“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Matthew 5: 43-45

The good people among you might protest, “but I don’t have any enemies!” It certainly appears to be the case that in modern polite society enemies are rather thin on the ground and only the very unlucky or the very irascible actually have any. But for a spiritually sensitive person, though it might sound like a rather severe case of paranoia, enemies are literally everywhere.

C.S. Lewis famously wrote that being a Christian was like being parachuted into enemy-occupied territory: “Enemy-occupied territory – that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.” (Mere Christianity)

So who is the enemy? A Christian might say, “the world, the flesh and the devil”. But then what exactly are “the world, the flesh and the devil”, and if we knew, could or should we love them?

Obviously you can’t love your enemy unless you know your enemy. And you can’t know your enemy if you think everyone is your friend. Again the good people will protest, “but good people should see the good in everyone!” From a spiritual point of view, this is dangerously naive.

From a spiritual point of view, your enemy is anyone who who knocks you off course, lures you off the path, steers you away from God, steals your soul. The archetypal Biblical enemy is of course the serpent in the garden of Eden who tempts Adam and Eve with the promise of god-like status if only they disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit. But in modern polite society, it’s not always so easy to spot serpents.

Know your enemy. On the Wheel of Babylon (see the Home Page) there are six “enemies”: Diva, Demon, Victim, Addict, Muppet, Muggle. These are really six subpersonalities which arise in consciousness under certain conditions in response to certain triggers. We express them through the prism of our particular personalities when we identify with them in characteristic Diva, Demon, Victim, Addict, Muppet or Muggle thought, word and deed. These are the psycho-spiritual enemies we must contend with every day if we are to make any spiritual progress.

With discipline and practice, it is possible to recognise the tell-tale signs of these subpersonalities, disidentify from them and stop acting them out. At the same time, we can develop a sensitive radar to recognise them in others, perhaps most especially in our nearest and dearest friends, family and partners. When we see how the people around us are periodically possessed by these six spirits of Babylon, we see that we are in fact in enemy-occupied territory, that we are beset by enemies on all sides.

Spiritually speaking, we are exiles in Babylon. Day and night we are working with the enemy, drinking with the enemy, sleeping with the enemy. Very occasionally we may come across a Mystic, Shaman, Warrior, Monk or Nun, Philosopher, King or Queen, but these are rare encounters. The sad truth is that, although we may believe the converse, we actually have many more enemies than friends.

When Jesus said, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26), he didn’t mean that you should hate yourself and your family, but that you should know that the people in your life are your enemies, and that you are your own enemy, perhaps even your worst enemy.

Know your enemies, but love them, otherwise you will make your life and theirs a misery. Love your enemies, bless them, do good to them, pray for them. Because hate gets you nowhere – hating on serpents, whether those within you or without you, only poisons you with their poison. Love is the cure. Love is the drug. Love is the bruiser of the serpent’s head.

“‘The fruit of the Spirit,’ says St. Paul, ‘is Love, Joy, Peace, Long-Suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Meekness, Temperance’ – all the things the world most needs. … I do not think St. Paul arranged his list of the fruits of the Spirit in a casual order. They represent a progressive series from one point, and that one point is Love, the living, eternal seed from which all grow. We all know that Christians are baptized ‘into a life summed up in love,’ even though we have to spend the rest of our lives learning how to do it. Love, therefore, is the budding-point from which all the rest come: that tender, cherishing attitude; that unlimited self-forgetfulness, generosity and kindness which is the attitude of God to all His creatures; and so must be the attitude towards them which His Spirit brings forth in us. … To be unloving is to be out of touch with God. So the generous, cherishing, Divine Love, the indiscriminate delight in others, just or unjust, must be our model too. To come down to brass tacks, God loves the horrid man at the fish shop, and the tiresome woman in the next flat, and the disappointing Vicar … and the contractor who has cut down the row of trees we loved, to build a row of revolting bungalows. God loves, not tolerates, these wayward, half-grown, self-centred spirits, and seeks without ceasing to draw them into His love. And the first-fruit of His indwelling presence, the first sign that we are on His side, and He on ours, must be at least a tiny bud of this Charity breaking the hard and rigid outline of our life.”

Evelyn Underhill

Bad trips are not the result of indigestion, malevolent spirits, wrong dosage, or infelicitous set or setting. They are the result of personality disorders. As it says in the Theologica Germanica, “nothing burns in hell but self-will”.

Unless and until you burn away all trace of self-will, you will suffer mental and emotional distress, confusion, anxiety, paranoia, disturbing imagery, negative thought loops, nausea and physical discomfort. Plant medicines hold up a mirror to your ego, and an ugly ego is a frightful and fearful thing.

Beware of your ego. You will suffer in your own personal hell if you are a grandiose or covert narcissist; you will suffer if you are a sadist; you will suffer if you are borderline, dependent or obsessive-compulsive. There is always the possibility of redemption and healing, but the only way out is through: you must suffer into truth.

“And in this bringing back and healing, I can, or may, or shall do nothing of myself, but just simply yield to God, so that He alone may do all things in me and work, and I may suffer him and all his work and divine will. And because I will not do so, but I count myself to be my own, and say ‘I’, ‘Mine’, ‘Me’, and the like, God is hindered, so that he cannot do his work in me alone and without hindrance; for this cause my fall and my going astray remain unhealed. Behold! This all cometh of my claiming somewhat of my own.”

The Frankfurter

Sometimes apparently simple stories can have deep psychological significance. Consider the parable of the sower:

“Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:

And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:

But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.”

Mark 4: 3-7

What do these three lots of seeds represent? Jesus immediately expounds the hidden meaning to his disciples:

“The sower soweth the word.

And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;

And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended.

And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,

And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”

Mark 4: 15-19

So this allegorical story about a sower sowing seed on different types of ground is actually about imparting “seeds” of spiritual truth via “the word” in people’s hearts. The seeds fail to grow sufficiently to give fruit, signifying that the spiritual truth fails to produce any tangible results. Why? Not because there’s anything wrong with the seeds, but because the soil is bad. In other words, there’s something wrong with the human heart.

In the parable, Jesus describes three ways in which the heart is indisposed to receive his teaching. If what he describes is true to life, we shouldn’t be too surprised to find that these three unfruitful personality types actually correspond to modern psychological typologies.

Consider the classical clinical diagnosis of mental health patients into different personality disorders. Theodore Millon helpfully describes them in the following way:

Narcissists are “Egotistical, arrogant, grandiose, insouciant. Preoccupied with fantasies of success, beauty, or achievement, See themselves as admirable and superior, and therefore entitled to special treatment. Is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. Those with narcissistic personality disorder believe that they’re superior to others and have little regard for other’s feelings.”

Sadists are “Explosively hostile, abrasive, cruel, dogmatic. Liable to sudden outbursts of rage. Gain satisfaction through dominating, intimidating and humiliating others. They are opinionated and close-minded. Enjoy performing brutal acts on others. Find pleasure in abusing others. Would like to engage in sadomasochist relationship, but will not play the role of masochist.”

Dependents are “Helpless, incompetent, submissive, immature. Withdrawn from adult responsibilities. See themselves as weak or fragile. Seek constant reassurance from stronger figures. They have the need to be taken care of by a person. They fear being abandoned or separated from important people in their life.”

Obsessive-compulsives are “Restrained, conscientious, respectful, rigid. Maintain a rule-bound lifestyle. Adhere closely to social conventions. See the world in terms of regulations and hierarchies. See themselves as devoted, reliable, efficient, and productive.”

Borderlines are “Unpredictable, manipulative, unstable. Frantically fear abandonment and isolation. Experience fluctuating moods. Shift rapidly between loving and hating. See themselves and others as all-good or all-bad. Unstable and frequently changing moods. People with borderline personality disorder have a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships.”

Of the three types of “bad soil” in the parable of the sower, the first is typical of narcissistic personality disorder or sadistic personality disorder. In my psychological schema, these are represented by the Diva and Demon archetypes; the second is typical of dependent personality disorder, represented by the Victim and Addict archetypes; and the third is typical of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder or borderline personality disorder, represented by the Muggle and Muppet archetypes.

What about the “good soil”, that is, those people whose hearts are capable of receiving and nurturing spiritual truth and producing “good fruit”, that is, real, tangible results?

“…these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.”

Mark 4:20

Again, just as there are three types of bad ground, there are three types of good ground – some produce more fruit than others. What are these three good types? Let’s suppose that they would be the converse of the negative archetypes. We can imagine the following hierarchy:

Philosopher Kings produce “thirtyfold”.

Warrior Monks produce “sixty”.

Mystic Shamans produce “an hundred”.

When the raven was released from the ark, it didn’t come back. It was interested only in its own self-preservation. But the dove returned with an olive branch.

The ‘worldly-wise’ have no time for religion. They are too busy seeking their own advantage in the world. Worldly success is their highest value, and they use all the worldly arts at their disposal to secure it. But they have no wings to fly with.

The ‘birds of appetite’ on the other hand, do have time for religion. But they use it for their own ends, and twist it into the dark arts of occult self-aggrandizement. They pick at religion like a raven picking at a dove.

The ‘birds of appetite’ are divas. ‘Yapping dogs’ and ‘ignorant pigs’ are muppets and muggles.

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” (Matthew 7:6)

But neither should you give that which is holy unto the ravens.

In the shamanic universe, there are black magicians and there are white magicians. Black magicians use their powers for their own personal advantage and self-interest:

“You are seeking something along with God, and you are acting just as if you were to make a candle out of God in order to look for something with it. Once one finds the things one is looking for, one throws the candle away. This is what you are doing.” (Meister Eckhart)

White magicians don’t seek their own benefit, whether that be fame, riches, pleasure, power or influence. They don’t seek “something along with God”, but trust in God alone. Thus, the fruits of their work are not for themselves only but for the higher good.

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)

Why pray? Why meditate? Why work out? Why practice kundalini yoga? Why study religious or philosophical texts? Why go to church? Why have therapy? Why take psychedelics? For your own power and glory or for the glory of God?

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

When a trippy hippy says “All is One” the natural response is to roll your eyes. Yet there is no other way to say it. The universal message of a breakthrough mystical experience on psychedelics is just this: the world of separation and division is actually an illusion and the ultimate truth of reality and the ultimate meaning of life is contained in the fact that All is One.

But then what to do with this knowledge? When you come down from your high, that One seems to be very many separate people and things indeed. Soon the vision of the One is just a distant memory and ordinary everyday reality is just “one damn thing after another”. Either you just forget about it, or you keep the knowledge in your heart as a precious secret, jealously guarded against the scoffing and mockery of unbelieving cynics and skeptics.

Some people have a full-blown experience of this mysterious Unity of Being or Is-ness, which they might describe using more philosophical or religious language, depending on their background. Others will have only heard about it second-hand through the reports of mystics and more traditional religious channels, and will take it on trust (call it “faith”) even if what they actually believe is a little hazy.

Talk of the One is a very Greek way of talking, more specifically, very neo-Platonic. The more common religious term is “God”. So what do you do with the belief or certain knowledge that All is One or that All is God? How do you reconcile the One with the Many or God and the World?

At the very least, you try to live the best you can in the light of this knowledge, loving your neighbour as yourself, and so on and so forth. This “so on and so forth” is what is commonly called exoteric religion, or the Outer Mysteries. It is a complex of symbols, rituals and teachings designed to help you remember the One/God and is most concerned with, although obviously not limited to, moral conduct.

Some people are not satisfied with this “acting as if” and want to experience this All is One/All is God not once, not fleetingly, not vaguely, but over and over again, powerfully, incontrovertibly, ecstatically. They may follow a calling to dedicate themselves to prayer and meditation as a monastic. Or they may heed the call of psychedelics. Some will fail in this quest for the Holy Grail, the Beatific Vision, and some will succeed.

Those that succeed establish a cycle of remembering and forgetting, journeying back and forth between the One God and the the world of multiplicity. This is often expressed as a kind of death or ego death, as the separate self dissolves into the One, and a rebirth or resurrection, as the world reemerges with the freshness of a new creation. Here we are dealing with the Inner Mysteries, the esoteric, hidden teachings of religion.

Eventually the One and the Many become experienced in close succession, so that neither one nor the other is completely forgotten. This is described in religious terminology as “the practice of the presence of God”. Finally the One and the Many fuse in a nondual synthesis, where Samsara and Nirvana are not-two. It is the third step in Shankara’s famous formula, “the world is illusion; Brahman is the only reality; the world is Brahman”. Here there is no more doubt or confusion: Tat Tvam Asi (Thou Art That).

P.S. The living human organism that you call yourself is the bodymind of a unified Sovereign Self (Ras); the living planet on which your life unfolds is the bodymind of a unified World Soul (Gaia); the living universe in which this planet lives, moves and has its being is the bodymind of the One God (Jah).

The component parts of your bodymind are many but you are one; the component parts of the planet are many but the planet is one; the component parts of the universe are many but the universe is one.

To understand and experience that All is One and that All is God is to understand and experience an essential unity, not just that “everything is connected” or that “we’re all members of a very large set of things in a very large universe”, but that every bodymind, including your own, is both a whole (Ras) and a part of a greater bodymind (Gaia), which is a whole and a part of an even greater bodymind, whose ultimate unity is given by the Absolute Godhead (Jah).

From this nondual point of view, the universe is not God’s creation but God’s bodymind. And incredibly, we are able to identify with and merge with the higher unities of the one planet and the one universe in a mysterious and ineffable unio mystica. Who would have thought?

“The flight of the alone to the Alone” is to be alone before God. This is the essence of Christian Zen. The saint must walk alone.

In his essay ‘Self-Reliance’ Emerson wrote, “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” The Apostle Paul reminds us that whoso would be a Christian must also be a nonconformist. Any Christian who blindly accepts the opinions of the majority and in fear and timidity follows a path of expediency and social approval is a mental and spiritual slave.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

A conformist conforms to Babylon. He is a muggle slave, a muppet slave, an addict slave, a victim slave, sometimes a diva slave and a demon slave. Muggle slaves are the most recognisably conformist. They are slaves to things like social media, soaps, gossip, football, pop music and popular culture, and the strict demands of family and friends. Any deviation from the norm is curtailed through ridicule and peer pressure.

Muppet slaves are also conformists, while often deluding themselves that they are nonconformists. They are slaves to ideologies, often of a counter-cultural hue, whether political, philosophical, artistic, psychological, theosophical or religious. Many modern Westerners are slaves to a materialist worldview, which prevents them from straying beyond the narrow mental space delimited by the natural sciences. Others are slaves to the latest trends in the culture war. The defining features of muppet slaves are dogmatic fundamentalism and cultishness; they are easily identified by their fighting talk and tone of strident self-righteousness.

Addict slaves are slaves to the passions, both substance and behavioural addicts, slaves to alcohol, weed, sugar, nicotine, smart phones, box sets, shopping, gambling, sex. Victim slaves are constantly haunted by a victim mentality, and labour under persecution complexes and conspiracy theories. Certain minority ethnic groups, such as African Americans and secular Jews, are particularly prone to this form of mental slavery. It is also ubiquitous among radical feminists and those who fly the LGBTQ+ flag.

Fear God and you will fear no man. The fear of God is both the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of freedom, freedom from mental and spiritual slavery to man-made idols. Bob Marley sang, “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, only ourselves can free our minds.” But the enslaved mind cannot free itself. Only God can do that.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Romans 8:15

It makes no sense to ask whether Jesus actually rose from the dead on the first Easter.

All religious stories, maxims, doctrines, come from the religious imagination.

And what is the religious imagination but the mind of God?

And what is sacred scripture but the word of God?

If you think that the products of the imagination are human-all-too-human, man-made, made up, you don’t get it.

Where is God if not in the numinous, the mysterium tremendum et fascinans?

The religious imagination is the only possible interface between God and Man:

The kingdom of God is within you.

But why should I believe any of it? I hear you ask.

Well, faith is also part of the religious imagination.

Ye of little faith, where is your imagination?

Where is your God?

Love of the World = Storge + Philia + Eros = Babylon

Love of God = Agape + Philia + Eros = Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Beyond Babylon is Gaia; beyond Heaven is Jah.

Approach Jah in Heaven and return to the Source;

Approach Gaia in Earth and remember your Original Face.

Outside Babylon is Zen, Satori, Enlightenment, Salvation.

What is Babylon?

Disconnected from Jah and Gaia, Ba is Babylon:

Ba, Babel, Babble, Babylon.

When you have Gaia and Jah, you also have Ba.

Who needs Babylon?

I’m not here to make improvements to the Matrix,

But to help people out.

“Turn on, tune in, drop out.

My kingdom is not of this world.”