Who stands in the light will cast a shadow. Acknowledge your shadow and it comes under your power. Humans aspire to the characteristics and behaviours that we value.

These are shiny, pleasing things that we are happy for people to know about us, such as; being kind, thoughtful, loving, generous etc. As we look towards these things we are shining the light - the light of our awareness on these things.

But, anything of substance - casts a shadow. If we have made positive gains in the direction of character, or spiritual development, the Universal Law of Polarity reveals that the counterpart will exist in the dark.

For example,

• If I am loving and accepting, I WILL also be hateful and judgemental.
• If I am thoughtful of others, I WILL be selfish and inconsiderate.
• If I am generous, I WILL be stingy.

You get the idea.

As much as I love to be loving and non-judgemental, the truth is that I dislike much, and am constantly comparing and judging. I HATE TO SEE THIS IN MYSELF.

But, denying this polarity and looking only to the light, is dangerous. It is like a poisonous snake, if I look away I don’t know where it is or what it is doing and it can strike me while I am not looking.

I don’t know about you, but if there is something dangerous in my environment, I would rather keep an eye on it. Just the same, there are lots of benefits of looking for our shadow self, the opposite or polarity of what we aspire to be.

When I look for it, I shine the light of awareness there and it can’t sneak out and bite me or others in the proverbial while I am not looking.

The other thing is that if I am willing to accept that this is true of my personality, I come to “an honest account of myself”, as Dr Victor Frankl says in the “Man’s Search For Meaning”.

Like the ancient proverb “The truth will set you free”. This honesty with self is very freeing. It produces self acceptance, and self love, which spills over onto others.

This is not to say that I shouldn’t set the intention to be kind and loving, but I can accept that I do it very, very imperfectly and that is okay.