Dark Victory

All of us are subject to changing moods; our moods can increase our energy and enhance our creativity, making us open to others and more aware of and sensitive to the world around us. Or they can debilitate us, deprive us of our hope and optimism, making us feel we want to withdraw from everything and everyone.

The purpose of this book is to consider some of the many moods that are part of the human condition. At first there was to be a special emphasis on depression, but as the scheme revealed itself in greater detail to my mind, I saw that there was much more to be considered than this very common, negative state of mind. This nevertheless has remained the central axis of the book, around which many other emotional states tend to revolve. The main theme is the clarification of various mood patterns, showing that there is nothing completely valueless in our lives provided we have the courage to persist in whatever state we may find ourselves and the integrity to accept what is shown to us as a prelude to a change in our awareness of ourselves and of the world at large. Our mood is related to our bodily health, the circumstances governing our life and our relationship with other people. This relationship is not merely one of intellectual agreement or even emotional compatibility; we also receive more immediate information from a soul communicating directly with its neighbour. There is also the direct interplay of the energies of God with those who have a mystical openness to states of being hardly known to most other people. When we can get to know the inner manifestations of various patterns of personal emotion, we can use our lives more creatively. To be able to transcend the apparently insurmountable barriers of mortality, to lose our-selves in loving service as a prelude to the unitive consciousness of the mystic is an excellent way. Yet no one should spurn the experience of depression as a way to understanding other people more compassionately. Every mood has something to offer the sensitive person; all moods are stepping-stones to an awareness of the totality of life and of our place in eternity.

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