Daily Reflection 2.2.21

[readoldthings]

A blessed Calan Myri, Imbolc, Candlemas, and, most importantly of all, Groundhog's Day, to one and all. 

Sun Tzu tells us:

There are five essentials for victory:

1. He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.

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

3. He will win whose army is animates by the same spirit throughout all its ranks

4. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.

5. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign. 

 
I want to take these one or two at a time, over the next few days.

Let's look at the first essential now.

He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
 

To this, our translator appends the following commentary:

Chang Yu says: If he can fight, he advances and takes the offensive; if he cannot fight, he retreats and remains on the defensive. He will invariably conquer who knows whether it is right to take the offensive or the defensive.
 

Let's consider this with regard to the spiritual warfare we've been discussing. (I have half a mind to start describing this as a war against the Powers of Chaos, and I may start doing so. Why? Because it sounds cool. If I think something sounds cool, I'm going to want to keep doing it; in this way, the general inspires his army and unites their will to that of the sovereign.)

When and where are we able to take the offensive, and when should we retreat and take a defensive position? And what do these look like?

Someone mentioned on the Ecosophia blog that public places run by either the government or nonprofit agencies seem to be especially bad these days, in terms of hysteria around Covid. This is my experience as well. Last week, my wife and I went to a local thrift store run by members of the Episcopalian Church, a church which is, at this point, little more than the spiritual auxiliary of the Democratic Party. The energy was so bad I felt dizzy and nauseous and had to leave after a few minutes. A while later I went back in to check on my wife, and found her being lectured about Covid safety protocols by the woman behind the cash register. Both of us felt energetically drained and moody for the rest of the day.

The Powers of Chaos were strong in that place. Retreat was the best option, and in the future I will simply avoid going in that store. 

On the other hand, in our own homes and personal spaces, fighting is nearly always the best option. And it can look like many things. The simple act of tidying up and sweeping the floor can do a great deal all on its own to purify the energy of a room. But there are many layers that can be added to this: Essential oils or a mix of salt and vinegar can be added to water to create a magically effective cleanser, incense and simmer-pots can be added to cleaning, and candles dedicated to saints or deities can be lit to bless a home. Of course, for those involved in ceremonial magic, a greater range of options exists. 

Most physical spaces exist between these two extremes, and the balance of forces will vary depending on the presence of other people, ongoing news events and astrological phenomena. There is a time to fight and a time to take the defensive. 

Regarding defense-- there are times when public places and energetically toxic spaces and people are unavoidable. Given this, it's very useful to have a basic knowledge of magical defensive techniques and the ability to apply them. More on this as we go on!

Comments

[violetcabra]

Thanks for this! I've noticed the bad vibes out in the world, too, and until pretty recently I could hardly go out without getting ill. I had to wear like 5-layers of magical protection. Then over several months I worked out a bunch of karma by filling about 20 composition books with various writings, which brought a lot of the darkness of my inner world to light.

Now I can go out without all the elaborate outer protection that I once needed because there is less within me that resonates to the chaos. This experience of intensive journaling and working out karma through the pen & the page got me to reconsider my entire approach: the candles, the floorwashes, and the amulets all work, and I employ all of these techniques in specific contexts. The most profound space we can work is, as you've mentioned many times, within our own souls. Of course, I've written on my thoughts on journaling quite a bit on my blog and in the secret manuscript that you have a copy of. Journaling combines well with natural magic; it combines well with devotional work and is especially nice done by candlelight. I think many divinities really enjoy helping a devotee when the devotee prays earnestly for guidance & protection for working out spiritual problems and then journals while the candles burn on the altar. Journaling also combines well with putting on some good tunes: I've found it especially helpful to listen to music that reminds me of painful time periods of my life when I journal about those times. Really the possibilities are endless!

To employ your metaphor, I consider the working out of the chaos with journaling something that can get us fit as soldiers for the long march to victory!

[readoldthings]

This is excellent, thank you! Journaling is one of JMG's recommendations that I've never really put into practice. I'd tell you I don't have time for it, but, that's usually an excuse.

One of the things I was planning on discussing in terms of magical defense is that praying for your enemies, and the practice of going out and blessing every person you encounter, are both, in my experience, far more effective than explicitly protective workings. And protective workings themselves work far better if you approach them as an act of healing and blessing, rather than fighting or conflict. Dragon-slaying is just a metaphor; any protective working is really more like the Demiurgus bringing order to Chaos.

[violetcabra]

You're most welcome and many thanks for the kind response! This is actually a really interesting point to me, as it may be a point of metaphysical difference of opinion that we have. Basically, I view life through the lens of karma with the belief that what I experience in this life results from the actions of both this life and a long string of other human lives. Because of this faith, I specifically believe that I must _suffer out_ certain experiences. Basically, like sweating out an illness I believe that I must suffer out my own iniquity.

Given these precepts, I work with journaling as a method of suffering out my specific iniquities. While journaling at times I would start trembling in agonizing pain, sometimes I literally convulsed, and for weeks my heart hurt as if pierced and I feared I would die. Afterwards, though, I felt totally relieved of the sins I had journaled about.

Okay, now here is where the point becomes interesting: I do a lot of blessing as well, but it seems to me that no amount of blessing work can correct my iniquity. Blessings may bring blessing into my life, healing work may bring healing, but I don't find these sorts of work --- as beautiful and important as they are --- to directly act on the problem of sin. To scrub the bucket I must _suffer_, and after plunging into the purifying fires I come out with as much dross burnt off as I can bare.

Now, to be clear, all of my motivations are rooted in the metaphysics of my faith in reincarnation. I have not the least little doubt that any sin I don't deal with will drag me back into materiality until I suffer through it and burn off the dross. This understanding compliments the blessing work, and vice-versa but I see neither as functionally replacing the other. Again, this rooted in the logical construction of my metaphysical frame, which I'm not sure we share. Other frames have other forms of logic just as self-consistent as mine! I discuss this largely because I find it of interest from a sense of logical coherence and the sorts of actions it inspires. I look forward to reading your future discussions as always!

[readoldthings]

Thank you for this.

Now, the thing is, I think we do share the same metaphysical frame. The difference is that I think that we can intercept our karma to a certain extent by acts of forgiveness toward others and making amends for our wrongs. Examining my own life, though, it does seem to me that I've been forced to suffer almost everything I've forced on another, and that this has become more intense, more rapid, and more in-your-face obvious since I've been on the Path.

Hmm. Lots to think about.

[sdi]

I have half a mind to start describing this as a war against the Powers of Chaos, and I may start doing so.

For whatever it's worth, I don't like this. As in so many things, I don't think "order" is good and "chaos" is evil: like all extremes, they are both damaging! A purely ordered universe would be static and crystalline (and useless), while a purely chaotic universe would be a nebulous mess (and useless).

In computer sciences (which study process using logic), we find that everything interesting happens at a magic balance of order and chaos. I recall reading that neuroscientists suspect that human brains work that way, too. And didn't Empedocles stress that Love and Strife needed to be held in tension?

Indeed, the COVID lockdowns strike me as a disease of too much Order, rather than too much Chaos. We are stifled by rules, rather than falling into incomprehensibility. (Even as those rules are, themselves, ridiculous.) I got this in a particularly direct way for a divinatory reading the other day, where my spirit contact characterized the government as an overly fussy and anxious mother who couldn't understand why her children didn't appreciate everything she does for them.

[readoldthings]

You're exactly right, if you interpret "order and chaos" as "yin and yang." I always tell my qigong students that yin and yang are both necessary-- too much yang and your body flies apart; too much yin and you're unable to move. And illness consists of either yin or yang in excess. In that sense, the Covid lockdowns as an excess of Order:Yin is entirely correct, and the image of the overprotective mother is a very good illustration of Yin Excess! That's not how I mean it here, though-- in this case, Order would, in fact, be the balance point between extremes, both of which are different forms of Chaos, in the same way that "Virtue" is opposed to "Vice," but is also the mid-point between equal and opposite vices.

We'll see, though.

[sdi]

That's not how I mean it here, though-- in this case, Order would, in fact, be the balance point between extremes, both of which are different forms of Chaos, in the same way that "Virtue" is opposed to "Vice," but is also the mid-point between equal and opposite vices.

Got it, thank you for explaining!