A Warrior in a Garden...

     Merry  Meet, the title  above is from something my better half said to me. The full  quote goes like this. "It is better to  be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war."  I  think it is very  profound.  A warrior can easily adapt to  gardening, instead of striking a practice dummy, the warrior learns the ways of plants and life.  To  be a gardener you have to  have patience and tend to  the garden as needed,  swift action is not needed.  They are polar opposites but they  can't trade jobs equally. 

     In paganism,  there is such  a focus on building tranquility and harvesting a better life.  One of the popular descriptions of an individuals spiritual  path  is "walking the path",  another is  "tending your garden of spirit".    There is such  a strong push for pacifism that  it is turning unhealthy. Like any  diet, you have to  balance it out to  maintain a healthy lifestyle.    Pagans are the gardeners and refuse to  accept the warriors virtue.  Warriors are given a mantle of aggressive hate.  Warriors fight for one thing , survival of the whole.  They  fight, so  the gardener doesn't have to. But I  also  see two-faced dialog that  bothers me greatly.  There are so many  pagans that demand the "Harm None"  notion, but also  promote themselves as badass witches.  There are pagans that  talk  about removing negativity and don't welcome warrior types in their social  groups.  This has to  end.

     I  believe that  we must learn to  accept the warrior spirit into  our practices. As I  have stated many  times that  nature is not as peaceful as many  believe.  That  life continues through the consumption of  death on this planet and the universe.  So  the Warrior spirit is not  evil when it is used to  protect the innocent.  Love and Pearce are the goal, but  like freedom, they are not free and have to  be earned.  The conflicts throughout the history of life on this planet have never stopped. And I  am not talking about the wars of mankind, the war of survival between animals and with  man have been going on and will continue.  But then there are these pagans that  insist on being gardeners while wars are fought  in different scales around them.

     You  can't shun these battles, and you can't let life  fall apart with  you standing on the sidelines. You  are a multifaceted creature, you can change and adapt to  fit the conditions around you, but many  will  choose to  do  nothing.  Bringing the warrior aspect into  your beliefs will  not taint what  you believe in.  For there to  be a shadow, there must be light first.  You  must have something to  compare to  measure the purity of anything.  SO  a light worker can't claim to  be of 'light' when they  hide in the darkness, so  that  they  are not seen when difficulties arise. A warrior can't be called hateful when he puts himself in front of children, to protect them.  You  can't call  yourself a follower of earth based religions when you stand idle against  people throwing litter out the windows and doors.

     Christianity claims to  be a religion of love and peace, but yet it  has aggressive tendencies.  I  have seen the bible camps were they train children into  be "Spiritual  Warriors for Jesus".  There are organized groups of people across the US that  declare themselves as "Spiritual Warriors" in Christianity.  This is what  we face as pagans.  Last month's  "Binding Trump  Mass spell effort" reflects what  we lack in the pagan community.   We don't have a warrior spirit or code in paganism, we have this pacifist mentality that  keeps us under control.  And as long as we accept this mentality of "Harm none" and stay  hidden we will  never be taken serious and allowed to  follow our beliefs openly. We were the rebels in Star  Wars facing the organized and trained empire.

     Spiritual Warfare is still  warfare. And a vast majority of Pagans out there are gardeners in a war. You  are told to  stay  away from dark  energies,  shun people that  don't follow this party line.  There are wiccans demanding the wiccan rede be used by  all  pagans.  This is the pacifist mentality that  I  dislike.  We have to  learn the ideals of Spiritual  warfare.  Now I  openly endorse the Warrior spirit as part of my  beliefs.  I  can believe that  the same person that  raises a sword in one hand, should be able to  lift a hand to  aid a person just as easily.  Warriors have a code of ethics. Just like how our spirituality  guides us in life,  we can have a spiritual code in how and when we fight.  I  want to  share with  you two pieces of wisdom that  I  use in my  warrior code.

To  be a Great warrior one must learn three things:

1. Learn to  rebuild the buildings lost from war

2. Learn to  heal  those that  were injured from war.

3.  Learn to  kill

Learning to  kill  is the last thing you need to  learn,

after learning the first two, hopefully you don't want to  kill

There are many  things worth fighting for.

There are things in life worth killing for

There are fewer things worth dying for.

But there are only a few things in life worth living for.

    It has to  be taught not to  rush  into  battle and spill  blood that  doesn't need to  be spilled. A warrior  is a defender of his people and his ideals.  I  see Pagans get mad and spouting off whenever some other pagans  makes  claims about paganism that  don't exactly agree with  their own beliefs.  We are willing to  block, unfriend, belittle, shun, and more anyone that  claims a different view on Paganism.  But we refuse to  stand together and defend people that  agree with  us on different aspects.  There is this foolish mentality of demanding people to  agree with  you and never posting a different opinion.  We are divided amongst ourselves,  we are weak because of this.

     Bringing in a warrior aspect to  your beliefs will  help  bring an end to  this destructive behavior.  The code of the warrior will  make us understand tolerance and look for other avenues to  handle a situation. Because  Warriors must depend on strategy, they will  look beyond the small  battle in front of them, and see the larger battle that  needs to  be fought.  The petty squabbles will end and more unity and peace will  grow.

     This Spiritual  warrior concept is needed because of the embarrassing actions with  the "Trump  Binding effort".   SO  many  pagans don't know how to  fight a spiritual  war because they are not trained.  There is no  unity and too  much  dislike placed on anyone that  decides to  fight for what  they  believe in.  I  looked at  this event as  packs of hamsters attacking Rottweilers.      Maybe some of those bites would hurt. but the rotweillers  can easily take out many of these hamsters with  one swipe of their paws.  Christian and Pagan Spiritual warriors defended trump.  While these pagans acting against Trump  was a noble act of fighting for what  you believe in.  They  lacked a warrior spirit in many  cases and organization.  These were the gardeners that grabbed pitchforks to  fight mechanized forces.

    There are many  ways to  bring in the warrior spirit into  your practice.  Study and meditate on why  warriors in the past did what  they  did.  Find a picture or two  of warriors that  represent your culture or  spiritual grounds.  As for my  love of Celts I  have a picture of the Statue of Vrercingitox, the Gaulic Celtic Warrior that  stood against Rome.   Learn why  they  fought the battles and wars.  Try to  see their point of view. and see if those ideals can be put into  play  in your spirituality and life.  Buy  an archaic weapon and add it to  your practice.  I  have a sword and staff in my practice.  When the weather  allows I  go outside and practice various forms with  them.   I  also  have a homemade shield.  It acts as a spiritual  and mundane shield in my practice.

     I  am very  happy that  you have read this far. If you are a pacifist and still  disagreeing with  what  I  have to  say, I  want to  tell  you about one more person.  There were Pacifists in the US Army.  During World War 1, there was a pacifist in the deadly trench  fighting.  One day  there was a brutal battle where many  American men were getting killed.  In this unit was a pacifist, that  didn't want to  kill  anyone.  But after seeing so many  men die he grabbed a weapon and attacked the Germans single handedly.  After the battle he was asked if this went against his pacifist ways. And his answer was no.  In his kind he saved more lives by  going after the germans, than if he would of sat and did nothing.   Look  up  Sgt York in World War 1.  You  can still  love peace and be a warrior at the same time.