THE PRINCIPLE OF POLARITY
With the Principle of Polarity, we dive deep into the vortex of the inherent paradoxical nature of what we call our reality.
But, before we explore this paradoxical nature, let’s first get a firm grip on Polarity and what this really means for our understanding of Life itself and the intelligence that designed, created, and governs it.
There are many Hermetic axioms that point at the Principle of Polarity which itself cannot be superseded. Samples of such axioms are: “everything is dual”; “everything has two poles”; “opposites are the same, differing only in degree”; and “everything is and isn’t, at the same time” and the list goes on and on.
Hermeticism teaches us that in everything there are two poles, or opposite aspects, and that all “opposites” are really two sides of the same coin or, in other words, the two extremes of the same thing with an infinite number of varying degrees between them.
To illustrate, let’s take rich and poor. These two are the poles of the continuum we could name “wealth” and they are in fact one and the same, only differing in their degree of “wealth.” But, and here it gets interesting, what is “rich” and what is “poor”? Where does “poor” end and “rich” starts?
Exactly, there’s no Absolute Truth to what constitutes “rich” or “poor” as this cannot be universally defined as what’s “rich” in one person’s perception might be “poor” in another’s. What constitutes “rich” in one country or culture, might very well be “poor” in another. These two aspects — “rich” and “poor” — then are merely poles on the continuum of wealth governed by the Principle of Polarity.
And, if you take a closer look at our reality, you’ll see everything is governed by the Principle of Polarity: “good” vs “bad”; “right” vs “wrong”; “day” vs “night”; “fair” vs “unfair”; “beautiful” vs “ugly”; “just” vs “unjust”; “hot” vs “cold” and the list goes on ad nauseum.
Moreover, even Love as most of humanity defines it is governed by the Principle of Polarity. Most of humanity only knows and has access to “Love the emotion” which holds within its essence exclusion, perishability, and a great deal of variability. We love our family, creed, country, religion, house, car, etc. but not those “others” — that’s exclusion. We love all these things today, but tomorrow we might not and will call these people or things ugly names or drag them through the nastiest of divorce battles or what have you — that’s perishability. Today our love knows no bounds, tomorrow it has question marks or is immersed in a cloud of doubts — that’s variability.
The exalted and only true form of Love is Love the energy — this is unconditional Love, it wavers not a single iota no matter what happens as it knows no exclusion, perishability, or variability. Incidentally, this Love the energy is the only thing in our entire universe that is not subject to the Principle of Polarity as this exalted Love is the Fundamental Reality or Absolute; hence, it’s the Source of all Principles. But, that’s to explore another time.
Now, Love the emotion is subject to Principle of Polarity and its opposite pole is Indifference. Nope, it’s not “hate” as many believe as “hate” is a surplus of negative energy whose opposite is a surplus of positive energy which would be “aggrandizement” or what we could also call “idolization.”
So, why Indifference?
Because when Love the emotion changes in degrees we end up with Indifference. We love our country for instance but we’re indifferent to the plight of other nations. It’s not that we necessarily hate these other countries, we’re simply indifferent. We love our spouse, kids, family, friends, colleagues, and those rooting for the same God, political flag, or sports team and we’re indifferent to all others. We don’t necessarily mean these others any harm, but when push comes to shove, we really just don’t care — we’re indifferent.
This is the plight of humanity and root cause why the world looks the way it does. We’re collectively and to a very large extent simply indifferent. We have a lot of hate also, but that’s only because we aggrandize our “own” and in that process create the vilification, demonization, and condemnation of that which we consider outside the circle of “our own.” It’s righteousness gone sour. So sour even we now believe we have justification to hurt, harm, oppress, censor, cancel, violate, or even kill.
So, where does mastery of the Principle of Polarity take us?
Nuance and wisdom is the simple answer.
When we master the Principle of Polarity, we really master the art of seeing the nuance in all situations beyond the deeply ingrained enculturated beliefs of our subconscious mind. Our aperture opens up in such ways that we see the whole continuum, not just the pole of our autonomous perceptions. And, this is what gets us to wisdom which lies far beyond the realms of knowing a lot of facts or the ability of our mind to rationalize these facts. Wisdom comes from the suprarational intelligence of the Heart, it’s a higher form of intelligence and we simply cannot master wisdom until we master the Principle of Polarity.
“Why?” you might wonder…
Great question. Because, as the Hermetic axiom informs us, all paradoxes may be reconciled but this cannot be done by the logical mind nor can it be done when the highest form of Love we have access to is Love the emotion.
Our logical mind can only compute binary solutions and outcomes, it cannot comprehend and encircle the notion that all is inherently paradoxical in nature. It simply cannot grasp that all exists on a continuum and there’s no one finite answer to anything, there’s only varying degrees of the same thing which coexist at all times and are created by our perceptions.
Love the emotion cannot love that which is seemingly unlovable. Yet, this is what Love the energy does effortlessly. Even the most grotesque violator of human rights, the most vicious demagogue, the most unscrupulous elites lost in the deepest troughs of greed, malfeasance, and committing unthinkable acts are — and for always will be — held in Love the energy.
This where mastery of Principle of Polarity will take you. You must lose all indifference, all hate, all prejudices, and all righteousness so you may see beyond the personality — also called Ego — of anyone and see their Divinity. This personality is what’s lost in ignorance; yet, the innocence of their spark of Divinity within is always there and cannot be dimmed or muted.
It’s there, always “on” for eternity, but when the personality is disconnected — which to say unaware or unconscious — to their spark of Divinity this personality is capable of the unthinkable acts we witness in the world today and when enough of us — humanity — are unaware or unconscious we end up with the world as it looks today.
Hence, we’re in a race to raise human consciousness.
The only way out for humanity is to collectively raise in consciousness. As, at higher octaves of consciousness we start to gain access to wisdom and Love the energy and within that the solutions to all the great problems and challenges we witness in the world today become self-evident.
I will leave you with this thought to ponder. We actually have all the requisite technologies, resources, and capabilities to solve just about all our problems within a decade or so. Many of these technologies like free energy are being withheld due to commercial interests — greed basically — as they would massively disrupt and render entire industries extinct, causing trillions upon trillions in “stranded assets” which is not in the interest of the very few that own and control these assets.
Such is our plight at this moment. Yet, this is not a fight with anything in the Outside World, this is a rise in consciousness within our Inner World.
The paradoxical nature of this issue is one of our collective level of consciousness, not the circumstances as those are merely the effect of the cause called level of consciousness. At our current prevailing level of human consciousness, these effects have no real solution and we’ll muddle along debating and marginally addressing climate change, ESG, pollution, wars and violent conflict, hate, inequality, injustices, etc. until we’re faced with a cataclysmic collapse of civilization or Mother Earth, or both.
The paradox then is that our problems are not our real problems. Our singular problem is low levels of collective human consciousness as at higher octaves all these effects simply can’t and wouldn’t exist.
We’d solve them — for all intents and purposes — virtually overnight.
Next up will be The Principle of Rhythm, the Principle that guides us deep into the every-flowing, ever-changing, and ever-evolving nature of Life itself.
Stay tuned for the 5th Hermetic Principle.
Love+Truth,
Robert