Daily Advice 1.20.21
Jan. 20th, 2021 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readoldthingsA new administration takes power in America today. The astrological conditions for the event are almost comically terrible; JMG posted his analysis a few weeks back and later today or tomorrow I'm going to post my own writeup over at Vox Caelorum. Astral conditions are as bad as they've ever been in my lifetime, and a clairvoyant friend who is old enough to remember 1968 says that they are worse than she's ever seen them.
Sounds like a good day to discuss the spiritual warfare, with the aid of our old friends Sun Tzu and Eliphas Levi.
Sun Tzu tells us:
The territory on which our war is being fought is the soul. We will understand what that means better if we remember that "soul" is the English translation of the Latin word "anima" and the Greek word "psyche." Anima is the root of "animate," meaning "that which moves." "Psyche," of course, is identical to "mind," and consists of all of the contents of our minds. And so we could define "soul" as "the total contents of our minds and our actions."
Let's turn to Levi for a moment:
And now the nature of the conflict clearly presents itself:
Part of our souls lie under the dominion of the Enemy.
Which parts?
For the specific purpose of this discussion, the Enemy is the demonic power which is driving people in the United States and around the world into a frenzy of rage over political issues. It first manifested itself in the deranged reaction to the election of Donald Trump and the successful Brexit referendum by members of the liberal classes in the United States and the United Kingdom. But it is active on the political Right as well, and has now exploded into full force among certain Trump supporters in their reaction to his electoral defeat.
Expect it to continue to evolve and mutate and to take many forms in the years ahead. It will change its story and its appearance, but you can always tell that it's there. Watch for the following signs: Excess emotion, especially rage; willing indulgence in fantasies of violence, which then become acts of violence; a complete lack of reflective thought. If you are sensitive to these things, you can feel its presence in a tightening in your various energy centers, as though someone were squeezing your throat or punching you in the solar plexus. You can see it in others in the glazed looks in their eyes and the incoherent justifications they give for violent actions.
Our goal, let us remember, is to live in peace. This doesn't necessarily mean an absence of physical violence. It means the subordination of all of our actions and all the contents of our minds to our spirits, our wills, and our gods.
Let's turn back to Sun Tzu, then, with this in mind.
Our goal is to "take the enemy's country intact," not to "shatter and destroy it." What does that mean in the war for our souls?
Two things come to mind.
First, we want to be live in such a way that peace, as I've defined it, comes naturally. If we're spending time straining and struggling within ourselves, we're both suffering and wasting a ton of energy. The classic example of this, of course, is the devout and scrupulous Catholic who is trying to avoid "sexual sin" by a constant internal struggle. The result is a person who feels blocked up, constipated, and irritable, and is unable to get very much done because of all the energy they're spending trying not to think about masturbating. Even if they "win," they've done so at great cost, and have certainly "shattered and destroyed" much of the country of their own souls.
"What you resist you strengthen." Don't fight the demons and the passions by resisting them. Instead, as I've suggested before, simply do other things with your time. Things which matter and have meaning to you. Above all else, pray, meditate, and engage in spiritual practice. If you feel "tempted," don't fight against it-- use the energy to do something good with your time.
Now let's turn to Levi, because I want to add another piece that we haven't discussed before:
And how do we do that?
Let me allow another one of the great ancient masters of magic to answer that.
Today, and every day, pray for your enemies. If, like me, you're not a fan of Joe Biden or his party, today is a good day to pray for them. Don't pray that Biden will become a Republican, a Populist, a Socialist or whatever you wish he was; just pray that he will be blessed by God and guided in the presidency. If you're Christian, a candle for the guardian angel of the United States, and the Virgin Mary as patron saint of America under her title of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception would be appropriate, and doubly so since Biden is at least nominally Catholic. If pagan, an offering to Jupiter would accomplish the same thing.
And while you're out in the world, spend your time blessing people. This is especially easy to do when you're driving, for two reasons: 1. you will encounter a lot of people and 2. most of them will make you angry. Use the energy of the guy that just cut you off to send a blessing his way, and honestly mean it. A simple "May you be blessed," is enough, if you can say it and mean it.
Finally, in addition to prayers, this is a good time to make offerings. (Actually, there's never a bad time.) If you follow the planetary deities, you can synchronize your offerings with the days of the week; Chris Warnock has details here. But you can always pick a cause you care about, invoke your God, and make a donation in their name. In this way you will increase the amount of good in the world. It will return to you, but you must do it without expectation of reward. Do good and allow yourself to love the Good for its own sake.
In these ways, we can begin to reconquer our own souls, and the Soul of the World around us.
Sounds like a good day to discuss the spiritual warfare, with the aid of our old friends Sun Tzu and Eliphas Levi.
Sun Tzu tells us:
In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to capture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.
Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
The territory on which our war is being fought is the soul. We will understand what that means better if we remember that "soul" is the English translation of the Latin word "anima" and the Greek word "psyche." Anima is the root of "animate," meaning "that which moves." "Psyche," of course, is identical to "mind," and consists of all of the contents of our minds. And so we could define "soul" as "the total contents of our minds and our actions."
Let's turn to Levi for a moment:
And now the nature of the conflict clearly presents itself:
Part of our souls lie under the dominion of the Enemy.
Which parts?
For the specific purpose of this discussion, the Enemy is the demonic power which is driving people in the United States and around the world into a frenzy of rage over political issues. It first manifested itself in the deranged reaction to the election of Donald Trump and the successful Brexit referendum by members of the liberal classes in the United States and the United Kingdom. But it is active on the political Right as well, and has now exploded into full force among certain Trump supporters in their reaction to his electoral defeat.
Expect it to continue to evolve and mutate and to take many forms in the years ahead. It will change its story and its appearance, but you can always tell that it's there. Watch for the following signs: Excess emotion, especially rage; willing indulgence in fantasies of violence, which then become acts of violence; a complete lack of reflective thought. If you are sensitive to these things, you can feel its presence in a tightening in your various energy centers, as though someone were squeezing your throat or punching you in the solar plexus. You can see it in others in the glazed looks in their eyes and the incoherent justifications they give for violent actions.
Our goal, let us remember, is to live in peace. This doesn't necessarily mean an absence of physical violence. It means the subordination of all of our actions and all the contents of our minds to our spirits, our wills, and our gods.
Let's turn back to Sun Tzu, then, with this in mind.
Our goal is to "take the enemy's country intact," not to "shatter and destroy it." What does that mean in the war for our souls?
Two things come to mind.
First, we want to be live in such a way that peace, as I've defined it, comes naturally. If we're spending time straining and struggling within ourselves, we're both suffering and wasting a ton of energy. The classic example of this, of course, is the devout and scrupulous Catholic who is trying to avoid "sexual sin" by a constant internal struggle. The result is a person who feels blocked up, constipated, and irritable, and is unable to get very much done because of all the energy they're spending trying not to think about masturbating. Even if they "win," they've done so at great cost, and have certainly "shattered and destroyed" much of the country of their own souls.
"What you resist you strengthen." Don't fight the demons and the passions by resisting them. Instead, as I've suggested before, simply do other things with your time. Things which matter and have meaning to you. Above all else, pray, meditate, and engage in spiritual practice. If you feel "tempted," don't fight against it-- use the energy to do something good with your time.
Now let's turn to Levi, because I want to add another piece that we haven't discussed before:
Magnetic respiration produces a radiation around the soul of which it is the center, and it surrounds itself with the reflection of its works, which makes a Heaven or a Hell for itself. There are no solitary acts and there can be no hidden acts; all that we truly want, that is to say all of which we confirm by our acts, remains written in the astral light, where our reflections are kept; these reflections continually influence our thoughts through the mediation of the diaphane, and it is thus that we become and remain the child of our own works.
Our souls are not isolated units, and don't exist in a vacuum. They are more like whirlpools of astral substance. You can define the boundary between the whirlpool and the river, but both are made of the same water. It's not enough to act in isolation and pursue personal fulfillment. We have to do some work to purify the waters around us.And how do we do that?
Let me allow another one of the great ancient masters of magic to answer that.
You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust. 46For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not also the heathens this? 48Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.
Today, and every day, pray for your enemies. If, like me, you're not a fan of Joe Biden or his party, today is a good day to pray for them. Don't pray that Biden will become a Republican, a Populist, a Socialist or whatever you wish he was; just pray that he will be blessed by God and guided in the presidency. If you're Christian, a candle for the guardian angel of the United States, and the Virgin Mary as patron saint of America under her title of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception would be appropriate, and doubly so since Biden is at least nominally Catholic. If pagan, an offering to Jupiter would accomplish the same thing.
And while you're out in the world, spend your time blessing people. This is especially easy to do when you're driving, for two reasons: 1. you will encounter a lot of people and 2. most of them will make you angry. Use the energy of the guy that just cut you off to send a blessing his way, and honestly mean it. A simple "May you be blessed," is enough, if you can say it and mean it.
Finally, in addition to prayers, this is a good time to make offerings. (Actually, there's never a bad time.) If you follow the planetary deities, you can synchronize your offerings with the days of the week; Chris Warnock has details here. But you can always pick a cause you care about, invoke your God, and make a donation in their name. In this way you will increase the amount of good in the world. It will return to you, but you must do it without expectation of reward. Do good and allow yourself to love the Good for its own sake.
In these ways, we can begin to reconquer our own souls, and the Soul of the World around us.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 06:51 pm (UTC)Not that I'm advocating literal fighting, given national circumstances, but I see that the people of this country have simply rolled over and acquiesced to being psychically/astrally/spiritually overpowered through advertising, convenience, techno-gizmo-whizbang greed, and simultaneously enervated and enfeebled by overwork, stress, superfluous calories and limited nutrition, etc.
So, our enemies achieved supreme excellence and we are in disarray.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 07:13 pm (UTC)At some point last year it occurred to me that, while a lot of us were distracted by Trump and waiting for him to get around to fulfilling his campaign promises and lead a Populist revolt against the "Professional Managerial Class," a totalitarian state had been imposed upon us. Then the BLM/Antifa people were allowed to go on a rampage of violence and destruction through our cities, with the only consequences being that an increasing number of apps, stores and websites, from Audible.com to homebrew supply companies, are ordering me to "Celebrate Black History." And, oh yeah, I'm afraid that even writing something as mildly critical as this may cost me or my wife our jobs.
I'm willing to be wrong, but I think that the "Fourth Turning" or the cycle of Anacyclosis or whatever you want to call the Big Change that everyone was waiting for is already accomplished. The new order looks like the post-9/11 surveillance state, now run by both federal agencies and unaccountable private corporations, made universal, and with medical, racial and environmental justifications replacing most of the original rhetoric about "terrorism." The new ruling class consists of an amalgam of the old PMC, now purged of all ideological noncomformists, with new leaders from the technology companies, the surveillance bureaucracy and the racial and gender grievance organizations. And they accomplished their coup in broad daylight by waving the orange man and his red-hat supporters about like a magician's wand.
I have no idea what to do about this yet. Probably we need to think very carefully about what our actual goals are, what we can actually accomplish, and pair Sun Tzu with thinkers like William Lind.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 07:43 pm (UTC)I'm not familiar with the details of the fourth turning theory, so can't comment on that specifically, but I see your point that we keep having "here's the worst future imaginable" dangled in front of us and it distracts us from the actual changes already made present.
Part of me wonders if part of the answer is analog, luddite-ish, Amish-lite, 1400-1800s-level society lived in broad daylight. There's still room for religion-based deviance from the corporate-state...
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 07:58 pm (UTC)Depends on where you live, so be cautious on this. My wife and I are leaving our home state for this very reason.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 09:38 pm (UTC)Might I ask which state that is? (Inquiring minds casting afield for options and non-options, and all that)...
There's also the locales where religion-based is only acceptable if it's the approved religion, so that takes a good part of the country off the table for some of us.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 10:42 pm (UTC)I suppose the state doesn't much care if low-tech subcultures move out since they're not bolstering the tax base. Though I suppose they're also not a great tax drain...
Food for thought.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 08:09 pm (UTC)The idea of the Fourth Turning is that every four generations we hit a crisis, and a new order emerges from that. The 4-generation cycle ties pretty neatly to the 84 year orbit of Uranus, though as far as I know, Strauss and Howe don't talk about that kind of thing. Meanwhile, at the boss's blog and among his commenteriat there's been talk for some time of the way that, during the 4th Turning crisis, an old elite is removed and a new one installed. So, for example, the British aristocracy was replaced with teh colonial elite during the revolution, the planter aristocracy was replaced by the capitalist class after the civil war, and the capitalists were replaced by the managerial class during and after World War II. (The latter is detailed in The Managerial Revolution, published in 1946; Christopher Lasch's Revolt of the Elite in 1996, and Christopher Caldwell's Age of Entitlement, published last year.)
My point was that a lot of us expected Trumpian populism to overthrow the Professional-Mangerial order, but it looks like, while we were distracted, a new order had been imposed upon us.
As for this:
I think you might be exactly right. Were you there for the talk of the new Druid church last year? I have not abandoned that, it's just that a series of odd events intervened to bog things down, and kept intervening, until I got the idea that it was simply not quite the right time yet. I plan to revive the conversation later this year-- I think that Jupiter needs to get in a better way first.
What specific things were you thinking of?
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 10:38 pm (UTC)I don't have detail-level specific ideas, but I find myself thinking about what allows regional economics and cultural flourishing to occur in the context of having a religious order or tradition as a centripetal force. Having a fallback of "our tradition does ____ or doesn't do ____" could be useful, as would having a community presence to back it. For now the Amish have the right to evaluate and reject technology and that seems worth emulating.
As to your earlier sentiment, I think part of what's fueling the chaos is exactly that sense of disequilibrium caused by finding we're suddenly in the world we thought we could avoid... But that is probably caused by some form of thinking we could avoid the consequences of our collective and individual actions. This seems also key to the capitol brouhaha (a dissociation between action/consequence as though wanting something makes "it" (undefined or variously defined) happen).
Just thinking out loud...
no subject
Date: 2021-01-20 11:23 pm (UTC)One thing I would add is that state persecution can be a thrust block for a fledgling religious movement, as demonstrated by the early Christians or the Falun Dafa today.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-21 12:40 am (UTC)yup.