Spiritual Archetypes - The Warrior
Linda Stern of The Convocation of the Divine Feminine
The Heroines’ Journey: The Warrior.
Good Morning and thank you for being here. I want to thank Ed Coke for drumming the Warrior into our consciousness!
Before our gathering started, the Women of the Convocation read 100s of names of women both historical and mythical that have been and are Warriors on our Earth. We wanted to invoke their presence with our gathering this morning and honor their spirit and strength and service. Their names are surrounding the altar and perhaps as you leave you might gather some and read their names and thank them for their contributions. You don’t need to know what they did; just know that they embraced the Warrior Within in the service of others.
What is it to be a Warrior? If asked, each of you would have a different answer yet there would be a common thread that would run among them.
Fictional Warriors
Mythical Warriors
Religious Warriors
Historical Warriors
Angelic Warriors
Archangel Warriors
High Level Warriors
Shadow Warriors
Spiritual Warriors
Healing Warriors
Wisdom Warriors
and so many more types of Warrior archetypes I’m sure I left out.
Being a Warrior begins by consciously and courageously claiming our power in the world to make ourselves and the world a better place. We must be strong and disciplined to make that happen. Anything you want to do or to move in the world, requires the strength and dedication of the Warrior.
Some of the Warrior’s gifts to accomplish this are: courage and strength, integrity and discipline, making and sticking to goals, and the ability to fight for others and ourselves. Warriors are the ones that excel in protecting the world and her inhabitants.
Warriors come in all shapes, sizes, and presentations – both light and dark. Warriors have historically been predominately males but that’s just in the last 3000 years. Before that and recently, Warriors have shifted to being both genders, as you can see from the names on the altar.
High-Level Warriors are ones who protect and ennoble others and live by the Golden Rule. Whether it is our own problem, our family’s problem, or that of a stranger- a High Level Warrior looks for a win-win solution to every challenge. There is no fiercer Warrior than a mother who defends her children and as we know, we are all one global family.
But of course, there is a shadow side to a Warrior. A Shadow Warrior may be a person who every, single thing is a battle, or a crusade and they defend it as if their life depended on it...and yours might. They see the world as in need of rescue and everyone is either a villain or hero. This type of Warrior sees things as black and white, wages war on people, diseases, and ideas.
If this desire to be right or to win is not checked- they may lay waste to themselves and others – which could be the world - to get money, status, or power. Others will be defended but they will pay a mighty price; that of being under the Warriors’ control or feeling beholden to them.
In our world today there is a true need for High-Level Warriors that make conscious decisions to fight for something other than oneself, to make a difference in the world. High Level Warriors are those that engage in struggles knowing that we all are on the same team, and believe that the problem is ignorance, poverty, greed or selfishness.
As today is Easter, I’d like to share some thoughts about the Yeshua as a Spiritual Warrior. I prefer to use the Hebrew name of Yeshua that was given to Mary by the angel, Gabriel. I believe that Yeshua is a Spiritual Warrior who wanted to bring Light and Love to the world and our hearts. I believe he saw the darkness at the edge of our souls and wanted to bring the Light. I believe that Yeshua felt and understood the suffering of others and used the gifts of the Warrior to do something about it. To accomplish his mission, he had to be a Warrior; a High-Level Warrior to bring Love and Peace and Healing to the world. Yeshua cared about others and his ideals so much that he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Clearly Yeshua was a Prophet, but he was also a Spiritual Warrior and revolutionary. He was willing to work and sacrifice, for all of us, known and unknown. Yeshua was a Warrior when he stood against the Ultimate Darkness and did not succumb to it by losing his faith and love for humankind.
But Yeshua was not the only person with courage of a Warrior, at this time. When his disciples abandoned him, the women followers, especially his wife, Mary Magdalene, stayed close through all his sufferings, through his death, his burial, and his resurrection. It takes the courage and commitment of a Spiritual Warrior to stay with someone in their great pain, through an excruciating death. Present at the crucifixion and or resurrection were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Yeshua and James, Mary’s sister, Salome, Mary the wife of Clopas, Joanna, Susanna, the mother of Zebedee’s sons, and the mother of James and Joses.
These women made oils and spices and plans to anoint Yeshua’s dead body. So, they went to the tomb together, and instead of finding his body, they found the tomb open with an angel seated at the entrance. There were five appearances of Yeshua that morning and the first two appearances were to women, loving, courageous women, who were Spiritual Warriors.
As a further extension of the Spiritual Warrior, I began meditating on the Divine Feminine Spiritual Warrior that resides in us all to see where it would take me.
A Divine Feminine Spiritual Warrior is engaged with the discipline of mind, body, and spirit in order to develop spiritual values. This Divine Feminine Spiritual Warrior then proceeds with great love, sharing knowledge and wisdom to compassionately benefit and liberate others.
To paint a further picture, I see that The Divine Feminine Spiritual Warrior commits to expanding heart and soul and gives love generously to themselves and others. The Divine Feminine Spiritual Warrior lives in a balance with the Divine Masculine Spiritual Warrior and moves forward with loving service of a higher goal.
Aligning with the Divine Feminine Spiritual Warrior, we can make a conscious, evolutionary shift beyond fearful separation and duality and “lack of” mentality, toward a global sense of healing, abundance and balance.
So how do you access the strength and commitment of a Spiritual Warrior? The knowledge and power of an ancient Spiritual Warrior reside in us all- did you feel it when we listened to the drums in the beginning of the service? I know I did.
If you need an example of courage to be your own Spiritual Warrior look to the courage it takes for a flower to ascend out of the earth and seek the sun
or the courage it takes for a baby bird to fly for the first time and seek the wind
or the courage it takes to love yourself
and there you will find the seeds of a Spiritual Warrior. A Spiritual Warrior that will take care of your own precious heart and tend to the heart of another as a part of our global family.
We all have a role to play in the resurrection of our earth and all her children. Deep down inside you know what you need to do.
This time of the year reminds us of death and then rebirth and the resurgence of life and of ideals that one is willing to sacrifice for. Are you willing to tap into the strength of a Spiritual Warrior and walk the path to Wholeness for our whole earthly family in a compassionate sacred vision?
Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, can you resurrect as a Spiritual Warrior to bring Light to the World? What do you care enough about to stand in the fire, to help heal, to bring together, to honor, to shift?
As Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche has said-
“The essence of a true warrior is to refuse to give up on anyone or anything until we are all transformed.”
So please consider, stepping into your power to be that true Warrior, that Pure Spiritual Warrior and dedicate yourself to others until we all can be transformed.
DEEPENING: (This is a shortened version of the actual Deepening just to give an idea of a possibility to utilize.)
Let’s invite several powerful Spiritual Warriors as guides-Archangel Michael and Archangel Faith, that work in a balance of Divine Masculine active energy and Divine Feminine nurturing energy to accompany and help us on this journey. You can ask them to assist you to step into the strength and faith of a Spiritual Warrior.
Please see yourself as gathering your gifts as a Warrior and then using these gifts to champion yourselves and others, in a balance, always considering everyone’s needs.
See yourself as a High-Level Warrior protecting the world and all its inhabitants. Love yourself and others as one, seeing yourself as a Spiritual Warrior who commits to expanding and sharing your heart in service to strangers while giving to yourself. With all your gifts, see where your joy takes you to courageously make a difference in the world and all her inhabitants. Thank Archangel Michael and Archangel Faith and bring your conscientiousness back to this space.