Defeating a Petty Tyrant

A petty tyrant is a tormentor. Someone who either holds the power of life and death over warriors or simply annoys them to distraction. – Carlos Castaneda – The Fire from Within

          

        Petty tyrants are in positions of authority and use this to exaggerate their power on to the lower status individuals in the company or group.  Their purpose is to feel that they are more valuable than the other.  Yet if you have a petty tyrant in your life you are blessed.  If you consider your self on a sacred journey on this Earth, and a lesson is to be learned then you have arrived at blessing.  You must focus on your attributes, pay close attention to your every move in regards to this person that has no regard for right and wrong.  The petty tyrant is concerned with their power and how they will get more, and they will use you to get what they want.  They do not care one bit for you.  There is only their extreme sense of superiority.  The examples in history have been the Nazi's and their vile and corrupt sense of purpose.  They were monsters and this is what you face. 

            You must focus on your own light and be impeccable with your energy.  This means you gather your strength within.  You also work and pay attention to every detail of the petty tyrants behavior.  You gather information slowly, methodically so that you may find their weakness.  Strategically gathering your strength to battle with them ultimately. 

            In my case it was my boss who did an evaluation of my classroom and my conduct.  This person was never in my classroom but two times.  I had to defend myself in every step of the way.  I was surprised at my fortitude when facing them straight on in the office that we met in.  As our battle began I stepped backed and consulted with fellow teachers as what would be a good strategy to use.  These evaluations are permanent parts of our records. 

            I stood back emotionally as not to blow up and look the fool.  I waited and plotted as to what would be the best approach.  I was ambushed one day and she tried to bullying me into thinking she was more powerful than me.  She tried to shift the ground from under my feet and said that she would change my effective mark(the highest on this evaluation) to a developing.  This was not accurate and I began my work.  I gathered my energy, data, all tools to convince her of her mistake.  I made an appointment as a professional would be expected to do.  We sat again in the office and I battled, defended my position like a warrior of light.  We came to a comprise on this one part of my evaluation.  She said we would leave it open and she would come into my classroom to observe my conduct one more time.  I was satisfied by this. 

            Long story short she entered my room and said  "I will return the evaluation to Effective."  Oh yes you will P.T.  And I accomplished my goal.  The battle was won by  me in the end.  It was not easy, but I remained calm and knew in my heart that I deserved what I received.  I am a very effective teacher working in a system that is completely broken.  

            You must attain a view that you have power.  You have ability to resolve the situation.  If not then you must work to attain this energy level within you and this might be why you are faced with such a monster. 

        Ultimately it goes like this. 

"The petty tyrant teaches the warrior to develop a strategy utilizing the four attributes of warrior ship:  control, discipline, forbearance, and timing.  As a result the warrior deepens so much so into these four attributes that it may be a very long time until the next petty tyrant appears.  And then, the ultimate pleasure arises when you become aware that you have become someone else’s petty tyrant.  And the gift, in this case, may be pure awareness and detachment to the petty tyrant as the result of your fluidity and energetic efficiency." (http://thetoltecpath.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/the-petty-tyrant/)

Going Inside- The Hero Within

"One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light." Joseph Campbell, Power of Myth


How does mythology relate to the individual. The individual has a inner life and internal dynamic that must be aligned if they are to feel peaceful and powerful in their life. The power is not over someone else, but it pertains to being empowered as an individual existing in a social context. In our modern society shifting your attention to the inner life and what is happening within you seems to be for the eccentric and not the masses. The inner life sometimes scares people or they do not want to listen to their neurosis and or conflicting wants and desires. But as we ignore what appears to be negative parts of ourselves we also ignore our immense mystery and light. What mythology does is give you a road map to your inner energies because we have the positive and negative forces within us engaged in a battle. If we don't have symbols or mythology that act as our map then we are lost and thus we are always at the mercy of energies that do not have a name or value.
According to Joseph Campbell from his book Power of Myth, in India around the ninth century B.C the Upanishads explain that all gods are within you. Heaven and Hell are all manifestations that come from our inner battles. They are only metaphors for the opposite energies that are within every single human being on Earth from past to present. Gods represent energies from the ground of being. We have a source of life and it manifests as opposites in the world of time. This seems to devalue the god in religion but all it does is say that it is not literal devil or father god. This does not mean you can not raise your consciousness either. The experience of the mystery is still valuable and real. To transcend the world of opposites and find the eternal is possible and real. As you go deeper into some religions and analysis, many people have said that god cannot be described. To describe or name is to miss the point. Concepts and thought of humans cannot explain what is beyond thought, therefore the source or eternal cannot be named or explained. "The best things can't be told because they go beyond thought. Then the second mistake we make is to try to explain it and then it is all misunderstood. That is when we try to describe god we mess it up. The third thing we do is put it into story and use symbols which is also mythological images." Joseph Campbell.

The initiation into the mystery, your own inner mystery is you going deeper into the dynamic of your source. When you enter the forest-the dark parts of yourself- you meet your fears and face them. You find that you have qualities both male and female. You begin to understand that you are both, you have what it takes to empower and overcome the difficult things in your life. You understand that you are all things, you have everything to fight the battle of life. And you begin to feel fulfilled, whole because you start to identify with the world beyond opposites, you understand that beyond time there is eternity and you were born from this. The poet Blake says this "Eternity is in love with the productions of time!" Eternity poured into the field of time, of limitation, of opposites. Why? Our creation myths show us some possibilities. Here is one short one.

"Before all time, there was a deity who said, "I am." As soon as it said "I am," it was afraid. It was an entity now, in time. Then it thought, "What should I be afraid of, I'm the only thing that is." And soon as it said that, if felt lonesome, and wished that there were another, and so felt desire. It swelled, split in two, became male and female, and begot the world."

These elements are the elementary energies we must deal with in our everyday life. We must struggle with our fears, loneliness, desires and move in the field of time. All of our gods and devils are manifestations and symbols for these elements. To say one god is better than the other, or that one people are chosen over another is to miss the point of religion and its message. If we focused on our inner lives and understood the desires and fears then we would become more aware and learn how to be at peace. To understand what we are is to move past or transcend the world of opposites into the eternal. The world of radiance waits for all to see it. When you can look past the things in front of you, start to see the road map, the symbols that speak to you and transform your fear and desires, then you will have transformed your inner self into something more complete. Yes you will still be in Time but you will know and experience the eternal within Time.