From Shadow to Light: What Is 'Love'?

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious”- Carl Jung

So many of us are use the word ‘Love’ these days without a second thought of what it truly entails & the true meaning of it. There is a whole world of difference between talking about Love and practicing it. Our Ego mind relishes in spending  energy and time on talking about Love. The Ego loves the attention it gets for the way it makes 'Love' look and sound. Talking about 'love' and feigning real love, is the slippery way in which the Ego receives the affection and admiration it so desires.

This sophisticated process bolsters the individual's self-image, (which the Ego is so heavily dependent upon), and grants the Ego a temporary mask called the 'Spiritual Ego'. The Ego learns the Spirit’s ways and disguises itself as being spiritual. It gets to enjoy the show, and all the attention for it for as long as there is not enough awareness to observe it. 

That moment of pure presence within is the moment the ego is terrified of the most. It signifies the Ego’s death. Ego doesn’t want to be caught on its false pretenses. It doesn’t want its mask to be revealed. It loves to hide in the shadows, while masquerading as "love" and "light". It knows it must continue to do so, since its' survival depends on it. The Ego resides in each and every one of us, and seeks only to protect us by hiding certain aspects of the self that it fears might destroy us in the shadows. It skillfully suppresses our shame, insecurities, anger, jealousy, desires, and guilt in the depths of our subconscious. 

For this reason, calling ourselves light-workers comes with a huge responsibility. It means not only casting light externally, but first and foremost, casting the light within. It demands us to courageously do the shadow work, and bring awareness to the ways in which our egos try to bypass doing the actual work. The moment we are brave enough to face our shadows, is the moment we recognize the presence of the light within. The Ego, which has worked our entire lives trying to protect us, (even from ourselves), fears this moment above all else. It only wants to shield us from any pain.

This painful process which many refer to as 'The Dark Night of the Soul' requires us to face and release every block we have created within ourselves that interrupts the flow of love through us, as us. The darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, and the journey to being that light demands the painful experience of burning first. Yes, it might feel like going through hell, and being burned in its fire! But it is absolutely inevitable and worthwhile, since the only way to come to  know ourselves as love and light is to be willing to face everything within ourselves that isn’t. It means looking at the many false masks we have been wearing as a way of protecting the purity and the innocence underneath them, and taking them off courageously one by one. It requires a deep level of trust, that Love will meet us at our point of action. Trusting that Love is all encompassing and can contain it all. It means trusting that Love will never judge or condemn us, abandon or reject us. It means exposing ourselves vulnerably and authentically, while remembering the pure essence and the innocence of our heart underneath it all. 

A daring act of choosing Love in this 3D world might also look like a conscious and intentional choice of opening our hearts courageously and vulnerably while feeling the fear of being hurt. It might look like choosing to love, even when every cell of our being screams:  No! Danger! Protect yourself! Run! Resist! And we choose to feel the fear and do it anyway! We choose to jump off the cliff and surrender to Love fully, trusting that Love is the only thing that is real, and that everything else is an illusion. 

"Know Thyself" is the paradox of this 3D world. The human experience is the process of learning who you are from the place of the absence of love first. When you begin to embark on your spiritual journey, you must unlearn everything you think you know about yourself, and remember who you really are, which is love and light embodied. 

Do not allow yourself to fall into the Ego's trap of talking about love, which will keep you stuck in the vicious cycle of avoidance and non-acceptance. You are being called upon to choose to be, embody and act from the pure presence of Love within. At the end of the day, we are what we do, not what we say we’ll do! 

It is time to call ourselves forward to BE it ! Choose it! Embody it! Act on it! Love is the most courageous and rebellious act a human can choose to take.

Now is the perfect moment to begin, since now is the only time there is!

Or we can choose to fall into another sophisticated trap of our ego: the “waiting for a better now” trap. So, what will it be? The choice is ours, and the time to choose is right now. 

Diana Love

Transformational Life Coach