Thinking About Scumbags: The Roles of People in Karma

Yesterday, I had one of those countless conversations where people who have been abused and humiliated by someone else burn with a righteous desire for revenge and an equal response to the evil they suffered. It’s a completely natural desire, and it seems understandable, but there’s a catch. And behind that catch is a big, bottomless pit with “karmic little people” and connections to them. Let’s talk about scumbags? Those truly awful creatures who, for some reason, are ruining your life, destroying your career, your psyche… Why are they in your life and what can you do about them?

Let’s talk about the positions of different people in your life from a metaphysical perspective. Put simply, why are the scumbags in our lives so scummy, and why can’t everyone just behave themselves?

Life is a long journey. It starts with our parents and family and ends with hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of connections. Friends, colleagues, acquaintances, for some, clients, lovers and partners, family… You are born into the world like a lump of a certain element that you’ll carry with you throughout your life, and every person you encounter will enter into a specific chemical reaction with you. In this way, some people nourish you, others consume you, some enter into symbiosis or confrontation.

In metaphysics, there is the concept of a person’s position relative to you, that is, a kind of empty chess square that will always, throughout your life, be occupied by a particular person who influences you in a very specific way. You have squares for “mom,” “dad,” “partner,” separate squares for enemies, bosses, children (different for each one, by the way), and literally for every person you meet.

These squares have a strictly karmic foundation: almost every person entering an important position in your life will have a specific karmic purpose. There are positions that just keep hammering you on the head, like how all your bosses are total jerks, deceivers, and toxic monsters. And no matter where you go to work, the job is different, the company is different, the position is different, but the boss always feels like the same jerk! Because it’s not about this particular John Smith or Mary Teylor, it’s about the square they occupy in YOUR life.

The same goes for partners and children. Everyone has children who are just children, but you have a box of chocolates, not a child. Smart, independent, doesn’t cause trouble, brings joy day and night. Congratulations, you have a karmic debtor in the child position, they’re repaying you and must always help and please you, that’s their square. For some, the child is a heavy test, nothing but pain and disappointment, and you can’t even give them advice, you can only offer sympathy. The question is, who are YOU to the child-gift? Perhaps you are their heavy trial, their eternal pain and problem, not a support or a loved one. If there’s more than one child, each of them can be in completely opposite positions, which is why sometimes a mother loves one child but not another. Different squares, different elements, karmic relationships – they’re not the same either.

Some people are constantly beaten up by their spouses. Some find alcoholics or crazy people. From the outside, it looks like a woman is actively seeking them out from the crowd, passing by “normal” people. That’s not the case. It’s just that she has that kind of person in the partner position. An abuser, a nutcase, a rapist, an alcoholic… She’ll change three husbands, different names, but the essence is the same.

And it’s like that everywhere, with everyone. Positions and debts. You, too, are an event, part of someone else’s journey, and not always a pleasant part, no matter what you think of yourself.

It’s all predetermined and has its own strict logic. The logic is very simple: every scumbag on our path teaches us something and forcefully pushes us to rise above them. I’m not saying that’s good or fair (don’t try to make me stronger, I’m fine as I am!), I’m just stating a fact: everyone living in human bodies can’t just jump out of this system, it’s simply a given. You are obligated (yes, obligated) to build relationships, seek paths, and make decisions, overcoming yourself, otherwise, this experience will drag on for hundreds of years until you stop moping and go through the experience you’ve been assigned.

Don’t try to understand them, don’t try to change them. Get rid of one scumbag, another one will take place, even worse – the lesson hasn’t been learned. The square only changes with the right decision and the payment of a karmic debt.

So, how do you make decisions?

Imagine you’re in a computer game (and somehow it’s like that), where you have a limited amount of time, ammo and health. Your task is to reach the end of the level with minimal losses and move to the next level. On your way to the finish line, you encounter a tower where a shooter is holed up and just shoots at you from his rifle as soon as you come into view. That’s any “karmic scumbag” for you, weighted-average. And there can be many such towers throughout life.

What do you do? Remembering your goal, your only task is to move forward and avoid getting shot, ideally while spending minimal time, strength, and ammo. Break through the tower by force, crawl under it, distract the shooter, find body armor, somewhere – find a detour, somewhere – just shoot the shooter, and move on… Remember, your task is not to understand the shooter’s motives, find out why he’s holed up there, or convince him of something! Your task is not to break into the tower and prove something to him or convey something to him. Your task is also not to take revenge on him for shooting at you and for being holed up there… He’s holed up because the game simply put him in that spot and told him to shoot at you. What can you do? He’s following his own line, and you are also a position and a square for him. He didn’t decide this on his own.

Your goal is to get through it unscathed and move on. That’s all.

To put it in simpler terms, you don’t need to understand the karmic scumbag. All you need to do is find a way to complete this quest and avoid getting stuck in it for years and wasting a ton of energy. Sometimes, you need to use force and push through, quite often – just leave, remove the scumbag from your life and don’t get involved (bypass the shooter), sometimes – use cunning and flattery. But don’t try to figure out their motives or play games with them, no, no. You’ll spend years and tons of energy trying to figure out WHY this person is doing what they’re doing. And they’re doing it to you just because of their position in your life. Nothing more, just imagine! Their function is to put you in a situation where you’ll scream and overcome yourself, becoming a better person.

If you, say, were born into a family where you are hated, walked all over, and your life is constantly ruined, that’s not THEIR character, it’s YOUR trial. Take a close look at these people. Don’t look for the reasons for their behavior, just think about what exactly their behavior is teaching you? Maybe you need to get tougher, pack your bags, and move out, changing your phone number? Or finally listen to their complaints and fulfill what they want from you? Don’t try to understand the shooter! Don’t think about what they say, think about how to get past them with minimal losses and go about your business. Don’t get into scandals or long-term plans of revenge, avoid it and do more useful things.

Even more interesting are the scenarios where a person tries to get into a discussion with someone else’s shooter, trying to help another person. And not realizing that what’s really important is not what’s happening or who said what to whom, but how you react and why. Any position on your natal chart simply enters into a chemical reaction with you of a certain type and tests you that way. Are you rushing to save another alcoholic? Or do you walk past, realizing that some people can’t be helped? That’s the litmus test.

This experience is karmically necessary for your inner growth, and until you realize it, until you change internally, position N will keep hitting you on the head. Of course, it’s painful and difficult when the shooter is your parents or your children, or anyone important to you. But this system is very cruel, and sometimes you have to break off those contacts, realizing that any other option is just a waste of time and ammo. You have to leave a bad marriage and a bad job, throw away human garbage, and make all your decisions here and now, not putting them off for later.

The system usually slows down, reacting specifically to your decisions and desire to move on. It doesn’t matter what decisions you make, but the faster you move forward, the easier your life becomes. Conversely, the karmic hammer gets activated when you decide to wait, delay, dither, get stuck in the reasons and fears… You don’t leave, you don’t change, you don’t pay your debt, you wait. Instead of making a decision, there are long, difficult, verbose excavations – who said what bad to whom, how they looked, how they offended and how they cheated… People can get stuck in this sickening emotional mess for years, constantly taking out their treasured box and meticulously sorting through a bunch of pebbles of resentment. But there’s no decision! All these squabbles don’t get you closer to the goal and the exit from the level by a single inch.

You just stand in front of the tower and let the shooter shoot bullet after bullet at you, screaming at him from below to have mercy on you and stop shooting. And he doesn’t even hear you. He has his own quest.

(c) Mylene Maelinhon \ Archaic Heart