Daily Reflection 2.3.21

Here is Sun Tzu's second essential for victory:

He will win who knows how to handle superior and inferior forces.

To which our translator adds:

This is not merely the general's ability to estimate numbers correctly, as Li Ch'uan and others make out. Chang Yu expounds the saying more satisfactorily: "By applying the art of war, it is possible with a lesser force to defeat a greater, and vice versa. The secret lies in an eye for locality, and in not letting the right moment slip. Thus Wu Tzu says: 'With a superior force, make for easy ground; with an inferior one, make for difficult ground.'" 

Now, how shall we understand all of this in terms of Spiritual Warfare? I suggest five ways:

1. The soul is its own place, and it is nearly always difficult ground for the Enemy-- if we make it so. To do this, we can't wait until the hour of need. Remember that Levi says that each of us carries Heaven or Hell with us, in our aura. To dwell in Heaven, we need to establish the Kingdom of God within us. We can do this only through regular devotional practice. (What practice? That's up to you. There are many valid paths and many valid traditions. How do you pick one? Ask yourself the question: Who do I want to be? And then learn about different traditions, gods, and spiritual practices. Does this sound like it could lead you in the direction  you want? Okay, now meet as many people who follow that path as you can. What do they act like? What does it feel like to be around them? Do you want what they have? Follow their path, and you will have it.)

2. Let us remember, though, that "soul" in Latin is "anima," "the animating principle," "that which moves." The soul is a place, and it is also an activity. It often happens that we find ourselves defeated on our own ground, and we descend into addictive behavior, rage or lust or despair, or that kind of grayed-out, emptiness that characterizes much of life. How do we find safe ground then? 

By doing something. The saying to remember here is "Move a muscle, change a thought." And we will often find that one of the very best things that we can do, when we ourselves are at our worst, is to go find someone else that we can help. Bill Wilson employed this principle when he was in early recovery from drinking. Out of town and down on his luck, he found himself pulled toward the bottle, but overcame it by phoning a local branch of the Oxford society and asking them if there were any alcoholics in town that he could go and help. It works!

3. The soul is not, of course, isolated, but impacts and is impacted by the surroundings. Knowing this, we can use it to our advantage. When we find ourselves in hostile ground, we can retreat within ourselves-- provided we have created an inner space we can retreat to. We can use defensive magical techniques, and we can connect with our deities, and we can pray silently for ourselves and those around us. 

The same is true in reverse. When we find our minds overthrown by the Dark Powers and Hell manifesting within our auras, we can go to a place that is Heaven-like, and restore ourselves. Simply stepping into a healthy woodland, garden, church, or shrine is often enough to do the trick. 

In Santa Barbara, where I used to live, the local Franciscan mission had the Stations of the Cross, a traditional Catholic devotional, set up along a walking path in a large and beautiful olive grove. Interspersed among the olives were many rosemary bushes, yarrows and sages. I used to go there regularly after work, when my mind was at its most chaotic. I'd gather a bit of rosemary, which is strongly purifying, and walk the way of the cross. After the 14th station, which is the burial of Christ in the tomb, I would sit on a bench and spent 5-10 minutes or so in meditation. The effect of this practice on my consciousness was profound. Often I'd go back to my car and turn on whatever podcast or radio program I'd been listening to, which is usually political in nature, and immediately turn it off in horror as the contrast between it and the peace I'd found was so extreme. 

It can be easy for those of us who like to live in our own heads to forget the outside world. Make use of holy places for spiritual regeneration-- that's what they're there for!

4. Be aware of psychic currents, and don't set yourself in opposition to a current that you can't resist. Whether it's a new trend in politics, religion, art or culture, psychic currents have a force behind them. That force is by definition easy ground for the powers behind that current, and if you set out to directly oppose that force, you will lose-- unless you have a superior force. Right-wingers and Christian pastors may have railed against the hippies in the middle of the '60s; it did no good, and in fact strengthened the hippie movement. Fifteen years later, the energy of the hippie movement was exhausted, and the early punk movement was able to conquer most of its territory in the alternative cultural space. Fulton Sheen condemning hippies in 1968 only strengthened them; Joe Strummer publicly declaring that "Hippies can shove off" in 1983 had quite a different effect.

In Chapter 11 of Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic, Eliphas Levi writes:

Every enthusiasm propagated in society... produces a magnetic current that is also conserved or augmented by that current. The effect of the current is to enchant and often overly stimulate impressionable and weak persons, excitable constitutions, and temperaments predisposed to hysteria or hallucinations. These persons soon become powerful vehicles for magical power and strongly project the astral light in the same direction as the current; thus to oppose oneself to manifestations of power is in a way to fight destiny.
 

Levi goes on to describe how the Pharisee Saul set himself in the path of the incoming Christ Current, and so was transformed into Paul, the apostle. The Emperor Diocletian accomplished much the same thing-- though he did not convert himself, the effect of his persecutions was to convert many others. Our latter-day Diocletians are likely to accomplish the same thing. 

It's worth noting that many, many of the people involved in our entertainment industry qualify as "impressionable and weak persons" and "temperaments predisposed to hysteria or hallucinations." To consume their products is to expose yourself to their enthusiasms. Do so with caution.

5. Finally, I want to suggest that the internet is nearly always easy ground, and social media is the easiest ground. Direct, person-to-person communication, without the mediation of technology is difficult ground. As the new censorship regime tightens, those of us who dissent from the prevailing order of the day will do well to stay out of the way of the big tech giants, and to move our operations to smaller, more obscure websites and, especially, in-person contacts.