The Force

Following segments are excerpted from Return of the Feathered Serpent and Return of a Green Philosophy.

As a thirty-year old, I sat in a darken theater with possibly only three other movie-goers. And then the opening crawl: “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….” It’s hard to put into words, but what followed vibrated a deep feeling within my soul. Almost forty years later, we have Rouge One, which is the lead up to the storyline of the original Star Wars.

And I must say it had the feeling of the original, I loved it. Since there are supposedly no Jedi around outside of Vader, the manner in which they handled the concept of The Force was very interesting. Throughout the movie, Chirrut, the blind warrior monk, kept chanting the mantra: “I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.” At the very end as he realizes his death is imminent, he slightly switches the wording: “the Force is with me, and I am one with the Force.” I was very impressed with this demonstration of a technique to work with awakening the Force through chant. Except, I would have slightly changed the mantra to—“I am one with the Force; the Force is within me and surrounds me.” This gives a better indication of the Force.

So what is the Force?

To the ancient Maya the Force was known as ch’ulel (soul-force of the Universe). It is believed to be the single, dynamic sacred force or energy that is the unifying totality of all things—a universal life-force. It’s in constant movement eternally self-generating and self-regenerating while encompassing and interpenetrating the whole cosmos. It is immanent and at the same time, transcendent:

Ch’ulel is the word for the inner soul or holiness that resides in all living things, in powerful objects, in sacred places, and in the many energy-laden objects in the Maya world.”[i]

Is the Force magic?

Yes and no; the indigenous power workers, who I have apprenticed with over the decades, never referred to their powers as magic. The reason: in truth, the power exhibited is not out of the ordinary; it is ordinary; it is flowing through all things. To the Norse, it is Óðinn’s unseen power of creation—seiðr. The difference is that the majority of people do not have the radical nondualistic consciousness, power, or strength of heart and mind to access it. But it is there—just feel the force of a storm or observe the beauty of a flower.

This power or “The Force”—the term George Lucas coined in in his Star Wars movies—is the single, dynamic, sacred power or energy that is the unifying totality of all things—a universal life force. It’s in constant movement, eternally self-generating and self-regenerating while encompassing and interpenetrating the whole cosmos. It is immanent and at the same time transcendent. This “Force” is only accessible through direct personal experience and must be awakened. There are seven aspects to this power, which I explain in Return of a Green Philosophy.

This power on a personal level is the inner heat generated by the shaman. Interesting enough, the feeling is one of icy fire. The first time I experienced it coursing through my body, I thought I was having a heart attack. This is the power of creation as witnessed by the Norse creation myth of the blending of fire and ice.

[i] David Freidel, Linda Schele, Joy Parker, Maya Cosmos, 433.

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