How to respond to squabbling orcs, and Saruman versus Sauron

From the Two Towers movie - Merry and Pippin, and Ugluk: everybody's favourite middle manager 

The mass media thrives on conflict and controversy, and they exclude the perspective of genuinely good people. Thus, two kinds of story dominate.

There are stories about the masses and the low-grade servants of evil (the bureaucrats, celebrities, managers, and 'ordinary people') - these are what I think of as squabbling orcs. 

That is, all the participants are on the side of evil - aiming at evil outcomes; but they are squabbling over the best means to that end. They are like the orcs in The Two Towers who have kidnapped Merry and Pippin and who fight over whether the hobbits should be taken to Isengard or Mordor, or whether they should be tortured now or later. 

It is about one-on-one conflicts, battling tribes and mobs. The denouement is that the more powerful, or devious, orcs dominate and kill the lesser. 

This basic squabbling orcs narrative accounts for much of the output of new, novels, TV soaps, movies etc. 

The Saruman versus Sauron scenario describes the accounts of leadership-level disputes; concerning strategy, policy, principles, morality...

Again, the perspectives are all on the side of evil (against God, divine creation and the Good). And the differences are again concerned with means to that end. But this kind of dispute is impersonal - at the level of battling concepts. 

In our global totalitarianism - the entirety of public discourse is corrupt. So, all the concepts on display are in service to evil; but some of the concepts have a larger admixture of declared good intentions ('lawful evil) - as when Saruman presents himself to Gandalf as the better option than Sauron. 

This scenario could be the political 'pseudo-right' (Conservative, Republican, Libertarian etc) putting themselves forward as less-bad than the explicit Left; or indeed any candidate for any major position of wealth, power, influence or status. 

Saruman v Sauron also includes all abstract discussions of idealism versus pragmatism, virtue versus sin, beauty versus ugliness, truth versus lies - in our world of value-inversion the whole discussion happens on the side where sin is virtue and virtue is excluded or demonized.

When the whole system has become as evil as ours - by far the most evil in the history of the world, as far as I know, and getting worse rapidly - we cannot hope for any betterment of things overall by the triumph of one group of orcs over another who are even-worse, or by the triumph of Saruman over Sauron. 

Neither can we console ourselves that this in-fighting weakens the enemy; as Tolkien pointed out - in these disputes the winner emerges stronger than either and free from doubt: that is, able to prosecute the spiritual war against Good with even more strength and zeal. 

Therefore, we should not support either side, nor should we hope for benefit from evil cancelling-out. 

From a Christian perspective, evil cannot correct evil; and the only opposition to evil is Good. 

Our way is clear for Christians. We should pay the minimum of attention to squabbling orcs and the claims of rival superpowers of evil and their ideologies. We should turn, in our own living and (especially) in our own conscious thinking - to doing good. 

First to becoming aware of the scope and nature of the spiritual war afoot in this mortal world. This explicit consciousness is, of itself, of great benefit in the spiritual realm. It is what enables effective action.  

Then to making our-selves a creative fount of good thinking and actions - relying upon God's power to amplify any small thing we may personally achieve that is in-harmony-with the divine will. 

There is some-thing of global, eternal, value for every-person to do in the spiritual war: starting here (wherever you are), and starting now. 

Soothing abstractions and evasive professions of ignorance

It is a bad habit of Christians (under tough questioning and the stress of pervasive modern evil) when it gets down to specifics; to take refuge in soothing abstractions and professions of ignorance. 

It is a habit that is pretty obvious to atheists (of whom I was one until 2008), and which certainly looks like evasiveness and manipulation.

It is actually worse than that - because for too-many Christians the tough questions are, even At Root, unsure and imprecise, and for unclear reasons - so that their understanding gets fuzzier and weaker the closer they get to fundamentals. 

This is no basis for a tough and real Christian faith. 

For instance - Heaven. Christianity is 'all about' going to Heaven after we die biologically; so you would assume that Christians could answer straightforward and basic questions such as: 'What is Heaven like?' 

After all, how could anyone know that he wanted to dwell in Heaven forever, unless he had a pretty clear idea of what Heaven was like? 

Who is in Heaven - what kinds of people? How is Heaven 'organized'? And what kinds of thing do resurrected people actually Do in Heaven, on a day to day basis? 

What we want and need are simple, concrete, but general answers that avoid incomprehensible abstraction and eschew evasions. Answers that explain clearly what detail is knowable and why, and what is not knowable and why. 

But Christians are much too eager to open the escape hatches, and avoid the embarrassment of properly-answering such questions (or avoid revealing, and to themselves, their own ignorance) by stating that Heaven is beyond human comprehension and too great to be expressible; or to reach for vast, soaring but uninformative abstractions about light, space, oneness, communion...

Or to take refuge in 'negative theology' by saying what Heaven is Not: such as Not angels with wings playing harps and singing hymns to old man with a beard on a golden throne... 

Yet none of this is helpful in answering the question. 

Another example concerns the two big criticisms of Christianity: the problems of free will and evil. 

The problem that if God created everything from nothing and is omnipotent, then ultimately God is and does everything; so there is no space for free will, and God is responsible for all evil as well as all good. 

Christians know that it is essential for their faith to include free will, or else nobody could choose to follow Christ; nor could evil originate from anywhere except God. But they also regard it as essential to state that God created every-thing and is omnipotent. 

If, after 2000 years, Christians still can't explain clearly (without soothing abstractions and squirming evasions) how evil happens in a good world made by one good God; or how a God that supposedly controls everything allows the most extreme evils; then this is a pretty damning indictment. 

Faced with stark contradiction, Christians often seem perceptibly uncomfortable (squirming) - and 'explain' by reaching for abstraction. Yet abstraction is usually trying to answer an easy question by introducing a difficult (perhaps impossible) answer. 

How can we suppose that we have answered a simple and honest question by pointing-at something so difficult to comprehend that it requires further and more-difficult explanation?

The psychological effect is that the answer is not given into order to clarify understanding, but with the effect of obscuring the problem by soothing it away... 

There are several of these soothing abstractions given prominence in Christianity - such as the orthodox, mainstream doctrines of the Holy Trinity.

The tough question is that if Christians claim that there is one God, how can Jesus also be fully divine? Surely that is at least two Gods? And then, what about the Holy Ghost?...

And if Jesus is God, how can he be a Man? If he is a Man, how can he be God? Such obvious questions arose very early in the history of Christianity. 

The 'answer' is a bunch of soothing abstractions or incantations, with the actual effect of hypnotizing the problem away - by restating the problem as a mystery of three in one, and one in three etc. This is an explanation that is not an explanation at all - it is to answer an easy question with an impossibly difficult answer. 

Yet, after 2000 years, this is become a creedal matter, a necessary article of faith; something that is supposed to have been a decisive and final clarification of a problem so obvious a child can see it.

There is a sense that Christians hope that the problem will go-away if they declare it solved - and for many centuries this was actually true. Christianity held-together, despite the feeble answers...

But it is not true now.   

So, most Christians (for 2000 years) have done this kind of thing all the time - resorting to abstraction and ignorance - and about some of the most fundamental matters of faith.

And this is another deep and debilitating weakness of Christianity - which I am sure has contributed to the catastrophic collapse of the past 18 months (i.e. the worst and most rapid reversal of institutional Christianity since its foundation - and if you have not noticed this, then you are in deep trouble).

It has become very obvious that most 'Christians' do not believe what they say they believe; and have actually abandoned their faith...

By contrast, these same 'Christians' are utterly credulous-of, slavishly obedient-to and defensive-concerning... whatever latest lying garbage is being spouted by government officials, advertisers and the mass media. 

But Christianity is true and real, and there are clear and simple answers to all the tough and simple questions. 

But none of the churches will tell you this - and certainly no other institutions will do so. 

Indeed you will need to work the answers out for your-self - because why should you - how should you - trust anybody else in such times?

In such a situation, old style Christian evangelism - pushing the same old abstractions and evasions - is pitiful; and apparently counter-productive with most people.

In these end times; conversion is a matter of sorting things out for yourself and by yourself to attain answers that satisfy yourself. 

All we can realistically do is provide an example of whatever sort can be managed; and encourage others really to think - for and from them-selves. 

And if you get it wrong, you will soon know; because your un-rooted faith will be swept-away like a bubble in the burgeoning torrent of lies and manipulations; and you will be gathered-into the thundering main-stream, heading down the steepening slope towards Hell.

But if you get it right, you will be separated and poised calmly amidst the maelstrom; realities will glow out from among the filth and be drawn to you (and you to them)... You will inwardly be sustained, energized and en-couraged. 

When you have answered the vital questions to your tested-satisfaction; you can navigate irresistibly through this bedeviled world. 

You can navigate towards a Heaven that you already understand well-enough to desire; eternally to participate in divine creative work that you yearn to join-with; following a Jesus whom you know sufficiently to love.

All material is spiritual - but some spiritual is immaterial (and the spiritual is primary)

[Note: This is to extract, make explicit and clarify something very important that I have said and used many times in many blog posts.] 

Everything material is also spiritual. Therefore, all our material actions or behaviours, every-thing that happens in the material realm, has spiritual implications. 

But the reverse is not true. There are (many) spiritual events that have no effect on the material realm - but act only within the immaterial realm. 

The 'asymmetry' is a consequence of the fact that the spiritual is primary, and the material derives from the spiritual. 

In the history of reality there was originally only immaterial spirit, and the material (physical) at some point 'condensed' from this purely spiritual. 

The material is a 'sub-set' of the spiritual. 

It is useful to have this matter clear when trying to understand what is going on in the world now. The 'Ahrimanic' Satanic plan - which has been dominant among the ruling Establishment for several generations - is as follows:

1. To deny that there is any immaterial spiritual realm and to persuade the masses to live in accordance with this denial (that has been largely achieved); then 

2. To fully-control the material realm; and 

3. Thereby to control the entirety of the acknowledged spiritual world. 

This spiritual control via the material will be used to enforce the self-chosen damnation of Mankind. 

Everything material that They do, should also be understood as an intended spiritual intervention, directed towards Man's damnation.  

But there is a vast immaterial spiritual realm which They deny.

They can influence the spiritual realm, but only indirectly (e.g. by persuasion or intimidation). 

But the immaterial spiritual is outside of Their control: which is exactly why They want Us to deny it. 

Why aren't things even worse? Negative evidence that the global totalitarian project is primarily spiritual, and fought spiritually

Things are bad in the world! Satan's side in the spiritual war of this world had a great victory in early 2020, successfully achieving a global coup by its possessed agents and obedient servants; which hardly anyone noticed. 

Indeed - by my estimate - the world is worse now, more extremely-evil (in terms of value-inversion), than at any time in history. 

But... things are not as bad now, as I confidently expected they would be 18 months ago. 

Despite winning the political war of this mortal world - at least, on the level of observable material phenomena - the Global Establishment have not been able to pursue their strategy as far or as fast as I had anticipated. Indeed, there have been some significant easings; some retreats, here and there. 

My understanding is that this is 'negative evidence' that the primary war is spiritual, not political; and that the spiritual war is being fought harder and more effectively than the material war. 

On the basis of observable material phenomena there seems no reason why The Enemy should not press on as fast and as far as they want, because - where is there any powerful opposition? All the nations of the world have been brought in line and the major multi-national organizations were long since captured. 

Leadership of all the major social institutions are overall strongly On Side with the program of explicit evil: all mainstream political parties, multinational corporations, international finance, the civil service, police and military. legal system, health services, education, science, sports, mass media etc; and the major Christian denominations and churches.  

So what is stopping them? Why are they waiting? Why do they not simply push-through as fast as humanly possible to the hell-on-earth they intend for the masses? 

There are, I think, at least three reasons. One is that my knowledge, anybody's knowledge' is partial and distorted even when it is true. There are facts and contexts missing - so that the correct degree of pessimism cannot be established (i.e. the Palantir Problem).  

Secondly - the primary purpose of the Global Establishment is spiritual, not political; so we would not expect Them to work towards maximizing political control. 

Instead, they will tend to adjust their political objectives to optimize spiritual damage - rather than optimizing their subordinate goals of economic damage, mass enslavement, torment and killings from disease, violence and starvation etc. 

(Although low level demons delight in destruction; their primary goal is damnation; and there will be more strategic and high level demonic leaders who will try to delay the gratifications of immediate and indiscriminate destruction of life, in order to promote the large scale plan of mass damnation.)

And thirdly; while observable, measurable physical and material resistance to the strategy of Satan -  seems almost ineffectual (being infrequent, scattered and apparently feeble) - this is not, after all, the most important kind of resistance. 

The most important resistance to evil is in Men's hearts. 

The spiritual war is always and necessarily affected-by change in the material world, because the material is a sub-division of the spiritual realm. Nonetheless, the major arena of spiritual war is in The Spirit. 

And, since there is a significant gap between expectations and actuality based on observable and material conflict; my inference is that the major conflict is happening in the 'invisible' (but know-able) realm of the spirit. 

More exactly; I believe that They have Not been able to pursue Their evil plans as far and as fast as would have been expected given their near-monopoly of worldly power; because there is significant spiritual resistance from a sufficient number and spiritual strength of ordinary (not leadership) people around the world.

The Establishment may have all-but won the war over bodies and minds; but there is still significant and effective resistance in Men's hearts.    

This should be taken as strong encouragement. We should know that 'in theory' our own personal and individual spiritual state and commitment will make a difference to the world spiritual war; because God works through Men, and by our choices we may make ourselves an instrument of God - who is, after all, The Creator! 

By our deliberate and conscious choices, we may each become an Instrument of Divine Creation.

Therefore, God may change the world, re-create the world, both through us and also by our own sub-creative acts (mental and physical) being sustained and amplified by God's ongoing create-ing.  

As I say, Christians should know that this is true 'in theory'. But also I believe we can (as of this moment in time - things may change, of course) also observe the truth of it 'in practice'.

This, by noting the 'significant gap' between how bad things actually are at present and how bad we might reasonably have expected them to be 18 months ago; when Satan's political power first began to rule the world without significant institutional opposition - and with the major 'Christian' churches taking Satan's side. 

Thus, the 'negative material evidence' and the evil of institutions, seem to point-at positive spiritual power for Good residing in the hearts of individual Men. 

Why the new ultra-Gerontocracy? Answer: it takes a long time to corrupt people to the very core of their being

A surprising proportion of the most powerful people in the world are above retirement age - and some very old indeed by world historical standards of a maximum life expectancy of about seventy years (and also by the normal current standards that are chosen, habitual and enforced in the mainstream of jobs; in many of which mandatory retirement before the middle sixties is normal).

Furthermore, the younger leaders are mostly - very obviously - not real leaders, not really powerful; but merely puppets, mouthpieces, middle-managerial stooges for those in the shadows who - as I said - are often old, and mostly (obviously) well-advanced in decline. 

These ultra-old power-people are apparently kept going for as long as possible by massive drug usage and perhaps other practices - but nonetheless, they cannot possibly match the stamina and aptitudes of younger cohorts.   

So why is it that the Global Establishment has come so strongly to use the very old, whose abilities are generally much impaired and who lack the surface appeal of the young or middle-aged; and who need so much work to sustain? 

Why do They insist on propping-up these decayed characters in positions of power? 

And why do not this new ultra-Gerontocracy (rule by the oldest) themselves want to cease the daily wielding of power, and instead refocus upon spiritual matters in preparation for inevitable death - as Men nearly always did in the past? 

The answer I have reached is that it usually takes the powers of evil a long time - decades rather than years - thoroughly to corrupt the hearts of Men; so that those Men have deeply internalized evil to the point of actively wanting evil. 

It is not enough for the most powerful Men to be selfish, hedonic careerists or obedient; they must have voluntarily, willingly, whole-heartedly adopted that value-inversion required for the pursuit of strategic evil; they must have come to regard evil as good, ugliness as beauty, lies as a higher-truth... 

In traditional terms; these high level leaders need to have invited evil into their souls; to have agreed to demonic possession to a significant degree - and indeed set-aside most of their natural personal hedonic goals in active service to the agenda of Satan. 

I suspect that these genuinely powerful individuals are not materialists, and that they know God is real; but they reject God and divine creation, and despise resurrection into Heaven; and instead look beyond this mortal life to some kind of continued spiritual existence in continued service to evil.

It is this kind of 'immortality' that they have been offered - by a Faustian bargain.

This promise of immortality may be a lie, often is; and they may have been duped - to be cast into oblivion at death. But I think there must be some examples of such immortality of evil spirits which can be exhibited, and which exhibiting these wholly-corrupt individuals have experienced and been convinced-of - in order that they will agree to this bargain. They can therefore believe that there is at least a chance of success from their choices. 

These old-evil people do not want resurrection into Heaven; they want to stay themselves, with all their sins - because their sins are the core of their being. They want to live 'forever' primarily to pursue their sins. 

Satan cannot offer resurrection, but probably can offer continued spiritual existence of the personality - and maybe by the extraction and use of spiritual energy by means of classically Satanic practices, rituals, symbolism, initiations, sacrifices, deals and contracts etc. 

What the ultra-Gerontocracy probably hope is that the small-fry servants, slaves and dupes of evil (of whom there are vast numbers nowadays) will be consumed; and their life energies used to sustain the continued existence of this minority of Quisling ex-humans who have committed (in their hearts) to a post-mortal life as a demon. 

Such an extreme, near-total, degree of self-aware human corruption apparently takes a long time to happen - and many will fall aside on the dark path; and some will be saved late in the day. 

By the time that a person has fully internalized and embraced the agenda of evil, and cast-aside all loyalty to Mankind; he will usually be very old. But such individuals are of immense value to Satan; and well-worth sustaining for as long as possible. 

The ultra-old leaders are thus akin to the Ringwraiths of Sauron - completely trustworthy agents of the devil, because they have nothing of themselves left with-which to rebel against their master. 

And the ultra-Gerontocracy of evil is one result of this process operating in our world.

"The hill to die on?" Ask the question, and you have already joined The Enemy

A false metaphor is a gift to the devil; and the metaphor of choosing the right hill to die on is an example. 

Behind the phrase is the idea that we are engaged in the kind of war where generals strive to locate their troops on the most advantageous ground for a decisive - win or lose - battle. 

This analogy is then misapplied to the spiritual war of Good and evil by those who imagine that they are on the side of Good, to create the fake problem of choosing which 'issue' it will be most advantageous to 'make a stand' upon. Until that point, the assertion will repeatedly be made (whether explicitly or not) that this is not the hill I choose to die upon. Because?... the issue is too trivial, it is not decisive, my position is too weak, there is insufficient support etc.  

So the person voluntarily retreats, quietly yields - or maybe complies with public wailing and hand-wringing - but complies; he will 'keep his powder dry' for the great and decisive conflict to come; when eventually he will reach that much-anticipated hill on which he will fight to the death...

Yeah, sure...

But The Enemy is not seeking a final decisive conflict - but doing every-thing possible to avoid it; instead the enemy strategy is to encourage endless incremental yieldings of ground - until there are no more hills. Until victory has already been achieved. Every single decision not to fight on this hill materially aids the enemy strategy. 

The metaphor is false, misleading, and plays directly into The Enemy's hands.

Adherence to Good is primary, therefore real resistance to evil is not like that. 

How it really works is this: Each time ground is voluntarily yielded to evil, the position of Good is weakened, and The Enemy is strengthened.  

The correct analogy is repentance (which means acknowledgment that sin is indeed sin, and rejection of it as an ideal). 

The only repentance is repentance Now. 

To say to oneself - I will repent later; to plan repentance - is Not to repent at all. It is, indeed, to render later (planned) repentance false, therefore impossible. 

Either we repent now, or we have (as a matter of fact) rejected repentance. Either we resist now, and every-thing that is evil, or we have chosen to comply and joined-with Satan. 

Every such failure, every chosen compliance, strengthens the enemy, and brings Them closer to Their goals. 

Every yielding increases Their harvest of damned souls, because by it we are adding our-selves to the forces of evil. 

Every untruth harms the cause of Good by joining our efforts with the Prince of Lies.

And vice versa... (so be hope-full)

Things really are That Simple. 

Thank Heaven!

The return of King Arthur - into the realm of conscious thinking...

Sewingshields on Hadrian's Wall, under which King Arthur sleeps with his knights until needed - or perhaps, Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, the Eildon Hills, Alderley Edge in Cheshire, Glastonbury Tor, or elsewhere...

If the Sleeping King Arthur was to awaken and return to save Albion, as some legends suggest he will; then he cannot save us in the way a King might save his people in the past - by uniting and leading them with irresistible force to escape the yoke of evil rulers; to initiate a Golden Age of peace, plenty, beauty and Godliness. 

Such a King could not save modern Britain because many, perhaps most, people do not want to be saved. Taking cue from their leaders; the inhabitants hate themselves and their country, and actively seek (by multiple means) to disparage its people and forward its destruction

For a start, the Men of Albion do not want beauty or Godliness - only pleasure and comfort. 

Also, they do not regard their current rulers as evil - indeed, because they have rejected God, modern Men neither understand nor believe-in the reality of genuine evil (regarding 'evil' as merely selfishness). 

Any returning King would find more people against, than with him; and those who were with him so fear-full and this-worldly as to lack the courage to take any significant personal risk or suffer even short-term inconvenience. They will not even risk other people saying they aren't nice. 

What we have now is very purely a spiritual war, and the problem is that few people recognize the reality of the spiritual realm. 

Indeed, the essence of the spiritual war is exactly about this denial. One cannot take sides in the war of Good versus evil, God versus the demons, until these are known as realities. 

So the nature and validity of any returning Good King would itself be denied. He would be interpreted as a (reactionary) political leader merely, aiming at material benefit merely; selfishly seeking the Good of Britain merely. 

Nonetheless, the Rightful King can return - but not as a mass leader; and not to impose his will on the nation. 

He can return, but in the spiritual and not the material realm. 

He can return, but not to conquer and overwhelm the unwilling and indifferent - but must be asked and welcomed by choice of one person at a time. 

The King can return into the hearts of Men, to fortify and encourage, to provide understanding and guidance. He would unite and direct the spirit - not the bodies - of Albion.

What the King would rescue us from is passivity, un-consciousness and denial of God and the immortal soul.  

Hence, the Awakening King must be invited into your human heart and mine, each by a deliberate and personal act of decision. 

And the goal will be to save the spirit of Albion - to save it for that eternity into-which all will be welcomed who truly desire it. 

Denying what actually already is; by warning that it "might" happen, unless...

I have noticed that most people who are 'concerned' about the direction the world is taking are clearly unaware of the actual state of the actual world now. 

The media are full of warning of what might (or will) happen if present trends continue; when it would instead be accurate to say that these bad outcomes have already happened - often some decades ago. 

Therefore, such warnings are profoundly, mischievously, misleading - and indeed reality-denying. 

For example, those who warn about the increasing corruption of science, when the fact is that science (real science) is long since dead: its motivations, funding, practices, publications, prestige-system and personnel are all overwhelmingly anti-scientific - and have been for decades. 

Those who warn about the 'danger' of incipient totalitarianism in the wake of a successful global totalitarian coup in early 2020 - evidenced by mono-themed, multi-institutional, omni-surveillance and micro-control which everybody has personally experienced.  

Or warning about the possible collapse of the Christian churches due to demographic shrinkage; when these churches are revealed now as pseudo-Christian (Anti-christ-ian) shells, having taken the side of Satan in the ongoing spiritual war. 

In other words; people seem to have no idea about the actual state of the actual world - now! 

This is, ultimately, because there are no objective facts; and the state of the world is something that each of us creates by the concepts we bring to understanding it.  

It is the truth - or otherwise - of these concepts that determines the reality of this mortal world. It is the pervasiveness of anti-God, anti-divine creation, anti-Good concepts that blinds the world to the world. 

By my observation; what has happened is simply that the concepts have changed en masse; passively, among the world population, by absorption of a global and micro-directed top-down and purposively-evil ideological control...

And therefore the reality of the masses is now interpreted in ways that accord with the Satanic agenda.  

The way out - the only way out - is to adopt the concepts of God, and reject those from the devil. 

And this can only happen (in the world as-is) by each of us consciously choosing the true concepts for our-selves; from our God-given and divine autonomy and agency. 

Active, conscious choice is now the only path to Good; and all that is passive, automatic and merely absorbed or obedient is organized in opposition to divine creation. 

Whatever happened to the anti-establishment counter-culture?

The simple answer is that the anti-establishment counter-culture went-into novels, plays, poems, visuals, TV, movies and online. 

In media there are endless totalitarian dystopias, insightful eccentrics, and self-sacrificing heroes. The masses live this intensely and vicariously. 

But in Real Life among the masses there is unprecedented lying, conformity and cowardice; bland self-blinding and denial complicity in the construction of a global Black Iron Prison dedicated to evil. 

So much for the educative role of the arts; so much for the inspirational effect of examples, so much for being forewarned by history, so much for more education and wide availability of detailed information...

And so much for the Christian Churches with all their teaching, expertise in theology and scripture, their extensive rituals, their restrictive rules, their sacraments, prayers and communities. 

2020 has exposed our vast systems of delusion, false claims, errors and pretense with unprecedented suddenness and completeness. 

What we thought we knew about the world and our-selves - we now know that we did not; and there is nowhere left to turn for discernment and motivation... but God, our own hearts and (perhaps) one or a handful of beloved persons. 

Merlin, the Celts and Albion's native Christianity

It seems possible that Christianity came very early to Britain, shortly after the ascension of Christ, and probably to Glastonbury; at the time of the native Celtic Britons. 

Perhaps because of this, and for many centuries, there was historically very little conflict in the British Isles (and no recorded conflict at all in Ireland) between Celtic paganism and the new Christianity.

This had a lasting effect. Because the new Christians were not persecuted by pagans, when Christians became dominant they did not persecute the pagans but assimilated them. Churches were deliberately built on the pagan sacred sites. 

And the old pagan deities were downgraded rather than suppressed; to be named among ancient kings, mythic heroes, or even being transformed to saints.  

Also Britain was the centre of druidism, the place where continental Celts sent their druids for a very prolonged and difficult education - presumably in colleges of some kind; all this knowledge being memorized and never written (although there was perhaps a written language at the time, using ogham letters)

Druids were leaders of the Celts; with, apparently, a wide-ranging role including ritual, scholarship, divination, healing and warfare. They conducted sacrifices, including human. And these druidic pagans were exceptional in the known world for their strong belief in a personal afterlife - an afterlife in which Men retained their individual identities. 

That this belief in an afterlife was strong is evidenced by Julius Caesar, who gave it as the reason for the exceptional courage in battle of the Britons; that it involved retained personal identity may be inferred from the Ancient Briton's practice of guaranteeing loans (IOUs) to be paid-off in this afterlife. 

Both of these imply that the Celts knew a lot about the afterlife - in that they had apparently rather exact expectations of what it would be like. 

The Celtic expectation of eternal life contrasted with the Greco-Roman and Jewish belief in a afterlife as merely depersonalized ghosts in Hades/ Sheol. The Greco-Romans apparently interpreted the Celtic belief as reincarnation - like the Pythagoreans - but it was more likely a belief in Paradise: Men living eternally in an ideal kind of society and situation (on a magical island to the west, for instance).  

This means that when a pagan Celt converted to Christianity and a belief in Heaven it was qualitatively different from the situation for a Roman or Jew. The Roman or Jew expected annihilation of the self - while the Celt expected preservation of the self. 

Therefore, for the Roman or Jew Christianity Heaven offered a qualitative transformation of the self, whereas for the Celt it was more like a quantitative enhancement - a divinization - of the self.

I would speculate that this difference in pre-conversion expectations may have led to a difference after conversion. The Greco-Roman or Jew perhaps focused on the new fact of eternal life - and was therefor almost exclusively concerned with salvation. While the Celt would have been more impressed by the enhancement of the self towards becoming a god: a 'Son of God', much like the ascended Jesus - and therefore more focused on theosis - on working to become 'more divine' during mortal life. 

At any rate, mainstream Roman/ Western Christianity was rather vague (and indeed uncertain) as to the details of the afterlife; at least until the Mormon revelations from 1830, which began to provide a much more detailed description - and expectations. 

But I would guess that the Celtic Christians would have had similarly detailed expectations of Heaven, inherited from their pagan predecessors. 

In terms of its organization, Celtic Christianity resembled Eastern Orthodoxy much more than Roman Christianity. Whereas the Roman church was dominated by Bishops and Priests; Orthodoxy is spiritually dominated by Abbots and Monks - and with semi-autonomous hermits inhabiting remote 'desert' regions and performing heroic acts of asceticism (fasts, vigils, prayer), often at the summit of holiness. 

But Celtic Christianity was substantially cut off from Constantinople, as well as Rome; and developed along the native lines established very early. These included a great emphasis on mysticism (communion with God) and miracles, with most of the Saints being wonder-workers (most famously Cuthbert).

Although normal in Eastern Orthodoxy, given the pagan assimilation this mysticism may also link up with druidic initiation, which went through many rigorous levels and aiming at spiritual powers that were regarded as magical. 

In particular; it may be that the folk heroes of the British may be traced back to those ancient Celtic Gods, assimilating into Christianity. According to the work of Geoffrey Ashe (e.g. Avalonian Quest); Arthur may have derived by many steps from the original primordial titan that was assumed (in the oldest chronicles) to be the ruler of England when it was invaded by Men originally from Troy. This character reappears as the giant Albion in William Blake's prophecies. 

Merlin (originally Myrddin) may go back even further, to an even more ancient God who ruled the island of Britain originally. Merlin was originally a place-name for a fortress - but became a personal name. The first recorded name for Britain can be translated as Merlin’s Precinct, or enclosure. The Merlin of literature could have been derived from this ancient god. 

By Geoffrey Ashe's account in Merlin: the prophet and his history; the Merlin that we know from literature seems to be derived from a title, role or nature of a person - probably one with prophetic and magical abilities, due a relationship with the ancient god - perhaps as a reincarnation or by divine inspiration.

This led to the the first two known historical Merlins - Ambrosius/ Emrys, the Welsh magician prophet Merlin who mostly contributed to the Arthurian mythos via Geoffrey of Monmouth's History; and Lailoken the later mad prophet Scottish Merlin - who is represented in Geoffrey's later Merlin poem, and who features in the stories of the Scottish Saint Kentigern/ Mungo (the first Bishop of Glasgow, and a missionary of major historical importance). 

Another 'Merlin' may have been the Welsh bard Taliesin, author of the oldest surviving native poetry; he is recorded as a companion of Lailoken-Merlin, by Geoffrey.    

The Merlin of literature (and his descendants among many other wizards) exerts a continued - perhaps increasing - fascination in Britain (and the Anglosphere more generally). This may have spiritual significance, as some kind of folk-memory of the Celtic Merlin god, via the historical-and-legendary Merlins of the Dark Ages - as assimilated and transformed by the unique nature of Celtic Christianity. 

It may even be that - to the Romantic Christian imagination - Merlin is a Celtic name for the archangel of Albion: the angelic being who has been responsible for that ancient and indomitable spiritual reality which underlies modern 'Britain'. 

Why is Christianity universal? William Wildblood answers

This vital question is given an excellent answer by William Wildblood in his post today Edited excerpts follow - but read the whole thing...

People often question what there is in Christianity that is not in other religions since many of the moral teachings are very similar and some even pre-date the birth of Christ. This is missing the point. 

What there is in Christianity that is nowhere else is Christ himself. The actual person of Christ who through his crucifixion and resurrection transformed the whole world, even those parts of it that had no conscious knowledge of him. 

He changed the spiritual goal fundamentally, opening up the Kingdom of Heaven to all who accepted him whereas before there were only states analogous to Limbo, Hades, Sheol, Bardo and the like for most souls with Nirvana as a possibility for those who were able to detach themselves completely from identification with their created selves. 

But the new reality of Heaven (new as far as human beings were concerned) meant that the fallen self could now be redeemed and transformed into a being of light. For Heaven involves the union of spirit and matter instead of their separation. It's a marriage not a divorce. 

Prior to the actual Incarnation the spirit of Christ will have begun to permeate the higher worlds, affecting all those able to respond to it on that level. Thus, the teachings of Christ will have begun to be established in the world. A similar thing happened after Christ's death and means that all spiritual forms in the world that were open to it, whether ostensibly Christian or not, will have begun to be influenced by what we can call the Universal or Cosmic Christ. 

Christianity is the religion in which Christ is most fully present but surely you did not think he could not manifest himself and be present as a spiritual force and influence in other religions? He is primarily a spiritual being and as such can be present everywhere to those who are open to him. Such people may not know him by the name Jesus Christ but they can know his spiritual presence and that is what really counts.

I would add that this explains why it is the almost-exclusively materialistic, this-worldly, assumptions of modernity that has made it so difficult for modern people to understand Christianity; and led to misunderstanding Jesus as essentially a 'moral teacher', or a societal-transformer. 

But the essence is that what Jesus did was indeed Cosmic; he transformed the nature of reality and thereby made new possibilities - everywhere and for everybody; which is why Christianity is universal.

 

There are no 'bare-facts' - instead, we should focus on spiritual realities

That The Enemy are liars - and fundamentally so, because they deny reality - raises the temptation of trying to counter Enemy lies with 'bare-facts'; to counter false/ misleading/ manipulative imputed-causes with real ones. 

But this mechanical fact focus is an alluring snare - a species of spirit-denying materialism and tending to confirm that the only serious truth is mechanical causality. It encourages exactly that mode of thinking which the Enemy wishes to impose on the world. 

We need, instead, to become primarily aware of the spiritual realities behind the material 'facts'.

There are no solely material events in reality - therefore there are no bare-facts; and there are no purely material causes. 

Every-thing that happens in the world has an underlying spiritual dimension; every proximate cause, event or observation is embedded in ultimate spiritual causes. 

The bare-fact is just the tip of a spiritual iceberg - and our job is to know the invisible part of the iceberg.

How? By consciously choosing this attitude and practice. 

We know, for-sure, that the mass mainstream narrative of facts and causes is always false. We know that every-thing from the Establishment is intended to manipulate not communicate. 

Thus, we set it aside without wasting thought. 

And instead allow our intuition, our heart-thinking, our God-aligned discernment - to contemplate the spiritual motivation behind the fake story. 

We all have inner guidance from being children of God and external guidance from the Holy Ghost - so we can always know the spiritual realities that are spiritually necessary to us; always - so long as we are (at that time) genuinely on the side of divine creation, aligned with The Good. 

If so, then suddenly we become aware of the spiritual reality and existential nature of the situation; the hidden iceberg of spiritual intent beneath the visible materialism and mechanical causality of public discourse! 

Suddenly, we understand the enemy; suddenly it becomes clear what we personally need to do in order to oppose the powers of evil. 

The fear of death is spontaneous and natural - and the best possible basis for belief in Christ

 As a young child, aged about five or six, I quite suddenly became afraid of death. That is, I became afraid of other peoples' death - I became afraid that someone I loved, among my family, relatives and close family friends - would die and be lost to me. 

At this point in my life I was not an atheist; but neither was I a Christian. I was, indeed, somewhat hostile to Christianity as it was taught me. And I was (as perhaps all Men are) a natural pagan; therefore I did not love the gods, and I assumed that the gods did not love me; but instead they wanted propitiation, worship, sacrifice. They did not want to be 'asked', but needed to be begged. 

Thus I prayed - whenever the thoughts of death came to mind - with desperate pleading and multiple repetitions. I prayed for the preservation of those I loved; that they would not be taken from me and lost from my life. 

Death seemed like the greatest disaster that could befall me - but at that point I could hardly comprehend my own death; so the worst I could imagine was to be left bereft, unprotected, in a world of strangers who were probably indifferent and uncaring at best; and some were spiteful, hostile, nasty. 

I realized, with perfect truth, that to live within the loving warmth of family was the greatest possible benefit the world had to offer; and that death threatened this happiness and security more - and more irreversibly - than anything else. 

In general; I think that these spontaneous and natural beliefs of early childhood are truths - truths implanted by God or known from our pre-mortal lives. Therefore, not only truths about this earthly mortal life; but eternal truths. 

...Yet, of course, truths as understood by the mind of a child. 

Therefore, our best goal as adults to to return to these spontaneous childhood beliefs, but this time consciously and by choice; and understanding what they really mean in an eternal context. 

I now understand my young-childhood fear of death to be representative of the real terribleness of death when (as naturally) understood as an end to mortal life with loss of the self - loss of what makes each person who they are. 

It is this legitimate fear that Jesus Christ came to save us from. A child could understand it - and indeed a young child is nowadays more likely to understand what Jesus offered than almost anyone else. 

A child's fear comes from the fact that he knows, deep down, that the death of our loved ones in mortal life can only be delayed - and that sooner or later everyone will die. It is indeed, the awareness of death that triggers this stage in childhood. 

Spontaneous human thought (among children, and those whose minds are child-like) cannot get further than this the fear of death and the desire to delay death. The child cannot see past the fact of death. Neither, apparently, could the ancient Hebrews of the Old Testament who regarded all Men's lives as terminated in Sheol, nor the Ancient Greeks who regarded all lives as terminated in Hades - both of which entailed loss of the self. 

The dead were not the people they had been in mortal life; and so there was no consolation in their persistence as 'ghosts'.   

Nonetheless, a Christian knows that he has been instructed Not to fear, that fear is a sin - and this prohibition on fear includes death. So for a Christian the fear of death is just the beginning of the matter - not its end. 

As an adult we can and should realize that the best (and only) possible gift to address this childhood fear of death would be that this mortal life would be followed by an immortal life in which were still our-selves, and could (potentially) live forever with those that we had loved in mortal life. 

In other words, The Answer to death is: that-Heaven promised by Jesus Christ - that Heaven (I would add) particularly as clarified by more recent, more detailed Mormon revelations concerning the nature of Heaven and the continued existence and importance of the family*. 

Unlike paganism; Heaven is not a spontaneous insight of childhood. Its necessity - as the only solution to the problem of death which answers to the desires of a loving young child - could perhaps consciously be derived from the conviction that the Christian God the creator is our loving parent (thus very far from the gods of paganism, and from the abstract deities of some philosophies and religions). 

But the Christian Heaven - that is, of resurrected Men living eternally as 'children of God' (ie. as ourselves creative gods) and in familial 'brotherhood' (i.e. in families and divine friends) and knowing the ascended Jesus... such a Heaven could not realistically be inferred by a child. The child would need to be told; and then he might - or might not - believe Heaven was true. 

I decided (as child of about six, a while later than the above-described stage) that the Heaven I was told-about was not true, but was made up from manipulative motives... 

I would still agree - that Heaven as it was told me (or, as I understood it) was Not true; and that the description had been contaminated by this-worldly motives related to making me behave in certain ways. 

Yet I erred in throwing-out the whole idea of Heaven; rather than (as I should have done) thinking more deeply about Heaven, aimed-at discerning how Heaven really was. 

I disbelieved in the Heaven that I was told-about - but I should have believed in Heaven as it really is; and I should have made it my life's task to comprehend that that real Heaven offers the only full and satisfying answer to the problem of death. 

My suggestion is that others should do the same. You should think upon the idea of Heaven, and how Heaven would need to be in order to answer the problem of death. 

Only when you have grasped what Heaven really would answer that problem, have you discovered what it is that Jesus is asking you to believe... Or, more exactly, what Jesus is offering to those who want Heaven.

And you will find that when the problem of death has been answered; then the fear of death - I mean that inescapable existential angst - is indeed cured. 

At least, such fear is cured whenever we have Faith and Hope based upon Love (or 'Charity'); and even when we don't experience the cure, we can know that restoration of that Faith, Hope and 'Charity' will drive-out our fear. 

*I regard mainstream Christianity as having lost sight of some of these key revelations about the nature of God, Heaven and the Family - which was why I believe that Joseph Smith and some of the other Mormon prophets were inspired to articulate these vital truths in a new, radical, and superior metaphysical theology. This appears in the work of early Mormons and some recent writers - along with other non-essentials and errors; therefore requiring, as always, discernment. But these truths having been articulated was of great value to me. Instead of having to work them all out, I was more easily able to recognize intuitively their truth, beauty and virtue; then (without too much effort) to organize them in my understanding.   

The immorality of opera (and many other arts)

One of the most powerful experiences of my life was at the end of a 1978 live performance (from Scottish Opera) of Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss - the trio for three soprano voices (lyric, dramatic and mezzo) - 

followed directly (without break) by a duet for the lyric and mezzo-sopranos who are the young lovers (the mezzo plays a young man - a 'trouser role', common for lower ranged female voices) - which is immediately followed by the end of the opera.

This piece of music is almost unbearably beautiful to me; with its combination of interweaving voices singing long, supple melodic lines; scored for very large, shimmeringly lush forces, by probably the greatest orchestrator of all the great composers - here working at his peak. 

The effect (on someone susceptible) is overpowering in a good live performance (or, for that matter, in a recording - I could not watch more than a few seconds of the above movie version without tearing-up). 

By the time the two young lovers had inched to the climactic high notes of their duet, I was literally sobbing - and had to remain in my seat for a few minutes after the curtain in order to recover sufficiently to leave the theatre.

Human artistry at one of its peaks. And yet; Rosenkavalier is a thoroughly immoral story of selfish, dishonest, greedy and decadent courtiers engaged in sordid sexual intrigue among the (ig-)nobility. 

The opera is also flawed by excessive length - such that the several musical high peaks are surrounded by a couple of hours of tediousness. 

And even this final trio/ duet/ coda only offers the (shallow) redemption of the infinite hopes of untested adolescent love at first sight; this being enabled by the senior woman (a Countess), somewhat reluctantly, acknowledging that she is getting too old to retain the young man as her extra-martial 'toy boy'. 

As a young man I regarded the best operas as fundamental to my world view; and I felt the same about the best symphonies, sonatas, plays, novels and poetry. Art (selectively) was a kind of religion in my life - taken with the utmost seriousness. I believed there was an intrinsic (even though inexplicit) Goodness to art - and that this was the highest Goodness. 

This was, of course, a common idea from the end of the 19th century and up into the middle 20th century - the idea that the best art - deeply experienced - had an intrinsically educative, enlightening, and moral effect. it was Good For people - which is why the arts were widely subsidized and promoted. 

However, in retrospect I can now see that most of these (including many of the most beloved) were actually harmful to me in a spiritual sense. Works such as Der Rosenkavalier displayed a very complete dissociation of the transcendental values - supremely aesthetic, yet hedonic or even inverted in terms of virtue. 

In more general terms; artists are usually very flawed guides to values when accepted as primary. 

A great artists few were themselves Good and providers of wisdom and virtue (JS Bach, JRR Tolkien, or William Blake for instance); but most were even more flawed than the average Man; and therefore their power to move and influence people was hazardous at best. 

I would now assert that there may indeed be an intrinsic Goodness in art; but this is only the case when it is apprehended with discrimination and within a broader (Christian) perspective. Otherwise, (i.e. when taken as primary and fundamental) art will be more prone to corrupt than to improve a Man. 

This is, indeed, what is found among the specialist (including the best) authors and practitioners of the arts. When The Man is bad, or has an immoral ideology; then no amount of creativity or immersion in the arts has any improving, or even deepening, effect on them. 

It is a disillusioning experience to discover how trivial professional musicians usually are; how selfish and hedonic even the finest poets and novelists can be; and as for actors, dancers... 

A life spent in artistic activity very obviously does not enrich or ennoble. And even acts of genius artistic creativity (which is a participation in divine creation) does not usually rub-off onto the Whole Man - but instead mostly remains encapsulated. 

This is not to single-out the arts as especially defective; because the same applies in science, medicine, scholarship; or in the churches. Excellence, even brilliance, in the specialist activity, is apparently dissociated from broader, deeper and more important considerations. 

But in the arts, the personal deficiencies come-out in the work. The work cannot genuinely be greater than the author; and if the author is not a great Man, then the work will not be great in terms of ultimate values - and in that sense, it will not be a worthy basis for living. 

Note: By (non-)coincidence; William Wildblood has been inspired to write on a similar theme in today's post at his blog. 

What makes prayer 'work'?

There are so many misleading things said about 'prayer' that it seems to me yet another subject on which we must each, individually, seek clarification from intuition and by communing with the Holy Ghost. 

For example, I don't suppose that a typical modern Man will get anything positive simply from 'saying prayers' - because it would, to him, simply be just that: saying some words. 

Before prayer can have an effect, there may well be a need to clarify some very basic things - such as that there is a creator, and the creator is a personal God, and perhaps too that that personal God creator loves us individually. 

If someone can get such matters somewhat clear, then he can pray - effectually. 

Or, maybe that is what his prayer might consist in: the inner desire to understand such matters. Before I could pray with effect and benefit, I myself needed to sort-out that there was a loving Father and personal God. And then I had some immediate effects of prayer which pushed me over the edge into becoming a Christian. 

But many, many times, in earlier years, I had said prayers of many and various kinds but without any clear idea of what I was doing - and these 'prayers' did no good at all - so far as I could see.

In other words; the modern problem is deep and metaphysical - based on false basic assumptions, that are not even recognized as assumptions but instead habitual and/or regarded as necessarily true because supposedly massively 'evidenced'. 

(There is no empirical 'evidence' relating to genuine basic metaphysical assumptions; on the contrary, it is these assumptions that determine what counts as evidence.)

Somehow or another; modern Man needs to get down to these depths (to his real-and-divine self, below the surface 'personality'); and discard these demonically-implanted falsehoods sufficiently to be able to pray. 

At that point (only), he will become free; and can thenceforth intuit everything he needs to know for salvation (and theosis), by using the powers of discernment that we all posses. 

But the common injunction of Christian evangelists for mainstream modern leftist-materialist-atheists to 'pray' about stuff, is almost certain to be a complete waste of time; leading to disappointment, disillusion and potentially hardening the mainstream anti-Christian prejudice that afflicts almost everyone. 

We are each a child of God - but it is hard to grasp the implications of this fact

We are children of God; but that fact means we are as varied in our destinies as mortal children of human parents.

As the best human parents recognize that each child is unique, and has an unique destiny in the world; then it is the same for God. 

This ought to be obvious from the fact that God made this world with an extraordinary variety of people in an extraordinary variety of situations. 

Indirect evidence comes from the work of spiritual evil in the world now; which attempts to make all Men, all over the world, The Same (i.e. 'equal') and compelled to the same (demonic) ideology of value-inversion. 

Form an inner perspective; this means that a Godly life should Not be regarded as living according to a universal template. While there are some things (sins) which we should strive Not to do and repent when we do; this does not apply to the positive agenda of what our mortal life is for. 

Our specific life is for us to learn some-thing (or things) of need for our eternal resurrected life; but that need will vary greatly between persons. 

After all (to take one example); many die in the womb or childhood; while some live the full biological span or beyond it. Since God sustains us alive, such vast differences in lifespan strongly imply very different life tasks among people. 

We each need to ensure that we personally learn what we most need while alive - and fail in this is to fail in mortal life - to waste our mortal lives. 

If we are still alive, this means we still have something very important to learn. This is the positive agenda for our own actual life; and it cannot be read anywhere but we each must discover it.

So, if you are feeling bored, directionless, that your life is futile; then You Are Wrong. It means that you have, so far, failed to do what needs to be done, that you are (to a significant extent) wasting your life - and finding how and working on it, is what you ought to be doing.

Now.

When silence is Not complicity; but indirectly eloquent of Christian faith

We have all, by now, taken sides in the spiritual war; and nowadays it is usually obvious which side. 

Of course, most people can change sides before their decision (i.e. their choice of their post-mortal disposition) is final. 

Sides can be changed - and we have seen a lot of this is the past 18 months - in both directions, although apparently mainly towards evil. It is never too late in mortal life to change sides. 

But the choice has a tendency to harden - especially when there has been a conscious and deliberate choice. 

Thus, to take the side against God can in practice become so deeply ingrained, buttressed by multiple lies and sustained by value-inversions, as to be very difficult to repent. 

Such buttressing of chosen-damnation seems to be the main demonic strategy over the past several decades; and belief The Lie - especially The Big Lie - has become probably the dominant form of evil - especially in the developed world.  

In a society in which Big Lies are not just highly prevalent - widespread and deeply rooted - but also mandatory and enforced; silence is usually complicity. It means that someone has chosen Not to notice evil. When someone lives in lies and says nothing; when someone has been through the past 18 months; and yet says nothing about the gigantic, world-historical, evil-motivated fraud of what happened... This is nearly-always because he believes the lies - has chosen to take the side of the worldly-victorious evil Establishment. 

On the other hand; there are situations in which silence is eloquent against evil and on the side of God. When in the midst of an evil-compliant and evil-endorsing discourse (e.g. about the birdemic-peck, antiracism, climate change etc). 

One pointedly remains silent, and does not (by word, expression or deed) provide the sought-for endorsement of the Big Lie; but instead remains alert, quiet, and still... 

Well, such refusal can potentially be as powerful and appropriate a profession of faith in God as is possible in that particular kind of situation (i.e. a mainstream modern situation; where the other party is absolutely unwilling and unable to expose and examine his assumptions, or to think consecutively and coherently).  

In theory; some well-chosen phrase might be more effective; but most people, for most of the time, will never be capable of a 'well-chosen phrase'; and for them silence may be as eloquent a witness of their faith as may be - and with the negative-advantage of not providing the enemy with ammunition for his manipulations. 

This is confirmed by the fact that the enemy (in these, and other, situations) hates silence; and tries to provoke or compel a response; which if honest will provide ammunition for his side in the spiritual war, and if dishonest (including deliberate misleading - which is a particularly insidious thus damning form of dishonesty) will recruit you to his side. 

This is perhaps why Christ sometimes remained silent under interrogation. 

We therefore need to discern when our silence is complicity; and when it would be faithful witness. 

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.