All Text, Music, and Illustrations, including Paintings, Photographs, and 3D models, Copyright © 2022 by Jim Robbins.
LORD OF DEFEAT
Impressed, Nathan continued on his journey and came upon the King of Swords. Nathan dismounted and bowed as he approached the King. "I serve thee always, my King, but I have a question."
The King gazed at him. "Yes, my devoted knight. What is your question?"
Nathan responded, "Your Majesty, I just saw a warrior take away the weapons of two men who were attacking him. He did not harm them, and they simply limped away."
"That is not uncommon," the King responded. "Every true knight finds different ways to neutralize evil."
"But why didn't he teach them a lesson?"
Tipping his sword slightly to the right, the King responded, "Sometimes removing a person's ability to harm others is the lesson. As a knight, you must decide when to escalate and when simply to remove the potential for negativity. Some people want to elevate themselves by performing great acts of evil, and they idolize other people who break the rules and get away with it. They want to believe themselves stronger or more violent or richer than others or above all the rules. In other words, they want to feel superior in some way. Some of them even perform acts of evil in secret, alone or with others. This usually stems from terrible trauma, abuse, betrayal, upheaval, abandonment, and loss that they have experienced. As a knight, you need to be able to recognize the depth of evil within other people. Some people might attack you out of desperation, but some might wish to elevate themselves by showing others that they can destroy you--they know that some people admire others who show this tendency for great destruction and lawlessness. As a knight, you need to recognize this tendency and neutralize dark forces appropriately for the highest possible good. Sometimes that means taking weapons away or isolating people from the rest of society until they develop greater understanding and compassion, and sometimes that means working with great spiritual beings such as Angels and Archangels to neutralize the dark forces within yourself and others. If Archangel Raphael has ever healed you, and Archangel Michael has cleansed you with divine holy Fire, and Gabriel has cleansed you with divine holy Water, and Archangel Auriel has blessed you with divine love and harmony, you will know what it means to neutralize dark forces to create balance. If your Holy Guardian Angel has blessed you, you will know what it means to neutralize dark forces to create balance. In other words, instead of causing bloodshed, you can be a spiritual warrior. I'm sure the holy man in the castle has shown you how to do this."
Nathan replied, "Yes, your Highness, but on the spiritual level I am not yet as skilled as the holy man."
"Being a masterful spiritual warrior requires you to make the most difficult kind of transformation: from selfishness to compassion. Puffing up the self can often lead to unnecessary conflict and bloodshed. Through harmonizing love you learn to neutralize dark forces to create balance in order to avoid harmful conflict.
"Do not judge yourself too harshly. It is those who strive for harmony and beauty and truth and justice who become most keenly aware of times when they might have solved a problem on the spiritual level instead of solving a problem through violence, and it is through the recognition of their own lost opportunities to act with compassion that they eventually become more aware of their higher self and their higher angels. People who are aware that they live in a community that includes not just the entire realm but the rest of humanity and the natural world may not be the strongest or the richest or the most famous or the most handsome or beautiful, but they are usually the ones most likely to neutralize dark forces to create balance instead of resorting to bloody conflict. Remember that people neutralize dark forces to create harmony in their own way, and remember that many of them may not be of the same ethnicity or race. As a knight, it's important to be able to identify people who wish to harm you, but it's also just as important to find spiritual warriors who are skilled in human nature and act from the higher self, people who, whether considered great warriors or not, act with compassion for the highest possible good."
"I will remember thy sage advice, your Highness, so that as a knight I may serve thee effectively and with compassion." Nathan bowed, then mounted his horse and rode into the forest.
The holy man in the castle had shown Nathan how to create a positive living image with the Five of Swords as an example of how to transform a negative situation or energy into a positive one. The holy man had confided that the Five of Swords is not generally considered to be one of the most positive cards in the deck, but with an understanding of the benefits of neutralizing dark energies to create balance, he said, you can make a living image associated with the card's central figure. The way to do this effectively, he said, is to find a living image in the modifying cards associated with the card, in this case The Star (Aquarius) or The Empress (Venus), for The Star represents the spiritual principle of the awakening of the heart, and The Empress represents the marriage of heaven and earth. For this ritual, the holy man chose the figure of the woman in The Star, who represents cleansing and compassion and the awakening of the heart.
Nathan got ready to create an artificial elemental of The Star with the Tarot Pentagram Spread. First, since Air is an active element, he used the Active Invoking Spirit Pentagram while laying down the foundation cards, starting in the lower right corner of the pentagram, moving to the upper left corner and continuing from there. After he placed all of the cards, he tapped each card in the direction of the Active Invoking Spirit Pentagram, making sure to tap the one in the position of Fire in the lower right corner to complete the pentagram.
Then he placed The Star in the middle of the pentagram, saying, "The Star, Aquarius," and tapped the card.
Then Nathan drew the Active Invoking Spirit Pentagram and the spirit wheel in brilliant white above The Star on the altar, charging the pentagram and the symbol in the usual way with the Sign of the Enterer.
Then, since Aquarius is an Air sign, and the Five of Swords represents Venus in Aquarius, Nathan placed The Empress on the Ace of Swords. At that point, he imagined the symbol of Aquarius transforming into the living image of the figure in The Star, and she came alive as a full-length figure. As Nathan visualized the living image, he imagined that sylphs flowed from the Archangel Raphael and filled the living image while at the same time tiny points of winged light flowed from his own aura and filled the living image as well.
Nathan then tapped The Star and stated, "Aquarius, the opening of the heart." Then he tapped The Empress and stated, "Venus, the marriage of heaven and earth." After gazing at the two cards for a moment, he stated, "Help me become a masterful spiritual warrior in my higher self and neutralize dark energies to create harmony and balance whenever possible."
Then he ended by saying, "So mote it be!" Before he finished the ritual, he imagined for a few minutes the star of the higher self shining brightly above his own head. Then he finished with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
From that point on, Nathan unexpectedly envisioned the bright star of the higher self above his own head, and he knew that he too was becoming a masterful spiritual warrior.
