Osama bin Laden took on a role the world needed.

Archetypes are energies in all of us. I find it very useful to work with archetypes in terms of articulating what is going on in – and outside of ourselves. The beauty about symbols and archetypes is that they are images, that reflect a deeper truth. Pointers in a way, but they are actually quite direct experiences.

For example – everybody has a similar notion about the figure of a  “king”, an “orphan” or an “artist”. They each represent energies of a certain frequency, which can be recognized, whenever it is apparent. So for example, everybody can relate to the experience of a “king”. There are certain traits in character and personality, that are unique to someone, who has been predestined to rule over others with power and authority. This energy is of course not only inherent to a real king, but to anyone in a position that requires leadership and the execution of power.

Archetypes are interesting, because they reflect what is in us on a symbolic level, that does not only represent conceptual thoughts. They are much more complex and tell a story, that also touches the emotional and energetic realm, as well as pointing to one’s highest potential. These energies are not only present in each of us, you can observe them also in nations, countries and universal events.

Osama bin Laden displayed the archetype of the destroyer.

The energy of the destroyer is in all of us. It teaches us that all things must end and it is an inherent part of the eternal cycle of death and rebirth. When we think about the destroyer, images of terror and destruction are coming to mind and our reaction is fear. The destroyer clashes with the ego’s need for security and physical survival.

This is the reason why catastrophic events have the tendency to call us to presence and initiate an awakening. The energy of the destroyer does not only eradicate old concepts, structures and beliefs, it also initiates change. They are actually the preparation for change, like the Hindu God Shiva s the cosmic dancer, who performs his dance to destroy a weary universe for the god Brahma to start the process of creation.

But like in the cycle between inspiration and expiration, there is this precious moment, when the destroyer energy has brought about destruction of the old, and there is that moment, a gap, when everything is wide open. We can observe this in the reaction of people who have lost everything due to a natural disaster. There is a moment, they just don’t know and yet are at peace with it.

When the planes hit the towers and the pentagon, I had a chance to witness the effects of the destroyer energy on a nation. Americans went from shock, to grief to anger – and then to reaction. Unfortunately the sense of unity and open-heartedness in these early days after September 11, was misused by a corrupt and deeply immoral government, to wage war on the destroyer. But if you look closely, you will find that the ” War on Terror” was not to bring Osama bin Laden or Al-Qaeda to justice, it was started to keep things in the Middle East (and in the world at large)  in a certain order.

The “War on Terror” was exactly what the name refers to – a war started, executed and long-drawn-out based on terror – or fear. As long there was fear, nobody would question anything, or even dare to change. And this attitude created more fear, together with agony, sorrow, torture, destruction, suffering at an enormous human and material cost.

You can ask yourself, would there even have been a war on terror, if there had not been fear ? How was it possible there was a global and active involvement in such a malevolent undertaking, like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ? How is it possible, there was no outcry of the global community, no voice of moderation, or even peace ?

The truth is that we all saw – but we did not really want to see, because we also had the foreboding that everything was about to change and fear raised it’s ugly head. In the West we  lived comfortably, mostly, and were not necessarily interested in losing that.

The attacks on September 11 2001 called the world to presence. Osama bin Laden, on his own path of waging war against what he perceived to be injustice, entered the stage as a terrible destructive force – the destroyer of innocence. Yes, innocence – because in the US in these days, everything seemed to be going great. The economy was booming, national security was not an issue and the nagging voices of the Old World were attributed to envy. The world was not ready then to understand how all these events are related, in fact are happening simultaneously. The world was not ready to make choices based on wisdom, not mere belief, that the energy of destruction is something we can control.

But today I have hope, and also reason to believe, that we have come a long way ever since the day Osama bin Laden became the face of evil and destruction all over the world. We have become a little bit less gullible in terms of believing what is fed to us by the media. We do understand that we have been misled, outwardly by governments and those who had an interest in keeping change away, but inwardly we were driven by our own fears. We saw, but we chose to interpret based on our own desire to maintain a sense of security. And we made this mistake, because we had not yet learned to work with the energy of the destroyer.

Security is an illusion. Life has destruction built into it. It is a part of the cycle of Life and Death and there cannot be creation and evolvement, without destroying old beliefs, structure and systems.  We have been doing that over the past 10 years. The wars have been fought on foreign soil, but they still destroyed beliefs, complacency and most importantly arrogance. We have succeeded in destroying large parts of our own environment, depleted energy reserves, crushed the economy, all but annihilated the monetary system, and created poverty, suffering and disease. The world is in a very serious state right now, and we all are called to open our eyes and see and accept not only an inconvenient, but devastating Truth: We all have greatly fooled ourselves in believing that we could control Life.

This is one of my favorite quotes from  the gospel of Thomas and I think it does point us the way now, at a time we are coming to terms with seeing what is true:

“Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. [And there is nothing buried that will not be raised.]”

This is what we are called to do now. Look at what is in front of us and take it inside. Be honest and face our own fears, because it is only fear that leads to suffering. On a personal note, these world events coincided with losing my own desire for safety. This has been a major driving factor in my life and fear of getting harmed often prevented me from taking a risk or stand up for something I really believed in. Not needing to feel safe anymore creates a readiness to let down ones’s guard, to be vulnerable, to accept negativity, adversity and suffering. Not needing to feel safe anymore means there is no longer a difference between good and bad, desirable or not desirable. It is truly all the same, hence there is no fear is necessary to create one over the other, or keep the negative away. It just is what it is and if there is no fear, choices can be made based on compassion.

Everything we need to know is right there. All we need to do is wanting to see it.
The rest is pure magic.