Is Hubris Good for the Soul?
The Mimetic Rivalry Between God and Satan (Man) (an Avocation of Prometheus)
“When I listen to myself only, I do wonders.” ~ Madame de Sévigné
Children of Job, full disclosure: To write about scripture is to compete with scripture (and attempt to complete it).
We are all in competition with “God.” Even to name God is to defy God, by attempting to define “God.”
Individuation is the Prime Directive of human consciousness, the sine qua non of our existence. Yet individuation is the will to be distinct from, to stand apart, and, by implication (or at least by insinuation), to stand above.
It is the Promethean urge to steal fire, the definition of hubris. But is it hubris in service of the Soul, or the identity?
To challenge the authority of the gods (or the One God, if your cultural heritage is Judaeo-Christian) is, paradoxically, the expression of the divine will within us, as well as being the satanic impulse. Was ever there a greater head-twister than this?
If to “God” all is one, then there is no difference between God, Man, and “the Satan.” To Man, meanwhile, all is divided. There is “a division hither homeward” (oops): a split that cannot be healed by any other means than that of opposition.
Life is a Mexican stand-off between Soul and Identity.
The Soul = “God.” The Identity-Self = “the Satan.”
(“Satan שטן is a continuity in existence which resists its own necessary destruction. Psychologically, it is a confinement in structures that hinders the flow of life-death in the mind.” Carlo Suarès, The Genesis Cipher, p. 191)
Yet the latter is created by, and in the image of, the former.
The bridge between the two is the Body.
Does any of this “make sense”? At least some 21st century Blakean sort of sense? If so, can it also be true? Can what makes sense be true, or vice versa?
Blake wrote, “Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believe’d.” But who can understand the truth about God?
Words are of the Identity-Self and not the Soul. They are not even of the Body (though song comes from Body and Soul). So does that mean that to make sense, linguistically, is to serve the satanic self, and to defy the silence of the Soul’s Truth?
Bah, humbug! So be it!
Without at least the attempt to vocalize (that Promethean theft), there can be no encounter between the temporary awareness of Body (via identity-mind-self) and the eternal truth of Soul. No contact.
Pleased to meet you, says the “IS” (the identity-self). Hope you guessed my name.
The “spiritual path,” in essence, is to attempt the impossible, and to fail, epically and in full awareness of doing so. The Icarian consciousness of failure is the only true attainment of divinity for the human being. . . ?
Eli Eli, Lama Sabachthani! Why has God forsaken us? So that we can step up and fill that Void?
We must compete with God, and so fully embody the satanic impulse to supplant God, in order that it can be identified and transformed into God. This irony, unlike Prometheus, knows no bounds. Transformed through love: as we love the Enemy Within, it makes us whole again.
Job on his dung hill, Judas with his sop, Christ on the cross.
“God” knew, when He made Man in his image, that He was creating His ultimate rival, and that this would also be the Satan’s moment.
God’s extremity is Man’s (and Satan’s) opportunity.
When I say “I am,” am “I” striving to supplant “God” with these words, or is “God” making a move to supplant “me”? Is there a difference?
The Soul is multidimensional, beyond form, time, space, or memory. It is immeasurable, if not infinite. The mind-defined body, and the body-identified mind is just a blip on that divine radar, a drop in the ocean, a fart inside a hurricane. It is no competition.
Yet somehow, that entity within—the Ahrimanic double that pretends to be you—has to be baited, lured, tempted, drawn out of hiding, and made to take its stand against the infinite.
It’s puny “I am” can then be heard, in the instant that it is revealed as being not, at all.
(Continued)