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Sharpen the Swords You Have

Sharpen the Swords You Have

Last updated on: November 2, 2023 at 3:00 am by John Beckett

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Sharpen the Swords You Have 2023-11-01T18:09:44-06:00 John Beckett

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I had last Saturday circled on my calendar since the beginning of the year. Not only was it a full moon, it was a full moon three days before Samhain, and it was on a Saturday.

That we often move our spiritual celebrations and magical workings to dates convenient for the ordinary world is unfortunate, but also necessary. In any case, a full moon on a Saturday is not to be wasted.

I had a vague idea of what I wanted (and needed) to do when I first noticed the date, but I had no specific plans. Various ideas came and went during the year. As I sat at the kitchen table with two friends who came over for dinner and to help with the working, I still had no clear plan for what to do or how to do it.

This is not good. Magic works best when it has a clearly defined, narrowly focused target, and a plan for how to bring it into existence.

But as I’ve written here on numerous occasions, when you only have a vague idea of what you want, take a step in that direction. And so I did.

Or rather, I took another step in that direction. This journey started long ago. This part of the journey started at last year’s Samhain, was amplified at this year’s Austin Witchfest, and was confirmed when I asked for help with the working. I could have called it off – and I gave serious thought to doing that – but at the end of the day, either you want something enough to keep moving toward it, or you don’t. I did.

What happened is deeply personal. I may write about it at some point in the future, or I may not. For now I’ll just say that the working was a significant step on this journey. It crossed a line that needed to be crossed.

But there’s one part of what happened Saturday night that I can share and need to share. During the course of the working, I received a message from a person who I do not name but who I have found to be trustworthy and whose goals are in alignment with my own. This message is specifically for me, but it is likely relevant to many of you.

“Sharpen the swords you have.”

swords in Edinburgh Castle

The ordinary world continues to grow chaotic

If I listed all the ways the ordinary world is getting more and more chaotic and dangerous it would take up the whole post, and would only serve to dishearten all of us.

The world has been chaotic and dangerous throughout history. Some of us have expectations colored by a few years of peace and prosperity in the late 1990s (“the end of history”) and a bit of progress and optimism in the mid 2010s. We thought we could go to brunch and leave the running of society to others. We couldn’t in 2016, we couldn’t in 2020, we can’t in 2023, and we certainly can’t in 2024. Or in any other year to come.

The fact that you are not currently suffering in the world’s wars and oppressions doesn’t mean that others aren’t. More relevantly to this post, that doesn’t mean you won’t be suffering in them (or in a different war or oppression, or in some new form of cruelty and injustice) at some point in the future.

Use the time you have to prepare, not to stick your head in the sand and pretend “it can’t happen here” or “it can’t happen to me.” That’s the kind of thinking that got us the Dobbs decision, “don’t say gay” laws, book bans, mass shootings, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ harassment, and Texas counties trying to prosecute people for leaving the state to access abortions.

This isn’t a temporary thing. It’s not something that can be fixed with one election, or two, or ten. It’s a fight our ancestors began long ago that our children will be fighting in years to come.

And at this point in time, the fight is ours.

The Otherworld is still in conflict

Christianity teaches that their Heaven is a place of perfection and peace, but their own mythology says there was once a war there – a war that ended with Lucifer being expelled. The Celtic Otherworld is a place not unlike our own, where battles between conflicting parties happen from time to time. Whether there are many Otherworlds or – as I suspect – there is one Otherworld with many realms, it is not free from conflict.

We discussed this in some depth in March. I’ve haven’t heard much about it since from living humans or from others. Until recently. Now what I’m hearing is bigger and louder.

Our atheist friends tell us that blaming conflict on spiritual persons is avoiding taking responsibility for our individual and collective actions. Many times they’re right. But not always. Those of us whose experiences and reasoning have led us to accept the reality of Gods and spirits do ourselves a disservice when we dismiss their agency and assume they have no part to play in the wider world. Or worse, when we ignore the stories of our ancestors – and often, our own experiences – which tell us such spiritual persons have their own values and goals, which are not always in alignment with our own.

We need not excuse human hatred, violence, and destruction to recognize that spiritual persons often have a hand in such affairs. Or at least, that they use such activities to further their own goals.

Which is a long way of saying that we are in the Grand Game whether we want to be or not. Best we pay attention and use our time wisely.

ancient swords in the National Museum of Scotland

“Those without swords can still die upon them”

My favorite Tolkien quote comes from Eowyn in The Two Towers: “the women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them.” Well, perhaps not my favorite, but certainly the one I find most prescient.

A battle avoided is a battle won, and I do my best to avoid unnecessary conflict… especially on social media, where so many arguments are like the cliché about wrestling a pig: you get covered in shit and the pig likes it.

But sometimes the battle comes to you. Or it comes to someone you care deeply about. And then you have no choice but to fight… whatever “fighting” means in that context.

This is a good time to point out that in World War I, two thirds of American service members were combat troops. It today’s military, only about 20% are in combat-related roles. I have no figures for the kind of social, political, and spiritual conflicts we’re in today, but I do know the Morrigan calls more than warriors. Many of my Brigidine friends are “making soup” – doing what is necessary to care for the (spiritually, politically, physically) wounded and to provide hospitality for those who need it.

Perhaps your calling is not to swing a sword, but to make swords, or to feed the swordspeople, or to bandage sword wounds.

Whatever your skill or weapon, sharpen it now.

Chaos brings opportunities

Order makes things predictable, and thus makes it easier to plan for the future. Order lets you eliminate redundancies and live more efficiently. I like order.

But also, order can lead to stagnation. Order can fix unfair and unjust systems in place with no way for those impacted by them to escape, and no motivation for those who benefit from them to change.

Chaos turns all that upside down. Chaos breaks the old order and forces us to build a new order. It harms many – as we see in countries that have revolution after revolution – but it creates opportunities for some.

The opportunities chaos creates are not distributed evenly or fairly. Yes, fortune favors the bold, but it also favors the strong, the intelligent, the diligent, the well-connected, and especially those who are paying attention.

Are you paying attention to the opportunities that may be in front of you, either now or in the future? Watch, listen, evaluate, and then act – and act quickly. The biggest opportunities do not remain open for long.

What swords do you have, now?

There’s a saying among photographers: the best camera is the one you have with you when you see something you want to photograph. The phone in your pocket is better than the DSLR at home. And the DSLR at home is better than the new full frame mirrorless camera you can’t afford.

Prairie Creek Falls. Taken with an iPhone, because it’s what I had with me when I was walking there.

The best weapon is the one you have with you when you need it.

What weapons do you have, now? What magical skills do you have, now? What crafting skills, social skills, organizational skills, leadership skills do you have, now?

Sharpen them.

Clean them.

Practice with them.

Get good with them.

If you need something else, by all means begin the process of obtaining it, whether you’re talking about a physical item, a resource, a skill, or anything else. The sooner you start the sooner you’ll have it.

But don’t wait until you have exactly what you need. Don’t wait until you finish this or complete that or until a situation is clarified. If you wait until the time is right, you’ll be waiting forever. Or at least, until that army of orcs overruns your fortress.

Sharpen the swords you have.

Now.

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