Demons
in our Midst:
by Suzanne Duarte
May 2008
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Mad Tea Party © Mark Bryan
|
When I
despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has
always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem
invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, ALWAYS. — Gandhi
All
that evil needs to succeed is for good men to do nothing. — Edmund Burke
Hell is
empty, all the devils are here. — William
Shakespeare
It cannot be an accident, or mere
"coincidence," that the movie trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord
of the Rings became box office hits during the George W. Bush’s first
four years as the U.S. president. We needed those images of leathery-winged
monsters with huge teeth and claws, of the pathetic Gollum with the vicious
shadow, of the goodness of fellowship and the evil of greed for absolute power
over the world. Why did we need them? I think we needed those visual images to
remind us of the nature of evil and the existence of demons because, in our secularlized, mechanistic world, we had forgotten about
them. We thought we were safe.
It took me a long time to recognize that truly demonic
energies are operating in our world right now. I was as unwilling to
acknowledge the demonic as the next person. "Demonic" was not a word
in my vocabulary, nor was "evil." I thought that people who used
those words were projecting and ought to look at their own behavior. However,
personal as well as global circumstances have compelled me to try to understand
these energies and how to combat them.
We live in a world where deceit, duplicity, and mass
delusion seem nearly all-pervasive. We cannot rely on
the mainstream media to tell us what we most need to know, the truth; we cannot
believe the politicians; we can't trust our electoral process; and half the
United States seems to be under a hypnotic spell induced by sub-rational
mesmerism. Our lives are increasingly being corralled by a maniacal,
irresponsible administration that uses lies and fear to rationalize its
assaults on our rights and freedoms, our economy and environment, and those of
other countries. While a great deal of the rest of humanity is concerned about
environmental crises, Bush & Co. remain in
stubborn denial of the multitudinous ecological problems that threaten human
survival. They protect ecologically destructive corporations, while encouraging
Americans to spend and consume.
How do we keep our sanity in the midst of the
bewilderment, paranoia and anxiety that seem to be intentionally generated by
Bush & Co.? How do we continue to work for the good of the whole when grief
and despair over all that is being lost threaten to overwhelm us?
Perhaps it is time for humanity to learn to deal
consciously with the demonic within ourselves and in
the world at large. And that begins with acknowledging that demonic energies do
exist and do threaten all we hold dear, and life itself.
Modern
Day Demonology
In Women Who Run with the Wolves*, depth
psychologist Clarissa Pinkola Estés calls the demonic "the natural predator of the psyche."* I have found
her explication of the meaning of this phenomenon most helpful in my
demonological research. She says the natural predator is "the most
deceitful and most powerful fugitive in the psyche," and it "requires
our immediate consciousness and containment." This "inner being"
is "quite mad" and carries out "destruction without
thought." (p. 39)
Of all the inner beings of our psyches, the predator is
the most devious and most determined to escape notice and apprehension by
consciousness. He is a dark force that is contrary to Nature and instinct, a
formidable enemy of the light of consciousness and all that is good, wild, and
feminine. The sole purpose of this "derisive and murderous
antagonist" (p.40) is to
subvert cooperation, harmony, and the potential for creativity and conscious
evolution.
According to Estés, the natural
predator is an innate element in the psyche of all human beings. She speculates
that this archetype developed in the preconscious human mind as the desire to
overcome the laws and limitations of Nature, and gain power over the forces of
life and death. This desire arises from an inflated sense of superiority,
delusions of power, and the determination to dominate.
In myth and fairy tales, the natural predator is always
portrayed as a dark man and/or a failed magician. He appears normal but is immeasurably
destructive. His hatred and rage emanate from his failure to achieve the
spiritual or magical power that he sought, a power equal to that of Nature or
God. Black magicians have their power taken away and/or are exiled from the
realm of the gods. As outcasts they suffer deep loneliness and continuous exile
from redemption. They cannot generate their own light. The sun never rises in
their consciousness; thus their jealousy of, and desire to capture and possess,
those who have the light of consciousness and are able to redeem themselves
through creativity.
Although I appreciate why Estés uses the term predator and find it accurate, I still prefer the seemingly
archaic and mythological term "demon" because it connotes dark
archetypal power that can take over the human psyche. "Predator" is
associated with predation by animals, but animals are not demonic in the way
this human archetype is. Animals don't presume to challenge Nature like humans
do, so I use the term “predator demon” to connote a dangerous psychic
phenomenon that can become contagious, as C.G. Jung, observed and wrote about
in his studies of evil.
When a person—or a group of people, or a
culture—has been taken over by the predator demon, its destructiveness is
always cloaked. This demon is ruthlessly, unscrupulously deceitful. The best
disguise for the demonically possessed is a respectable social position along
with the accoutrements of wealth. Whether intra-psychically or in the form of
another person, predator demons are typically very seductive, cunningly masking
their true intentions. Once the gullible and naive are captured, they are prey
to be abused and used up, sucked dry.
In their "magician" aspect, predator demons
have a manipulative power that can cast a spell, hypnotize, cause confusion,
paralysis, and terror. In fact, they take pleasure in causing confusion,
paralysis, and terror. It’s the
only power they really have! They
are cruel—and exploiting human vulnerability increases their sense of
power.
Predator demons will do anything to fulfill their
insatiable lust for power, and are implacably merciless and malicious towards
any who oppose them. Subterfuge and projection is their game; scapegoating and blaming the victim for their own
wrongdoing is a favorite ploy. They are too arrogant to ever admit their own
mistakes and wrongdoing, for they deny responsibility for the consequences of
their actions. The predator demon is ego in its most primitive and pernicious
form. Addiction and denial are sure signs of his presence.
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Dick © Mark
Bryan |
To
identify as demonic a persistent or recurring delusional mindset in a person is
to acknowledge its danger. The predator demon can't be reached through reason
and cannot be negotiated with. Typically, he can't tolerate a point of view
contrary to his own, and his destructive intentions cannot be mitigated through
rational means. Challenges are met with vengeful, scornful retaliation. (Think:
Karl Rove or Dick Cheney.)
Neither compassion nor mercy is an appropriate response
to the predator demon until he has been defeated and contained. He has no
respect for compassion. He will only use it against you. If you give him an
inch, he'll take a mile. Our first actions must be to recognize him, protect
ourselves from his devastation, and ultimately deprive him of his murderous
energy.
Estés says that "Each group and culture has its own natural psychic predator. There are
eras in cultures during which the predator is identified with and allowed
absolute sovereignty until the people who believe otherwise become a tide. . . . In a culture where the predator rules, all new
life needing to be born, all old life needing to be gone, is unable to move and
the soul-lives of its citizenry are frozen with both fear and spiritual famine." (p. 68)
I believe we are living through such an era, and this is
why progressives have been able to gain so little traction. However, I have watched the savvy,
conviction, and numbers of progressives grow and gain strength during the Bush
administration. There is far less
naïveté and paralysis now, in January 2008, than there was in 2000, when a
sleeping country accepted the spurious election of Bush & Co. Since then the predator culture has
thrown off its cloak, taken off its velvet gloves, and revealed itself to be as
malicious and criminal as it really is. Acknowledging the existence and dangers of the
predator culture—the demons in our midst—is the first step toward
reclaiming and reasserting our collective soul power.
An
Evolutionary Leap?
I view the presence of predator demons as a natural
phenomenon at a time when our species is on the brink of an evolutionary change,
a profound paradigm or consciousness change. The evil in the world has
become stronger and more threatening because the light of consciousness in our
species has increased and is getting ready to evolve to the next level. The
insanity in the world is both a catalyst for and a response to the paradigm
change we are in the midst of: from authoritarian power to collective power. (See Power and the Collective for an
astrological interpretation of this shift.)
Since the United States is imposing its predator demon
upon the rest of the world, this turbulent, dangerous era can also be regarded
as a collective initiation rite for our species. (Reportedly, about 85% of
humanity regards Bush & Co. as a menace to the world. All eyes are warily
on the U.S.) The predator demon resides in the deepest, darkest recesses of the
human unconscious, and initiation into this darkness is necessary in order to
develop the wisdom to protect the good and creative human soul within ourselves and our species. (p. 49) We must learn to recognize the
predator.
Throughout the millennia of our patriarchal civilization,
there has been a taboo against knowing what is in the darkness of our own
depths. We have been warned off of exploring this darkness and commanded not to
become conscious of what lies beneath appearances, and especially not to look
behind the curtain of authoritarian power. Women especially have internalized
the message to blindfold and muzzle ourselves, and
keep our hands tied -- or else! So
there is a psychic barrier against looking into the dark. It
was erected by the natural predator himself!
However, humans (especially women) are naturally equipped
with the curiosity and insight to see into the dark and discover what's hidden
behind the visible. If we will but give ourselves permission to look at the
effects of the predator demon in our own lives, we might discover how he has
frustrated the achievement of our most meaningful, soulful projects; debased
our most cherished hopes, dreams, truths and values; sapped us of our creative
energy; and rendered us ineffectual. If we pry deeper into the dark secrets of
our civilization, we will discover what the predator demon hath wrought on our
planet: the mindless degradation and waste of human potential; the thoughtless
devastation of countless innocent lives of all species, including our own; and
the savage destruction of the glorious harmonies and beauties of our Mother
Earth.
We are an adolescent species that's become a planetary
power. Our nation, the United States, is the most powerful and destructive of
all -- and perhaps the most adolescent of all. If we Americans don't achieve
the wisdom of self-knowledge and the consciousness to keep our predator demon
contained, we might not survive -- as a country or a species.
So it seems that we now must look into the dark in order
to protect our sanity and any hope at all for a future worth living in. But we need not be afraid, for
investigating the dark side and doing battle with it will return to us the soul
power that the predator has stolen. It will yield the spiritual and psychic
riches that are our birthright and that we need in order to create a soulful
and sustainable future for all life.
The only devils in the world
are those running around
in our
own hearts—that is where the battle should be fought.
— Mahatma Gandhi
Estés says that consciousness is the
way out of the predator's torture chamber. Those who wish to evolve
consciously, for their own sakes and for the sake of our collective
evolutionary leap, must disobey the demon. We must
investigate the mysteries of all that is secret, "classified,"
forbidden and in shadow. (The Bush administration has provided us with an
abundance of such mysteries.) What we will find is horrific -- in fact,
demonic. We must be able to bear what we see and fully register the carnage
within our psyches and in the world, without looking away. Only then can we
act.
Sometimes it takes a deadly threat from the predator
demon to provoke a person (or a culture) into the life-changing shift from
compliance to warrior-like resistance. When we realize we have been prey to the
predator, have been subconsciously manipulated and deceived, and that he plans
to do us in, then something deep within us rallies. Our injured
instincts—long suppressed, disused and deadened in our consumer
culture—begin to reawaken.
It is important to realize that wherever the predator is
doing his dirty business in the outer world, the inner predator of the psyche
concurs. You can be sure that whenever you feel victimized, deceived,
exploited, threatened or traumatized by some petty tyrant—whether in the
family, the office, on the job, in community life, or national life—your
inner predator demon is collaborating to keep you from defending yourself or
opposing the tyrant without. The inner demon's job is to deprive you of freedom
of thought and action, keep you in a fog, and make you feel powerless and
defeated.
This is why it is necessary for each of us to confront
our own inner predator demon, and our own fears of fully apprehending what we
have been complying with, and why. This is the reason that learning to
recognize the predator demon within ourselves is an indispensable dimension of
doing battle with the predator demons embodied by the tyrants of the world; for
our own predator demon will prevent us from acting to right the wrongs. He will
subvert our efforts, leave us feeling depleted,
depressed and despairing, because that is what feeds him.
This is our psychic initiation rite: to bring our own
predator demon to light and dismantle his power over us, so that we can recover
the soul power and sovereignty that will enable us to create a future that
embodies our highest values and aspirations. This is the key to our
evolutionary leap. I can't imagine it will occur in any other way than to shine
the light of consciousness into our own depths and achieve the integration,
responsibility and maturity that will keep the predator demon confined. Perhaps
the second term of the Bush administration is the crisis, the emergency, that we have needed to collectively call forth
the consciousness that can defeat the predator demons that are consuming the
world. As always, our enemies are the allies of our consciousness and
creativity.
So how
to we defeat them?
Dr. Estés gives clear
instructions.
1. Acknowledge and recognize the predator demon in our lives and world.
2. Protect ourselves from victimization by the inner predator.
3. Deprive it of its murderous energy.
1. The key to recognizing the predator is disobedience to
the command ‘Thou shalt not know.’ Begin asking questions: What is behind
the visible? What is not as it appears? What is covert and hidden, and why?
What truths are crying to be revealed? What has been destroyed or is dying?
Finding the key questions begins the germination of consciousness.
2. To protect ourselves from victimization, we have to
listen to our instincts and intuition, resist the seductions of the predator,
and stand up for ourselves. We must dismantle the logic of the predator demon
and defend our own soulful insights and truths. To protect ourselves from
assault by the inner predator, we have to take ourselves, our
gifts, and our strengths seriously. We are, after all, protecting our human dignity and our
sovereignty over ourselves and our purpose in life.
3. To deprive the predator demon of his murderous energy,
we dismember him. We consciously
pick him apart with analytical critique from every angle. We expose his every lie, subterfuge,
and ruse, and his every crime. We show him we have seen through him, mock and
ridicule him, and then we turn our backs and withdraw from him. When we cease
to fear him and refuse to engage with him, we deprive him of his energy and
strength, for he cannot act without our compliance. This is what he does not
want us to know, and the reason he is so opposed to consciousness.
Intra-psychically, when we deprive the predator of our
energy he shrinks back into the far recesses of the unconscious. Dr. Estés puts it this way: "We, in essence, drive [the
predator] down into the layer of the psyche where all creation is as yet
unformed, and let it bubble in that etheric soup till
we can find a form, a better form for it to fill. When the predator's psychic energum is rendered, it is formable to some other purpose.
We are creators then; the raw substance reduced down, it becomes then the stuff
of our own creation." (p.64)
She further observes that when we vanquish the inner
predator, we are "filled with intensity, vitality and drive"; for we
have taken back from him what he stole from us: "vigor and substance."
She suggests that we can then transform the predator's rage into "a
soul-fire" for accomplishing visionary projects in the world. We can transform his cunning craftiness
into insight and assessment of things from a distance, which gives us a choice
about whether or how to get involved. His killing nature can be transformed into discrimination about what to
let go of and leave behind. And
the predator demon's stubborn refusal to give in can become our own refusal to
give in to him! (p.65)
The next question is, 'But what about Bush & Co. and
the capitalist elites they represent? How do we deprive them of their murderous energy?' Obviously we have to
dismember them in consciousness, and expose them in whatever ways we can. There
is much work of this kind being conducted collectively right now, such as
efforts to prevent and counter election fraud, to charge Bush and Rumsfeld with
war crimes, to impeach Bush and Cheney, and to reopen the 9/11
investigation. Efforts on internet news sites and blogs to expose the truth about the
state of the United States and the world have exploded in recent years, thanks
to Bush & Co. A great deal of
creative work has emerged through books, websites, radio programs and
documentary films. All of this is
raising consciousness and changing minds, despite appearances. To me this is
evidence that the consciousness revolution is in progress.
But even if Bush & Co. hadn't managed to steal the
last election, the predator demon that has been acting through global elites for
a long, long time would still need to be exposed and dismantled. Bush & Co. are merely the most virulent and flagrant
representatives of Western Civilization's predator demon and the collective
delusion that it has fomented, like a miasmal fog, over human
consciousness. Efforts to vanquish
the pathology of the global economic system still have a long way to go.
The mind of a bigot is like the
pupil of the eye;
the more
light you pour upon it the more it will contract.
—
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Naomi Wolf’s The End of America and Naomi Klein’s The
Shock Doctrine, both published in 2007, are exactly the kind of work
that needs to be done to expose America’s predator demon. Likewise, John Perkins’ earlier Confessions
of an Economic Hitman exposes the way the
entire enterprise of American imperialism has been conducted over previous
decades. It was the first time a former insider disclosed the covert operations
of the predator demon within the global economy. As with many other former
government insiders who have written exposés in the last few years, Perkins was
stricken with conscience. All of this work of exposing and dismembering is
essential and healthy and will eventually yield results. It is central to humanity’s collective
initiation rite and must continue until the current predator culture is
completely vanquished. Until that
time, the world will never be at peace.
How do we refuse to comply with the predator demon in
global capitalism and economic globalization? The global economy depends ultimately on two things:
‘consumer confidence’ and fear of not playing the consumer game. Since we comply with this system as
long as we believe in it and give it our attention, time and dollars, we must
withdraw our attention, time, money and energy from the corporate-driven
consumer society as much as possible. This means turning off the damned TV with
its constant barrage of commercials that colonize our minds. It means refusing to shop and eat at
chain stores, and giving our business to independent progressive enterprises
instead. It means kicking the
shopping addiction altogether. It
means going organic wherever possible. Voluntary simplicity doesn't give the predator
demon much to chew on, and it frees up time and energy for collective efforts
to create sustainable alternatives. Of course, resistance through organized
boycotts of major corporations is effective and can become even more so.
As Estés notes, as soon as we
become determined to escape from the predator demon, his rage and aggression
become murderous. Interestingly, consciousness and the predator reach the
boiling point at the same time. At this point, right now, when a police state
becomes more and more likely in the U.S., We the People have to become more clever, more cunning. By remaining inconspicuous, we
can buy time to organize further.
As individuals we must fiercely cleave to truth,
integrity and sanity, and continue to work creatively for the good of all,
whatever happens. That keeps the inner predator from
re-arising within. But work for the common good must now be carried out in
partnership with others to create networks of support. The age
of authoritarianism is ending. It is time to collectivize and share the power
of the human spirit. If we want to create the conditions for a sustainable
future for all life, we need a tsunami of warriors with strong backbones and
open hearts, fearless intelligence, creativity, a vision of the greater good,
and a robust sense of humor. Remember: predator demons are vulnerable to ridicule. Ridicule is an important weapon for
psychic self-defense. Keep the
jokes and cartoons in your toolkit and keep them circulating.
The opening weeks of the second Bush administration were
a signal that it was time to collectivize sanity and create a sane society with
each other. That hasn’t happen
yet. Paralysis and depression
overcame a lot of people in the U.S. and a lot of people still feel alone and isolated
and scared. Now the danger of the
American predator demon instituting a police state in the U.S., or a Third
World War by attacking Iran, or both, is even greater. Anyone working for the good of the
whole and the future may soon have to operate under the radar of Big Brother. We may have to go underground for awhile; but creating a sane alternative culture, as was done
in Czechoslovakia by Vaclav Havel and others before the fall of the Soviet
Union, may be the most effective resistance we can mount. We can be sure that
our beneficial intentions and efforts will matter to beings of the future.
You never change things by
fighting the existing reality.
To change things build a new
model that makes
the existing model obsolete.
—
Buckminster Fuller
* Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and
Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype (Ballantine Books, NY, 1992); Chapter 2 on the Bluebeard teaching tale.
An earlier version of this essay was first published in Awakened Woman e-Magazine, December 22, 2004.
© 2009 Suzanne Duarte