Transnational Organized Crime and Gangs. Robert M. Brzenchek
conforming to the voluntary frameworks exemplified in the Plan-Do-Check-Act models common to quality, environmental, health, safety, and security standards of the ISO.
Chapter 1
Gangs 101
Spirituality of Gangs Perspectives
After applying the principles of astrology to her own life, Cassondra “Cocoa” Bowden opened an astrology practice fueled by an eight-year background in social work, degrees in anthropology and forensic science, and six years of active military training leading to tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Koreas as one of very few female snipers—and a passion to create positive change. Cassondra is a professionally trained astrologer through the Magha Vedic Astrology Academy, and a writer who works to help others create a life that is truly meaningful. When she isn’t writing, Cocoa speaks at public forums about how to use astrology for personal development. You can find Cocoa at www.holisticpinkprint.com.
Gangs and Belief in the Immaterial
I had an opportunity to interview Cassondra, who introduced sharp observations about the religious mind-sets of gang members, drawing correlations between belief in the immaterial, spiritual participation, early childhood, and group crime dynamics. She defined several common religious practices pervasive in gang cultures across the United States. During our interview, she outlined coping strategies for vulnerable individuals and their caretakers to deal with: safely exiting gang life, taking responsibility for “shameful” actions, and finding appropriate brotherhood settings. Additionally, she summarized fundamental principles in astrology and alchemical concepts as a foundation to unraveling the double-edged qualities associated with belief in the immaterial. Such beliefs have the power to change lives—for better or for worse. The goal is to provoke thought and action by introducing a positive faith-based approach to reducing gang membership.
Spirituality
Spirituality is a key factor missing in the discourse on gangs and gang crime. There is remarkable value for law enforcement, parents, and community leaders in understanding how human behavior is connected to one’s belief in the immaterial and what behavioral implications are brought about given a varying belief system. Because the core of most religious systems has roots in astrology and alchemy, we will use these to build a general foundation of spiritual concepts before delving into the specific religious practices of gang members juxtaposed with troubled youth who managed to avoid gang membership, and former gang members. By the end of this section, you will be able to draw significant correlations between spiritual practices, gang membership, and gang crime.
Planets and Gods
There are four distinct levels of viewing the planets. The first and highest level regards planets as nature gods. This comes from ancient traditions all over the world, most notably the Native Americans. The second level of understanding the nature of planets is at the level of lesser gods who meddle in the affairs of men. If you are thinking of the many Greek tales, you are on the right track. Lastly, the lowest level of understanding planets is as negative forces or demons. Lucifer, the fallen star referenced in Judeo-Christian traditions, falls into this category. Then there is the most useful level to understanding planets that is more closely associated with alchemy than religious dogma. This fourth level of understanding planets is as an aspect of each individual’s personality. Carl Jung and other renowned psychologists and behaviorists have established clinical systems based on this level of understanding.
Alchemy and Astrology as a Spiritual Science
The stars and planets are not just outer entities; they exist within our own bodies and act as guiding beacons. Our own inner lights take shape outwardly and determine our own field of activity in life. Our own soul is itself a star, a sun, a point of cosmic light. Thus, properly employed astrology shows us the world within ourselves. The planets reveal the energies that we need to master in order to calm our minds. For example, Mars represents passion and willpower and is often described by astrologers as a soldier who takes orders from either Jupiter or the sun. When Mars is taking orders from Jupiter within a person, that person is operating his or her passions and willpower for the highest good because Jupiter is a strategic and law-abiding planet. However, a person is operating in lower character when Mars takes orders from the sun. Generally speaking, the sun represents the ego, a need to feel vindicated, important, and at the center of attention. Anger, a typical emotion of Mars, may give a person the drive and bravery to do the right thing and not deviate from it under any circumstances, or the drive to murder in the name of self-respect. The essential principle of both alchemy and astrology is self-knowledge—not only the knowledge of exterior personality or conditioned self, but also our unconditioned, hard-to-identify emotional self, as well. The analysis of memory confines us to a superficial aspect of our being. Astrology and alchemy as spiritual sciences goes beyond this in their analysis of self and leaves little room for blaming bad behavior on Mommy and Daddy’s childhood indiscretions.
So, lets unpack the subconscious memory that reflects true emotions from alchemical and astrological perspectives separately, because they arrive at the same destination from differing perspectives, both of which allow us to understand why this true emotion and self-knowledge is a point of emphasis that offers no relief in the way of blaming others for our behavior.
One of the fundamental principles of alchemy states that everything existing outside of the body also exists inside of it. Obviously, ratios differ. Therefore, no one person, place, or thing is superior or inferior to another and everything acts according to its own true nature and kind. Therefore, nothing is good or bad; it just is. For example, a tiger hunts, eats, sleeps, and travels as he pleases, or rather, as his emotions direct. The tiger is not more or less evil when he kills as opposed to when he sleeps. For humankind, this perspective implies that there is no separation from the subconscious and the conscious memory at birth. Thus, babies act on and do what is best for them, what feels good to them, until cultural and societal boundaries are solidified. Such boundaries force an individual to develop separate memories and motives. This separation leaves the ego attached to an outer-conscious memory that has abandoned and suppressed true emotion, creating the subconscious. Yet, it is the nature of humankind to develop social and cultural structures in this way, which introduces a paradox of the human condition. For the spiritual alchemist, the goal of every human is to resolve this condition by balancing the conscious and subconscious desires of self with social and cultural realities that satisfy the ego, as well. Once a person understands that no one escapes this paradox, the focus shifts from blaming circumstances to paying close attention to all aspects of self and learning to accept everything about self, “good or bad,” in order to express the whole self in ways that are socially viable.
Where astrology is concerned, the energy of the planets inside you are swayed by the energy in the planets revolving through the night sky, directing your behavior and the circumstances you find yourself in, including the family in which you are born or your economic circumstances. So, for astrology, things are just the way they are until eventually a person recognizes the cyclical nature of circumstances in life and wants to define the cycles on his or her own terms. This sort of fed-up feeling is what brings a person to a point of seeking to control his or her destiny, and in order to accomplish this goal he or she has to pay close attention to emotions and learn to work with and accept his or her own true way of being. Again, there is no room for blaming, because both parent and child exist in a rhythmic cycle whether they decide to work with the energies and co-control circumstances or be pushed along by them.
As described, the foundation of both of these spiritual sciences places an equally strong emphasis on the concepts of intention and free will. It is not until a person decides to manifest his own intention that he truly operates in free will. What does this mean? Well, astrologically speaking, planetary influences can be manipulated by intentional human behavior. Personal choice is extremely powerful, and quite often people choose not to make choices. Given such an understanding, we cannot conclude the actions one will take in life based on astrology. We can only determine the influence they will confront throughout life and draw conclusions