Warrior consciousness: “See you in Valhalla”
“Israel has attacked six countries in the past 72 hours”
“Trump rebrands Department of Defense as the Department of War”
“What does Patel’s message to Kirk about Valhalla mean?”
…are some of the headlines I’ve read in the past few days. The first two are self-explanatory. The third refers to the recent death, by gun violence, of conservative evangelical American “influencer”, Charlie Kirk, who was, ironically, a strong supporter of “gun rights”. Indeed, Kirk once said:
“I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights”. (1)
The Patel of the above headline is current FBI director Kash Patel, a Trump appointee and friend of Kirk, who was raised Hindu. In the wake of Kirk’s shooting, Patel ended one of his official briefings with the words:
“Rest now, brother. We have the watch, and I’ll see you in Valhalla.”
Valhalla “is typically understood as a reference to one of five realms that souls go to after death in Norse mythology, which depicts it as a celebratory hall for slain warriors and noble political leaders under the god Odin…”. (2) Such language is also used in the US as a tribute for fallen Marines. Neither Kirk nor Patel were members of the military. “The term is also prominently mentioned in the video game Assassin’s Creed.”(3)
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In some integral theories of human development, “warrior consciousness” is the next stage beyond “tribal consciousness”:
…the warrior stage of consciousness began to develop about 10,000 years ago when the tribal level grew in wealth and power, and conflicts erupted between neighbouring tribes. Might makes right at the warrior stage…beliefs are less magical and more literal. There is an absolute authority that is outside of me such as a parent, a teacher, a boss, or a minister, or a God who makes the rules I follow without question. (4)
This is the stage in the biblical record where Israel moves from being a persecuted wandering tribe and establishes itself as a royal nation, a monarchy, under the reign of several warrior kings (e.g. David, Solomon), building and rebuilding its majestic temples. This is a fraught though perhaps inevitable transition. The idea of a monarchy is first considered evil by the prophet Samuel - God alone was their ultimate authority or ‘king’. (5)
Warrior consciousness sits uneasily with some core threads of Judaism and Christianity (that is, some of its ethical, mystical, and prophetic traditions). Yet it has a solid home in these religions and their scriptures, too:
[In some Jewish and Christian imagery and myths,] God lives up in heaven but comes down to earth as an avenging warrior mixed with elements of justice and compassion. There is strong biblical justification for this view with over four hundred passages in the Bible that speak of the wrath of God. If one adds up the actual named figures of how many people God is reported to have killed in the Old Testament, it will range well over 300,000 not including entire cities, communities, and in one instance, the entire population of the Earth except for Noah and his family…
God is addressed exclusively in male terms, such as Heavenly Father and Lord God Almighty. Like the previous level, the spiritual life is fear-based… (6)
Warrior consciousness eventually kills Jesus, who refuses to take up arms against it. Jesus threatens its basic legitimacy:
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5: 43-48).
Jesus is killed in the manner of the most hated and reviled: he dies as a slave, tortured and nailed to a cross. His followers don’t rise up in arms, but they don’t go away, either - they are emboldened by his death and resurrection. Christianity becomes a Jewish and a non-Jewish religious movement. For the first few centuries, all Christians refused to bear arms or be members of any militia. Through this death and subsequent life after death, the early Christians come to believe that Jesus wins a spiritual, moral, and cosmic victory over the powers of empire, war, nationhood, and death.
The Roman Empire first persecutes then assimilates Christianity. Christianity becomes mighty, the religion of empire and king. Creeds are drawn up to identify and persecute others, and to unify the empire around “correct” beliefs as defined by mighty emperors and bishops.
Holy wars and crusades and are fought in Christ’s name. Millions of Muslims, Jews, and Christians die as a result. The reformation and counter-reformation legitimizes holy violence by Christians against other Christians. Seven to seventeen millions Christians are estimated to have died in these “wars of religion”. The world burns and Christ is crucified - a thousand times over, again.
From earliest times down to our present age, then, Jesus’s followers - as human beings - struggled with the tension between love and war, between warrior consciousness and the radically different sort of consciousness that Jesus invited and embodied. In Romans 12, we hear Paul struggling with this basic tension, and ending up sounding quite schizophrenic:
Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21).
God is pure love and goodness: God is fearsome and vengeful. Be peaceful, so as to not rob God of his right to avenge and punish.
It is very hard for to “include and transcend” warrior consciousness (that is, how stages of consciousness are said to evolve and shift in integral theory)!
As a child, I was brought up with the image of “good kings”: David, Solomon, Aslan, Aragorn, King Richard, Lionheart; God as the benevolent, paternal ruler of the “kingdom of heaven”; the Allies in World War One and Two; more abstractly, the Western World in its fight for human rights, justice, and freedom; America as one of the “good powers” of the modern world.
For various reasons, these images are now fraying or in tatters.
Although I consciously feel repelled by “warrior consciousness” and “warrior Christianity”, I can respond to frustration and powerlessness with suddenly violent actions and thoughts, and then justify these using seemingly noble words and ideas. Especially as a parent. Or when I encounter ideas and other people or other nations or religions or other Christians that I greatly disagree with or hate.
I think of the image of Peter the apostle - drawing his sword and cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant. Our violence is ever-present, just waiting beneath the surface to pounce. Perhaps Jesus’s life and teachings only make sense in the context of warrior consciousness, and our struggle as individuals and as a species to survive and grow only make sense against this backdrop too.
On a spiritual or “consciousness” level, figures like Jesus and true mystics of all religions, while using the everyday language of duality, invite us to move beyond binaries of self and other, neighbour and enemy, pure and impure, chosen and forsaken. This takes time and considerable practice, perhaps ages and lifetimes, to cultivate another sort of effective power and transcend ‘the war within’ through radical inclusion. At the same time, it can happen in a moment’s grace.
Materially, if the “warrior era” arises from a competition between tribes over wealth and resources, it must be “included and transcended” by addressing vast wealth inequalities and poverty as root causes for war and the preparation for war.
References:
(1) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/us/charlie-kirk-views-guns-gender-climate.html
(2) https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5501026-fbi-kash-patel-charlie-kirk-update-valhalla/
(2) See The Hill article above.
(4) Paul R. Smith, Integral Christianity: The Spirit’s Call to Evolve (2011), p.27.
(5) See Eric Ellison, “The Prophet Samuel: In the Wrong Place at the Right Time” (2014), retrieved from https://jacl.andrews.edu/the-prophet-samuel-in-the-wrong-place-at-the-right-time/ .
(6) Smith, p.30.
Image at top of page: Peter Pelz, “Mysteries of Destruction: Sword” (1986).
