Oooooo baby... I admit I had to look it up:  Licentious...morally undisciplined or sexually unrestrained.  I'm beginning to love this St. Ignatius dude!  And yes, I'm still on the concepts in his Spiritual Exercises, 331-336.

My life's seemed a little boring of late.  Nothin' like a good sin here or there!  (Ok Eric, I'm totally kidding.  Don't start getting all paranoid on me.)  Licentious is a great word, fun to pronounce, rolls off the tongue like...    Oh nevermind.

I digress.  Ok.  So, life was spinnin' along with a lot of spiritual integrity and high awareness, etc.  And all of the sudden, everything "extra" drops away, and ya end up in a quiet barren wasteland, a desert of sorts, and there isn't a lot to back your old-new thinking and being.  There just isn't much of anything at all.  And you look around pondering, hmmm, I could just go back to the old way, the simple way, the way of "before".  It would be so secure and known, so peaceful and mezmerizing.  "Desolation."  That's what you've found.

So St. Ignatius wants to save us from the devil's temptations of the forty nights.  Here's the Thirteenth Rule:  "Likewise, he (the enemy) acts as a licentious lover (loving this, licentious, yep) in wanting to be secret and not revealed.  For, as the licentious man who, speaking for an evil purpose, solicits a daughter of a good father or a wife of a good husband, wants his words and persuasions to be secret, and the contrary displeases him much, when the daughter reveals to her father or the wife to her husband his licentious words and depraved (ok, depraved isn't as appealing as licentious) intention, because he easily gathers that he wll not be able to succeed with the undertaking begun: in the same way, when the enemy of human nature brings his wiles and persuasions to the just soul, he wants and desires that they be received and kept in secret; but when one reveals them to his good Confessor or to another spiritual person that knows his deceits and evil ends, it is very grievous to him, because he gathers from his manifest deceits being discovered, that he will not be able to succeed with his wickedness begun."

It is a test after all.   Who really wants to admit the contrary nature of the ego?  Who wants to say that they wish to cave to an alternative simple path, rather than embrace the moments before them and grow with the wind?  Not I, not really.  So I get this principle.  I do.  I've been Catholic... they have this novel thing called Reconciliation (Confession for you people in the old school).  I am an extreme advocate for Spiritual Direction, which is a way of meeting with a "counselor" type person and developing self with someone who agrees to help with that task... a "good Confessor" of the above.  I get this concept.

We really need to reach for the stars.  We really need to realize (in both ways) our potential.  We really need to get out of our own way, and get on with the show of evolving all of humankind to the evolutionary brilliance it could be : ).  So along the path, especially when in a period of waiting, of desolation...  tread lightly my friends.  Remember not to "change" things.  Remember to watch and listen closely, and use discernment for the tiniest of things!  Those licentious lovers are like land mines, like sirens in the sea.  They're calling us backward, snaring us in their traps.  Tell someone about the temptation!!!  Find a like minded soul, and pour your heart out... don't let the bad guys get ya!  Wherever you've grown, hold your space : )  Or rather, allow the flow of the moment to support you in your BEing...