The jokey "Merry Crisis, and a Happy New Fear" seems to be...less of a joke as 2026 finds its feet, and the world news suggests America may be about to plunge everyone into World War Three.
As men, it is vital that those of us who are not meant to be holding the Warrior archetype - those who have aged out of it (there's a reason most actual militaries have an age limit of around 40, even for mandatory call-up), those of us who would not be deemed fit for actual military service, and who have created a life, as disabled or chronically ill men, where we no longer have to be warriors on our own account, those who are needed in the Lover or King archetypes - those with caring responsibilities, those supporting a spouse, partner, or polycule through trauma, change, or bereavement, those who are leading industries and organisations that are needed to do the "mopping up" war always entails, those of us who are still boys, and not yet men - cis males under 18, and trans men in their first 2-3yrs of transition - do not jump into/back into holding a Warrior aspect that is not ours.
Warriors are not the only people needed in war.
Men who are inhabiting or moving into the King archetype are needed to make strategic decisions about what comes after war, and to support the non-combatant population.
Magician archetypes can work with the energies war brings up to fuel creativity (think of all the poetry and art that has come from wars...), and to isolate the energies peacetime life needs in order to remain stable.
Men in their Lover archetype are safety and forgetting for those fighting, and those anxiously looking on; they can take people out of thoughts of battle for a time, and give them the fuel and spirit to return to combat when the time is right.
Men are not just warriors - and believing, and being told, that that is all we can be is what has created the present levels of "toxic" masculinity.
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