“Self-actualization
is for people with nothing better to do—people who don’t know their
personal myth or deeper purpose in life.”
This path
is something entirely different. It is for those who feel a deep, inner
calling of the soul to align with something higher.
The very essence of this work is a battle between your soul and your ego.
And that is only the beginning.
We are in a spiritual war. And more and more people are beginning to recognize and name it for what it is.
Christians, in particular, often quote Ephesians 6:12:
“For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
But spiritual warfare is not only external. The real battle is fought within.
That’s where most people, even those quoting scripture, miss the mark.
We
are not just victims of evil “out there.” We are also conduits through
which these forces operate, especially when we remain unconscious of our
inner fragmentation, childhood wounds, trauma, and shadow material.
Many,
particularly dogmatic religious types, tend to view it all in
simplistic, black-and-white terms. They label anything outside their
doctrine as “demonic,” often in the most overgeneralized and reactive
ways.
In doing so, they externalize evil onto others without recognizing how these same spiritual forces of darkness are also at work within and through them.
The Hidden War and The Problem of Evil
This is an occult (hidden) war, and it operates through us.
Dark forces often hide behind masks of the “virtuous,” the “good,” and the “moral.”
They feed on grandiosity, self-importance, self-pity, and victim consciousness.
The
spiritual work necessary to anchor the Divine Force is a battle against
darkness and ignorance, and these forces work in the most deceptive
ways, disguising themselves within your own psyche.
Many masters, including enlightened ones like Sri Aurobindo, have clearly recognized and spoken about this reality:
“Accepting
life, [the spiritual warrior] has to bear not only his own burden, but a
great part of the world’s burden too, along with it, as a continuation
of his own sufficiently heavy load.
Therefore, his Work has much
more of the nature of a battle than others; but this is not only an
individual battle, it is a collective war waged over a considerable
country.
He has not only to conquer in himself the forces of
egoistic falsehood and disorder, but to conquer them as representatives
of the same adverse and inexhaustible forces in the world. Their
representative character gives them a much more obstinate capacity of
resistance, an almost endless right to recurrence.
Often he finds
that even after he has won persistently his own personal battle, he has
still to win it over and over again in a seemingly interminable war,
because his inner existence has already been so much enlarged that not
only it contains his own being with its well-defined needs and
experiences, but is in solidarity with the being of others, because in
himself he contains the universe.”
– Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga
That is not “bad vibes” or “negative” language.
It is reality seen from a higher spiritual vantage point, beyond sentimentality or preference.
The problem is that many people misunderstand the word war or unconsciously project their unresolved wounds and fears onto it.
From a Jungian perspective, discomfort with the word warrior
or the language of battle often reveals a shadow issue. It may point to
unprocessed trauma (including past life trauma) or unconscious fears
that are being bypassed.
This is not about glorifying violence, being “tough”, or adopting a macho stance.
But
neither is it about ignoring the very real battle we are in, both
within and without, with unseen forces that actively seek to block us
from purifying, awakening, and aligning with the Divine.
There is also a deeper distortion in the belief that we must abandon “war-like” language in order to evolve spiritually.
This is one of the central New Age traps that Sri Aurobindo warned against, especially in Essays on the Gita, where he critiques spiritual pacifism and the refusal to engage with evil.
As both he and Rudolf Steiner emphasized, the problem of evil — its reality, its cosmic function, and our response to it — is one of the defining challenges of our time.
And it must be recognized in the world, faced within ourselves, and understood for the teaching function it entails.
Not
everyone is called to the path of the spiritual warrior. However, those
who are willing must be prepared to engage in both the outer and inner
battles with sincerity, courage, and humility.
Why Differentiation Is Essential in the Spiritual War
As Sri Aurobindo said, “This is not only an individual battle, it is a collective war waged over a considerable country.”
Why is that?
Because
once your consciousness expands through sincere inner work, you will
inevitably come into contact with various forces and beings that are
battling over humanity. You do not live in a solipsistic vacuum.
This is an ancient battle that moves through us, and it has reached its peak at the end of this Kali Yuga..
It is therefore imperative to understand the forces you are subjected to, so you can consciously choose what to align yourself with, and not be deceived by the veil of light, spiritual pride, imposter spirits, or the Luciferic temptation.
Caught
in the mind-prison of materialistic reality, we assume that we alone
are the creators of our thoughts, desires, feelings, and actions.
Yet
the sense of a fixed, independent identity, separate from everything
else, is the greatest illusion and spell we have fallen under.
Forces
and beings from higher and lower realms, elementals, the forces of
nature, collective suggestions, karmic and evolutionary currents, and
the thoughts, emotions, and energy of other people are constantly moving
through us.
They influence our behavior, identity, and life direction far more than we realize.
At the same time, you are affected by unconscious drives within yourself.
These
include inner child parts, sub-personalities, suppressed shadow
aspects, trauma imprints, Animus or Anima projections, and conditioning
from your parents, ancestors, society, culture, and religion.
All
of these shape how you perceive yourself, others, and the world, and
they influence your desires, relationships, and life goals, for better
or worse.
So who is the real “you” in the midst of all this?
A
spiritual warrior must learn to differentiate, identify what is arising
within, where it comes from, and consciously choose what to align with.
The Call of the Spiritual Warrior in the Time of Transition
Ancient
non-physical beings have been battling over humanity for thousands of
years. These unseen forces still contend for influence over the human
soul, and each of us stands at the center of that battle.
The great bifurcation of humanity is accelerating. The splitting and polarization are intensifying.
This Time of Transition is an initiation, and the outcome is not guaranteed.
If human beings truly understood what is at stake, they would drop all distractions and focus on what matters most.
Many are called, yet few choose to answer the call.
As
more people lose themselves in disembodiment, distraction, and unseen
influence, the call to reclaim sovereignty and align with the Divine and
Dharma has never been more urgent.
As the veil thins, it becomes
imperative for anyone on a sincere path of awakening to understand the
deeper spiritual realities in which we are embedded, and the forces that
influence us, so we can discern what we consciously align with, both
within and without.
If you still believe that “waking up” is just
about exposing conspiracies and arresting all the “bad guys,” or
eliminating evil externally, you are severely mistaken.
Nor is it about ignoring evil, taking the philosophical “non-duality” bypass, and focusing only on “love and light.”
All
of these assumptions reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of evil,
particularly its cosmic function as a force of ignorance, and what is
truly required to eliminate it for good.
You cannot move toward a
higher consciousness until you have sincerely faced the darkness, both
within yourself and in the world.
Anything less is avoidance.
Anything
less becomes a spiritual persona, a mask made of beautiful words,
quotes, and ideas about what you think it means to be “spiritual.”
This
is one of the core problems in New Age and pop-spirituality today. It
also mirrors the deeper corruption of religion and the loss of esoteric
truth in modern spirituality.
God is peace. But God is also war.
No one escapes the Law of Ascent and Descent,
not the individual, and not the collective. I’ve explored this before
in my work, and its effects are becoming more apparent and intense in
our current time.
It requires a descent into darkness before there can be a real ascent into embodied higher consciousness.
“The
higher one rises, the farther one is pulled down. Evolution does not
move higher and higher, into an ever more heavenly heaven, but deeper
and deeper.
Each evolutionary cycle closes a little lower, a
little nearer to the Center where the supreme High and Low, heaven and
earth, will finally meet. The more Light the seeker possesses, the more
darkness he uncovers.”
– Satprem
The nature of
true transformation is a battle, but its successful outcome is glorious,
magnificent, and beyond what the mind can comprehend.
That’s why
the spiritual warrior who serves the Divine with sincerity, humility,
and courage, without blame or complaint, and who is rooted in the true
Self and aligned with purpose through sincere psycho-spiritual work,
does more to uplift humanity and the collective consciousness than
millions who fight shadows on the wall, unaware of the deeper forces at
play and disconnected from their true nature.
Godspeed.
From veilofreality.com
By Bernhard Guenther, October 9, 2025
