There may not be much difference between Jedi Universalists and what are called Force Realists. Indeed the article I wrote for Force Realist Online Magazine was a description of the path of light from the perspective of the Jedi Way.  – Rivan Elan, Jedi

Among the Force Realist community there are several aspects that are commonly used to characterize the nature of people and their communities.  These aspects, while they initially seem pretty straight forward, are actually broad swaths of generalization that lump together many different people that may or may not agree on matters of what the Force is, what constitutes a Jedi or Sith and even vastly different opinions on the nature of light or dark itself.  For these reasons, if I tried to give you an inclusive view of all of the idiosyncrasies and beliefs of those who are loosely referred to as being from the “Light Aspect” I would have to include endless qualifications that would lead the reader through a confusing maze of exceptions and circumstances.  Leaving them more confused that before they had started.

For these reasons I have chosen to speak for myself as to what I consider are the traits and ideas of the Light Aspect.  For, in the end, all any of us can really do is speak for ourselves.  Each person must choose their own path through life and into each life come the mistakes and successes that their selections bring to them.  It is through these choices that we learn and grow and what I have grown to believe is what I will share with you here.

In my path, as in the path that each of you are walking, at any given time, we make judgments based upon the understanding that we have.  That understanding has been conditioned by a combination of our culture, experience, and education.  So my understanding here is conditioned by my own experiences and understandings of those and how they have shaped my personality.

Two of the concepts that I have found particularly useful in my understanding of the Light Aspect the concepts of Shalom and Tikkun Olam.  Shalom, is commonly translated in the Christian scriptures as “peace” but this is a very limited understanding forced upon us by the inevitable differences in meaning from language to language and culture to culture.

Shalom is so much more than peace.  Shalom can be defined as the harmonious interaction of all of creation in a mutually supportive and fulfilling web of interaction and life.  In Cornelius Plantinga Jr’s book entitled: Not the Way It Is Supposed To Be; A Breviary of Sin he writes that this is the way that the world was created to be.  Sin, (which is a recurring theme in Christianity and the Torah) he therefore describes in light of this definition of shalom as being simply “a culpable disturbance of shalom.”  This is so much different than the artificial understanding of sin held not only by those who have no truck with Christianity but even many who have been raised in churches who have the overly simplistic understand that sin is a breaking of some sort of metaphysical do and don’t list.  In the context of shalom, as in the context of the teachings of Jesus, righteousness and wrong do not have to do with a list of directions but everything to do with your actions in relation to others.  That, however, is a difficult concept for a society taught to be as individualistic as ours.  It is very difficult for most people to consider that right and wrong have more to do with the interconnecting web of relationships and life than they do with some set of rules.  In the first everything we do or fail to do must be evaluated within our understanding of the relationships that it will affect and in the second we simply “follow the rules.”

Now in Plantinga’s definition he uses the word “culpable” deliberately. He means that when someone chooses to harm the beneficial web of relationships and life of this world that they have committed wrong and intentionally wrought harm not only upon those whom they are immediately influencing but initiating ripples of malice and harm that emanate throughout the web of life and carry (not only the obvious and immediate consequences) but also a cascade of negative consequences that reverberate through the web of life and creation throughout the Earth.  Plantinga argues that because of the totality of such actions the world as we know it is “not the way it is supposed to be.”  This brings us to the other Hebrew word that I had mentioned which is Tikkun Olam.

Tikkun Olam, put simply, is the “Repair of the World.”  It is thought by many in the Christian and Jewish communities that the Repair of the World is the great act of co-creation that God invites each of us to join into with the Him, Her, and/or It - depending upon how you may view the Divine.  In this paradigm the act of co-creation is the work of our lives that we are put upon this Earth to do. In other words, it is the high calling of our every day lives to do what we are able to effect the “repair of the world” or, thought of another way, to do what we can to heal the broken relationships and unhealthy connections in the web of life and relationship that are disturbing shalom.

But you may be asking yourself what does Christian and Jewish theology have to do with the Light Aspect.  Well, I am glad you asked. 

If you remember at the beginning I said that we each view reality through the lenses of our experience and understanding.  For me that understanding has been tempered not only by seeing the great harm that human being can work upon human being by my military and intelligence background but also by the additional focal point of my seminary education and years of experience as a pastor in Christian churches.  So, it is natural that I will define the Light Aspect with the words that I feel that best identify it.  And, for me, that includes the concepts of Shalom and Tikkun Olam. 

However, if I were to choose one word that was not specifically related to my theological training I would instead turn to my musical experience and describe the Light Aspect as: Harmony.

Now this would not some harmony that envisions a world free of strife or challenge, nor does it indicate some utopian metanoia in which all people agree and are moving together in lock-step in the same manner and toward the same thing. Neither is it a false harmony that is achieved by passively accepting a situation and refusing to speak truth lest it “make waves.”  Rather, it is a harmony such as you might find in an orchestra or a choir.  Now the musical among you may point out that harmony (in which voices are blended and move together does not include such melodious aspects created by the descant and beats of the timing of the piece.) However, these musical specifics are too detailed for the analogy that I am weaving here. In this case I invite you to think of harmony as the entire musical package that is brought to us in the finished arrangement of music where all aspects, melody, descant, harmony, and beat are combined into the final wondrous presentation of the music.

It is this harmony that I feel is the task and goal of the light aspect.  It is a harmony that works to repair the harm done that the people and organizations of this world wreck upon one another and to help gather up the tattered fragments that are left in their wake to begin tying them back together mending the web of life and action that characterizes our existence.

Now I readily acknowledge that some of us in our search for harmony and healing may occasionally hit a sour note or find ourselves singing in the wrong key.  (In fact I myself have done this from time to time in my life.)  But, in the path of Light, when we find ourselves out of flow with the rhythm of the Force, we seek to return back into harmony with it.

This rhythm is, for the Force Realist of the Light Aspect, the rhythm of the Force and our own contribution in concert with it that constitute this path. 

So, when you combine this idea of harmony with the ideas of Shalom and Tikkun Olam we come very close to what I believe best defines the Light Aspect.  I invite you to consider that by repair of the world we understand this to be the actions, intents and words that heal and empower the positive web of relationships and life that connect not only all people but all of creation together in a mutually fulfilling web of life and growth. 

In other words it is a web of life that helps us to fulfill our possibilities and operate to our full potential affecting our life and the lives of others in a positive way.

This message of hope and healing is to me what I see as the chief aspects of light.

In actuality this web of life, relationship, and growth includes the rhythm of light and darkness; birth, growth, and death; day and night; ignorance and the wisdom which carries us out of ignorance and into new life as all parts of the harmony and rhythm of life.  It within this totality of life and existence that those who are gathered together in the Light Aspect may seek to work toward life and whole-ness in harmony with the rhythms of the Force and the web of life. 

In our lives the path of light can be described as finding the rhythm and harmony of life and discovering your own place in it.  It is no accident that this concept is found in many of the major religions of the Earth.  Whether you choose to call it Shalom or Tao it matters not.  What matters is that you have found the rhythms of the Force and move with it.