Warrior Spirituality: Religious Freedom from Spiritual Identity to Spiritual Action

I have been involved in the development and strengthening of my spirit seriously from the age of twelve. I am still young, only twenty five and know very little. I call myself a free mystic. I use the term free mystic to discern that while I am Christian, I am also free to explore and entertain other belief systems. This is not because I am defiant of Christian rule but because we live in a world where Christianity is not the only way of life.

When I was learning the truths of Christianity I became pure. I became to pure for my own good and walked in a way which never looked at the ways of the world. I was shocked and disappointed to see those around me who proclaimed to be Christian believe in the Christian ideal, yet they did not act upon this knowledge. Christianity was their religion, not their life.

I thought I was a failure as a Christian. I didn't share the faith with the unfaithful and so I tried. I learned that others did not wish to hear what this God stuff was all about. Since, I have learned tact and come into my own, even when expressing God stuff to others.

As I was going through confirmation and up until my seventeenth birthday I thought I was meant to be a minister. I always thought that was what I was meant to become. Yet now I realize that the callings of God are not always what I think they are.

At seventeen I encountered buddhism and now at twenty five I realize that buddhism was an ethical philosophy, as I used it, which showed me the brilliance of my own Christian ideal. It was also at this age which I joined the Army and subsequently was introduced to Wicca, green magick or kitchen witch craft.

These experiences caused me to relive my Christian ideals and proved how much in all my purity I was just like those who didn't live Christianity at all. These days my Christianity is my own and not the religion of another man.

In comparing Christianity to Earth Based religion I always consider that Christianity is the industrial, the city religion and Earth Based religion nature, the life religion. If I were to tell someone what my faith is I would say, "I am a free mystic Christian/Pagan with hints of eastern philosophy: Buddhism and Taoism." More is yet to be added as I learn and later to be stripped away what I call the inessentials.

I sense people's awe or descent when I tell them who I am. Lately I don't explain so clearly as here because in reality, Christians don't like pagans and pagans don't like Christians. Both religions host animosity and suffering continues. There are Christian Witches but they are few and truly outcasts of all but the most open minded.

I've dreamed all my life of living an example which was worth leaving. As a mystic I have come to the outer and inner worlds of timelessness, of perfect beauty and of perfect sadness in my life. Now as I seek to the inner most question of my soul; "How must I be my own man?"; I find an answer which has waited in my deepest meditations in unifying my consciousness with my soul.

Love others. In this world there are atrocities beyond imagination of any but the most worldly. I wanted to have some affect on the atrocities but what I have come to understand is that if I look beyond my own community out into the world there will be many of the same very atrocities were I live. People live in poverty here. People are hungry here. People need love here. People need protection here. My way is a way of study which only allows me to meet the struggles of life as they come my way.

As I realize my own dreams I am more able to help and serve others. Serving others is what I want to do. I feel that society is broken - though it works, I don't think it heals or loves. I don't want to fix society, I just want to live my life in a way which does not double the weaknesses I see and feel in the world.

I want to live an example of a whole life which entertains and honors the greatest beauties in life. Food, shelter and clothing are the most basic needs and so is love. If I can offer of these things to those in need, to those I love, my active path in mysticism will be honored as will all those faiths which have become a part of me.

One of the most beautiful things about our society is our freedom to choose. Freedom of Religion allows me to believe what I believe and act by the very governance's which I set before myself to be a man.

My idea to open a temple has been something I have dreamed of since one of my mentors said, "anything can be before you, even opening a school." Religious infrastructure is already in place to allow just that. The Universal Life church is governed by the simple phrase, "Do that which is right." This church fought the courts for the right to ordain individuals based on the constitution of the United States of America and provides this freedom to anyone who asks and only asking that the ordained, "do that which is right."

I went through this simple process of ordination. I do not take this freedom lightly for it is my soul at the steak of my dream.

I choose to open a Temple. I choose the word temple, honestly because of my fascination for Shaolin Temples. I am not attempting to replicate any temple that has already been but to create something unique and special which will allow me to live a life of service while providing a meager existence.

The root of the word temple means open or consecrated space. Consecrated means to declare something sacred. My warrior philosophy is described in other writings as, "I have always thought life to be sacred. Now, this is how I believe a warrior must be governed - life is sacred."

My girlfriend responds to my writing this article by saying I am crazy. I think, "how is it crazy to dream a life by which I might live sacredly."