We live in a world of contrasts. Think of the seasons. We cannot have spring without winter or autumn without summer. It is the whole cycle that gives us the experience of the seasons in all their glory.

Similarly if “short” does not exist, I cannot know myself as “tall”. If there is no experience for me to call “sad”, I cannot know “happy”. This is sometimes called the Law of Opposites which refers to the necessity of two apparent opposites existing in the same space in order for either of them to exist at all.

So, put simply, in the world in which we live there is no “fast” without “slow”, no “joy” without “sorrow”, and no “good” without “evil”. Yet notice how these are not fixed categories. On a day when it’s 12 degrees centrigrade in a British summer people would call it “chilly” whereas in a British winter they would say it was “warm”. In other words, we are making it all up. Ultimately these things are objective phenomena which we label depending on the context or judgement we give them.

This is not to trivialise it. In fact, this labelling is an act of great importance. It is by declaring some things to be, for example, evil that we define ourselves. As it says in CWG, the biggest evil would be to declare nothing evil at all. For us to define who we are, we must select some things from the vast collective of phenomena and call them evil. Unless I do this, I cannot call myself or anything else good.

Now this principle of relativity applies in the physical world in which we live. Yet, in the spiritual world from which we come and to which we return, this is not the case. There, All That Is is All That Is. There is no relational principle at work simply because there is only One Thing and it is all magnificent. The image we are given for the spiritual realm in CWG is that of a little candle shining in the presence of the sun. The little candle knows that is it is light but it can’t really experience itself as light because Light is all there is. And so the little candle chooses to go to another realm in order to surround itself by darkness. By encountering the darkness or that which it is not the little candle is able to really know itself as that which it is.

I believe that appreciating this field of contrasts can lead to us experiencing a more harmonious life. For instance, you may choose to see yourself as a peaceful person and then find yourself encountering all sorts of aggression. Now instead of condemning it, what if you acknowledged that this aggression coming into your space actually enabled you to declare and express yourself as a woman or man of peace? By taking this perspective and blessing the experience, you may even be able to help to transform the aggression into something else.

In a nutshell

“In the absence of that which you are not, that which you are… is not” (CWG)

Applying this wisdom

1. Think of something you are intending to be more of (e.g. prosperous)

2. Identify what is coming into your space that is the opposite of this (e.g. being pick-pocketed)

3. What is the gift or the message that this experience of the opposite is bringing you?

4. Who do you choose to be in relation to this Other Than that is showing up?