VIRB

Our psyche is a union of opposites. Jung said for every "good" thought there had to be a corresponding "evil". The more energy we imbue into the one, by necessity of balance, the stronger its counterpart becomes.  Because of this people are able, under extreme conditions, to make drastic polar changes in attitude and action as conscious and subconscious complexes exchange position. When what we consider a "good" complex takes dominance we call that an epiphany. When good is suppressed by "evil" we view it as psychosis. Yet psychologically the event is the same, only our judgment of the value of the change is different. Both are drastic and life changing events.

In religious terms we could well look at salvation and repentance. When someone consciously makes a decision to turn away (repent/suppress) their darker side and empower the good. If the two sides of the coin are very much apposed then the event is dramatic and powerful. Look at the case of the patriarch Paul. He was for a time the most zealous among the Pharisees, hunting down Christians in the early church until he was struck blind on the road to Damascus by a vision of Christ and became the greatest evangelist of the first century. We have also seen this in reverse in the widely publicized self destructions of many religious leaders in our modern times.

But not all polar changes are so dramatic even though they might be life changing. We can chose to suppress or embrace behaviors and attitudes by an act of will. We are not complete victims of our psyche. It is not an easy process, nor should it be or else we would become completely unstable, but it is possible with sincere effort. We can chose to be that part of our psyche that we desire and suppress that which we find offensive. But to do that we must first see that which we would change (requiring honest self reflection) and then find within ourselves that which we desire to be. By our desire for change we empower that which is buried within the shadow and bring it into the light of consciousness.

Again, in a religious analogy, when we study and pray on that which we see as "holy" then we bring that part of ourselves into conscious thought and thus suppress its opposite. If you fill your heart, your mind, your life with that which is "good" then you become that. If you flirt with the dark side then that darkness is empowered and can burst into consciousness unbidden to over run the good. We make choices every day as to what we will put our thought and desires into. When we profess, and build, a persona of good yet we empower the darkness by thoughts and action, then that shadow will in time force itself into the light and shatter our false persona.

We are creatures of polar opposites in delicate balance. No matter how good we try to be there is always equal darkness within us. We can suppress that darkness by our will but only if we acknowledge (confess) its existence and chose good.

 

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