Love & Death - The path of Light and Shadow

(Picture: Margarete Petersen Tarot)

There is something, that we humans - whether spiritual or not - try to avoid by any means, even though knowing, that it can´t be avoided: Death.
Death is not something that happens to us at the end of our life, but accompanies us throughout.
Death is the unloved brother of life - in other words: it is the ultimate shadow.

There are endless methods invented by us, to not confront ourselves with death.
The process though is always the same and it´s called search
First, we try to push away negative things and then we search for the light.
Search is our way of trying to avoid "what is".

If you believe, that your awakening will only come in the form of light, love, happiness, lightness and bliss, then you try to push away the other half of reality.
You may try to do so, but after a while, the pushed away parts will demand your attention.
There is no way to avoid the shadow - doesn´t matter how much you believe yourself to be enlightened.
On the contrary - the "lighter" you get, the more shadows will appear.

Every great spiritual master - be it Jesus or Buddha - went trough phases of immense suffering.
It´s this suffering, that will break your heart open and not your positive affirmations and clever methods of avoiding it.
Even words like healing, transformation and clearing are often used as a subtle way to avoid pain and suffering. In fact, there are endless attempts to ban negative things out of our consciousness.

You can´t talk these things nice to yourself, because in this birth process, there is no option for a Caesarean.
Only when you got the courage to welcome all appearances, feelings and thoughts in your consciousness and let them be, you will reach a great breakthrough.

In the end, it´s the courage to face death and his children pain, depression, sadness, anger, rage and vulnerability
They all carry the genes of their father in them and give you the impression, that something that should not happen just happened.

The thing is, that these emotions are buried so deep within us, that we sometimes can´t recognize them for what they are. Too many layers and strategies of avoidance are covering them up.

Often I hear people talk about love, as if it would be an emotion.
"Love your shadows" and "Love yourself" become under this misunderstanding just another try to counter a negative feeling with a positive one.
To say it loud and clear: Love is not a feeling!

To be precise, love is not even an energy. Love is a synonym for the consciousness that you are - and in this consciousness every emotion and thought is allowed to appear.

Death is the ultimative end and in that a function of Love itself.
Death is the sponge that wipes the slate of Love clean.
Every emotion and every appearance dies through its grace.
Only through death, new waves can arise in the ocean of Love.
In this sense, Love and Death are one and the same.