Polarity: A Solid Foundation

[Illustro Cado]

There's a lot of discussion on various behaviors in relation to polarity. But that's not what it's about; to focus on specific actions is to miss the point. Action is the effect of polarization, not the means. While it can prove helpful to contrast behaviors against one another, to do so exclusively is mental masturbation. This is not a shift you can make through mere intellectualization, nor is it possible to neatly categorize people based solely on what they do.

Polarizing is very simple. You don't have to lobotomize yourself to do it and you don't need to completely rearrange your life the moment you've decided which way you're going to go. It is an internal shift whereby you bring everything in your life into alignment with a certain part of yourself. The result is that you will place a greater emphasis on helping others or serving yourself.

It is not a choice between the ego and the heart. Those aren't true opposites. Love and fear are also inadequate because of the connotations each word has. Crown chakra and the root chakra are closer, but too abstract. Spirit and will is close, but in my opinion the best way to divide it is oneness and separateness. As I see it, those terms embody both the internal shift and the actions that result from it.

Embracing oneness does not mean you become (for lack of a better term) a bleeding heart *****. It doesn't dictate what clothes you'll wear, what food you'll eat, or what music you'll listen to. Polarity is not a set of rules you live by. If someone says that no lightworker would eat meat, that someone is imposing his or her personal bias onto the concept of polarity. If you're looking for a list of dos and do nots, join a religion. You can safely ascertain whether someone is or isn't polarized based on the condition of their lives and certain things that they do (i.e., a lightworker wouldn't consistently seek personal glory) but their polarity in no way limits their actions, it only indicates what they are most likely to do.

Many, Steve included, define the difference between lightworkers and darkworkers as the choice between love and fear. This is decidedly lightworker biased. It tends to give people the wrong impression, and it's incapable of adapting to a more nuanced interpretation of what love and fear are.

Of course it's meant to be simple. However, it adds needless complications to the mix when you're talking to someone who isn't well-versed in new age terminology, and it makes it makes things needlessly confusing when trying to address questions like, "can darkworkers love?"

Lightworkers think of everybody as being on the same level. No person is any less important than any other person. But because they are human they have limited resources to devote to other people so they have to prioritize their connections. They can't afford to waste time on someone who doesn't want to be helped, and really it would be a violation of the other person's free will to try and force it on them. So in relationships, both lightworkers and darkworkers have to prioritize. Both of them are capable of love in their own terms.

The difference between them is that lightworkers prioritize without creating a hierarchy. Just because they have chosen who they will connect with, they don't regard those they haven't connected with as being lesser people. Darkworkers do. To a darkworker, there are the worthy and there are the unworthy. It's pretty easy to tell where you fall. (A darkworker might also say it's hypocritical to say you can prioritize without creating a hierarchy. If you have taken a woman as your wife, you obviously think there is something about her which makes her better than any other woman you've met.)

That is the most basic aspect of polarity. On a fundamental level, it's a decision concerning how you will relate to people. But how do you follow through on that decision? Remember that paradigm shifts rarely occur because you wake up one day and decide this is what you're going to do every moment hereafter. That's where the will and spirit comes in.

Neither lightworking nor darkworking has an inherent set of beliefs. A countless number of perspectives can fit within either mold. Indeed, you can be an atheistic lightworker (although you'd almost certainly reject that label). However, even as an atheistic lightworker you'd identify yourself with something larger than you. Instead of a god or a spirit, you'd devote yourself to an image of humanity living at its peak. Even if you had to sacrifice yourself to manifest it, you'd do it. Darkworkers are far more grounded. No ideal is worthy of sacrifice. The exception to this is when their code of honor mandates sacrifice. The difference between their code and a larger ideal is that an ideal is something which is universal. A code of honor is something decided by the individual.

Perhaps the most fundamental aspect of polarity is identity. In polarizing, you decide who you are. It excludes nothing; you can be a darkworker which acknowledges that there's a spiritual aspect to his existence, and no lightworker is going to make it very far if he tries to deny his individuality. It's all a matter of perspective. One simple shift changes everything.

To close this out, I'm going to address why I think defining lightworking as the path of the heart and darkworking as the path of the ego is, at best, inadequate. The heart is essential no matter what road you walk. People tend to forget that the heart isn't comprised entirely of fuzzy, loving feelings. A heart scorned is like a blade. It can fuel triumphs and atrocities. Darkworkers are not cut off from their hearts, instead the heart's energy is modified by an influx from the will. (To use a metaphor, the heart is the engine, polarity is the fuel.)

What effects does that have? It places a lot more focus on you individually. You relate to other people as individuals, some of whom you're able to get close to but none who can know you as you do. You will have a really strong ego and you'll effortlessly separate what something is from what it is not. It's not the path of the ego in the way that it's not a path that's exclusively ego. A darkworker can acknowledge higher aspects of his own existence. He might even concede that all things are essentially one. However, while he acknowledges that there is a tapestry, he adds "but it's still made up of individual threads." The darkworker's goal is to get as much out of this form of existence as possible. This leads to rapid acquisition of earthly power, but if he's thinking long term, it also lends itself to the destruction of outmoded beliefs, habits, and limitations. A darkworker who is holding onto illusions will not be able to hold onto them for very long. (And if they don't think long term, they gain the power to amplify their delusions and in turn destroy themselves.)

A lightworker relates to everyone as aspects of himself, or as people (or creatures) who are fundamentally the same as he is. While it's still difficult, if not impossible, to know someone as well as they know themselves, lightworkers long for relationships wherein they can be completely open with one another. They seek love without barriers. They make good diplomats and they are able to speak to the best part of your nature. The downside is their will tends to be ignored ergo it's easy for them to lose touch with their individuality and it can be difficult for them to know where the boundaries are between them and other people. It's also a common trait for them to shun anything relating to "negative" feelings and thus repress their anger, sadness, and what have you instead of learning how to channel it in a healthy way.

Both sides have a tendency to shun the other. It's easy for a darkworker to become psychopathic or for a lightworker to become detached from reality. If you intend to polarize, there are risks. There's no way around it. You will have to be courageous and consistent to avoid the pitfalls.