What Gandalf Teaches You About Moral Victory 🧙‍♂️

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📖 Reading Time: ~8 minutes.

"'You cannot pass,' he said. The orcs stood still and a silence fell. 'I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun. Go back to the Shadow. You cannot pass!'"

Let’s go on an adventure. Deep into the lore and mythology of Tolkien’s magnum opus – the Lord of the Rings.

We’re going to explore the implications of one of the most badass scenes of the series: Gandalf’s confrontation with the Balrog, deep within the dilapidated Mines of Moria.

Note: I am no expert on the vast world that Tolkien built. If you’d like to explore it, read The Silmarillion, which covers the metaphysics and history of the world.

Understanding the Secret Fire

"Therefore Ilúvatar gave to their vision Being, and set it amid the Void, and the Secret Fire was sent to burn at the heart of the World; and it was called Eä." ― Valaquenta

Eru Ilúvatar is the singular God of the LOTR world. The Secret Fire, also known as the Flame Imperishable, is the creative force of Ilúvatar. It is equally the individual spark, the animating life force within each individual.

Only a being animated with the Secret Fire can have its own true life and free will. Without it, creatures lack sentience and independent thought. It provides two fundamentals: self-awareness, and free will.

By identifying himself as a servant of the Secret Fire, Gandalf is identifying himself as a Maia, an embodied angelic servant of the Valar protecting the light of Creation that Eru Ilúvatar (or God) has set to burn at the centre of Arda (Earth).

Clyde S. Kilby mentions a discussion he had with Tolkien:

"Professor Tolkien talked to me at some length about the use of the word 'holy' in The Silmarillion. Very specifically he told me that the 'Secret Fire sent to burn at the heart of the World' in the beginning was the Holy Spirit."

Gandalf is a servant of the Secret Fire. A servant of the Holy Spirit in each individual. A servant of the divine spark of consciousness. A servant of the generative, playful brilliance in each individual.

Stewardship & Sacred Duty

This service is Gandalf’s raison d’être. Gandalf exists to protect the divine spark within all of Creation.

Let’s examine how he does this, and the implications:

Stewardship

Gandalf stewards the fellowship. He is a spiritual guide. But he never makes a decision, nor takes the completion of it upon himself.

He tells Pippin to light the beacon fires. Gives council to King Theoden. He could have taken the ring himself but didn’t. Part of protecting the Secret Fire is not only protecting it from evil, but allowing for its full expression.

One mistake we make when ‘helping’ others is to try to find answers. Or worse, just fixing it. It snuffs out the Secret Fire of the other. It’s suffocating, you’re never really heard. Your agency, your choice, and your existence are stolen.

You’ve felt this at some point in your life. People want their Spark acknowledged, their experience witnessed, not solved like a math problem. Learn to be with people, not to solve their problems, nor simply do it yourself.

Holding Space

Gandalf has incredible power, yet notice something important: he only uses it against other higher beings seeking to interfere with the creatures of Middle Earth.

He shines his light against the Nazguls to protect the riders returning to Minas Tirith. He takes on the Balrog. He battles with Saruman. He releases Theoden from his spell. He intervenes only against other higher beings and dark magic.

Gandalf creates a safe container for the flourishing of the Secret Fire. This is a metaphor for holding space: to hold the world at bay so the individual can go through their process, on their time, and be fully in their experience. Learn this, and you will learn the art of skillful space-holding.

He makes sure the fight is fair. Gandalf knows the real battle is within the heart of each individual. Whether they choose to honour their spark of consciousness, to follow their own free will. This is the battle everyone is facing.

Gandalf doesn’t seek heroic victory, he seeks moral victory.

Moral Victory

The gift of the Secret Fire is the divine spark of consciousness. This individuality provides the freedom necessary for choice. Moral victory requires choice. You cannot be compelled to do good. You must choose it.

Moral victory is spiritual victory. It is more noble to win in matters of the soul than matters of the sword.

This is what Gandalf serves. Gandalf protects choice. He protects the sovereignty of the individual and their right to self-determination.

Matthew Dickerson, in his work “Following Gandalf” writes:

“It is this freedom that enables them to participate in Ilúvatars Music and to themselves assist in sub-creating new beauty.”

To do good is their choice. It is not guaranteed. Gandalf teaches us that facilitating and protecting freedom and choice are fundamental prerequisites to serving the Secret Fire.

Indeed, the entire series is premised on the fact that the greatest Evil that exists is that which seeks to remove freedom. Sauron and the One Ring exist for the explicit purpose of power and total domination.

“One ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them.”

A Most Insidious Trap

What Gandalf teaches us is that if you wish to serve the Secret Fire, you must protect this freedom of choice with your life.

But here we are confronted with a most insidious trap: how often do you even give yourself this freedom?

How often do you squander your own choice and freedom by preemptively ruling out options because it’s not reasonable, not feasible, that you don’t deserve it, that it’s only binary? How can you achieve moral victory simply by doing what you’re told?

Only when you give yourself the freedom to be exactly as you are, to make your own choices, can you begin to offer this freedom, and the possibility of moral victory, to others.

Our society is exceptional at producing material wealth, military victory, but is plummeting in its ability to produce and enable moral victories, at individual and collective levels.

How troubled our modern times are—hellbent, through explicit legislation, or perverse social norms—seeking to vastly limit this freedom of choice.

We seek to extinguish the Secret Fire. The freedom of individual experience, the divine spark of consciousness, the Flame Imperishable.

If you agree that it is a sacred duty to protect the Secret Fire, the opportunity of individuation, choice, freedom, and responsibility – I leave you with some topics to consider. We will come back to these in future pieces.

• What are we to make of vaccine mandates and forced lockdowns?
• On what basis can you make psychedelic plants illegal to possess or consume?
• Who are you to legislate what a woman can or cannot do with her body?
• How can you be a good person by simply doing what you’re told?
• Is moral victory, or heroic victory, more important for the future of humanity?

You cannot be compelled to do good. Moral victory must come from the freedom of choice granted by the Secret Fire that burns within each individual.

I, through Gandalf, have learned to be a servant of the Secret Fire. I will die fighting for your freedom.

As the Flame Imperishable burns deep within me, I make this choice—this commitment—to you.

Protecting this individual freedom is more important than ever. A war is being fought for the heart of Earth. We need not military victories, but moral ones – spiritual ones.

To stand, live, and die for that which is most worth protecting.

I am a servant of the Secret Fire. 🔥

With love, EB. 💛

“All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us.” – Gandalf

Want more of the weird and wonderful? Join the adventure. 🐉