Sin is separation from God.
An impossibility in Reality, the concept of "sin" was derived from mythology to explain the cause of human suffering.
Today, by accepting the grace and mercy of Christ's teachings, New Thought practitioners work through these mental and emotional walls to take down the psychological barriers we have constructed to squarely look at who we are and what we are doing here.
More than the "dark night of the soul" this proposition, once accepted, is often an arduous, lifelong task, so when Debbie Ford wrote The Dark Side of the Light Chasers: Reclaiming Your Power, Creativity, Brilliance, and Dreams in 1998 it was a #1 New York Times Bestseller for weeks.
Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, is most noted for coining the archetypal terms for opposites: "introvert" and "extrovert". However, the glossary of his terminology is found throughout New Thought.
It was Carl Jung who first gave us the term "shadow" to refer to those parts of our personality that have been rejected out of fear, ignorance, shame, or lack of love.
He believed the aim of life was to bring the opposite parts of the person together into a new, improved whole as a result of a process he called 'individuation'. This "journey of the soul" of integration involves the awareness and understanding of what parts we show to the world (which Jung called persona) and what parts we hide from ourselves (the shadow).
In the book, Debbie Ford states: He believed that integrating the shadow would have a profound impact, enabling us to rediscover a deeper source of our own spiritual life. "To do this," Jung said, "we are obliged to struggle with evil, confront the shadow, to integrate the devil. There is no other choice".
Debbie Ford's new movie, The Shadow Effect, powerfully helps us deconstruct our shadows.
We are Sons of God, but as Debbie teaches, "You must go into the dark to bring forth your light". No doubt, the "collective unconscious" is still leery of the promises of the gospel according to Christ.
Jung articulated the concept of the "collective unconscious" to mean that mass consciousness that contains the instincts, urges, and memories of the entire human race.
The Seeds of Sin
By virtue of the fact one is born in the western world, embedded in our DNA upon arrival is the access code to the following psychological calculus by which to interpret our justified suffering:
Adam and Eve were given the garden of Eden and the "Tree of Life" but forbidden to eat from one tree: "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil". Because they ate of the "forbidden fruit", they were condemned to seperation from God by being:
1. Banned from the garden of Eden, no longer able to eat from the "Tree of Life". (Question: Could this be why some of us struggle with our worthiness to live in a beautiful, healthy, abundant planet?)
2. Condemned to bear children through hardship and die. (Question: Could this be why we have normalized parental/child discord which in turn produces difficulty in accepting the death of either?)
3. Eve must especially suffer in childbearing and child rearing (Question: Is this why mothers who choose painless birthing and rearing options often feel guilt?)
4. Adam must labor for his food instead of finding it in the trees (Question: Could this be why men so often associate their identity (ie manhood) with the rigors of their occupation?)
5. Sexual tension between men and women with the desire for the other ruling over them (Question: Does this explain why after dating and mating for millennia, we still have not cracked the code for peaceful, loving relations between the sexes?)
Similiar sin mythologies throughout the world teach us to regard well the veil of darkness embedded in the "collective unconsciousness" inside our respective genetic code.
However, once conscious awareness emerges, the questions then become: How is it that we are perfect and loved as we are? What would religion be without guilt and condemnation? What does being a joint heir with Christ mean?
New Thought teaches us what we choose to think, we choose to live, but what if someone is choosing death? When someone is heading down that dark tunnel, how do you call them back?
We all need help reprogramming our minds to even begin to experience the grace, mercy, joy and true abundance that is our true birthright. Only as individuals do we choose when it is time to release the old for the new and improved whole story of salvation, and tap into collective consciousness.
If you have already made that choice for yourself, join us in loving service and fun to spread the gospel to those in Saint Petersburg struggling with the dark side of their beautiful being.
Join us in a celebration of life Wednesday, September 9th, on National Hoop Day to hula hoop, hear inspirational talks, and pick up a book to benefit suicide prevention efforts in our area.
There is no separation between us and all of life. Let us help those who are where we have been, and heal ourselves once and for all from the effects of the shadow.
What better way to spread a little love around than by doing the hoola for hope?
Comments