Great Evil now stalked the surface of the Earth. It was his big opportunity. He had been here before, but now he sensed: it was his chance.
Dominion over all: this was his goal, his wet dream. His thirst, his lust, his unquenchable appetite. Unquenchable till now, that is.
Great Evil had learned many things. One of his newly-acquired skills was his greatest pride, his most cherished perverted joy. He had learned how to mask his evil intent beneath the cloak of goodness. This was now his way. His lust for power, his self-identity as the great controlling one, master of puppets, now strode the Earth in the guise of goodness, of light. Of helping all creatures; concern, righteousness, the certainty of goodness. This was his realisation most stunning, and it bore fruit magnificent to behold. Yes, this was his chance, one of his finest hours. Yes, he would win.
Part Two
They took to their cool retreat in the mountains. He, the Warrior Prince and Great Magician; She, Dark Princess of the Morning Star. They sensed the presence of Great Evil in the towns and valleys of humankind; they smelt the putrid stink of his sweat-evil glands, wafting in on the west wind. They knew there was one chance, and one chance only. They had to go.
He cast off his heavy cloak onto the earthen floor. She could make out the firm contours of his chest beneath his tunic, and her heart stopped. He ran a finger along the smooth nape of her slender neck. Her left thigh motioned slowly upwards. She gasped. And they were gone.
The God noticed their love-making, and He smiled. It was a rare pleasure these days, to find his presence celebrated, nay, generated, through divine union. Happy, He bestowed his blessings.
Day and night, they continued their love-making. They needed no sleep: their union generated infinite energy. They required no food - the nectar of bliss was their ambrosial nourishment.
When they kissed, and his tongue explored the dark recesses of her lovely mouth, He tasted the sweetness of the Honey Goddess, Lady Creator of all. And when She nestled her body within the firm contours of his own, a bright light shone, and She knew it was the presence of the all-embracing God.
When He nibbled her ear She laughed, and She knew the God the Playful One, the disarmer. And when They made love, when their two breaths became one, a seed shot up far into the night sky. There it exploded into heavenly lights, and a new star was born.
He marvelled at their love, at their union. How they became one; yet they became each one more truly themselves. Forever united, forever separate. This was the Mystery.
Seeing all this, the God smiled and approached. "In your love, your sweetness, your beauty; here there is no place for Great Evil. He has no way to gain access. You have ignited the flame, and he can only flee. Here, he feels only panic and fear, the dread of being found out. Into hearts that are true, real, deeply awake, he can find no way. This is the secret, the mystery, the sole answer." And the God was gone.
They looked out into the world of human beings and of Great Evil. He had not noticed them or his own diminishment. He was too absorbed in his own hideous games.
Part Three
Let us for a moment take a look at life thought the lens of Zoroastrianism. With its roots in the distant past, it means slightly different things to different people. But focal to most notions of Zoroastrian thought is the battle between good and evil. This is the essence of human life, the great battle.
We don't need to get particularly ideological or philosophical about it. No need to go into the origins of good and evil, or precise definitions. We can adopt them pragmatically, as words giving shape to something that we sense and feel. For our purpose today, that is plenty. That there is good and bad; that there are good guys and bad guys, in varying degrees.
It is not unusual to find me framing my view of the world through this battle between good and evil. It's the essence of human existence, caught midway between heaven and hell, between pleasure and pain, between ignorance and knowledge, between freedom and slavery. Wait! - did I say 'freedom and slavery'? This is the battleground today, surely.
'Good' and 'evil' have manifested in different forms in different cultures and at different times. During my life I have seen 'east versus west', 'workers (the oppressed) versus bosses (the oppressors)'. But none of this works very much any more. Marginal relevance. The battleground is still becoming clearer, but nowadays things move quickly, and it clarifies by the minute. It is the battle between the unelected, self-appointed elites, and the rest of us. This is the new guise that the freedom/slavery dichotomy cloaks itself in.
'Sovereignty' has become a key notion for understanding today's battle between good and evil. This is a word that I have shied away from in the past: it has different meanings, and it reminds me too much of Buckingham Palace. But this is the dictionary definition that I am referring to here: 'freedom from external influence or control; autonomy.'
I regard sovereignty as one of the supreme goods. It is a prerequisite for a healthy, creative human society. And it is prerequisite for the journey of the individual human in the search for gnosis (or 'spiritual life' as some people like to call it).
Maximum sovereignty represents the path to personal fulfilment, and to a nation-state of active, satisfied citizens. It is the way of liberation. Conversely, erosion of sovereignty is the path of de-individuation, and of collective slavery. And this is the battle we are seeing played out on the world stage at this very moment.
Our bad guys of today wish to diminish sovereignty, for whatever reason. They have seen that brute force no longer represents an effective means of progress: people don't like it, and you often end up on the losing end. No. Another way is required. Control by stealth is therefore the order of the day. A take-over that is barely recogniseable to the majority of human beings.
One thing that those who would see fit to control others have realised is that democracy is not a reliable way forward. People have the inconvenient habit of voting in the wrong people. Trump and Brexit have really brought this home. Never mind: another way has been arranged. Other, non-democratic, institutions will do the work instead. Over time, they will become the de facto governments, while national government becomes a side show, to keep the masses happy.
Thus we see the increasing role played in world affairs by transnational institutions. The UN and the EU are paramount. These are supplemented, and their edicts put into practice, through the (almost) monolithic output of mainstream media, and fed into society by purpose-crafted ideologies which run the courts and legal system, the schools and universities, and so on. In this way the wolf in sheep's clothing works his dark magic: people surrender their sovereignty to the mistaken notion of global responsibility (ie collective conformism and slavery).
This is the way that the much-vaunted 'New World Order', the one-world government, will be ushered in and function. Not from any central palace in London, New York, Kazakstan, or wherever. That is too simplistic. It will govern through a network of like-minded institutions, tightly co-ordinated, from the transnational level down to that of local councils and your children's primary school.
So this is the core Zoroastrian dichotomy of the day: that between unelected elites, peopled by self-appointed experts and officials, and the rest, the neo-plebs. These unelected elites, be it the UN, the BBC, or Common Purpose, all hold the same core belief: that they are right, and they are so right that they are justified in lording it over other people, who are ignorant.
Some of these people, I suppose, sincerely believe that they are right, and that we live in such perilous times that the suspension of personal freedoms, of speech for example, are justified by the situation. This is the dark spell that has been cast over many people by 'climate emergency' lies and hysteria. These may be people with decent intentions, but they have allowed themselves to be hoodwinked, and disastrously so.
Then there are the hard-core ideologists, holding authoritarian and dogmatic beliefs about the way society should be run. Such people are sometimes referred to as cultural Marxists and, when pushed, they turn out to be not very nice.
And then there are the hard-core evil ones. Those who lust after power, wealth, control. They are amoral, prepared to create any amount of misery in pursuit of their nefarious interests. They inhabit the top of the tree, and have successfully hijacked the other two groups of people to do their dirty work, in the belief that they are doing good.
Whatever the motive, the result is a web of institutional power which is authoritarian, intolerant of difference, vicious, and which sees sovereignty as a threat. Its vision is sub-human in nature.
So these, in Zoroastrian combat mode, are the enemy. The world they wish to create is hideous: conformist, fear-based, authoritarian, with all individuality and open debate sponged out. Anybody with real spiritual aspiration would find this society hellish to inhabit. The Tarot Fool would weep and wither away, in a way that the Marxist state never would.
And there rests the case for now......
Images: Hayagriva, wrathful lord of compassion, who destroys all evil
Shiva-Shakti yab yum
Evil intent
George Soros, Hon FBA
