The Freedom that is Chivalry-Now

Chivalry-Now respects your freedom.

It never tells us what to do in specific terms. Instead, it tells us that we cannot be free without first being whole, and then encourages that spiritual wholeness.

To be whole means to respond intellectually to what conscience tells us in a creative fashion, strictly our own. This is what freedom is all about: attaining a state of autonomy that puts the onus of our individual lives squarely where it belongs—on us.

This is why Chivalry-Now is a loose fellowship and not a chivalric order, and why we have no supreme leader or hierarchy. If we did, the onus would be placed more on them than us, people just as fallible as everyone else. The simple truth is, we own all our mistakes as well as our successes. As moral beings, we are charged to figure out what action is right and respond accordingly.

We are not called to be “followers.” That would be a demotion away from the freedom that human nature intends. Instead, the call of Chivalry-Now urges us to confront what we know deep inside already: your life is your responsibility. Completely. You are responsible for who you are. Hero or scoundrel or braying sheep—that is your choice. You decide. Why waste yourself by not responding to your highest impulses?

Chivalry-Now calls us to become “Knights-errant.” That’s a chivalric term referring to free agents who generate a force for good, individuals in the deepest sense who engage life as an ever-expanding quest. The Knight-errant is a freethinking truth teller dedicated to high ideals in hope of creating a better world, guided by his or her awakened conscience. The 12 Trusts provide a starting point that bring us in line with the moral dictates of Nature’s Law. Here we find the kind of freedom that wholeness brings about.

Make no mistake. Chivalry-Now is not something you follow. It begins anew in each person’s breast as it inspires us to think for ourselves. In this regard, it reflects a cultural inheritance that seeks universal truths and can hopefully appeal to anyone with an open mind and a desire to grow.

It doesn’t matter where or when you were born, or how old you are now, or your gender, skin color, or religious affiliation. The moral archetypes we deal with are collectively human. They tell us that deep in our hearts we know right from wrong. All we need do is allow the spark of conscience to ignite our sense of reason to become champions of what is right.

What can be more profoundly human and satisfying than that?

On the other hand, we cannot be Knights-errant if we let political ideologies, which are artificially devised and often deceptive, define us. Their constraints purposely hold us back with ready-made approaches that, despite occasional gains, perpetuate exploitive contention.

We cannot be Knights-errant if we follow the crowd whenever their path deviates from truth or justice or civility or human progress. Our duty is to correct that path whenever possible.

We cannot be Knights-errant by making believe we are Knights-errant when we are not, or by twisting the image to fit our misconceptions. That is nothing more than fantasy generated by ego, which leads us away from conscience and our final goal.

We know we are Knights-errant when concern for truth and living an honorable life habitually dispels what is false or misleading. We know it when we recite the 12 Trusts and find that it expresses who we are already. Chivalry-Now helps us in that regard because it speaks directly to the soul where its impulse originates.

As do all quests worthy of the name, Chivalry-Now speaks of a mission as well. As we champion what good we can in our lives, we do well to awaken that spark of wholeness and freedom in others as well. In this way, the ripples of Chivalry-Now that each of us make collect and echo throughout eternity.

In a world of would-be tyrants, misplaced loyalties and greed-driven animus, what could be more important than that?

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