Choose Positive Living with Sara Troy and her guest Will Schneider, aired August 2nd-8th
Lucifer’s Game is a tale of intrigue. It takes you on a witty, yet profoundly deep dive into the inner realm of our very humanity. Jackson Trent, spiritual explorer and writer of the popular blog “Snap Out Of It!” (snapoutofitblog.com) has come to Hawai’i to heal his shattered heart. On the beach, he’s approached by a mysterious stranger who turns out to be Lucifer, under the guise of a corpulent, disheveled tourist. Lucifer, (who has his own dubious ‘anti-social media’ advice column LettersToLucifer.com) convinces Jackson to spend the day with him, whereby they delve into a fascinating and provocative exploration between the Light and the Shadow of human consciousness. As the ‘caretaker’ of the Shadow side of our nature, just what is Lucifer really up to here? What’s his game with us?
Will says, “My decades of exploration into mindfulness clarified for me a powerful realization. Our human awareness has the potential to move vertically, up or down. In any given moment, I can be more awake, more present, or conversely, more in a kind of ‘waking sleep.’
That realization rocked my world. If nature left us off in a foggy kind of ‘waking sleep’, how can I snap out of it? So the proverbial ‘moth’ in me began fluttering its wings towards the flame of learning to be more awake. Over time, this quest brought me into various metaphysical schools of consciousness development, which revealed greater knowledge of myself and provided powerful trainings for me in how I could get in touch with, and open to, my true Essential Nature that’s buried under layers of egoic structures.
Having spent much time and energy on my quest towards Spirit, I recognized a pattern in myself and in many others. I had been irresistibly drawn towards the ‘Light of awakening’ but I began to wonder about my darkness—the Shadow side buried within my unconscious. The Shadow; all the unsavory aspects of my nature that I have unknowingly rejected in favor of my overall positive self-image. Like everyone, I had pushed away these unwanted characteristics, pretending that they were not a part of me. They were out of sight and out of mind.
Gradually, I came to understand that this is a pretty weak strategy that we all employ. Our Shadow side may be buried out of sight but it’s not out of our psyche. It may be off the radar but it remains alive and well, , until one day it can emerge from below. The Shadow is filled with our noxious characteristics like Pride, Greed, Anger, Gluttony, Dishonesty, Envy, Lying, Hatred, Manipulation and the list goes on.
I began to see that we ignore our Shadow side at our peril. The character aspects that have been renounced and banished can, and will, rear up and sabotage one’s life. Just look at the various spiritual paths that abound. How many teachers, gurus and so-called ‘masters’ have been co-opted and subverted by having ignored their Shadow? Quite a few. An honest appraisal of society, in general, reveals how riddled our culture is with these ‘Shadowlings’ infiltrating people’s reality and wrecking havoc. Just read a newspaper on any given day.
It was this realization about the Shadow world was my motivation behind writing Lucifer’s Game. I realized it could be intriguing, insightful and fun to imagine a character who actually agrees to spend a day with Lucifer, who in my tale, is simply the Master of the Shadowland. What would they discuss? What would Lucifer’s role be when it comes to the dark side? Just what’s his game with us? Just what’s he up to that would behoove us to get a handle on? I envisioned Lucifer ‘holding the torch for all those rejected Selves’ who live at the bottom of the spiral staircase of our psyche, shown on the cover of Lucifer’s Game.
Will Schneider is a full-time writer living in the wine country of Sonoma County, north of San Francisco. Formerly working in business development, Schneider spent years as the Licensing Director for the world-renown artist, Laurel Burch, as well as a National Sales Manager in the wine industry and high-tech arena.
An adventurer at heart, and naturally drawn to the ‘edge’ of things, his current passion is kayaking along the wild Pacific coast. Will has equally experienced a calling to explore and push the boundaries of his inner world, and has spent decades deeply immersed in the study of various metaphysical traditions. Thirty-five years of deep training from a variety of exceptional spiritual teachings has allowed him to develop a wide-ranging platform of knowledge and understanding regarding the human inner landscape and our potential range of consciousness.
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Lucifer’s Game is his first novel. Will is currently writing a sequel to this novel focused on the Shadow world of relationships. He is also preparing workshops and events focused on understanding the Shadow and ‘waking up’ to our Presence.
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