The Trinity of Evil

Luciferic, Ahrimanic, and Sorathic forms of evil are being contemplated among substackers and we need to confront them, both spiritually and strategically.

Occasionally, I like to read

Contemplations on the Tree of Woe

. Recently, the pseudonymous Mr. Woe published a piece called “The Strategy of Evil.” The main idea is that practitioners of evil arcana are casting spells and are about to crank their spellbooks up to eleven. (I know it is a sin to mix metaphors. I am a sinner.)

Woe identifies three types of evil: Luciferic, Ahrimanic, and Sorathic, which become expressed in different ways and at different times and contexts. If we’re not careful, we’ll start to think in Manichaean terms, even though Mr. Woe does not ask us to.

And we shouldn’t.

Woe might be pleased if he sees us refine and augment his case a bit. So, I want to go all in on the tropes and heed the call to arms. And I want, like Woe, to sketch a counter-strategy.

Lucifer, Angra Mainyu, and Sorath

The thrust of “The Strategy of Evil” is that powerful people are preparing the battlespace to introduce a far greater evil by implementing two evil strategies first. Even if these are figures of speech, metaphors are truth-conducive.

Here are my brief summaries following Woe and Bruce Charlton:

Luciferic Evil is characterized by its rebellious, anti-authoritarian nature, exemplified by Lucifer's defiance of God. It represents a form of evil driven by individualism, wantonness, and the rejection of cosmic order. This type of evil is seductive, often associated with the pursuit of pleasure, risk, and adventure—consequences be damned. It dominated eras like the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s and has influences in the Libertarian movement (gasp), both of which represent a break from tradition and a challenge to established authority.

Ahrimanic Evil, in contrast, is not about rebellion but control. Named after Ahriman (Angra Mainyu), the Zoroastrian spirit opposing the divine, this evil seeks to invert values, creating a system where virtues are viewed as vices and lies are promoted as truths. It embodies the despair and soullessness of totalitarian systems, where individuals become mere cogs in a vast machine. This evil is marked by its desire for control instead of freedom, preferring a rigid hierarchy and systematization of people in society. It represents a shift from the chaotic individualism of Luciferic evil to an oppressive order that stifles the human spirit.

Sorathic Evil is described as the most pure and absolute form of evil, driven by negative impulses such as fear, resentment, and hatred. Sorath, the "sun-demon" of Revelation, seeks the annihilation of all creation. The demon embodies a nihilistic desire for non-existence. (It’s number is 666.) This form of evil aims to destroy the pleasures sought by Luciferic evil and the ordered control of Ahrimanic evil, leading to a world fragmented by fear, victimization, and mutual resentment. Some view it as the ultimate stage of evil, where the objective is not just to challenge or control but to obliterate all forms of existence.

Woe’s view, as best as I can grok it, is that Luciferic and Ahrimanic evil provide two Egregores that prepare human souls for the ultimate Sorathic sublation: total annihilation. Whether the evil plan is being architected in this manner, it’s clear that some combination of these forces is building. Woe is understandably concerned that this is a staged rollout, rather like 1, 2, 3. So, while I would stop short of eschatology, I share his concerns. I want to focus on the existence of these forms of evil—but with a twist.

Note: Anyone who thinks that’s quackery can get bent because matters will get worse fast if we don’t start calling spades what they are, even if we use figurative language. Don’t f*ck everything up with demands for scientific studies. We have work to do.

Decadence, Control, and Nihilism

Now, with all due respect to Lucifer, Angra Mainyu, and Sorath, let’s call these three forms of evil Decadence, Control, and Nihilism for conceptual ease. Elsewhere, I have called these genera Egregores because they are mind viruses (memeplexes) with the power to direct mass behaviors. And that makes them seem like entities with agency. Demons, devils, egregores. You get the idea.

Now, Mr. Woe makes it clear that the OPFOREVIL includes apparent contradictions, for example, that Dionysian Decadence opposes Centralized Control and the reverse. But here’s where Woe, perhaps unwittingly, puts on his Hegelian hat. I have called arguments and egregores in opposition to happiness, harmony, and prosperity “Dark Dialectics,” especially in my Grey Robes Course, which paid subscribers can access. While I’m just a pragmatist methodological Hegelian, I see a pattern here: Decadence > < Control ~ Nihilism.

In The Grey Robes Course, we also discuss bringing psychosocial forces into balance. I call these the Elemental Drives: masculine and feminine crossed with Eros and Thanatos, which you can read more about here:

Don’t forget that there is good in balance and virtue in practice. Still that makes all of this even less Manichaean. We might characterize Decadence as excess Eros Feminine, Control as excess Eros Masculine, and Nihilism as excess Thanatos Feminine and Masculine combined. Sorath’s duality lies in the desire first to destroy the human spirit and then the human body, amounting to the end of civilization.

The Balance: Practice Beyond Good and Evil

If we understand “good” as negating the evil three, it’s unclear what good looks like. Mr. Woe noted that Luciferic and Ahrimanic evils seem to lie in opposition. But not quite. The urge to control is opposed to wantonness in a manner of speaking, but we would have to explore the possibility of Platonic—even Gnostic—extremes. Only superhuman entities would be capable of:

• Saintly good. Where humans are disposed to control all impulses, resist earthly appetites, renounce freedom, and never question authority.

• Angelic good. Where humans are disposed to govern in wisdom, circumspection, and virtue without succumbing to power’s temptations.

• Deific good. Where humans are capable of ex-nihilo creation and never see value in destruction or accepting the cycle of endings.

What we have called Grey Dialectics—a synthesis beyond good and evil as defined by the above, yields something like this:

1. Self-sovereignty. Freedom and Virtue

2. Order. Protocols and Processes

3. Generativity. Innovation and Growth

Without deeper analysis today, we might argue that this 1, 2, and 3 synthesis yields a distinctly human set of values that take on the character of Natural Law.

Virtue, Self-Sovereignty, and the American Geist

A group of imperfect humans came together in the eighteenth century and set out the contours of an imperfect doctrine, which we call liberalism.

Liberalism’s enemies have characterized the doctrine as atomistic individualism and insufficiently communitarian, but liberalism was never meant to discard community. Liberals, variously, have held that a community can only self-organize through the motivations of individuals with common interests, needs, and practices. We tip our hats to Tocqueville, who saw this in Americans once.

The Luciferic, Ahrimanic, and Sorathic are Dark Dialectic Egregores. To heal the world, we must move to Grey Dialectics and hasten the liberal renaissance, only not just in America. Everywhere.

Virtue, that nigh forgotten practice, is the original moral practice. While the Platonists can aim at perfection and always miss, we will be waiting to catch them back here on Earth. In the interim, we will practice, always practice—no different from practicing music or martial arts—hoping to expand our sovereignty and our influence. The more we practice together, the more we conjure a Geist that can contain this dark three for a time.

There is no vanquishing the Trinity of Evil as long as we’re human, in our bodies, situated here on Earth.

Practicing virtue, radiating our sovereignty, and conjuring our Geist promises a renaissance—an Empire of the Mind. That’s the part of the counter strategy that you and I can begin today, as the best defense is morality.

What remains is neither politics nor “practical politics” as the central strategy. Politics is just more worshipping in the Church of State. Instead, we move the locus of energy to subversive innovation and communication (Means) backed by a shared sense of Mystery, Mission, Morality, Mastery, Mutualism, and Meaning.

Counterstrategy

With a hat-tip to Bruce Charlton for taxonomizing the evils (Woe quotes Charlton at length), we should focus momentarily on the counter-strategy I alluded to above. It’s no accident that our seven-point strategy comprises the seven ways of Grey Robes doctrine:

1. Mystery — Continue to explore the questions of human origin, purpose, and future with open hearts and minds.

2. Mission — A consent-based order based on Jefferson’s Declaration, but upgraded.

3. Morality — Practice virtues suitable for this time and place, emphasizing practice over mere reflection.

4. Mastery — Through practice, expand your self-sovereignty by becoming more excellent and potent.

5. Means — Through subversive innovation and communication, for the sake of underthrow and, of course, the Mission.

6. Mutualism — Find each other, lift each other up, leave none behind, and live in reciprocity.

7. Meaning — Derive deep fulfillment and life meaning, not just from the six above, but other practices that let you know your life amounts to something.

Perhaps Charlton and Woe would want us to march, like Christian soldiers, as to war. But I believe our strategy must be mostly syncretic and secular.

Despite the apparent contradiction here, suffice it to say we need all people of conscience to fight against these evils. A morally informed but decentralized global order will integrate aspects of different faith traditions and take wisdom from all. Theocratic aspirations will undermine this unity as demands for conversion and conformity under a single Church (or Caliphate) will give The Evil Trinity exactly what it wants.

This does not mean we cannot labor alongside one another against The Evil Trinity. It is rather to acknowledge that we are not saints, angels, or God. And we can operate with strength, hope, and optimism as we face evil together.