Satan, The Minotaur, and a Very Inconvenient Truth
by Peter Farley www.4truthseekers.org

As someone in another group commented after reading my article on the
war against the people, "it's inconvenient to live outside the
Matrix!' Well duhhhhh!

It is and has always been difficult to live one's own teachings, to
stand up against opposition and to speak one's truth no matter who or
what rises up to stand against you and beat you back down.

Religions and spiritual paths therefore have always added this
measure of opposition to their training programs simply to do just
this -- to 'test' and strengthen the new initiate to make sure that
he can practice his learning in the face of real or seeming
opposition.

For the Essenes and Nazarites (the sects to which Jesus belonged)
there was Satan -- the accuser, what we these days would call the
devil's advocate. A member of the sect would take on this role of the
darkside to 'test the metal of the new initiate' by playing the
adversarial role.

In the mystery schools of ancient Crete there was a darkened
labyrinth in which the fearsome Minotaur roamed (half-man, half
beast) making fierce sounds that would curdle the blood of the new
initiate who was forced to walk the labyrinth blindfolded. Little did
they know again it was just another initiate dressed with the head of
a bull and making those sounds. Still it served its purpose to
again 'test the metal' of the newly trained students and to scare off
those whose metal had not been hardened enough to face the real
battles waiting for them.

On a PBS radio show yesterday there was a soldier speaking of how he
never in his head translated the targets he shot at in boot camp into
the real living beings he would be shooting at in Iraq. Well duhhhh!

War is hell, whether it be physical war of the spiritual war we have
come here to fight. And yes there are many on the opposition here to
keep us down or to scare us off from fighting all together.

Never more has their been such fierce adversaries to anyone speaking
the truth than these days when the darkside can and will use anyone
not on your side to make you sit down and shut the hell up. Again,
this is the idea that ANYONE can turn into Mr. Smith in the Matrix
series of movies and be used against those struggling to free others
from their prisons.

It's very, very difficult and very, very inconvenient when your
spiritual 'test' involves your wife, your husband, your kids, your
loved ones, your 'friends' and/or your peers. When it involves others
gossiping or sending nasty e-mails it should be easy to ignore and
keep walking forward, but it's surprising as I've said many, many
times before how many people lift their heads above the trench walls
and at the first sound of a shot being fired in their direction sit
back down and shut up.

Spirituality isn't spirituality UNLESS you can do it in the face of
difficult circumstances. That is the difference between spiritual
warriors and those who spend their days sitting around in chats and
groups talking nice loving words of fluff rather than out there doing
and, yes, being shot at for speaking their truths or performing
those acts that will help save Creation.

It's always a choice, but one last time the understanding should now
have become a reality in our lives for we've all been there many,
many times before through many, many lifetimes as the saying
suggests - a hero dies but once, a coward dies a thousand times.

Make this the one time you choose to get up and serve, the time that
really counts -- and not by giving what you think is needed, but by
giving that which Spirit demands you give in this lifetime --
everything.

2007-08-13