My body is strong, my mind is sound, my soul is fierce, yet quiet. I am slow to anger and swift to action. I am just, and I countenance no evil.
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Archetypes are recurrent symbols that offer spiritual advice to men and women as we travel the journey of life. This is the second in a 12-part series, in which this ancient wisdom is made relevant both to ecumenical (book) religions and to the non-spiritual as well through real life examples and everyday application.
While I highly encourage a spiritual path, as it feeds the soul, this wisdom will resonate regardless because it is within our bones and sinew as men. Twelve is a very significant number in spiritual circles. There are 12 months, 12 signs of the Zodiac, Jesus had 12 disciples, 12 indicates a complete cycle.
As we complete our cycle through the archetypes, we will experience the ancient wisdom offered to us around manhood. Whether you are gay, straight, bi, curious, confused, trans, married, unattached, looking, or fearful, this wisdom has the power to meet you where you are and help you experience the slice of divine that is you, as a man.
The Warrior Speaks
My body is strong, my mind is sound, my soul is fierce, yet quiet. I am slow to anger and swift to action. I am just, and I countenance no evil.
While the most obvious action the Warrior takes is to fight, often his discernment is key to the marriage of right action and strength.
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This familiar and powerful archetype, exemplified in such areas as military and law enforcement, has much to offer us in terms of fighting, protection, honor, and strength, but also in the preparation and training required to feed and care for mind, body, and soul.
While the most obvious action the Warrior takes is to fight, often his discernment is key to the marriage of right action and strength. A wise Warrior picks his battles carefully. The Warrior also teaches us that we all have something to fight and something to fight for in our lives.
Those who exemplify this archetype exhibit an ability to quickly decide between right and wrong. This archetype is a loyal defender for his cause and of those who are weaker or in a vulnerable position. Right action is important, as is as a deep-seated belief in his own authority or the authority that he finds himself under. A betrayal by superiors is a great wound.
Discernment
The Warrior is an archetype many men are very comfortable embodying and talking about. It implies everything our society likes about men: strength, stability, fighting prowess, power, respect, virility, and desire. On the flipside is the Warrior’s discernment– his ability to defend and his ability not to use his power. That part is more difficult for our society’s conceptions of the Warrior to accept. It is easier to pick up the gun, shoot and ask questions later. A Warrior showing discernment does not make for very exciting war films. But one of the core parts of the Warrior is discernment.
Take any personal situation as an example. Someone has done something you do not like or even is patently wrong. You might shout, scream, and “raise Cain”, but is that the right action? Is it better to use discernment, calm your own energies, and then re-approach the situation? This brings us to the first part of a Warrior’s preparation: The Mental Game.
Mental Game
The wise Warrior knows that he speaks his own reality into existence. If your mental game is dominated by thoughts of loss, scarcity, or failure, your powerful mind will make that a reality.
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Any soldier or athlete will tell you that success and winning is primarily mental. If your head is not in the right place, you have lost before you have even arrived at the field of battle, whatever that field of battle may be. From the bedroom to the boardroom and everywhere in between, you must control your thoughts about the situation. Having the right attitude is key and can help you conquer anything.
If you are asking for a promotion, having a right mindset of value of your work will project an energy that will affect your boss’ perception of your value to the company. If you own your own business, this precept is even more important because when your head is right about your business, your business prospers. The wise Warrior knows that he speaks his own reality into existence. If your mental game is dominated by thoughts of loss, scarcity, or failure, your powerful mind will make that a reality.
You know that easy confidence that people seem to find so attractive? It is evidence of a strong mental game. No football player walks onto the field thinking about how he will lose. He thinks about how they are going to win and succeed to rack up that mark in the win column.
Improving your mental game isn’t always easy, but visualization in your daily meditation or spiritual practice can help. Visualize what you are doing—how it will look, feel, even smell. For example, if you are getting ready for a big presentation, do your actual preparation and then in your daily quiet time think about how successful you are at that presentation. How does the room look, feel, and smell? Imagine you saying the words flawlessly and visualize your audience receiving your information in a positive way that works in your favor. An old salesman joke goes like this: “The customer has already bought the item, I just have to go through the motions to receive the money.”
Strength
The second part of the Warrior’s preparation is strength. After all, what good would a Warrior be without learning about the strength of his body, mind, and soul?
At a very practical level, if you spend your time and energy solving every problem and eliminating every ill, most of which are not yours to solve, then you will not have the strength, time, energy, or stamina for what really matters.
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The great secret of strength is something most people don’t associate with it: restraint. In order to wield strength, one must have restraint. What you do not do is as powerful as what you do. What is power? Power is the ability to cause something to happen that would not ordinarily occur of its own accord. When working in harmony and collaboration, power is amplified. Without harmony and collaboration, power is a violation of personal sovereignty, a principle that concerns this archetype in terms of right action. A Warrior does not violate someone’s sovereignty unless that individual is harming others. When the Warrior does violate sovereignty, he uses his tremendous strength in a way that is mindful of the other person as well as in a discerning manner so as not to “overkill the situation.”
At a very practical level, if you spend your time and energy solving every problem and eliminating every ill, most of which are not yours to solve, then you will not have the strength, time, energy, or stamina for what really matters. Think about your partner in this instance. If you solve every problem, how does that help other than to make you tired and unavailable for love? Look at the situation this way: “How can I enable my partner to solve this for themselves?” That is true and helpful strength. The wise Warrior does what he is responsible for—no more and certainly no less.
The wise Warrior also knows how to work towards his strength and compensates for his weakness, which he knows full well. That is one of the reasons he surrounds himself with other quality people, often with strengths other than his own. What would Seal Team Six be without all its members?
Love
When the Warrior is in love, he is fully committed to what love is. Love is:
- vulnerable
- gentle
- trusting
- intimate
When the Warrior is done battling society, he needs to be able to come home and balance out the defensive nature that is often required in the world and experience a place where he can trust that he is safe and that his guards can come down.
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Don’t just give your partner your body. Give your mind and your soul. If you read The Lover archetype, you will understand that love is expressive. A Warrior uses his whole heart in all that he does. Partial commitment does not satisfy him. That would be like only walking half way into a battlefield. You won’t meet the enemy on favorable terms that. Love is similar. Love is something the Warrior invests himself in fully.
It can be hard to put down the sword and embrace trusting intimacy, but it essential to the balance of life. When the Warrior is done battling society, he needs to be able to come home and balance out the defensive nature that is often required in the world and experience a place where he can trust that he is safe and that his guards can come down. Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean that you must have a partner at home. Even if you are currently not in a partnership with anyone, you can still create a comfortable place at home where you can let it all hang out, pop open your favorite drink, and relax. Love begins within, and when it is plentiful within, it can be expressed around the Warrior.
The Warrior With His Partner
They say, love is not enough. When the Warrior is with his partner, he gets to experience the ecstasy of intimacy as well as the vulnerability that comes with intimacy. The Warrior can be possessive, overbearing, and even jealous. The Warrior must combat these feelings because of the damage that those feelings can cause to the relationship. The wise Warrior remembers that his partner is just that: a partner. Like his battle buddies, in order for them to do their job and be themselves, he must give them space. His partner at home needs the same space.
The Warrior With His Children
The Warrior’s relations to his children can be some of the most difficult and unnerving. Children are a different sphere than some Warriors might be used to. Many men will want to pound any threat to their children into the ground, and while that may be incredibly gratifying, as well as strike fear into hearts of the other children, the wise Warrior teaches his children to defend themselves. He enables his children to come to their own defense, with his strength (see above) as backup in case of real emergency.
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The Warrior creates a space for others to be successful around him, uses discernment in the application of his energies, and leverages his strengths in order to truly be the wise Warrior and have personal success. Where does the Warrior exist inside you?
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Image credit: RedCraig/flickr