This is part of my series about the Seven Hermetic Principles and the 12 Universal Laws. Visit my post Diving into the Universal Laws and Hermetic Principles to find the links to all of the Laws and Principles.
The Law of Polarity has many layers, more than we probably even understand. In fact, I think the Law of Polarity should have a sub law: The Law of Discernment, because it’s all about choice. Let me explain this a little further.
The term polarity means “the presence or manifestation of two opposite or contrasting principles or tendencies.” (www.dictionary.com) Polarity means opposites, but how can you use opposites to work with the Universe?
To put it simply, the Universe presents us with situations, events, thoughts and various other encounters each day where we have to make decisions. By taking a step back and looking at what is in front of us before actually acting, we can decide which direction we are headed and see how it will map out our future.
I like to think of the Law of Polarity like those Choose Your Own Adventure books from the 1980’s. Thankfully, each choice you make won’t result with you falling into a pit or getting eaten by a shark.
Visualize yourself standing in an empty room and look at the ground. Around you are arrows pointing in every direction out towards the unknown. It’s overwhelming to think about, but it’s what each of us faces everyday on a physical, mental and emotional level. Every moment of our lives is a decision and each decision puts us on a path that makes up our lives. You see where this can become the Law of Discernment? Each choice we make is a form of judgement or decision making.
The Universe cannot make our decisions for us, but it does present us with opportunities to move us along our path via the Law of Polarity. Every decision we make has a “pole,” or an opposition. You can either get into the car and drive to work, or decide to stay home and watch Netflix. This single decision will have many more arrows that appear under your feet, but they will not present themselves until a decision is made.
Opposition gives us an idea of what we do or do not want. When the Universe puts us in a situation that feels either unpleasant or amazing, it’s giving us an opportunity to recognize what we do or do not want. Sometimes we won’t know we don’t want an experience until we are right in the thick of it.
There have been a slew of examples in my past where I’ve learned what I didn’t want without even realizing it. Despite me not catching these instances until years later, I still unknowingly made decisions that were more in alignment to what I actually wanted. Let me illustrate via my previous work experiences.
Throughout my adult life I’ve had various jobs in different cities due to my husband needing to move via his job or the military. Since I’ve had so many employment positions, I’ve been able to narrow down, explore and become more aligned with my future decisions by eliminating what it was I didn’t like. Working at a bank made me realize that I didn’t enjoy working with numbers all of the time. A job as a business administrator showed me that booking travel arrangements was miserable but planning events was like figuring out a moving puzzle. These are things that I didn’t realize about myself at the time, and maybe never would have thought about until I experienced it. There is so much to learn via the Law of Polarity.
The other thing that has helped me with this law, is visualizing my emotions like a teeter totter or see saw. Just hear me out!
Emotions are neither negative or positive, they are just different points on a pole. This is difficult, because there are so many emotions that are in play in each person, but for visualizing purposes, let’s just make this simple and use the emotions: happy and sad. These two emotions are on the same pole, but just know that there are about a thousand variations in between.
Now, imagine that you are in the middle of this teeter totter, with Sad on one end and Happy on the other. The ultimate goal is to balance yourself in the middle of these emotions, not really letting either of them affect you and being able to look out on any given situation without any emotions. Since we are humans, with extremely complex emotions, this is virtually impossible-that’s what makes living fun after all!
Since it’s so difficult to control our emotions, the best we can hope to do is recover from each emotion in a quick manner so that we can remain balanced. This is where the Law of Vibration and the Law of Perpetual Transmutation come in to play too.
Remember how we are each radio towers, emitting frequencies via our emotions to the Universe? I’ve found that the teeter totter visual helps me quickly put an emotion I’m feeling on one end, with the one I want to feel on the other end, and then transmute my energy to shift my vibrations to the opposite end of the spectrum. Knowing your personal range of emotions and being able to reign them in and re-balance yourself is also using the Law of Polarity, but in a more abstract way.
Phew! The Law of Polarity packs a punch, right?! Here’s are some ways to work with it some more.
1. Step back and take a look. Many times, without us even realizing it, the Universe is giving examples of what we do or don’t want. These are the repeating patterns in our lives that we tend to ignore. Are you constantly triggered by something? Perhaps that is the Universe’s nudge to look deeper at the issue and fix it inside of yourself. This is essentially a change in perspective.
2. Be honest. Since we’ve mentioned discernment, it’s time to take a hard look at where you are and where you want to go. It’s so easy to fall into a repeating pattern and want to break free, but it’s not easy to take the next step towards healing, your big dream or changing your outlook. The Law of Polarity is here to show you what you do or do not want, how you choose to proceed is all up to you.
3. Don’t let others control your frequency. I often tell my boys, “Don’t give anyone your power.” Your power is your vibration, your frequency, your way to communicate with the Universe. Since your vibrations are tied to your emotions, don’t let ANYONE control them. Once you have power over your frequency, the possibilities are unimaginable-why would you ever give that kind of power to someone else?