daemon

Organic images of growth follow the favorite symbol for human life, the tree, but I am turning that tree upside down. My model of growth has its roots in heaven and imagines a gradual descent downward toward human affairs. This is the Tree of the Kabbalah in the Jewish and also Christian mystical tradition.

‘Every soul has existed from the beginning; it has therefore passed through some worlds already, and will pass through others before it reaches the final consummation. It comes into the world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats of its previous life.’ ORIGEN (EARLY-CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR)

We cannot think of our biographies only as time-bound, as a progression along a line from birth to death. This is only one dimension, the temporal one, a linear one. The soul moves in circles, said Plotinus. Hence our lives are not moving straight ahead; instead, hovering, wavering, returning, renewing, repeating.

The daimon part is easy enough, for we have already accepted the translation of daimon as genius (Latin) and then transposed it into more modern terms such as “angel,” “soul,” “paradigm,” “image,” “fate,” “inner twin,” “acorn,” “life companion,” “guardian,” “heart’s calling.” This multiplicity and ambiguity inhere in the daimon itself as a

the snake is perhaps the most ancient and universal carrier of the genius spirit, the figure of a protective guardian, the “genius” itself. Had she already made friends with her acorn?

NEITHER NATURE NOR NURTURE—SOMETHING ELSE

The hidden observer is cognisant of everything that is going on … the hidden observer sees more, he questions more, he is aware of what is going on all of the time but getting in touch is totally unnecessary … He is like a guardian angel that guards you from doing anything that will mess you up … the hidden observer is looking through the tunnel,

An unpredictable “luck of the draw” plays its part in who we are. In Plato this random cause was named Ananke; the formidable goddess of necessity, she defied reason and, in Plato’s myth, governed the lots our souls selected. And it was called Tyche and Moira, who are personifications of fate. From Roman times into the Renaissance this principle