Embracing Darkness

People often think in terms of light as being symbolic of goodness and righteousness, while darkness is generally seen to represent evil and sin. We can't really blame society, at least in the western world, from thinking along those lines since some of our great religious books tend to relate light and dark, good and evil in that way. And besides, who can argue with John Wayne and those great old western films? The good guy always wore the white hat and the bad guys invariably wore black!

I won't even try to undo generations of religious and societal programing (aka, propaganda) that casts light/white as good and dark/black as bad. I will, however, point out that appearances can deceive. The bad guys sometimes where white and vice versa. In nature we see that night falls and it gets dark. Is this an evil thing? If you are a Christian you might ask yourself, when God said "Let there be light" does that mean he was existing in a dark, evil place before? Having been a Christian for many years myself, I can tell you what I would have answered. No. God dwells in spiritual light. He was creating physical light (and by so doing also created darkness.) By his own declaration he then pronounced the day AND night as - and I quote - "all good." (Genesis 1:3 and also Genesis 1:31)

It is only natural that some people will prefer to conduct their spiritual and magickal activities at night and dress in dark attire. After all, it is during the night that the hustle and bustle of daily life quiets (for humans anyhow) and bodies heal and rest. In my experience it is also easier to concentrate and hear myself think at night or before dawn. On a side note, those who I call "Bible thumpers' would do well to remember that in the Bible and for the Jews, the day began with the NIGHT and progressed toward the day, exactly opposite to how Christians live.

I prefer to practice at night, that creative and rejuvenating part of the the cycle of life. Of course, no amount of words and even scriptural quotations will convince people that I'm not practicing evil magick all dressed in my spooky robes and candle light! More on this later!