There are archetypal energetic patterns that are shaping the middle east affairs these days, a major one being the pendulum of the shadow twins of the victim and the bully. The settler colonial state that has been pierced into the heart of our region can only act from the extreme sides of this pendulum and never from the still point of belonging, and this goes much deeper than politics.
In the realm of archetypes, the victim and the bully—or in its darkest form, the rapist—are not merely opposites. They are shadow twins, bound in a dance of power and powerlessness.
The bully or rapist, is the distorted expression of a desperate need to overpower, to control, to dominate. But beneath the aggression lies the same root: a wound of powerlessness. The bully externalizes this wound by inflicting it on others. What the victim internalizes, the bully acts out.
The victim archetype, on the other hand, arises from the experience of being overpowered, silenced, or violated—physically, emotionally, or psychologically. It often carries a wound so deep that it shapes identity itself, breeding fear, helplessness, or even a quiet resignation to suffering.
They are two expressions of the same split—one submits to the pain, the other inflicts it on the other. Both are born from disconnection: from Self, from empathy, from the ability to hold vulnerability with dignity, from the ability to respect the sacred in the other.
These patterns are not features of the dying phase, they are features of a materialistic civilization, now becoming even more visible at scale. A materialistic world view is a deep cut from the real source of power that sits in the metaphysical realms, the inner world, the sacred orders, or the spirit and the soul.
