Silence is complicity

Because modern leftism is - more and more - a matter of value-inversion; They often adopt Good forms while reversing their purposes. 

For example, antiracism must now actively be propagated or else it is assumed that the person or institution is racist. Silence is complicity in the assumed racism of society. And it should be acknowledged that this is perfectly true, in terms of the modern usage of the concept of racism. 

Indeed, if one is white, then one is racists even when antiracism is adopted as one's primary value - but not to say anything in certain contexts (when the subject of race arises), means that the person/ institution has not 'repented' their racism, and so is 'on the other side'. 

There is no grey area, no race-blindness or ignoring; there are just two sides in the ideological race war which has been enforced upon the world by its leadership; and everyone is therefore necessarily and in-fact on one or the other side. 

Objectively, according to public consensus (now defined by the Global Establishment and all its major institutions - including churches): when one is not actively on the antiracist side, and actively embracing (thinking, saying, doing) what that side prescribes; then one just-is on the other side - called racist.

This is correct, in that these are the End Times when grey areas disappear, when there are indeed only two side - and these sides become more and more widely-separated; so anyone who is not on one side is by definition on the other; and the refusal to declare sides and identify one allegiance is nonetheless sufficient. 

From my side in the spiritual war, saying nothing about subjects of actual major importance is highly diagnostic of allegiance. In particular, when I see people or institutions carrying-on as if nothing special had happened in the past 18 months; I know that they must have joined the other side as surely as if they had actively espoused the birdemic-peck cause or embraced the antiracist slogans and rituals. 

We are living is absolutely extraordinary and unprecedented times, following a successful and silent global coup, and all powerful and prestigious social institutions and their leaders are now part of a System motivated by evil, and evil in thought and analysis. 

In sum, there has been a global spiritual battle for control of the public realm of discourse and power, and the side of evil has won. 

This is now perfectly explicit and clear to anyone who is not affiliated with the motivations and modes of the evil Establishment; therefore, any person/ institution who demonstrates (by attitude, affect, word, deed) unawareness of this situation Just Is on the side of evil. 

This is an extremely harsh judgment, that apparently embraces nearly everybody and nearly all kinds of organization; but it is a plain fact that needs acknowledging. Anything else is a species of lie and complicity in lying. 

The judgment is harsh and the spiritual consequences are clear - but that is how things are in times like these. 

Matters are very simple. There are only two sides - Us and Them. If you are not Us, then you are objectively Them. And this allegiance shows in almost everything you think, say and do. Almost everything now, and ever-more things with each passing week.

 

And/But judgment and consequences may be reversed in a trice by any individual (or institution) that repents; and joins with the side of Good. 

That too is very simple. 

Any-one who wants Good, wants resurrected life in Heaven, can have it - there is no obstacle... except that worst of all possible obstacles: that one does not want Good, does not want life eternal; that one actively prefers lies, death and hell - and desires evil.   

Active gold-plating - an epidemic of gratuitous evil

Something that seems to have happened over the past 18 months is that those who have long been on-the-side-of evil have moved from passive to active. 

I mean especially those in leadership and authority positions (major and petty) who no longer merely comply with the evil they are asked to do, but seek-out (to the best of their limited abilities and energies) extra evil: above and beyond that which is required of them - and that this is done from internal motivations.

We now expect evil - but cannot predict how much is expected: Almost every interaction in public discourse and behaviour has become unpredictable, to the point of feeling arbitrary.  

It has for several generations been the habit of the UK Civil Service - especially since they maneuvered the nation into the European 'Common Market' (as it was) - to do what they call 'gold-plating'; and do it at every step through-which legislation proceeds, right down to operational implementation. 

In terms of government, gold-plating means adding extra administrative requirements to the legal minimum. In terms of the spiritual war; it means that the general evil orders from the top have extra specific evil additions and twists added by each demonic level through-which they pass. 

Gold-plating itself has a passive and an active aspect. In the past, I think that most gold-plating was done to 'impress' the bosses, to pander to high hierarchy (to seek 'Brownie points - as the slang goes). But now the gold-plating is done more as an overflow of innate spite from the lower hierarchy - and may not even be known to bosses. 

Indeed, the epidemic of gold-plating may be disapproved-of by the higher levels - who are often trying to pursue a carefully graded 'lawful evil' (Ahrimanic) strategy at a safe pace - at a pace least likely to provoke awakening or backlash. 

So, if we take the core strategies of current evil such as the birdemic-peck agenda, or climate-change; people from the top to the bottom of The System - from major institutional leaders, through the many middle-managers and down to the masses - it seems that almost everybody is doing that bit more than they absolutely need to do. They are adding little extra restrictions and requirements. 

In the inverted value system that is characteristic of these End Times, this is what counts as virtue. As of 2021: feeling good comes from doing bad - inner gratification is an outcome of gratuitous wickedness imposed on others. 

And this applies even when nobody knows about it (not bosses, not anybody necessarily) - so people now choose actively perform what are (apparently) intended/ expected to be private rituals of evil - when alone, enacted even in thought - as well as asking for extra (above and beyond) evil performances from those other people with whom they interact.

 

Thus; there is something like an epidemic of gratuitous evil sweeping across society (apparently, across the world). 

The ultimate justification given is compliance with the leftist-materialist global strategies (e.g. birdemic, climate change, sexual revolution, antiracism) - but the truth of it is that these are tactical initiatives of personal evil; excused-by global strategies rather than generated by them. 

This is expected - since evil is not a program but oppositional to Good. It is a motivation not a state. Although a top-down New World Order may be the objective of the 2020 coup - the evolving outcome will be a generalized corruption of those who passively participate-in the strategy; leading to active and extra evil in every direction - tending towards the demonic chaos of each against all.   

The man in the moon, a poem by Hugh MacDiarmid (1925)

The moonbeams kelter i the lift, 

An Earth, the bare auld stane, 

Glitters aneath the seas o Space, 

White as a mammoth's bane. 

An, lifted owre the gowden wave, 

Peers a dumfoun'ered Thocht, 

Wi keethin sicht o a' there is, 

An bodily sicht o nocht.

Literal translation - The moonbeams waver in the light/ and earth, the bare old stone/ Glitters beneath the sease of space/ white as a mammoth's bone.// And, lifted above the golden wave/ peers an astonished thought/ with [the ripples made on the surface of water by a salmon beneath] sight of all that is/ and [entire] sight of nothing.

One of MacDiarmid's 'cosmic' and mystically-Christian poems in a type of dialect Scots from early in his publishing career. Like several other short poems form this time (and some sections of the long poem - A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle) from this time; I find this both affecting and memorable - especially the final two lines. 

He starts with a wide perspective, as from 'outer space'- and then an anthropomorphic thought, as if God himself, 'peers' over and sees with astonishment... every-thing, all reality... but not directly. All is guessed from the effects it has, from the ripples it makes. 

Did the Rings of Power achieve their objective?

 

The corrupting effect of the One Ring continued even after the book and the movies... 

Scenes from the Big Bang Theory sitcom  

Was the making of the rings of power overall a success or failure? 

The answer turns-out to be a matter of perspective: see the discussion over at The Notion Club Papers. 

On the side of God? Some triads...

Who is on the side of God? We must judge, and that by (primarily) intuition; and act upon our best judgments - but where to start? 

Even before we start:

1. We must want Heaven (see below): want The Good

2. Recognize the spiritual war of this world

3. Use spiritual discernment (by 'intuition', direct-knowing, heart-thinking...).

What attributes does someone need to take the side of God as of 2021; ie. in these End Times characterized by near-universal social and institutional evil by value-inversion? 

1. Being a Christian - that is, wanting to follow Jesus Christ to resurrected life eternal in Heaven.

2. Having personal spiritual experience of direct knowing. +/- Revelations from the Holy Ghost. (But nowadays, external guidance, even from the Holy Ghost, cannot routinely or for long be the only or primary guidance.)

3. Display discernment - e.g. of truth from lies, especially of the Big Lies of this era.

To explain:

1. If someone does not want resurrection to Heaven (e.g. he wants annihilation of the self, or Nirvana); then he will not understand this life correctly; nor will this mortal life be both necessary and eternally valuable - and yet also secondary to eternity.   

2. If someone has only secondhand and external knowledge of the divine; then (as of 2021) he will be corrupted (to the side against God; already, sooner, or later) by the fact that this is a world dominated by evil purposes in all institutions and nations - a social world of inverted values. 

3. One who fails to discern with respect to vital matters (those Big Lies that shape the worldly institutional strategies) then (given that the pressure toward evil from these is continual and increasing) his tendency will be towards corruption and self-damnation. Thus the Litmus Tests. 

Remembering that, although we personally need to discern and act upon these judgments - or perish; nonetheless:

1. We can only infer another's real mind and intent. (Nobody knows that, not even God.)

2. We know only about now But not the future, which is subject to personal agency.).

3. Whatever happens in this mortal life; the final decision about Heaven (the possibility of eternal commitment to live by Love) comes after death.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - and final participation

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - which I first encountered in 2015 - has become one of just a handful of books in my life that I am almost-continually re-reading. I find it fascinating and delightful, genuinely wise and deeply witty. 

Perhaps this is because it is set in that era around 1800 when  - by my understanding of the development of Man's consciousness - a wrong path was taken. By my way of reading; Strange and Norrell sketches-out what might have happened had Englishmen begun upon the right path - that path towards Final Participation.  

The Raven King is eventually seen as the author and stage manager of the events of S&N - and the guide towards Final Participation that neither Strange nor Norrell can see. 

By 1800, Modern man was alienated (the Age of Reason/ Enlightenment) and in need of healing. Magic is participation - it is the healing of the modern rift between Man and God, Man and nature and between Man and his real, spiritual, divine self.

By contrast with the Raven King; neither Strange nor Norrell are Christian - so on those grounds alone, it can be seen that their ideas are incomplete and distorted. 

Norrell seeks what might be termed a late Medieval, scholastic answer (Steiner's Intellectual Soul) - an attempted re-integration by books and study, by quasi-scientific rituals - calmly, gentlemanly, in a way socially-acceptable. (A Temenos Academy approach!). 

He intends to exclude belif-in, and interaction-with, fairies (and the Raven King) from his magical system - and yet all the magic he does is in fact indirectly dependent on that source but in an unconscious, and indeed dishonestly denied, fashion. 

Strange yearns towards a magic (and spirituality) that is instinctive and spontaneous (unsystematic) - where Men and fairies work together, and Man is (like the fairies) so immersed in nature as to be unable fully to detach himself. 

Where Norrell is the proto-scientific, scholarly, ritual magician; Strange harks back to the Shaman (and shares the Shaman's charisma). He represents the 'Romantic reaction' - and becomes friends with Byron (with whom he shares some attributes). 

This is the yearning for that earlier developmental phase called Original Participation; which, if effective, would lead to a reversal of the conscious, autonomous, deliberately chosen mode of thinking: Men would become (more like fairies) childlike again - ultimately un-conscious. 

By his behind-the-scenes activities; the Raven King ensures that magic is restored to England; but in the process, both Strange and Norrell are removed - along with nearly all the books of magic. 

At the end of the novel; magic is more widely available than ever before; but each Man must find his own way to it. The new magicians may call themselves Strange-ites or Norrell-ites, but each magician has made that personal choice, and each must choose and navigate his own path into magic (which is participation). 

Strange and Norrell ends, therefore, is a hope-full way; with the new generation of magicians representing a start at the great task of moving towards Man's next, destined development of consciousness. Ritual magic and Shamanic magic are being left-behind; and the new magic is not given a name - but it can be recognized as essentially the exact same thing as Barfield's Final Participation; or what I term Romantic Christianity.

Christianity is always in the background of Strange and Norrell; but the hopeful ending implies a Christian faith in the resurrected life eternal, or else any 'positive' outcome would be merely therapeutic and utilitarian. 'Magic' is romanticism in S&N - specifically, the 'romantic' conscious and chosen awakening of direct and experiential Christianity; as our only possible - as well as most desirable, joyous - destiny.  

Forgive, but don't forget

Christians must forgive - for our own personal good, primarily. 

Unforgiveness is resentment - close-cousin to spite: to desire harm against another person or Being (harm even at the cost of our own suffering). And spite is probably the worst, most insatiable of sins. 

Failure to forgive will keep us out of Heaven, because we will not even want to dwell in Heaven - which is a place of love and without spite. Someone who prefers to sustain his own resentment - even on a single topic; and who will not accepts the cleansing grace of Jesus Christ to be purified of it at resurrection... Well, such a person has damned himself.

(Unforgiveness is not-to want-to forgive - forgiveness is the opposite.) 

Forgetting is not the same a forgiving - although forgiving (when effectual) puts an end to that grinding resentment which gnaws at the soul. When one has forgiven there is no particular reason to ruminate obsessively - therefore one may think on it less, or with less extremity... 

On the other hand, forgetting may be undesirable - we may need to learn. 

For instance; it may be right and desirable to remember when someone (or some institution) has lied to us. We ought to know liars, because (unrepentant) liars are servants of the devil; and therefore we may need to regard them differently. 

We need, for example, to recognize when someone (or some institution) is using language in order to manipulate us, and not to communicate truth. This means we are dealing with evil; and therefore it is desirable for us to remember that this is a liar. 

We must forgive the fact they have lied to us - because not to forgive means deliberately nurturing resentment - which will act on us as soul-poison. However, we should not forget the fact; because that They are 'a liar' is spiritually relevant and important.  

But what if "I can't forgive"? 

Well, that is never true - for forgiveness is the inner act of wanting to forgive - forgiveness just-is the recognition that we ought to forgive, and the willingness that we should be enabled to forgive. 

While we are on earth everything - including the human mind and body - is subject to change and mortality, and the limitations of our physical situation (the constraints of our body and mind). 

Therefore, the actual 'process' of forgiveness, which is eternal, comes only after our death - at the time of resurrection. 

Until then, what matters is our recognition and willingness.

Recognize that you must forgive and be willing to forgive - but do not try to forget matters of spiritual importance. 

Walter Scott and the failure of Romantic Christianity

Sir Walter Scott's dates were 1771-1832 - much the same as the life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). But if Coleridge stands as an example of how our spiritual life in the West could (and should) have gone towards a fully-integrated Romanic Christianity; Scott is representative of what actually happened to the British culture at large. 

Scott was a very devout Christian - a Presbyterian as a child and Episcopalian as an adult. And he was also a great Romantic - whose influence (both via long narrative poems and dozens of novels; also his widely-read collection of Border Ballads) was international and lasting. 

But the Christianity and Romanticism were kept rigorously separate. It is startling to read in the account of the ballad Thomas the Rhymer, how Scotts assumptions were entirely and unconsciously dedicated to 'explaining away' all the supernatural and prophetic elements of the poem and the author's life. The hypothesis that True Thomas really was a prophet, or really had some kind of an encounter with elves, is not even entertained. 

Scott was, in this respect, entirely an 'Enlightenment' rationalist. And he embodied the duality, the schism, between Christianity and the romantic, which has persisted since - until Christianity has dwindled to very little public significance. 

I mean that magic, mysticism, enchantment, animism and all such - are rationalized and explained away; being both excluded-from, and regarded as hostile-to, Christianity. 

By such maneuvers, Christian life began to be regarded rationally, objectively, sealed off from the whole range of human experience - and became ever more wholly external. The romantic, which was about intense personal experience and gave life meaning at a micro level, was regarded as merely fictional - and psychological. 

A serious Christian like Scott might also be a romantic, but on the assumption that the romantic element was merely a kind of entertainment, a commercial exercise, or an historical document; without reality or relevance for the serious things of life.  

Later - the two split even further apart; so that the archetypal romantic became anti-Christian (as with Byron, or the New Age) and the serious Christians anti-romantic (as with those modern evangelicals who regard Tolkien and CS Lewis as literally demonic). 

The split between Christianity and romanticism is a version of the split between objective and subjective: for serious Christians the faith became 'objective' - i.e. external, public, logical, something to be 'followed' - while Romanticism was merely subjective, and to be explained-away. 

And for those who believed in Romanticism, there was an attempt at thoroughgoing subjectivism/ relativism and living by instinct - which explained-away Christianity along with science and all other attempts at objectivity.  

Consequently, Romanticism and Christianity both became partial and ineffectual. Church Christianity is now almost wholly secular and bureaucratic; Romanticism is quasi-therapeutic, commercial and recreational.

There might be some unconscious integration of the two; for instance, one suspects that Scott had a 'real' interest in the supernatural - that at some level his interest in Thomas the Rhymer was based on the possibility that the supernatural elements might somehow be true... 

But lacking any conscious and explicit acknowledgment and theorization of such an integration; 'modern Man' (since Scott's time) cannot achieve any effective reuniting of inner life. 

It was the project of Rudolf Steiner and then Owen Barfield to provide a conscious and explicit theoretical basis for healing the the subjective-objective, Romantic-Christian split. This, they largely achieved - and our task now is to put the theories into action in our own everyday lives. 

When resisting totalitarian evil - do what intuition says; do not plan

While this is primarily a spiritual war, which must be contested in the realm of spirit; the material realm of action is a sub-division of the spiritual - so there are implications for what we do, or don't do. 

But since we are living in an evil-affiliated global totalitarian System that has captured all the major social institutions; it is playing into their hands to try and fight System with System. 

This means that 'traditional' forms of resistance - which posit an oppositional program against the ideological status quo; and which are based-upon 'organization' and 'planning' - are doomed to defeat - whether by assimilation (e.g. bribing and/or blackmailing the leadership) or by direct confrontation with superior force.

If you agree that the necessary spiritual future is one of individual discernment and responsibility (i.e. final participation, direct knowing, heart-thinking) - then it is exactly these modes of intuition that should be what shapes our response. 

I believe that the most effective, including spiritually effective, individuals will be those whose actions are thus regulated - by their real (divine) selves and by the guidance of the Holy Ghost. 

Such an individual will be unpredictable by The System; uncontrollable by standard procedures, models and tactics - and will (so long as they are genuinely affiliated with The Good), be aided by divine interventions of many invisible types. 

How Sam Gamgee's character was permanently transformed

...Is described over at the Notion Club Papers.

Review of The Nature of Middle Earth by JRR Tolkien (2021; edited by Carl F Hostetter)

The Nature of Middle Earth by JRR Tolkien; edited by Carl F Hostetter. HarperCollins: London, 2021.

This book is significant as being the first collection of mostly-unpublished JRR Tolkien writings to emerge since the death of his son Christopher; being edited by Carl Hostetter. It is a book that serious Tolkien readers will want to own and use; because it is something like a cross between The History of Middle Earth Volume XII and an addition to Unfinished Tales. 

Therefore, those who regard HoME and/ or UT as important, will not want to miss this one: there are many things here which I regard of permanent value; and I am very grateful to know them. 

These are too many to list. Perhaps the essay Osanwe-kenta may take pride of place (I had already read this, but it was previously only available in a small circulation magazine). This is a detailed consideration (relevant to both Middle earth and our own world) of the 'communication of thought' by what might be termed telepathy, including the implications for free will. This was of extraordinary depth and interest to me.   

Another section is given the title of Description of Characters, and is Tolkien's commentary on Pauline Baynes's illustrated map of Middle Earth from 1970. For example, Tolkien regarded the back-view of Boromir as an almost perfect representation of his imagination; while Sam and Gimli were 'good enough'. On the other hand he was critical of several (most!) others including Gandalf, Legolas, Aragorn, Shelob and the Black Riders; and in making these criticisms he gives further detailed accounts of how he saw them.

The bulk of the book is about elves; including a great deal about their different types (also why they ended up different) and very large scale considerations of the justice and wisdom of the Valar in their dealings with elves. All this was absolutely gripping, and operates at a very deep spiritual level. 

 

The book does, however, have a significant flaw in that it begins badly - i.e. boringly. There are 166 pages under the section title of Time and Ageing - with repeated developing drafts of Tolkien's consideration of the time-lines, time-experiences (relative between the undying lands and Middle earth, and between races), movements of elves; and a lot about the elves rates of growth and reproduction. These are often presented in terms of tables of figures, and lists.

There was a great deal to interest me among these 166 pages; but there is no denying that there is a great deal of repetition and minutiae. There is considerable relevance - even here - for those of us fascinated by Tolkien's mind and creative processes. But I think it was - I believe - an error to begin the book with this material; because some readers who open and start reading at page one, will probably get no further. I would have placed this material in the middle of the volume; and probably relegated some of the repetition and tables to an optional appendix.   

The last section of the book, entitled The world, its lands, and their inhabitants - may have the broadest appeal to those whose interest is focused on Lord of the Rings. It consists of 100 pages of extra 'snippets' about all kinds of things. I was particularly pleased to learn more about Numenor (everyday life, reproductive life, ageing etc).

In general; this volume is (I think) the first to provide abundant new authorial material on what might be termed demographic, social and organizational aspects of Middle Earth (and the undying lands) - which are often stated to be neglected by Tolkien because they are omitted from Lord of the Rings. The Nature of Middle Earth proves that Tolkien had indeed considered such matters, often in considerable detail - albeit often after the publication of LotR. 

Overall, this is a book aimed at Tolkien aficionados such as myself; but for us it takes its place alongside John D Rateliff's two volume History of The Hobbit - valuably supplementary to the many earlier (and uniquely, filially, authoritative) volumes edited by Christopher Tolkien. 

What does it mean that Satan has 'already lost' the spiritual war with God?

It is often said that Satan has 'already lost' the war with God; and this is certainly true in one sense, but not in another. 

The sense in which Satan has already lost is that since Jesus Christ established Heaven and opened it to anyone who genuinely wants to go there after death; there is an eternal realm where Satan has no influence. 

So - after death and eternally, Satan has lost.

But Satan keeps fighting the spiritual war because there are billions of individual souls who may choose to reject the gift of resurrection to eternal life; and in the billions of individual battles of that war of salvation - the outcome remains undecided. 

For those souls who have rejected Heaven - there are presumably short-term satisfactions (spiteful pleasures) to be attained in the work of tormenting and damning other souls in the realms outside of Heaven, including this earth. And it seems quite likely that - on this temporary earth and among mortals subject to entropy - the Satanic powers are winning (or have won) the spiritual war, overall. 

But, again, in the other direction; these gratifications are temporary; because at some point the mortal life on earth 'school' will come to an end; and then the damned souls will face a bleak prospect of inevitable decline towards some kind of solitary state of resentful misery, eternally. 

Therefore, Satan has probably won the war for earth, overall; but the battles continue for the fate of each individual soul; while in Heaven, Satan has already been defeated finally and forever. 

It is the complexity of this situation - with different answers from preferences for different timescales, and priorities relating to different locations - which is why some people have chosen (and still choose, in apparently increasing numbers) to ally with Satan.

Fighting demonic evil in the spiritual war

There is a certain island called Farne, in the middle of the sea, not made an island, like Lindisfarne, by the flow of the tide, which the Greeks call rheuma, and then restored to the mainland at its ebb, but lying off several miles to the East, and, consequently, surrounded on all sides by the deep and boundless ocean. No one, before God's servant Cuthbert, had ever dared to inhabit this island alone, on account of the evil spirits which reside there: but when this servant of Christ came, armed with the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, all the fiery darts of the wicked were extinguished, and that wicked enemy, with all his followers, were put to flight.

From Bede's Life of Cuthbert

Just where does the spiritual war take place? The answer is that it is an inner war. 

At the time of Cuthbert, Men's inner lives were also outward; so that devils or demons were perceived - seen, heard, smelled - objectively and externally: in public space. Men's thinking was (to a significant extent) a shared and communal thing, rather as we moderns imagine telepathy. And conversely, Men were not 'individuals' to the same extent - could not (and did not want to) separate themselves from the group (family, tribe).

Modern Men are necessarily individuals now - we look out from our inner subjectivity onto an external objectivity which seems utterly separate and alien; and about which we may feel so unsure as to lapse into the solipsism of thinking that only we our-selves are actually real (and everything else a deluded product of our imagination). This became mainstream in the middle 20th century, and (for example) James Joyce got global fame and Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter got  Nobel Prizes for depictions of exactly this aspect of the modern condition.  

But Men's minds have changed since then. According to God's plan, different souls (with different needs) are born into different historical places and eras, and armed with different aptitudes - and facing different problems. 

Adult mainstream Modern Man perceives neither the demonic nor the divine. He is not just capable of autonomy from the group - but cursed by it. It is a fact of his life. 

Modern Man co-creates reality, and needs to become consciously aware that he does so. His choice is whether to co-create worldly and mortal Satanic 'reality'; or to join with God in co-creating that divine creation within which we dwell.

Either we work with God; or against him.  

Therefore, what was once only a partial individual responsibility for faith is now all-but complete. Because we just-are autonomous agents, we are responsible for what we believe. And if we subordinate our autonomy to a group (any group) then that is our responsibility as well. 

Modern Man does not, therefore, battle with publicly-visible devils or demons ('evil spirits'), like those defeated by Cuthbert on Farne island; the spiritual war takes place within him. 

Where then are the demons, and how do they 'get at' modern Men? The answer is that all location depends on consciousness - all knowledge involves thinking; therefore the reality of demons is both objective and also dependent on the minds of Men. 

Evils spirits exist in men and their products - when conceptualized by Men. Therefore, demons live (nowadays) in forms of 'communication' - including the spoken word (as experienced and 'reported'), in pictures and moving images, in music, and in computers and the internet. 

Evil spirits are sustained in this existence in the minds of Men (and of demons) and enter our minds when we attend to such stimuli and know them. Demonic thoughts appear in our thinking by such means - co-created by those who originated the stimuli and by ours-elves. 

Thus, every temptation is also the result of an invitation - we 'invite evil by co-creating it in and by our minds. 

In other words; the main battlefield of the spiritual war is in our own minds; where evil is frequently appearing; and our job is to recognize evil as evil, and to align with Good. 

That is how evil is defeated. If we do not recognize evil, it has won, If we recognize evil and accept it, it has won. If we recognize evil and say it is Good, it has won. 

And if we ourselves participate in public discourse on the assumption that evil is Good - we have doubled-down on evil, and are doubly self-damned. 

So, each of us is responsible for fighting the spiritual war in our own thinking, our own hearts; where evil 'stimuli' will seek out and discover our own weaknesses, and our own thinking will betray us to Their knowledge. 

But every such onslaught - being partially self-created - can always be self-defeated by the act of repentance; by inwardly recognizing and rejecting evil - by affirming our commitment to Good. 

There will be periods of respite from such onslaught of evil; but so long as we live the war will never cease because this is why we are here, why we remain alive. Every triumph against an evil temptation is some-thing learned, an extra strength - from which those who choose to follow Jesus to resurrected life in Heaven will benefit eternally. 

All of those who choose Heaven will benefit from their lifelong spiritual warfare; but only those who choose Heaven. This world is for those who choose to follow Jesus. And for everyone else, it really is (as asserted by the above-mentioned Samuel Beckett, for example) that meaningless and miserable waste of time which modern 'culture' supposes it to be.  

But for those who shall follow Jesus (no matter how small and obscure they may seem to be); mortal life will be known in retrospect to be an endlessly challenging, exciting and heroic business.  

"None are safe until all are safe" By believing Satanic lies, we serve evil

Francis Berger has seized-upon and analyzed this new mantra of totalitarianism. It is a nice example of demonic cleverness (and a clever example of demonic 'niceness'). 

Because (obviously!) nobody can ever be safe; what They are actually talking about is fear, not safety; and emotional state, not a material state. 

None-are-safe-until... amounts to the Establishment (the System) claiming the moral necessity to 'treat' an imputed or inferred dysphoria (unpleasant feelings) by means of population-wide coercion - even when the assumed dysphoria is a single person (or tiny minority). 

Even when the fear has itself been (systematically) induced by The System; and even when the intervention claimed to reduce fear actually increases it.

So - "None are safe until all are safe"... An obviously evil ploy, yes? A transparently manipulative lie? Yes, indeed! Yet another Litmus Test suitable for identifying that a person/ institution is on the side of evil in the spiritual war.

So, if any still doubted that the major self-identified 'Christian' churches now serve the side of Satan, and are strategically opposed to God and divine creation; all doubts have now been removed - since the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican leaderships have (for the first time in history) issued a proclamation strongly endorsing this phrase and concept (third sentence), making it the primary global imperative. 

(Note: Significantly this demonic statement, although wholly political and worldly, nonetheless uses 'God' several times; but never mentions the name of Jesus. Others have noticed this pattern in demonic statements, over many centuries: an extreme reluctance of the servants of Satan to mention Jesus Christ. It is not impossible for them to say 'Jesus', but they obviously hate doing it unless they are simultaneously diminishing Jesus to the status of mere-Man. Presumably, however, when They say 'God' they are inwardly substituting the idea of 'Satan', for God our loving Father, the Creator.)

The orthodox-traditional Christian must wake or perish. 

There are but two choices for self-identified Christians: follow your church and obey its leadership; or follow Jesus Christ. 

It is one of the saddest experiences of the past 18 months to observe one after another devout, serious, informed, loyal Christian being-led (by the primacy of their obedience to their church's authority) onto the side of the Global Establishment - which is the side of evil. 

Because; by believing the lies of Satan; we serve Satan. By obeying those who believe the lies of Satan; we serve Satan. 

It really is is as simple as that. 

Why were these End Times predictable from so long ago?

How was it that the End Times were (broadly) predictable so long ago? Why was it clear that evil would (sooner or later) prevail in this world?

The basic reason could be that the demonic powers are immortal spirits while Men are mortal. And this was, of course, a fact well known to our ancestors - who drew conclusions that were, perhaps, much clearer and more obvious (at least, to the more thoughtful and insightful among them) then they are nowadays.  

This fundamental asymmetry means that evil is able to plan and scheme on a timescale across the whole history of the earth and multiple human generations; whereas, by contrast, each human generation must (in a sense) start afresh with learning about the world. 

Thus, the demons tend cumulatively to out-strategize Men. 

Another ways of thinking about it is that this mortal world is ruled by entropy. Although we are created-creatures in a created-world, and God is still create-ing; nonetheless we are mortal incarnates, and entropy must win-out eventually.  

Over time, entropy will overwhelm mortal creations. 

However; evil spirits are excluded from Heaven; and in Heaven, Men are eternal incarnates: There is all-creation and no entropy. 

Therefore, as  this mortal earth wears-down, the odds increasingly favour evil; and the End Times were always inevitable. 

But in Heaven... well, there things are very different. 

Memory versus forgetting in old age

It is especially a feature of Old Age (from the early fifties, typically) that some have a strong memory while others forget - some live in the past, others in the now.

I believe that those who survive to old age do so for a reason - they are sustained by God to learn something important to them. 

Crudely put, to acknowledge and repent their sins, but perhaps a particular sin which threatens salvation - which may provoke them to reject resurrection and Heaven, to refuse to follow Jesus after death.

Everybody who is alive, remains alive for Reasons - and these reasons are spiritual, and these reasons shape our situation.

One who has a strong memory and lives in the past probably has something in need of acknowledging and repenting. Not to feel Guilt for sin (feeling which is akin to fear and itself a sin indicating lack of faith), but to recognise, and ask God for forgiveness.

One who forgets, and whose disposition is to live in present and future, might need to examine motivations. 

One whose drive diminishes and motivations dwindle, may be being encouraged to set aside hopes placed in worldly plans and schemes.

in sum, our actual situation and condition are shaped by The Creator so that we have the best possible chance to learn what we most need  - need Spiritually. 

We Are Alive for reasons, all of us - and learning the reasons is a vital aspect of why we are still alive.

It is that which is eternal plus that which is divine in us, which enables the choice between Good and evil

All Men are capable of choosing to join with Good or with evil, for two reasons. 

The first is that we are eternal Beings whose primordial existence preceded creation - so we know primordial chaos by experience.

Secondly, we are all children of God who each inherit something of that divinity which created our reality. So we know the reasons for creation, its purpose and meaning.

The choice between Good and evil is the choice between affirming and commiting-to the purpose and meaning of creation; or rejecting these (and the divine in us) which is implicitly to desire a return towards chaos.

This is a real choice, based upon experiential knowledge of the goals of evil and of Good. 

And ultimately it is a binary choice.

Not colluding in phobic and OCD birdemic behaviour

It seems obvious that many people are phobic, clinically so, about the birdemic; that is, they are unreasonably afraid and practice avoidance. This merges with obsessive compulsive symptoms (unpleasant, intrusive ruminations) and compulsions (to practice ineffectual ritual behaviors).

All of these are curable by 'behaviour therapy' - which is just practicing doing whatever evokes the phobia; and Not doing whatever is the compulsion (and acknowledging that the obsession is an evil).

As with more mainstream neuroses, the essential component in recovery is to want it; and, again as with mainstream neuroses, this desire to get well is often absent or very weak.

Because people cannot reach the sunny uplands of cure without passing through the tough country of anxiety. In other words, things have to feel worse (for a while) before they get better.

You probably can't make a birdemic neurotic want to get better, but you can avoid colluding in their avoidance. Simple acts of normal behaviour, cheerfully done (or Not done) can therefore be helpful. 

...While your continued compliance makes the neurotics feel better in the short term, but at the cost of entrenching and exacerbating their pathology.

Why does the ruling ideology of the world Not have a name?

This question has often been asked, but the answer is simple and clear. The answer is that the ruling ideology of the world is Evil - and evil has no positive definition. 

The name of Evil does not derive from what it wants but from what it opposes; and that is Good, which is God and divine creation.

Evil is not something you Are, but a cause you serve. It is not a specific group, but one side in a Spiritual war; a war where each individual can and must choose which side he supports. (No abstention is possible.)

The problem with giving a name to Evil thus understood is that it constitutes the entirety of world and national governments (all parties), the mass media, and the (cross-linked) bureaucracies of all major social institutions (including 'Christian' churches).

For most people, Evil thus understood also includes almost every person they know.

So the problem of naming Evil is the problem of acknowledging its overwhelming prevalence and power.

Trial and error is needed in life (from William Arkle)

And now another factor can be looked at, and that is a process in our education which will give us the necessary strength in the upholding of this unique individuality and its objective system of values. And here again, our intelligence will tell us that, if such strength is to be real unto itself, in order that the individual can carry the reality of Divine friendship for another, then such strength can only be gained by encounters with opposition. 

The definition of strength, in this respect, is that it is the ability of the individual to express and have faith in the most valued qualities of its nature. If the individual can lose sight of such qualities, or knowingly resign responsibility for them, then this would be a mark of insufficient strength in that individual.

This type of strength is not the lower order one which we are more often aware of in this world; which is considered to be, like a steam roller, concerned to go its own way at the expense of crushing and pushing aside all opposition. This is not strength but force and, while the former is allied to spiritual integrity, the latter is only concerned with having its own way...

Another way of drawing attention to the significance of strength is to realise that, if we believe that we possess a particular valuable quality, but discover that a situation arises in which we lose it, then that quality was never properly possessed by us. In other words, we only properly possess qualities of character when they are so embedded in our nature that they can never be lost. Such ‘possessions’ are an intrinsic part of our ultimate unique Divine Individuality and we are not strong in that reality until it is unassailable. 

 It would be quite wrong for us now to jump to the conclusion that God has encouraged ‘evil’ in His University in order to supply this very encounter of opposition as a part of the curriculum. The reality must be much more subtle than this, and very important for us to understand.

It would be a harsh and ungracious person who would create a system of education in which he deliberately cultivated evil for his children to face. It would not only be a violation of love towards the children who opposed it, but it would be an even greater violation of love towards those in whom the evil was cultivated.

But there is another way in which evil can arise in the educational system which does not contradict the nature of the educator, and that is to allow the full function of freedom of initiative, invention and exploration, for this will surely lead to mistakes occurring, out of which the quality of evil will quickly grow, as we have mentioned before. In this way, the recognition of the wrong use of our Divine Nature, and the experience of the unpleasantness of the repercussions, will lead to a desire to correct the error. 

Thus the full cycle of divine integrity and responsibility can be experienced in which error breeds evil, which is recognised as distasteful and which leads to the discovery of the means of correction.

...So we have arrived at the need for, and proper allowance for, the principle of trial and error.

From Equations of Being by William Arkle

I have William Arkle to thank for the clearest understanding of what God was aiming for when He designed (created) this mortal life; and (from the opposite, human, perspective) how this actual life as we personally experience it, can be understood as well-designed for God's purposes. 

Here Arkle is talking about the need for 'strength' which can also be termed 'courage' - and the distinction between mere personality-level strength/ courage (in service of within-mortal-life goals); and that divine and spiritual strength/ courage which has to do with preparing us for heavenly life as children of God. 

It is important to recognize that: we only properly possess qualities of character when they are so embedded in our nature that they can never be lost.

But Arkle understood Men as having to develop and 'perfect' this indomitable strength through many situations in multiple incarnations. While I, on the other hand, believe that (because of the work of Jesus Christ) we only need to understand and desire this strength - and we do not personally need to achieve it in life.  

When it comes to the possibility and choice of resurrection, after this mortal life; it is enough for us to recognise the need for such a fullness of spiritual strength - and it will be granted us by resurrection. 

The purpose of learning in this mortal life is therefore to know what is Good: to learn True Values. It is neither an intention nor a possibility of this life - nor of multiple such lives - to attain any kind of perfection; whether in strength/ courage nor in any of the of the essential virtues.

Strength/ courage is offered, indeed, as an inseparable part of 'the total package' of resurrection; and resurrection is wanted by those who love Jesus Christ and wish to follow him to Life Everlasting (by means of our resurrection). 

Strength is one necessary attribute of being divine - and the need for strength is something that some of us need to learn in mortal life; while others of us already know it before we are incarnated as mortals; or else our love of God and of divine creation is already so strong that it encompasses all the essential specific attributes.    

In this global spiritual war, seek your compensatory strengths

That this world is one of spiritual warfare seems more obvious now than ever. Furthermore, the side of Evil - the side of Satan, demons; their slaves, servants and dupes; the side that opposes God, divine creation and The Good - is very obviously triumphant on a global and institutional scale. 

Especially since the global totalitarian coup of early 2020; the self-identified Christian churches are revealed as weak, corrupted onto the side of evil, and also in rapid decline (with international sustained closures, and near-cessation of core Christian activities).  

But because value-inversion* is more advanced than at any time and place in history; this situation is concealed from consciousness among the mass of people. 

(*Value-inversion is the inversion of Good and Evil, by which truth, beauty and virtue are replaced by their opposites; and where lies, vileness and sin are by mass-propaganda, officially and legally promoted.) 

Any honest appraisal of the current situation by an individual serious Christian will know all this. 

But there are compensations! Inevitably and necessarily!

How can I be sure? Simply because God is Good, God is The creator (and always creating), we dwell in God's creation; and God loves each of us as his children. 

Therefore, God will ensure that all who choose to take his side in the spiritual war will be granted the strength to do so. 

When the whole, global public realm has been corrupted and inverted to the active pursuit of evil and destruction of The Good; then (obviously!) God will ensure that each individual who wishes to defy evil and adhere to Good will be enabled to do so. 

So, if you are a Christian who is not yet aware of the compensations of these times; then perhaps you should seek and discover them in your condition?

Because they are Now a fact of life: a fact of your life.