6. The Devil's Advocate
ego-cowardice, the passion is fear
by Torre Waag

If you find yourself in the role of Devil's-Advocate, your life will be organized around seeking security. This is because you tend to see things through the perspective of fear and doubt, through the lens of the worst case scenario. Your thoughts may be filled with negative introspection, and skepticism of others. You will easily spot phonies and see their pretense, some of you uncovering their sham with a loaded word or verbal jab. Whether you know it or not, you are projecting your inner passion of fear out on the world and thus finding life dangerous and threatening, even more so than it is. Who can you trust? What will happen next? You may respond to your fear from either a phobic or counterphobic stance. The more phobic posture is to seek safety through being friendly and loyal to those in power; they can protect you. The opposite-looking, counterphobic pose finds security through being powerful and autocratic, keeping others at bay. Often, your internal loop of thinking and doubting will stop you in your tracks, and leave you questioning your own direction, motives and the motives of others, procrastinating, unable to decide which way to go. You will almost always be vigilant and watchful even with those you love. Relationship issues may revolve around trust and testing your partner's loyalty. You may find yourself resembling Woody Allen, infatuated with your own inner process, expressing it to anyone who will listen, or you may become a great thinker like Krishnamurti, Lenin or Freud. Most likely you will be a regular guy or girl, a policeman, a football hero, a teacher, living with doubts, disguising your fear. Some other exemplars of your type include Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Jane Fonda, Camille Paglia, Hunter Thompson, Chuck Norris, Richard Nixon and George Bush. Every once and a while when you will let go of your vigilance, you will drop into a moments of Divine Faith and trust. That is your essential self.

« prev | next »