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"One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night." - Kahlil Gibran
"[Y]ou know all about God, I suppose."
"Well..." The Savage hesitated. He would have liked to say something about solitude, about night, about the mesa lying pale under the moon, about the precipice, the plunge into shadowy darkness, about death. He would have liked to speak; but there were no words. Not even in Shakespeare. - from Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
As Wiccans, we know that the spiritual and the mundane do not have to be perpetually restricted from overlapping. Unlike other religions, we have not divided life into "sacred" versus "profane" components, and in fact we hold that the divine emerges in our physical, earthly realm as well as in other planes of existence. We are those who walk "between the worlds," as is the common Craft axiom. All of this can be true for us because we recognize that every thing is irrevocably tied to every other thing, and that the universe is not the battlefield that polar enemies use to wage war. Instead, the universe is viewed as a beautiful and dynamic interplay of complimenting opposites. It is the great cosmic dance between Goddess and God, earth and air, fire and water, summer and winter that is necessary for balance. Intrinsic to this system of beliefs comes the realization that while both portions in proper amounts are required for balance, the very existence of one portion is entirely dependent on the existence of its opposite portion. Lao Tzu expresses this fact succinctly:
"When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other."
Most Wiccans and Pagans accept these ideas, and are even eager to incorporate the concepts more consciously into their relations with the universe and the Divine. In general, our community has done a fairly good job of this (if the books, poetry, articles, websites, and other publications we produce are any relevant gauge), with one major exception: darkness and light.
For a faith that supposedly embraces balance, it is strange that everyone is scrambling to snatch up the term "light" and plaster it all over their work, and yet they will only regard darkness with a ten-foot broom handle.
Where is the place of darkness in our religion currently, and why and how have the scales become so horribly out of alignment?
Many have conceded that the dark is indeed a necessary part of life, but they suggest that it is by far not desirable. They do not directly come out and profess (most of the time) that darkness is equivalent to evil, but denying it in preference to light is almost as bad as condemning it as a Satanic figure. Some only acknowledge it because it is seen as a pause before the return of the light, not giving it credit as a truly meaningful aspect in and of itself. At best, darkness is described as layers of ignorance or obscurity that need to be shed, it provides for learning, but again it is only a roadblock on one's way to light. As the quote above of Lao Tzu's from his Tao Te Ching makes quite clear; light would not even exist without darkness, it cannot just be utterly discarded as one would do with an old pair of shoes.
The attitude that some Wiccans have toward darkness can be attributed to a few sources. Many Wiccans have come out of Judeo-Christian-Islamic backgrounds, which stresses a competitive duality between two major universal forces: the dark, which has become synonymous with evil in those theologies, and the light, which represents all that is good. Wicca, as cited above, does not contain this world view of two constantly opposing forces, but sometimes Wiccans who have come from that type of background carry this idea over into Wicca. They may disregard the concepts of the Devil/Satan/Lucifer etc., but they still have the idea ingrained in their psyches that darkness equals evil. Another influence on Wiccans' perception of darkness is the New Age movement, which is regrettably even more one-sided than most of Neo-Paganism. The result of these factors are those who honestly think Nature is all "light and love." These are definitely not ill-intentioned people, but they are living in a sugar-coated fantasy. The New Age community, as well as some forms of the Goddess revival movement, has contributed to the obvious super-emphasis on the mother aspect of the Goddess. Again we have those who prefer to bask in the light of an all-giving, all-loving entity while denying Her shadow side, which is no less valuable. Yet, even when the names of darker forms of the Goddess are mentioned, Their power is often downplayed or Their true characters are grossly misrepresented as kind and beneficent (classic sloppy Pagan scholarship at work).
Darkness can be cruel and savage just as light can be harsh and exhausting. The vices of obsession with the dark side have been well documented, and I shall not repeat them here, but what about the vices of obsession with the light side? From my experience, this results in gullibility, a dearth of depth and substance, paranoia, and a major lack of understanding of an integral part of all life. Not to mention it results in some very annoying people and immensely overpriced crystals!
There is no debate that such things as evil and harmful energies exist, but these things do not belong only to darkness. Evil can be committed in broad daylight as under the cloak of night. The tragedy at Columbine happened during the day, as did the Oklahoma City bombing, the occurrences of September 11th, as well as many other horrendous acts. It is interesting to note that Lucifer actually means "light-bringer." Suggesting that evil is the sole province of darkness is as ridiculous as stating that criminal behavior is the sole province of a particular ethnic or age group. Good and evil exist independently of the number of present visible wavelengths, or lack thereof.
Death, night, destruction, chaos: all of these are necessary parts of life, and wonderful in their own right. The ancients did not worship Deities like Kali Ma, Hecate, Hades, Set, and others for no reason. They knew that volcanic explosions, floods, storms, and earthquakes (all of those things we consider 'Acts of God' today) really were acts of God. These occurrences are as much a part of nature as birth and growth - not acts the Divine uses to punish humanity, or as flukes that unexplainably disturb the normally peaceful course of nature. They are awe-inspiring, and deserving of respect and honor.
Above all, darkness is mystery. It is the shaded and shadowy regions that cannot be discerned by a superficial evaluation alone. You must plunge into the depths and explore them personally for them to yield any of their secrets. Sometimes, once we have exited, we find that even though we experienced the dark for ourselves, we cannot properly articulate it to others, for even then it retains its mystery. Things can be further complicated by the fact that darkness is different for everyone, it speaks uniquely to each person.
There are a growing number of Wiccans and other Pagans who are discovering the solace that can be found in darkness. If Paganism is the individual's kingdom, a country that beckoned to them as their home, then darkness is their personal place of sanctuary and primary residence, their own secluded cave or grove within their country. These are the Pagans who have reclaimed darkness.
What then does dark Paganism imply for the individual? Firstly, being a Dark Pagan does not require one to be Gothic (this term is mainly used in reference to fashion sense and musical taste, in the stereotypical respect). I personally have a fondness for the Gothic aesthetic, but such an appreciation is hardly a pre-requisite. If anything, Dark Paganism implies that beauty can be found throughout the entire landscape of our existence. This receptiveness to beauty is not limited to only the places bathed in sunlight or familiarity, but extends to those deeper, uncharted places that modern society would deny the title of beauty to. There is a haunting beauty in things like solitude, silence, introspection, night, melancholy, winter, sorrow, and even suffering. Everything in moderation, of course, but the beauty is still there. Just imagine the ruins of a cathedral bathed mysteriously in the light of the waning moon, the webs of spiders flowing gracefully in the wind, the stark presence of bare trees, a somber graveyard embraced by luminous mists: peaceful and full of history, the sonorous sound of a cello playing an achingly beautiful melody, the stars etched into the velvety black concave of the sky, the hooting of an owl or the call of a crow in the distance: all deserve the label "beautiful" just as one might describe a bright spring morning as such, and the list is endless. Dark Pagans can perceive beauty in something even past its prime. They can see beyond the bursting flowers, anorexic super-models, and tropical beach scenes. Their view of the God is not limited to a muscular man with antlers and a loincloth, nor is the Goddess limited to a busty blond woman decked in daises.
While Dark Pagans may have a preference towards things of a less brighter nature (much as others prefer certain types of music or art), they are not blind to the beauty on the other side of the spectrum. To refuse to see beauty that is present in lighter things would make them as ignorant as some of the Fluffy Bunnies, who cannot see the beauty and value in the dark.
This is not a call for everyone to become "dark" Pagans, but for some, it is home and understanding. What this is a call for is for us, as a whole Pagan community, to re-evaluate some of our false connections with darkness, and restore some of that balance we pride ourselves on.
Suggested Dark Archetypes for Contemplation
Goddesses: Arachne, Sekhmet, Hecate, Persephone/Posperpina, Meretseger, Artemis/Diana, The Morrigan, Isis, Nut, Kali Ma, Durga, Athene/Minerva, Nephthys, Selket, Spider Woman, Ammitt, Pele, Skadi, Hel
