Lucifer or Enoch?
Gerión, © Julian de la Mota, for more information see here.
What good…
… is the knowledge of what holds the world together at its core if we continue to destroy it? More important than the knowledge of the innermost might be the knowledge of partaking. Before all abstract knowledge, we might want to seek a living relationship with the world right around us. The concept of human freedom can seem immensely overrated in the Western world, when we compare it to the concept of embeddedness.
Lucifer is the mythical being that represents for many the epiphany of the intrepid individualistic journey. A journey to empowerment to do the impossible and live unhindered and in full accordance with one's will.
Yet, none of us can be Lucifer and Enoch at once. Their routes of travel are diametrically opposed: The former travelling from divinity into individuality, and the latter the reversed route. Unconstrained freedom and unconditional service are the two poles between which we are all meant to follow the narrow path of our life.
Now the truth is, the narrow path of each of our lives is not delineated by a few heroic marker-moving decisions. Instead, it is lined on both sides by the fragile markers of our everyday behaviour. Whether we choose to travel a Luciferian or an Enochian path, or any of the myriad shades in between, it is the canvas of our mundane lives upon which the colours of our magic have to be applied.
This is true in our dealings with all living beings, plants, animals, humans, spirits and gods. Each one of us is truly nothing and can never be anything other than what we choose to become within our everyday lives.
Certainly, every biography encompasses peak experiences: formative moments of positive or traumatic nature. But the realisation of these experiences (i.e. literally, the act of turning them into realities) does not happen in the very moments when they occur, but by how we allow them to take root in our everyday lives. Realisation happens through the purposeful interweaving of ecstasy and normality, of emergency and habituality.
The birth of a child, the consummation of a marriage, the invocation of a spirit, the first crossing of a familiar over one’s home’s threshold - all these peak moments require continuation, they require transition into normality, in order to have any substantial meaning at all.
Therefore, we must think of the process of becoming Lucifer or Enoch not as a heroic epic, but as a life whose most extreme and most mundane situations have been brought into calm, everlasting integrity. Lucifer is Lucifer and Enoch is Enoch, whether they fill a cup of tea, light a cigarette, or forge their personal destiny in the bonds of their insurmountable choices.
Whatever territory your personal narrow path leads through, and by whatever beings and values it is guided, there are a few markers that help us on our way irrespective of the destination we are aiming for:
Presence, not fussiness. Composure, not indifference. Approachability, not naivety. Honesty, not cruelty. Reliability, not boundlessness. – And all of this with the goal of joy.
Every day we can ask ourselves: How do I make this day succeed – not in isolation, all by myself, or through a heroic act that neglects the reality of where I stand and how I feel today. But thrown into the vibrant bond of living and dying where I find myself. Partly dance, partly reeling. Partly adventure, partly madness. Partly choice, partly chaos. And in spite of this, and precisely because of this, I live with the goal of joy.
How do I walk, we can ask ourselves, towards the horizon that stretches between the fulfilment of duty and the fulfilment of self? Each of my days is a step forward on this narrow path. Duty on this horizon is not imposed on me by others, but the price I willingly pay for the decisions I made. Self-fulfilment on this horizon is not a narcissistic mirror, but a service that flows from being a useful tool in this world.
All the chaos of life can be as simple as this: Right now, I am the carpenter’s plane and the world is the wood. Right now, I am the smith’s iron and the world is the forge. Right now, I am a human and the world is the air in my lungs. Right now, I am death and the world is the night. Yet, always we walk side by side, world and I. Like two old friends on their way into a good life.
It is in this sense, of learning to coexist, of learning to value lived relationships over abstract knowledge, that I personally refuse to decide between Lucifer and Enoch. In fact, I hold both of their hands in mine right now; they walk side by side with me, one to my left, one to my right. And fair enough, I might not make it very far on this narrow trail of mine, due to the constant dispute and discussion between the three of us over every step forward. But boy, do I walk in good company.
And a note of gratitude to the marvellous Julian de la Mota,
for allowing me to showcase his stunning drawing of Dante’s demon Gerión,
who we encounter in the 8th circle of hell. – Well, that is in case
our narrow trail leads us towards such chthonic horizons…