The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Chapter One, Initial Estimations

[kimberlysteele]

A few Tuesdays ago, I felt the call to study the Art of War. Unbeknownst to me, Dreamwidth bloggers Violet Cabra and Read Old Things had already felt the same urge. As most of you can sense, there are some big changes happening in the astral plane right now. I believe that the urge to study Sun Tzu's Art of War is part of that. Though I cannot speak for my fellow Ecosophians, I believe I got the transmission from Ares himself or one of his messengers. I have prayed to Ares before to understand and begin to resolve issues in my personal karma.

Ares, at least as far as I can tell, controls the discharge and accumulation of the harshest forms of karma. He is a fair god: he gives us plenty of opportunities to deal with our karma outside of violence, but because we are human, it's unfortunately rare for us to discharge our karma via the higher road of being willing to face it and deal with it upfront. Instead, we tend to put it off, place blame, and make it someone else's problem until it comes flying back in our faces in the form of a war, a natural disaster, or a more personal form of misfortune.

This series will have an overarching theme about dealing with bad karma as it comes, preventing it wherever possible. I will be doing these posts in the place of the normal post that occurs Mondays or Wednesdays on the third Tuesday of each month until the book is complete. Like John Michael Greer's book club, I'll field new comments for the month of the post until the new post arrives.

Thanks for joining me in this discussion. I know I probably don't need to ask, but I have a no-profanity policy on all of my posts. Thanks for your understanding.

Sun Tzu opens the first chapter with:

"Warfare is the greatest affair of the State, the basis of life and death, the Way (Tao) to survival or extinction. It must be thoroughly pondered and analyzed."

Life Is A Battlefield

This is to say that life itself is a constant war. We live on the material plane. It is NASTY here. The meat plane is a battlefield in every single way. Nevertheless, even in more subtle planes of imagination (astral) and the spirit, there are always forces fighting against others, pushing and pulling, struggling against limits presented by the Universe itself and of each other. That's just our world. What Sun Tzu is saying is that you have a choice: you can sit idly by and refuse to contemplate the Eternal Fight -- however, that way lies extinction.

Warfare is the greatest affair of the State can also be interpreted in the most direct sense. A country is made or broken by its attitude towards war. That's why the US's terminally frivolous, imperialistic, denialist approach to the occupation of other countries is breaking the US. Such a strategy can only work for so long: compare the revered soldiers of World War I and II to the reviled, disposable soldiers of Vietnam. Investment in previous failures has not been thoroughly pondered and analyzed enough for the US to sensibly back down from Empire and wars for cheaply available petroleum. The guilty parties who will be on the receiving end from the cavalcade of bad decisions in the form of mass karma include me, a person who drives a car every day as an act of continuing Sartrean bad faith.

Friends, Enemies, Frenemies

Denial of war does not make it any less real or pertinent. To analyze war, you must ask yourself: "Who is my enemy and why am I fighting them?"

For me, the enemy is my former friends and the people I grew up with who still dwell in the gilded cage of the upper middle class I fell from approximately a decade ago. They are in denial that they are racists who accuse people of lower classes (and these days, anyone who disagrees with them) of being racist so they can continue to believe in their own virtuousness. They are the mainstream media dog whistlers who co-sign shutdowns and riots that collapsed the world economy. They are the obedient, brainwashed maskturbators who decided nobody who worked in the arts was "essential" enough to continue to make an honest living.

My enemy is the clueless drug dealer in my neighborhood who could get me shot at any time because of the drugs he moves across competing drug-dealer's neighborhoods.

My enemy is the government official who wants to raise my taxes and take away my rights. My enemy is the Federal Reserve, a private bank that exists in order to enslave me and everyone I love.

My enemy is my former self, a person who put very bad patterns into play that I've had to back out of and make amends for in my current path towards being a better self.

Picking Your Battles

There are five types of questions that we are instructed to ask of ourselves and of our side before going into battle.  Knowing the answers to these questions guarantees victory... and that's the catch.  It would take a god to know all of the answers to the questions.  Nevertheless, we are told to ask them, and there are five main aspects we should ask about.

The first question, "Who has the Tao?"  relates to the specific world you occupy.  Sun Tzu says that "the Tao causes people to be fully in accord with the ruler."  This is the idea of going in the direction of the wind rather than against it.  As much as American culture loves the trope of the fearless rebel who saves the Lost Ark from the Nazis with nary a scratch for his efforts, it's much easier to work with the nature of one's time and place in the world.  The Tao is your overall environment, most of which you can do nothing about.  As an example, I once threw everything I had at acquiring a live-work situation where I would teach lessons in a commercial space and live above the space in an apartment.  Because of the anti-pragmatic spirit of the times and the particular part of the map where I have settled, suburban Chicagoland, this arrangement quickly proved to be impossible on my modest lower middle class budget.  The zeitgeist of the times was against me six years ago when I tried to obtain grants from fast-talking development council grifters and real estate shady ladies in search of big commissions.  My Lost Ark: the suburban arrangement "without a future" in the scathing words of James Howard Kunstler, was not to be recovered from the SS, at least not by me personally, at any rate.  All's well that ends well: I live in a modest house that isn't ideal for hosting music lessons, though one day I may teach out of it yet out of necessity.  

The Karate Kim

The second and third questions, those of generals, Heaven, and Earth, has to do with limits.  Who is better at working with limits, you or your enemy?  This question alludes to the art of choosing your battles wisely.  When I was a child, I took karate classes in hopes of managing the inappropriate amount of anger I had towards other human beings despite my soft, plush suburban upbringing.  Though karate helped me to be in peak physical condition as a youngster, it absolutely was not meant for me and I think it was more damaging than helpful.  I went into my first tournament thinking that I could kick butt.  I was paired to fight with a chunky girl of my own age who, at twice my physical size, beat me into the ground, causing me bruises and more anger than I started with.  The limits of my anger were quickly realized: all bark and no bite, no trophy, no resolution until the novels I would write many, many years later in order to exorcise the demons of past lives.  

Discipline, Political Correctness, and Slimebaggery

The fourth question, "Whose laws and orders are more thoroughly implemented?" is a question of discipline.  A sloppy army, perchance one that lowers its physical requirement of pull-ups from 30 to 3 in order to appease the self-appointed tyrants of political gender correctness such as the US Marine Corp (they're lowering the requirements for men because women cannot physically measure up), will have no chance against the modern equivalent of Sparta.  For us non-soldiers, we have to ask which path we're traveling -- the Left Hand Path, the Right Hand Path, or the Middle Way of bouncing around until we evolve at the glacial pace nature designed for us.  The Left Hand Path hopes to cheat natural law, to gain ground by stomping others into the morass, to invoke the heady powers of sleaziness and degradation in a frenzy of self-lathering adulation.  The Right Hand Path demands recognition of natural law and adherence to strict codes of live and let live; that is, no cheating and attempting to cajole others to force your own solipsistic will on the Universe.  The Middle Way, the most common approach, is the bumbling Way of the Iceberg, reacting and not acting unless pressed upon pain of death.  Arguably, the Chinese Communist Party, with its Left Hand Path wargames of international demoralization, mass enslavement, and other slimebaggery, is headed for history's dustbin of overwrought empires right along the US... eventually.  In the short run, however, he with the most disciplined team wins, as can be proven at any kid's sports championship near you.

The Jewish Woman Who Was Like Donald Trump

When asking yourself "Whose forces are stronger?", it's another way of asking "What are my weaknesses?"  This means we have to be honest about the shadows we are projecting, lest we end up going into battle with the enemy who is actually not the enemy but a shadow projection of our worst selves; a mirage.  Of course I'm going to bring up the Left, those ardent love-haters of the projected Shadow.  I once used to pal around with a vegan who loves to hate Donald Trump.  She would be horrified of my analysis of how much she is like Donald Trump.  Like him, she is extremely crass, American, and loud.  Many of her so-called achievements have more to do with being born to wealthy parents than her own natural talents or hard work.  Like Donald Trump, she is overweight and aging.  She too likes to act as judge, jury, and executioner when someone says something she doesn't like, lashing out with vile ad hominems that have no place in civilized argument.  No wonder she loves to obsess about Donald Trump -- what would she do without such a convenient straw man to target in place of working on herself?

When we ask ourselves, "Whose forces and troops are better trained?" This asks if we truly have allies in intimate places, and if so, are they prepared for what could be thrown at them for being associated with the likes of us?  For instance, there is a whole crowd of people I do not envy, and that is the crowd of parents with young children.  As someone who works with children, from my vantage point, there are few children escaping unscathed from the year plus of semi-school and mask theater we've all been forced to take sides in.  The kids being raised by double-masking parents ought to be able to sue someday for irreparable damage due to child abuse.  Such children, upon adulthood, will have been trained to fear life itself.  I cannot see it ending well for them.

Good Business Practices

Lastly, there is the idea of clarity of punishment and reward.  My husband has had quite a few jobs in the last dozen or so years.  Most of them have featured the usual bumbling, inept business heads that make the American workplace an infamous cesspool of misery as portrayed in the film The Office.  One place, however, had a great policy left over from its glory days of fair corporate practices, and that was of rewarding employees with good attendance with paid time off and punishing employees who showed up late without calling or otherwise notifying management with immediate termination.  My husband, steadfast and punctual, racked up paid time off which he happily used to do projects around our house.  

Sun Tzu all but guarantees our success if we take into account every factor mentioned above.  Me?  I don't think so, but thinking it through is worth a shot.  

The Lies of War

His next advice to us concerns warfare as a Way (Tao) of deception.  This is classic poker -- don't show anyone your cards.  My mom is the classical embodiment of Midwestern Nice.  This is because she actually is extremely nice, but it is also because Midwesterners are not raised to wear their hearts on their sleeves.  Midwestern Nice is the ultimate poker face: you don't tell someone how you actually feel when they ask, "Hi, how are you?"  That would be against the rules.  You are supposed to say "Fine, how are you?" and suss out the undercurrents of what's really going on from their body language and subjects they do and do not cover.   

A Point of Contention and of Agreement

Sun Tzu suggests creating disorder in one's enemy's forces in order to take them and perturb them when they are angry.  Here is where I diverge from Sun Tzu.  If you truly hate your enemy, and I truly hate mine, you will hate them enough to ignore them.  You won't have time or interest in creating disorder in their forces because you'll be too busy creating a thrust block in order to push yourself far above them.  I hate the maskturbators, but instead of trying to create disorder in their ranks by yelling at them in grocery stores, I go to the grocery stores that don't force me to diaper my face for luxury communism.  I go around them.  

Sun Tzu then suggests if they are rested, to force them to exert themselves.  I agree here, and so does Donald Trump, who often used his Twitter feed or other publicity to force the Left to spend all of its energy in predictable outrage while he quietly passed laws or made deals that helped the lower and middle class workers of the US.  As I predicted, Donald Trump now rules from the sidelines as the Left hangs itself with the rope it cheated to acquire.  

In Conclusion

As for attacking when the other side's troops are unprepared, I think of my garden, which is much easier to till in the early spring than any other time of year.  After the harsh March ice (we had a mini-snowstorm today, good times) and pounding April rains, the soil is just loose enough to get seeds in.  Any later and I will be battling weeds, hardness, and dry Illinois clay.  I "attack" before my enemies (really my frenemies, because I love weeds) get their foothold on my garden, and then I mulch so my plants of choice have a chance at becoming fully grown.  

Sun Tzu then suggests we retire to the ancestral temple to determine whether or not we will be victorious... I think this is his way of saying Meditate On It!

 

 

Comments

Infrastructure

[cs2]

Current Americans are in a double-bind because they or recent generations have torn down infrastructure that made sense and replaced it with something that cannot hold.

My father is from a small town in flyover America that, even with a population of a few thousand, had little trolleys running everywhere. My grandmother has shown me the tracks. It was par for the course that local small business owners (such as yourself) might live above their shop. People took the trolleys or walked, and horse carriages were still welcome on the town's streets well into the twentieth century. Farmers were the only ones who needed vehicles, hauling cows and horses and such.

It is also in this tiny town that I witnessed America's greatness even as late as the 90s. Their central business district had tailors, shoemakers, watchmakers, carpenters, furniture makers, printers and book-binders. These were oldies from the WW2 generation who had inherited the little shops from their parents, who had immigrated to America. During Advent I would get a new outfit made for me and new church shoes.

(Yes, in America. Yes, in the 90s. Yes, before we off-shored any dignified future for our children to slave sweat-shops in China. I'm a Millennial, and people don't believe me when I talk about this.)

Re: Infrastructure

[kimberlysteele]

I hope we can go back to the America you describe! There's a book called Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs by Wendy Brown that offers some hope: it's a very clear, concise set of instructions for converting a regular suburban home into a homestead. Unfortunately, for most suburbanites, there needs to be a great loosening of zoning laws and a complete absence of homeowner's associations to implement Wendy's plans. The city where I live is solidly middle class -- I live in the lower middle class section not far from the decrepit, semi-dangerous downtown area. This has its disadvantages but the advantages far outweigh them. There are grocery stores within walking distance, a restaurant is down the block, and best of all, the country club set has zero interest in living here. So here, we can do as Wendy Brown instructs, farm our yards, and modify our houses to a much greater degree than people in the bedroom suburbs.

That said, I would much rather live above my shop and be able to walk down the street to get my clothing altered and my shoes repaired. The problem with the "every family for themselves" suburban homestead model is that every suburban home is supposed to be a self-sufficient island. I don't have every skill and I don't plan on becoming good at everything it requires to run a happy household. For instance, I don't sew and because I don't have time for anything more than hand-mending, I sold my sewing machine. It was gathering dust. I'd rather go to someone else to alter my clothing.

Our culture as a whole will have to become far less insane for the town you describe to rise again from the ashes. At this point, I see a lot of people who are still far too invested in their McMansion pipe dreams and their compulsive Kohl's shopping trips to get the memo that their lifestyle is unsustainable.

Re: Infrastructure

[(Anonymous)]

I hear you on that. Going full-Amish isn't for everyone. My current neighborhood has one tailor and shoemaker, one cup-maker, plus some book-binders and one typewriter repairman with a general knickknack shop. Several small-time produce grocers and of course bakers. There's even a baker here that does vegan bread and specialty pastries for celiac people. I don't know how they stay in business but they've been there for one generation at least.

Down the street is a table maker, and further off is a more general carpenter work station. People love getting custom bookshelves here, so you don't have to be rich to patronize these craftsmen. (Anything is better than Swedish Walmart, what I call Ikea. I had a bookshelf fall on me back in the States and I'll never forgive them for it.)

The tailor doesn't make stuff I like (they must cater to Boomer Moms because it's weird yoga mumu stuff) but if they're willing to reproduce my favorite shirt, then they have a new customer. (Once things open again.)

I haven't popped into the shoemaker's place because he specializes in men's business shoes with detailed leather-work. So far I've been able to fix my shoes by stitching the canvas back into the rubber, and the new pair I got for Christmas had the leather attached to the cork with literal blanket stitching that so far has held. I can do a blanket stitch!

Now that I've gone spiritual with the DMH, I'm burning through notebooks like crazy, so I buy my journals from a book-binder. There was a cool specialty bindery that did Bibles and dictionaries, but they went under during the first lock-down.

I keep meaning to tell JMG that half the places going out of business are getting filled by gold buy-back stations. I wonder if that is Europe secretly moving in directions JMG has been looking out for. Oops I've traveled off-topic I'll end here.

Re: Infrastructure

[cs2]

This comment was by me! Forgot to log in.

Re: Infrastructure

[kimberlysteele]

I hope that bookbinder makes a comeback someday. My music lesson business has been struggling. It truly does not help that gas prices are beginning to skyrocket. One of the reasons I want to move my commercial space closer to my home once my lease is up is that I may need to walk there! The new space I'm eyeing is about 3 miles away versus the 16 miles I travel by car right now.

Re: Infrastructure

[cs2]

Oh wow, yeah, JMG seems to think there's an oil crisis coming. It seems smart to switch to the 3-mile place if your students can get there. Though to be honest, if you're already having your students drive that close to you, why not just teach them at home? It might be a safety issue having so many people know where you live I guess. Anyway, good luck figuring that out.

In the US I lived for several years in a place that got snowy and icy in the winter. My home-to-work commute was 2.5 miles as the crow flies; I'm not sure the distance in terms of winding bike paths and such.

In the summer it was wonderful on bicycle, but in the winter I needed to leave at least an hour early and make the journey with yak-traks on my boots. Technically a bus covered part of that stretch, but the bus lane wasn't separated from the car lanes, so it would sit in traffic while I would eventually walk right by.

The commute was do-able, though I burned a lot of calories, got super hungry right before work, and needed to sit down for a quick break before standing up to work. On the way home, I'd just take the bus that took forever and meandered quite a bit, but I didn't have a deadline so I could afford to sit and chill, plus a lot of the pedestrian paths weren't lit at night and it got dark early.

Re: Infrastructure

[kimberlysteele]

Thanks! That is precisely what I am up against if I get the new space: a 3 mile hike each way that will only be easy in belle weather. I used to walk to school a mile and a half each way as a kid, plus when I commuted in Chicago I walked the trek from Union Station to Michigan Avenue 2x a day, so walking around in harsh weather is not a new experience for me. That said, I remember what commuting on foot was like in hard weather: exhausting and dangerous. So I have to think of ways I could minimize it or get around it when necessary.

As you probably know, I am starting a subscription library in my Studio space and that's one of the primary reasons I'm moving the Studio closer to my residence. I could take students in my home especially now that I've bought a digital piano.

Re: Infrastructure

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Kimberly,

I would like to start by saying hello to a fellow spoonclanker. I noticed you mentioned Styx awhile back, and today you said 'maskurbator'. That perked me up right away. My anger is similar to yours, and I think it is a general, Gen X anger that stems greatly from watching the collapse of our country for the past 40 years while everyone older than us said we were just being cynical and pessimistic. In 1984, the nation was shocked, shocked! that young people didn't believe that they would get social security. We saw the train leaving the tracks while the elders still thought it was 1955. It's no surprise that Millennials are big fans of socialism. They have no idea that just a few decades earlier, everyone was able to get by on a decent income.

To Kimberly and CS2, I hope my comment makes sense regarding the state of small towns:

I've noticed that all over New England, New York and many other states are these beautiful, old towns that just ache to be reborn. But, as we all know, we can't live there because there are no jobs.

I don't know how to get out of this mess. I think 'walking away' is the only solution. Walking away in this case means not depending on traditional solutions. We can't rebuild these towns by hoping the jobs return, nor can we depend on working remotely (for several reasons.) The political class in the states don't understand that their self-interests have ruined these towns. Vermont is trying to attract businesses, but nobody wants to relocate there because the political class has destroyed the business environment by some of the most onerous taxes in the nation.

I really want to live in a small town, to walk everywhere, say hello to neighbors and not really need a car unless I need to go to a larger town. I think 75% of Americans want that, too. How on earth can it be done?

I've heard of towns along the Hudson where people are moving in, sharing houses to pay the bills and working odd jobs in the hope of rebuilding the town. I'm sure there is a lot of bartering going on. And New Hampshire's Free State Project does a lot with crypto and bartering. Cash is their least favored form of currency, from what I understand. Maybe this is the way to go. This makes sense since a smaller town will have a greater clarity of punishment and reward. Large institutions make it easy to hide your laziness and incompetence in the bureaucracy.

If I didn't have obligations, I'd leave the cesspool of Seattle and move to New Hampshire tomorrow. I pray and pray every day to find a way to move there.

Hopefully these ramblings made sense.

Jon

Re: Infrastructure

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John,

Some of us oldsters DID notice the pending collapse, but nobody listened to us.

—Lady Cutekitten

Re: Infrastructure

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Lady Cutekitten,

I shouldn't generalize that much. My apologies. And I hope your infection is clearing up.

On a positive note, last night I dreamed of discovering kittens in my home. How cool is that?

Jon

Re: Infrastructure

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, THAT’S where they were! I knew we came up short a few kittens here.

—Lady Cutekitten

Re: Infrastructure

[kimberlysteele]

We youngsters and middle-agers (me) appreciate the stuff you oldsters have to offer! Some of us have managed to reject the shameless ingratitude of this peculiar era!

Re: Infrastructure

[cs2]

Hi Jon, thank you for your comment. A couple of things came to mind based on what you said.

The first was that cash is great because it can't be tracked or taxed or stamped with fees. I use cash exclusively and in cases where it's not permitted I use bank transfers to avoid fees. Americans believe in "no taxation without representation" so I personally do much of my freelance work for cash and pay others the same way. Obviously you don't want the IRS coming after you, but there's a lot that can be done above board, without it being considered tax fraud.

The second thing I was thinking was that if you are already praying with the openness to help American towns, then right now your duty is to prepare for your prayers to be answered. If you have a job in Seattle, then shovel money into savings and downsize your life, get your living expenses down, and get yourself to a point where if an opportunity does come up for you to move, you're able to do so. Of course if you have familial obligations then that comes first, but also in that case it always helps to live below your means and have cash should your child need braces, etc.

Those are just things that came to mind because I too had prayed for the means to help small businesses in my area. I was selling myself short, thinking small places charged too much, and I couldn't afford to *not* buy the sweatshop Bangladesh stuff. But it turned out that with the covid lock-downs, the global chains closed, and the small business owners came out in force. Young tailors were biking down the street and ringing their bells. We'd drop two-Euro coins out our windows as payment and they'd sling a bag up with a sewn mask in it. By the time Chinese factories re-opened with their cheap garbage, we all already had locally made masks.

A year ago I called my favorite coffee shop, and the owner was willing to do all kinds of things for my cash. He not only delivered food but hunted down books for me, and printed out my manuscripts (I'm a writer). Also, by his example, I overcame the fear of covid being super deadly, because he was running around town doing all this stuff for me and he never got sick.

Anyway, just some things that came to mind! Count me as one person who appreciates your prayers to help small towns and your efforts in that direction.

Re: Infrastructure

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for the advice, CS2.

I didn't realize it until you mentioned it, but I have been praying for American towns. And it really helps to do this. I've been going about it the wrong way, though. Rather than pray that the stranglehold of fiat currency be lifted from our backs, and for corporate monopolies to lose their power, it's much, much better to pray for our towns to be restored and thriving. That will prevent any karmic blowback. So that's what I'm doing now. Also, I try to save when I can.

I'm heartened to hear you say that my prayers just may be answered some day. I've been wanting to leave for 12 years, so I get discouraged. My prayers for many years have been lukewarm, but ever since I latched onto JMG's website in December, I'm seeing that prayer can have a more powerful effect than I ever realized.


LP9: I'm very sad to hear that. Opioids have been a terrible scourge on so many communities. I've been praying for awhile that our towns and rural areas can somehow get over this terrible blight.


Kimberly:

Styx is certainly a handful. Sometimes he's spot on, other times not so much. I find it odd that he reprints occult books, but isn't personally into the occult. Who knows, maybe he's reading your site?


And being a subversive is good advice. Just as in magic, one must keep silent, and so in this declining economy. A friend of mine has been saying that the only people that will really suffer in an economic downturn are the people in the PMC. The poor and lower middle class have already been psychologically immunized and adjusted to the reality of the situation for several decades.

Re: Infrastructure

[lincoln_lynx]

Styx is personally into the occult. From a more materialistic perspective though.

Re: Infrastructure

[kimberlysteele]

Styxie is one of those odd occultists who doesn't apparently believe in gods. I've been there and done that in my late teens and early 20s. It easily lends itself to solipsism.

Re: Infrastructure

[(Anonymous)]

Frankly, I think anyone who can pull this off is best avoided: anyone who does the occultist's work gets loads of experiences with the gods. Anyone who can't see it either didn't do the work and is posturing, or is wilfully blind in an extreme way. Either way, best avoided.

Re: Infrastructure

[kimberlysteele]

I think he simply does not know what he is dealing with and like other atheist occultists, does not think he requires the protection of a god or gods. He talked about how he had a lucid dream where he was playing around with some unfortunate non-embodied being who wandered into an interaction with him. He blew the being up like a balloon and toyed with it as it floated around him. Could have been a figment of his imagination, sure, but it could have been a legitimate other. Personally, I have encountered my fair share of non-embodied entities within lucid dreams. I do my best to avoid interacting with them in that state as it is highly dangerous and attractive to an array of malefic entities. Styxie seems to think he's the smartest being in the room. Anything that approaches him in a lucid dream cannot best him because it couldn't possibly be that intelligent or powerful (he presumes anything he meets is a figment of his own imagination). If he does get attacked on the astral, he will most likely presume that he's not being victimized and the attacking entity will easily be able to trick him into thinking nothing is happening. This is what happened to me during my atheist years. If he continues in his happy-go-lucky playtime in the astral, that's all fine and good, but it's like being stuck in kindergarten for an entire incarnation. The point of occultism is to develop.

Re: Infrastructure

[causticus]

Fellow spoonclanker here as well, and I pretty much agree with you here. Styx's occult knowledge seems rather superficial and immature and quite reflective of his naïve libertarian way of seeing the world. I so wonder if he has a lot of Aquarius influence in his chart, as he seems like one of those people who is rebellious for the sake of being rebellious, and thus the inability to cultivate the sort of humility needed to venerate the gods (much less acknowledge them) in good faith.

Re: Infrastructure

[kimberlysteele]

Yes, I think hubris is his number one issue. He seems both Aquarian and Leonine -- poor as a church mouse at one point in his life, so quite empathetic in that respect, but gaily laughing at the less fortunate from his high perch in the next moment. He really is brilliant and I always look forward his cogent analyses. Not someone I'd care to know in real life though; to me he's an entertainer.

Re: Infrastructure

[lincoln_lynx]

JMG's distinction between occultists, mages, and mystics is worth keeping in mind here.

Occultists are the academics of the Mysteries, unless they are also ceremonial magicians, they can easily go their whole life without actually experiencing the wonders they read about.

That said, Styx does appear stuck in a rut, and his content in every area has suffered. I barely watch him anymore because I can guess what he's going to say.

Re: Infrastructure

[lp9]

I completely agree - I would love to live in a beautiful, old small town like this. The catch is definitely making a living. We're betwixt and between times. Too late to apply the current model (like remote work) to a small town and on the very early end for new models, depending on what type of small business or venture you have in mind.

The Gen X anger thing is interesting. I am on the young end of Gen X and was born in a small town in the Rust Belt right at the moment of its collapse. This means I have very strong ties to an old, small town--which is decrepit, bombed out, and with the vast majority of its historical beauty stripped away long ago. Among my peers from my hometown, there is some anger but mostly overwhelming sadness. We never saw anything great to be lost. It was bad as long as we've been alive, though we were regaled with tales of the glory days when the steels mills and potteries and tire factories were humming. A significant number of my high school classmates have killed themselves, primarily with opioids. A number have fled town. And a few cling to Progress - something they've never really experienced but see on tv and Netflix. For my cohort, it's sadness, not anger.

Re: Infrastructure

[kimberlysteele]

Greetings fellow spoonclanker! I like Styxie a great deal; I don't agree with him on quite a few points but I find his commentary insightful. Maskturbator is a win -- he was right, it's devastating to those who think that they are beyond ridicule because of the alleged virtues of wearing a mask.

Yes, the Xers saw this coming: I always thought Xers were horribly molly-coddled, which is why the slackers could exist. I had no idea molly-coddling would become as bad as it did. Millennials believe in luxury communism because they grew up as entitled little Dauphins and Dauphines who weren't allowed to play outside. The current generation is even more mental, and helicopter parenting has become exponentially worse under Nothingburger Flu restrictions.

As I say in my Speakeasy Illinois group, the only sensible thing to do is to ignore the hysterical hall monitors, Karens, and NPCs whenever possible and quietly go around them. I don't envy you living in Seattle. I hope you can find some like-minded people there so you can find subversive ways to thrive.

I barter in a few ways -- I trade lessons with one family for cleaning & organizing the Studio as they otherwise could not "afford" it. As you probably know, I do free Ogham readings every week, but people are so generous with donations, they paid for groceries, gas, and at least one utility this month. I just wonder what happens as people begin to fall off the salary class wheel into the barely-getting-by model I've been working with for more than a decade. Unless you are really, really poor, most of getting through poverty is psychological.

[readoldthings]

Hi Kimberly,

I just wanted to say that I've been looking forward to reading your take on The Art of War since you suggested it.

I don't believe it's a coincidence that it occurred to both of us independently. Whatever spiritual powers are swirling around the Ecosophia community want us reading Sun Tzu and applying his teachings.

[kimberlysteele]

Thanks! I have been reading yours too intermittently. Do you worship Aphrodite, by chance? I do, and I know Violet does, so that might be the common thread.

[readoldthings]

I keep a print of Boticelli's Venus as an icon to her, and her star is very prominent in my natal chart. I wonder if she's more active in my life than I've realized-- it would make sense of a few things.

[kimberlysteele]

Interesting! I think we may have found a common factor. I pray to both Ares and Aphrodite. From what I understand, Ares and Aphrodite are two sides of a whole; one cannot exist without the other. The warlike, violent purges of Ares are vital in order to clear the way for a harmonious home. The gentle, nurturing love of Aphrodite is the "only thing worth fighting for".

[(Anonymous)]

I’m too sick to play right now (sinus infection flare-up) but will be back when the drugs kick in.

Don’t forget poor old lonely Clausewitz after we finish Sun Tzu! Clausewitz would love to be read these days. And I can’t find our copy of On War. It was all marked up, too. I will look again if I live long enough.

—Lady Cutekitten

[kimberlysteele]

Ouch! Feel better soon.