Is it necessarily a bad thing to recognize the dark side of ourselves? Denying the macabre is a denial of part of our souls. To truly appreciate light we must embrace the dark. To feel the fullness of joy, we must understand and have felt pain.

But what is our responsibilioty when working with dark magic? Should we ever call upon the darker gods and goddesses to pay them homage? Why are the darker aspects of the divine ignored? Are we afraid they will be unleashed?

Is the darker side of self something to be shunted aside or banished - or should it be embraced as an aspect of our own personal polarity? Everyone has thoughts ans feelings best to keep to themselves or thought to be such. Such things are normal, but we hide them. We leave them in the recesses of our mind, out of shame or embarrassment.

Nature is not all kind and benevolent. It's peaceful and violent, light and dark, birth and death, mating and murder. Those aspects seeming darker are just the cycles of nature. They are normal and carry beauty, even in the grotesque.

What pure nature lacks, it seems, is the petty vindictiveness, the arrogance, and the selfishness of man. But not all tenebrous thoughts are bred of those; they just are. We can respect the darker part of self, without giving in. By accepting it without shame and embracing it, we can seek to understand our selves and be not ashamed of what we are.

We are part of nature.

Creatures of and kin to the divine.

Both sides.. light and dark.