The Thistle – Resistance –

If This Card Choose You – Armor up. It’s coming. Do you dream of battles? Are you feeling muzzled? Do you wake up angry? Worried? Afraid? Do you gnash your teeth while you sleep? Do you love proving others wrong? When others speak are you eager to jump in and “set them right”? Is your favorite word, “No?”

Resistance is Never Futile – We become warriors for a reason. But what kind of warriors are we? After all, we can’t make our contribution unless we know who we are. Strangely, we get a lot of push-back on this seemingly basic enterprise. First, there’s enormous cultural pressure against us defining ourselves; one warlord after another schemes to entrap us into fighting for them. It’s enough to gnash anyone’s teeth.

Warrior Challenge – We must be protective of our special gifts. Specify under what circumstances you are relaxed, happy, creative and “In-Flow.” The ‘flow” state is “bliss” – your brain oozes alpha waves as you sink into some interesting investigation, lose any sense of time, feel at one with the universe. Suddenly, we are experiencing the pleasures of “Eternity” while still very much part of this sphere. Is “flow” achieved for you through music? Dance? Composition? Reading? Sex? Some lucky people access this state through meditation alone. It is certainly worth a try; meditation is very good for your brain.

Warrior Danger – The worst hazard of self-reflection is not navel-gazing (micro study can be very revealing) but solipsism. Aloneness may in fact be Hell. We can never lose touch with those around us because it is others we are fighting for, not for Self alone. Avoid warlords who fail to treat you with respect. in our increasingly autocratic world we are very familiar with Aging Babies who want the rest of us to nursemaid their fussy, immature modality because Growing Up is Ouchy. For God’s sake, for your own sake, for the benefit of the Universe and in hope of Eternity, don’t cater to or worse yet, BECOME one of THOSE.

Warrior Opportunity – You are a work of art. Your whole life, your experiences, your very dreams, have brought you to this moment. Your resistance to invasion, to malformation, to co-option, to corruption, has blossomed into an individualized focus that must defeat their blander, blunter, self-serving opposition. You lose nothing – gain everything – by becoming yourself; a unique warrior nonpareil who has never existed before and will never exist again. You are the opposite of a faceless soldier, you are rare, sui generis, customized for this moment of space and time but perfected for eternity. What fears are left to surmount? What can you dream?

Models & Mentors – ‘When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty” – Thomas Jefferson

“Every moment of resistance to temptation is a victory” – Frederick William Faber

“To fly we have to have resistance” – Maya Lin

“The history of liberty is a history of resistance” – Woodrow Wilson

“The more important an activity is to your soul’s evolution the more resistance you will feel”

– Steven Pressfield

#Haiku: Counter-Pressure

First –
Relax;
Melt;
Slide;
Upend
Onslaught;
Be attacker’s
Banana peel