Skáldskapr: Dealing with Superiority

QUESTION: Why do some people have a sense of superiority over others? 

There has been a sense of superiority over others throughout the history of humans. Originally, I think that this was created by those who were stronger, better hunters, better connected to the spiritual world around them. As one can see, there has always been a sense of pride that has clouded the human mind regarding others. In my studies of the rise of religious understanding, I have found there to be substantial times where the idea of the “priest” as I like to call them, have forced their ways between the common person and their deity. This type of thinking has damaged more relationships, and even families, than any other single factor of the physical life.

This sense of superiority over another is typically cause by an over-zealous sense of pride. We know (even with modern psychological studies) that it is this sense of pride that leads to one’s ego. The ego then dictates much of our interaction with others, especially when emotional charged. However, we also know that it is the idea of compromise that helps us build strong relationships. Both, in our intimate family settings, and our public facing relationships, the idea that we have to obtain a balance, is often a challenging proposition for those with large egos, or an inflated sense of self-worth. Arguably, there are many who fake this ego in an attempt to get others to recognize their importance.

As I noted in my studies of modern humans exited Africa millennia ago, there has always been a “need” to be included in a social group. Whether it was for physical safety, shared resources, or propagation of the genetic code within us, we have sought to be accepted. I believe that this earlier need has devolved into a social structure perceived within the human mind that does not have the same implications as it did all those years ago.

TEACHING: One needs to obtain a balance with all one’s relationships to achieve peace.

I am reminded of Mother Earth, when speaking of superiority. While she hosts all life, she works with her brother sun, and brother moon, to obtain a balance and keep all her children safe. Being able to maintain her temperature, she turns gracefully as to spread the heat evenly across her whole body. She trades off time facing her brother sun, with times of speaking with her brother moon, thereby moderating the ambient temperature. As she turns she invites the creation of the clouds between her and her brothers, thereby further moderating the effects on the surface of her skin. While she is proud of her creations of mountains, lakes, rivers, and seas, she does not let her ego break the relationship she has with her brothers. Whereas some of her other siblings have moved further away, or closer to their brother sun, forcing a different level of relationship.

Understanding one’s place in the overall picture is a substantial part of what can offer us our inner-peace. It is by obtaining pride without ego that helps us to obtain balance. To recognize the Creator’s gift of others around us, and the spirit’s encouragement in maintaining a balance in one’s life. We all have been given different gifts from our Creator, and from the many spirits available to help us, that make us each valuable, and important. By assuming that one is more important than another, is to break the balance needed for happy lives. We must seek to find our inner peace, and that can be done by bringing our relationships with others into balance.

Whether it is our spouses, our neighbors, our coworkers, or our children, recognizing their value as the gift they are will go a long way in obtaining balance, and your inner peace.