OUR BETTER ANGELS AND OUR WORSE ANGELS — WHAT NOW?

While this is about the United States right now, especially as the US nears its election day …
it is also, at the same time, about every country, every person in our world.

Many in the public sphere are and have been appealing to the “better angels of our nature.”* They’ve also been encouraging us to appeal to our own better angels.

To me, it seems that our better angels are urging people not to act out on the destructive impulses that are being enacted and re-enacted in our country and our world in these times.

Our Better Angels and Our Worse Angels - What Now?
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This is the message that complements Judith's blog post on the same topic: https://judithbarr.com/2020/11/02/our-better-angels-and-our-worse-angels-what-now/

There are destructive impulses within every one of us.
Some know about them. Some don’t. Some don’t want to know about them.
They bury them deep within.
Some don’t want to consider them destructive, but rather want to justify them.
Some don’t want it to be known that they have these destructive currents.
They create “nice” and “civilized” masks to hide the destructiveness from themselves and others.

This is at the heart of our looking at our better angels and our worse angels.
There are those of us who act upon our better angels’ nature.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t also have our own worse angels.
Often we keep them a secret, even from ourselves.

In recent years, more than for a long time before, and more publicly, too, leadership has given permission to the rest of us to act out the destructive angels part of us. It has given permission outright through its words and its actions. It has normalized this behavior, made it seem ok, and fed it from its own worse angels.

And many people have taken that permission . . . and have taken the free pass it offered them to act destructively and not take responsibility for it. And so the hidden worse angels have been invited, encouraged, and helped out of hiding … out into our current world. This hurts everyone.

It also hurts everyone that there is no public discussion at all that I’ve heard …
teaching people that we can and need to do much more than
standing back helpless in the face of the worse angels;
putting our masks back on to hide our worse angels;
burying our worse angels again to keep them under control;
getting others to bury their worse angels again to keep them and their destructiveness under control.

To my knowledge, there has been no public teaching that it is possible to heal and transform our worse angels.
Our worse angels come from the ancient trauma we have experienced.
They are our response to that trauma.
They are our defenses against the pain of that trauma.
They are our coping mechanisms to try to live with the consequences of that trauma.

I am not making them ok. I still hold our worse angels accountable.
I still hold us accountable for our worse angels.
I’m just saying that at the root of our beings,
our worse angels arise from our early trauma.

This doesn’t mean despondence and despair.
This means hope.
This is the hope . . .

We can heal our worse angels . . .
We can heal them to the root by healing from our own trauma.
By actually doing the deep inner healing therapy.

This is empowering.
This is hopeful.
It is possible to create healing and transformation.

We don’t have to keep holding our worse angels at bay.
We don’t have to keep acting them out.
There is real healing that can be done …

I do this with the people with whom I work every day.
I know from my own experience that this real healing can be done.

The election is Tuesday.
Whatever the outcome …
we absolutely need to ask “Now What?”
Because  . . .

Whatever the election brings,
we absolutely need to heal our worse angels to their roots —
the roots that are in the ground of our traumas from long, long ago.

Not healing them is what got us here today.
Healing them is what will help us de-escalate the destructiveness and trauma
and at long last heal the trauma that created them.

© Judith Barr, 2020.

*The phrase “better angels of our nature” came from Abraham Lincoln’s 1st Inaugural Address.

DARK NIGHT STILL …

There is so much to say.
And so much has been said already.
We are in the dark night of the soul …
still.

It is even darker than it was in April.
It is even more crucial than before
that we each take responsibility to do our own personal inner healing work.
It is still more crucial than before
that we each take responsibility to do our own personal soul work
within the cauldron of this dark night.
It is more crucial to us individually
and more crucial to us communally.

We can no longer just leave it to others to take care
of the traumas that got us here,
the traumas that are here in this moment, and
the traumas that we are now creating for our future
and that of generations to come.

We can no longer just act out our ancient traumas.
We can no longer just believe we’re entitled to impact others,
as we willfully act as we please,
insisting we are not responsible,
hoping we’ll escape the trauma we cause,
or deluding ourselves that we will benefit from it.
We can no longer just
not care, just numb ourselves, just turn our backs, just run away,
the consequences be damned …
all of which was done to us when we were traumatized long ago.

In addition …
We can no longer believe we’re doing enough by
taking action in the outer world.
We can no longer believe we’re doing enough by
praying, meditating, chanting.
We can no longer believe we’re doing enough by
responding superficially to our wounds –
by putting bandaids on them and trying to banish the symptoms.
The symptoms are not the real problem.
They are just the manifestation of the problem –
the traumas deep within that we are all being called to heal.

It is our responsibility to continue to do that healing.
Look outside at what’s taking place in our country and our world.
And then look inside to discover how your ancient traumas
are being triggered by what’s occurring.
And then look inside to discover how your ancient traumas
have contributed to what’s occurring.
And then look inside to discover what you need to heal now …
and now …
and now …

I have no more words to say right now.
I encourage you to read and listen to my article from this past April –
DARK NIGHT

https://judithbarr.com/2020/04/14/dark-night/

Safe passage through the dark night …
from my heart to yours …
Judith

© Judith Barr, 2020.