Spirit Speak - The Dark Side of Power

11/30/23

Remember Star Wars? And the Force? The spiritual ideas and archetypes were well-researched on that film. Joseph Campbell was not just a consultant. He was a collaborator. I bring this up because the force was a way to talk about themes that appear and reappear in all human experiences with the divine field. In the movie there were those who used the force for good and those who used it for evil. In our culture, especially in the more New Age ideas, we tend to think the force can only be used for good. You hear people say things like, “Ghosts can’t hurt you” or “I’m protected.” If someone is working in this space of great mysteries, they will encounter strange things. There are icky things that co-exist in other dimensions alongside us. Let’s face it: we can be pretty unpleasant ourselves.

The force in Star Wars was a way to deal with the idea of power. In the movie, the force is power; it’s a kind of life force and a stand-in for the divine, “May the force be with you.” I think the force is probably the best way to explain and understand the divine intelligence of the multi-verse. We like to think of this force as pure good, white light, Christ the redeemer, unconditional divine love. The force is more than that. In Christianity, it is divided into two characters: the good and loving God and the evil-devouring devil. This idea quickly breaks down when you think about it for a minute. If God created everything in pure love, then why would he create or allow a devil? The Christian argument is he didn’t. Satan is a rebellious angel who wouldn’t kneel before God’s greatest Creation, man.

Hmmm, very arrogant and solipsist, if I must say so myself.

OK, say that was completely true. God is God. God could strike the arrogant rogue angel down and put an end to evil right there. God didn’t have to allow the devil to exist and torment humanity. If God is a loving God, why would he do this? Or why would he allow suffering, starvation, war, rape, murder, etc.?

You could argue that all of this is allowed so humanity can choose God and good over Satan and evil. Without choice, we have no freedom, and let's face it, this would also be a very one note universe. Dark gives shape to light. Chaos enables transformation. Without chaos, we would live in heaven where all things are beautiful, perfect, and unchanging. It is only through opposition that we have movement, transformation, and edification. We can’t truly learn and know through experience if we are denied experience. And there can’t be actual experience without chaos and order, light and dark.

In Star Wars, these two sides of the force were in constant battle to control the universe. The oppressive Empire against the rebellious democratic freedom fighters. Those who wanted total control and power used the force to murder, destroy, control, and torture others. Then some used the force for good, to save, heal, free, and promote goodwill, love, and nurturing. A war over freedom vs. Oppression is the power to heal or the power to destroy, to love or to hate, to control or to free, to live or to die, to fully realize one’s life potential or be enslaved to an overlord.

The force in Star Wars is not split in two like it is in Western Abrahamic religions. It is seen as one thing used in two different ways depending on who is tapping into its energy. It is neutral. This is very much how the ancients saw God force or divinity. The gods were complex. They were ruthless and loving, nurturing and smiting. They had their own agenda. Jehovah, the ancient weather god who has been conflated as a stand-instant-in for the One true divine Great Spirit of Creator, is very similar. He is smiting, jealous, angry, and petty. He has “chosen” people. He turns some people into pillars of salt and saves others with Manna from heaven. He is not the one true divine Great Spirit of Creation. He is a lower g god who has evolved over time through the New Testament to morph into something more resembling the actual Creator.

The force in Star Wars is conceptualized around older shamanic traditions. The original human religions all have commonalities and seem hard-wired into something deeper in us. The founding fathers of this nation were deists. They came out of the Enlightenment. Ironically, this idea shares more in common with older ideas about the nature of the Creator than almost anything else. The idea is that God created the Universe and then gave it to us to do with it what we will. God doesn’t interfere in the affairs of man or in anything. God set forth the rules, brought everything into being, and said, “Have at it, kids; it’s all yours,” like a programmer who makes a software program. Once the program is created, it is then used, and people do what they want with it. It may go through some updates (evolution), but the programmer isn’t there tweaking it while it's being used.