Genesis, Satan and the Übermensch: The Maturation of Mankind

Introduction

This article begin as some thoughts on the meaning of Genesis as a story, in particular as to the emergence of our moral complexities, however it soon evolved into something much broader. I have dedicated this piece to analysing the path of our collective maturation, and I advise you view this as something along the lines of Jungian individuation, albeit in a collective, rather than individual, application. I have examined our pre-maturation state, as biblically conveyed in Genesis, and the role of Satan, as the archetypal figure of rebellious exploration, in our process of maturation. Toward the end, I relate this to the twentieth century disasters of communism and fascism, with the aim of analysing where we’re at.

Genesis: A Biblical Background

In the biblical story of Genesis, Adam is the first of Man, who are somewhere in between a God and an animal, of which there is no other. He is to be gifted with an eternal life, all of which may be spent in Paradise (the Garden of Eden). This is all given to him on one condition, namely that he does not eat the fruit from the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil. The fruit would grant him the ability of moral judgement, which was previously exclusive to God, who would thus tell Adam how to act. Adam was an obedient child, with the gift of eternal Paradise. Yet, upon the allure of external curiosity (delivered by Eve, and the temptation of Satan), he disobeyed God for the first time and ate from the Tree. This act in itself portrays humanity’s synthesis of opposites, and from here the rise of our moral complexities. Already we were created in God’s image. This meant that we were above the animals, clearly, but also that we were only a lesser representation of God (an image, not a clone) — we lay in between. Then, in yielding to the temptation of Satan (a figure of transgression and rebellion), against the word of God (a figure of unity and order), we placed ourselves in a position of moral ambiguity. And then, in eating the fruit of the Tree, we gained the ability of moral judgement, yet — upon God’s disappointment — without guidance. In this, we were neither in line with moral ignorance (as is the animal) nor moral omnipotence (as is God). We met the climax of our intermingling nature between order and chaos, and at least the potential to produce some sort of harmony between the two. This potential is the process of maturation that our split from God began (before which we were but obedient children). It was a process emergent out of our developed moral and psychological complexities, and it is no different than the process of maturation that we ascribe to the individual.

The Path of Individual Maturation

Now, the story of the individual begins the same as does that of Man in the biblical Genesis. They are born morally blind, and as such obedient to the family (of whatever form that may take) in which they are raised. Over time they accumulate experiences and, through socialisation, encounter competing values, which serves the role of the apple (the worldly allure). After this, our journey of maturation begins. We make mistakes, and we make great strides. Our judgement is sharpened, we become (hopefully) wiser. By this term I mean that we are better able to distinguish what is most aligned with the ideal end. In terms of Jungian individuation, we have integrated the shadow into the self. In the sense of complete individuation, then we have, within ourselves, properly integrated Satan (the figure of rebelliousness that explores the unknown) with God (the overarching and united order). This seems to me — at least in part, and certainly through a different lens — to align with Nietzsche’s conception of the Übermensch, or Superman. It was the pinnacle of Man, who would create their own values. He was not a contrarian, in total rebellion, but was indeed a wholesome man of wisdom. He would explore the unexplored and remember the forgotten, and integrate such with the established order that the world was run by.

Moving from The Individual to The Collective

And so the same rings true when applied to Man, not as an individual, but as a collective. The story of Genesis describes the spark of our maturation, with the end being the Ubermensch, not in the form of the individual but rather in that of the collective. Now, there is but one thing that remains to be seen, and that is the means of following through on our maturation (and arriving at a collective becoming of the Ubermensch). What does this look like, and where exactly are we?

For a state to fully mature — or, in Jungian terms, to individuate, — there must be an integration of Satan’s archetypal figure into the collective being. More precisely, we must integrate that exploratory and rebellious quality that drives us to progress into the unknown, and to come out wiser. However, we must note that there exists a great difference between chaotic exploration of the unknown for its own sake, and for the sake of improved wisdom, which aligns with the ultimate aim of maturation. Exploration for its own sake lacks proper judgement, and will fail to distinguish the wheat from the chaff. The fundamental problem will arise that most ideas are misguided, or stupid, or dangerous, and must be held to careful scrutiny. Nevertheless, there are some ideas of such brilliance and transformative potential that they must be searched for, even if they are but infinitesimal specks of light in an infinite blackness. So it seems evident that the question of how we may properly integrate Satan is a matter of alignment — of collectively knowing what we are looking for — and that is what we must now investigate.

Alignment of Twentieth Century Ideologies?

To answer this question let us first analyse our own society in the light of the previous century, in regards to our ultimate aim of well-aligned exploration of the unknown. Specifically, I will briefly examine the two most radical ideologies of the twentieth century – differing in their beliefs, but equal in their false-utopia destructiveness, are communism and fascism. Communism, a product of far-left intellectual thought, captured the minds of half the world in its idealistic promises. All power to the workers, with the elimination of class, would bring about a perfect utopia. It was the result of so-called rational thought, built on Marxist premises, but it lacked the realism that would have emerged out of necessary scrutiny. On the other end of the spectrum lay fascism, a product of far-right populism. It was reactionary, and laid out the promise of a utopian race, destined to total glory. In both these descriptions emerge the fundamental vulnerabilities of both sides of the political spectrum. On the left, its progressive-utopian intellectualism, and on the right, its reactionary populism. What is required now is a powerful means of rational scrutiny, tasked with taking care of our collective alignment. And so, in a more practical tone, that must be the nature of our subsequent investigation.