War is a state of consciousness

A couple of months ago when people were debating our invasion of Iraq, the proponents of peace were often sighted as not having a better plan or alternative. It got me to thinking back to a book I read in the early 90s, written by Starhawk called The Fifth Sacred Thing. I've decided to reread it because the theme of the book seemed to be very apropos to our country's current situation.

I came upon the following passage (down at the botton) that begins Starhawk's thoughts on non-violence and war, and I know that as the story unfolds she expands upon the theme. I wanted to share this with you because I've also been rereading some of Mary's works, primarily Pinecones. While Pinecones is a collection of her thoughts usually in snippet form, there is a theme to them, that being of consciousness and how our consciousness is limitless.

What strikes me most about this passage from Starhawk is the sentence "Armies and indeed, any culture that supports them must convince the people that all the decisions are made already, and they have no choice."

It is being revealed that the Bush administration wanted this war, and skewed the facts to get the people to support it (reports are coming forth from people in the CIA and other intelligence agencies). Notice how it's always stated, "We haven't found the weapons of mass destruction----yet." There is always a priviso attached to these statements as a means to justify the government's actions. In this way the case to convince the people was constructed. People who said they supported peace were eventually swayed by the government's crafted need to
invade Iraq. I find that scary. If our government can convince the people of this country that war is needed, especially when they lacked the hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction actually existing, imagine what else could be cooked up! People acted as if they had no choice in the matter---and I'm not sure why that is. Is the collective consciousness stuck and needs a kick?

Even more upsetting to me was that I found was a small grouping of people who also invoked the feeling of having no choice because Mary said in Phoenix Rising that these kind of wars would be part of the Earth Changes. This really upset me because Mary has always stated that we always, always, have the choice to make as to whether or not aspects of the Earth Changes will come about as foretold.

What is foretold is based upon people still making the same old choices they always have. How are we as a country---or a world---going to raise ourselves up, experience the kind of life Mary talks about after the Earth Changes if we aren't willing to choose them now?

"After the Uprising, we found ourselves caught in a dilemma. We knew that war was responsible for shaping the world into all the forms we wanted to change and yet there we were, surrounded by hostile enemies who might, at any moment, attack and destroy us. This was the dilemma that every peaceful culture has faced for the last five thousand years, at least. And this was our one advantage that we had history behind us. We had seen all possible solutions played out, from resistance to retreat to acquiescence, and we knew none of them worked. That saved us a great deal of time. We didn't have to waste our energies stockpiling weapons or drilling troops; we could jump right to the heart of the matter, which was magic."

"In what sense?" Madrone asked.

Lily nodded at Maya. "You remember that Dion Fortune quote you've always been so fond of? That magic is the art of changing consciousness at will? You can look at a war as a massing of arms and materiel and troops, but you can also see it as something else as a delicate web of interwoven choices made by human beings, made out of a certain consciousness. The decision to order an attack, the choice to obey or disobey an order, to fire or not to fire a weapon. Armies and, indeed, any culture that supports them must convince the people that all the decisions are made already, and they have no choice. But that is never true. So, mad as it may seem, this is the terrain upon which we base our defense of this city the landscape of consciousness." p.152