes far differing from my own without judgement. I’m human, not 100% able to manage this. But I strive. I do not know the path anyone else is on–I don’t know the mission of their soul. I only encourage the redemption of pain and shadow through transforming it into wisdom and light. To me, accepting the reality of life as it IS as being inherently and cosmically “right” without having to understand the full functions of each expression is a working definition of “faith.”

I’m not saying anyone else need accept my views. If something I say prods you to question what you see as “reality” in your own life and on your own terms, if something I say helps you gain some perspective or redeem an ugly experience into something lighter and more empowering, then I’ve performed a service.

How do you explain evil?