The Dark Flame and You

I get really irritated by the idea of light = good and dark = bad. I can understand the idea, certainly. The dark can be really scary, since we don't know what's there, we don't know if we're safe or not. We can't see, or see indistinctly. Light and warmth are safe and friendly, especially when everything around is dark. But the quickest way to ruin your night vision is to look into a light, as well.

The world is not all clear and distinct. We need a place to rest, and that's within ourselves, in the darkness. In a self-denying worldview, this is egotistical, certainly. Inside ourselves should be a place we reserve for God and not ourselves. But that's a false distinction, because we are the Divine, and the Divine is us. When we deny ourselves, we are denying the very Divine we're supposed to be making a place for. The dark flame is the Divine that we are to ourselves.

I cannot stress enough how important keeping a healthy self relationship is. This isn't the self-esteem pep talk that we get so often in the schools. Instead, it's a view of how we see ourselves is how we relate with others. We don't need to pump ourselves up; we need to be honest and loving with ourselves. Yes, we need to be positive, because we bring about what we perceive. But the dark flame is the healthy love of ourselves (not narcissism) that lets us grow and become better than where we start off. It's easy to limit ourselves to the light, but light is external. Light shines upon us from others. The inner darkness is where we grow.

Think about it. Seeds start in the dark. Babies grow in the dark. We sleep in the dark, and sleep is definitely something that benefits only ourselves (except, of course, that if you don't sleep, you become useless to others as well. The connection is inevitable). When we deny ourselves the healing power of darkness and quiet, we aren't being fair to anyone. The Divine whispers in the darkness as well as shining in the light.

Questions!
Am I in balance? Well, I try to be. Some times are better than others .. it's a balancing act, not a state one achieves and never needs to find again. I think I tend to favor my dark flame over my bright .. I'm inherently a lazy person, and I like people to be kept at a certain distance from me so I can deal with them on my own terms. This keeps me focused fairly inward, although I try to use that focus to turn again outward with these blogs. But I still don't have to see how it affects people, so I tend to doubt that it does any good and denigrate what the bright flame does. As I said .. it's a process.

Is the darkness nurtured as well as the light? Again, I'm focused a little too much into the darkness. It's safe in here. :) I should work harder to focus outward. I should also write about it, since I appear to have avoided the topic. And of course the imagry doesn't bug me, it would be silly of me to use imagry that bugs me! :D

I tend to feel the Divine connection much more with the dark flame than the bright one, which is a problem. The Divine is both, as well as in other people's Flames. But I like to focus inward and poke around in the corners of my head and avoid looking outward, so I deny the connection. Flames can burn as well as guide, and I've been burned a few too many times to reach out easily. And only in reaching out does the Divine fill up the bright flame.