Effects of Rejections and Acceptances in KRATOS
Kratos is the first domain where we grapple with rejections and acceptances, often in pursuit of self-definition. This is the stage where the prodigal son rejects his father’s authority, the rules of family, and the expectations of community, choosing instead to follow his own path with his own sets of rules. Kratos launches the human struggle to find identity. In a society currently demanding conformity to basic materialism, this can become that much more difficult.
The prodigal son’s decision to leave home turns out to be an ignorant action towards a false freedom. Lost and away from the core values of his father’s upbringing, he seeks to define himself through external validations in wealth, status, or moving passions, but these pursuits promote extremes all around, especially for reactions. His excesses are driven by unchecked ignorant desire in the flesh. He chooses to forget the lessons instilled in him from childhood. The most outward sin of Amnesis, as negative mirror to the first virtue of Magnanimity, stems from a forgetting of his true purpose as guided by father’s wisdom.
Kratos is marked by earthquake-like disruptions due largely to bad experiences in the higher domains. This can be good or bad, when we reject community norms and cut our bonds. The prodigal son’s departure creates a void in his life because nothing else in the world could compare to what his father had constructed for him. Such disruptions are not without purpose. It forces us to confront our own limitations in the wider world. In Kratos, we are reminded that identity cannot be built on rejection and acceptance alone but must be leveraged in something greater than ourselves. Extremes are temporary and true self-definition emerges only through moderation.
The structural virtues central to this rules domain are the first two virtues. Magnanimity and Honour are expressed most in the seeing above current situations. This is spiritual greatness founded in service to others, which must become the expansive factor in identity. To be human is to seek identity, but to truly find it, we must return to moderation.