Satan is Within

This is a conversation that took place on Facebook with my friend, Mariolga, after I posted a link to the previous blog post.

Mariolga: David and I have discussed this quite a bit. Christ goes into more detail in the Book of Matthew (Matthew 13:24-43.) It helps us to refine our understanding of the Harvest spoken about in the Apocryphon of John (Revelation.)  There is much confusion that the enemy has sewn in regards to the Harvest.

Me: I don't completely understand the "enemy" part of your comment. Could you please expound? 

I tend to think we often are our own worst enemy with the many thoughts and beliefs that don't serve our highest good like, 

"I wish I was as pretty as her." 

"I'm fat and ugly."

"I want that and that and that."

"I wish I could fit in." 

"No one can be trusted."

"I'm not good enough."

"I hate myself."

Just as God is within, so is the enemy....the shadow self that threatens to take us down into the depths of misery and hopelessness. 

Everything outside of us, first starts within us.

Mari: In the scripture cited above (Matthew 13:39), it tells us the enemy is the devil (AKA, the great dragon, the old serpent also called Satan and the Devil. Rev.12:9). 

Somebody once said, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

Me: See, I can see that metaphorically. The roar and fire of the dragon can exist in all of us. To not be aware of his/her presence means he remains neglected and wild. There is danger of the dragon taking over when we least expect it and incinerating everything in it's path. You knew me as my dragon self and I roared and burned those around me with no regard for them whatsoever. I know I burned you with the fire of my words and I regret unleashing the untamed beast within me in such a way.

But I gave my dragon inside love, attention and understanding and tamed their volatile tendencies by giving them tools to make different and better choices.

My dragon is my strength in her tamed state. She no longer seeks to destroy all who get in her way or when they upset her. Now that fiery serpent is my ally and friend. I talk to her and  help her through difficult moments. And when I struggle, she lends me her strength to help me stand strong when I feel I might crumble.

I have no sense of an outside force I need to battle. My battle was within and now we live together in harmony and love.

Art by rt0no

I looked up the Bible passages my friend suggested and will insert my thoughts in bold.

Matthew 13:24-30 (NIV)

24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

Thoughts are things and someone who is "sleeping" unconsciously creates. While we are sleeping, we sow seeds of the enemy within...our millions of unconscious thoughts and beliefs.

27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

Here the servants within ask what is to be done. But you have to let the weeds grow and then take a magnifying glass and look inside to identify the weeds...the patterns of self destructive behaviors and beliefs by looking at the whole of our lives and past lives.

29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

When we sift through our lives with self reflection as our sieve, we make the unconscious, conscious, we identify the weeds and pull them one by one and replace them with new thoughts and beliefs. We remove all that was never really us at our core and become our purest and truest version of ourselves. We are panning for the gold within ourselves and clearing out all that prevents us from shining and making the gold visible to the outside world.

We are then able to stand naked and pure in the garden without shame or trying to hide.

Art by Liza Lambertini

Matthew 13:36-43 (NIV)

36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

As within, so without.

The external population reflects our internal population. Sadly, it is easy to use words that people misunderstand. "The devil" and "the enemy" to us are our own false beliefs and unconscious thoughts. They are the things we are taught directly or indirectly through reinforcement that leads us to a place of self-loathing, insecurity, self harm and defensiveness. It is the untamed beast within who reins freely. 

Our beast is the army that we approach each other with and why real connection is now rare. We are all armed and ready to neutralize potential threats. The beast is the shadow self begging to have all of those damaged and wounded places inside us seen, acknowledged, understood and loved.

Darkness and the shadow isn't an enemy we need to destroy. When we tame the dragon by teaching them all we know and help them, love them, they can become our best friend and trusted ally.

Darkness is half of duality, the sacred feminine, it is half of us and yet you think it needs to be destroyed. Darkness untamed is a rage that destroys until you hold her close and say, "I'm sorry I neglected you. I love you. Please come sit beside me so you are never forgotten again."

40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

September 11, 2019 Heard in the in-between, "My ears have been opened to hear and my mind has been opened to see."

This Bible passage is ALL about transformation. It is all about purification and burning away all that which is not us and no longer serves us. It is the fires of purification, the tower moments that cause us to fall apart. But sometimes, when we break, we are breaking down old thoughts, patterns and beliefs and can leave them out when we put ourselves back together.

We ARE the angels that have been sent out to destroy the parts of ourselves that are doing more harm than good. The journey back to self, if we are brutally honest and genuinely want to change, is the hardest journey we will ever experience. It will cause thousands of versions of self to die off and each death is painful. You will be left in a puddle of your own emotional blood, having to rise over and over, each rising leaving you more weary than the last. 

At the end of it all, we are not the same people we were before. We are better with our new tools of communication and perspective that helps us get the lessons from every situation. We are less reactive and can now pause before we act and respond. We can stop and think, "When I was like them, what did I need to hear? What did I need to experience? How would I want to be treated if I were them?"

Art by Omar Rayyan

Revelation 12:9 (NIV)

9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

The great error of the Bible is wording that makes it seem like there is an outside force making us do anything.

Satan is within...just as God is within.

The sooner we embrace them both as two sides of the same coin that is us, the sooner peace and harmony will manifest into our outer reality. When we try to blame some outside-of-self force, we divorce ourselves into a state of separated duality. We create a bi-polar world where we think there is a great battle where we are always battling each other. And so our reality is full of chaos and war.

Without embracing and loving our darkness and lightness equally, we will always be divided.. inside and outside.

In order to truly know and love ourselves, we have to love both the light and dark within. In order to ever be balanced we have to show acceptance for the whole and take responsibility for all that we manifest in our individual realities and stop blaming it on any outside beings.

Art by Justin Gerard

We ARE our own savior's and heros.

Satan is within.

I love my mighty dragon deeply.

Satan and God sit on my heart throne together as one united being and rule from a place of love, wisdom and balance.