Disponible en español.
Living in a country like Venezuela, which has been so unstable these past years, has made me think that anything could happen to me at any time – particularly during the night, when anyone could come close to me and I wouldn’t realize. I never gave it any previous thought until, one night, I had to go to the supermarket. The street was so desolate that I thought to myself, “I could be murdered and no one would know until the morning.”
[Pexels.]
The words got out of my mouth before I could process them: “En sombras habito y en sombras camino, en sobras aguardo y en sombras me resguardo.” (“In shadows I live and in shadows I walk, in shadows I wait and in shadows I won’t fall.”) Call it a prayer, an affirmation, a spell, an incantation, whatever suits your spiritual path. The name doesn’t matter, only the effect. Nothing has happened to me when I walk alone in the night.
I have written about this before in my personal blog. Darkness doesn’t represent evil to me, just the unseen, that which we fear, that which we are still unable to control. If we go back to any creation myth, it all starts with darkness, with an emptiness that would then be filled. Darkness is originative; it doesn’t understand limits such as time and space. Rather than look at it as the enemy, I work with it as my sidekick.
After that night, something clicked in me. I usually have to go out at night to buy this or that at the supermarket, and it’s not a long walk, just a couple of minutes to arrive, but it only takes seconds for a life to end. Why take a risk if I could have support instead? Some could say that this just psychological, that it’s the law of attraction, but whatever it is, it has worked again and again and again. The name for the practice, again, is unimportant.
One doesn’t have to live in an unstable country such as Venezuela to ask darkness for protection and shelter. If someone needs it, finds comfort, beauty, or both in it, and understands that darkness doesn’t equal evil or harm, nor is it necessarily negative in any sense, then feel free to speak to the darkness honestly. Just be clear and concise.
These rhymes are just my approach on the matter. I feel better when my words rhyme. But one certainly doesn’t have be a poet to ask for help. However, if one finds rhymes appealing and feel more comfortable including them, then try using one of these options – or use them all – as a whole prayer or spell, or as a basis to create another prayer to the darkness entirely. Do what feels most comfortable.
Sombras y las tinieblas a mi alrededor, protejan este corazón de daño y maldad.
(Deidad de tu preferencia), ven a mí en esta noche de necesidad.
Ningún daño vendrá en mi camino, iré y vendré sin pavor ni suplicio.
Luna plateada en lo alto, permíteme llegar a casa sano y salvo.
(Shadows and darkness that surround me, protect from harm this noble heart.
[Deity of preference], come to me in this night of need.
No harm shall come my way, I shall be safe from harm and pain.
Silver moon in the sky, protect me as I walk.)
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