Daily Reflection 3.15.21
Mar. 15th, 2021 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
readoldthings For Monday, let's begin a new chapter of The Art of War. Chapter 7: Maneuvering opens with the following verses:
Thinking about this with regard to the soul, we come upon the familiar idea that our wills must be unified. If we struggle within ourselves and against ourselves, we will achieve nothing.
That seems obvious, and yet it's much harder than it sounds.
Have you ever noticed that people have one area of their lives which is totally incongruous with the rest? Very often it's either their political views, or their religious beliefs, or their sexuality, and it's somehow 180 degrees off the rest of their personality. So you get very selfish people who fervently believe that the government ought to confiscate their wealth and redistribute it to the poor, or technology addicts who spend all days indoors but think of themselves as pagans or druids, or very aggressive and dominant people who can only get off by paying someone to tie them up and beat them with a riding crop.
There are also cases where the person seems more or less integrated, but their children are their exact opposites. These are the Pastor's Kids who live like hellions, the effeminate gay sons of hard-nosed police officers, the Wall Street day traders whose parents are hippies.
In each case, what's happening is that the Shadow-- that is, all the repressed parts of the personality-- is coming out either in the person's political or religious beliefs, or their sexuality, or in their children.
Now, we all have a Shadow, and this can't be escaped. It's not a bad thing that a selfish person becomes a socialist, a narcissist becomes a Buddhist, or a CEO pays a dominatrix. It is a bad thing when this is done when this is done unconsciously. In this case, the Shadow can come out in ways that cause serious harm to the personality, ending in self-destruction. Or it can be projected unconsciously-- or telephatically-- onto the children, leading to serious conflict in the family, and to children who have to deal with, not just their own, but their parents' Shadows. In these cases, the various elements of the internal army-- the Psyche-- have not been harmonized.
How do we integrate our Shadows?
Now, that's the work of a lifetime. And it's another way of saying "the conquest of our own faculties and future."
Sun Tzu said: In war, the general receives his commands from the sovereign.
Having collected an army and concentrated his forces, he must blend and harmonize the different elements thereof before pitching his camp.
Having collected an army and concentrated his forces, he must blend and harmonize the different elements thereof before pitching his camp.
Thinking about this with regard to the soul, we come upon the familiar idea that our wills must be unified. If we struggle within ourselves and against ourselves, we will achieve nothing.
That seems obvious, and yet it's much harder than it sounds.
Have you ever noticed that people have one area of their lives which is totally incongruous with the rest? Very often it's either their political views, or their religious beliefs, or their sexuality, and it's somehow 180 degrees off the rest of their personality. So you get very selfish people who fervently believe that the government ought to confiscate their wealth and redistribute it to the poor, or technology addicts who spend all days indoors but think of themselves as pagans or druids, or very aggressive and dominant people who can only get off by paying someone to tie them up and beat them with a riding crop.
There are also cases where the person seems more or less integrated, but their children are their exact opposites. These are the Pastor's Kids who live like hellions, the effeminate gay sons of hard-nosed police officers, the Wall Street day traders whose parents are hippies.
In each case, what's happening is that the Shadow-- that is, all the repressed parts of the personality-- is coming out either in the person's political or religious beliefs, or their sexuality, or in their children.
Now, we all have a Shadow, and this can't be escaped. It's not a bad thing that a selfish person becomes a socialist, a narcissist becomes a Buddhist, or a CEO pays a dominatrix. It is a bad thing when this is done when this is done unconsciously. In this case, the Shadow can come out in ways that cause serious harm to the personality, ending in self-destruction. Or it can be projected unconsciously-- or telephatically-- onto the children, leading to serious conflict in the family, and to children who have to deal with, not just their own, but their parents' Shadows. In these cases, the various elements of the internal army-- the Psyche-- have not been harmonized.
How do we integrate our Shadows?
Now, that's the work of a lifetime. And it's another way of saying "the conquest of our own faculties and future."
no subject
Date: 2021-03-16 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-16 05:07 pm (UTC)In your application of the metaphor of the art of war to one’s spiritual battles, how would you differentiate between a “sovereign” vs a “general” within oneself? Is it for instance that the “sovereign” in oneself distinguishes among competing aspirational visions of themselves and settles on one to aim for, and the “general” is the part that gets down to brass tacks to make it actually happen?
no subject
Date: 2021-03-16 05:36 pm (UTC)It just occurred to me. Sun Tzu has already had us divide our forces into smaller units of specific maximum impact. Here he is saying that when amassing forces, though they may be split into teams with their own specific tasks, they must also be “harmonized” in how they area brought together under the umbrella of a unified fighting force. Part of this is in choosing best how to “pitch camp”, i.e. put these teams into optimal rest position before exerting them when needed for action.
How can this principle be applied to spiritual warfare?
Reunifying parts of course recalls solve et coagula. Now I don’t actually know a great deal about alchemy, but perhaps “harmonizing” might involve an elemental balance of forces, e.g. different forces characterized by all of the elements to deal with enemies from each: physical, emotional, intellectual, willful. A defeat in any one of those areas risks leading to defeat in all of them, and so readying troops wisely to deal with each and any enemies in each category is of course essential.
As far as “pitching camp” goes, it’s important to account for the fact that one can’t be in battle mode all the time. Rest is imperative, especially when battle is expected soon. Weapons must be checked, wounds tended to, spirits raised with song, bellies filled, reports received, plans laid, and sleep slept. I know I tend to “win” a lot more when I’m well rested. Blows strike with greater force when starting from a point of relaxation.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-16 06:43 pm (UTC)There's an important difference between technology use and technology addiction or dependency. Even in that case, though, it's not that a tech addict shouldn't be a Druid-- in fact, it's actually the case that Druidry probably has more to offer than any other spiritual path to a tech addict.
Putting it in other terms might help illustrate the point.
Imagine a very unpleasant person who becomes a Christian. In some cases, they will either stay an unpleasant person or become even worse, because they can assure themselves that no matter how awful they are, Jesus loves them, and anyway they can hardly be an awful person-- they're saved! In this case, the person has projected their own shadow onto their religion in a way that's unconscious, and so destructive.
In other cases, though-- and if you listen to Christian podcasts or talk to converts you'll encounter them-- people become Christians not in order to compensate for their sinfulness, but in order to heal their sinfulness. These people seek Christ because they recognize that Christ has something that they need.
In the same way, some people look to Druidry or similar nature-oriented traditions in order to allow themselves to stay disconnected from Nature. Like the Christian who says, "I can't be an awful person-- I'm saved!" they say "I can't be a technology addict-- I worship tree spirits!" Others recognize tehir excessive dependency on modern technology and turn to Druidry in order to help free themselves from that dependency. Nor are these two types mutually exclusive-- rather, the second way is always available to people of the first type, and the fear of slipping into the first way is always there as a goad to people of the second type.
I'd include myself in the second type, by the way. I'm at my happiest away from cities, under trees. In fact the single happiest time in my life was the time I spent a straight month in the wilderness in Arizona. But for some reason it's easy for me to forget that, and get caught up in the internet, or news, or even just household chores. Druidry as a path helps me by requiring me to unplug and get in touch with Nature and with my own creativity.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-16 06:49 pm (UTC)As for the general and the sovereign, it varies depending on the situation. If I invoke a saint or a god to help with a problem, I am the sovereign and the spirit is the general, insofar as Sun Tzu enjoins the sovereign not to interfere with the work of the general in the field. But in the work of spiritual development, your patron deity is the sovereign, and your will is the general. And the distinction that you give works too.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-16 08:05 pm (UTC)