An Unholy Alchemy: Part 1

If you enjoy my writing, please consider liking, sharing with friends, commenting or becoming a paid subscriber. I posted some months back about the choices we face in life in a post entitled:We can distill these options, these stances, down into Love or Fear, Power or Force. I was discussing the many similarities between two seminal books in my library: Power VS Force and Love is Letting Go of Fear. I need to re-read these books constantly because I so easily get swayed by my fear thoughts, my attempts at control, and the folly that these states can create.It was in this vein that I’ve been considering the personal and political implications of trying to use both power and force to get results. Sometimes it may be force masquerading as power. Perhaps we delude ourselves and others into thinking we are operating from power, from love and from assuredness, when the foundation is built on fear. When the actions are gentle in form but fearful and forceful at their core. When their design is to prevent fear’s prognostications from coming true. When we don’t know what we’ll do if it doesn’t work out.This brings to mind my favorite heroic movies and myths. We see ourselves in our heroes as they face tribulation and search for meaning, purpose and victory over the forces of chaos and destruction. We want to take bold actions in service of our goals. And yet, the hero’s journey is as much about the character development that proceeds the grand finale as the event itself. Sometimes the hero loses and gets a bitter dose of unrequested character development.Time after time, these heroes are asked to choose: self-service or surrender? Will they be consumed by anger, resentment and helplessness or allow themselves to empty such emotions from their container so as to be a hollow vessel for spiritual power.So when we wonder what to do next, we need to read between the lines. I know I can become myopic: single-minded-of-purpose. I see only achieving the goal before me. But I want us to adjust the perspective lens to glean more information and perhaps, see the deeper goals that are possible. Goals that may make the spoils of the specific quest seem inconsequential or at least transient.When pondering a specific quest today, I realized that at some level, I was being tested. Perhaps we always are. The way I behave and what I emanate are my legacy. Just watch the movie Cloud Atlas. This movie helped me consider the possibility that our actions and choices do matter, even if they may seem futile in the moment. Courage is rewarded. We rise and fall with our ethics. Our lives are full of seminal moments, battles between the forces of good and evil, within and without. Every step is a new crossroads.We can be haunted by regrets or choose our release from bondage by our willingness to be brave, bold, and kind when no one is looking. Or we can let fear guide us into grasping, clutching at what we see as ours in a world that we merely borrow for a time. A small voice is often speaking, asking, beckoning. Will we honor what we know to be right at our core? Or will we rationalize its suppression via the ego’s machinations?This leads to the aforementioned unholy alchemy. We may find ourselves at a station where we are being asked to relinquish that which we most cherish in order to fully become that which we could embody. It feels like a fool’s bargain. We finally see the prize. We may not have believed it was possible. And yet we are asked to hand it right back in service of spiritual purification. Our mettle is being tested. The ego’s last stand.Power or Force. Love or Fear. It really does come down to a binary sometimes. I want to pass the test this time. And perhaps, like in certain tales, we may inevitably receive that which we relinquish. Surrender is the final test. Let’s be careful to realize that we can choose power and love in big moments but unconsciously toggle between love and fear, power and force, in a way that creates a defacto blending of these vastly different motivations. We’re human. Fear can keep us alive. We worry, we consume media, and we interact with other fallible humans. I think we need to take the time to consider our motivations. We need to consider what the outcomes may be if we get what we want. We need to realize that to acquiesce due to bad timing or temporary misalignment is not giving up. It’s patience. We can employ faith and trust. Let’s be careful to root out the force, the rush, the impatience, the rationalizing. These are warning signs that we’ve entered the ego’s realm. The ego misleads and confounds with deft. Good-hearted souls need not only fear domination from the Dark Side: becoming the enemy and falling down into the clutches of evil. We need to recognize the ways that darkness insinuates itself into and dilutes and spoils our legitimate goals and enterprises. The ways it cheapens and poisons our relationships. How businesses formerly aligned with quality, value, and concern for society and workers can become an abusive cabal of wealth extractors in a generation. They, like we, rise and fall due to our choices and their implications. Weed out the darkness from your enterprises of light. Do not let the unholy alchemy of power welded to force be the downfall of all you hold dear.I am now offering 1 free Active Listening Session to my readers who share my writing with 3 friends. This a coaching session where we focus on any issues or questions that may be coming up in your life. DM me if interested. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit greenmang.substack.com/subscribe