Daily Reflection 1.27.21
Jan. 27th, 2021 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readoldthingsLet's have some more Sun Tzu.
I want to think about this passage especially in regard to the Spiritual Warfare we've been discussing.
Three thoughts come to mind:
1. Have you ever tried to engage with angry people on the internet? If so, how did it go? Have you ever told yourself "I'm just going to check the news real quick," and then found yourself an hour later having ingested a dozen different articles on any number of random topics, most of which left you feeling at once angry and powerless?
This is an example of a small force succumbing to a larger force. The Internet is bigger than you are, it is infested with demons, and most of the people on it are possessed or obsessed to one degree or another.
2. Of course, the Internet isn't the only vector of demonic attack. These days, the astral environment generally is very bad. From what I can tell, it is much worse in the cities than in the countryside. That isn't an absolute rule, though. I've been in rural environments that were positively Lovecraftian in their overall feel. There does seem to be a difference though. Unwholesome places and spirits in the countryside, at least in my experience, feel like dangerous nature spirits. They're like sharks or mountain lions-- when you're in their territory, you respect them, and try to stay out of their way. The things that travel from mind to mind via the internet feel much worse to me.
On the other hand, what is the internet but a sub-natural environment held together by the enslavement of natural forces? Perhaps we should expect that its native spirits are of the unsavory kind.
The point, though, is this: When we are on the enemy's ground, we are weak and outnumbered. But the same is true in reverse. Our first object in the Spiritual War should be to reconquer our own minds and our immediate psychic environment. And here there is a great deal that we can do, as we've discussed before.
3. Ultimately, what we want to do is to outnumber the enemy. We can do this in a few ways. If we learn to master our own mind, and if we spend our mental energy on devotion, charitable work, and self-development-- the gods, the other, the self, to say it another way-- then we will, in time, be able to overwhelm the Enemy Within. Our immediate environments can also be reconquered with a bit of effort. Pick up the clutter in your room, vacuum the floor, and place some purifying herbs in a simmer pot on the stove, and the astral environment in your home will improve markedly.
There is much, though, that we simply cannot do. Many of our fellow citizens are something close to insane. Confront them, and you won't win-- the madness will spread to you. The only thing to do is to avoid them. "If unequal in every way, we can flee."
Ultimately, as I wrote yesterday, we need to go beyond our own minds and personal spaces and network with others. Only in this way will we come to outnumber the Enemy-- at least some of the time.
More on this as we go along.
It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army in two.
If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.
Hence, though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force.
If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.
Hence, though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force.
I want to think about this passage especially in regard to the Spiritual Warfare we've been discussing.
Three thoughts come to mind:
1. Have you ever tried to engage with angry people on the internet? If so, how did it go? Have you ever told yourself "I'm just going to check the news real quick," and then found yourself an hour later having ingested a dozen different articles on any number of random topics, most of which left you feeling at once angry and powerless?
This is an example of a small force succumbing to a larger force. The Internet is bigger than you are, it is infested with demons, and most of the people on it are possessed or obsessed to one degree or another.
2. Of course, the Internet isn't the only vector of demonic attack. These days, the astral environment generally is very bad. From what I can tell, it is much worse in the cities than in the countryside. That isn't an absolute rule, though. I've been in rural environments that were positively Lovecraftian in their overall feel. There does seem to be a difference though. Unwholesome places and spirits in the countryside, at least in my experience, feel like dangerous nature spirits. They're like sharks or mountain lions-- when you're in their territory, you respect them, and try to stay out of their way. The things that travel from mind to mind via the internet feel much worse to me.
On the other hand, what is the internet but a sub-natural environment held together by the enslavement of natural forces? Perhaps we should expect that its native spirits are of the unsavory kind.
The point, though, is this: When we are on the enemy's ground, we are weak and outnumbered. But the same is true in reverse. Our first object in the Spiritual War should be to reconquer our own minds and our immediate psychic environment. And here there is a great deal that we can do, as we've discussed before.
3. Ultimately, what we want to do is to outnumber the enemy. We can do this in a few ways. If we learn to master our own mind, and if we spend our mental energy on devotion, charitable work, and self-development-- the gods, the other, the self, to say it another way-- then we will, in time, be able to overwhelm the Enemy Within. Our immediate environments can also be reconquered with a bit of effort. Pick up the clutter in your room, vacuum the floor, and place some purifying herbs in a simmer pot on the stove, and the astral environment in your home will improve markedly.
There is much, though, that we simply cannot do. Many of our fellow citizens are something close to insane. Confront them, and you won't win-- the madness will spread to you. The only thing to do is to avoid them. "If unequal in every way, we can flee."
Ultimately, as I wrote yesterday, we need to go beyond our own minds and personal spaces and network with others. Only in this way will we come to outnumber the Enemy-- at least some of the time.
More on this as we go along.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-02 03:55 pm (UTC)I totally get that feeling of the wrongness of the spiritual tone of the internet. It's certainly trashier --- in the full sense of the word! --- than malevolent nature spirits!