(… continuing)

Marr was annoyed at Dukk’s comment. She felt judged. “I am choosing my path. I am not under anyone’s wing!”
Dukk sensed his mistake. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. Let me apologise, take that back and go somewhere else.”
“Apology accepted. So what do you want to know?
“Tell me of your war?”
“What do you mean?”
“Where is it at?”
“Let me answer that in a roundabout way. There is this children’s story, long since banned, often referred to as Hansel and Gretel and popularised by the Brothers Grimm.”
Dukk interrupted. “That rings a bell. Isn’t it an odd story about a poor man and a woman, leaving two children, Hansel and Gretel, in a forest to die because the woman thinks they will all starve if they keep the children? The children overhear the man and woman and try to take measures to get back to the house. It doesn’t work and they end up abandoned and lost in the woods. They then come across a house made of candy and cakes. The owner of the house welcomes them but tricks them as she is a witch. The witch cages Hansel and plans to fatten him up to eat. The witch puts Gretel to work helping in the house and helping to feed Hansel. Then Gretel tricks the witch and pushes her into the oven. They escape, return to their home, and live happily ever after. That story?”
“How that you know about it, is baffling. But, yes, that is the story.”
“How is this related to your war?”
“So, first we need to agree on what the characters in the story represent. The man and woman represent the masculine and the feminine, over the course of multiple generations. The order and chaos. The yin and the yang. As a generalisation you could say the masculine represents the ideas of industriousness, assertiveness, and curiosity for the abstract. The feminine, you could say, represents the ideas of compassion, politeness, withdrawal, and volatility. Between them, they share orderliness, enthusiasm, and openness. Being older they represent the hardened forms of these traits. As for, Hansel and Gretel, the children represent the younger form of the masculine and the feminine. Also, over multiple generations. The younger form has more potential to create and innovate. It is less corrupted or poisoned by the hard truths of reality.”
“Ok, and what about the witch?”
“The witch represents the potential for corruption. The dangers lurking for the naive. Our lesser selves.”
“Got it.”
“So, let’s look at the start of the story with the family in the house. The story mentions famine and scarcity. Daily needs are not being met. Our needs are not just food and water. We also need meaning and purpose. An absence of that opens us up to corruption. The corruption blocks our potential. It blocks curiosity of the unknown. It prevents us from seeing contradiction and therefore growth. We abandon reason and compassion. We only seek confirmation of what we already know. We try desperately to hold on to what worked before. We consume. We no longer create. We defend that position even if we know that it will eventually destroy us. The man and the woman see the children as a threat to this position. This all represents a society that has become overly burdened by having, rather than being. A society that is too focused on what one has, not who one is. When a society reaches this state, many can be manipulated easily to think they are threatened by everything, even that which is innocent and teeming with the potential to create.”
“That was the society before The Reset?”
“Exactly.”
“So how does the remainder of the story fit?”
“So, the man and the woman take the children into the woods. They look to abandon them, cast them out. Free themselves of the burden. This represents society turning its back on learning. Using everything, for the sake of frivolous pursuits.”
“And what of the children trying to get back. Leaving bread crumbs and the like?”
“Yes, they try to return to their home, twice. The first failed attempt represents two things. Firstly, it represents the innocence of the young, and their willingness to cling blindly to limiting beliefs. Secondly, the first failed attempt also represents a society that has gone too far down the path of corruption. A society that will lie and cheat to protect what it has become, even if that which it has become is rotten at its core.”
“And the second attempt?”
“The second attempt to get back home represents overconfidence by the young. They can’t go back, yet. They need to learn and overcome their impulsiveness and arrogance.”
“And what of the next part, the wandering of the woods and finding of the witch’s house?”
“The time in the woods and the discovery of the witch’s house, represents attempts by the naive to find a new path, to return to the safety they had before.”
“The Reset?”
“Precisely.”
“But that led to war and destruction, followed by authoritarianism. The world we have today. Where does that fit into your war?”
“Arriving at the witch’s house and her taking them in, represents the establishment of the citadels. The people on Earth were sold the citadels on the notion of keeping them safe, right?”
Dukk laughed. “So the citadels are made of candy?”
“No, not literally, metaphorically,” Marr laughed. “The eco-zones with citadels at the centre, the candy houses, were presented as utopia. The perceived places of pure goodness. A perceived place that would provide for all one’s needs. A perceived place where all could be safe.”
“Oh, and we are still in the witch’s house? The witch represents the overlords. The observers and the EOs?”
“Yes, but don’t forget that the witch also represents our lesser selves. We are held back by our own darker side as well. You could even say that there is no witch, just the darker side of ourselves. This is where the evil truly resides.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Hope counters evil. True evil exists in only one place. That place is the intentional removal of choice, either within ourselves or for others. I bring an unnecessary weight to myself that I must carry, or I put myself under a perpetual cloud, when I relinquish my willingness to choose or when I intentionally take choice away from another. That weight is incredibly hard to put down. That cloud is incredibly hard to step out from under. Existing in this place is hell. It is pure evil that put me there. Only I can open that door for myself. Only I can step through it. Only I can bring myself back. Only I can close that door. When there is hope I step away from evil. I embrace choice. I embrace action that ensures others also have choice. This is heaven.”
“Wow! That will need some more thinking. Anyway, if there is no witch, who enslaves them. Who puts Hansel in a cage and Gretel to work?”
“They do it to themselves by embracing elements of themselves in unbalanced measures. Gretel becomes consumed by order. She is constantly making, fixing, and doing. She is always working, never stopping. She takes no time to just be. This dedication to order, while commendable in a way, will consume them both and everything around them. Hansel has created a different sort of enslavement. He has chosen self neglect, and total self-preoccupation. He is living with, and like the animals, in a cage of his own making. A cage of chaos. A dedication that will waste his time and bring no fruits. He will amount to nothing.”
“Interesting, so if there is no witch, is there still a candy house?”
“Well, the candy house represents the naive utopian ideals. These ideals are divorced from reality. These ideals suggest that good things come to all, simply because they want it to be that way. In reality, good things require toil and sacrifice. The candy house also speaks to the notion of entitlement. The appearance of the witch just as they start to eat, illustrates what can happen when we become comfortable and start to feel entitled. Our darker and lesser selves come to the surface. We strive to protect what we feel is our right. We lose sight of what is truly important.”
“I need to think about that a little more. What about the oven?”
“Great question. In the story, Gretel tricks the witch and pushes her into the oven. You could say that Gretel becomes self-aware. She grows up. She tricks her lesser self and is freed of her own enslavement. The witch going into the oven symbolises this shift.”
“What about Hansel? Doesn’t Gretel open his cage and free him?”
“Yes, you could say that Gretel uses her awakened state to shine a light on what Hansel has become. To help him see himself. This awakens Hansel from his enslavement. This opens the door on his cage.”
“Fine, so now to return to balance, the masculine and feminine must be woken and potential for corruption, the witch, pushed into the oven?”
Marr laughed. “Now, you are getting it!”
“So what happens next, when the witch is defeated. Does this war have a happy ending, like the children’s story?”
“Let’s go back to the story. At the end of the tale, the children find their home again. The search for their home has meaning too. Defeating the witch is only the start of the end. They must find their truth, their strengths before they can find home. That process started when they were in the witch’s house. The journey home is where that process completes. Remember that the journey includes crossing a river and getting help from a swan. The river represents the void one must cross to gain wisdom.”
“And the swan?”
“The swan can't carry them both at the same time. Crossing separately, suggests that order and chaos have to find their own path, individually, before they reach their full potential.”
“And then they get home?”
“Yes, and when they do, they find the woman is dead and the man is heartbroken. This represents the end of the old society. The corruption consumes itself. What is left is very little.”
“That doesn’t sound happy?”
“You are forgetting that Hansel and Gretel brought back spoils. They took pearls and precious stones from the witch. These spoils represent the wisdom they gained from the experience of fighting back the dangers, the dark and corrupt side of our experience. It is that wisdom that will help them build on what is left and return to thriving.”
“But the woman is dead?”
“Yes, the elements of old chaos are gone, and only fragments of industriousness, assertiveness, and curiosity for the abstract, remain. Just some elements of order. Elements needed to embrace the potential again. But remember, Hansel and Gretel also represent order and chaos, just a younger version. Using what is left of old order, culture, the man, they can work to bring back balance.”
“I like the sound of that, working to bring back balance,” Dukk said smiling. “Speaking of work, it is time we got back to it. It is nearly four p.m.. Shall we get going?”
“Absolutely. Let’s go,” Marr answered, smiling and holding his stare.

(to be continued...)

[Rule of Twelve, Double Take, Chapter 20 - Groundwork (Passage 4 of 5)]

All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2022 BJ Allen