Last night, while walking our dogs around the neighborhood, they suddenly became agitated and began to bark.  At first, we couldn’t see anyone or anything that might cause this.  Soon, however, a girl in her late teens/early 20’s appeared across the street.

She was clearly angry: huffing, mumbling, and stomping the ground as she walked. Both dogs became especially perturbed each time she stopped, looked-down, and stomped her foot forcefully on the sidewalk.

Once she had passed us, we crossed the street and saw that she had been “taking  a walk” with the clear intent to kill as many toads as possible.

Though not pleasant to look at, their custom of coming out each night to feast on the prolific mosquito population in our hot, humid, summer climate makes toads especially welcomed, honored, and protected residents.  Odin and Serena had learned to quietly circumvent them when walking and seemed to understand that their humans liked these odd looking creatures.  So, when they observed a stranger determindly killing them, they loudly voiced their disapproval.

Animals are in touch with their immediate feelings and emotions and express them easily and naturally.  Humans, on the other hand, have developed numerous methods of suppressing, ignoring, and projecting anything unpleasant that “comes-up” for them.

Since our physical and mental states of being are so closely entwined, it is crucial to our physical health that we learn to acknowledge, name, face, and deal with the source of our negative emotions. Otherwise they become trapped and left to fester in our bodies, ultimately causing energetic imbalances–dis-eases–which diminish our health and vitality.

The Hathor teachings remind us that this dysfunctional habit also impedes our spiritual health and development.  They call these suppressed, negative emotions the “underworld” and counsel us to go down into the catacombs of our unconscious before seeking to uncover higher spiritual mysteries.

Why?  “If you go too high in consciousness without balancing your hidden depths, including your own unconscious, then you are potentially dangerous, as you are acting without awareness of the crucial parts of yourself that are in your underworld–those aspects that are NOT evolved–such as your anger, your hatred, your jealousy, your rage, your fantasies, even your death wishes.”  (The Hathor Material, ORB Communications, 1996, Tom Kenyon, pp. 85-86)

These are all a part of human nature and our task is to integrate and heal all levels of our human experience while living on Earth.  Though this might seem a gargantuan task, these wise Spiritual Guides also remind us that our nature is “profoundly capable” of this assignment, as human consciousness encompasses the Light and Celestial Realms  as well as darker realms– and everything in between.  This is just “what’s so” about being human. To hold both polarities in balance and to heal darkness through the light of awareness is the path of evolution they see for our level and dimension of Being.

A far better path than toad-stomping, me thinks!