It’s been questioned, fought over, and clichéd to the point of making me nauseous, so here are my not-so-definitive thoughts on the nature of “light” and “dark” and their place in the grand scheme.
I’m dark. That’s easy enough to say but doesn’t mean much right off. Most people either just go “oh cool” or break out the good book and write me off as yet another of Satan’s Minions. Granted, I’m guilty of playing a lot for the sake of fundamentalists and others easily offended, but none of that has anything to do with the “light” or “dark” I’m referring to. I’m not a Goth, and actually not a terribly nasty person. Just different.
A lot of my own confusion, which even now I still have trouble with, has come from mixing up the terms “good” and “evil” as though they applied. They don’t, and have nothing to do with light and dark. To my view, nobody is good or evil. We make choices, for better or worse, and our actions can become and be called good or evil, but terms like that don’t fit conscious beings that can shape their own path.
For me, light and dark refer mostly to our natures and the types of beings we are. It refers to what our overall role was meant to be here, or ethereally. Creation and destruction, making and unmaking, giving and taking, birth and death, hunter and prey. All opposites, and all should be equally valued and respected for their own beauty and purpose. For me light and dark are the nature of survival, growth, and how we achieve it.
Life here can’t continue without death. Overpopulation creates suffering in this world, and certainly doesn’t avoid death. If anything it causes far more pain and suffering. With the Creator wanting to take a lengthy and much needed vacation, sie created lions and wolves to help keep the zebras and sheep in check. Creation can’t happen until the old or failing are destroyed to make way for the new. Otherwise catastrophe and starvation take hold, and more suffering than was ever intended happens. “Something” somewhere is called upon to clear the way.
Strange as it seems, from this vampyre’s view, chi, prana, or life essence also must be removed to make way for new creation. Beings of “light” thrive on its creation, it courses out from them to sustain their lives. Beings of “dark” thrive on its destruction, we draw it into ourselves to sustain our lives. Both types of entities use it to span distances to reach and be one with others, to feel, to touch, and of course they make use of it through magick. It is the essence that bonds them together in the astral and gives them form and flight.
There is no difference between us except that one group creates that life, and the other must always seek it out and feed on it to survive. That’s just one example of a dark being, but there are many others.
We’re not liked or appreciated most of the time. Fear, prejudice, misconceptions, and general disgust and hatred are all part of a deal none of us asked for. We’re thought of as self-serving, evil thieves, and especially unenlightened for being in our “current” situation. Obviously we’re evil, and obviously we’ve done something somewhere to deserve to be such a thing.
In actuality, we are the ones forced to clean up after beings of “light” leave messes everywhere with ambient energies from emotional catastrophes or exuberance. And when there are no messes to clean up, and we can find no beings that give off more life than they need, we’re forced through pain and suffering to seek it out and take it as nature intended.
Sometimes this is at the expense of others and causes harm in doing so. It’s either that or succumb to our own nature, which in my case means to die slowly and cruelly. I’ve yet to meet any others that have gone that far in abstinence or self-inflicted torture. Even among the rare, I’m strange.
It’s how we were created though, and not “evil.” I may not always agree with it, and certainly don’t always enjoy it when I see what it does to others and think in society’s terms. Whether we accept it or not, some of us are not allowed the choice to be any other way. As much as I like to complain, we’re given gifts to make up for the enslavement of the job, so even in that there is balance. It’s just a matter of accepting ourselves.
Another way light and dark manifest themselves is simply in the more mundane natures of beings. For instance, usually I thoroughly enjoy being contradictory, negative, and combative. Others, whom I would call light and “fluffy” (somewhat derogatory, but good-naturedly so), only prefer peace, harmony, and the communal sense of oneness and friendship. Even in that we serve our purpose.
Both paths, light and dark, are means of enlightenment, both offer their own challenges and rewards, and both are equal in all respects. To bring together disparate groups, to bring a sense of “oneness” to a group, and to heal and help, are all difficult in the extreme. In a like manner, to tear apart like-minded groups, to bring about a sense of individuality {in the midst of} a group, and even to try to be adversarial and break down the egos of the self-centered are also difficult in the extreme. Fighting for such things causes us to really examine and learn more about others, ourselves, and the various natures within creation. In doing so we learn more about existence itself if we can recognize it.
Let me clarify further that, in my beliefs, presenting others with challenges benefits those challenged just as much as it benefits challenger. Those challenged must give pause and become introspective in their search for answers to the challenge. To defy such an “attack” requires a community to become introspective as a whole, to question the bonds that tie them together, and the values they espouse.
If that sense of self is never questioned, sometimes lies become truths, falsehoods become the accepted standards, and self-centered indulgence in “community” can lead to far more harm than good. Again, we dark ones serve a purpose in what we are. In cases where society has gone too far and has become corrupt and decayed, we can break up communities and establishments so that newer, healthier relations can be formed in their place.
A bit outside the light/dark theme, but relevant nonetheless — “Revolutionaries” are often thought of as evil criminals by the old establishment until the new one comes into being. Only then are they properly given the respect and title they deserve. In the end, history rewrites them to give understanding to the good deeds they’d done at a very personal cost. Sometimes at the cost of their lives.
I can’t stress enough that neither dark nor light is good or evil, especially in their purest forms. They are merely a different part of the cycle of creation and recreation. There are dark beings that go beyond their purpose and cause serious harm to others, doing things that would be called outright evil. Likewise there are just as many, if not more, light beings that go beyond their purpose and cause harm as well in their enthusiasm for sharing their light and truths. The Crusades come to mind as a nice {example of} that. Witch hunts as well. Good and evil do not apply.
I’m fairly certain that if any roll-call and head count were made for light and dark creatures, we would be in the minority and probably on the endangered species list. Sadly, suicide seems to be a very common theme in the “dark” community, and understandably so from the judgements passed by others upon us, and by us upon ourselves.
In light and dark, we are the mirror given to each other by the Creator in hir infinite mercy so that we can learn and grow. Hopefully, when balance returns again to this place, we’ll all be able to respect each other for what we really are. Kin, and each other’s reflections.
I read somewhere that someday the wolf would lie down with the lamb. It’s something to hope for.
Kyra