The Tyrant

We are getting into some deep ground here. The last time we came together we experienced the “King” that dwells within. It was a powerful experience of blessing and being blessed. 

Now it’s time to face the tyrant. The shadow side of our masculine power.

The authors of “King, Warrior, Magician, Lover” say that: “the sad fact is that this positive energy is disastrously lacking in the lives of most men. Mostly what we have experienced is what we are calling the Shadow King.” 

They make allusion to one of the more devastating stories in the New Testament. Herod, the tyrant of his time, and a traitor to his people, literally ordered the murder of new born boys, just in case the true King was born among them.

The tyrant will do the unspeakable to keep you from becoming a King.

I don’t refer to these stories as articles of faith, but as living myths that illuminate archetypal forces that play out their battles inside each one of us. 

We are going to devote more than one of our monthly calls to this section: “The Shadow King: The Tyrant and the Weakling.” It is a tough section. It describes some of the ugliest abuses of masculine power. And it helps us to see the inherent weakness that hide behind the horrors of tyranny.

Tyranny has been rearing its ugly head in big and small nations around the world. This is not just an archetypal struggle inside each of us. But it is also a political struggle playing out on the world stage.

Our work is to keep coming back to the same question: “Who do we choose to be?” 

In these times, under these conditions, how will we define what it means to be a better man? 

How will we take radical responsibility for being alive, and being men, in and of our time?

Read closely. And let’s dive in.

See you tonight.

Saludos,

Gibrán

PS: My friends at the Boston Area Rape Counseling Center have an offering for men survivors healing from sexual trauma. Please share. This is really needed.