The Path of the Warrior-Mystic: Being a Man in an Age of Chaos by Angel Millar (

Description: The Path of the Warrior-Mystic by Angel Millar Takes you on a journey to cultivate yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually to become the archetypal Higher Man FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Takes you on a journey to cultivate yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually to become the archetypal Higher Man • Explores the archetypal and classical male ideal found in ancient societies around the world • Examines some of the problems facing men in the world today and shares practices to develop yourself in the face of these problems • Provides techniques for developing your thinking and focus, overcoming fear, relaxing tension in your body, and developing a self-image more appropriate to who you are and aspire to be Ancient and classical societies have always had an ideal of manhood. In Japan, the samurai cultivated not only the art of the sword but also poetry, calligraphy, and spiritual practice. In Confucianism, the ideal man was the Chun-Tzu (the Higher Man), who cultivated both the arts of war and the arts of peace. And in medieval Europe, the knight lived by the comparable code of chivalry. Such men, considered both warriors and mystics, exempli ed wholeness. Yet today, men exist in a chaotic world without role models, guidance, or a sense of the sacred masculine.Exploring how to reconnect with the archetypal male ideal and develop the different sides of your being, author Angel Millar offers a journey of self-development to help cultivate yourself as a whole--mentally, physically, and spiritually. He examines some of the problems facing men in the world today--lack of strong friendships, distractingtechnology, constant criticism--and shares practices to develop yourself in the face of these problems. He shares techniques for enhancing your focus, overcoming fear, integrating your shadow, developing inner silence, and creating a self-image more appropriate to who you are and who you aspire to be. He also explores the importance of relaxing tension in your body to help you break free from pattern-induced behavior and self-defeating thoughts embedded through muscle memory.Examining in uential gures both contemporary and historical like Steve Jobs and Swami Vivekananda, powerful myths from East and West such as the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, warrior and brotherhood traditions as well as literature and fine art, this guide will help you discover your inner sacred masculine, a better understanding of the world and your place in it, and ultimately how to become a confident, strong, and dynamic contemporary higher man and a leader in your own life. Author Biography Angel Millar is a well-known lecturer on initiation, symbolism, and self-development as well as an artist and student of the martial arts. The author of several books, including Three Stages of Initiatic Spirituality, he lives in New York City. Table of Contents Introduction 1 The Dual Quality of the Warrior 2 Noble Friendship 3 The Necessary Work 4 From Obstacle to Accomplishment 5 The Discipline of Positive Thinking 6 Developing a Powerful Self-Image 7 Fear and the Higher Self 8 Venturing into the Great Unknown 9 The Mechanical World and the Primordial World 10 Technological Noise and Inner Silence 11 Sex, Orgasm, and Death 12 The Warrior and the Creative Individual 13 Arise, the Higher Individual Notes Bibliography About the Author Index Review "Busting all categories and conventions, Angel Millar creates a new code of masculine development by uniting contemporary needs with esoteric wisdom to reintroduce honor, purpose, accountability, ethics, and effort into a culture that has astoundingly degraded or forgotten these ideals. As steeped in magic, rite, and hidden history as he is in good sense, Angel delivers the book on positive manhood for which our culture has been yearning. Cynics will never forgive him." * Mitch Horowitz, PEN Award–winning author of Occult America and The Miracle Club *"In his impressively researched book, Angel Millar takes us step by step on a journey to authenticity. Citing images and examples from myth, art, and religion, he shows us men how to grow into our highest expression as males of both strength and uncompromising insight." * Will Johnson, author of Rumis Four Essential Practices and Breathing through the Whole Body *"Throughout the ages, and in most traditional civilizations, there exists a masculine ideal: that of the warrior-poet, or warriormystic, who has been initiated into both the worlds of action and contemplation--the harmony of pen and sword. However, during our age of chaos, masculinity as an ideal is no longer recognized but actively demonized by the forces of deconstruction and distraction, and hence, many modern men are lost in a wasteland devoid of meaning, balance, and higher ideals. Angel Millar has taken upon himself the noble task of helping to restore this lost balance, and his book offers both traditional wisdom and sage practical advice specific to our time on how to re-embrace the heroic, perennial masculine ideal." * Aki Cederberg, author of Journeys in the Kali Yuga *"A comprehensive and intelligently written book on a topic of vital importance: the development of psychologically and spiritually healthy men living in the complex age of the early twenty-first century." * P. T. Mistlberger, author of The Way of the Conscious Warrior * Review Quote "Busting all categories and conventions, Angel Millar creates a new code of masculine development by uniting contemporary needs with esoteric wisdom to reintroduce honor, purpose, accountability, ethics, and effort into a culture that has astoundingly degraded or forgotten these ideals. As steeped in magic, rite, and hidden history as he is in good sense, Angel delivers the book on positive manhood for which our culture has been yearning. Cynics will never forgive him." Excerpt from Book From Chapter 3. The Necessary Work Especially in this day and age of technology and ideology, it is essential that you create something with your hands. To do so is to experience how the world works at its most fundamental level. We have to put away our theories and learn from the very things that ideologues have typically wanted to control or remake to fit their ideology: the body. For, contrary to the view of many intellectuals, the body is not something that can be neglected in favor of the intellect. Nor, contrary to the view of many spiritual teachers, is the body a kind of used car, meant merely to drive our soul around from A to B. The body matters. It is through the body that we experience the world and, as such, come to have a sense of the miraculous or the Mystery of life and the feeling that there must be something beyond it. It is through the body that we express our true Self. And, moreover, our physical body is the alchemical laboratory in which we can test to see what kind of foods, how much physical training, how much rest, and what kind of mental attitude we need to cultivate health. For as Swami Vivekenanda put it, "We want... muscles and nerves of steel, not namby-pamby ideas." This means that we will need humility to learn from nature -- both our own nature and body and the natural world. Every ideology appears foolproof. It makes sense of everything. It explains why the world is imperfect or corrupt and how, once the principles of the ideology are applied, it will be perfected. Yet the ideology is always alien to both human nature and to nature itself. And the illusion of the perfection of the theory is shattered the moment it is applied on a large enough scale. In contrast, when we work with the hands -- painting, playing a musical instrument, cooking, training our body, digging a garden, looking after a plant or an animal, and so on -- we must learn from the physical. It is common for new theories to arise, claiming, for example, that we should eat certain foods which have been modified for optimal health. Generally, after some time, we discover something was wrong with the theory and it turns out that the whole fruit, whole egg, and so on, is better for us than those that have been modified or that have had parts removed or added. Instead of theorizing, we can try to model our diet on that of our ancestors, eating natural whole foods, seeing what works for us, and cutting out what causes our body any kind of problem. Just as food affects the way we feel, physically, so ideas affect our mental stability, emotional well-being, and our spirit or our attitude. And just as we can see how we feel after eating certain food, so we can watch our thoughts to see how an idea, or a belief system, affects our emotions and our attitude towards others and towards life. And we must reject those ideas and belief systems that damage us. If an idea or an ideology leads us to feel depressed, angry, resentful, or to blame others or to feel incapable of acting on our own behalf, then we should reject it. If, however, an idea or a belief makes us feel enthusiastic, positive, loving, patient, optimistic, determined, and capable, then it is more likely to express something of our true or archetypal nature. Practicing some kind of physical art or discipline can help us in regard to understanding our thinking, especially our preconceptions. I want to paint a self-portrait, lets say. I do not realize it, but, due to some insecurity, I have a conception of my face that is incorrect. I think I have a long nose, or big ears, small eyes, or small lips. I begin drawing my face, but, then, as I look in the mirror and check the proportions, I discover that my face is not as I had thought. I have drawn my nose too long or the ears too big, because of my distorted self-image. I must correct the drawing and I must correct my own self-image. Or I think I know how to look after a plant, but place it where it will not get enough light. Then it withers, and I am forced to move it to where it will get sunlight. Or perhaps I think I know how to cook some particular food, but I over spice it or undercook it. Or I might believe I have mastered a martial art, but then I get punched in the face by someone with less training. In any case, I have to have the humility to think about what I did wrong, and adjust. My beliefs have to be less important than the physical nature that I am working with. To work with the hands -- to work with the body -- is to engage that creative spirit -- the soul, the Atman -- which we identify as an aspect of the Creator of the world itself. It requires us to know how things work, to accept the quality of each thing, and, to be able to work with them, rather than trying to impose our wrong ideas on reality. Once I accept its qualities, I can focus on, and develop, the object of my attention, sometimes finding interesting new applications or possibilities. Hence, accepting that gold is too soft and too scarce to be used in the production of tools, but noting that it reflected the light of the fire, it was used ritualistically and decoratively, covering the monarchs throne, for example. Noticing that the arms and other parts of the body had limitations in where and how they could move, some martial arts developed methods for subduing an opponent by manipulating them in ways that were unnatural, and thus painful or that prevented an opponent from moving to counter-attack. But that is only one way in which we work with the object of our attention. The other involves our own body, which harmonizes with it. The martial artist must use his own body when grappling with an opponent. When painting, using the traditional tools of ink and brush, the Chinese or Japanese artist will exhale as he makes each stroke. Polishing a mirror or cleaning and polishing a sword involved the use of the breath in the same way, and so was considered a type of meditation. But we find this elsewhere. When a tailor cuts fabric, he will look in front of the shears and exhale as he slides the shears through the cloth. How the body is used is dictated by the object itself. It is the same principle. But the body, too, must be cultivated. Plato believed physical training (gymnastic) should be taught from early childhood and that it should continue to be practiced throughout the life of the individual. However, this, he believed, had to be learned and practiced alongside music, because "exclusive devotion to gymnastic" tends to produce "a temper of hardness and ferocity," while single-minded devotion to music produces an equally undesirable "softness and effeminacy."(1) In the West, we have come to associate the spiritual man with the figure of Jesus, at least as he has overwhelmingly been represented in Christian art: placid, passive, slender, soft, and meek. And even as Christianity has declined in many parts of the West, this image lives on in our psyches. As such, perhaps it seems that we are overemphasizing the physical. After all, both religion and spirituality ultimately direct our attention away from the material world and toward the Divine. But without a grounding in a physical practice, where we must face our limitations and overcome them -- only to face new limitations and overcome those -- it is easy to detach ourselves from reality and to fool ourselves that our quirks, fantasies, and delusions are proof of our spiritual superiority and perhaps even of psychic ability. We must wrestle with reality, as Sri Aurobindo, has said, discovering infinity out of our limitations.(2) Doubtlessly, the thin, mysterious, effeminate man in contact with spirits and immersed in dreams is one male archetype. There is something both religious and sexual -- and even sexually ambiguous -- about him. He is the artist, the mystic, dreamer, poet, author, and sexual adventurer. He emerges in the figure of the tribal shaman, who sometimes dressed in female clothes, thus presenting himself as both male and female. At once transgressing and embodying nature, it was this contradiction that gave the shaman his power to speak directly with nature and its manifestations as spirits or demons. In Norse mythology, too, we hear Odin -- the god of war, magic, and poetry -- being criticized for being "unmanly."(3) The basis of this accusation is Odins practice of a feminine type of magic ( Sei Details ISBN1644112671 Author Angel Millar Short Title The Path of the Warrior-Mystic Pages 240 Language English ISBN-10 1644112671 ISBN-13 9781644112670 Format Paperback Subtitle Being a Man in an Age of Chaos Publisher Inner Traditions Bear and Company Imprint Inner Traditions Bear and Company Place of Publication Rochester Country of Publication United States NZ Release Date 2022-02-17 UK Release Date 2022-02-17 AU Release Date 2022-01-18 DEWEY 248.842 Audience General Year 2022 Publication Date 2022-02-17 US Release Date 2022-02-17 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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