Why You Should Master Your Demon: A Preview of Season 29
Every human being has a fundamental flaw. A weakness derived from deep within their psyche, this flaw is an ever-present reminder of the limitations of their humanity. In these circles we call it the “Demon function” — the last function in our cognitive stack of awareness. It carries our hatred, bitterness, and desire for vengeance. But it also carries a deep fountain of meaning for anyone brave and wise enough to venture through its darkness.
As the head of the Superego, the Demon leads the charge in a lifelong coup against the Ego, seeking to replace it. The drive of the Demon and the Superego can be seen as a Luciferian myth, where they are trying to become king over the Hero and Ego.
It may be tempting to see the Demon as an annoying weed to be plucked out in an otherwise abundant garden; and some may wish the Demon didn’t exist at all. But, like all the pieces of our psyche, the Demon is there for a reason.
If what Carl Jung said is true, that “No tree . . . can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell,” then exploring the Demon is an essential tool to help those roots grow. The doorway of our hatred, the most challenging doorway in all our minds, holds the path to vast treasures or ultimate destruction. But you must choose one, there is no opting out on this journey.
The Demon is not transformed through one moment of clarity or one act of redemption, but rather through continual struggle. The Demon holds the key to the ultimate direction in our lives, and within its mystery lies more than darkness.
The Demon is More Than Hatred
It is a common misconception that the Demon is only a source of hatred. The Demon, almost paradoxically, is the source of our happiness too. You may have heard Chase say that the Subconscious is the source of our happiness. While this is true, a deeper analysis will reveal why that source of happiness is shared with the Demon.
The Demon is connected directly with the most vulnerable part of our psyche: the Inferior. The Inferior is the doorway to the Subconscious. When we move past the fear that the Inferior invokes in us, our insecurity becomes confidence when our Inferior goes Aspirational. Nothing gives us more happiness than this process.
But it is the Demon that provides our Inferior with the very thing it needs to grow strong. Think about it: our Demon is always the same function that our Inferior seeks out. If we can discern through the Demon’s lies and allow it to say what it actually wants to, the Demon will bring happiness by strengthening our Inferior and stabilizing our Subconscious.
The Limits of Truth and Goodness
It is tempting to see the Demon as a thorn that needs picking, or a cloud of darkness that would dissipate if only it had light. From this temptation we often point to the pursuit of truth or goodness to offset the Demon. If only we could see the absolute truth, or do the absolute good, then we would be free of our hatred.
But if we try to bolt from our darkness by ignoring it, and shoot up to heaven to escape it, our roots will not grow deep enough for the journey. Furthermore, those who opt for this approach fail to ask a vital question:
How do we actually know what the absolute good and the absolute truth are?
Humans are fallible creatures by nature who are limited by the powers of their own psyches. Moments of divine insight and rare flashes of supernatural clarity aside, any attempt to grab onto the absolute good and true will be imperfect. Truth and goodness are not the highest pursuits of the human being.
If you struggle with this realization like I do, consider the following argument. Think of the greatest atrocities ever committed. For some a caricature of evil appears, perhaps an axe wielding barbarian with blood-soaked teeth, or a heartless oligarch sentencing untold numbers of people to death with no remorse. However, if we look carefully, we are much more likely to find villains of deep complexity.
The leaders of genocides or participants in historical movements that led to heinous killings usually have one thing in common: those who committed these atrocities were convinced they were right.
They were convinced that THEY had access to the ABSOLUTE TRUTH and the ABSOLUTE GOOD. In many cases, they also thought they were the only ones who had that access. They became absolute judges of virtue. But afterwards, time and time again history judges them, and we can all see how wrong they were really were — no matter how big the empire or how fervent their followers were.
Chase has made the argument that to claim one has access to the absolute good or absolute truth is equivalent to playing God. We can see this represented in the heights of the Enlightenment, which gave birth to the idea that pure rationalism could be the guiding principle for moral and ethical living. While it gave us a fast track to “progress”, it also gave us more fuel for our pride. The thought, I know the truth! became a more common trap for all to fall into.
Evil grows rampantly when humility is lost. To become an absolute judge of truth and goodness is to declare ourselves God. A quick analysis of the Luciferian myth will show us how that act plays out.
While goodness and truth are meaningful pursuits, they should not make up the totality of our meaning, and they should not be our top priority because we are unable to comprehend them in fullness. If we turn inward to our own psyches with this realization in hand, we begin to understand the limitations of these pursuits.
Who are we to think we are strong enough to decipher the traps of the Devil with our fragmented conceptions of what is “true” and “good”? Furthermore, we begin to see that one of the reasons we are unable to perceive pure goodness and certain truth is because of the Demon. Its essential nature is to twist and misrepresent. We should take the Demon more seriously.
The Necessity of Wisdom
The Demon is a liar. Like Lucifer, it uses deception and guile to achieve its goals. But why does it lie? It lies because it wants to be used. It wants to have its words considered and its voice heard. A mature use of the Demon does not take its voice away. The Demon exists to make us better.
While it can be used for our betterment, there is no denying its sheer destructive potential. So how do we unlock the power that the Demon has and use it correctly? How do we make the Demon more than a force for destruction in our lives? How do we fight it? Are we even supposed to fight? These are the exact questions that season 29 answers, for every Demon function. But, because you came this far, we will give you a little peek.
Yes, it is true that love and hate are what the Demon trades in — much like fear and courage in the Inferior. It is true that the Demon begins bitter and hateful, thus plotting us for an eventual course for destruction if we do nothing. It is also true that the Demon is a master of deceit, partly because it knows how to manipulate our deepest vulnerability through its connection with the Inferior. The Demon takes its hatred of being trapped out on the external world, and keeps its contempt for the ego internally.
So, the Demon is powerful, hateful, and knows how to manipulate us where we are most vulnerable? Check. Then what is left for us to use, if fragmented goodness and truth cannot transform it?
There is one thing. The texts of history tell us that it is more precious than gold, silver, or crowned jewels. Chase claims that it is “the most valuable substance in the cosmos.” Ladies and gentlemen, that is wisdom. Wisdom cuts through the lies of the Demon and is willing to listen to what the Demon really has to say. Wisdom informs us that it is unwise to shun the Demon to the depths and suppress it.
Wisdom reveals to us that the Demon is necessary.
Furthermore, the Demon is unavoidable. There is no outrunning it because it’s part of us. When we face it head on, we realize that the main reason it acts the way it does is because it has been treated poorly. If we give it space, it will help us grow tremendously. Would you rather have the most powerful function in your entire psyche with you or against you?
Know thyself. The quote that rises to the surface again and again in this space is relevant once more. It holds the key to the beginning of the journey to wisdom. This is one of the main components that Chase’s life’s work is dedicated to: so that each of us can grow acquainted with ourselves at a level that artists pursue. Wisdom teaches us how to make a home with ourselves, even the dark places within ourselves. Perhaps especially within those dark places.
The Demon is the Path to Love
The battle between the Superego and the rest of the psyche will define you in the most fundamental way. Like every gateway, the Demon gives us two paths forward: the path to hatred or love.
Accessing the Demon chaotically subject’s us to its hatred, pushing us further into darkness. But accessing it in an orderly manner empowers us with its capacity for love.
If we do nothing, and try to ignore the darkness within us, then the Demon will be placed in a pressure cooker, and it will only be a matter of time before that darkness bursts out, all the more powerful for our inattentiveness of it. Pacifism is no option in the battle for you soul. We have to engage with the Demon if we want to recruit its power as a force for love.
Season 29
If you would like to join us for this deep dive exploration into mastering the source of our darkness and taking part in this vital journey of self-discovery, then join us with the Journeyman Membership as Chase explores how you can master your Demon function, and learn how to secure a measure of the most valuable substance in the universe for yourself.
This article is really awesome and expresses some ideas I that I tried to explain but didn’t have the words for
Glad it was helpful
This whole journey is just the coolest adventure thru a land of mystical worlds full of treasures and swords and demons and kings and magicians and goddesses and needs and desires. Learning all of this is so incredibly valuable but also A LOT. How cool if this could all get crafted in to a board game or video game.
Definitely see Chase’s future in the gaming industry lol
Your favorite antagonist here again. I still would say on the “virtue and vice” argument that there is a clear difference between knowing our vices, distinct from knowing oneself as we were created to optimally be. Also being willing to view vices in fuller and fuller reality, while not claiming to be God, is to learn good behavior and boundaries which is different than embracing bad behavior and no boundaries to then know the good side. Finally, the most distinct, to know good vs evil is not the same as consulting evil to find good. This confusion will lead to a great hindrance to conquer vices at the least and death at the worst. To “know thyself” which is equal to satanism at it’s core, in fact a saying used by satanic belief systems, is a cheap substitute for knowing God. In view of holy Truth we then know all we are not, but then are freely opened to view all possibilities of we could be transformed to be.
To know good is to be able to discern and identify evil, which still leaves room for God to be God, yet empowers us to defeat the deceptive message one is tempted to receive by their given nature from the adversary functions. To gain wisdom is to be acquainted in a relationship with the Truth, and to apply truth, resulting in wisdom, and confusing the use of evil for good is therefore dangerous.
I do agree, however, that we have to be willing to look at darkness within to be cleansed, and to learn of our tendencies with no intervention. But examining is not consulting as a friend as if we could withstand the temptation in our own power. I strongly disagree that consulting with darkness or relating with ones deceptive nature as a positive interaction will bring us closer to the Truth. There is a very big chasm between people claiming to be God, and people who are in a relationship with the goodness of God, and I stand against being equated with such characters, and their desires, as their beliefs and aims are far from mine.
Coming to know our need for the Good in the glaring obvious light of the Truth shining on our darkness is a Revelation, not a consultation with the ills within. We do not make friends with demons, we put the deeds of the flesh to death, and God deals with the darkness, and the devil, in His will to work with and for us.
Thanks for allowing this alternative view, as I don’t think these principles work embracing evil in any way. What the devil means for evil, God is Sovereign over, and using it for good. I do appreciate your writing and ultimate purpose.
This is a great comment with a nuanced perspective. I’ll reply to a couple of the more pressing points you made, as I understand them.
1) You said: “to know good vs evil is not the same as consulting evil to find good.”
— This is tricky. Certainly joining a cult of Satan worship to “get in touch with yourself” is probably not a good idea. However, it is equally dangerous, perhaps more dangerous, to think of oneself as incapable of committing evil acts. Jordan Peterson talks about this all the time. If you don’t think you could act in an evil manner, you don’t know yourself, and there is nothing more dangerous. I want to take that last part, “not the same as consulting evil to find good”, in the context of the Demon. One of Chase’s team members, Robert Potts, talked to me about the “evil” of the Demon not actually being evil. That the “Demon”, despite its malicious name, is a power that is more deeply frustrated than evil. Still, it can cause great destruction. Another perspective: we can actually make the choice to use our demon in an “evil” (chaotic) or “loving” (orderly) way. And that to become capable of making this decision, we have to familiarize ourselves with our own Demon and Superego. That distinction between “consulting” and “knowing” presents a blurred line with the Demon. But the point of the article is that the Demon can provide great insight, and ULTIMATELY love, but we first have to listen to it, wisely. Whether listening is “consulting” or “knowing”, I’ll leave that up to you. On a separate note, if we listened to Lucifer wisely, do you not think we could understand him better?
2) You said: “To “know thyself” which is equal to satanism at it’s core, in fact a saying used by satanic belief systems, is a cheap substitute for knowing God.”
— Your interpretation of “know thyself” is very dependent on worldview. I’m not familiar with the phrase being used in satanism, but I will take your word for it. Point aside, did the phrase arise from satanism or was it only borrowed by it? I would venture to say that “know thyself” is built primarily from what eastern philosophy directs us toward — self-awareness, “mindfulness”, and the ability to watch closely the ebb and flow of our thought life, our behaviors, our motivations, etc. An honest view of “know thyself” actually SHOWS us our own lack . . . and if anything could point to the need for redemption, “know thyself” certainly falls in that category. And the argument could be made that you can only really known God through knowing yourself — or perhaps you know yourself through God. Either way, self-knowledge is an essential step to integration.
3) “There is a very big chasm between people claiming to be God, and people who are in a relationship with the goodness of God.”
— Damn that is a great sentence. The only thing I can really say is we need to be constantly vigilant to make sure that the “goodness” we claim to have access to is not secretly sourced from the annals of our own moral judgments. At least not in totality. Ti/Fe & Fi/Te are severely limited on their own accord. But combine that with wisdom, and they become MUCH more powerful That’s the argument that the article makes . . . if Solomon is correct about WISDOM being the best thing, one could make the argument that wisdom IS the substance that connects with God — the source of ultimate good/truth, for example. Still, wisdom is the priority.
Thanks for your comment, I enjoyed considering your thoughts.
I’ll low-key making a story about it and maybe if a got time a will make it a game for people to play.
It so good to have the already made
Patterns of those journeys that it make the process of creation so fun that i want to make the most complex and complete story that I can about all of those lessons
IN REPLY TO John Bodine: IT DEPENDS ON YOUR FULL DEFINITION OF WISDOM: INSIGHT COMES FROM THE BODY, THE INTELLECT, FROM RELATING TO OTHERS, FROM THE CHAKRAS, THEY ARE A CONDUIT TO HEAVEN AND UNITY WITH GOD AND OTHERS, ONLY BECAUSE THEY LEAD US OUT OF OUR CLOSED MINDEDNESS AND ALLOW US TO BE OPEN TO RECEIVE THE KINGDOM, WHEREBY IT IS THE OPENNESS AND RECEPTIVENESS TO RECEIVE THE KINGDOM (GODS INVITATION) WHICH IS WHAT UNIFIES US WITH IT- AND AT THAT POINT JUST BEFORE UNIFICATION, THE ONLY THING THAT IS REQUIRED IS THAT OPENNESS TO RECEIVE, WISDOM IS NOT REQUIRED.
So, the Demon is powerful, THE DEMON IS NOT POWERFUL, HE IS WEAKNESS. IT’S OUT OF HIS WEAKNESS THAT HE DESTROYS. HIS WEAKNESS IS THAT HE DOESNT KNOW GOD.
hateful, and knows how to manipulate us where we are most vulnerable? Check. BUT SURELY YOU KNOW THAT IT IS OUR OWN SELVES MANIPULATING OUR OWN SELVES, OUR OWN WEAKNESS THAT WE CAN CHOOSE FOR OR AGAINST…IN OTHER WORDS, IT IS OUR OWN POWER THAT FUELS THE DEMON- OF HIS SELF, HE HAS NO POWER. ISNT THAT WHAT JESUS SAYS TO SATAN, “OF YOURSELF, YOU CAN DO NOTHING?”
Then what is left for us to use?, if fragmented goodness and truth cannot transform it? SALVATION DOESNT DEPEND ON YOUR OWN GOODNESS, YOUR OWN KNOWLEDGE, (THAT IS ACKNOWLEDGED DURING THE CATHOLIC RITE OF BAPTISM) IT DEPENDS ON YOUR OPENNESS TO RECEIVING GODS INVITATION TO THE KINGDOM.
There is one thing. The texts of history the BIBLE
tell us that it HEAVEN is more precious than gold, silver, or crowned jewels.
Chase claims that it HEAVEN is “the most valuable substance in the cosmos.”
Ladies and gentlemen, that is wisdom. NOPE.
Wisdom cuts through the lies of the Demon WISDOM IS NOT MORE POWERFUL THAN THE DEMON. ONLY SALVATION, THROUGH YOUR WILLINGNESS TO RECEIVE IT, IS MORE POWERFUL THAN THE DEMON.
and is willing to listen to what the Demon really has to say. NOPE, YOU DONT HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE DEMON, YOU ONLY HAVE TO RECOGNIZE IT FOR WHAT IT IS , THEN TELL GOD ABOUT IT, AND GOD WILL DO THE REST- (HE WILL DESTROY IT) THAT IS GOD’S POWER, NOT YOURS. THEREFORE, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO “BECOME WISE IN ORDER TO SAVE YOURSELF”.
Wisdom informs us that I WILL ALLOW MY OWN WISDOM TO INFORM ME OF THE TRUTH, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
it is unwise to shun the Demon to the depths and suppress it. THIS CONCLUSION THAT YOU CAME TO- NOT ONLY IS IT NOT SUPPORTED BY ANY OF YOUR ARGUMENTS -BUT IT IS ALSO TOTALLY FALSE! OUR VERY JOB IS TO SHUN SATAN- BUT ONLY BY TELLING GOD ABOUT HIM, THEN IT’S GODS JOB TO DESTROY HIM, NOT OURS. IT IS NOT OUR JOB TO HAVE TO BECOME WISE, (NOR DO WE EVEN HAVE THE POWER TO DESTROY EVIL) FOR BOTH OF THOSE JOBS ARE GOD’S TERRITORY- AND IT IS CALLED ‘SALVATION’. FOR GOD KNOWS THAT WE DO NOT KNOW HOW TO SAVE OURSELVES. ‘IT IS BY GRACE ALONE’ AND NOT BY OUR OWN POWER THAT WE ARE SAVED. KNOWLEDGE IS A POWER THAT IS NOT REQUIRED, FOR, EVEN AS BABIES WE ALREADY KNEW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL, AND THERE IS NO ONE ON EARTH WHO DOESNT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE ALREADY, SUCH THAT WE ARE ALREADY WELL EQUIPPED TO DENY EVIL; SUCH THAT IT IS A LIE TO SAY, “I DID THIS EVIL BECAUSE I KNEW NOT THAT IT WAS EVIL”. THIS INHERENT KNOWLEDGE WAS ALREADY GIVEN TO ALL BABIES BY GOD, IT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT IS ABSENT FROM ANYONE. SO AFTER RECOGNIZING EVIL, THE NEXT STEP IS TO SIMPLY ASK GOD TO REMOVE IT AND HAVE FAITH AND BE OPEN AND WILING TO RECEIVE HIS SALVATION. FOR IF WE COULD BE MORE POWERFUL THAN SATAN SIMPLY THROUGH GAINING KNOWLEDGE, THEN THE ENTRANCE TO HEAVEN WOULD BE WITH “THE TICKET CALLED KNOWLEDGE”, AND THAT IS NOT THE CASE- THAT WOULD MEAN EVERY PERSON WOULD BE REQUIRED TO BECOME HIGHLY KNOWLEDGEABLE IN ORDER TO RECEIVE GOD’S SALVATION. GOD HAS NOT SET UP THOSE CONDITIONS.
Wisdom reveals to us that the Demon is necessary.
Furthermore, the Demon is unavoidable. There is no outrunning it because it’s part of us. When we face it head on, we realize that the main reason it acts the way it does is because it has been treated poorly.
If we give it space, it will help us grow tremendously. ????????????????
Would you rather have the most powerful function in your entire psyche with you or against you? WE SHOULDNT BE WITH SATAN. JESUS SAYS HE IS NOT WITH SATAN.
Know thyself. The quote that rises to the surface again and again in this space is relevant once more. It holds the key to the beginning of the journey to wisdom. This is one of the main components that Chase’s life’s work is dedicated to: so that each of us can grow acquainted with ourselves at a level that artists pursue.? Wisdom teaches us how to make a home with ourselves, YES
even the dark places within ourselves. ??????????????????????
Perhaps especially within those dark places. NOPE
REPLY TO Anna Sankey: IT IS “EQUAL TO SATANISM”, JUST AS YOU SAID.
Will be this material available in “Discover the INFP Psyche”?
I hope sincerely it will. Greetings
The demon function is not an actual demon 😈 it is a function that we are very weak at and struggle to use!!!! Maybe the name can trigger some people to believe that it’s a demon. Maybe it should be called …. Weak point!!!
Jungian psychology doesn’t have to do at all with concepts of gods or demons!!! It has to do with people ONLY!!