Out of fear, we learn to override our darkness or operate over the top of it. Here's the problem with this strategy: Suppressing our shadow doesn't vanquished it, it only pushes it off the screen of our conscious awareness.

Over the past century there has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of depression, sleep disorders and obesity. New data suggest that at least part of this increase could be due to the ever-growing exposure to light at night.

Light equals life. It is precious and we are loath to lose it. Not that the dark does not bring its own healing, life-enhancing atmosphere, but after the long pitch of winter, we are eager, anxious, impatient for more light. Nature knows that and obliges.

After the solstice, the dark gets a tiny bit lighter each day as we in the Northern Hemisphere inch toward spring. But now, pre-solstice, we are spinning further and further into the darkest of the dark.