Pretending to be larger than life is an ancient mammalian ploy. Its original purpose, still in use today all across the species, is to save the species through convincing the females to accept a lover or to save the self from uneven contests. If the critter poses in the right way he may avoid a fight entirely and win the maiden too. Posing can be borrowed and used out of the original context. That shift of the arena happens quite naturally.
In the human arena, this kind of thing was probably quite useful between clans and tribes before the onset of nation states and empires but it has been problematic since agriculture has allowed for the complexities to it all, giving us a certain freedom from the hunter gatherer lifestyle. That freedom became the possibility of organized warfare at least four thousand years ago. Then the nation state or empire exaggerated posture became highly dangerous. Still, in the local neighborhood, just as with our four footed friends we often find the boast and threat a useful way of backing out of direct conflict.
Posing in spiritual matters actually reverses the field. It is so out of place as to endanger the spirit, damage the soul. Where posing may be required in the field of ordinary affairs, posing is a failure of humility in spiritual matters. Humility is one of the primary distinctions between white and black magic. That need for humility is what we learn in the deep myths or even vapid spiritual tales, such as Star Wars.
Balance within storms,
Tornadoes, cyclones, strange eyes
Within, I am tossed
Above clouds looking
Down into deep dark shadows,
Lampblack paintings spread
Across the dim lands
Of your lost hopes, my lost dreams,
Still I hold balance.
Meanwhile the storm master's song,
Thunder rolls in the distance.
Written November 29, 2008 11:07 AM
Poem first posted March 2, 2009
Opening paragraphs modified, Image added December 9, 2012
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The chicken crossed the road. That's poultry in motion.