--- **Μεφιστοφιλές (Mephistophilēs)**: from Greek **μέφῐς** (“to destroy”) + **φιλέω** (“to love”) – “*He who loves destruction.*” **The tempter who promises liberation** - Offering freedom, proudly through destruction, in flames, rather than construction. The temptation to unmake what we cannot remake. ![[Alexandre_Cabanel_-_Fallen_Angel-1847.jpg]] ## The Faustian Bargain At the heart of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's masterwork "Faust" is Μεφιστοφιλές, the very incarnation of disorder manifest, who wages a war on Being. Μεφιστοφιλές finds its roots in ancient cosmogonies where chaos precedes order. In Greek mythology, figures like Erebus (primordial darkness) and entities from the void represent forces that resist the cosmos, necessary counterbalances rather than moral adversaries. >"I am *the spirit which negates.* And rightly so, for *all that comes into being, deserves a wretched destruction;* Better yet, nothing would emerge. Thus everything you deem sin, Destruction, evil represent — That is my proper element." - _Μεφιστοφιλές_ *Note: This was one of Marx's Favourite quotes, which you have to contextualize in his Hegelian beliefs.* The Christian conception of Satan evolved from a mere adversary (as in Job) to become increasingly associated with destruction for its own sake. Μεφιστοφιλές emerges from this concept during the Renaissance, appearing in the original Faust chapbooks before Goethe's definitive treatment. Unlike earlier devil figures concerned with collecting souls, Μεφιστοφιλές reveals a deeper metaphysical opposition to the created order itself. Μεφιστοφιλές objects to existence, not merely out of malice, but through an ethical framework that views the suffering inherent in our finite existence as so unconscionable that non-existence would be preferable. If humanities undying will, is our smile in the face of a [[The Punishment of Sisyphus - Σίσυφος|sisyphean]] task, than Μεφιστοφιλές is the boulder, praying for us to stop, to end out pitiful existence for our own good, the antithesis to our will. When we are met with suffering, specifically the kind which serves as an [[The Nature of Representation, Symbolism & Meaning#Dissonance and Depression|unreconcilable evidence against our worldview,]] and by extension our identity, we must choose a path of reconciliation. Either accept that our world view, and our very perception of who we are is wrong, leading to a metaphorical death of self, or take the faustian bargain. This bargain, seductive specifically to an ego archetypal of a luciferian intellect, is a rationalization which prioritizes the "correctness" and preservation of self ([[The Nature of Ego & Identity|the ego,]]) over the external material reality, by asserting that said reality is fundamentally flawed and therefore the only way to "save" it, is in it's destruction. This psychological pattern appears in various forms: 1. The nihilistic impulse that rejects meaning-making as a response to suffering 2. Revolutionary idealism that prioritizes destruction over incremental reform 3. Apocalyptic religious traditions that yearn for the end of the current world 4. Modern anti-natalist philosophies that view birth itself as an ethical harm The most potent of which, that I have reference throughout, is the combination of absolute idealism with the Hegelian dialectic. A faustian so tempting, it lead [Marx](https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/34159#:~:text=3.2.%20Younger%20Members-,Karl%20Marx,-Another%20Young%20Hegelian) to [Communism](https://www.britannica.com/topic/dialectical-materialism) *[(dialectic materialism)]( https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/dialectical-materialism#:~:text=Dialectical%20Materialism%20is%20defined%20as,without%20absolute%20boundaries%20in%20nature.)* and arguably Hitler to [Fascism](https://mises.org/mises-wire/mises-versus-rand-origins-nazism?utm_source=chatgpt.com) *[(Sittlichkeit.)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sittlichkeit)* > “The State is the march of God through the world.” - [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - The Heretic|G.W.F. Hegel,]] _Philosophy of Law_ *Note: Hegel wasn't a self proclaimed fascist, but the connection here, which many prominent German thinkers and political figures were influenced by is: [[Hermeticism → Hegelianism → Collectivism → Nationalism → Fascism]]* ![[Martin,_John_-_Satan_presiding_at_the_Infernal_Council_-_1824.jpeg]] --- ### Anthropological Significance The Mephistophelean archetype stems from narrative and circumstance. When our narratives become too enticing, too attractive to our ego, in time our identities follow. Tell yourself a story about the world for long enough, and you'll begin to believe it. Believe it for long enough, and you will begin to act it out. Act it out for long enough, and it becomes apart of the chronos of actions which form your identity, your soul, which forms the information that creates your very perception of self. However, [[The Nature of Representation, Symbolism & Meaning#Dissonance and Depression|when circumstance conflicts with narrative,]] it creates a dissonance which threatens to shatter your self. Faust, in the legend, traded his soul to Μεφιστοφιλές in exchange for knowledge of truth. This parallels to Hegel, who believed in a narrative that reason can progressively come to know not only truth, but the culmination of truth, the Absolute. Our perspective, which Hegel refers to as the mind, is a derivative of the spirit of collective human reason (*geist*) formed from (*zeit*), history. In more concrete terms, our perspective, which we use to interpret the material reality, is formed from the current state of "knowing," in relation to this [[The Nature of Representation, Symbolism & Meaning#The Tetragrammaton as Protected Vector|dialectic progression towards absolute truth.]] > “The owl of Minerva begins its flight only with the falling of dusk.” Hegel saw this philosophy as the literal pinnacle of not only human philosophical thought, but of inevitable historical development, with of course, himself, the seer of reality's truth at the top. This fact is often downplayed and muddled, but to fully understand Hegel and [[11HE – Gun, Globe & Cross – (1,000–2,000 CE)|modern historical developments,]] the narrative that Hegel himself had fully bought into must be understood. Hegel, in reconciliation of [[Friedrich Nietzsche - Prophet of Fracture#"God is dead"|the death of god,]] killed by human hand and his son of science, chose to believe that his philosophy, the he himself, had reached the point where God could be known rationally. The question is, for this Absolute Idealism, this faustian, what must he have traded? The answer is the unknown. For Hegel to believe that he could embody, reflect, and come to know god, he also had to believe that there exists nothing which cannot be known. A denial of reality. Hegel, in achieving full philosophical knowledge of the Absolute and in denial of reality, believed a narrative in which he was not just _talking_ about God but somehow *participating in God’s self-revelation.* *Note: This denial is made clear by [computational](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_irreducibility) and [quantum theories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle#:~:text=The%20uncertainty%20principle%2C%20also%20known,momentum%2C%20can%20be%20simultaneously%20known.) of reality. Hegel's ideas themselves are still valuable and applicable even in a reality which acknowledges [[Νὴ τὸν Ἄγνωστος Θεός|the Unknown.]] Furthermore, this Mephistophelean characterization of Hegel is more illustrative of desire's lure, the underlying mechanics of the archetype, and a warning towards intellectual hubris.* ![[John_Martin_Le_Pandemonium_Louvre-1841.jpeg]] ---