Occult War

Iran, Israel, the U.S., and the Holy Spirit

I admit I do not have a particularly enthralling “hot take” on the US bombing of Iran — most likely, if not inevitably, this will drag us into yet another interminable war based on obviously manipulated intelligence, as was the case two decades ago with Iraq and the utterly bogus “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” I think I am starting to feel a bit floaty and numb, incapable of further outrage, fervor, or zeal. It seems the “karmic destiny” of the Trump regime to kill as much of everything — animals, forests, people, knowledge — as it possibly can. I made a small, futile effort to stop this nightmare by raising awareness when I could, before the (probably rigged) election. As events unfold, one gets a sense of inevitability in this multidimensional catastrophe: Humanity’s Jungian shadow is extending across the planet.

I find writing still helps, in some strange way. Writing about this now is like trying to feel ahead of me — of all of us — in a dark, pitch black, tunnel. We put our feet forward tentatively, brush the cold, mossy stone wall with our fingers. We stumble forward into nothingness; the abyss which has become our phenomenological present-tense. We are shocked and awed, finally.

It certainly feels like we are rapidly approaching the crescendo of the Kali Yuga or the Judeo-Christian Apocalypse, as I explored in my book on prophecy. Esoterically, it kind of seems like Artificial Intelligence, nuclear war, ecological collapse, and other Horsemen of the “Big A” are gathering force, getting ready for the Grand Finale. But who knows? This thing could still drag on for quite a while.

Right now, we could, of course, be meshing the world together into one unified field of love, wonder, symbiosis, laughter, and joy. We have all of the tools we need to do that: The global communications infrastructure, the renewable energy tech, the permaculture techniques, the nonviolent communication protocols, the MDMA, and so on. Instead, we seem intent on committing species-wide seppuku, with both an atomic bang and an anomic whimper (take that, T.S. Elliot!).

I’ve been enjoying the occultist Gigi Young. She has built up a large following on YouTube where she shares concepts from Rudolf Steiner and other esoteric streams. In a recent essay, Young argues that the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East are not primarily about oil, liberation, or geopolitics: They are driven by hidden occult ideologies, rooted in ceremonial magic, secret brotherhoods, and geomancy. “Certain regions of the earth emit specific occult forces… occultists feel these forces must be captured and harnessed to perform certain rites,” she writes. I feel she is onto something, even if it nebulous and hard to capture precisely. I am not clinging to this literally, but it resonates as one vector.

These elite/occult factions (remember Erik Trump’s Illuminati hand gesture during the inauguration?) believe they must reshape the Middle East to fit their esoteric project. According to Young, they are trying to revive the martial spirit (Steiner relates this to spirit-beings on Mars) of ancient Rome and Atlantis, to usher in their technological, Ahrimanic and transhumanist “revolution.” According to Young, the “Mars consciousness” values domination, violence, and control over spiritual individuality and freedom.

She believes the elites will unveil advanced technologies — perhaps alien revelations — as “false gifts” meant to enslave rather than liberate humanity. She proposes that the authentic evolution of humanity requires recognizing the divine individuality revealed through Christ’s incarnation, while resisting the imposition of a mechanized false religion, corrupted by Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces. The alternative is spiritual service in alignment with the “Holy Spirit.” For Young, the “Holy Spirit” is not some fixed entity, but a living, immanent spiritual force that guides the true evolution of human consciousness. It represents the capacity for inner transformation, ethical discernment, and the birth of the free spiritual individual—qualities that stand in opposition to the system of domination, fear, and technological control being imposed on us now.

Some thinkers trace the basis of the incessant wars between the US, Israel, Europe, and the Middle East back to archaic metaphysical arguments between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The three monotheisms all share a conception of a culturally defined (or in some sense “personified”) vision of God who is, paradoxically, also considered to be the Absolute. Jacques Derrida wrote decades ago: “The war over the “appropriation of Jerusalem” is today’s world war. It is taking place everywhere, it is the world, it is the singular figure of its “out of joint”-ness today.” In God’s Zeal, Peter Sloterdijk, a German philosopher, elaborated on Derrida, exploring how the “three messianic eschatologies embroiled in rivalry are ‘directly or indirectly’ mobilizing ‘all the powers in the world and the entire “world order” for the ruthless war they are waging against one another.”

Sloterdijk investigates the struggle between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—“the battle of the three monotheisms.” He explores how each of the Abrahamic religions, although coming from the same theological origin, evolved into a competitive world system. Each one holds a universalist perspective that inevitably brings them into ideological and military conflict with the others.

Monotheism is inherently warlike in its structure: It elevates a single, supreme deity that oversees its devotees alone, who compulsively seek to discredit and destroy all rivals. For Sloterdirk, the "zeal for the One and Only" tends to generate forms of theological fanaticism and zealous violence. Each monotheistic sect has a psychological need to believe they alone worship the authentic divine source. This connects the human yearning for meaning and submission with the drive for political and social dominance.

Religions function like cultural immune systems.