After the Fanfare…what now?

by Stephen Cocconi © 2012

It seems that there is an element of “wait and see” in the air. If Mitt Romney becomes the defacto Republican candidate to face President Obama, then who will win that contest? Then what happens after that? And what about the Economy? Will it rebound or what if it sinks further into a slump? Have the protest movements here and abroad actually had any real or meaningful effect on policies or freedoms? Then there is the Earth…will it revolt with more radically jolting fits like earthquakes? And of course there is the European Union and the Euro? What will happen there? What about my retirement? And to cap it all off, what happens when we hit December 23, 2012? Obliteration? Transformation? Or will it all have been simply a build up which was preceded by a collective mental masturbation?

Not even Michael knows all the ways we will choose to act! Omniscience is the purview of God and no one else. And as part of God, we are constantly evaluating which creative possibility to choose. At this juncture prediction is a pointless exercise but one desired by those who want to assuage fear rather than face it head on! The very desire of “wanting to know the future” is motivated by fears of wanting to escape its consequences or try to control or avoid them and feel safe and secure. Does greater security make you feel more safe? How about guns? Do you see the Catch-22? (i.e. conflicting paradox.)

“And so we come to the crux of becoming your own Sovereign King or Queen…it is decreeing (personal power) the direction you will proceed (regardless of outcomes) and a declaration (Will) of the policies you shall enforce (attitude) in your own psyche; and then decide how you will govern your own Soloverse with either compassion or tyranny.

No matter what happens next, Growth will occur. But positive Growth means advancement not specifically expansion or inflation. For a butterfly to grow, for instance, it must become lighter first shedding the ample but plodding body of the caterpillar and then find the will to leave the secure womb of the chrysalis. Only then does it emerge as gossamer light, able to fly and finally free! Carrying nothing but itself as it floats and rides the currents of the winds of change.

It is quite understandable why the Ego would feel frightened at the thought of danger to itself. Death is always the thing that the Ego has been enlisted to protect the Personality from, real or imagined. After all, to the Ego, the Personality IS the only life it knows! And in a Warrior climate (casting energy) no one can deny that one might feel victimized (Martyred) or indeed frustrated (Impatient) by the seeming attacks of a relentlessly changing outside world.  

Be honest…in many ways don’t responses like these seem perfectly justified? In an Action year, as 2012 most definitely is, the axe of your psyche will be ground and sharpened where the motivations to attack or defend against a perceived onslaught (Emotional Center) manifest themselves in almost every interaction, to one degree or another. When the Warrior is in the negative pole of Coercion and is prompted by venal inducements to act in mercenary ways, then harsh and terse are likely elements when in communication with anyone running that energy. It need not be this way! In fact, awareness and memory of this preceding admonition can alert you to diffuse tension and help dissuade the other’s fearful stance. But you will do so in a way like the Mature Warrior Teddy Roosevelt reminded you…”to walk softly but carry a big stick.”

The Golden Triangle of touchstone principles are these:

• Respect
• Trust  
• Faith 

Respect means you give credence to and receive influence from. Why you give something credence or how it has influence over you is completely dependent upon whether you revere something or someone or whether you are intimidated by their superior power or resources.  Gaining self-respect is to accrue power from revering your integrity more than any other influence: incentives, morals, fears, beliefs, or ideals. All integrity is built upon the principle that acting from truth is the highest expression of love.

Trust results from putting to the test your assumptions and check their reliability. It is a statistical test of what thing are vs what someone says it is. Comparing a person’s (your own included) words to their actions is one such test. The more one sees consistency and follow through between claims and action, promises and agreements kept, labels invoked and substance revealed, the more one deepens their ability to know what is true, and therefore increase trust in their own knowledge. And for a functional Sovereign being the most important person to trust is yourself, first. Fear and trust are not incompatible if Caution is employed to measure accountability. If you put trust in something that has not proved itself, or continue to believe that someone who failed to live up to its agreements, then you short circuit your ability to have faith in your judgment.

Faith and trust are related but operate differently. Faith is accorded before the fact where as trust is accrued after the fact. Faith has a larger scope and avails itself of a Spiritual rather than worldly source. Faith is not positive so much as it holds a reverence and a stability that something larger is operating. Faith in oneself is not the vanity of proclaiming oneself God or an independent deity, but rather an abiding core sense that you are capable of coping with whatever befalls you.  Faith is not about religion or confidence or blind allegiance to specifics, but a necessary force which re-center’s the Psyche when hopelessness and futility overrun the mind and would otherwise cause system shutdown. (i.e. apathy, abdication, or in the extreme, death)

In a Spiritualist year, a key aspect of Growth for the race is to rethink the meanings of Trust and Faith, and to differentiate their application. As ideas, each is sorely confused, overly generalized, often misapplied, and thoroughly manipulated by others. But faith is an utterly necessary keystone in both the collective and individual psyche if the human family is to rise above those automatic reactions of Ego, the ones programmed into the animal survival dictates described by Darwin and Freud.

Becoming “conscious” does not equate to, nor result from, espousing some new dogma seemingly more enlightened than a previous version. It is coming to terms with actual circumstances as they are, even when vastly unpleasant. There is liberation in truth. That is what makes you arbiter (King) of your own fate in any given moment. So have confidence that exercising your own sovereign truth will produce a clearer picture from which gaining trust in your instincts re-emerges and self-respect is nourished as it happens. And that, you can Passionately have faith in!

Remember, keep your attention on the intention that “Love Will Prevail.”