Light, Dark, Gray, & Hermetic Magic

Gray Jedi

Star Wars has been a clear metaphor for the tension and battle between the forces of light and those of darkness, where they are the modern fictional versions of the light magicians and the dark sorcerers who both yield the creative forces of nature.  Hidden in the battle between the light and dark sides of this perpetual struggle, has been a small but powerful group of gray/neutral magicians who consciously hold both the light and darkness within them, and yield the creative forces of nature through this balance.  The Star Wars universe has also discovered this third path and way of magic, with their “Gray Jedi”, but their stated balance is found through describing both good and evil as a necessary balancing act, as seen in the Gray Jedi Code:

There is no Dark Side, nor a light side, there is only the Force. I will do what I must to keep the balance as the balance is what keeps me together. There is no good without evil, but evil must not be allowed to flourish. There is passion, yet peace; Serenity, yet emotion; Chaos, yet order. I am the wielder of the flame, the protector of balance. I am the holder of the Torch, lighting the way. I am the keeper of the flame, soldier of balance. I am a Guardian of the Balance. I am a Gray Jedi.

We have clearly discussed the similarities and differences between a duality and a polarity in several previous articles, “Polarized or Dualized”, “What Does Balance & Neutrality Really Mean?”, and “What Does it Mean to Be Balanced?”.  They may be a good place to catch up and see what actual balance means to a Hermeticist, as well as the contrast between an unnatural oppositional duality of good vs evil, and a natural creative polarity such as masculine and feminine.  Whereas the authors of the original Star Wars concept had a definite understanding of Hermeticism and magic, not all of the authors who write Star Wars Universe fiction have a firm grasp on such principles, and the Gray Jedi mythos makes this painfully obvious.

We would like to bring further clarity to the term Gray/Neutral in relationship to Hermeticism.

Many people are confused by the terms light, dark, and gray/neutral, thinking that light is good, dark is evil, and gray/neutral are those who have found a balance walking the tightrope between good and evil.  However, there is only one actual duality, the one between the self-sustaining energy flow from the inside-out (life), and and the addictive consuming of other’s energy from the outside-in (death); where all other supposed dualities are contained within the outside-in perception of life, the universe, and everything in and beyond it.  Allowing creativity to flow from the inside-out is what we mean when we are speaking of gray/neutral beings, while outside-in relating is the mindset that spawned the predator and prey archetypes, where light heroes battle dark villains to protect the countless helpless victims (prey), and all other manner of black and white dualistic either/or thinking.  

Where outside-in is an either/or mindset of right vs left, up vs down, light vs dark, order vs chaos, and good vs evil, the inside-out vs outside-in duality are a direction of perceptual flow, where we are either energetically self-sustaining from within in every way, or where we rely on hoarding and consuming external resources to feed ourselves from the outside-in.  Externalized beings are lustful and greedy for more of any resource they perceive can fulfill them, but such a perception of existence always grants the addict diminishing returns, thus they must hoard and consume ever more resources, and build themselves up upon the backs of those below them in a hierarchical top-down pyramid control structure.  The prey are the energetic resources on the bottom of the hierarchy, while the psychopathic predators make their way to the top of the hierarchal structure, in their panicked search to return to the wholeness they lost long ago.  Thankfully, a gray/neutral inside-out being is not confined within the walls of the synthetic hierarchy of slave/master though, as they are free to utilize their unlimited resources within them to explore themselves, and their universe, however they so choose.  

With the exception of the one true duality of inside-out (this) vs outside-in (that), the outside-in perception is a control drama full of either/or power struggles between this answer and that answer, but inside-out is riding the flow of this AND that, where it is the question that dictates free will, and not the myriad of available (and often conflicting) answers.  As each neutral being asks a series of questions, it becomes readily apparent that there is only One unique answer that will ever truly satisfy them for any given line of questioning.  Whereas in the light vs dark game each person has the free will to decide which answer they desire to accept and follow, for the true neutral who finds their answers from the inside-out, their free will resides in their curiosity to explore life through their questions, as they have released their burden of choosing answers to the ALL, also known as God to some, which is found through the Divine spark within them.  

For those who perceive life from the inside-out direction of flow, this relinquishing of control to the Divine grants them only One answer for each series of questions they ask, but as a consequence, they are able to dive ever deeper into their curiosity, which allows them to connect far more into Self-realization, intimacy, peace, joy, and love.  As we all know, curiosity is not boring, in fact, it is what makes children abundantly happy and joyful as they explore their new life, but this happiness is quickly turned outside-in upon itself through trauma, society, the rigid control system, social engineering, and the myriad of consumeristic answers to choose from.  For the less aware, too many answers causes static that makes discerning the truth of the One answer more difficult to find, especially since people think they desire all of the answers that were programmed into them from external sources and circumstances, as if they were their own desires and wants, and not programmed desires and wants.  

The light, dark, and neutral Hermeticists all have their own interpretation of balance, but they have in common the notion that balance comes from picking a polarity and consciously adhering to it, and then allowing the unconscious swing of the pendulum to be the other side of the polarity.  The three classes do however differ in what they perceive is an actual polarity, as the light and dark Hermeticist perceive light and dark, good and evil, as a polarity, whereas the gray/neutral Hermeticist views them as an unnatural duality.  It is through polarizing (not necessarily dualizing) that the Hermeticist finds neutrality, as the Kybalion states:

“The Hermetic Master, or advanced student, polarizes himself at the desired pole, and by a process akin to “refusing” to participate in the backward swing or, if you prefer, a “denial” of its influence over him, he stands firm in his polarized position, and allows the mental pendulum to swing back along the unconscious plane. All individuals who have attained any degree of self- mastery, accomplish this, more or less unknowingly, and by refusing to allow their moods and negative mental states to affect them, they apply the Law of Neutralization. The Master, however, carries this to a much higher degree of proficiency, and by the use of his Will he attains a degree of Poise and Mental Firmness almost impossible of belief on the part of those who allow themselves to be swung backward and forward by the mental pendulum of moods and feelings.” ~The Kybalion, Chapter 11, Rhythm

There are mystics who stay neutral through having polarized into the unnatural duality of their dark side, having bypassed their feelings through being traumatized into a form of emotional neutrality called psychopathy.  While others may polarize into their light side by always staying positive, pragmatic, hopeful, or through maintaining a small energetic footprint.  However, for gray/neutral’s from the inside-out, a being raised in this realm must actively neutralize their feelings through shadow work, which is achieved through reclaiming all of their externalized fragmented shadow aspects with emotional integration.  They must also correct any beliefs that they need others outside-in to save them (from their lack of energy), from any need to steal (feed upon) energy from others, as well as any tendencies to act as an externalized savior (to sacrifice their energy) for others.  

The shadow work process is a long and arduous one, requiring patience and effort to heal the traumas, untangle the externalized beliefs, and correct the fallacious logic, but it is possible through the power of asking questions, especially in regards to reclaiming the “why” of causality.  Causality is the main component of shadow work, where each effect, emotion, and experience in life, also known as mirrored reflections, must be observed and traced back to their root causes.  These root causes are misdirected outside-in thinking patterns and fallacious logic, but once recognized, they are then able to be consciously corrected and reprogrammed into self-sustaining patterns of relating from the inside-out.  This whole process is known as spiritual alchemy, where the vampiric outside-in tendencies are transmuted from lead, into the self-sustaining patterns of relating from the inside-out – gold.  

Jungian shadow work, the seven Hermetic Principles of Natural Law, and the Trivium method of asking questions are crucial components to reversing the flow back to the original direction of relating to life from the inside-out.  Gray/neutral’s do not need to consume the energy of others, they are unable to be fed upon, nor do they they feel the need to save others from their victimhood, as this process creates an unshakable neutral experience that breaks one free from the pyramid’s top-down control structure, so that they are free to explore life through the power of their natural curiosity.  

Are you walking the right hand’s light path, the left hand’s dark path, or the emotionally integrated gray/neutral path?  If you are on the gray/neutral path, which tools have you utilized to assist in your shadow work process?  What’s worked best for you?