Darkness & Light: The Philosophical Path of an Eclectic Pagan

Prelude

 I have a Western name and a Western lifestyle. I was grown and raised in the Westernized Culture, with the same belief systems already in place, handed down to me from generation to generation. Although one of my parents broke off from his generational state of beliefs, he did not wander that far, only in what could only be compared to jumping from one side of the river to the other. Nonetheless, the traditions he bore look of the same standard as before, but with more scrutiny and more of a rule base that did not seek to open people's eyes, but to close them more to the nature and beauty of the world. For it was in fear of ourselves corrupting the beauty all around us, and although that is a real danger that us humans can create, it is this exact paranoia that has collapsed our souls out of fear and nary step a foot to see and explore the beauty of the world that was created for us.

It is true that we have one Creator, and this infinite Being that we call the Almighty, has created a world for us to love and behold. It is a vast world in which we can only begin to scratch the surface here on earth. Our mortal bodies cannot fathom the possibilities of this world, and therefore, we seek to only find a certain comfort zone in which we reside and fail to see what is beyond what we know and see. This is a great injustice to our soul, because by refusing to see beyond ourselves, we are rejecting the greatest gift that our Great Creator has bestowed upon us: the Beauty of Life.

I have had a deep love and passion for beauty all of my life, and it is this great call to beauty that has driven me all of my life. I must admit, I still have great fear in my soul, and that is a fear that may take many years to overcome, but I have determined to myself that I must press through. Like a ship passing through the fog, the captain must have faith that he can eventually get through the fog and see the clearing. This is the hope that I have, as the fog has covered my soul for years and there is no telling when the clearing will come.

I stand firm, however, asserting the different beliefs that I have maintained through my previous years as I know to be stated fact. I know, intuitively, that there is a God, a Creator, and a Benevolent Lover, full of deep passion and wonder that is far beyond our own imagination and comprehension. It is this God that is the reason for my own existence, and is the reason for all that exists in my life and beyond my life. He has created a universe that I may never be able to see and to explore, but all the same, He allows me to sit and admire such a creation in which I cannot possibly experience or understand. He has taught me the beauty of unknown wonders and meditating greatly on what I cannot possibly know. This is a constant reminder to myself, not of the littleness of my existence, nor the inferiority of my complexion, but to make into a sharp reality how I myself am not God. I am not the One who created things beyond recognition, nor direct my path into a place of the unknown. It is truly an act of humbleness to meditate on the vastness and wonder of the created Universe and to discover the art of what is not seen with our own eyes.

It brings me great peace to see the world beyond what is seen. I see the brilliant structure, the creative undertones, the underbelly of the intricate design. I have learned to look past the things that appear as they are, but to see what is beneath or behind it. Like seeing what is in the shadow of the object, or place, or person. We all cast a shadow, and few can see what is inside their own shadows. This is not only a shadow that is created in the physical world, but when we face the sun, the shadow that our soul carries with it. As it is with the physical shadow, our shadow spreads the more we try to make ourselves equal to the light source. The shadow remains short the higher we put God, but the more we even ourselves with our Creator, the longer our shadow is casted, covering the ground behind us. In order to remove this shadow, we must keep our beloved Creator above us, while keeping the ground beneath our feet. While here on Earth, we are meant to be between the heavenly skies and the dead-riddled earth.