Warriors and Wellbeing

September 18, 2014 — #ancestors #archetypes # insight #history, Civil War, war, warrior

In our dreams characters, including ourselves, play grand archetypes. Last night as I dreamed military factions were fighting it out in a prolonged battle. The warrior rarely appears in my dream life so I have considered it as a signal of some kind of change. The dream did not really upset or frighten me. In fact, after a while awake I fell back into sleep and dreamed about the same theme for a while again, which is very rare in my life. I normally do not go back to sleep, but I felt there was a story I needed to finish. Nobody won the war and I believe there were more than two fighting factions, sort of like Syria today. The warrior is an important archetype without which we would all be too vulnerable. Protection is something everyone needs, from within as well as from others.

In yoga the warrior pose is a wonderful strengthening posture. When one masters it one truly does feel like a warrior and a hero. To be a warrior archetype does not always mean to be a soldier or professional in the business of protection. The best attributes of this archetype are skill, strength, discipline and self sacrifice in the conquest over ego. The best warrior is stoic and possesses a tough will to conquer. The worst warrior is indifferent to the suffering of others. The shadow practice of this soldier in the dark is trading ethics for victory at any cost. The hero as well as the heel are contained within the warrior archetype. Loyalty and invincibility are identified with this character. Mercenaries and gunslingers are also part of the tribe.

I wondered today if thinking about my ancestors and the Civil War in the United States might be part of this dream’s arrival.  I have been studying and considering how my family moved from Selma, Alabama to East Texas after the war and bought property with gold.  They traveled by oxcart to get there.   Both my 2nd  great grandfather and his father-in-law were in the war, the older man conscripted to make steel in Birmingham Alabama to provide munitions to the Confederacy.  The Confederate money was worthless after the war,  so I wonder how they managed to have enough gold to buy property in Texas.  Many southern cotton farmers had moved to the area, so the majority of the population was black, as a remnant of slavery and cotton.  My people were religious and donated land for a church in the area.  I have been thinking about what it is like to fight in a war like that and be on the loosing side, then move to a new place.  They had to handle a lot of change and hardship during one lifetime, and the period after the war may have been as difficult as the war itself.

My relationship with this dream is asking me to be stronger and more disciplined.  I have done very little self-sacrifice or tough willed commitment during my time on earth.  I know few soldiers in my real life, and have no contact with war and the risk of loosing a loved one.  As war explodes around the globe I stay relatively insulated until someone new invades Tucson. We all depend on cops, soldiers, and sailors to keep us safe from harm, but I normally give them little thought.  War is hell, and most of us defer that hell to warriors and prefer not to know much about the details.  Historical wars seem to me to be linked to spiritual warfare. How do you relate to the warrior archetype?  Do you take the role of protector in your life?  Who protects you?