“The moon will guide you through the night with her brightness, but she will always dwell in the darkness, in order to be seen.” - Shannon L. Alder, author.
Some may wonder about the meaning of ‘dark’ in Dark Paganism.
Dark Paganism assumes two schools of thought in spirituality. Each school shares the same emphasis, which is an exploration of existential matters. However, the two schools each address this exploration from different directions.
The most common school of thought is the external approach. This school seeks meaning and purpose outside the individual. The primary existential question in the external approach concerns the meaning of the universe. In the external approach, reality is often viewed as One. It’s common for an alternative to the One to be seen as evil. This viewpoint often results in a dualistic worldview where good struggles against evil. According to the external approach, life’s meaning is in uniting oneself and one’s actions with this great Unity.
In the internal approach, reality is a complex mix of interactions and relationships. Because of this complexity, there is no underlying Unity or dualistic battle between good and evil. The primary existential question for the internal approach isn’t about the meaning of the universe but about searching for personal meaning and learning how the individual fits into this complex reality. Therefore, the emphasis of the internal approach is on the Self and the search for personal identity.
The metaphor of “light” is applied to the external approach to spirituality. In contrast, the internal approach to spirituality is “dark.” To understand this terminology, imagine a cave. During the daytime, the outside of the cave is light, while the cave inside is dark.
When we apply these metaphors to the person, we find that the dark represents the Self, while the light represents the world external to the Self. The Self is dark because, like the cave’s interior, it’s hidden from sight. Each person’s psyche, or internal behavior, is, in a sense, a black box. No one else can directly observe our private thoughts and feelings, making them “dark.”
Because what’s advocated here is a spiritual philosophy centered on honoring and cultivating the Self, it’s referred to as “dark.”
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