I am knowledge and ignorance. I am shame and boldness. I am shameless; I am ashamed. I am strength and I am fear. I am war and peace. I am control and the uncontrollable. I am the union and the dissolution. I am the one whom they call Life, and you have called Death. – Fragments of text from ancient gnostic manuscript “The Thunder, Perfect Mind” found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt
Over the past few years, there has been a lot of talk surrounding “lightworkers.” Many articles – often on spiritual development and new age sites – have been published with titles such as, “Are You a Lightworker?” “How Do I Become a Lightworker?” and “8 Signs That You’re a Lightworker,” and so forth. While these articles and the concept of being a lightworker in general can be beneficial for the initial stages of our spiritual growth, the notion of being a lightworker is essentially a destructive form of identification that hinders our expansion in the long term.
This might sound outrageous. “How can identifying with the light, with goodness, possibly be destructive?!” We’ll explore why in depth in this article, and the main reason is tied in with the reality of non-duality.
What is Non-Duality?
Our thoughts, memories, judgments, perceptions, beliefs, dogmas and mental conditionings rule our entire lives. We are built by thought, and we are destroyed by thought. We are elevated by thought, and we are disgraced by thought. We are organized by thought, and we are disorganized by thought. We live by thought, and we die by thought.
Thought is everywhere. Just turn away from the screen on which you’re reading this article – look straight ahead. What do you see? A wall? Curtains? Traffic? People? These are all forms of thought. Yes, they might actually exist, but our ability to understand what they are, separate them, and label them, is all a product of thought. In fact, this entire article is … what? A product of thought manifested in a physical form.
It’s no wonder that we get so wound up in thought! In fact, we get so obsessed with thought that our entire moral and religious systems are a product of separating people, feelings, things, and situations into “good or bad,” “righteous or evil,” “light or dark,” “positive or negative.” We do this so that life is easy to understand, and so that we can prolong our survival by processing what will help us live, versus die.
But thought has shifted from an evolutionary function, to the axis on which our entire lives rotate. We identify with thought so closely that it is the basis on which we build our entire illusionary identities that are composed of feelings, thoughts, beliefs, memories, tastes, and sensations that are all subject to growth, change and decay. We identify with thought so closely that it is the basis for every form of war, terror, abuse and unhappiness, and every fleeting form of pleasure, obsession, egomania, success and ambition.
Thought is what blocks out our connection with Soul, which is pure, radiant presence, or Being. And thought is also what creates duality, which is essentially our tendency to fragment existence, rather than seeing it as one great Whole.
Good/bad, right/wrong, light/dark, positive/negative, hero/villain, saint/sinner – these concepts are all products of duality. And so is being a “lightworker” or “darkworker.”
In reality, there is no such thing as a lightworker or darkworker: there is just a worker, a person. When we understand the futility of identifying with something that doesn’t exist (only in dualistic thought), we can experience life with immense wholeness and clarity.
Like the yin and yang, there is always light in darkness, and darkness in light. So can anything truly be said to be solely one thing? Without one, there can’t be the appreciation or understanding of the other. This is the essence of non-duality. Nothing is separate, everything is One.
Why I’m Not a Lightworker
I’ve had many people refer to me as a “lightworker” and also ask me whether I am a lightworker. I am not. I also don’t believe that identifying as a lightworker is “wrong” or bad: it just has more disadvantages than advantages. So if you are interested in spiritual maturity, read why I don’t identify as one:
1. Because we need light AND darkness to experience wholeness.
This is the entire premise of shadow work; without plunging to the depths of your inner hell and exploring your demons, you can’t scale the heights of your inner heaven. In other words, focusing only on self-love without doing the real dirty work is just another form of spiritual bypassing. (You can read more about the dark side of self-love here and spiritual bypassing here.)
2. Because identifying as a lightworker instantly creates a rift of separation between people.
The philosophy of lightworkers is noble (wanting to serve the world, helps others, support spiritual progression), however, ironically the very act of identifying as a lightworker perpetuates the myth that we are divided: that there are “good people” and “bad people,” that there are “heroes” and “villains.” Life is not that simple, and to refer to people as “lightworkers” or “darkworkers” is to play the same destructive game as religion has (i.e. that there are righteous people and unrighteous people).
3. Because the label is hard to shake (the ego loves it).
Old Souls, empaths, introverts, extroverts, star seeds, free spirits – all are forms of identification that are extremely beneficial for self-understanding up until a certain point. But all labels must eventually be shed to experience true Being. Identifying as a “Lightworker” is yet another label out there which needs to be shed, but is particularly hard to shake off. Why? If you think about it, how nice is it to feel as though you are righteous; a hero of humanity; a diamond of spirituality; a herald of greatness; an elevated being? Pretty damn nice. But the truth is that you aren’t just light, you are also dark. And to deny the darkness within you is to deny the truth of reality.
What about you?
What is your opinion of lightworkers/darkworkers? What has your experience been with duality and non-duality? Please share below and join the discussion!
I recently came to this conclusion, and made a conscious decision to not label what I do. Began to notice the obsession with being a “lightworker” within the spiritual circle I was in, and I didn’t like what that obsession did to us.
Not only did I made a decision to not label myself, I also made a decision to not surround myself with people who claimed to be spiritual and a “lightworker” but behind closed doors, were doing things that wasn’t for the highest good.
But they taught me many things about myself because I was like that. What I didn’t understand was that during that season, I was actually trying to find an identity that wasn’t put onto me by society. Especially being a victim of sexual abuse, I began to understand and realise that the majority of the people I came across, was also a victim of some sort of abuse and was searching for an identity that would take the pain away, instead actually acknowledging the pain, embrace it and then release is a long process.
A lot people who I’ve met that called themselves a “lightworker”, are highly spiritual skilled but one thing that they didn’t understand or refused to understand because of the ego, is that when they did healing work, they were unconsciously projecting their unresolved issues unto their clients.
That’s something I also did before I got a wake-up call, and decided to not practice any healing work until I’m “fully” healed myself.
This was a great article. I love your unbiased perspectives on spirituality.
Thank you”
Just here for the money… Good for you. HOPE (ugly word) you get all the material wealth you seek. Have a good time !!
Thank you for a deep and inspiring article.
I’ve always disliked the term “Lightworker” for much the same reason mentioned in this article. Coming from a Shamanic training background it never made sense accept as a way for someone to feel superior to another. Thanks for the Article.
Wonderful article. It solidifies what I have come to in my awakening journey. I too, am shedding the term, lightworker, for myself. It no longer serves me on my spiritual journey anymore. There’s so much implications/expectations based on performance . My self-worth is irrespective of my performance. I came to the realization that there is something wrong whereby it’s the lightworkers that are charged with a divine mission to help humanity. What about those younger in their spiritual journey, do they get exempt from that charge and do not carry the title..by no means. A lightworker is not the only ‘water carrier’ for humanity. As we grow in consciousness, and realize the divine interconnectiveness of it all, we all want to help and love humanity, not because of a title and expectations, but because it’s an expresssion of God(source) living in & through us.
Hi, I love your articles and I am learning so much from them, but there is one thing I am struggling with. I am a motivated vegan for a lot of Reasons, and for example I can label factory framing only as bad and immoral, people bring Harm to other living sentient creatures for their own good. But this js duality, should I let this go as well? I think I Will not be able to though, but Maybe this is an exception or Something? I usally try to look at opinions and such from a lot of different pespectives but these things are just cruel and inhumane to me. I would love to hear what you think I should do!
Robin. Coming from an animist (shamanic training) background where everything has a sentient including the plants that vegans eat and the stones we sit on, etc. All things are sentient, therefore eating plants is not ‘better’ that eating animals, in my world view. Not trying to knock vegans here, just pointing out a different way to look at it.
In the end, gratitude for the food we eat is important, regardless of its source.
I’ve been reading Delores Cannon’s book, The Three Waves of Volunteers, and something poignant stuck out for me in recent pages…
I believe she was speaking with what she calls the subconscious (source) in one of the Quantum Healing Hypnosis Sessions in the book when it explains how there isn’t any negative beings, there are some that are just further from the light. Kind of goes along with your post, we all just are.
Oh my God, THANK YOU, I know the VOICE is speaking through you… I use the Generator at the bottom and WHAM! Here I am. You channel it well. Blessings.
<3 blessings Lakia!
Loved this article, totally identify with the “labels” helping for a time. For me personally, they became uncomfortable. At first I thought I was seeking out like-minded people/groups etc but after a while I started to avoid interacting with these groups finding it all too much repetitive ideas and phrases that I found unrealistic and unfulfilling. I have learned much from this site and love the honest way you are encouraged to explore all aspects of who you are no matter how uncomfortable. Although I. still have much work to do in my own understanding of myself at least l now have a better understanding of how! Thank you xxx
I have labelled myself my entire life, hard not to, when you were raised by an extremely emotionally and physically abusive and violent parent, who called you more harmful names than the dictionary can hold and hearing them all the time, until you believe them.
However I find on days that I am not ripping myself to shreds, that I have always been a duality. I am kind, generous, funny, friendly, helpful, empathetic, patient and supportive on Monday, only to find on Tuesday that I am snotty, impatient, vicious, brutal, nasty, eye rolling, fed up, worn out, isolating, teary eyed and bitter. How can one 61 inch body be all these things ? How can 1 61 inch be such a mass of contradictions ??
Thankyou for this article. it’s quite alot to take in at once, & I look forward to exploring it often. As Someone who has been FAR on the otherside of things. I would like to point out that caring about Terms,& Identifiers is not something those who Break,Tear down ,and Destroy concern themselves with.
Selfishness leaves No room for doubt. there is enlightenment in acknowledging the Duality of All things. even atoms contain “Positive” & “Negative” charged elements.those properties are not in balance in each and every individual. thus some are more “Light” ,or “Dark”.
I feel this way too about “ soul types”. It is helpful for seeing a purpose but it gets weird. People being competitive to have the most enlightened advanced and trendy one. It wasn’t supposed to be that way.