It is important to integrate all aspects of ourselves—including a stable identity and relationship with the emotions— in order to really maintain an open heart, which is the essence of selfless service. We can’t really be in this consciousness if subconsciously we are always trying to protect, defend or prove ourselves because at the level of the sense of self something hasn’t yet been fully brought to the light of awareness. Both competition and merging (or fear of it) come from this basic point.
It is the meaning of power to know this essence of ourselves and who we are serving, if we are to be leaders and live what we preach. The control system can have its hooks in us because it uses the unintegrated shadow of the human psyche to steer people towards the finality of samsara and disconnection from the source of life. If we do the work to be honest with ourselves and see how we can be motivated by fear, lust, greed, or even false idealism, then we can really stand in our true and permanent identity and be able to serve life without being derailed by forces outside of Divine magic.
There are different means by which the dark magic tries to destabilize us, preying primarily on the first three chakras of the body. At the root chakra it is to stimulate fear of lacking and death; at the sacral, it is to program lustful or misaligned desire that goes against healthy creation; at the Manipura chakra it is to provoke either pride or insecurity based on the false identity related to the first two chakras rather than based on spirit identity.
If we can discern where and how we are being lead off course, we can begin to call for the medicine of realigning ourselves with the Divine reality. In this way we can also get out of the conditioned guilt and shame of making a mistake or falling for the manipulation. There are continual tests in this life that should be seen as the opportunity to awaken real happiness and love, which forever hold more weight than the illusion.
Distorted religion and spirituality focus on the so-called positive, the “light,” the affirmation, the idealized vision of service— all while trying to hide from the shadow, pushing away those things which don’t cohere with their affirmation. This functioning reveals a misunderstanding of the completeness of life, where nothing is ever truly separate from the heart of the Creator. Where we have fear of darkness is where we open ourselves up to being manipulated by it.
If we do not become aware of this essential integration work, then we cannot make much progress on the spiritual path. The “demons” wage war through blocking us from truly listening to life, from being receptive to the messages that come naturally. And without this our attention is always directed at quelling the voices inside our head. To be open to hearing something outside our sick conditioned minds requires courage in the face of the unknown and Divine trust. It means letting go of the illusion of control, of false power, to start being guided by life, realizing we’re not on top of it but a part, and that there is a flow to things. To let ourselves be carried by its current does not mean we abandon to just anything but simply that we put our faith in the whole to integrate all parts of itself through His superior intelligence, love and power.
