Equinox - Balance Between Light and Darkness

View of Loughcrew Cairin during the equinox

 

Archaic humanity did not specifically acknowledge the spring and autumn equinox as much as they engaged with the solstices for summer and winter. We know this because the orientations of the various stone circles, passage tombs, and megalithic monuments built by our ancient ancestors are accurately aligned toward the southern and northern extreme latitudes depicting the advent of the solstices. The equinoxes were just the points in between the summer and winter solstices. There were exceptions, such as Loughcrew Cairns in Ireland, where the passage tomb is aligned to the rising sun of the equinoxes instead of the solstices. Additionally, the Mnajdra Temple in Malta has a temple doorway that is precisely aligned to the equinoxes, and the Crucuno Rectangle in Brittany is a megalith that is aligned to the equinoxes; They represent a different approach to antique solar observances. Were they an exception or a variation? We don’t know.

Prehistoric societies would obviously note that the sun was either incrementally moving to the south or the north, and at a certain point the duration of day and night would be equal. Whether they marked the equinoxes as an important occasion is unknown, but it is very likely in some cases. All this, of course, is just conjecture on the part of archaeologists, but the fact that there are alignments shown in these edifices to the solstices and in some cases to the equinoxes lends itself to this theory. We just don’t know how archaic humans in the Neolithic age perceived these occasions in their solar calendar, and what they did to commemorate them.

Most of the calendars in early historical times in Europe and the Middle East were lunar based simply because it was easier to measure a month based on the interval between the reoccurring lunar phases. Ancient Greece had a number of variations to their calendars, but they were tied to the agricultural events of planting and harvesting than to the specific equinoxes and solstices. Hipparchus, in the second century B.C.E., accurately determined the equinoxes mathematically, and he also discovered the precession of the equinoxes over time. Yet this didn’t seem to have much impact on the calendars of antiquity.

Ancient Rome had a calendar that was slightly more solar oriented because it began around the vernal equinox, but it only had ten months of 30 days (March through December) and the rest were considered intercalated days of winter. However, the month was typically divided into three nine-day weeks, with three days in between for religious observations and market days. This early pre-Julian calendar was more strongly influenced by the lunar phases of the month and by the agricultural annual cycle than by the actual positions of the sun. The reforms established by Julius Caesar brought the early Roman calendar into alignment with the solar year, with twelve months and observations that included the equinoxes and solstices, but the liturgical year remained pretty much the same as it was before the Julian reforms.

Celtic and Germanic people approached their calendars in a completely different manner.  Instead of hosting religious observances and celebrations on the solstices and equinoxes, Celts chose the midpoints between them. They celebrated four fire festivals that likely represented the vegetative cycle rather than the solar cycle. Whether or not they had astronomically pinpointed the exact midpoints for their religious festivals or selected them based on certain natural observations is unknown. Germanic peoples orientated their religious calendar on the summer and winter solstice, and the winter solstice was particularly emphasized. Slavic people who lived to the east of the Celts and Germans, appeared to observe and celebrate the spring equinox with fertility rites and specialized deities, and observed the autumn equinox as a time of harvest, feasting, and homage to their departed ancestors.

Christianity cleverly absorbed these various pagan calendric systems into their liturgical calendar of feasts, fasting, atonement, commemoration and celebration. They combined both the late Roman calendar and the Celtic and Germanic calendars into their liturgical cycle based on the occurrences of the life and death of Jesus Christ, and the events commemorating the apostles, the various saints and martyrs. 

However, the observance of Easter, which was supposed to commemorate the birth of Jesus, occurs on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. Thus, Easter, and the start of the Easter calendar and the end of Lent, is a lunar based event ensconced within a solar based calendar. The Easter liturgical cycle begins with Easter, culminates with the Pentecost, and ends with the celebration of Corpus Christi. I have stated in my books and writings that this cycle also mirrors the cycle of the Grail myth, along with the pagan chthonic antecedents that would be associated with that mythic cycle.

Modern Witches and Pagans have combined both the Celtic cross-quarter observances with the solstices and equinoxes to produce the eight spokes of the wheel of the year. However, I have shown in my writings and books that this singular wheel actually contains two cycles, which are the solar and the vegetative seasonal cycles. Joining these two cycles together illustrates the mysteries of the cycle of light and darkness, and the cycle of life and death. These are endless cycles, because the ascension of light is followed by its descent, and the ascension of darkness is followed by its own diminishment. Every year this cycle is repeated, seemingly endlessly. 

Therefore, it can presumed that life follows the same cycle. That the event of birth is followed, over an unknown period of time, to death, and that death is nothing more than the transition from one life to another. However, the beginning of each vegetative cycle begins with new growth and not the resurrected life of the previous cycle. A tree might remain the same, but the leaves that appear each year are different. There is a lesson and a mystery to this observation which would qualify the belief in reincarnation as to what is actually reborn and what is lost forever in death, but I digress.

The endless cycle of light and darkness found in the ever changing solar year represents a natural balance where neither the light nor the darkness can ultimately dominate the year. As the light and darkness are in eternal transition, this cycle contains no moral or ethical constraints or judgements because it is purely a part of nature. It is model for all to follow, so that individuals, groups and nations seek to maintain a state of harmony between the light and darkness within themselves. From that balance within they can approach other individuals, groups or nations without prejudice or judgement. In this manner, they are at peace with themselves, and exist in a state of balance throughout their daily lives and social intercourse with others. 

Adherence to the light over darkness, or darkness over light, is a mistake in the eyes of those who seek a balance between the two so they might discover the very core of its mystery. That mystery is the changeless state of the eternal present, which contains all darkness and light, and is the source of life and the repository of the dead. I count modern Witches and Pagans as individuals and groups who can and probably should follow the example of the endless and ever balanced cycle of light and darkness, having rejected the idea of choosing one over the other as a premise for their religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. 

Knowing the balance of light and darkness within one’s self is the key to finding that singular source that resides in the center of all beingness, which is the point of unity and oneness. Beyond that singularity is the enfolding non-being of emptiness, the source of all that is and is not. I define a modern form of pagan enlightenment as the point where an individual becomes fully aware of this mystery and finds themselves within this state of union, thus, permanently changing the world that they see and operate through. It is also the path to obtaining the vision of eternity and timeless unity. Such a vision changes a person most profoundly, and reverberates in their consciousness even beyond the death of their body.

Happy Vernal Equinox to one and all!

Frater Barrabbas

Magical Shadow Work

 

This is part 1 of a three part article that is the introduction to Magical Shadow Work and Ordeal XV. I will be writing a book about this ordeal in the future. Here is the basic understanding to this masterful challenge that all adepts must face in their magical and spiritual career. 

Shadow Work is a very popular topic these days and there are lots of books on the subject with a full regimen of practices and journaling. Some of the available online information advise would-be shadow workers to consult with a therapist and not try to do these practices alone. Others take a less intense approach that seems friendly to anyone. Certainly, those who suffer from mental health issues shouldn’t engage with this kind of work, but with the large array of practical applications and books on the subject, it seems like an inviting approach to gaining a full understanding of one’s self. There is almost a kind of New Age sheen to this topic, as it has become very popular over the last decade or two. However, a serious approach to this kind of work does require a solid psychological foundation and an overall healthy mental outlook on life, as well as a degree of openness, courage and self-confidence. Real shadow work is not for the faint hearted nor the superficial devotee of trends.

So, despite the hype and the alluring faddism regarding this practice, it is quite real and represents a true methodology to expose us to our darker selves, showing us an image of ourselves that contains everything that we seem to dislike or repress about ourselves. It also presents us with the means to integrating that shadowy nature back into our conscious selves. The shadow is the part of ourselves that has been displaced from our conscious self and is filled with those characteristics that we have been told by parents and authority figures are bad behaviors, inclinations or impulses. We start out in life without any real shadow, functioning as a whole but severely underdeveloped human being. As we travel through life our parents, teachers, and other authority figures judge our behavior, and encourage those activities that are considered appropriate in social settings and family life, and suppress those that are considered inappropriate or wrong. We grow up learning about the differences between good and evil, and we try, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much, to adhere to the standard presented to us.

However, the shadow does not just contain those attributes of ourselves that are negative or deemed socially unacceptable. Many people also suppress their creativity or their genius for doing things that are above average so that they might fit in with their peers and avoid rejection. Being too smart, too artistic, too insightful, and too anything will cause individuals to be rejected or not considered one of the peer group. The exceptions are physical beauty or athletic skill, which are more a part of genetics and good fortune than any kind of external social grace or internal reckoning. Being a member of the upper class certainly can make mediocre people into members of the “in crowd,” and avoiding extremes or forms of high excellence will ensure that one is an acceptable and accessible member of the group. Mediocrity is highly acceptable, but exceptionalism in any form has a social cost.

In ancient times people avoided outwardly showing any degree of material success or good fortune to their peers to avoid the effects of jealousy and the “evil eye.” That kind of cautionary behavior has found itself in the present age as well. Most people, therefore, leave behind their personal treasures as well as their potentially bad behavior to be accepted by their peer group and to become a favored and privileged member of their society. All of these qualities end up residing in our shadow, and often we are barely conscious of what we have sacrificed to be an approved member of our social group. We adhere to these standards of social acceptance whether we realize it or not, unless, of course, we perversely seek to break them. 

Some people reject these standards partially or completely while others are incapable of following some or all of them, to their unfortunate social detriment. Those who don’t follow the expected norms are a deviant group where bohemians, revolutionaries, thieves, thugs, murderers, arsonists, and violent terrorists find themselves, but also anyone who is member of the suppressed and despised minorities. Our cultural shadow is like a big carnival tent containing a variety of marginalized or unwanted people. 

As a Witch and ritual magician, I have found myself occasionally accused of being in league with various anarchists and secret cultists, and I am sure that other minorities, whether by racial, religious, gender, or sexual preference biases have found themselves placed in some suspicious group as well. It is easy to judge and condemn whole groups of people, especially those who are powerless to actively defend themselves. It has become a single-minded fad in our current national political culture, where oppressing the supposed “bad” (non-white or abnormal) people is a popular pastime of the recently empowered rightwing bigots, racists, misogynists, and fascists (who call themselves Republicans). One could easily say that America itself has succumbed to its dark shadow side with the activities and beliefs espoused by the current administration and their donor class backers.

This divergent pathway leads to the domain of shadows and the ubiquitous “Other” that represents how societies and cultures determine their own collective shadow. All of this should be included in the study of shadow work because individual shadows are characters that reside within a cultural shadow, and sometimes a person’s shadow whose conscious persona is considered part of the cultural shadow by others, would be solidly and boringly normal, if not also judgmental, racist and bigoted as qualities associated with their shadow self. I think that my own shadow has attributes that would express itself in a racist and misogynist manner while proclaiming to be a conventional and normal Christian man. I still use the names of God and Jesus in vain when perturbed, even though I am a steadfast adherent of Witchcraft. That is something to ponder.

Continuing with this analysis, a criminal might have a lawful and moral shadow, or they might simply be allowing their dark nature to be seen and projected without any kind of filter. What this means is that a person’s shadow is complicated by the culture that they reside in, and it is not really easy to determine the qualities of a person’s shadow. Defining one’s shadow is, therefore, not as simple as putting together a list of the things we detest or fear about ourselves. Our shadow lives in a kind of shadow land, so there is the problem of defining our shadow and the contextual shadow world it resides in. Still, the shadow gives us endless clues, particularly when we project the negative attributes of our shadow on to other people that we intuitively dislike, and project its positive attributes on to those whom we impulsively idolize. 

Everyone who is a mature adult has some kind of dark side or shadow. A person might appear mannerly, gracious, kind, generous and compassionate, but they also have a shadow or dark side that is crass, odious, mean, selfish and indifferent. Unless people have addressed their darker and repressed side of themselves then they will be plagued with moments when their internal darkness leaks out regardless of how good they might appear to others. We all have our less than admirable moments of weakness when we show a side of ourselves that contradicts our assumed persona. Our persona is that which embodies the attributes of our self that we want people to always see. We may believe and insist that we are good people, but this is often only a mask that hides a part of ourselves that is decidedly negative. Our overall selves are complex and contain contradictory attributes, and because we need to present ourselves in some kind of unified manner, we will behave in a way that supports our self-belief and suppresses behavior that goes against how we see ourselves. Our persona is how we want to be seen by others, yet our shadow contains everything that we seek to omit from that self-definition, whether deliberately or unwittingly.

Contradictions and conflicts between the shadow and the persona can tarnish a well-meaning individual with hypocrisy and duplicity when their darker side accidently comes out of hiding. When a person insists that they are unanimously good in all their activities and intentions, they are similarly daring their dark side to come out and show itself at moments of frustration and helplessness. Claiming to be a force for good at all times is as much of a form of self-deceit as it is to claim to be always bad. We are never always one thing or another since we are so complex as individuals. Yet often our darker intentions and impulses will bleed out when we are unaware or when we are imbalanced by misfortune, surprise, moments of personal weakness, or self-doubt. This happens to us when we experience events that trigger a psychic interaction with our shadow, allowing it to briefly emerge. Events that can trigger a psychic inversion where the shadow dominates the self are different for everyone, since they are dependent on our life experiences, our affected persona quality, and our inherent psychological dynamics.

This is the reason why I am dubious at the claims of would-be spiritual teachers or political leaders who can do no wrong, and supposedly high-minded New Age folks who espouse to be exclusively white light practitioners of love, bliss and peace; since it is more likely that their shadow is darker than normal, and when it comes out, their followers are very shocked. It is for this reason that I see a parallel of the shadow with the theme of the Picture of Dorian Grey. Except in this case, the picture shows what we truly look like as adults while looking through a dark, obsidian mirror. It doesn’t matter how good a person we think we are, or how nicely we have behaved over our lifetime, when all that we have repressed has painted a picture of ourselves that we would find loathsome and despicable. That, in a word, is the dark trick played on those people who think that they are predominately or exclusively good. It is also why I tend avoid people who pretentiously idolize their own supposed goodness. It just rings fake and hollow in my mind. Even someone who is balanced and seemingly normal can be thrown off by the wiles of their shadow.

When I talk about the religious aspects of Witchcraft, I speak of the powers of light and darkness, not just light. There is a polarity in Witchcraft, both from a magical energy perspective and a theological perspective. There is no absolute light or darkness, but they take turns and work together to formulate the world we live in. The cycle of night and day, winter and summer and the points in transition between them are a natural representation of this interaction of light and darkness. From this point of view, there is no white or black magic, there is no good or evil. There is only our intent and our desire, our vector in life, and the consequence of our actions. This resonates both through our persona and our shadow. They are fully integrated into our magic and religion as two opposites that have a common source - the One. Thus, Witchcraft as a religion admits that there is a dark attribute to all conscious beings, preparing and opening us to experience the interplay of light and darkness, in nature, people and society, and in ourselves. Of course, light and darkness also represent life and death, and because most people fear death in some manner, then death itself, especially the death of the ego and the persona that we carry, is also an attribute of our shadow.

Liminal states can be found where the shadow and persona touch and meet, and it is here where habits and addictions reside that can pose health problems and self-destructive behavior, which is dimly conscious and yet still active. People can inform us that we have a drinking or drug problem or some other kind of socially unacceptable health issue, and typically we will deny that it is a problem until we fully realize it, often at the nadir of its effects on us. Conversely, we can find ourselves living an empty life that momentarily becomes filled with inspiration and joy, fueled by our repressed creativity or excellence, only to have it quickly depart when we recognize that we are engaging in something that we have deemed to be unacceptable about ourselves. The place between light and darkness, the persona and the shadow, is also the place of true religion, magic, and mystery. It is a place of twilight, marked by the intersection of the spheres of light and darkness, symbolically making a convex and concave joining of crescent shapes, combining together to formulate the archetypal image of the Vesica Pisces. This shape represents the mystery of the unified Self and the place between light and darkness.

This domain of twilight is the place where our dreams become powerful instruments of instruction and inspiration, if we are brave enough to open ourselves to that in-between state. In the shadow land are mysteries, magical powers, devils, demons, monsters and the host of the underworld. Yet there are also the various embodiments of Deity, Gods, Goddesses, Angels, ancestor spirits, heroes and heroines, and the ghost roads that interconnect them into a singularity. It is through the gateway of the twilight world that we can meet and gain inspiration through our exposure to that secret place.

It would seem to us that there is mostly a stasis or equilibrium between the darkness and light in our personality, and that would be true if we were not dynamic beings. Yet it just as often seems as if the darkness and light are at war within our psyche, and our ego-based persona seeks to maintain its dominance to keep the denizens of the darkness at bay. Yet often there are leakages and times when the darkness surprises us or even overcomes us, either momentarily or sometimes permanently, as in cases of mental collapse. Any perceived balance is either a deceptive illusion or the calm before the storm.

However, it is our closed attitude to the darkness within us that is the cause of our sufferings and problems. We constantly place an insoluble border between our shadow and our outward persona, but that doesn’t need to occur. If we understand that our inner psychic polarity can be mitigated by relaxing our borders between light and darkness, and eliminating our inner governing self-judgment, then we will realize that this polarity is nothing more than opposing or conflicting beliefs and ideas about ourselves and our world which are ultimately illusory. This is because our own personality, both the light and darkness, exist in a perpetual state of paradox. To accept this internal paradox is to realize the mystery of ourselves and the mystery of all human beings. 

This state of mindful self-acceptance is also the most important first step of initiatory transformation, since we must enter into our shadow land and confront our individual shadow to undergo the process where we are made whole and spiritually complete. I have written books on the subject of transformative initiation, but the shadow and our inner underworld are the primary keys to spiritual enlightenment, only requiring one additional personality. 

Frater Barrabbas