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A Spiritual View of Depression: The Light That Shines in the Darkness

Depression and helplessness are two parts of the same thing. Such helplessness may not be visible at all on an outer level where wealth, family, relationships, and success may all be in place and operating as signs and symbols of a successful life. But on an inner level, the inner being can feel bereft of that which feels necessary to life. It is this sense of being bereft - of having lost, mislaid, or had taken away that which was the source of hope and of vitality that gives rise to depression. This is not to say that there is not a biochemical component to the picture that influences depression. Only that the biochemistry is influenced by the underlying state of consciousness and the energy it creates, even more than the reverse is true – which is that consciousness is influenced by biochemistry.

The underlying consciousness that gives rise to depression has become more widespread today, which is why there is so much written about it and so many efforts made to treat it. At the root of the depressive state, whether mild or intense, is often the feeling of a lack or void and a sense of helplessness in relation to filling this void. If the circumstances of lack were present and helplessness were not an integral part of the picture, then very soon an active motion would be generated to change the situation and the source of depression would leave. However, this is not the case. The kind of void that affects so many people today is a void felt by the deeper self that is hungry for light and truth. It is hungry for a source of meaning. It is hungry for a source of light to banish the darkness both within the self and within the world. This darkness is very prominent now, both inwardly and outwardly, and it gives rise much more readily than in times past to depressive feeling.

The source of the feeling of void is the covering of darkness over our inner connection with the heart and with the source of being. This covering effectively creates a shallowness of perception in which nothing seems quite real, and nothing of the good or joyful touches or impacts in a deep way. In addition, the atmosphere of a similar suppression of light upon the earth - evident in the heartbreak that can be witnessed in many groups and within many nations at this time - supports the individual predicament. Both individual and planetary conditions are based on the current action of global purification. It is this force, more than any other, that is behind the manifestation, today, of the darkness that covers the light.

Global purification brings to the fore not only what has previously lain dormant within us in the way of anger, hate, and cruelty – the source of much destruction upon the earth - but also what has been contained in the way of inner emptiness. It is particularly in relation to the latter that we see an upsurge of depressive feeling-states and a growing number of requests for help and treatment. On a large scale, today, the feeling of inner lack has been brought to the foreground of consciousness so that it may be directly addressed and healed. This is both the discomfort and the promise of purification. It releases things into awareness that they may be healed, yet in the process causes us to have experiences of what we have formerly kept hidden or under wraps.

In the presence of darkness and in the presence of the experience of emptiness or void, there is also a growing presence of light arising, coming from beneath the covering and pushing its way through the layers of darkness as it strives to reach awareness. This light is increasingly infusing the physical plane and has a direct effect on each human body that is present on the earth. Though at first it may bring into awareness that which is lacking or painful, it also brings with it the way through the lack, toward hope and toward the light of being. This light is nothing else than the recognition of one's God-self – the core level of being of each and every child of God that is both an identity and a source of love and joy.

Though the light that shines in the darkness may be invisible for the moment, it is invisibly doing its work so that the covering of darkness can lift and the true measure of who one is and what life is can be perceived. This light that shines is both personal and also universal. Its presence cannot be undone. Its arrival cannot be prevented. It is a matter of trying to wait during this difficult period for the light to arrive more fully, and in the meantime to orient the heart, in whatever form is natural, to the source of light and Spirit so that its gifts and blessings may be received as abundantly as possible.

The capacity of darkness to create a 'cover' over light is what creates the sense of emptiness or lack that is so intrinsic to depression. Though light always remains present within each individual being, darkness obscures the inner connection with the heart and with the source of being so that this light cannot be felt.

For additional writings by Julie Redstone see Pathways of Light. To learn more about holding depression within a spiritual perspective, see the series of six Articles on Depression within the Light Omega website.

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