Most students of ‘A Course in Miracles’ are familiar with the ‘holiday’ sections from the Course that refer to Christmas and Easter. But, there is one deliciously chilling section filled with ghouls and dripping blood - a veritable Halloween extravaganza. Reading this section is both horrifying and fascinating – sort of like watching a train wreck. You can find it toward the center of the Text in one of the chapters that deals with special relationships. (I will share the quote just a little bit further on.)
But, that should give you a clue. Special relationships – those nastily insidious cooperative ventures sure to bring destruction and chaos, that are often, but not exclusively, referred to as romantic love. In these attempts to find happiness and fulfillment, ego like the character Iago in a Shakespearean play, slithers into the minds of the couple to cast doubt, find fault and direct power plays.
Ego is not, however, a red devil with pitchfork. Ego is a rather simple mental tool for survival that sort of makes sense, and works great when all you are relying on is instinct – like the animal community. But, as humans in complex social groups, with the ability to reach for a higher purpose, ego becomes self-sabotaging and a real ‘drag’. Dragging us emotionally back into the raw emotions of fear, guilt, and anger – the emotions of a caged beast.
Halloween, unacknowledged, but there nevertheless, appears in Chapter 19, The Attainment of Peace, subheading – The attraction of Guilt. And, though I will share just this slightly long quote, the whole section is a really cool read. So here it is:
“Fears messengers are trained through terror, and they tremble when their master calls on them to serve him. For fear is merciless even to its friends. Its messengers steal guiltily away in hungry search of guilt, for they are kept cold and starving and made very vicious by their master, who allows them to feed only upon what they return to him. No little shred of guilt escapes their hungry eyes. And in their savage search for sin they pounce on any living thing they see, and carry it screaming to their master, to be devoured.
“Send not these savage messengers into the world, to feed upon it and to prey upon reality. For they will bring you word of bones and skin and flesh. They have been taught to return with gorges filled with things decayed and rotted. To them such things are beautiful, because they seem to allay their savage pangs of hunger. For they are frantic with pain of fear, and would avert the punishment of him who sends them forth by offering him what they hold dear.”
Whew!!! Heavy!!! And really scary!!!
The dynamics of ego direct us to believe in a lonely and separated state of being that demands tactics for self protection. That first unfortunate belief brings a sense of guilt and unworthiness. Fear of stronger beings ready to stomp on the weak follows and the tactic of anger, the projection of guilt onto others, explodes into the mind as the obvious solution.
So, here we have a lovely young couple, shining and radiant, falling in love. But, underneath this fairy tale scenario lurks the ego and its ugly agenda. And, this is why ‘A Course in Miracles’ spends so many chapters on these special relationships.
Halloween has become a truly fun time for children and can be a fun time for us adults, too. So let’s say ‘BOOOO!’ to the ego, laugh at its scary mask and remember the next quote from this same chapter in the Course:
“The Holy Spirit has given you love’s messengers to send. . .They are as eager to return to you what they hold dear. . .If you send them forth, they will see only the blameless and the beautiful, the gentle and the kind. They will be as careful to let no little act of charity, no tiny expression of forgiveness, no little breath of love escape their notice. And they will return with all the happy things they found, to share them lovingly with you. Be not afraid of them. They offer you salvation. Theirs are the messages of safety, for they see the world as kind.”
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