What Do We Learn in the Dark?

Choices.  Life is full of so many choices.  Every day we make them and every day we get closer to or further away from our desires, based on our choices.  And maybe we vacillate, closer, further, closer, further, so we end up doing something that looks like a dog paddle...the hanged man in the tarot.  We're stuck. It's enough to drive a soul to anger.  Hanging around, just hanging around on the proverbial corner, it's enough to get a being into a really good state of agitation. It's enough to drive them mad.

But, if you're lucky, all that festering, all that fretting all those tears that want to come but won't, well if you are lucky, you get pulled under from that little dog paddle.  You get your ass kicked off the curb into the middle of the highway.  If you're lucky, you get a dark night of the soul.  And there my friend, you get to learn.  You get to listen.  You get to see...everything.  And you get to choose, again. 

How long you stay under is up to you.  How stubborn are you?  How long you have to dodge those racing vehicles is totally in your hands.  How closed off is your heart?  Are you addicted to chaos?  Are you addicted to pain? Does peace and love and support feel threatening to you?  And most importantly, always most importantly...do you love yourself?

A dark night of the soul crisis can catapult us into our deepest insecurities and unfounded fears.  It can amplify and accelerate old wounds from past traumas and wrong conclusions from previous experiences relating to love, feeling in love and being in love. It can stir up feelings of jealousy and loneliness.  All of this can blanket us in a fog of depression and if we choose, we can deal with and manage all of these nasties with selfishness (small s).  We can play small. We can manipulate and board up our hearts to neither receiving nor giving love.  But with compassion, first and foremost for our Self (big S), we can create, we can mold a receptive vessel, one that can receive unconditional love from wherever it comes.  We can deepen and open and grow to a place where we too can give love.  We too can give and be unconditional love.
This is not a "How to Heal Your Heart Chakra" blog post.  (But I will link a little video below if you want to have a look). There is plenty of information out there if you want to seek it out.  This is more of a testimony to what beautiful things can come once the heart chakra is open to the higher frequencies of Love.  

A balanced heart chakra allows you to be who you authentically are.  It allows you to evolve as a human being while welcoming change and uncertainty to life.  It allows you to embrace a spiritual journey without running away from spiritual growth.  You are able to feel more empathy, compassion, respect for others and yes, love.  It enables you to experience peace and tranquility as future soul challenges arise. 

I have found that expanding our consciousness, the evolution of our souls, this is the reason we choose to incarnate on this earth.  So, let's do it! And when we do it, we allow our beings the opportunity to form sacred relationships.  Love always empowers.  It never overpowers. It allows us to give freedom to others, to love them enough to do what is in the highest good for their souls.  In love, every soul is free, to choose, to live, to be.
When a sacred union between a man and a woman happens in its most unlimited form, it is an alignment between all 7 chakras.  Before a sacred union can occur, all must come forward to be healed, perhaps through a dark night of the soul, or perhaps through shared agreement, shared love and passion, shared interest and respect, and plenty of compassionate, dedicated, soulful work. 

As James Gilliland puts it in his book, Becoming Gods, 

    "Very few have the love, steadfastness, and courage to enter a 7-chakra union or relationship.  It would be like embracing an Angel, and very few could even look upon one. Imagine everything coming up at once- the fears, wounds, traumas and the projections. If an Angel opened up the gates of heaven and said, "Come walk with me my beloved mate," many would find every way possible to sabotage the affair, rather than look at the, yet there is always that little wounded boy or girl who gets in the wir own fears, unworthiness and mistrust. We all think we know what a sacred man, sacred woman and a sacred union are and desire itay. "
Balancing the chakras takes consistent practice and discipline, just like any other healing modality or exercise.  And yep, sometimes you fall off the wagon.  But if you have learned anything from the darkness, if you have healed anything from the old festering wounds, you suck it up and get back up, as quickly as you can.  You carry on, look for the light and in the event that you just can't muster it up, if you are just too exhausted to move on, then just lay down and take a nap.  The darkness of dreamtime can make a new day possible, again and again and again.