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Normally we will not discharge our Loyal Soldier until our Loyal Soldier shows itself to be wanting, incapable, inadequate for the real issues of life—as when we confront love, death, suffering, subtlety, sin, mystery, and so on. It is another form of the falling and dying that we keep talking about. The world mythologies all point to places like Hades, Sheol, hell, purgatory, the realm of the dead. Even Jesus, if we are to believe the “Apostles’ Creed” of the church, “descended into hell” before he ascended into heaven. Maybe these are not so much alternatives to heaven as the necessary paths to heaven.
When you discharge your Loyal Soldier, it will feel like a loss of faith or loss of self. But it is only the death of the False Self, and is often the very birth of the soul. Instead of being ego-driven, you will begin to be soul-drawn.
The wisdom and guidance you will need to cross this chasm will be like Charon ferrying you across the river Styx, or Hermes guiding the soul across all scary boundaries, or Michael the Archangel slaying your demons. These are your authentic soul friends, and we sometimes call them spiritual directors or elders. Celtic Christianity called them anam chara.
Remember that Hercules, Orpheus, Aeneas, Psyche, Odysseus, and Jesus all traveled into realms of the dead—and returned! When the Apostles’ Creed says that Jesus “descended into hell,” this means that he destroyed hell. Once Christ is there, it is no longer hell but heaven! Even Pope Benedict said that in his commentary on the Creed.
Adapted from
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life,
pp. 49-50
Gateway to Silence:
The war has ended. Go in peace.
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