We live in a society that is increasingly devoid of excellence, a period of history where high standards (or sometimes any standards at all) seem to have gone AWOL.

This is partly because excellence is hard, partly because people who cannot do it are jealous of those who can, but also because excellence is discouraged, made to sound off-putting by those who seek to wield power over us. The lowering of standards – be they of education, morality, discipline, speech, culture or appearance – is, according to some, merely one link in the ongoing demoralisation strategy well explained by Yuri Bezmenov (LONG EXPLANATION, SHORT EXPLANATION)

Whether you believe Uncle Yuri or not it is clear to see that the deliberate lowering of standards is an essential feature of any society that is rooted in Marxism, which is to say all modern Western societies. Marxism – one of the most anti-life, anti-spiritual doctrines of all time – wants sameness, and will always hammer down any nail that sticks out. This Marxism might nowadays be dressed up as kind-and-tolerant Leftism, but the equality sought is still only an equality where everyone is equally miserable.

So, in times like these, when every spark of difference, every aspect of human uniqueness, and every shred of excellence is being ruthlessly flattened, what do you do?

The answer is to double down on your spiritual quest. The evil that is running our world will not let up. And make no mistake; the Marxism which has infiltrated virtually every Western institution is evil. And it is doubly hard to stop because it is often Hidden Marxism, disguised under the banners of racial and social justice, enacted by HR departments under the rubric of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, taught by teachers in classrooms, implemented from the boardroom in the name of improving ESG scores, enforced in the culture through political correctness and cancellation, propagated online by the gatekeepers of information such as Google, Wikipedia, as well as on sites like Quora, and pushed relentlessly in government agencies by organisations such as Common Purpose. It does not matter who wins elections when those who actually pull the levers of power all hail from the anti-spiritual, political Left.

But this Hidden Marxism does not merely want your money, it wants your Soul, and those with any sense at all will resist. The number one way to do this it to realise that your body is a Living Temple to God. Once this fact is grasped you may finally stand a chance of resisting the 1001 temptations to shovel processed and industrialised ‘food products’ into your mouth, all of which numb your senses and extinguish your spark. But you might also need a healthy dose of scepticism on the side when you realise that plant-based very often means lab-grown, which is about as far from God as you can possibly get.

Another modern malady is our belief in the myth of progress. We see this in the disregard that the young have for the old, as well as in the degree to which ancient wisdom, tradition and long-established knowledge are ridiculed, and those who stand for such things cast aside or cancelled. We see it in the fevered proclamations of the woke, who believe that we are all marching toward a tech-enabled, science driven, enlightened, modern utopia, free from all the old problems and prejudices. But the fact remains that traditions survive because they contain things of value. One place where this is true is within the Western Esoteric and Christian traditions, specifically the Three Theological Virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity.

I wrote about how these old-time values are still relevant today in Soul Strong Volume One. But the crucial point is that these virtues are theological because they are rooted in God, not people (and definitely not the Church).

For example, Faith in people is one of the most absurd things that you can practice. It is not that people are bad, as such, it is that they are often self-interested, narrow-minded, and easily swayed by fear or greed. It is not even their fault, so we should not hate them for it, but the fact remains that if you put your faith in people to do the right thing you will be bitterly disappointed again and again. This ought not be controversial, and nor is it, as someone recently remarked to me, an unhealed trauma response. Instead, it is a perceptive and immensely helpful insight into the human condition. People may do the right thing, if they know it, if they are helped, if they are given the means, if they have a Divine connection. But if not, they will not. If that is not clear after the past six years, then I do not know what to tell you.

But Faith in God, now that is another story. Faith in God – or if you prefer the Divine, Source, Universe – works in the sense that it is only by the Divine that the impossible can be made possible. We need the Divine in our lives, and without it we are little more than dressed-up chimps. Faith – energised belief, acting as if the goal has already come true, total conviction that there is something bigger than you – brings us closer to the Divine.

The next one is Hope, which is vital if we are going to get up in the morning and carry on. We must either believe that things can get better, or at least see how things might change. But only a fool places hope in humans. Hope only delivers when it is placed in the Divine, and it is only through a Divine connection that we may catch a glimpse of a hopeful tomorrow. Hope, when offered by progressive politicians or tech-evangelists is a deceit of great proportions.

Lastly there is Charity, but this is not, thankfully, Oxfam-style charity. Charity here means Love, Love for the Divine, as well as for all the individual human aspects of that Divine. But if we really are to practice Charity (Love) then it must be for all people, not just the ones we like. It is not just my body that is a living temple to God, but everyone elses too, no matter how badly they abuse it. Even if we understand this theoretically, it is unlikely that most of us will be able to live it in practice, because it inevitably means that Tories must also be loved, as must Republicans. This is only possible if you can see that evil is an energy which enters through the doorways of the human heart and mind but does not care where it takes root. It therefore equally well shows itself amid BLM supporters as it does the police, amid Labour as it does Conservative, amid XR eco-warriors as it does industrial polluters. Marxism is a profoundly toxic and destructive ideology which has burrowed deep into the party-political system. As such it really ought to be consigned to the dustbin of history, but Marxists (hidden or otherwise), bless them, are just misguided souls. God will sort them out, and they will probably come to see the error of their ways when in some future life they inhabit and finally come to realise the true horror of the society they were so enthusiastic about.

Spirituality, like the humans who practice it, takes many forms, and much wisdom can be found in all sorts of spiritual approaches. A helpful guide, for me at least, has been the 19th century Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. After achieving success with works like War and Peace he underwent a moral crisis and came out the other end as a passionate Christian anarchist and pacifist, who believed that nothing short of a moral and spiritual revolution inside people’s hearts and minds was needed to solve the problems of the world.. Amen brother, for these too are my views. Anyway, he said this:

“What we should teach our children are those things in common to all religions – Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jewish etc, and those things which are clear to everybody, the moral science of love and the unification of people.”

Well, you cannot have any of that under Marxism, or under any of its left-leaning siblings like socialism or communism, for these are doctrines that depend on conflict for their existence. You probably cannot have it under rampant capitalism either. But you can have it by adopting the long-tested Western, Christian rooted principles of Faith, Hope and Charity, which I believe are essential components of any practical, clear-eyed spirituality.

With Faith in God the impossible is possible.

With Hope in God things can improve.

With Charity in God I can treat people well.

Living these principles, every day, elevates us, lifting our attention out from the soup of sameness and up to higher heights. We do not need any church here; it is just a matter of making our spiritual quest the one place where we refuse to compromise with the madness of the world. From there we can display behaviours that might inspire. We could create music that uplifts, write or speak words that draw attention upwards and generally do things that encourage others to improve themselves. New Agers might call this raising your vibration, but the highest vibration is not naïve positivity, but clear-eyed truth. And the truth of the matter is that humans without God, without Source, without the Divine, are finished. The choice is becoming clearer every day – reconnect or be replaced. The reconnection we need is to God, and one pathway to it is through the almost forgotten principles of Faith, Hope and Charity.