Humans are selfish, messed up and supremely flawed. We lie, but almost always to ourselves. And that’s why it is forgivable, that we’re playing this destructive game of hide and seek with truth with everyone, but almost always with ourselves. Then it’s quite understandable when another plays the game with us, is it not? We’re greedy, egoistical, we cheat, lie, hide and manipulate for our supposed gain, or at least to skirt self-defined losses.
All that said and done, no matter how terrible or advantageous the consequences of deceit, don’t forget, the first casualty is us. That’s the real end game, the arena where our gods and monsters fight, and it’s anyone’s guess as to who usually wins. How sly the monster is, I marvel, that even when it wins, it deludes us into believing that the gods have won. Welcome to the Devil’s Lair.
The trouble is we have learnt to fixate on the external —tragedy, deceit, addiction, rage, redundant patterns of thought and action, the inadequacies of physical existence—and fall prey to nihilism. This, presumably, to isolate our own personas and shadows from being even a remote part of what we despise, perhaps, to feel better about the shitstorm we’re born into without our consent. But a piercing, unbiased and humble look into ourselves quickly reveals that we share something innate with what we despise, in whatever capacity that may be.
We ourselves breed these dark tendencies within and have developed very sophisticated, sneaky and ever-evolving mental processes to circumvent the flaws in our mental make-up. If we can catch the inner swindler, even once a day to begin with, and if we do it effectively, then kudos to us. There’s always something wily within to catch and say ‘Gotcha!’
The task is humbling, to be carried out with meticulous caution as it’s easy to get lost down the rabbit hole en route to scrutinising one’s darkness. And it is certainly not easy for our deluded persona to come face to face with the underworld of monstrosities which our seemingly ordinary minds have deemed themselves incapable of. But, that is the only way to defeat monsters. By becoming monsters ourselves.
But take heart, as even the mere act of attempting to face our freshly encountered demon-self and looking it in the eye is the birthing of the anti-hero within. However, this monster(anti-hero) that we become is a far cry from the one we stared down. It is this anti-hero who knows the innermost couplings of our shadow and persona. That the new brute is self-knowing and exploratory in nature, makes it more powerful and effective than our ‘all good’ self-defined persona.
The end goal of the dark monster is limitless suffering and absolute catastrophe, given enough time, and is at odds with the end goal of the newly formed anti-hero. Knowing the modus operandi of the monster allows the anti-hero to penetrate the eye of the storm and see the storm for what it actually is.
Integrating our darkest afflictions (the Jungian shadow) into our day to day motions is like dueling with a double-edged sword, as it may hurtle us into unknown realms of the deeper abyss. It is, however, worth every iota of our blood, sweat and tears if we pull it off. The premium bounty of knowing our demons, since we all share primordial tendencies, is that now we know each one of our fellow humans most intimately.
The Bible says– “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth”. The word meek here is a perfect example of wisdom (from Hebrew) getting lost in translation. The correct translation is– “Those who know how to use their swords, but choose to keep them sheathed, shall inherit the world.” So first we must learn how to use the sword, that too, on ourselves. This sword of reason and rationale, wielded by the anti-hero, with love and intention, lights up the remotest corners of our darkness, to birth self-realisation.
This game has played out over the ages if we care to recognise it—David and Goliath, Rama and Ravan. It is worth mentioning, that Seers through the ages have tried to depict the protagonist in numerous legends as the highest ‘all good and forgiving’ fatherly figure archetype. It could be, in my opinion, their attempt to evade introducing the idea of harnessing darkness to ignorant masses, which in those times, were more likely to wreak havoc by misconstruing the central message of the story.
So there! Learn from the monster and sharpen that sword. Our ‘all good-all forgiving’ Gods become ‘all-powerful’ only once they embody the skills of our monsters because our ‘all good–all-forgiving’ Gods can’t defeat monsters, only bigger monsters can.
The author is a 24-years-old mechatronics engineer.
