vilifying darkness; exalting light

i shared this in a recent luminous note:

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“i think about how, right now we're VERY busy showing ourselves and each other our darkness. (there's lots to be said here around vilifying dark and celebrating light, but i'll save that convo for another day soon. in fact, i think that'll be a blog post on the new site when it's live).”

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and since the site is now live, i figured it was time.

especially since this is a topic that keeps coming up every time i use, or want to use, the words darkness or light.

i don’t have the answers

that’s the first thing we should get out of the way right off the bat.

i realize i’m part of the problem and am not yet sure how to address that in a way that meets the need, says what i want to say, and doesn’t add to the fuckery.

so here we are; this is our starting point.

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i talk a lot, here and elsewhere, about light and darkness.

at some point, i suppose, we’ll dig into why that is (beyond the obvious), but for now it’s enough to know that this is something that comes up in my awareness a TON.

often - not always but often - when i talk about darkness, i’m talking about lack of light.

and when i’m talking about light, i’m talking about lack of darkness.

with me so far?

but i realize, even given the above, that:

• first, that’s not the only way i use these words. i have used, and still sometimes do use, these words to mean things like your ‘shadow’ or hidden parts… as opposed to your more ‘enlightened’ (cringe) or conscious parts (which makes me roll my eyes at myself to even write).

• having these automatic connections between words like darkness -> bad, evil, wrong, etc… and then light -> good, helpful, right, etc… is perpetuating (even if unconsciously) the stereotype that people of color are also bad, evil, wrong… and that white people are somehow good, helpful, right. again, even if we’re not choosing to consciously think that way, this is part of swimming in the water.

• The Divine Feminine is also associated with the deep, dark places and with darkness. soul, too (vs spirit) is associated with the body and with darkness. a lot of the same things that get tangled up in my point above also come into play here. it’s so damaging. (you can see this clearly in the distaste that some religions have for the body itself).

where we go from here

i wish i could say.

the only thing i know is that i’m watching myself for this moving forward, and i’ll start working through my content to catch the places where i’ve used these words in ways i don’t love so that i can update my word choice to something that better reflects what i want to say, without the fuckery.

if this is something you’ve really considered, i’d love to hear your thoughts. comment below and let me know what you landed on for yourself here.