by William Spencer for the Saker blog
What can be healed in this war?
It seems miraculous that I was drawn to the Russian sphere in the past several years, because I feel such a deep connection there, Anglo-European mutt that I am, and in spite of the fact that I’ve never been to Russia or Ukraine. I became obsessed with the history of Russia and Ukraine, and Ukrainian Nationalists and the current events regarding the Donbas, and it has been deeply heart wrenching and shocking since the SMO began.
Before 2022 I developed friendships with Russians and Ukrainians, both through reaching out via the HelloTalk app online and from aiding Ukrainian and Russian advanced English speakers in conversational English online. I still communicate with a significant number of these people, and I have a some wonderful friendships with them.
As the horrors of the war have continued to unfold ever more disturbing war crimes, I’ve gone through this seeming futile struggle to answer within myself, why? Somewhere in my readings or podcasts that I listened to, a past Secretary of State or advisor or cabinet member to a president had rightly referred to the disposition of Ukrainian Nationalists as having a “sickness of the soul”.
The atrocities are numerous in real time and are reported all over the web often in graphic video.
The question then became how does a group like the Ukrainian Nationalists or the Israeli Zionists (or fill in the blank for another group) heal from their collective sickness of the soul they possess?
Part of the answer is that only God can heal this. But the other part is that we have a part in this healing too, as it is our opportunity and calling to act as Christ would and pray for our enemies..
One of my priests once said, rather than focus on all the sin we need to be focusing on the Kingdom of God. That doesn’t mean ignore the atrocities. It simply means, that this deep infinite love is something we need to experience now to have the capacity to pray for our enemies.
I was received in the Orthodox Church in May of 2022 after being a Catechumen for over three years. In the US my Antiochan tradition celebrates Christmas along the Western timeline and a series of miracles happened for me on this recent Christmas Eve going into midnight liturgy of the Birth of Christ. I went from loneliness to communion with a big family and many friends. During the day I was invited to a family dinner and at the dinner my friend mentioned the patristicnectar.org website where I began immediately listening to the lives of the saints every day. On the day we celebrated the birth of Christ, Christ was born more deeply within me.
I haven’t stopped following the events in Ukraine, but my priority has changed. I now am putting my faith practice first, listening to the lives of the Saints at the beginning of each day. Then in the past couple of nights as I lay peacefully in bed, I’ve engaged in this expansive experience of God’s Love and extending it in prayer to all the souls involved in this war and even us, who have associations with those souls. It is so expansive that from within that perspective I now I can pray for the Ukrainian Nationalists. I have not directly experienced the atrocities I’ve been so shocked to learn about. But I think that the lives of the Saints also has modeled how to look at such atrocities. So many of the Saints were Martyred and many were tortured. But their attitude was so strong yet peaceful, not hateful, not judging.
Jesus himself said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they have done.”
I think that all is happening in the war deeply pains the souls of Ukrainians and Russians and all others who have connections to these two countries. And our prayers are very important, not just for the general population, most of whom are innocent, or for the liberators, but also for the perpetrators themselves. That can be a hard idea, but then, we must experience the depths of God’s love to even understand how it could be possible to pray for them.
As for me, this is not a journey I’ve taken alone, but with support, with the help of others, and though we certainly have our moments in the wilderness as Jesus did, we are not meant to experience the Kingdom of God alone. That is why we have such powerful community together. I hope you will join me with prayers for all who are involved with this war, even including the Nationalists and the Neocons. It feels so powerful to me that I believe our prayers in this way can make a profound difference.
Here is the prayer. It can be done live in groups as well.
It starts as a visualization, as such one must find a quiet and comfortable disposition or place to pray and, calling on God’s Love, call forth the God to hold all the souls in Ukraine, all the humanity, all the good guys and bad guys, all the soldiers on both sides, all the children, all the old people, men and women, all the foreigners, and holding them in your prayer an your vision and with God doing so at your request, hold all these souls, and smooth down their essence to their common humanity, and with this presence of God’s immense love, see them all as his beloved children… Sit with that for a time, and then extend this same exercise further, to all of Russia and all of the souls within Russia and again ask God to smooth the souls of all the people in Russia and all the people in Ukraine to their common humanity of God’s beloved children… And once again, now add all of the people in the world who are connected with Ukraine or Russia or both, all the government people, politicians, good and bad, all the friends and family of Russians and Ukrainians, every who has any connection to these two countries, and again ask God and see God holding all of their souls and smoothing them down to their common humanity as one giant group of God’s beloved children. Now with all of these souls acknowledge the power of God to perform miracles, to heal his children, to heal this war, to move mountains. Believe that this is possible and see all these people as God’s beloved children and allow his healing to happen for everybody involved including ourselves. Sit with that or walk with that as long as you will, and Thank God.
William Spencer
This is my second article for the Saker blog. The first was https://10.16.86.131/butina-reflection/
A few days without articles and yes there are three new ones. This is the first to catch my eye and curiousity. Yes, when enough people connect to God in true love and an open hart, mankind can shift towards our true potential being human. We have to learn use our minds better and not let it be controlled by animal instincts and desires. There is a guide and we need to see, acknowledge and connect directly with God. Thank you William.
Well indeed all the other efforts amount to trying the same old thing again and again.
Our emphasis on a military solution has only led to more profits for those fellas investing in death and mayhem.
If God was not trying to teach us something, why even allow bad guys a forum, let alone such massive power.
Pray for them, just don’t turn your back on em? Will double down in the prayer department, nothing else is bearing fruit.
Excellent, excellent writeup. We all feel the ambivalence. No need to feel guilty. I want the Russians to finish this before American vets become involved. And maybe tilt the hegemon toward a more peaceful solution.. When I go to the VA for my asbestos care. I see too many Vets with 1 or 2 legs from Fallusia, Iraq TWENTY years ago. This will be worse. Worst part is, Vladimir doesn’t want to do it but he will if he has to. I understand. I blame the hegemon. Am I bad?
Mr Spencer’s lovely prayer is a fitting reminder that everyone involved in this war is a human being, our brothers, sisters, parents, children, and we may not reject any of them. I would like to extend this prayer of Love to include those of the West who conjure up this war as well as Ukrainians and Russians who fight it.
Nazism is a disease which must be exterminated I’m afraid. Those who feed it also!
William, your sincerity is profound. Your prose reflects genuine sympathetic for what is alive and a concerted desire that it remain whole and alive after your encounter. The West does not share your values, and yet, I too revel in whose meditative reflections have undergone real transformations. I suugest that for you, as truly, above all others, whose meditations have become journeys into what is possible and should be. Another World away…also add doubt, for myself too, I shudder in stomach and chills what will be our shared future, and yet best of all, as above as below, a deep abiding human love for your fellow woMan. Totally out of context (lol). Nonetheless, allow me to provide some clarity of vision. First off, the soul has never left the light of the divine. The soul is pure perfect in world of only love, of a world of only that is is what lasts. What’s eternal. What occurred was that doubt and confusion entered the mind of God’s one son and creation was temporarily altered from the outside, from perception, and not inner knowledge. The snake is not a snake, but a mysttical dragon brought up by the queen of life who emerges into life itself from light’s three mainline energy platforms or levels, or balaces, as in a seesaw system of a unit: a mobile: the: (1) Vibrational, (2) Rotational, and (3) Translational energy concentrated near the star constellation Draco, “like an Egyptian crocodile (‘dragon’) head. The astronomical constellation Draco, in Latin also called Anguis or Serpens. (Ecclesiastical) The Devil.
https://en.m.wiktionary.org › wiki
draco – Wiktionary”
…The star constellation dragon (draco) seduced Adam’s first consort, Lilith, by rotating during the year around the/their/her pole star…and through the suggestion of belief move into the practice of love with him first, suggesting in a manner beguile, as in deceit and beguille, charming, magnificent is beguilling…to be a better wife to Adam through practice with him first – not by entering her body, but by mesmerizing her mind. It’s a far more complicated many level story that whole Ph.D.’s are written to explain…but if attempting to summarize the entire Genesis saga it would be to begin with and end with our spirit spiriting a way from the divine and with the mind still attached like Russia and China today, in a back-to-back existence. So both always know that something is there for motivational support but receive only an echo of the experiece of the other without ever a shared vision. Events occur and reflect to and through awareness and as vision shifts to awareness, a lower grade of love is received, more raw and less or not filtered, a new (lower) internal energy diagram is produced once again within a prism of simultaneity, but each with a different video to the same audio at all times resid in g upon the tones. Russian/China’s friendship is a prismatic friendship among brothers, or sisters. To be emulated; to be inspired by, to respect its greatness of common interests. Even eventually a maternal relationship will develop with genuine sympathetic concern and admirable, proud idealism for both. What’s not to like?
Our Self, our Soul, remained behind within the divine counsel with “Being’; while “Doing” moved on as well with Spirit and Mind leaving the Soul in One Peace, Om. All encompassing totality with no-thing missing. So soul, pure love, no problems.
Which is to say, the wandering spirit that left the side of the divine enjoys novelty, and gets us into all kinds of trouble, or learning encounters for healing our split mind.
e Gemini twins of: “Doubt and Desire”.
It amazes me that dragons are viewed so almost entirely positively in the Orient, and almost entirely negatively in the Occident. My own name means “Worm’sville” if you will, with “worm” being the old word for dragon, and in Viking times clearly representing strength, at least, if nothing more positive. It also became a major symbol of what Christianity had to overcome in Europe.
Most of my life has been spent in the Orient, so to me dragons represent the wisdom of nature and the sometimes destructive powers that are necessary to enable life–clearing out the old to make way for the new. Bodies of water and mountains are said to be represented by dragons, all interconnected.
The only dragon I do not like is the Dragon of Human Evil. I’m not supposed to like him. I’m supposed to do everything in my power to oppose him. That is the most important challenge of human life.
Thank you for these words, William.
I will meditate on them thoroughly and incorporate them into my prayers.