Symbolism of dark and cold

[dyanaprajna2011]

I was wondering what the symbolism of both darkness and coldness represents. I want to hear from Pagans, mystics, esotericists, and anyone else. I'd also like to know if the two always have to be combined, or can someone manifest/practice one without the other.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Satanism is certainly a dark path. However, that darkness is usually a metaphor for the hidden, the mysterious, the unknown and the internal aspect of humanity. It's the things that we tend to be afraid to explore.

Cold? Doesn't mean anything to me.

 

[NobodyYouKnow]

I was wondering what the symbolism of both darkness and coldness represents. I want to hear from Pagans, mystics, esotericists, and anyone else. I'd also like to know if the two always have to be combined, or can someone manifest/practice one without the other.

Darkness and coldness represents the Yin aspect of the universal balance between Yin and Yang - Yang being light and heat. Each exist in balance with each other to create harmony, or should exist in perfect balance to create harmony.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Most likely negative things because cold is the lack of warmth and darkness is the lack of light.

Or if you put it into perspective, they could represent the lack of something, that something is missing, and I'm sure we all know what that something is

 

[Quintessence]

Man, I have a really good post around here somewhere musing about Darkness. I wonder if I can find it again? *digs* Hey looks, I founds it!

I can only speak to what it is like in my experience or understanding: of darkness being the great void, of nonbeing or lack of ego/self, or primordial precursors, of quiescence, of calm, of silence. I liken it to the Water Element, which erodes individual identity and brings things together into heterogenous mixtures. It is the space between death and birth, of transition, transience, transcendence. It is of blindness to the individual ego's perspective, yet of all-seeing from the vantage point of the whole. It is of night, of the space between stars, of the vastness of the universe. It is of things hidden, of things secret, perhaps also things misunderstood. From that, it is sometimes of things people fear, want to keep secret, or want to forget. Some find Darkness protective, or an ally. Others, threatening and dangerous. There may be more things, but this is the poetry that comes to mind for me right now.

I do not see Darkness as being cold or hot, actually. I consider them very separate Spirits, and I can't say I've contemplated Cold Spirit to the extent I have contemplated Darkness Spirit.

Off the cuff, Cold Spirit speaks to me of motionlessness, stillness. In that, it would connect more to the Earth Element, which is rigid and fixed. Cold Spirit speaks of the sapping away of energies from many living things, for many living things must maintain internal heat to stay alive. From there, it speaks much more strongly of death than Darkness Spirit does to me. Of frostbite, of lost limbs, of hearts ceasing their beating. I also think of how Cold Spirit alters the Weather Spirits, creating the beautiful thing of Snow and Ice. Of stasis, of hibernation, of resting.

 

[sacredmeow]

Darkness is the absence of light. However, for me that translates as the unseen. Just because you cannot see what's in the darkness, does not mean there's nothing good.

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Darkness is the absence of light. However, for me that translates as the unseen. Just because you cannot see what's in the darkness, does not mean there's nothing good.

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”

:yes: Without darkness, we can't see the light.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Darkness is the absence of light. However, for me that translates as the unseen. Just because you cannot see what's in the darkness, does not mean there's nothing good.

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”

Very well put.

 

[Vouthon]

Darkness can be either a positive or negative symbol in the Catholic spiritual tradition.

The Bible, for a start, exhibits both types simultaneously. On the one hand, it is a positive image for God's transcendence and ineffability:

"...Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was..."

- Exodus 20:20-21

"...I will give you the treasures of darkness
and riches hidden in secret places,
so that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name..."

- Isaiah 45:3

When it is not used in reference to God, it can be a cipher for evil and opposition to God:

"...In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it..."

- Gospel of John 1:1-5

"...To open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me..."

- Acts 26:18

Furthermore, darkness in this respect is utilized in the Catholic tradition as a symbol for the absence of light, the idea that evil does not actually exist in itself:

"...And in the universe, even that which is called evil, when it is regulated and put in its own place, only enhances our admiration of the good; for we enjoy and value the good more when we compare it with the evil. For the Almighty God, who, as even the heathen acknowledge, has supreme power over all things, being Himself supremely good, would never permit the existence of anything evil among His works, if He were not so omnipotent and good that He can bring good even out of evil. For what is that which we call evil but the absence of good?..."

- St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 C.E), church father & Doctor of the Catholic Church

On the positive side, used in reference to God, there is a rich history of comforting images of the "divine darkness" in Catholic mysticism ie

"...Since Moses was alone, by having been stripped as it were of the people’s fear, he boldly approached the very darkness itself and entered the invisible things where he was no longer seen by those watching. After he entered the inner sanctuary of the divine mystical doctrine, there, while not being seen, he was in company with the Invisible. He teaches, I think, by the things he did that the one who is going to associate intimately with God must go beyond all that is visible and—lifting up his own mind, as to a mountaintop, to the invisible and incomprehensible—believe that the divine is there where the understanding does not reach...Moses’ vision of God began with light; afterwards God spoke to him in a cloud. But when Moses rose higher and became more perfect, he saw God in the darkness...The contemplation of God is not effected by sight and hearing, nor is it comprehended by any of the customary perceptions of the mind. For no eye has seen, and no ear has heard, nor does it belong to those things which usually enter into the heart of man...When, therefore, Moses grew in knowledge, he declared that he had seen God in the darkness, that is, that he had then come to know that what is divine is beyond all knowledge and comprehension..."

—Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, §46

"...The divine darkness is the inaccessible light in which God is said to dwell. And since He is invisible by reason of the abundant outpouring of supernatural light, it follows that whosoever is counted worthy to know and see God, by the very fact that he neither sees nor knows Him, attains to that which is above sight and knowledge, and at the same time perceives that God is beyond all things both sensible and intelligible, saying with the Prophet, "Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me; it is high, and I cannot reach to it." In like manner, St Paul, we are told, knew God, when he knew Him to be above all knowledge and understanding; wherefore he says that His ways are unsearchable and His judgments inscrutable, His gifts unspeakable, and His peace passing all understanding; as one who had found Him who is above all things, and whom he had perceived to be above knowledge, and separate from all things, being the Creator of all..."

- Dionysius the Areopagite (5th century), Syrian Christian mystic

 

[crossfire]

In regards to cold, I'll relate some of my experiences:

Years ago, someone suggested that I meditate on "absolute space." (I thought that by "absolute," he meant "non-relative." {He really meant infinite space, though, I found out later.}

So, the first couple of times I tried meditating on "non-relative space," I wound up shivering so bad from cold that even a hot shower wouldn't relieve it. It took about a half hour after I discontinued the meditation for the cold shivering to go away.

Absolute stillness is very much associated with cold, imo.

 

[Quintessence]

Absolute stillness is very much associated with cold, imo.

I think I would agree that this is the primary correspondence. In science, absolute zero is the most motionless matter/energy state possible. Though, as I understand it, even this theoretical state is not absolutely motionless.