The U.S. Capital Building in Washington D.C.
After a period of silence, particularly here at Cloistered Corridors, the quiet of my practice has been shattered. No, not by distraction, but by a moral imperative too loud for me to ignore. The life of a contemplative is not an escape from the world, but a much deeper engagement with it – and sometimes… exceedingly more and more it seems, the world demands a response.
If you are reading this, you are most likely a Pagan. If not, come on in and sit with me. You are welcome and safe here. As Pagans, we honor the sovereignty of all beings. As monastics, we seek a sense of order, reverence and discipline. What, then, are we to do when the highest offices of power in our country mock sovereignty, dismantle order and act with an astounding and profound irreverence for life?
I want to talk about this. I NEED to talk about this. We all need to talk about this. We need to talk about how authoritarian abuse and state-sanctioned murder is indeed a spiritual crisis, and that the anger it evokes is not a failure of our practice, but a legitimate response – a sacred tool for grounding our compassion and motivating action.
The Crimes
Do you remember when public office was a sacred trust? Do you remember when leaders were expected to be stewards acting on behalf of the people? I do. I’m coming up on 37 full trips around Father Sun and I remember. Politics has always been a division of ideas – sometimes we would tread in water we didn’t want to tread in, but overall political arguments had always been democratic in nature. Now, it has become something much more profane.
The act of using public office for personal gain or political gain rather than public service constitutes a modern form of profanation. There’s really no grey area here. We are seeing in real time the profanation of democracy. French sociologist Émile Durkheim said it perfectly. “The ‘Sacred’ represents group interests, especially unity. The ‘Profane’, on the other hand, involve mundane individual concerns.”
Between September 2nd 2025 and October 3rd 2025, there have been four strikes against Venezuelan boats. These boats have been alleged to have been ‘drug boats’. The number of human lives taken by these acts alone has now reached 21. Lets be clear – these people were not confirmed to be ‘drug smugglers’, the boats have not been confirmed to be ‘drug boats’, and even if the above two items were in fact true, it does not constitute the murder of human beings. The United States interdicts marine craft and aircraft regularly and there is no reason these boats could not have been interdicted and due process of law given to suspected drug smugglers, including a fair trial and sentencing. The act of murdering people on boats without confirmation of the purpose of the boat or the business of those operating or aboard the boat is terrorism. According to the definition given on the FBI’s website, terrorism is defined as follows:
Domestic terrorism: Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature”
By this definition, the United States has engaged in international terrorism against Venezuela.
Pagans and monastics value sovereignty, hospitality, and the law of cosmic order vs. chaos. Each person on these boats was indeed a sovereign being and their lives were unjustly taken. Both modern and ancient traditional laws within Pagan circles holds strangers as sacred and are to be treated with hospitality. Destroying their boats and taking their lives is the ultimate violation of hospitality. And the blaringly obvious, murder without trial or due process is the action of a tyrant, not a steward of order. This only leads to spiritual chaos.
If that wasn’t enough, on September 30th 2025, Mango Mussolini (Donald Trump) and Pete Kegsbreath (Pete Hegseth) stood on a stage to belittle and undermine the United States military Generals and senior NCO’s. Before the Great Orange Blob came onto the stage to address the distinguished veterans in the audience, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (I call him Kegsbreath as he was given the ultimatum to stop drinking in order to become Defense Secretary, but from what I’ve seen… I don’t believe he’s complied with that ultimatum) called Generals and Soldiers ‘fat’. Not only was this insulting, but it was hypocritical. Hegseth was labeled accurately as an ‘extremist’ in 2021 and was no longer allowed to serve in the military. Of course, Hegseth denies these claims, but his tattoos tell a different story. I’ll leave that rabbit hole for you to crawl down, just don’t go in too deep.
Imagine that, a failed military serviceperson lecturing our most decorated and experienced Military leadership and telling them they’re fat (with the Orange Buffoon rolling onto stage shortly thereafter) and that they military traditions they’ve held for hundreds of years weren’t up to standard. I don’t believe drinking heavily is up to standard for a Defense Secretary, either. But, I digress. This is a direct spiritual affront. For all of its complexities, the military has its own traditions, order, and discipline. Basically, it has its own ‘cosmos’. By publicly humiliating its leaders is like desecrating a hearth – it shows contempt for the structure itself.
When Her Majesty, Trump, took stage, there was no applause, only silence. He revealed to the military that they would be using the United States, specifically its cities, as training grounds for the military. When he said that, every WWII and holocaust documentary I had watched in my life started to re-run in my head. Was he really saying this? Are we really living in a time where in a matter of ten months, we’ve become a nation of greed and power?
Anger
Anger doesn’t have to be something we avoid. Sometimes, when we feel angry as contemplatives, we sit and find the source of our anger and work to rid ourselves of it. True, harboring anger can be a poison, but not always. Anger toward someone for selfish and short-sighted reasons is indeed toxic. In harboring anger toward another being out of these selfish reasons, we poison ourselves. However, anger that stems from the harm to other beings can result in action, and that is righteous anger. This righteous anger can be the medicine the world needs. Without it, some may never be sparked to action and change may never come. We, as a nation, are responsible for the situation we are in. Sure, the election could have been rigged, but even so it was close enough that it wasn’t caught. Ultimately, we haven’t stood up for the unacceptable enough and the damage has been done. Righteous anger can help us forge compassion into action and use it as energy so that we can ‘propel’ ourselves from passive grief and into active protection. The anger I personally feel is not a wildfire that consumes all in its path, but a sacred forge-fire of voice, a prayer, and a shield for the vulnerable. As contemplatives, we spend much of our time in silence and prayer. While that is needed more than ever, we also need to act. At the end of our lives, we will indeed judge ourselves more heavily on our inactions than our actions.
So… now what?
Tend to your hearth first. Don’t ignore the pain, acknowledge it. Acknowledge your rage. Throw it all in your crane bag and trot it to your altar. Speak it in meditation, offer it to the gods.
Contemplatives and Monastics aren’t much different than other spiritual practitioners. We aren’t much different than other human beings. We just see things differently. We feel things differently, but we still feel and see the same things. Keep doing contemplative practices, but don’t do it to try to escape the feelings you’re having. Use what you know to understand where it all came from and what its purpose is. Be angry, alchemize it. Transform any destructive anger your harbor into constructive power. Write letters to editors, representatives, congress. Support your local organizations that are doing their very best to hold back tyranny and authoritarianism. Share (vetted) information with family and your community… we have a duty to educate those around us with factual information. The ultimate goal is to NOT become what we oppose. The goal is to let the anger we’re feeling fuel a deeper and more active compassion. Compassion for the victims, for our nation, and for the souls of those who have lost their way in the darkness of power and greed.
Closing Remarks
Friends, we have witnessed profound wrongs. Our anger is a valid and sacred response, but our path is to use the fire of that anger wisely. The vow of the Pagan contemplative is not to silence, but to truth. Not only to peace at any costs, but to justice. Our groves, covens, seed groups and hearths are not only shelters from the storm, but command posts from which we send out prayers like shields and our actions like spears, defending the sacred sovereignty of every living soul.
So, stay angry. Stay compassionate. Stay true.
Within The Cloistered Corridors,
Br. Avallach Emrys
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