We had quite a lively discussion on (best-selling author) Debbie Ford’s facebook page. It started with a post that began: “What is the Devil? It’s the mythical shadow, the fallen angel, but it was born Divine.”

This stirred up quite a lot of feelings and beliefs. There were many different ideas regarding the Devil–including the notion that Satan doesn’t really exist and yet he has been blamed for all that is bad in the world. So–is there a (satanic) force that is causing the downfall of mankind?. Does Satan oppose and challenge the goodness of God and force us to act in ways that are ungodly. The truth is–there is no force, no power, no being that can oppose God. God is [by definition] All Powerful…All Knowing…All Pervasive…All Loving…To think of God otherwise is the greatest illusion created in our minds. So then–why is there evil in the world? Does God create evil. No. God does not create evil. Darkness occurs where there is no light; evil arises where goodness/love is obscured. Shadow forces can only exist if we choose to disconnect from the Divine–from pure love. Because we (as a global nation) are in a love-deprived state–dark forces exist. There are living beings who are shrouded in darkness because they have disconnected from real love. If we choose to ignore our divine [authentic], loving nature and the existence of God–the ungodly forces will come into play; and so–as there are numerous living beings who are choosing to ignore the Divine–the dark shadows are running rampant. The ‘shadowy’ forces are the result of the choices we are making, which are contrary to our natural, divine qualities…

So why does a world that is subject to such darkness exist? At some point we were curious to experience an existence of the ephemeral, dualistic kind–and so our “play” world was created; and God is not alone in creation. There are angels who accompany Him–and every angel has a special purpose to fulfill. There is even a “Dark” Angel who oversees our misguided deeds, but even he does not oppose God. Being here in this dualistic world is not what God has chosen for us. As free-willed beings, that is a choice we are able to make for our selves–and it is very risky business. In this world we can actually forget our divine [loving] nature and who God is (and we can see how that’s working out). The story of Lucifer can help us to understand how we have fallen from grace. We are all (originally) divine–but we always have the choice to act in alignment with our innate divinity (our true selves)–or not. If we choose not to…well, then–we can expect to see varying degrees of ungodly behavior. We have to get back to nature–for real–back to our true, loving nature. It is the only course for our salvation–for uplifting humanity and for bringing about lasting change in the world. The more we (re)connect to our true [loving] selves and to God–the greater we will be able to mitigate the dark forces. It always comes back to love. It is most definitely what we need more of…..

When godliness is obscured, what remains?….[only the shadow knows]…