“Well, I’m just a modern guy. Of course, I’ve had it in my ear before. ’Cause of a lust for life.” – lyrics Lust For Life, written by Iggy Pop and David Bowie
I’ve written that Dark Paganism is a positive, life-affirming philosophy. This means living life to the fullest. This isn’t a new idea.
In the book, The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche, poses a question to the reader.
“What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: ‘You are a god, and never have I heard anything more divine.”
What Nietzsche is saying is that life is good and worth living despite all its pain, boredom, and frustration.
Nietzsche wasn’t the first to teach this view. A declaration to love life can be found as far back as Ancient Mesopotamia. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Siduri (which was an epithet for the Goddess Inanna) said,
“Fill your belly, day and night make merry, let days be full of joy, dance and make music day and night. And wear fresh clothes, and wash your head and bathe. Look at the child that is holding your hand, and let your wife delight in your embrace. These things alone are the concern of men.”
Recover the passion for living. Enjoy pleasures of both the physical and the mental. Go out, grab life by the horns, and don’t let go.
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