Question

who are warriors and elders

Answer 1

The Warrior

When a man goes to war, or even earlier, in boot camp, his deep psyche wakes up a “psychic organ” that might otherwise stay asleep. It’s the Warrior. “He” is to take on the task of protecting his family and his people from danger of any kind, natural, animal, or human. The Warrior carries some built-in qualities that equip him for this: protectiveness, service, courage, willingness to kill, focus, commitment, sacrifice, and others.
 

The awakened Warrior brings with him some ancient, hard-wired (but unconscious) expectations of how his growth will go, how he will be shaped and matured into his protect-and-serve function. First there will be an Ordeal that will test his strength and mettle. That’s battle (or its supportive functions like supply). Will did well with his ordeal. 


Then, eventually (unless he’s killed), the Welcoming should be the Warrior’s return home to his culture. This is where containment comes in. All the psychic and physical energy, the battle-readiness, the courage, the commitment, the readiness to kill and sacrifice, the emotions named above, still surge and spin in him. The primary emotions still surging in Will were anger, self-hate, and grief. 


The expectation of the Welcoming is, in our culture, mostly unconscious, but it has a certain shape and content. Done properly, the Welcoming helps the Warrior unwind, stand down, going into a sort of “inactive reserve,” and the man becomes able to re-enter family and community in a healthy way. The less his return fits those unconscious expectations, however, the more likely and severe PTSD becomes. 
 

The Welcoming rituals must convey messages powerful and moving enough to register deep in the Warrior’s psyche. He must hear:
 

“You went to the brink by acts of destruction and killing for our sake. We therefore share responsibility for the outcomes of what you did – death and destruction and damage. Now we must hear you tell the stories of your deeds. Leave out no details, no matter how brutal or gruesome. We must not be protected from taking in the truth of what you did in our name, nor of what you gave of yourself to do so. We and you will rejoin each other in this way.”
 

The people and the Warrior then grieve together, for the cost to him and his soul, and for the human suffering left in war’s wake. He must experience their gratitude for his service in protecting the lives and ways of his people. He must experience them opening their ranks and drawing him in, Welcoming him home.

 

The Elder

And they must call him to continuing service to his people in a new role: “As you return to us, we ask that you continue to serve, following the Warrior’s path to the wisdom of the Elder Spiritual Warrior. Become our teacher. You have lived firsthand the functions we must preserve in daily life to remain mentally healthy: Protection of life; Facing Death; Responsibility for others at home, for brothers-in-arms, and for life itself; Courage to do the unthinkable ‘for the sake of’; Sacrifice of a piece of one’s own soul, and perhaps life and limb, ‘for the sake of”; Recognition of a cause greater than oneself; and Service to that cause.


“We ask that you become an Elder Spiritual Warrior, from whom and by whose example we may learn the value of these things.

Answer 2

Explanation:

WARRIOR..

• brave and experiences soldiers or fighters ..