Saturday, June 18, 2016

We Must Be Soldiers of the Light, Part 1

We must be soldiers of the Light
We must not shirk this call
10 million arms of destiny
5 million souls in all

We drink this holy sacrament
She shows us who we are
We take this knowledge to the streets
We bring it from the stars

When troubles come, and come they will
We ask you for your aid
Divine protection all around
To shelter what we've made

Beginnings of a brand new world
That's here for us at last
A million years of peace on Earth
Conclusion of our past

Embrace this vision, let it seep
Into your heart and mind
Then drink, friend, drink, and drink again
And live the Truth you find

[sorry, I just couldn't help myself - R]

God bless you, whoever you are.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

The Reality of Spiritual Warfare

Ayahuasca has changed my perception in so many ways that it is difficult to count them all. One of the most basic is that I have been shown the reality of spiritual warfare.

It sounds crazy to even say - "spiritual warfare". My mind races to images of witch doctors, rattles, spells, and incantations. Every bit of my cultural programming rejects it as primitive and superstitious. Perhaps it is. But is it wrong?

I don't think so. I first heard about it when I was in Peru. One of the facilitators recounted seeing an entity leave someone during ceremony - a small, dark golem-like creature that bounced around the maloka until one of the shamans banished it from the space. At the time, I thought "Wow, that's wild." It didn't really go any deeper, though. It was just a story.

It became much more immediate to me as I started really exploring my current path. A while ago my community received a visiting elder from the rainforest. This man's specialty is waging spiritual warfare - casting out demons and lower intelligences, rebuking them, giving them ayahuasca to drink, and sending them towards the light. I was very frightened to even attend his ceremonies. They are noted for turning the participants into media - vessels for suffering spirits to inhabit briefly in order to experience the healing of the medicine.

Sounds scary as hell, doesn't it? It sure did to me. But, as is my wont, I went anyway. I guess I've learned over the years that the level of fear I feel about an experience usually corresponds to its healing potential.

That equation was again verified for me. During two ceremonies I learned a number of things. The first of these is that I appear to be a natural medium. As soon as the space was opened to incorporation, I had a suffering spirit enter me and do its thing. And what a thing it was - thrashing about, pounding the floor, roaring like an animal, and then collapsing into a pool of wrenching tears. All of that rage was just a way of covering up a sea of grief, loneliness, and despair. And then, through me, the entity drank ayahuasca and moved out of my body.

At first it was bewildering and terrifying. I had had control of my body taken from me by another being. Naturally, I flashed back to other times in my life when I did not control my own body - the times when I was being abused as a child. So the experiences blended together, and it just felt like another violation.

But by the conclusion of the weekend, I had a very different perspective. For one thing, I felt totally clean on the inside - like my heart and soul had been scrubbed with a wire brush. I had incorporated a total of 4 times, and the passage of these creatures through my being had had an unbelievably cleansing, useful effect on me. The depression I was suffering at the time left me completely. In clearly seeing these tormented spirits in me who were not me, and then having them leave, I was able to better understand who I am. Where I end and they begin.

For another, I realized that several if not all of the entities had already been with me for a long time. We carry them around, you know. Sometimes they apparently follow our families for generations, these dark, fearful, angry beings who feed on our torment. I appear to have been a real fun-house for them. But they have been given notice. They must leave - whether to the light or to more darkness is their choice, but I'm onto them and they're no longer welcome in me.

I also learned that we shouldn't fear them. All of the drama they stir up is just distraction, designed to draw our attention away from their fundamental weakness and terror and confusion. Truly, they only have as much power as we give them.

And isn't that always the case with the dark principle? There's a reason he's called the Lord of Lies. All of the satanic enchantments and delusions are designed with one purpose - to lead us away from the true love and majesty and power of God.

That was the central lesson of all for me - God has all power. And it's not just some tidy, abstract, antiseptic "God-force", it's palpable angelic presence and embodiment - St. Michael, Jesus, Mary, St. John, Yemanja. Guardians and guides, angels and archangels, all of the beneficent beings of the Celestial Court. They surround us always. All we have to do is call on them.

Good Lord - do you realize how I sound to myself right now? Like some kind of pitiful, deluded New Age fool. Like all of the crazy mystical nonsense I used to mock as an angry young punk rocker. I'd never say these things if they weren't absolutely true. I have felt their truth down to the core of my being. Their truth has set me free.

At this point my conscience demands that I make a disclaimer - I could never have come through such a potentially disastrous experience so successfully without a lot of help. And make no mistake - it is potentially disastrous. To have one of these malevolent beings enter you and stay there - that can be a real problem. But, guided by incredibly wise and powerful teachers, and held in the firmness and love of my tradition, I have successfully made it through several of these ceremonies now. All clear on the other side. Much, much clearer, in fact.

We are absolutely in the midst of a spiritual war right now. On one side are arrayed all the forces of darkness - the demonic entities who would rather see this planet incinerated than see humanity evolve spiritually and take its rightful place among the stars; their enforcers in the Bohemian Grove crowd; and all of their useful idiots. On the other side we have all the forces of light - The Supreme Creator, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, St. John, St. Michael, the Buddha, all of the angels and archangels, and all Light and Love in the whole Universe. All of our brothers and sisters who join us in this fight. In their thousands and tens and hundreds of thousands and in their millions they join us.

Medicine drinkers of the world: a call to arms! Love is our sword and our shield. We cannot help but win. Victory belongs to the Light. Light illuminates the darkness.

A beautiful, sweet, inspiring friend in my community, a man who truly walks this path, recently gave me some good news. He said that it had been unequivocally and repeatedly revealed to him in ceremony: the battle is already won. In the Astral it has been decided; the aftershocks of the fight are simply making themselves felt now in the material realm, with all of the bloodshed and mess that always entails for our broken species.

I choose to agree with him, because I have received the very same news. I hope you get it, too.

God bless you, whoever you are.