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[solarpsychedelic]

Our collective fear of sadness and melancholy blocks recognition of the gifts they can bring.

The study of Jungian psychology inspires me to call depression melancholy and melancholia instead because the terms give the state of mind some respect.

It’s a challenge to accept melancholia in a society that is set against it, is afraid of it, and instead encourages anger. Our current times especially prefer the destructive, infantile type of rage aspect of anger, and not the righteous anger based in a recognition of injustice. Instead of movement toward a better world, there’s a stewing in toxicity and lashing out against the Other.

I think the foremost reason why our society prefers anger to melancholia is because the state of sadness and the reflection it creates doesn’t serve capitalism and politics in the way anger does.

Depressed people resist while angry people can be manipulated to join an ideology and act at the behest of the ideology’s leader.

Depressed people withdraw and reflect; angry people go out and join. An extraverted, materialistic society that views “normality” as having things and being loud would then prefer anger over melancholy.

What are the gifts of melancholy? Introspection and a deeper relationship with self and ultimately the world.

Melancholy leads us down into the subconscious, the underworld of memories, dreams, and the hidden gems of the mind. This journey invites us to get to know ourselves better, to develop more empathy for our suffering, and in turn, for the suffering of others.

Melancholy leads to a deepening of the character. And it can feel lonely.Yet the paradox of being alone in the underworld is that we realize… we’re not alone. There is a whole human history of people who were misunderstood, forgotten, or persecuted, and they ask us to remember them.

It’s the imperfect moments that make us human and the imperfect moments that works as points of authentic insight and inspiration.

If the symbol of the waking, conscious world is the sun, then then symbol of underworld consciousness is a dark sun. And under its dark light is a wisdom that enlightens the soul.