Disabusing Evil with Creative Power – Section One
“Death & Rebirth” – image by Dalmo Mendonça
Note: Due to the need for a more thorough and comprehensive approach to this topic, part nine will be split into two sections. The second section will come next Saturday, May 17th.
Part Nine: WeCreating the Future of Christianity & the World
For so long in human history, God has been seen as a transcendent principle, something or someone to strive toward or re-unite with in one way or another. For many, God has also been the immanent life force, the animating spirit of our very breath.
In recent history, the absence of God has been felt more and more acutely, especially since “the death of God” as Nietzsche recognized and even lamented. In this “death,” we have lost both the alpha and the omega, the source and the aim.
The death of the mythic God, the distant authoritarian figure and eternal judge, has been a necessary and even crucial evolution (see Jim Marion’s The Death of the Mythic God). This “god” was rightly rejected. Though for many, the rejection extended to all divinity, as for so long all divine power and goodness had been projected on to that external figure.
Humanity is not meant to live without God. In the absence of divine vitality being a living and active source and energy in our lives, there is a void. When we have a deep inner connection to the source of divine vitality, our foundation is rooted in a substantive force and stabilizing core—so that we can live in and from real hope.
Without a God who evokes a compelling striving into the more, the transcendent allure, and absent the divine connection from an immanent and animating source within, evil arises.
I use the word “evil” here in a very specific sense. I am not talking about mythologized forms of the devil or demons, nor I am not speaking of systemic or institutional evil, which is quite prevalent in this time. Nor do I speak of it in a purely psychological sense, absent spirituality, that seeks to explain behavior by modern science or cultural conditioning alone.
This evil is that which grows from the absence of God—not God as an external moralizing force, but as our innate, inner vitalizing creative power. This evil is not an inherent condition or inborn quality. It is not original to our nature, but may appear so when one is extremely cut off from their divine vitality. And in the disenchantment from the vacancy of our true power of being, it is replaced by distorted forces and malaligned energies.
So great is our need and longing for this basic power of life that it defies and outweighs reason. This desire even eclipses our values and can twist our morals, so it manifests in awful and terrible forms when divorced from divinity.
To meet and counter this evil, more than “resistance” is needed. More than laws and justice are required. More than understanding, inclusivity, and unity will be required. We will need to “disabuse” evil, to dispel its enchanting power through our full inhabiting of our own divine power and vitality.
Before we get to our response though, we need to consider more the nature of this beast.
The Source of Evil
If we are not seeking to consciously engage and be present to the authentic truth of our divine vitality, it remains covered over and unconscious. There are many ways this “missing force” as I called it before, is suppressed, concealed, and denied.
The less we are in touch with the authentic truth of our divine vitality, the more these forces make their way into our lives and society to devastating effect. They are easily manipulated, consciously or unconsciously, because we are so unaware of them ourselves. They are immensely charged and potent, because of what they are ultimately rooted in, but they become twisted and warped, perverted into bitter and cruel forms.
We see the effects and often can’t even believe that such acts are conceivable let alone carried out. How can we even contend with such evil?
To understand the forces and motivations of this type of evil, we must better understand the primary structure of consciousness from which they stem.
Forces of the Magic Structure of Consciousness
These terms for structures of consciousness are from Jean Gebser, one of the primary originators of Integral philosophy and understanding. In his seminal work, The Ever-Present Origin, he describes shadow elements of the magic structure of consciousness that speak so well to much of what we’re seeing today play out in the political and social spheres of the world (pg. 45-60).
(If you’re not familiar with Gebser’s approach to the structures of consciousness, which differs from Wilber’s stages, you can refer to this primer from Paul Smith using the movie Avatar, or just go with the flow of description of this particular structure we are focusing on here.)
The magic structure dwells underneath our mental order and perspective, and even deeper than our “mythic” structure of consciousness, which operates in the realm of our emerging stories as individuals and groups in a world of polarities (think heart center—morals, feelings, relationships, etc).
The magic structure is primarily below the surface of our conscious awareness in this day and age, but it is not something we transcend and leave behind. It exists as a living structure within us, whether we are aware of it or not. This is not “magical thinking” or merely the perspectives of non-rational thought—magic as tricks and illusions. It is the inner root of our emergent being, as we came out of nature and discovered ourselves amidst the forces of the world. It is our attunement and deep perception of the underlying force and inner life of things (think womb center—intuition, instinct, creativity, gut energy, etc.).
This is why our participation in the mystical is so essential, because it taps us into these deep realities and spiritual experiences in a conscious way—when we hold them in the integrated whole, aware in and through all the structures of consciousness and ways of knowing in our being.
Absent this, we are subject to the unconscious manifestations and “surprising” ways these forces arise in us and the world (for the mental typically denies the magic entirely). This has further created the void, so, as Gebser puts it,
“It is now vestigial and expresses itself predominantly in a negative form…Persons, things, or concepts are able to force us, by projection, to link a part of our unordered, and hence shadowy-negative, vital, and psychic energies to themselves. In that way, they get a hold over the part of our Ego which we ourselves were not strong enough to place under our own power.”
The magic structure is all about power. Power and force. The structure arose originally in order to find power over nature, as humanity (and before) was for so long almost entirely powerless against the forces of nature. It may be that the great threat of nature in our time—the existential earthquake of climate change revealing itself in more and more disastrous ways—has even deepened our need for the force of the magic structure. Even a century ago Gebser saw that “our machines and technology, even our present-day politics, arise from these magic roots.”
The search for such a power is so great it can overpower the self. Humanity has emerged through the magic structure into the mythic and mental structures, bringing forth a stronger sense of self/ego, which is a crucial part of our evolution. But in this time now the mental structure has become more and more fractured and insufficient (i.e. hyperindividualism, narcissism, information overload, and much more). It is in its “deficient” stage, grasping for the next mutation but without the means to enter that next dimension. This creates a great deal of anxiety, and in the swells of great change the responsible or healthy ego is set aside for the power it seeks.
It is an understandable response, for so many have lost connection to their own power, their inhabiting of the magic structure, so they turn to wherever they feel it being wielded with force. The nature of this force is so powerful and intoxicating, and is suffused with shadowy elements that befuddle the rational mind, so people can be easily manipulated. Its power can overwhelm and overtake mental discernment. And so we see blind adherence to the authority with power, no matter how skewed and disaffected, for the “sacrifice of consciousness” has already been made.
Evil arises in the absence of divine power. The healthy and whole core of the magic structure is the force of divine vitality which empowers our lives to be born of God, to grow into our other structures, from our inner uniqueness, in a manner that serves and creates the life of the world in meaningful and purposeful ways. We are able to be makers of the good, co-creators of the new, for ourselves, for those who will come after us, and for the beauty of the world.
When we are cut off from or absent to our source of real power in a conscious way, the forces from deep within us thrash and rail—if they have not been quelled by numerous substances and ways of distraction provided so readily by modern society. In the absence of real inner resources, anxiety takes hold, for we have lost our power to be makers, to have creative impact with our lives. We seek power without knowing where to look or how to find it (“God is dead” and we know we are not god). We latch on to false forms and displays of strength: governments, public figures, religions, gurus, cults, institutions, athletes, sports teams, and more. Whatever gives a sense of power, victory, and security, often with almost total disregard for how shadowy, false, or diversionary those may be.
The magic structure is a world without or “before” values. Like the realms of angels and demons, what matters is victory. It’s about winning more than being right, compassionate, or even doing what’s best for all. But really the triumph never comes—nor can it come, because the source of the power is actually found in “the constant need to be against something.” As the inner source of divine power is vacant, the fight itself provides the missing energy. Without a true source of inner “rightness,” the war must continue unending. Any manner of “righteousness” can be skewed to justify the battle, as morals, ethics, values, and principles are tools of the fight rather than foundations of order.
Knowing this helps immensely, as it keeps us from expecting a common moral ground or any degree of adherence to standards by which we live and assume others live as well, be they biblical commands, human rights, or other fixed standard of goodness—which emerge consciously in the mythic structure of consciousness. These forces of the magic structure are “before” even good and bad, right and wrong. Shadow evil of this kind dances and weaves through all of these polarities in any way that serves its own search for power at any given time.
Without the healthy life force of vitality from the magic structure, arising from our true Source, values, morals, and goodness will ultimately be sacrificed in the quest for any sense of power to fill the void. In the worst and strongest forms, false power will take total charge, like a spell or bewitchment, feeding the beast and consuming its own soul at the same time.
To do this, what this type of evil always needs is an opponent.
Our First Response: Don’t Feed the Beast
Now that we know more of the nature of the beast, we can begin to see more how not to feed it. This can be very difficult, for we are so compelled and called to resist, to fight against, to contend with evil. And of course, we must.
And yet, if we meet it with the force of resistance at the same level, of the same nature, we are actually fueling its energy. We are reinforcing its strength because we are intensifying the fight. We may just be feeding the beast and unwittingly making it worse.
To counter this evil from its source, we can disabuse it.
“Disabuse” means to disenchant, to dispel an illusion that someone has been deceived by. In its most literal meaning, it is to dis-abuse, to undo or reverse the action of abuse—and those captured by this force are suffering abuse (yes, there are abusers and those being abused—but these often overlap significantly).
Disabusing doesn’t happen by trying to bring insight, information, or clarity. The language of force doesn’t hear the words of reason. Appeals to morals will not be enough on their own either, for as we have shown those are of different structures of consciousness.
Perhaps you’ve had conversations in this manner, trying to get someone to see reason or appeal to their humanity about a situation that you see is so clearly wrong. It’s more than a matter of differing perspectives, though that is always a factor, but something else is going on. Trying to come to any mutual understanding feels like a fool’s errand. The place of agreement or shared understanding shifts the moment it comes close. The value is deflected. Perhaps, hardly felt or mostly unrecognized, there is missing an assumed shared sensibility or common criteria like empathy, compassion, fairness, or even logic (as long as you are on the other side of the “fight”).
Of course, recognizing with humility that we are not always right and certainly do not always hold the correct perspective, something else is going on here. Something deeper. The force of the magic structure is at the root of the situation, and unless we get down to that level, we are playing a fool’s game.
Crucially, it’s important to recognize in these conversations or similar situations, the person or group we are dealing is not evil. Labeling someone is rarely helpful (especially those not in any position of real power) as it only reinforces the unconscious desire for more power. Yes, some people are so overtaken and consumed with this force that it can even come to define them—but it is not original to their soul.
Rather, people may be plagued, like a dis-ease, to varying degrees with this powerfully felt but ultimately deficient force. We may even be ourselves to some extent. For this evil comes from deeper roots than our personhood.
Next week, we’ll share the second section of Disabusing Evil, moving into disentangling the roots, divine vitality, creative mysticism, shadow work, and how to walk forward with courage and power.
If you’re not already on our mailing list, be sure to sign up to catch the next part.
In the meantime, you’re invited to reflect:
When considering evil, what do you notice about your immediate reactionary posture to the subject? What do you feel in your body? How might you engage in conscious response from your spirit in new and evolving ways?
How do you experience the descriptions of “the magic structure of consciousness”? What is your current lived experience of this structure in you? What is your current relationship with your own inner power?
Have you experienced “feeding the beast”? Have you seen or experienced ways of “disabusing” that have been helpful or supportive for yourself and/or others? Are there situations or ways you might seek to do this more in your life?
All Images are open-source, used with permission, or created by ICN