A recent debate on the nature of sin and evil got me thinking about how myths and religions have dealt with this other side of our humanity.

Ancient myths suggest a conscious relationship with these forces within ourselves is essential. Every myth of personal transformation requires the hero or heroine to journey into the dark underworld to experience both the energies of love and death that are inseparable partners in life. Such stories teach us that there is a natural relationship of opposite or opposing energies in life, and that those who enter the dark places consciously, return with great wisdom, and their vital energy for living enhanced.

In contrast, our western culture still seeks repression of the dark and different as if denial is the way to foster our souls. I argue that this denial is one of the main causes of the chaotic violence, aggression, and despair in the world. To heal, I believe, requires redeeming the sacredness of parts of ourselves that have been held in dangerous taboo for too long. By facing these repressed parts we can own that long buried "sinful" territory within ourselves without becoming possessed by the strong human passions that live there.

To choose to shine a new light on our societies perception of sin requires real courage -- as the cultural legacy of damnation is so huge. But the reward with every "demon" we find and face within ourselves is an increasing capacity for natural, intuitive, compassionate, and spontaneous living. If we come to know these dark repressed places in ourselves consciously, we cease to fear it, or be seduced by it. With that knowing comes the choice of using these human energies in a healing way, rather than flaunting it or projecting it out there unwittingly on others.

The important point to realise here is that the dark side, or to use a Jungian term "shadow" side -- will come out whether we want it to or not. This shadow side is the place that anything we do not wish to own in ourselves, or seems too dangerous for others to see, gets dumped to fester. Mostly our culture dumps it there for us -- but no matter how much we deny it, repress it, no matter how painful it can be to look at it -- it is part of us. Anger, lust, resentment -- these are the things that can blow up in our faces if we do not consciously address them. But if we bring these energies to light before they explode unconsiously, we can use them creatively to enrich our relationships rather than destroy them. Some of this "shameful" stuff we relegate to the shadows are those traits that are simply not culturally acceptable -- and yet may be pure gold in terms of what could take this society forward into a less cruel, less phobic culture. So this shadow side, in conrast to what we have been taught, can contain some real gems for living.

It may seem a frightening prospect to face a raging beast within. But heroic myths from all cultures show that facing the "beasts" is a necessity for human growth, and our own dreamlife shows us that approaching them brings insight rather than violation. Have you ever run with heart pounding terror from shadowy monsters in your dreams? I suggest it is just a part of yourself you've chucked in the shadow bin that urgently needs to be seen. If you explored it honestly the urgency and terror would cease, and an aspect of your personality, once hidden, would be safely returned to you. At first when you encounter these energies they seem wildly enraged -- but so would you be if you'd been locked in a dark hole for years. Once you can eye ball them they lose their seeming demonic power. A power you largely give to it by being gripped with fear.

This fear of the shadow has been keenly cultivated by the Christian religion.

Early institutionalised Christianity stuck a huge NO ENTRY sign on the shadow regions of our psyches. With that began the de-spiritualisation of the body. Our Christian patriarchal forefathers cast the physical as inferior, equating bodily desires and their satisfaction with sin and hell fire damnation. The tempter of the soul to evil. This propaganda still has its psychic effect to this day on the shame many people attach consciously or unconsciously to their bodies. Externally this indiscriminate welding of the "denial" cane has lead to a thriving sex and drug industry as the repressed side seeks neurotic expression.

Sensual pleasure, before Christianity, was once deemed sacred. The pleasure of the body's senses often leading to a transformational process of growth. It is when we are truly in touch with this part of ourselves without fear or furtiveness, that we feel a mysterious sense of completeness. A well being that comes from body, heart, and spirit finding their full and natural expression.

By casting that "inferior" sensate side of ourselves as black -- Christianity turned the earthy celebratory pagan gods that preceded it, Pan and Dionysus, into monstrous devils. With too much pleasure and frivolity equated with sin and divine retribution we swallowed our potential for spiritual and physical ecstasy, and much natural earthiness inbetween. The conscious kind that supports and enriches life rather than debases it. Back there, at the decree of the early Church hungry for power, we became internally split -- unable to live fully in our bodies or fully in spirit.

Religions attempt to vanquish sin created an attitude of rigid moral righteousness that set a damning cycle rolling. When everyone sees the speck in another's eye and not the beam in their own -- "virtue" becomes vice and "good" creates human misery. The early "burn at the stake, rip your guts out" approach to repressing sin and difference lives on generations later with us torturously divided against ourselves on mass. In fear, hate, crime, wars. Healing this requires revaluing what has been rejected in a new way -- creating a new sense of morality. One which cuts through the layers of conditioning that have kept our true spiritual growth under lock and key.

In the Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell quotes psychologist Carl Jung as saying that "religion is the greatest barrier to spirituality." A true full soul life, a true sense of morality requires us to be ready to savour not just the beauty of life, but the pain as well. And to accept all the difference and variety that is part of being alive. The word "religion" itself stems from rejoining, reunion. The rejoining with the shadow side is the spiritual experience that can really restore the sense of wholeness that fundamental Christianity has denied.

The man made "morality" of Christianity is ironically counter to its real message. Within the Christian myth remains the untouched truth about wholeness. That we, not the devil, infact steal our own wholeness. We do it by not accepting all it is that makes us human -- the dark and the light.Jesus said:

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

This same sentiment is found in eastern religions. The aim in life being to grow by not "conquering" the lower forces but by facing, knowing and "using" them . Not running away from them. For what is repressed is what will destroy as it emerges from the unconscious in obsessions and compulsive behavior.

Even the Christian hero tangoed with the dark side of himself for 40 days and nights. He did not run from it. Also, in the Crucifixion, his self transformation was made possible by him living through his most terrifying fear -- that God, everything he had stood for, had forsaken him. He let his fear, the most painful darkest experience in his soul, be seen and fully felt -- and this made resurrection possible. In this symbolic description of self salvation we find dark and light inextricably mixed together in the elixir for wholeness.

And why did he value the sinner most of all ? I suggest its because the sinners KNEW sin, KNEW their demons, and so knew consciously how to artfully wrestle with the light and dark, the inescapable stuff of life. This acceptance rather than avoidance is how we truly cultivate our souls and live with feeling and compassion for ourselves and others.

So how is our society doing in the facing the inner demon stakes? To me there seems to be two things happening at present. The most obvious is that globally this body/mind split has reached a crisis point where denial of our natural selves is also mirrored in how we are destroying the natural world around us. But there is also some cause for optimism as more people truly and courageously question traditional values and surrender before the things they once moralised against.

On the one hand it is despairing that the world is in such a spiritual and physical crisis -- but on the other hand the emergency is making more and more people willing to face fear to find what's on the other side of it. The isolation and alienation in our culture has reached a point where those who have not been numbed by it desperately seek a turnaround to real meaning, real feeling, real aliveness, real wholeness. A realness that does not aspire to an idyllic "good absolute" but an acceptance of the real joy and pain that is part of living. Many too, are also becoming "blessed to death" by the one-sided lovingness of some fundamental segments of the New Age movement -- seeking a truer fuller expression of what it is to be human.

One of the greatest contributions of psychotherapy today ( particularly those therapies that take you from your head to your muscles ) is that people can at last safely access what they thought was ugly in themselves, see that in a new light, and find peace with it. With more people finding peace within -- we can hope realistically for more peace without. By this I do not mean the pious holier than thou kind -- but a rich peace that has unashamed passion and vitality in it. And the kind that allows the integrity of owning your own shadow rather than unconsciously dumping it on some convenient scapegoat out there.

There is an ancient saying that the devil tries to steal our shadows -- for without our shadow we can never be whole. It is hard for people to grasp, given our societies long belief in definitive good and evil, but I believe the more we embrace this side of ourselves -- the more we become fully human -- with a conscious choice on how to use all our amazing passions and energies.

I end this discussion with a resolve to remember that often the finger points backwards -- and when I am aware of this in myself, I will take a torch to my dark places and see what I can learn. As well as having more joy in our sensual sides, this is something tangible we all can do to start turning the tide.