Many highly sensitive individuals have endured a period of such profound hurt that the harrowing soul-seppuku they experienced could put the deepest abysses in the darkest of all oceans to shame. In response, they overcorrect - almost repressing or "switching off" their gentle natures for a time. Yet what they come to realise is that their sensitivity was never truly extinguished. Rather, what was repressed was their compassion - not their perceptiveness. In its place emerged a perversion of their intuitive gifts - something akin to Machiavellian traits. With their gentle hearts buried, they found their intuitive acuity sharpened to a lethal edge - honed by logic as its mistress.
They realise the power of intuition when severed from compassion and empathy. While destructive, it is in this shadowed embrace of instinct and perception that they rapidly refine their ability - wielding it like an ornate obsidian lance - piercing through all they set their sights upon. Yet this heightened state comes at a cost - the risk of losing oneself.
The return to authenticity is always painful. As compassion and empathy resurface, they are often met with guilt - guilt for having weaponised their intuition without the tempering force of compassion. Integration comes when they no longer flee from the raw brute power of their intuition - but instead embrace both its shadowed sharpness and its capacity for healing. The lesson is not just to feel compassion once more, but to recognise that pain, like ecstasy, flows - that hatred is not necessary, nor is it easily sustained once one truly understands that every person is simply striving for a life that feels meaningful to them. The difference lies in that not all expressions of this search are healthy and each of us stands at a different stage of personal growth.
Once this understanding takes root, compassion becomes the ultimate alchemiser of the dark and desolate - once again gracing the moonless realm with Persephone's subtle warmth. It becomes increasingly difficult to cling to pain and resentment when one realises that even those dark of heart are merely seeking their way - each carrying their own backstory within this intricate weave of existence.
Lovely piece Lauren.
I believe Aristotle's Golden Mean applies to this - dealing the amount of virtue as it is required in a situation. It is something that takes time to acquire. More often you get burned first, learning firsthand how dark human nature can be, before you learn to appropriately apply your virtue.
Most people will overcorrect by going to the extreme, not dealing compassion at all, which is understandable as they are protecting themselves from hurt. But in becoming cold, they realize that their relationships lack a depth that they cannot explain.
If they are lucky enough, their compassion will find them. They will grow into not viewing it as a liability, but rather as an element they can ration appropriately depending on their circumstances. Even if they get burned they can take it, as that virtue would have been dealt with no expectations of return in the first place.