One of the surprising welcoming notes around my move to the North Carolina Triangle area is the “Rembrandt in America” show at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.http://ncartmuseum.org/exhibitions/rembrandt/ opening in the most Rembrandt time of year – the end of October when light and dark embrace each other in nature and in the human soul celebrating the vital contrasts of life.

Rembrandt’s art crystalizes in the compelling engagement, the romance, of light and dark in his portraits. He knew that his subject’s humanity could only be revealed in the deep shadows of greys, browns, and almost blacks, and that their individuality shone through the luminous pearls and creams and  the mysterious beams of light he found in their countenances.  I can sense who these men and women were in the thresholds of personality found where these lights and darks meet in the brightening dawns and dimming dusks of these visual biographies. Rembrandt’s portraits in light and dark powerfully awaken compassion in the viewer, the same compassion that made this artist so extraordinarily great.

As Rembrandt^‘s romance with light and dark in the soul of his subjects matured into a true friendship, he moved beyond being a successful portraitist to being a portraitist of historical, moral and spiritual significance. His most important subject was himself. The more he worked on capturing the contrasts of his own soul, the more he could see what lived in others.

Whether or not you have ever held a paintbrush in your hand, Rembrandt can teach you a great lesson in compassionate self-portraiture – inwardly painting multiple pictures of your soul’s biography. You must build a lasting friendship between the dark powerful defining shadows of your humanity with the bright light of your personal divinity.

In my conversations with my clients, I listen to their harsh judgments and anxious fears about their shadows.  They feel threatened by a sense of inner evil and the experience of being either the victim or the perpetrator. They hope I will say words that will rescue and redeem them.

Instead I teach them the compassion of the Inner Rembrandt and the transcendent healing, liberation and empowerment of the self-portrait. Like Rembrandt, you must have a mirror and a canvas, the brush and the palette of colors. Look into the mirror and paint what you see on the canvas.  When you finish one self-portrait, begin the next.

 

The Inner Autumn Being Human Courses: Confronting Your Challengers and Engaging Your Companions teach the key elements for encountering the soul contrasts of dark and light. To paint your self-portrait you must find the darkest and the lightest points of your image.

 

The first course teaches the about the mysteries of the dark, the gestures of evil and the art of transformations.  You even learn how without the contrast of the shadows, light becomes formless and meaningless, and find the challenger that hides in that blinding of light.

(The second guides you into more conscious and active engagement with the spiritual beings that support your inner development.  I will share more about this program over the next few weeks. )

In this rich course, you learn the significance of confronting or facing courageously the counter-forces and inclinations toward evil that live within your own soul.  This confrontation requires that you make friends with your shadows. We cannot dismiss or ignore evil. We cannot make light of the dark until we know it well.  We must  confront and confront and confront as spiritual practice and as a path of moral development.

Imagine the personal freedom that comes with understanding the opponents to that freedom.

Imagine the strength of your personal choices that comes with the ability to resist the forces that want to undermine or dominate those choices by twisting your truth, distorting your beauty, and crippling your will.

Imagine the confidence and the feeling of personal integrity that comes with having a strengthened moral immune system – a system that protects who you are from attack, sabotage, and invasion.

None of these imaginations can develop without taking the time to understand the relationships between the human soul, your human soul, and evil.

Devote one hour a week over the next four weeks (Thursday evening, Sunday afternoon or the download anytime) to confronting the forces that stand between you and your path of development.   Go here to learn more about the course and register for Confronting Your Challengers http://www.store.lynnjericho.com/CONFRONTING-YOUR-CHALLENGERS-IY-CC11.htm

The Inner Year Being Human Course are invaluable for knowing yourself and the rest of humanity.