For over 35 years, Enid Vien has been a student of Humanity. Her searches have taken her through many philosophical, religious, and metaphysical pathways to the melding of method and magic that so characterizes her work today. She likes to call herself a pragmatic philosopher.
The following chapter from her book, The Sovereignty Manual is © 2007 by Enid Vien. For reprint rights, please contact Enid Vien
The Internal Enemies of Sovereignty
“We tend to think of enemies as external influences, yet how often do we say or hear the words; I am my own worst enemy?”
The first of the internal enemies of Sovereignty is Self Negation
Self negation is taught in certain cultures in various forms. In some cultures it is considered good to be humble and modest. Bragging, for example, is despised in England and generally accepted in the U.S.. The problem with the modest attitude is that it makes it very tricky to accurately assess one’s abilities and creations. The conclusions are generally slanted toward a poor score or negative opinion. The problem with the crowing attitude is that one’s abilities are often puffed up and this sets one up for a fall. Having fallen, one then tends to self-negate.
Often self negation follows criticism from others. I never thought about myself until I went to high school. I simply assumed I was okay. Boy was I wrong! The other kids practically ostracized me because I spoke with an upper crust accent. In their minds, this automatically meant I was stuck up, a snob and thought too highly of myself. It became their solemn duty to bring me down a peg or two. Being studious and artistic was strike two. Well, I thought, that was me and they could like it or lump it.
Underneath the facade of bravado, however, I was suffering the gnawing pangs of self doubt. In my teenage years, this grew into the monster of self negation. I would not encourage any boy who I thought was too clever or two handsome. I was afraid of being rejected and hurt. I would not reach out for affection. I had concluded at some deep and hidden level that I was either too good or not good enough to chase my rainbows. This broke my integrity right down the middle. It also made me distant, which made me appear to be even more aloof and snobbish, thus proving my adversaries right. It took me YEARS to break out of that trap. It seemed so necessary for my survival.
The second enemy is Trivializing One’s Abilities
While modesty is wholesome, excessive modesty can lead us to pretend we are less able than we really are. This makes us poor salespeople. We are unable to toot our own horns and achieve success. Our personal advertising department is nonexistent, so we essentially hide our talents and never really share them. This reminds me of school friends I had who would write copious amounts of poetry, and then never allow anyone to read it.
The third enemy is Ignoring Intuitive Knowlege
The main reason psychic abilities are considered uncommon in this society is that we discount or ignore them. For example, even though we use the term hunches we shy away from the idea of precognition. After all, we wouldn’t want to appear weird or “out there”. We can feel what others are feeling and even pick up traces of their thoughts, but we do not admit to telepathy or empathy; it was just a coincidence. In forty plus years of working with people, I have yet to find anyone without some traces of psychic ability. One walks into a building and picks up echoes of past events from the atmosphere. Well, we say, it was probably just the dark paint. This naturally puts us in a state of denial.
The fourth enemy is Being Silent in the Face of Unethical Behavior
Silence implies consent. Failing to call someone on their misdeeds can give them the idea that is okay with you.
If you are in an environment where unethical behavior as become the norm, then maintaining your own standards can be quite challenging. There are many little statments that have crept into the culture. “You have to look after number one.” This is so close to true, but it is usually used to justify acts that are scarely acceptable or downright dishonest. “You gotta do what you gotta do.” Doesn’t that sound reasonable? I don’t think so.
Even when you are in a reasonably ethical environment, there are nasty little ideas that have crept into the fabric of our society. “Money talks!” “There’s a sucker born every minute.” “Everybody does it.” “They can afford it.” These agreements in any group lead to petty theft and loss of profits. Even people that are otherwise honest somehow think stealing copy paper is okay. Others think it is okay to steal your time and attention. Lateness is a way of stealing someone else’s time that they could use more profitably. So is wasting another’s time in idle attention-hogging trivial. It is odd because you really can never give the time back, but we rarely realize this precious commodity can be stolen from us. It is rare that we even bother to remark that it is both inconvenient and disempowering.
It gets worse; you can also take calling everyone on their real or imagined faults to an excess. This makes you the self-appointed judge and jury and will not win you many friends. It also violates the sovereignty of those individuals that you are attempting to police.
A balance is needed to keep one from either excess: speaking out when the level of ethics is adversely affecting you or your family and friends, and not when it is mere fault finding.
The fifth enemy is Doubt in One’s Abilities or Value
Doubt is the source of hesitation. The old adage: “He who hesitates is lost,” is demonstrated here. It isn’t always easy to know what you know, yet it is often better to act than to be paralyzed with doubts. Doubts affect our integrity, our wholeness. They fracture our minds and leave us impotent and indecisive. Wounded Birds (those people who have so many soul wounds that the world has become a very unsafe place) tend to make remarks that make us doubt our correctness and even our intentions: This can spread like an epidemic.
The sixth enemy is Introversion
All the answers in the world are not inside you. Looking outward can show you a lot of things. Introversion can be very destructive and tends to make one dwell on significances rather than wash the dishes or finish a project. Generally, an introverted person thinks a lot, but rarely comes to any resolution or conclusion. It is a treadmill of circuitous thinking without relief or surcease.
I have said that personal power comes from within; unfortunately so does personal weakness. Allowing oneself to wallow in depressing thoughts makes one weak. If you catch yourself doing this, some exercise or physical labor is a grand cure.
The seventh enemy of Sovereignty is Allowing Yourlself to Spend a Lot of Time with Those Who Do Not Empower You
Most of us have some sensitivity to the “vibes” of the people with whom we come in contact. They feel good or unpleasant or deceptive and we say we have a “gut” reaction to them. We are, in fact, sensing their Dynamis emanations. Dynamis is their life force.
Because our personal Dynamis leaves traces on the things we produce or are involved with, it actually has a major impact on our success or failure. So does the energy of those with whom we associate and work. A miserable sourpuss will drip his gloom and doom on all those he contacts. A cheerful soul will donate their cheerfulness to the world. A Pretender will give you a false sense of security. This tells us that choosing our companions in business has a great impact on both our working and social environment. If this rings a bell with you, it might be productive to ask yourself, “Why?” Being around those who drain your energies and lessen your self-esteem is soul destroying and dismal. Why do we do it? Well, we say, I had no choice. It’s family, or my boss hired her, or I don’t know anyone else. A big trap is having invested so much time, money and attention on an associate that you feel the person is indispensable. Actually, you have no choice because you do not choose. Failing to exercise your right to choose is a way of surrendering your sovereignty.
The eighth enemy is Failing to Develop Your Communication Skills
There are many reasons and rationalizations for this. Probably the most devastating is, “What good does it do when others don’t do it too?”
Many of us do not communicate with with ourselves. How, therefore, can we expect others to understand us? Well, good communication is contagious. When you improve your ability to be understood; others will understand better.
Other reasons for failing to improve your communication skills may be not noticing that you interrupt others, or that you fail to acknowledge them.
Communication is a powerful force, stronger than even love or hate. Yet most of us have trouble communicating with our nearest and dearest. How, then, can we expect to achieve successful communication with foreigners and strangers who may not speak or act in familiar ways?
We live in a world crowded with people who are generally doing a miserable job of communicating. It is up to us to improve this, at least in our small corner of the world. It is noticeable that when one person’s communication improves, the lives of those around that person do, too. So each individual has a responsibility to be as good at communicating as he or she can possibly be.