by Philippe Lewis

But don't just take my word for it.

I love articles about the "Love and Light" spiritual bypass crap that goes from the indirect bypass/shaming/guilting/shunning all the way to the loud "calling out" of anyone that doesn't behave with pure "love and light" in their heart. 

Well, I've got news for you: unless you've lived under a rock (or in cave, how spiritually romantic), and were raised by the perfect parents (which simply don't exist), then as you've circled the sun you've come to realize that you're not only living in a REAL and GRITTY world, you're also likely accumulated shadow/shit/stuff faster than you can integrate it. And if not you, then the people around you who you have to live with, deal with and be in relationship with. 

And here's the thing: accumulating new shadow/shit/stuff/karma and integrating/clearing/healing it is one of the trickiest most balancey most time consuming thing there is. 

Otherwise -- and likely -- it's a mess.

So how do you deal with it? How do you integrate it? How do you heal it? 

It all begins with the simple yet incredibly powerful skills of sharing vulnerably and authentically with those we trust and are in community with, and the container to do it. Unfortunately, the articles mentioned Bove don't go any deeper than asking for this sharing and doesn't say ANYTHING about how to do it well and skillfully and what containers to do it in so that this shadow/karma doesn't just get TRANSFERRED to others, but rather allows it to dissipate. 

Abuse happened and continues to happen. 

Trangression happened and continues to happen.

Trauma happened and continues to happen.

Suffering happened and continues to happen.

Too often I see the promoters of Love and Light not only asking for a reduction in abuse, transgression, trauma, and suffering (without offering concrete solutions), but also asking for people to get their trauma out without the right skills and containers present. Or they imagine that these skills and containers are for others, not them.

Otherwise here's what happens. We demonize because doing our own inner shadow work to acknowledge that the demon also lives inside of us is too much for us. We turn away from those who go out of balance because we've lost all resilience to what ISN'T love and light. Yes, we've lost our ability to see and feel the darkest parts of ourselves and so we've lost the ability to be with others who are expressing those darkest shadows. We scapegoat even when the tools are present and fully available because we don't believe that those we consider to be demons can change. By lacking the ability to BE with shadow (we've cleared it all away, haven't we?) we can no longer HEAL shadow in others. So we separate ourselves in ivory towers of our own making where all is beautiful and rosy and sustainable and beautiful and sweet and schwirly and pretty and awesome and blissful. 

These modern emotional amusement parks are called conscious parties, conscious dancing, transformational festivals, conscious relationships, etc.

And they are bubbles that can inspire us and connect us and focus us as much as they can separate us if we believe only in love and light."

by Philippe Lewis