The Dark Lord

By Franco Minatel

So who is the Dark Lord in Paganism?  As his name implies, he rules all darkness but darkness is not evil.  Evil does exist but this is a choice of each and every living being - in this plane or the next.  Most people will concur that we have freedom of choice.  The power of the gods is to show us all the different energies available to us.  We can them use in both a macrocosmic and microcosmic sense.  

The Dark Lord in the macrocosmic sense of seasonal energy, he is the Lord of Winter.  He and his rival the Bright Lord take turns at fighting over the Wheel of the Year in a continuous cycle.   The Dark Lord's solitary reign occurs from Samhain until Yule, or Halloween until the Winter Solstice, at which point the Dark Lord is at his full power and the Bright Lord is reborn.  The Dark Lord's power wanes as the Bright Lord's increases until they are equal in strength at the Spring Equinox.  At Beltane, the Dark Lord dies and gives way to the Bright Lord to rule the land.  At the Summer Solstice, the Dark Lord is reborn while the Bright Lord is in his glory.  The Dark Lord starts gaining his strength and the Bright Lord weakens until they are equal in power at the Autumn Equinox.  At Samhain the Bright Lord dies to begin the cycle again.

The Dark Lord is born as the days start getting shorter.  Harvest, the death of the plants, is His time.  Samhain (Halloween) is the harvesting of souls and the descent to the Underworld.  In northern climes, this is when we start to retreat.  The streets are less crowded as we make our way inwards.  In ancient days, families gathered around the indoor fire to stay warm.  Even today, cozying up by the fire for some quiet time is a very wintry thing to do.

People used to live off the yields of the harvests.  Food would be scarce during the dark times.  Animals would be culled.  This act of internalisation falls under the realm of the Dark Lord.  He is the internal winter of our minds; the dark days which lie within you.  When the Winter Solstice comes there is a sense of renewal as is seen by the celebration of the New Year a week later.   Through New Year's resolutions, people make plans for what they will do for the coming year or in other words when their lives begin again.  However, the snows are still deep and there is still time before we can slip from the clutches of winter. 

In a more microcosmic sense, the two Lords battle over night and day.  The Dark Lord reigns over that part of you that exists in the shadows.  What lurks in the shadows of night?  What lurks in the shadows of our mind?  What is it that we fear?  What is it that we most want to do but cannot?  Here is where things can get tricky!  We choose what to do, what path to take.  Do we carry out our darkest fantasies or not?  You hate the boss and you want to maim him.  That is a safe avenue to carry out in the mind but when the mind turns it into action - that is the difference between good and evil.  

Like both the day and the year, we have bright times and dark times as we go through life.  This is the cycle of the Bright Lord and the Dark Lord in our journey through this world.  What do you do when you hit rock bottom?  Do you give in to the Dark Lord offerings or do you fight him to regain your path in life.  He is the one that pushes us because without that push we do not succeed.  He is there to shake us from constantly taking the easy road which could make us lazy and contemptuous.  There are people who have become successful after surviving for some period by begging or who have overcome abusive pasts.  The Dark Lord brings us to lows so that we can spring back to the highs not to stay in the void.  

They say what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.  The Dark Lord's purpose is to drag you deep into yourself and kill some part of you so you can grow to be stronger.  He is like the plant that dies in the autumn and the act of removing the dead wood at spring so that it can grow and blossom for the summer during the Bright Lord's reign.   The balance - the Yin and the Yang - the perpetuating cycle - over and over again.  To embrace only one is to stagnate either by being complacent or stuck in a rut whether your life is good or bad.  To be only one is to avoid growth and which ultimately decays not only your physical life but that of your soul too.

It could be said that (rather tongue-in-cheek) that the Dark Lord is not evil necessarily but rather a necessary .... evil.


Franco Minatel (aka Cuchulainn)