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So, why emphasise the Way of the Warrior?
I'm not sure how I can respond to that other than reiterating what I wrote in my previous post, with specific emphasis on this bit:
The warrior mysteries may not appeal to polite middle class sensibilities - but they are what has driven the hard, bloody, messy, ugly struggle of human evolution that has given us space to cultivate the luxury of such sensibilities.
The lives of peace that you mention are born from struggle. Civilisation and stability have been fought for. The human being is basically an animal that has learned how to make killing tools to rise to the top of the food chain, shape and control its environment and establish its "civilisation". This is probably a far more tenuous and flimsy construct than we choose to believe. We are animals and the concerns of our lives are, ultimately, animal concerns. It's easy to forget that, but we are. It's easy to pretend that bacon comes in clean shrink wrap on well lit supermarket shelves, and try not to think about the living, breathing pig that has been killed to feed you. The warrior mysteries are our teeth and claws. It's what we use to struggle, and we struggle every day. We don't have to go out and hunt and kill our own food anymore, but we do have to struggle to keep a roof over our heads and food on our table. The fragility of our comparatively easy lives is worth thinking about. The warrior mysteries is the instinct to survive and win against the odds. It's what has driven us as human beings since the first monkey picked up a bone and used it as a tool.
You perspective seems to suggest a belief that this instinct, this aspect of a human being's raw animal nature, is in the process of being bred out of us by the march of progress, and we have no more need of that aspect of our animal heritage. I'm not so sure about that. Certainly it has been sublimated and things like a hunting instinct and natural balance have atrophied through lack of use. But does that mean obsolescence? Is this facet of our nature now completely irrelevant? Are we developing into floating brains in meat robots? Do we live in perfect, safe, secure, happy and nourishing environments where all our needs are taken care of, where there is no danger or threat from anything, and we never have to work or struggle to get anything because its all freely available? Of course we don't. There is a comforting illusion that we are protected from nature red in tooth and claw by the protective bubble of civilisation - but to what extent is that wishful thinking?
The warrior mysteries are about accessing this aspect of our nature, cultivating it within us, the part of us that is prepared to struggle, that won't give in, that stands tall and finds a way to win despite unfavourable odds. To work with these mysteries is to understand this part of ourselves and make good and effective use of it in our lives. The hunting instinct might express itself in the investigative journalism of a reporter seeking out the truth of a political cover up. The warriors tenacity might express itself as firm resolve in a court room. These instincts are still a part of our nature and still a part of our culture and civilisation - we just pretend that it's something else.
Also, I think you're looking at this as an either/or scenario. I'm not talking about some contemptible weekend workshop "way of the warrior" or the cultural appropriation of an imagined native American tribal code for living. It's about recognising and understanding an aspect of our nature as human animals and putting it to good use rather than sublimating it. Neither am I talking about emphasising this aspect over any other part of our multifaceted nature. Balance is all important. If you're going to explore the Warrior Mysteries, then I think its a good idea that you have other aspects of your magical life that balance it out and provide a counterpoint. It's one set of mysteries among many, and obsessing on the warrior mysteries to the exclusion of the others is probably not a good idea (unless you actually are about to go to war...), but overlooking them and pretending that they do not exist and are not an integral part of human nature and the human experience is probably not a good idea either. |
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