I saw the new Star Wars movie last night. It might be my new favorite of all the Star Wars movies. I love an epic battle between the light and the dark and this time they really showed how this battle really happens inside of us- and between us all the time.
We like the hero’s journey type stories since it takes the shadow out if us and makes an evil villain that the heroes must vanquish at the climax of their journey, whether it’s two plucky Hobbits making their way through Mordor, or Harry Potter facing off against The Dark Lord.
And in this Star Wars movie, its the apparently suicidal band of rebels (“I’m not scum. I’m rebel scum!”) against the Nazi-like First Order.
This movie showed that the battle really rages in each of us, all the time. The two young heroes both explore the other side of the Force. Is there good in the “evil” one and evil in the “good” one? Even Luke- the Jedi Master has to find his way again, picking his way through the light and the dark. It’s really about the conflict in each of us and the choices that we make over and over again. Master Luke says both sides have something to teach us and like Rey, we are all looking for where we fit in the Yin-Yang pattern of the cosmos.
I always loved these movies for the mysticism, The Jedi are like Zen masters and Luke has a wonderfully beautiful enlightenment moment in the movie. We can’t choose if we aren’t conscious of the dark within us, so it’s a process of self-reflection, of seeing the shadow, owning it, accepting and understanding the impulse towards anger, vengeance and destruction. We all have it. We all have an inner Darth Vader, Voldemort and Evil-Flaming-Eye-Thing inside us. Angel on one shoulder, evil flaming eye on the other shoulder.
Any good personal and spiritual growth system will have engage in the same process. Looking within to see your inner shadow and your inner light and claiming both. We can only truly choose the light when we are fully conscious of the dark.
Go see the movie! I’ll be the one crying, laughing and breathing into a paper bag….
