“I never knew how empty was my soul, until it was filled!”

The Secret Teachings

Chivalry calls irresistibly to those who hear it.
    It beckons like an echo from the past, calling us home.

What is it that stirs our hearts?
    Inspiring words? The yearning of tribal leaders wanting to be king?
    Or is it the memory of heroic tales shared around the campfire, or recited at court while feasting?

Good brother, think not that chivalry can be found in tales. Words are mere clatter, passing like the wind, or like a series of lapping waves along the shore-they are that empty and meaningless.

Know well that the simpatico that tugs inside you stirs in the presence of kindred ideals.
    Chivalry speaks to what defines you already, with language suited to your core, honed by countless warriors from the past, nameless, faceless, as well as those of legend. They are your brethren. Their sacrifices call for your commitment.

Warriors from the past? Not ghosts feasting in Valhalla. They are those who came before you, who forged your spirit. Their voices echo in the longing of your soul.
    Their Quest remains unfinished, theirs and yours as well. It draws you to do your part as faithfully as they did. Come and take your place in the assembly of heroes.

Chivalry completes us. Doing so, it connects us with the mystery of the sublime and expansive self, no more than a seedling, no less than the universe. There conscience stirs with a call for transformation. It calls for us to recognize that the soul of man is good-and even more. It is a source of good as well.
    Your attraction to chivalry has not been imposed on you by someone else, be it person, angel or god. Its authority is based neither on law nor commandment.
    It is, rather, the timeless, endless dream that defines us all, and unveils the distant goal we are urged to follow. It is the cornerstone of our nature, who we are before others told us to be different.
    Through all its guises from the past, to what remains today, chivalry reflects the longing of our souls for what is good and true. It speaks as nothing else can, guiding us to the wellspring of mystery with true enticements.

Follow no leader on your Quest. Sell yourself to no one. To merge with the crowd is anathema to everything you are. Forget the path less traveled! As a spiritual knight errant, the path you seek is no path at all, but the trail you blaze at the whim of every step.

Camelot is no fantasy. It is Eden built by human artifice. Its walls, like chivalry itself, fortify the beating heart within. It is our golden city of the mind's eye, a retreat from amorality, where truth is recognized and goodness reigns. Neither truth nor goodness can exist without existing in you first. Anything less is imitation, doomed to fail.
    That is our goal. That is our vision. And that is what attracts you to Chivalry.
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The serious engagement of your personal quest must always remain inviolate. It is not a game. It is not partaking in some fantasy. It is an on-going relationship with life itself, a willful embrace of living-the kind of meaningful commitment that defines you as authentic.
    The serious quality I speak of does not exclude joy. In fact, it is the truest source of joy. Joy comes to those who are genuine and whole, who are assured of the rightness of their cause, confident that their lives have meaning. Happiness pales in comparison.
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That death eventually takes us all makes our experience of life that more precious. Not a moment should be wasted. Authenticity makes that possible. Not thrills, not distractions, not wealth or ego or popularity. Authenticity, and nothing else. The full experience of life. The full expression of who you are at every moment. When you have this authenticity, your life has not been wasted. You die a hero, because you lived heroically. You engaged the Quest with full integrity. Your mistakes and failures cannot mar the richness of your efforts. You will be remembered not with sadness but with appreciation and inspiration.
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Do not blame the devil for tempting you. Your temptations are your own, created by your own desires and lack of discipline.
    We are all tempted to do wrong. We all surrender in moments of weakness, or willfully when evil takes our hearts. This is why strength of character is so important. What good is strength if it does not contribute to the greater good, and hold you steady in turbulent seas? Chivalry gives strength meaning.
    We will fail at times. Chivalry tells us that failure is not equivalent to defeat. We acknowledge our failures in order to overcome them. We compensate for our errors to remove their sting. We remain humble in all our doings because imperfection mars our every action, and adds glory to every success.
    Perfection is a bland thing compared to the strivings and success of those who are imperfect.
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For the true knight errant of this Companionship, the personal code of chivalry can be reduced to seven words:

"Here and Now. True to What Is."

When you contemplate these words, your heart will know the depth of what they mean. "Here and now" sparks full awareness to the moment. "True to what is" confirms your place in it. If you understand this, you will delight in the mystery you are part of, and respond as a Knight Errant should. It is from your integrity of the moment that goodness will spring, or not at all.
    Remember those words. Remember them often.
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Can you live your life without harming the innocent?
Even those you never see?
Can you avoid alcohol and opiates,
and thereby be true to the moment?
Can you stoop to help a fallen child?
Can you safeguard his future?
Can you despise what others love,
and hold dear what others hate?
Can you appreciate the beauty
that the eye fails to see?

At what point in life does a man lose his soul completely, and there is no reclaiming it? Can you see it coming? Will you know when it happens?
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When circumstances and outside expectations control us, we lose something of who we are.
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There is nothing quite so liberating as true humility. It frees us from the illusions that are married to conceit, arrogance, and the outright lie of self-importance.
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Humility is not the opposite of conceit, for in its truest sense it is not self-effacing. It is the opposite of self-deception, believing a great lie that distorts one's perspective of the world.
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The goal of chivalry is not to make you better than others, or place you on a higher level, or make you feel superior in any way. It's goal is to complete you as a person in relationship to the world around you.
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Chivalry is often associated with the accomplishment of great deeds. This association is important to consider as a door to understanding. It illustrates the point that chivalry encourages action, not the passive surrender to ideology or higher power. It asserts man's strength and energy and drive in order to create a better world. It encourages self-development as well as self-discipline. It pushes us to test ourselves, our limits, our capacity for change. Passive integrity is a small thing in comparison.
    Chivalry does not hide. It faces the world and lives in it. It demands relationships based on truth. The man of chivalry excels through hard work and commitment. He confronts life, rather than avoids it out of fear he might sin. These are the challenges and blessings that chivalry instigates.
    The man of chivalry sees beauty as well as ugliness. He sees through them both.
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Love gives what justice cannot.
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Once a person knows and encapsulates something perceptually, he no longer sees it for what it is. The direct experience is replaced by drab familiarity. It is routine that make us numb to the world around us, and we relate more to the memory of a thing or person than the actual subject. Mindless routine extinguishes the experience of life, internalizing the individual into a closed and sheltered existence. Surrendering the mind to habit is surrendering it to a kind of death that loses touch of mystery and awe. The truth is, our comprehension is so limited, we are not really familiar with anything.
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The very discussion of chivalry opens the door to man's conscience. His attitude changes in an instant. This is the power chivalry has to change things. Embrace chivalry. Let it fill your thoughts and deeds, and the power to change things is yours.
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The purpose of Chivalry-Now is to reassert the integrity of the soul, the key to authentic life.
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Perhaps the purpose of life is to find purpose for life. Perhaps that is our greatest challenge, our truest quest. If so, then chivalry prepares us well.
    Perhaps God watches from his throne to see what we will do, as we face the void with awakened consciousness. Our tools are many. Thought. Instinct. Conscience. Compassion. Discerning right from wrong. Love. The wisdom of the Ages. Prophets and philosophers. The hope one feels as the sun rises. The peace one feels watching it set.
It's all there to learn from. The test is ours.
    As arbiter of your soul, you are also an arbiter of life. Your every decision is that important. Each of us defines what it means to be human, for good or ill. The merchant who is fair or not, the leader who deceives or tells the truth.
    We can blame God for our weaknesses, but they are ours to embrace or turn around.
    How could it be otherwise?
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The intoxicated man steps boldly forward to prove himself a fool. He speaks what he does not know, and breaks what belongs to himself and others. He swaggers with self-importance, and fights when he should not. He hurts his wife and family, and becomes a burden on his friends.
    The intoxicated man laughs and weeps when neither is called for. He menaces the innocent and loses all that is precious. He sees little of what surrounds him, and misunderstands what he sees. He assures everyone that he knows what he is doing, even while disgracing himself. Caught in a stupor that he thinks he cannot live without, he blasphemes against the life given him.
    What intoxicates him? Sometimes drink, but also power, sometimes ignorance or delusion, or wealth or self-pity, or success, or words spoken cheaply, or letting others speak for him.

The inauthentic life intoxicates itself
on its own poison!

    He is no man who willingly plucks out his eyes, plugs up his ears and then thinks proudly that he can neither see nor hear, nor does he care what suffering to others that he causes.

Awaken now! Hope for the future beckons!
Poison your consciousness no more.

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