NMR ISSUE 13

Astrological Forecast 13
Belief and Magic
Chiron Key to Higher Consciousness
Collective Integrity Conduits
Consummation of Joy
Demeter and Persephone
Editorial 13
I am She
Letters 13
Longhorn
Magick and the Law
Metaphysics of the Gulf War
Selenite
Tarot 101
The Adepts
The Channel
The Goddess Is…
The Oldest Magick
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The Editorial

By Scot Rhoads

War Means This

I've gotten very tired of all the vituperations on every side of the Gulf War. But I figure the president gives me cart blanche, and besides, I've never worried too much what I say under the convenient dodge of the Editorial heading (also, it's real late, and I'm not thinking clearly).

The Gulf war certainly appears to be an extension of all the worst things our government has ever done. But I notice that all those that see this are looking for it (assiduously!). Those that are not, see it as a renaissance of American power, fighting for the right; of course, they seem to be finding what they're looking for as well. As usual, the Truth is a muddle—such a muddle, that the word looses its meaning.

Things may begin to look pointless as we try to sort out what this war was about. Like a hash of disinformation, it supports any conclusion. But this also offers us freedom. If we look at things from the usual Western action-reaction paradigm, we are adrift without bearings right now. But the Chaos from which the universe sprang was infinite potentiality. Similarly, from a more metaphysical standpoint, because we can't tell where we are, we can go just about anywhere we want to. We can yet choose if this war will be a return to the dark-ages of Vietnam, or a respectable New World Order.

Instead of looking to the war to justify our fears, let us look to it as the beginning of the best world we can build. For instance: Some say that the war was an effort to prop up the military-industrial complex. Maybe it was. But we still have the power to deal with that problem. The war has not even made the problem worse. It has brought its potential more into view. If the military-industrial conspiracy is real (or even if it's not), we are now more able to do something about it.

But the real potential lies not in looking on the bright side of the negatives, but in the potential positives. For all the accusations of Blood for Oil, on its surface, the war was for a good cause. (No, not defending democracy! Who told you that?) For the first time (thanks to the collapse of Communism), the UN made a (relatively) unanimous response to one member of the UN invading another—a sound rejection of this kind of aggression.

Yes, some say the US is guilty of similar acts, of ignoring the World Court, of being selective, etc. That's not the point. Those who fixate on history are doomed to repeat it. The point is to find the best we can get out of this and go for it. We can make this US imperialism, or we can make it the beginning of the end of war. Sound familiar? We have had a war to end all wars before. [Once all the Germans were warlike and mean, but that couldn't happen again. We taught them a lesson in 1918, and they've hardly bothered us since then. —Tom Lehrer, MLF Lullaby] But if the US had had the will, it might have empowered the League of Nations to do achieve that goal. According to the metaphysical paradigm, the power to do anything is always there. It is up to us to recognize it.

Consider past conflicts. The Civil War, was not a war to free the slaves. But that is what it means now to many people. It says that slavery is worth fighting and dying to oppose. WWII was not fought against racism, but today, that is one of the salient evils that the war rejects. Furthermore, the Nuremburg trials stated that nothing obviates an individual's responsibilities for his acts. There are, however, many compelling arguments that these wars were fought for purely selfish interests. Perhaps they were, that cannot change their significance today.

Yet these wars did not completely solve their mythic problems. Even though slavery became illegal in the US [though I heard once that native American slaves were still legal], we are still dealing with problems stemming from slavery, and that war hasn't prevented slavery altogether. Similarly, WWII showed us a face of racism so ugly that we reject it, but we are still struggling with that problem. War crimes are still a victor's indulgence (Lt. Calley is the exception). And we can expect to deal with naked aggression in the future, despite Desert Storm.

This is no reason to despair. There was no reason to expect the wars themselves to solve problems. They were like a New Year's resolution to lose weight. The resolution does not change your weight, but it can be the turning point for a new life. And we have made amazing strides. Amazing? Some scoff. Absolutely unbelievable! I respond.

How can I insist that these changes are so dramatic when we have so far to go? Because we have changed the species. Our attitudes are now against things that once were natural parts of being human. (I invoke sociobiology to support this.) Xenophobia, slavery and the unquestioned submission of the individual to the tribe were basic aspects of the human psyche—hardwired, as natural as lust. But we have said we choose not to be that way. We have said that despite these behaviors having been natural and accepted for millennia, despite their have overwhelming inertia, we reject them. And we have made stunning progress. How long has it been since there were thousands of slaves in the US? Compare that to how long it takes a new species to evolve, because this is on the level of that kind of change. Our cup is far more than half-full.

This is not a call for complacency; it is a challenge to action. Look at what we have done. Look at what we are doing. Imagine what we can do. But how do we do it?

Let us use the techniques we learn as metaphysicians—ritual, visualization, etc. We can manifest a better world. But on a more mundane level, it can be difficult to choose a path. In this case, motivation is everything. The hawks and the doves both want a better world. I say that as long as both remain seekers, they will succeed. It is the collective motivation of a country determines that character of the events that the conspiratorial higher ups think that they are controlling. Interviews with Iraqi soldiers suggest that few really cared about reuniting Iraq; thus, they alienated the Kuwaiti's and lost the territory with stunning alacrity. Interviews with UN soldiers suggest that most genuinely opposed aggression; and we can hope that this can make the war a meaningful step in that direction. The motivations of higher ups are significant, but not deciding. It is the collective motivations of the peoples involved that determine the eventual outcome.

We could indulge ourselves in orgasmic self-hate as we have been doing so much since the Vietnam War. We could retreat from opportunity, like we did after WWI. But we don't have to. Let us allow our Negative Egos to undermine our efforts to create the best. Don't let us think that we cannot find the path to success, or worse, that we have found it. Let us put aside the confrontational attitudes of hawks vs. doves! Both want a better world. Let us recognize that we don't know exactly how to achieve it, but if that it our goal, it will happen.

We manifest what we visualize. So let us Visualize World Peace without fixating on how we will achieve it. This does not call for inaction. We need total commitment! But we also need a spirit of cooperation. Be aware that even those who seem counterproductive (when they share our positive motivations) their commitment, energy, focus and visualizing will be their most powerful acts. Even when they seem to oppose us, they will be powerful allies. After all, one can argue that both hawks and doves were instrumental in winning the Cold War: the hawks provided the strong defense that allowed containment, the doves provided the evidence that the West did not have designs on the East. Perhaps without the doves, someone would have been frightened into a nuclear war; and without the hawks, much of the world might have been ceded, la Chamberlain.

In our post Desert Storm world, let us not focus on the evils of the war. Certainly we should be aware of them (real or imagined), and fighting hard to eliminate them; but let our main focus be on finding the positive things (again, real or imagined!) and building from them the world we want. This would be the most fitting epitaph for all the sacrifices (from one's life, to paying for the mess) made by the Coalition members, and all civilians, and even Iraqi soldiers and those who opposed the war; for in the metaphysical paradigm, any sacrifice as any part (good or bad) of a process that leads to the higher good, is as great achievement, and is not a thing to mourn. We have yet to determine if the Gulf War is a tragedy or turning point on the path to a better world. I know which I'm choosing?

Blessed Be