Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about God and spirituality in general, trying to really pinpoint what I truly believe. This musing on the higher positive power naturally lends itself to contemplation of the darker forces that so often seem to be at work in today’s world, and I am starting to lean towards the radical notion that maybe, just maybe, the Devil as we know it may not exist…and here is why.
We live in both a natural and a spiritual world. On the spiritual side, there are countless narratives of people being saved by means that exceed those that are possible with just natural strength or mere coincidence. On the natural hand, there are countless varieties of beauty on both the giant scale of mountains and the smallest microscopic scale of a butterfly’s wing.
In my experience, the spiritual world is reflected in the natural world. Nature is made up of continuous cycles. In the spiritual realm, we also have cycles in the form of our life where we can learn and grow and expand our positive influence.
Everything in nature has a purpose-even the incidents that seem horrific bring forth newness and life. For example, forest fires getting rid of old growth so that the woods might come back greener than ever. Or an animal dying only to have its body fertilize a new crop of beautiful flowers. Similarly, everything that effects us spiritually has a purpose as well, even the bad stuff. When we are faced with adversity, we are able to overcome it and consequently grow stronger from the fight.
If you look at nature, specifically at the sun, it is a brilliant metaphor for the positive forces in our lives, nudging new growth and nurturing fledgling plants and trees into strong, sturdy members of the planet. The sun is the source of light. However, in nature, there is no source of dark–darkness simply comes from the absence of light.
If you apply that to our spiritual lives and what may or may not be happening out in the cosmos, that would translate to there being no Supreme Being of Darkness who is hell-bent on spreading chaos and destruction, but that everything negative in the world is simply caused by the absence of good.
I am seeing this unfold in the TV series Gotham, which I recently started watching with my boyfriend (it’s a great series! highly recommend), specifically in the character of Edward Nigma (E. Nigma) who eventually becomes the Riddler. In the series now, he is part of the police force and a “good guy”. However, his colleagues repeatedly cut him off, ignore his jokes, and walk away while he is in the middle of speaking. He is in a supposedly positive environment, yet he is slowly being starved of the light he needs, which gives more and more room for the darkness to take hold, and as fans of the comics already know, the darkness wins.
The opposite can also be true, and you can see this quite clearly played out in the examples of many prominent celebrities. If you hear their background stories, many come from horrific childhoods where they grew up in neighborhoods you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy, yet because of the love and care of someone in their lives, they bloomed into the success that we know them to be today. Their lives clearly had an absence of light in one area, but because they found light in another area, they were able to keep the darkness at bay.
All of this contemplation has made me realize how imperative it is to protect my energy on a daily basis. Even though I have no fear of suddenly turning into a female Hitler figure, if I’m not careful, I could crowd out the light enough to at best, be an inconsistent positive figure, or at worst, allow myself to become negative and self-absorbed and a beacon to no one.
This would not be the fault of a mysterious horned beast, but mine for failing to protect the source of my light.
Therefore, I would urge each and every one of you in the new year to consciously and deliberately cultivate the sources of light in your life so that the darkness can find little or no corners open to stagnate.
While there may or may not be a Devil as told to us when we were ye high, we as humans most certainly have a tendency neglect our solar power needs, which can have catastrophic consequences, as history has shown.
This year, commit to being as radiant as you can, and do not allow yourself to discount the importance of shining your own light. We are all more powerful than we believe ourselves to be, and as the old saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. We are only as bright as our fuel allows; let’s make sure that our fire is always stoked.
Hannah Elizabeth 