Daily Reflection 1.26.21

 Let's return to Sun Tzu, and to our discussion of the Spiritual Warfare.

Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field. 

 

Now, our translator points out that the Chinese character 國, here being translated as "kingdom", refers especially to the government of a kingdom. In other words, the skillful leader overthrows the government without destroying the people. (The US strategy of regime change via "color revolution" is relevant here, though slightly off topic.)

As we have seen, the field of battle in the Spiritual Warfare is the soul, both the soul of the individual man and woman and the field of soul-stuff generally. And as we have also seen, at least a part of our souls-- all of our souls, I would guess-- is currently under the occupation of the Enemy. It is that part that we must reconquer-- if we are skillful, without strain or internal struggle; without lengthy operations in the field.

But how?

For assistance, let's turn to two other thinkers: the first is Plato; the second Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

At the beginning of The Republic, Plato tells us that the imaginary country he is describing is intended as an image of the soul. For, as Socrates says, the soul itself is too small to be seen; if we blow it up to the size of a kingdom, though, we can explore and understand it. And so Plato tells us that in the properly ordered kingdom, there will be three classes of people: the rulers, the soldiery, and the workers, all working together in harmony.

Now the rulers represent the reason and the divine part within us; the soldiers, the spirited part (call it the energy or the enthusiasm), and the workers the desires. In a properly ordered soul, the desires and passions will be subordinated to the rule of reason and divinity. The high-spirited part, the energy and enthusiasm, will support the goals of the reason and keep the passions in line. 

Now the rule of the demonic manifests in subordination to the passions. 

As we've discussed before, in the current world order, the primary vector for demonic attack is The Internet. And the Internet, especially social media, is deliberately designed to hijack to the brain and induce addictive behavior. 

And that's where Bill Wilson comes in.

In 1961, Wilson wrote to the psychologist Carl Jung what he called "a letter of great appreciation." 

The main subject of Wilson's letter was one of the early members of Alcoholics Anonymous, a one Roland H., who had previously been one of Jung's patients. Jung, however, had been unable to cure Mr. H of his addiction, and was forced to tell him that his case was probably hopeless. Wilson writes,

When he then asked you if there was any other hope, you told him that there might be, provided he could become the subject of a spiritual or religious experience—in short, a genuine conversion. You pointed out how such an experience, if brought about, might remotivate him when nothing else could. But you did caution, though, that while such experiences had sometimes brought recovery to alcoholics, they were, nevertheless, comparatively rare. You recommended that he place himself in a religious atmosphere and hope for the best.

Jung's response is extremely interesting:

 

His craving for alcohol was the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God.

Jung continues-- and this is worth quoting at length--

The only right and legitimate way to such an experience is that it happens to you in reality, and it can only happen to you when you walk on a path which leads you to higher understanding. You might be led to that goal by an act of grace or through a personal and honest contact with friends, or through a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism. I see from your letter that Roland H. has chosen the second way, which was, under the circumstances, obviously the best one.

I am strongly convinced that the evil principle prevailing in this world leads the unrecognized spiritual need into perdition if it is not counteracted either by real religious insight or by the protective wall of human community. An ordinary man, not protected by an action from above and isolated in society, cannot resist the power of evil, which is called very aptly the Devil. But the use of such words arouses so many mistakes that one can only keep aloof from them as much as possible.

 

You see, “alcohol” in Latin is spiritus, and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: spiritus contra spiritum.*

 

To put it in Plato's language:

A part of our internal kingdom-- a large part, or a small part, as may be-- is under the rule of the enemy. When we strain and struggle internally, we are opposing our enemy's armies. What we should rather do is overthrow the government of his kingdom. 

How do we do this?

By Spiritus contra spiritum. 

Twelve-step people use the language of "turning our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him." We can use that language explicitly, or we can modify it a bit. In the language of Occultism, we might say "Turning our desires over to the rule of our Higher Self, custodian of our True Will, and our Holy Guardian Angel." And I'm sure you can think of other ways of saying the same thing. The point is that the forces of the higher planes must re-take the government of our souls, which are currently under the dominion of the demons of the Lower Astral Plane. 

But note the other major point that Jung makes: It's hard to do this alone. But we can have an honest religious experience through "a personal and honest contact with friends," and "the protective wall of human community." This is what recovery groups do for their members. Lacking a formal group, we can substitute for it by 1. rededicating our lives to our spiritual practices and 2. connecting with others on an informal basis. 

Is that enough? For many, it might be. If so, the next step might be to join or create something like "Screen Addicts Anonymous."

But I think we can do better than that. It seems to me that even the best recovery groups still have an aspect of struggle against the enemy's armies in the field, insofar as they continue to make addiction their focus. 

Last Summer, JMG fielded a discussion on his blog about the creation of a new Druid religious organization. 

From that conversation followed a flurry of development, which then stalled out for a time. Why did it stall? I'm uncertain, but I believe it was related to the badly afflicted condition of Jupiter, ruler of spirituality. Now the worst of that affliction has passed, and it's time to open the conversation back up. And that's what I plan on doing, starting today.



* "Spirit against spirit."