Spiritual Warfare: The Antichrist

our lady of civitavecchia

This photo of a statue of Mary is located in Civitavecchia, Italy, a small suburb of Rome. On 13 separate occasions in 1985 the statue purportedly shed tears of blood.

Since her apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, Mary has warned visionaries in various parts of the world of a great upheaval that will happen in their lifetimes. Specifically at Civitavecchia, she warned of a, “Satanic onslaughts against the family, apostasy within the Church, and the risk of a world war.”

The theme of this 3-part series is “Spiritual Warfare.” Each of us experience this particular phenomenon in our psyches today because we’re all part of the one, undivided Universal Consciousness. Universal Consciousness can be described in both scientific and spiritual terms such as the electromagnetic spectrum, quantum entanglement, panpsychism, the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness. The Antichrist is the spiritual leader of the latter. He is Mary’s archenemy, according to the Christian Book of Revelation (Chapter 12).

wilber consciousness

Chrysalis Tarot is secular spirituality. Were we religious in nature, we would describe ourselves as neopagan, panentheistic and transcendent, the unshakable surety that some-thing higher than ourselves is out there – a Universal Consciousness, if you will. Not only is Universal Consciousness transcendent to our reality (it is wholly other and independent of creation), but Universal Consciousness is also immanent (operating within each of us). This is the point of Chrysalis’ Divine Child archetype. In other words, we each are having a unique, individual human experience of Universal Consciousness.

The more selfless or self-denying we are, the greater our experience of love, joy, peace and the higher vibrations. The more selfish or self-centered we are, the lesser this experience, perhaps even devolving into hate and other lower vibrations, such as fear, anger and pride. Those low vibrations arrest spiritual growth, thus the evolution of consciousness for everyone. The Antichrist is a metaphor for the manifestation of, you guessed it, the intrusion of an militia of low frequency vibrations into the Universal Consciousness, a.k.a. the devil, Satan, Children of Darkness.

In these days, the Children of Light are attempting to evolve our collective human consciousness into a new Age of Enlightenment on Earth. Enlightenment, you see, is the highest vibration that is accessible to humanity, at this time. And not unexpectedly we are suffering heavy diabolical resistance. What’s the source of this resistance? There are several metaphysical explanations. I’ll set forth one below.

powers-of-creation-louis dyer
The Powers of Creation, Louis Dyer

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols – such as Chrysalis Tarot’s artwork and piece like the one above. This motif is created to raise the vibration of the human spirit and remind us of our co-creative responsibilities. The word symbol comes from the Greek symvolos, which means “to unite things.” It’s Greek opposite, diályo, means to ‘disunite” things – to divide or rip them asunder. From the latter, we get the word divolos – the devil and diabolical. Truth unites and lies divide. Symbols bring things together.

Put another way, the aim of the devil in Christian eschatology is to sow division and chaos. We see this all around us today. It is “The Storm” we wrote about in the first blog of this series.

By Biblical inference, the personification of the eschatological Antichrist is whoever sits in the Chair of St. Peter during the End Times. Them’s the rules! If you think we are witnessing wholesale division and chaos today on the streets of Minneapolis, New York, Seattle and other American cities, you wouldn’t believe what’s happening in the Vatican, the definitive cosmic epicenter of spiritual warfare.

 

truth louis dyer
Do You Seek the Truth? Louis Dyer

 

 

© Toney Brooks, 2020

Spiritual Warfare: Apocalypse

These three cards are the road map for this blog’s energy.

Eschatology, a branch of metaphysical theology, is the study of last things in one of several contexts, usu. the Christian “End Times” or “Last Days,” as described in the Biblical Book of Revelation – a book all Christians are familiar with but don’t like to talk about. However, all three monotheistic religions teach their own versions of eschatology. There is also, for example, a Platonic eschatology, a Vedic eschatology and even a Marxist eschatology. Marxism after all is a religious creed that exposits a secular “Heaven on Earth.” We’ll return to that thought.

However, the context of the Last Days we present here is our own – the Metaphysics of Time as described in Chrysalis Tarot. In Chrysalis, the End Times or Last Days refers to ages or eras. We are, in fact, concurrently nearing the astrological end of the Age of Pisces and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. To paraphrase Churchill, “This is not a beginning. It is not even an end. But it is, perhaps, the beginning of an end.”

That’s not as bad as it sounds; the world doesn’t end, it carries on. But what kind of a world will it be? Frankly, that’s the wrong question. The right question is, “What choices will we make today that will define the new world?

ariadne
Anonymous, attributed to the Master of Cassoni Campana, c. 1525.

The artwork above is titled, “Theseus and the Minotaur.” While Theseus battles the minotaur in the center of the labyrinth, Ariadne and her sister, Phaedra, patiently await the outcome. For our purposes, in this painting we recast Phaedra (L) as Bella Rosa – one of the 3 cards on the blog’s banner.

In Spiritual eschatology, Armageddon represents the battle between Good and Evil, as we noted in our previous spiritual warfare blog. Humanity, led by God along with his prophets and saints, will establish the new world – the Age of Aquarius. Indeed, the Bible prophesizes this victory of good over evil. In secular eschatology, as taught by Karl Marx, only a violent, worldwide revolution by the oppressed proletariat led by a vanguard of secular saints (political bigwigs) can usher in a new age. Marx’s ragtag troops have already taken to the streets while the sophisticated opposition looks on dumbfoundedly and fiddles away like Nero (as of June 2020).

this-present-darkness-nancy-raborn
This Present Darkness by Nancy Raborn

Ariadne’s labyrinth is a powerful symbol for these confusing times. The difficult journey leading to its center symbolizes self-discovery and discernment and will determine which camp you eventually join. The even more difficult route back out symbolizes your spiritual journey to enlightenment and the battle itself.

Ariadne’s Thread, which helped Theseus retrace his own steps after overcoming the minotaur (his shadow self), symbolizes Divine Assistance. Ariadne is the Guardian of the Gates of Time and your spiritual director/captain. Without her assistance, it won’t be easy sorting out the twisting, turning false exits of the labyrinth. It’s easy to get stuck on a spiritual threshold.

The journey in and out of the labyrinth is analogous to the integration of your Shadow archetype, as we explain below.

Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock suggests one reason why it might seem society is being ripped apart at the seams. He predicted that rapid change, mostly technological, and psychological distress would lead to an inability to cope that he termed future shock.

The Chrysalis card La Bella Rosa symbolizes what’s happening on the spiritual front. “The Jungian concept of Shadow describes a cluster of impulses, complexes, shameful and unacknowledged desires, self‐indulgences and being a slave to one’s own primitive instincts.” ~ Inna Semetsky, PhD, Tarot Discontents – Past, Present and Future, 2009.

jung-shadow-blake-demonic-dynamism-750x462

Then there’s this passage from the Chrysalis Companion book: “Once the shadow is integrated, we will automatically stop projecting its dark side onto other people, since there’s no longer a valid reason to deny its existence. Bella’s red rose symbolizes self-acceptance. Her mirror symbolizes introspection—the shining light that exposes the shadow’s favorite hiding places [in your psyche].”

In other words, those spiritual pilgrims/combatants who finally stopped playing the blame game have accepted personal responsibility for their own lives. Conversely, those who continue unceasingly to play the blame game – along with many of the sympathizers enabling them – are Cultural Marxists intent on violent revolution as their only means of effecting real change. Like all Marxists, they are hardcore dogmatic materialists. Accordingly, preaching spirituality and self-awareness to them is rather pointless. Many of the enablers, however, are simply naïve or complacent in just being “woke.” Again, there is a huge difference, even a dichotomy, between the woke and the Awakened.

In any event, what we are witnessing right now evinces a spiritually sick and depraved society. Both the Marxists and the Spiritually Enlightened can agree on this point: There must be darkness before the dawn, as symbolized by the third card on our banner – Kali.

 

creation
Detail, Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo

 

© Toney Brooks, 2020

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Warfare: The Storm

 

This 3-card spread symbolizes the alchemical energy written into this blog.

Herne the Hunter spoke:

“There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope; the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.”

This quote from the fictional Book of G’Quan is a rendering of St. Paul’s warning to the Ephesians about the “powers that dominate the world of darkness.” Both G’Quan’s words and Paul’s converge to make an important point: spiritual warfare is waged on an Earthly battlefield. It is therefore best talked about using the language of human emotions, e.g. hate and fear, love and hope, good and evil, light and dark. Spiritual warfare writ large is always waged between groups of human combatants, as influenced by their own angels and demons, as we shall see.

i am the storm

What is “the storm?” The storm is pure chaos – the absence of order. And the storm is upon us.

Spiritual people are already familiar with this storm, for every awakened or enlightened individual has experienced a storm within themselves and to some degree overcame it. But there’s always yet another hill to climb. They have experienced backsliding and recovery (falling down and then getting back up) that eventually led them to even greater knowledge and self-awareness – the measuring sticks of spiritual growth.

I hasten to note that the armies of the awakened – the Children of Light – are those whose lives have not been given over to the dark chaotic powers. The Children of Light wear the true “breastplates of righteousness.” Maximum Wokeness, as touted today, defines an angry, ego-dependent affliction that seeks to impose commonly held opinions, values and beliefs on everyone else. Maximum Wokeness is spiritual self-awareness drowning in chains of pride, delusion and group think. The ideology of Wokeness is the antithesis of Awakened.

There is an oft-quoted aphorism from The Emerald Tablet: “As above, so below.” The Emerald Tablet is part of the Hermetica, an ancient and revered document about magic. The quote points to the interconnectedness of all things, particularly between the sacred and profane; Heaven and Earth, angels and demons. But this interconnectedness is interactive and reciprocal; it is equally correct to say, “As  below, so above.” In fact, the original Hermetic passage underscores this balance. Each dimension, “above and below,” is a dynamic (ever changing) reflection of the other. As human consciousness evolves, human history is recorded. Order proceeds from chaos (Genesis).

as-above-so-below-slide

The chaos we experience today in America and throughout the developed world are the birth pangs of a new paradigm. In our Chrysalis companion book, we mentioned a new paradigm a dozen or more times; it shone like a beacon on the distant horizon when we designed the Chrysalis architecture 10 years ago. What does this new paradigm look like? That will be the focus of our next blog featuring Ariadne, the Celtic Goddess of the Gates of Time. However, I tell you now that the new paradigm does not look like downtown Seattle. It does not celebrate anarchy and lawlessness. It does not invoke a Marxist revolution or some New World Order obsessed with “correct speech and correct thought.” Nope, not even close.

Tarot is a tool for spiritual formation and trans-formation. Chrysalis Tarot’s schema was built upon the foundations of an ever evolving connection between our world and the Otherworld. The “otherworld,” as Chrysalis calls it, goes by many names: the Akashic Field, Zero Point Energy, the Vacuum, the Aether and, yes, Heaven. Succinctly and scientifically put, the Otherworld is a quantized system comprised of generative nodes of electromagnet energy/information in a constant feedback loop with individual human consciousness and its Collective Unconscious, a Jungian term. It is a hierarchical system with a superior node that we call God.

resonance
Photo courtesy of the Resonance Science Foundation

This is science, not science fiction, as detailed in this article.

“You are the surface on which the universe encodes information… you give the universe the surface to grow and learn.” – Nassim Haramein

 

endless_knot

 

© Toney Brooks, 2020

 

 

Chrysalis – A Deck For White Witches

white witch bear.michelle tolo
The White Bear Valemon by Michelle Tolo for Deviant Art.

The White Bear Valemon is a Norwegian fairy tale along the lines of Cinderella. Bear medicine symbolizes the restoration of balance, which is this blog’s theme. Valemon and the White Witch he shoulders should be regarded here as one Being. You might say the white bear is the white witch’s daemon or spirit animal, for like the bear, the white witch herself is about balance, healing and “A Witch’s Choice.” More about the choice later.

A spiritual journey often begins with an impulse mistakenly thought to have originated from within our own mind. It did not. This impulse, like an unexpected flash of knowing you dare not doubt, hails from beyond this reality – the only reality our 5 objective senses can empirically know. But don’t we have 21 senses?!

C01I won’t go into all 21 here; you can easily Google the topic. But the sense that is routinely inspired by flashes from beyond is called our Sixth Sense. In Chrysalis we know it as the Third Eye – the Eye of Horus. The Third Eye is featured prominently on the Magician card (left).

Predictably, the Third Eye is also known as the Sixth Chakra. If that chakra is gummed up with, say, fear or hate or other negative emotions, then its ability to contribute to your spiritual growth is severely impaired. In fact, it’s arrested.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you are in a bookshop and are suddenly inspired to pick up Chrysalis Tarot. Chrysalis metaphysics holds that the inspiration came from beyond – from your Higher Self – and that in most instances you should stick with it, as hard as that might be at times. Trust your instinct.

Recall that the Chrysalis schema is different because of its many structural divergences from traditional tarot. For example, Chrysalis is based on the scientific concept of nonlocality; of quantum entanglement; of the connectivity of all things. We, along with many other metaphysicians, believe that consciousness is nonlocal – it’s everywhere and present in all things (panpsychism). Nonlocal consciousness attenuates the 5 additional senses we’re all somewhat familiar with: clairaudience (auditory perception), clairvoyance (psychic perception), mental telepathy (perception of thoughts), premonition (perception of the future) and precognition (ESP/dreams).

The Journey of The White Witch is the Red Pill journey to truth and understanding and to activating these 5 additional senses as defined by a field of study known as anomalistic psychology. But it’s not always smooth sailing for the White Witch and the Great Healer, as the bear is called in many shamanic cultures. The spiritual journey always encounters obstacles.

brujo
Brujo by Dark Natasha

Let’s say that after responding to that initial inspiration to pick up Chrysalis – or any spiritual modality for that matter – the ego fabricates second thoughts and doubts, commonly called “buyer’s remorse.” Well, that’s easily explained and quite normal; the ego is feeling threatened.

Sowing doubts in your mind are among the Black Witch’s various ways of creating imbalance. She’s the witch of selfness, pride and ego who’s now attempting to thwart your spiritual progress. Your journey has begun in earnest; you have met your adversary – your own ego. Shall you retreat into ego-driven hate, fear and self-centered defensiveness, or shall you embrace the healing power of white magic?

(A Bruja or Brujo is Spanish for witch, usu. a dark or low magic witch keen on hexes and charms.)

Which witch do you want to be?

N.B. At Chrysalis we are primarily concerned with spiritual growth. For this reason, we took down our previous blog on aliens that some thought controversial. While I take mild issue with that assessment, in these days of “correct speech and thought” – the Nazis termed the concept “thought alignment” – I wished to affirm inclusiveness. I believe an author’s body of work should be judged solely on its own merit aside from other considerations, lest we indulge what is commonly called bigotry — “intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself.”

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One parting thought. In 1933 the Nazi’s sanctioned a “Säuberung” – a cleansing by fire to purge books that espoused ideologies opposed to Nazism. Among authors blacklisted whose books were burned were Kafka, Einstein and Freud, et al. I’ve quoted Kafka previously on these pages when referencing Herne the Hunter: “A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.”

Herne presents in Chrysalis Tarot as an archetypal White Witch, archenemy of the frozen egoic mind. Herne is the Chrysalis Master of Transformation and the subject of our next blog.

© Toney Brooks, 2020                       6 chakra

book burning
Berlin – May 1933 (Photo courtesy of the Holocaust Museum)