FREE Course: (A MUST Read) The Choice to be a Warrior by Kevin Wikse

“A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it”
-Carlos Castaneda

It’s tempting to laugh when someone claims they "choose to be a warrior." The absurdity of such a statement doesn’t fully hit until you've walked the path, when you realize that choosing to be a warrior isn’t a romantic notion, it’s about choosing life over death. This isn’t a casual decision, not like picking from a buffet of options. In reality, it’s a harsh, unforgiving ultimatum. You either live as a warrior, or you languish in mediocrity, lost in the rat-race of ordinary existence, and feed feet first through the meat-grinder.

My teacher never presented this choice as a simple fork in the road. It wasn’t as if I could go left and become a receptionist at some veterinary clinic, or right and march into a warrior’s destiny. No, the reality was far bleaker, but far more profound. The road I was on led straight off a cliff. Keep walking, and death awaited, not the clean, honorable death of battle, but a slow, soul-crushing demise, drained by a life of mindless servitude. I’d waste my time, my energy, everything I had, in exchange for meager wages. I’d numb myself with the distractions society sells: substances, empty entertainment, all designed to keep me sedated, to keep me gleefully blind to the brutal truth.

That truth? I would be nothing but a cog, a slave in a machine built by black-hearted overlords—people who commit atrocities on a scale most can’t comprehend. They’d feed on my future generations, strip them for parts if need be, while I lived out my days in cowardice. I’d meet my end having done nothing of value, having turned a blind eye to the horrors I knew existed. When I stood before my creator, what could I say? That I chose ignorance? That the gift of life, of consciousness, was wasted on me?

But there was another option, one far more dangerous. I could step off that road, into the unknown. The wilderness. The wasteland. The forbidden zone that society warns us to avoid at all costs. To take that step is to see the world for what it truly is, much like Orwell warned in Animal Farm, "to see the farm is to leave it," once you see the farm, once you recognize your own captivity, there’s no turning back. You're no longer walking among the slaves. You’ve stepped onto a battlefield, one where the stakes are nothing less than your own freedom and power.

Freedom is the warrior’s path. It’s dangerous, yes. But it’s also raw, honest, and true. It’s not about avoiding death; it’s about facing it on your own terms. To live and die as a warrior is to stand before your creator as someone worthy of the effort it took to bring you into existence. Not as a coward who lived in chains, but as a person who fought, who lived with power and purpose.

Warriors deal in power. They cultivate awareness. They act when and how they choose. Slaves, on the other hand, submit. They bow to their masters, pretending not to notice the chains that bind them. They act only when directed, never truly free. And that is the choice before us all, not simply whether to live or die, but whether to live with power, or die in abject servitude.

That is the choice. To be a warrior or not is simply the result of which you choose.
A warrior doesn’t become a warrior until they realize there is no real choice. Not for them. The harsh truth is that the only alternative to becoming a warrior is death—whether it's physical death or the slow decay of spirit that comes from living in ignorance. The moment of awakening is brutal. It’s not a gentle enlightenment, but the violent shattering of a carefully constructed reality. The social frameworks and illusions you’ve leaned on for so long are revealed for what they are: nothing more than smoke and mirrors. The worldview that once seemed solid crumbles to dust as truth claws its way out from behind the facade, dragging you into a terrifying state of heightened awareness.

In that moment, as the lie unravels, you come to understand something deeply unsettling: the illusion only existed because you agreed to it. Whether you were aware of it or not, you gave away your time, your energy, your very life force to fuel a system designed to keep you asleep. The betrayal is profound. And it is in that betrayal, in the gut-wrenching realization of how deeply you've been deceived, that the true wounding occurs. This is the rite of passage—a brutal initiation from the life of a slave to the path of the warrior.

At that moment of clarity, the person you once were dies. The life you once lived implodes, consumed in the fiery destruction of your own personal apocalyptic apotheosis. And from those ashes, something new emerges. Something stronger, though scarred by the experience. The warrior. Bloodied and bruised, yes, but reborn. The betrayal has cut deep, but now you stand at the edge of a new reality. The warrior must rise. There is no other way. You can either reclaim your scattered power or let it slip through your fingers, but the choice is yours now, and yours alone.

This is the ultimate difference. Before, you were an unthinking slave, driven by the will of others, acting without awareness, without purpose. But now, as a warrior, every action you take is a conscious one. The warrior’s life is defined by this new awareness. Every step, every decision carries weight. There is no mindless obedience, no unconscious submission to the powers that be.

The life of a warrior is filled with choices. You can rise and take back your power, or you can waste it. You can live with purpose or squander the precious moments you have left. But whatever you choose, the choice is now truly yours, as are the consequences, boon or bane. This is what having power means.

And that’s what defines a warrior. They don’t live passively anymore. They act with full awareness, knowing that every decision they make either reinforces their power or diminishes it. The road ahead is not easy, but it’s clear: power or powerlessness, action or inaction. The warrior chooses, and in choosing, they reclaim their life.
The question isn’t what will happen to the warrior. The question is, now that you’ve seen the truth, what will you do with it?

Make your choice.

-Kevin Wikse