Sublime

This foe is the evil one who comes under the cloak of discouragement, fear, envy, pride, laziness, and concupiscence.

He was the powerful, all-but-immortal Incarnation standing tall after a harsh battle. He was the menace, looming over a weary swordsman who kept his blade raised in futile defiance. He was the uncaring master, carelessly discarding minions by the score, their bodies strewn all over the street. He was the traitor who had beaten Simon bloody for tryi

Ananke derives from a root that spreads through Old Egyptian, Akkadian, Chaldean, and Hebrew terms for “narrow,” “throat,” “strangle,” “constrict,” and the yokes and rings laid on the necks of captives.18 Ananke takes you by the throat, holds you prisoner, and drives you like a slave.

Who and what is Ananke? First, she is extremely potent among the powers of the cosmos. Plato cites only two great cosmic forces: Reason (nous or mind) and Necessity (ananke).17 Reason accounts for what we can understand, for what follows reason’s laws and patterns. Necessity operates as a “variable”— sometimes translated as “erratic,” “errant,” or