Opening to Darkness: Eight Gateways for Being with the Absence of Light in Unsettling Times

Zen teacher Manuel follows The Deepest Peace with an insightful if knotty exploration of darkness. Though often seen as frightening or dangerous, Manuel writes, the dark also symbolizes in various faiths abundance, peace, and the source of “all life.” Drawing on Buddhism and African and Native American Indigenous traditions, Manuel sets up a framework of eight “gateways” through which darkness can be examined, each centering a “dark mother” archetype used in pagan traditions. “Childhood Fear of Darkness,” for example, asks readers to identify their subconscious associations with darkness from youth; Manuel then presents “Mama Dantor,” the “queen of the universe in Haitian culture,” as a guide to help readers reframe fear of darkness. (“If we consider darkness as something that pries our hearts... open,” then one may “transform the fear of a child into the discovery of a child.”) Other gateways include “Celebrating the Darkness of Death and Birth” and “Being Messengers of the Darkness.” Manuel offers a mix of expected (“what is darkness without light”) and surprising (“being born from darkness has anchored an experience of it within us”) reflections, making for a thought-provoking offering, ideal for those willing to unpack her dreamlike, dense text. Evocative and strange, Manuel’s latest will fascinate spiritualists willing to do the work. (Mar.)