Darkness: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Deepawali festival by Ashish Kanitkar.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Diwali celebration. Photo by Ashish Kanitkar.]]
[[File:Deepawali festival by Ashish Kanitkar.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Diwali celebration. Photo by Ashish Kanitkar.]]
=== Hinduism ===
=== Hinduism ===
Goodness and evil, '''light and darkness coexist''' in every person, following the pattern of the ancient powers called the Devas and Asuras in the Vedic literature:
<blockquote>
The Devas and Asuras, Angels and Titans, powers of Light and powers of Darkness in Rigveda, although distinct and opposite in operation, are in essence consubstantial, their distinction being a matter not of essence but of orientation, revolution or transformation. In this case, the Titan is potentially an Angel, the Angel still by nature a Titan; the Darkness ''in actu'' is Light, the Light ''in potentia'' Darkness; whence the designations Asura and Deva may be applied to one and the same Person according to the mode of operation.<ref> Ananda Coomaraswamy. "Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology" ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' vol. 55 (1935),  373-374.</ref>
</blockquote>


Hindu '''deities linked to darkness''' include Ratri, goddess of the night, and Rahu is the celestial deity of darkness
Hindu '''deities linked to darkness''' include Ratri, goddess of the night, and Rahu is the celestial deity of darkness

Revision as of 16:28, 5 July 2018

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Emerging into light from darkness. Pixabay image.

Darkness in its most common usages is a term that indicates the absence of light, or the presence of evil. As a physical phenomenon that every person experiences daily, it has taken on many religious, psychological, and symbolic meanings.

Theosophical viewpoint

Darkness, in the Theosophical literature, is a term applied in different ways. It generally refers to the Absolute, to the universe in pralaya or to pre-cosmic principles, before the manifestation of the cosmos.

According to the tenets of Eastern Occultism, DARKNESS is the one true actuality, the basis and the root of light, without which the latter could never manifest itself, nor even exist. Light is matter, and DARKNESS pure Spirit. Darkness, in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and absolute light; while the latter in all its seeming effulgence and glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can never be eternal, and is simply an illusion, or Maya.[1]

Illustration of darkness

Meaning of the term

In the context of universal principles, the word "darkness" is used to refer to those principles that are beyond our comprehension, so that they appear as darkness to our minds:

[The] source is unknown, though as strongly demanded by reason and logic, therefore it is called “Darkness” by us, from an intellectual point of view.[2]

It is Darkness most unquestionably to our intellect, inasmuch as we can know nothing of it. I told you already that neither Darkness nor Light are to be used in the sense of opposites, as in the differentiated world.[3]

At the level of these universal principles we are not talking about light or its absence. Therefore this "darkness" is not the opposite of light:

In the sense of objectivity, both light and darkness are illusions—maya; in this case, it is not Darkness as absence of Light, but as one incomprehensible primordial Principle, which, being Absoluteness itself, has for our intellectual perceptions neither form, colour, substantiality, nor anything that could be expressed by words.[4]

The term darkness is sometimes used in a relative way:

In using figurative language, as has been done in The Secret Doctrine, analogies and comparisons are very frequent. Darkness for instance, as a rule, applies only to the unknown totality, or Absoluteness. Contrasted with eternal darkness, the first Logos is certainly Light; contrasted with the second or third, the manifested Logos, the first is Darkness, and the others are Light.[5]

In the same way it can be said that what is darkness to the regular mind, may not necessarily be so to the mystic or the Adept:

[It] is absolute darkness to the scientific mind, and but a gray twilight to the perception of the average mystic, though to that of the spiritual eye of the Initiate it is absolute light.[6]

Toward the Light by E. L. Thomson, 1939

The Absolute

The ultimate darkness is the absolute reality, which cannot be perceived even by the Logos:

Q. What is Ever-Darkness in the sense used here?
A. Ever-Darkness means, I suppose, the ever-unknowable mystery, behind the veil—in fact, Parabrahm. Even the Logos can see only Mulaprakriti, it cannot see that which is beyond the veil. It is that which is the “Ever-unknowable Darkness.”[7]

The Absolute being the source of everything, in the Theosophical Literature it is said that darkness is the source of light:

If the absolute deity can be referred to as Darkness or the Dark Fire, the light, its first progeny, is truly the first self-conscious god.[8]

For the Occultist, the Rosecroix of the Middle Ages, and even the mediaeval Kabalists, said that to our human perception and even to that of the highest “angels,” the universal Deity is darkness, and from this Darkness issues the Logos. . .[9]

But esoterically, it is Darkness itself, the unknowable Absolute which is the Source, firstly of the radiation called the First Logos, then of its reflection, the Dawn, or the Second Logos, and finally of Brahmâ, the manifested Light, or the Third Logos.[10]

Thus, the Darkness is regarded as eternal, while the appearance of light (or manifestation) is a non-eternal phenomena occurring periodically.[11]

Pralaya

According to Madame Blavatsky, darkness can represent a time of absolute rest:

Darkness is taken as the appropriate allegorical representation of the condition of the Universe during Pralaya, or the term of absolute rest, or non-being, as it appears to our finite minds.[12]

When the whole universe was plunged in sleep—had returned to its one primordial element—there was neither centre of luminosity, nor eye to perceive light, and darkness necessarily filled the boundless all.[13]

Pre-cosmic Principles

In some instances the term "darkness" is applied to the pre-cosmic principles, especially when they are mentioned in reference to the manifested elements. The first or unmanifested Logos is called in Stanzas of Dzyan Stanza III.8 "the dark hidden father" as opposed to the manifested "white brilliant son".[14] Darkness is also used to refer to the the first cosmic element, "the waters" or "chaos", before it differentiated into the different planes.[15]

Satan and Lucifer

H. P. Blavatsky wrote of the term darkness as applied to Satan, "The Prince of Darkness." However, Satan is also related to Lucifer, which means "the light bearer":

Even in the mind-baffling and science-harassing Genesis, light is created out of darkness “and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (ch. i. v. 2.)—and not vice versâ. “In him (in darkness) was life; and the life was the light of men” (John i. 4). A day may come when the eyes of men will be opened; and then they may comprehend better than they do now, that verse in the Gospel of John that says “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth it not.” They will see then that the word “darkness” does not apply to man’s spiritual eyesight, but indeed to “Darkness,” the absolute, that comprehendeth not (cannot cognize) transient light, however transcendent to human eyes.[16]

Demon est Deus inversus. The devil is now called Darkness by the Church, whereas, in the Bible he is called the “Son of God” (see Job), the bright star of the early morning, Lucifer (see Isaiah). There is a whole philosophy of dogmatic craft in the reason why the first Archangel, who sprang from the depths of Chaos, was called Lux (Lucifer), the “Luminous Son of the Morning,” or manvantaric Dawn. He was transformed by the Church into Lucifer or Satan, because he is higher and older than Jehovah, and had to be sacrificed to the new dogma.[17]

Religious views of darkness

Judaism

Hanukkah or Chanukah is a festival of lights and rededication that takes place over eight days. It celebrates rededication of the Second Temple. Oil that normally would have been sufficient to stave off the darkness for one night was miraculously able to provide light for eight nights.

Christianity

Mediaeval Christian mystics such as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite or texts like The Cloud of Unknowing use the word darkness to refer to the highest and unknowable aspect of the Godhead.

Islam

Darkness is considered to be the necessary opposite to light. In order to know and identify anything, its opposite must be brought to the same place so the contrasts become apparent. Light can not be identified and distinguished unless darkness exists. Other references to darkness in Islam:

  • Jahiliyya is the word used to describe the period of ignorance and darkness preceding Islam. It also refers to the general condition of those who have not accepted Islam - unbelievers, infidels, or heretics.
  • Light provides guidance, and darkness is ignorance.
  • The Quran has verses in which God talks about moving from darkness towards light as the purification of the soul.
  • In the Quran (Nab 78.25), people who commit transgressions are doomed to “burning despair and ice-cold darkness”.

Buddhism

Diwali celebration. Photo by Ashish Kanitkar.

Hinduism

Goodness and evil, light and darkness coexist in every person, following the pattern of the ancient powers called the Devas and Asuras in the Vedic literature:

The Devas and Asuras, Angels and Titans, powers of Light and powers of Darkness in Rigveda, although distinct and opposite in operation, are in essence consubstantial, their distinction being a matter not of essence but of orientation, revolution or transformation. In this case, the Titan is potentially an Angel, the Angel still by nature a Titan; the Darkness in actu is Light, the Light in potentia Darkness; whence the designations Asura and Deva may be applied to one and the same Person according to the mode of operation.[18]

Hindu deities linked to darkness include Ratri, goddess of the night, and Rahu is the celestial deity of darkness and eclipses.

Diwali, or Deepawali, is an annual festival of lights celebrated as a national holiday in India and by Hindus everywhere. It represents the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and triumph of the good over the lower nature. The festival extends over several days, with the most important day falling in the dark of the moon of the Hindu Lunisolar month Kartika in Bikram Sambat calendar (mid-October and mid-November). Hindus clean their homes in advance of Diwali, and participate in family puja (prayers) to the goddess Lakshmi. They enjoy special foods, exchange gifts, and light lamps, candles, and fireworks.

Darkness in psychology

Darkness in the arts and popular culture

  • The Cloud of Unknowing frequently appears in music, film, and literature.
  • T. S. Eliot wrote in his poem “East Coker”:
I said to my soul, be still, and let the
dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God.

Notes

  1. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 70.
  2. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 40.
  3. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 337.
  4. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 331.
  5. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 368.
  6. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 41.
  7. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 351.
  8. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 375.
  9. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 376.
  10. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 376.
  11. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 351.
  12. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 69.
  13. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 41.
  14. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 77.
  15. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 366.
  16. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 70.
  17. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 70-71.
  18. Ananda Coomaraswamy. "Angel and Titan: An Essay in Vedic Ontology" Journal of the American Oriental Society vol. 55 (1935), 373-374.

Further reading