Interpretation of History
C. The existence of the demonic
The demonic is fulfilled in the spirit, not in "spirits," i.e., beings which are defined only through being demons. Even "spirits"—if this concept has an objective meaning— are first living forms, that is, "natures," in which demonic phenomena, ecstasies and frenzies, can appear or not
appear. The affirmation of the demonic has nothing to do with a mythological or metaphysical affirmation of a world of spirits. But it is true that only in personalities does the demonic receive power, for here the form not only grows by nature, is not only imprinted on existence, but
confronts existence by demanding something and appealing to the freedom and self-mastery of living persons. Therefore here the destruction of form becomes an intellectual contradiction, the actual uprising of the abyss against the form. And yet here only is completed the movement inherent in everything existent and observable in all nature: namely, the vital original forces, which rush out beyond all form into the boundless and yet can enter reality only through form, the inner restlessness of everything living, the inability to have power over oneself and grasp one’s own being as one’s own and come to rest therein. Therefore mystical and artistic
symbolism likes to descend into the sub-human sphere for a presentation of the demonic; for there the vital powers with their creative-destructive force are expressed unhindered by the human spiritual form. And yet, for example, the forms of the animal-like demons are given a connection with the human form through which they are raised above the mere animal. Thus there exists here again a peculiar kind of dialectics: the demonic comes to fulfillment in the mind, but the forces which rule destructively in the demonic, are directly visible in the sub- mental. The strongest picture of the demonic is a union of elements of the animal sphere and elements of the mental sphere but in a distorted form, for it contains this dual dialectics of creative and destructive, of mental and sub-mental.
The demonic comes to fulfillment in personality, and personality is the most prominent object of demonic destruction, for personality is the bearer of form in its totality and unconditioned
character. Therefore, the contradiction of it, the cleavage of personality, is the highest and, most destructive contradiction. Therewith the inner tension of the demonic is disclosed in a new stratum: the personality, the being which has power over itself, is grasped by another power and is thereby divided. This second power is not the law of nature. Demonry is not a relapse to a pre- mental stage of existence. Mind remains mind. In comparison with nature it remains the being which has power over itself. Something else, at the same time, takes possession of it. The other, thing contains the vital forces; at the same time, however, it is spiritual and—spirit-distorting. It is the "possessed" state, through which demonry is realized in personality. The possessed state, however, is cleavage of the personality. The freedom of the personal, its power over itself is founded in its unity, in the synthetic character of consciousness. The possessed state is the attack on the unity and freedom, on the center of the personality. Cleavage of consciousness has
always been held a sign of the possessed state. Hence the myth of the demon dwelling in the spirit, who bears other witness than the spirit itself and does other things than the personal center would permit. The statement that this is a case of illness, of physical origin does not
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change the metaphysical evaluation of the fact. Furthermore, not every spiritual disease can be interpreted as a possessed state. Simple physical decay is exactly the opposite of demonic might.
The demonic is visible only when the cleavage of the ego has an ecstatic character, so that with all its destructiveness, it is still creative. Thus, e.g., do the possessed in evangelical history recognize Christ as Christ. There is a. state which is the correlative of the possessed state and at the same time the conquest of it: namely, the state of grace; which the free, rational, synthetic consciousness does not achieve.
The possessed state and the state of grace correspond; the states of being demoniacally and divinely overcome, inspired, broken through, are correlatives. In both phenomena it is the
creative original forces which, bursting the form, break into the consciousness. In both instances the spirit is raised out of its autonomous isolation; in both instances subjugated to a new power, which is not a natural power but grows out of the deeper stratum of the abyss which also
underlies nature. The paradox of the possessed state is as strong as the paradox of the state of grace; the one is as little to be explained as the other by causal thinking by categories of rational observation of nature. The difference is only that in the state of grace the same forces are united with the highest form which contradict the highest form in the possessed state. Therefore grace has a fulfilling and form-creating effect on the bearer of the form, while demonry has the consequence of destroying the personality through robbing it of being and emptying it of meaning. Divine ecstasy brings about an elevation of the being, of creative and formative power; the demonic ecstasy brings about weakening of being, disintegration and decay.
Demonic inspiration does indeed reveal more than rational sobriety; it reveals the divine, but as a reality which it fears, which it cannot love, with which it cannot unite. This relationship of divine and demonic ecstasy is the explanation of why in religious history the state of grace could so often change into a possessed state and why the moralistic attitude in religion denies both alike.
The demonic appears as a breaking into the center of personality, as an attack on the synthetic unity of the spirit, as a superindividual and yet not natural power. Its dwelling is in the
subconscious level of the human soul. The peculiar disunity between the natural-character and the strange-character of frenzy results from the observation that in the possessed state elements of the subconscious arise which, to be sure, constantly give the personality its vital impulse, its immediate fullness of life, but which in a normal state are prevented from entering into
consciousness. What we name these elements depends on the symbols by which the
subconscious is interpreted. The symbols can be poetic, metaphysical, psychological, but always remain symbols, that is, indications rather than concepts. Whether one speaks of the "will to power" or of the "chaos" or of the "ego-instinct" or of the "libido"—in each instance feelings or events of the formed consciousness are used as symbols of unformed psychic depth. Only thus can be explained the universal and therefore improper use of the will to power in Nietzsche, the sexual in Freud. The choice of symbols, of course, is not accidental, but shows the direction in which the character of the soul is sought. If, without the purpose of fixation, we designate impulse for power and impulse for Eros as the two polar and yet related forces of the
subconscious, we best arrive at a comprehension of the demonries pointed out above,
represented in art and ritual, and we do justice best also to the various aspects of the possessed state. The poetical, metaphysical and psychoanalytic explorations of soul have equally shown how the vital forces of the subconscious support even the finest and most abstract mental acts and instill them with the "blood" that makes the spirit creative, but that can also limit and
destroy the spiritual form. This dialectical opposition of the vital and the mental is to be seen in every conscious act. It rules the whole process of personal life. The subconscious rises to
demonic power when it subjugates the consciousness, but in such a way that consciousness is driven above itself first to creative-destructive, finally only to destructive, eruptions. If,
therefore, it is also justifiable to designate the demonic as the eruption of the subconscious and its vital forces, this definition is still not sufficient. The peculiar "abysmal," ecstatic,
overpowering, creative quality, the power of bursting the limits of personality must be added to the description. This quality, however, is not necessarily added to the subconscious. It is
something new, which cannot be exhausted by the alternative, conscious-subconscious.
Psychologically, the demonic belongs just as much to the subconscious, from which it
originates, as to the conscious, into which it pours. Just as in the demonic picture, here is shown that the duality of the categories does not suffice to grasp the object. The demonic, as well as the divine, forces us to form a third category, for which, to be sure, we seek the approach from the other two, but which cannot be resolved into them.
The dual relation of the demonic to the conscious and the subconscious, to the mental and the sub-mental, to the human and the animal, to form and chaos, will perhaps become most
distinctly visible if from the personality we turn to society, from the psychical to the social demonry. Here, too, the psychology of the subconscious helps us to come closer to the things, insofar as it has sociological application. The same vital original forces that we have summed up as the impulse of Eros and the impulse of power, also control the social demonry. But
again—and here still more emphatically—it must be said: Not only the elevation of the will to power and the forces of Eros is demonry, but their ecstatic, spirit-supported, spirit-forcing and spirit-destroying outbreak. It is the character of abyss, the overpowerful, the possessed state, which also characterizes social demonry. Therefore sacral demonry is the root and original type of all social demonry, for in the sacral, in the holy sphere, the abyss, the absolutely powerful, the transcendent which breaks into reality is at stake. But the sacral sphere is not the only dwelling of the demonic, for the "abyss" also gives power to the acts of mind and fields of meaning, in which not the abyss is immediately at stake but the norms and forms of culture which grow out of it. And therefore in the devotion of the mind to these fields of culture the abyss can also show itself as creative-destructive, mental-sub-mental, without being the intention of an expressly religious act.
Social demonry, like all demonries, becomes effective in a spiritual, meaningful form. The simple lack of form, the weakness of a social structure is naturally not demonic. Demonry is the reign of a superindividual, sacred form which supports life, which at the same time contains the force of destruction in such a way that the destructive power is essentially connected with its
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creative power. Such are the holy demonries of the sphere of power and Eros, which are suggested above; such the profane demonries of the same sphere, of which we shall come to speak below. Not in chaos, but in the highest, most strongly symbolic form of a time is the social demonry to be sought. Only there does it win its power. The object of demonic
destruction is the personality standing in social connection and the social structure itself, which is built up by the former. Thus we have here not a question of the cleavage of the personality by the powers of its own psychical depth, but of the breaking, of personality by the superindividual social structure. There is, on the part of society, a need of destroying the individual will, going as far as the destruction of its physical foundation, which must be affirmed as a sacrifice of the natural arbitrary will for the sake of moral demands. In this very sacrifice of direct existence the personality reveals its freedom, the character of being personality. Insofar as the claim to this sacrifice is made by the community, it is not demonic. The breaking of the personality becomes demonic at the moment when Will to Power and Eros abuse the social form and its just claim to sacrifice for their destructive aim. There it can come not only to an annihilation of the physical foundation of the personality, but also to a breaking of the personal quality itself. The demonry of the state, church, and economics is visible when the holiness of these social forms, their right to sacrifices, is misused destructively—wherewith as a result the self-destruction, namely the shaking of the belief in their holiness, is connected. Here, too, the dual face of the demonic shows itself in its terrifying dialectics as it does in the sculptures of primitive religions.