Tag Archives: delusion

Self-Mastery In 4 Short Lessons

I have for some Time found myself meditating on and otherwise considering Power, insofar as it concerns the human condition. I have come to understand that real, true, and transcendent power in humans is nothing less than Self-mastery. It is this growing understanding which has led me to the recognition that most, if not all, of the maladies plaguing humankind arise from the ignorance of the power at our behest. It is this ignorance that damns and condemns us to repeat the cycles of pain and violence and ugliness which have marked the totality of our history as a People on this Mother Earth.

I have also come to understand that the only way to disrupt this infernal tragedy and turn it into a story of power for all who are willing to answer the difficult challenge of Self-mastery is through education. Not the teaching of religious doctrines or feel-good rhetoric which promises much but delivers little. No, I speak of education regarding the importance of claiming the power that we can find in Self-mastery: a true and vital power which has been earned. Therein lies the great challenge-so many feel that they are entitled to power without doing the work necessary to earn and be worthy of it.

The greater my awareness grows, the more cognizant I am of just how unconscious we all are.


Lesson One-
Self-mastery requires Self-honesty.
Self-honesty is the core element of Self-mastery and, therefore, all transcendent power. If we follow the path of Self-deception then we deprive ourSelves of that most necessary of materials required for power and joy.

Self-honesty is challenging and can many times be a painful course. It is a course, though, that we must stay if we wish to experience the fullness of Life.

Lesson Two-
Self-mastery requires Self-awareness.
Self-awareness fits hand-in-glove with Self-honesty.

This is the awareness of who we are, where we are, why we are. It is an awareness of Time and Space and Movement. Self-awareness is not a static thing. Self-awareness lives.

Lesson Three-
Self-mastery requires Self-assessment.
Self-assessment is built on the previous stanchions of Self-honesty and Self-awareness.

To know the real power that defines Self-mastery, we must first take stock of our strengths and weaknesses, assets and liabilities. To be keenly aware of our state and condition, and to be unfailingly honest in the appraisal, prepares the way for the ensuing steps ahead.

Lesson Four –
Self-mastery requires Self-acceptance.
This particular element of Self-mastery can be a tricky one. Self-acceptance for many usually presents itself as either one of two extremes:

First, there are those who seem unable to honestly look at themselves and then, after a reasoned and rational assessment, gain acceptance of themselves as they are, for better or worse, in that moment. This position is the one familiar to most. It is a state of denial.

Then there are those who, though they might not like what they see, are completely willing to embrace their state wholeheartedly and identify totally with who and what they find. “This is who I am and this is who I will be, so I just have to be okay with it; I’m beautiful and I’m powerful!” is their motto. This position, however, is more capitulation than it is acceptance. Self-acceptance should never be concession to a status quo.

The Self-acceptance that leads to real power is something else entirely. This is the acknowledgement of things as they are which follows honest assessment, setting aside any feelings of guilt, blame, or shame. What is, is. But what IS does not always have to FOREVER be.

True Self-acceptance concedes that which is (the desirable as well as the undesirable) but recognizes and celebrates that which can be. True Self-acceptance can be a jumping off point for healing and healing moves us that much closer to real power.

Closing the Hoop Of Power (for the moment…)

Why all this emphasis on power? Because what many perceive as power in the human realm (the clumsy, common, and often brutish variety) is actually the absence of power, not its presence. As I stated earlier, most, if not all, of the maladies plaguing humankind arise from the ignorance of the power at our behest. It is this ignorance which damns and condemns us to repeat the cycles of pain and violence and ugliness that have marked the totality of our history as a People on this Mother Earth. Likewise, it is my understanding that real, true, and transcendent power in humans is nothing less than Self-mastery.

The groundless authority of the average politician and bureaucrat, the counterfeit power of the numbed and numberless of all stripes and occupations who cannot find true power within themselves, these are the poor souls who have no concept of, much less regard for, the vital and living power they could bring to bear if only they would find the courage to explore and persevere.

Self-mastery requires Self-honesty.
Self-mastery requires Self-awareness.
Self-mastery requires Self-assessment.
Self-mastery requires Self-acceptance.
Real Power requires all of these.

This is not the last I shall speak of power; it is, however, enough for now.

There Is Always More

The Gentleman Mystic
©Billy Red Horse

The Periculum: a vision

(This is an edited culling from a series of visions experienced by the author, first published online in July of 2007 as a column titled THE PERICULUM.)

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With the Industrial Age the modern era began, followed in rapid succession by the Atomic Age, the Jet Age, the Space Age and, most recently, the Information Age.  All of these are characterized by technology, humanity’s method and means to control and dominate its environment.  There is little doubt that this era is soon to collapse under its own increasingly ponderous weight.  We are at the thin end of the wedge of a new epoch, an epoch that will signal a spiritual renaissance or the ultimate destruction of humanity as we know it.  A New Day will dawn as the Imagination Age.  What (if anything) succeeds this final Day remains to be seen.

Traversing the narrow corridors of our existence, we prefer stupefaction to cognizance.  So long we have a strong cell signal and new Tik-Toks are available to watch, all is well and life is as it should be.  Lip service is paid to the sad state of things, but even this is forgotten when the news of some celebrity’s latest travail requires dissemination.

Hear the truth- Humanity has but superficially emerged from the dark ages.  Times have changed greatly, but the spirit has changed very little.  As it has been proven, the mundane can and will destroy the magickal if magick is stripped of its importance in our lives.

Know your enemies.  Outside the castle are people who know the Right Way.  Because you know not the Right Way, they wish you dead and they have no hesitancy in giving their own life or the lives of their family and friends to see that you get your just reward.  Inside the castle walls, those sworn to protect and defend long ago lost their way.  Nothing is of greater importance to the guardians than the retention of their Power.  For that, you must obey.  You must conform.  And conform you do.  You expect them to keep you safe; under their aegis you believe yourself to be free. This is an illusion.  You have no freedom, no safety.  Abdicate your responsibility and you rightly deserve to enjoy neither.

On the one hand, there are those who cry, “We must talk!  We must give!  Surely they will listen to reason?!”  Whose reason?  Yours?  What arrogance!  You expect the rest of the world to think like you, to process like you, to have your values, your mythologies?  Then you are a fool.  Millennia divide those shores.  On the hand opposite, those who enjoin wholesale destruction of the enemy, of the land, of the Self.  “Rain fire down and conquer; the pittance remaining we shall claim.”  Such ignorance!  Each position flawed, extreme, fatal.  Arrogance and ignorance, ignorance and arrogance.  Singularly, a scourge; combined, deadly, a brew most foul.

Eyes numb and dead (or alive with fear), the parrots march and chant their silly slogans, sure that they walk the Path of Change.  The dullards will say what is wrong is right and right is wrong.  People will die while the media dances.  The dance is to convince us to ignore the truth, to offer solutions to problems that do not exist, while that which kills us creeps and spreads.

Political machinations contrived to control others by those who lack the wherewithal to control themselves.  Deceptions bought and sold, masters of illusion spinning webs of self-delusion.  Those who would rather lie than speak the truth inevitably lie most to themselves.  What was once frustration has grown the wings of desperation.  The Sun will rise to reveal the carnage.

The absence of Truth,

The absence of Trust,

The absence of Restraint,

The absence of Foresight,

The absence of Insight,

The absence of Creation,

The presence of Violence,

The presence of Ignorance,

The presence of Arrogance,

The presence of Denial –

– these are the Commandments of a sick and dying people, written on the crumbling stone that used to be their hearts.

Death is feared; Life is feared all the more.  The line will bruise the Circle.

Things do not exist in isolation.  Not humans, not animals, not plants nor waters nor rocks, not capitalism, not socialism, neither philosophies nor religions.  What happens to the People happens to All.  Your dream as you know it may soon become a nightmare.  Techno-junkies without a fix, slaves betrayed by their ignorance.  Variegated and shadowy, the Death of Hope is near.

Greatness shackled, endeavor blinded, a great hope corrupted and defiled, changed from plowshare into bludgeon.  Warriors overrun by mindless, thoughtless, soulless soldiers “just following orders.”  There is motion without progress, becoming stillness, becoming Death, fair evidence of this generation’s plague.  Winds blowing that which long ago stopped being air.  Do you give sanction to your murderer, or do you say “NO!” and dare to make a stand?

This is not the raging of a spiteful God.  This is Chaos bringing Order.

©Billy Red Horse

Go With The Flow?

Picture this –

You find yourSelf in a bucolic countryside, a fantastical setting that is a cross between Tolkien’s Middle-earth and something akin to Dahl’s Willy Wonka world. Standing there, you know there is a place you must visit which is quite a few steps to the South. Setting off, you walk for only a short Time when you encounter a meandering ribbon of water, one too large to be a stream but not quite substantial enough to be a river. Your eyes trace the course of the running water and see that, far off in the distance, this deep blue being empties into a lake which is situated right next to your ultimate destination. If only you had a boat or skiff which would allow for a leisurely yet temporally abbreviated journey…

Now, lest it be so quickly forgotten, this setting IS fantastical as previously described! No sooner does the thought of waterborne conveyance arise than an enormous and variegated leaf, one as big as a man and sturdy as any raft, floats into view and comes to a stop right next to where you stand. Though the invitation and implication are obvious, you nonetheless gingerly test the capacity of the leaf to safely transport you and (not surprisingly) find it more than equal to the task. Stepping aboard, you sit carefully as the leaf is drawn once again into the subdued but persistent current.

The sun is warm on your skin, the delicate scent of aromatic flowers enchants and makes for a soothing state of calm and comfort. Lying back on the leaf, you let the fingertips of one of your hands glide along the surface of the water. Looking up into a cloudless sky, your lids soon grow heavy and you are transported into that magical space between waking and dreaming. Even in your state of delicious repose you reckon you should arrive at your destination in less than half the Time it would have taken had you continued on foot. How fortunate! How delightful!

Though whimsical visions come and go you are still mindful of the movement of the leaf along the water and its wetness that still caresses your fingers.

Yet, something is not right.

Even in such a tranquil state, your perception of Time’s passage is such that you feel long overdue for arrival at the terminus of your journey.

Though the gentle rocking and bobbing of the leaf conspires to assure you that all is well, you finally manage to open your eyes and recognize immediately that, while you are indeed moving, the leaf long ago drifted off course and found its way into a rather substantial eddy where you have been circling endlessly for hours.

The End.

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The moral of the story? –

Just because you are moving doesn’t mean you are actually going somewhere.

©Billy Red Horse