Carpe Diem Carpe Semper

Today I would like to share some advice related to the aspects of Lucifer and Pan as they represent the search for self-knowledge and pleasure. The attainment of both of these goals is related to an understanding of the self, which can reveal personal barriers to deeper levels of knowledge and enjoyment. While experiences that produce knowledge and enjoyment lead to personal growth, one can, without being aware of what he or she is doing, limit the effect of his or her growth by not being attentive to possibilities for even greater development.

There is always more, until you stop searching for it. To assume a boundary to what you can learn from an experience, or to not bother to further examine what an experience can teach you, is to place limitations upon your personal development. The hardest chains to break are the ones that you make for yourself. You may have some freedom to move within those chains, but you will not go as far as your potential would allow.

For example, consider the experience of first falling in love with another person. The experience is exhilarating, to open yourself up to another person and allow them to see your vulnerabilities as well as your strengths. But this is also an opportunity for further development, to find very specific nuances of the experience that can lead to greater self-awareness. What is it about the other’s skin that makes you long to touch him or her? What does the other’s vocal inflections and speech patterns reveal about his or her personality, and what makes that interesting to you? Does the other person have a quirk or a tic that you find attractive, and do these behaviors reveal anything to you about the way that you see yourself?

There is always more information to learn about the experience as long as you can find another question to ask yourself. So probe for more information about your experiences as fully as you can, and soon you will discover that it becomes even easier to analyze an experience and draw even more information from it.

My addition to the old Latin proverb, “Carpe diem,” or “Seize the day,” would be this: Seize the day and keep seizing. Do not allow the potential for grasping more information about yourself and your experiences to pass you by. Living life to the fullest means continually expanding your concept of the limitation for where “the fullest” can be.

Hail experience! Hail Satan!