People are afraid of the dark …
for many, many reasons.
The unknown? Uncertainty? Danger?
Memories that aren’t yet conscious.
Memories they don’t even know exist.

The darkness has been cast as bad, even evil.
Our fear of the dark has been the cause of disconnection, detachment,
lack of attachment, and rupture.
It’s been the cause of prejudice,
and the cause of war.

As we, in the northern hemisphere,* experience increasing darkness –
shorter and shorter days, longer and longer nights,
we try to hold the darkness and our fear at bay:
turning the lights up brighter and brighter,
buying gifts manically – for distorted reasons,
celebrating feverishly – with warped intentions,
praying or meditating to rise above or go around the darkness,
donning the mask of holiday joy …
or feeling inadequate and depressed because we can’t or don’t.
Using the holidays themselves as an escape from
the pain and darkness experienced by so many at this time –
both in their families and terribly isolated from family and any one.

The Winter Solstice isn’t the only time of the year
we come face-to-face and heart-to-heart with the darkness.
But it is the consistent time of the year that clearly outpictures and
reveals our real relationship with the darkness.

If you’re afraid of the dark, remember …
as frightening as it may be in the dark unknown …
it is a gateway to healing unlike any other.
Your wounds, traumas, and fears from long, long ago are found in the dark
underground labyrinths within you,
and are triggered by the darkness in the world around you.

If instead of running away from your wounds, traumas, and fears,
If instead of hiding from them,
trying to bury them in an even darker, deeper space,
turning up the lights so bright you can try to pretend they aren’t there …

If instead you choose to utilize what you find in the dark for deep, true healing,
the treasures of healing waiting for you are limitless.
Among them:
the very wounds crying out to be healed … so you can really hear them and heal them;
strengths you didn’t know you had, didn’t know you could develop;
gifts to live and give from the essence of your being;
dreams that are deeper by far than any you’ve had – the dreams of your soul;
a new kind of light – an inner light – unlike any you have imagined.

Afraid of the dark?
Remember … trying to escape from the darkness at all costs makes healing impossible.
The cost is the loss of the healing.
Learning to enter the darkness within …
offers you for healing
a possibility unlike any other.

This is the work I do with people every single day.
Not just in the approach to and through the Winter Solstice.
All year long.
This is the work I do with people every single day.
I know that with real, sustained commitment,
it brings profound healing and transformation
and touching, miraculous new birth from the inside out.

For Part Two … stay tuned.

© Judith Barr, 2018.

* the June solstice is the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere