Andras’s Lone Wolves
The image of the “lone wolf” — free and independent, melancholic and romantic, noble and honest — is widespread in the popular imagination, including among Magi who have chosen the Solitary Way.
At certain stages of the Way, solitude is useful, and sometimes even necessary, since it allows one to focus attention on inner processes and thus restore order to the Psychocosmos.
Moreover, the harmonious development of a Magus always requires a great deal of effort directed precisely at inner processes, inner quests, and inner struggle.
Nevertheless, this extremely fruitful and valuable state of mind often becomes disrupted and turns into a withdrawal from social interactions, which means that instead of helping the development of the mind, it becomes an obstacle.
The element of mind that de-structures solitude is personified in the image of the demon Andras — one of the Grey Gatekeepers.
The Lemegeton describes the demon thus:
«Andras (Andras) — the sixty-third spirit, a great marquis. He appears in the form of an angel with the head of an owl the color of black night, mounted upon a strong black wolf, and raising in his hand a sharp and glittering sword. If the conjurer does not exercise caution, he will kill both him and his companions. His service is to sow discord…»
It is believed that this Demon is a true professional at using a person’s anger against themselves. For this very reason, military leaders often attempted to summon him to use his abilities to inflame enmity and wars that reshaped entire peoples and continents.
According to de Plancy, “in one of the manuscripts, it is stated that he is capable of killing Jesus Christ himself and his apostles, which, of course, is impossible.”
The primary manifestation of Andras, as becomes clear, is the creation of a “short circuit” in the mind: turning the focus of attention toward one’s inner processes and wandering in closed loops of one’s own thoughts and mental constructions.
The worldview that arises from making a pact with this demon is well known and widely circulated: “Learn sometimes not to tell anyone anything and expect nothing from anyone,” “If you reach out to help people, be prepared for them to break your hand,” “Don’t keep near you those who do not value you,” and so on. And, as the quintessence of this view: “I shut myself off from this world in my little imaginary world. Try it; it’s much better than living in a world where you will be deceived, betrayed, insulted, crushed, and trampled.” (quotes taken from here).
And although it is perfectly clear that such a view is born of deep, intense pain and is a defensive reaction that allows one to endure that pain, in practice it is a retreat — a substitute for battle: snarling in the forest — and therefore a withdrawal not only from suffering but also from development.
Note that the grimoire unambiguously indicates the outcome of the demon’s action: “he will kill both him and his companions.” The philosophy of the wolf is gothic and alluring, sad and darkly epic, but, unfortunately, fruitless.
A mind closed upon itself does not fulfill its main task — establishing the mutual correspondence of the Cosmoses; it “simmers” in its gloomy thoughts and tragic feelings, generating vast quantities of suffering that are, in fact, the nourishment of Andras.
It turns out that the one who cherishes their “independence” above all actually falls into slavery, becoming a victim of his own impulses. The usual story when slavery is presented by a demon under the mask of grandeur and freedom acquires special significance in the case of Andras. The Demon rides the wolf — that is, he controls it, forcing it to run not where the wolf truly wants to go, but where there is least pain, few opportunities, and also the fewest opportunities for development — for strength is born through overcoming.
It is clear that a Demon interested in its own sustenance and in channeling energy into the darkness will endlessly insist that apart from suffering, betrayal, and baseness, there is nothing in the world, and, frankly, it is difficult to argue with him. However, by agreeing to retreat, by closing oneself off in proud solitude, the mind plays into the hands of destructive forces, refusing to generate inner light. Hiding from pain, a person shuts themselves off from all influences and, by agreeing with the demon that nothing good is to be expected, comes to a standstill.
A Magus knows that the world is cruel, unjust, and base, but for him this is no reason to leave the field of battle; on the contrary, for the Magus the world’s darkness is a challenge, a reason to overcome, and the denser the darkness around, the brighter the Magus’s mind must shine. The Magus does not wear rose-colored glasses and does not fall into blissful ignorance; he goes on despite wounds of soul and body.
A Magus’s solitude, pain, and suffering must in no case become a reason to stop moving. No matter how strong the pain, no matter how dark the night — the Magus goes, the Magus battles, the Magus shines.
Overcoming Andras’s influence lies in refusing to switch to the predators’ side while also rejecting the victim state.
The Magus’s condition is a state of continuous overcoming, without flight or melodrama, faithful to himself and to his Way.
By refusing to suffer, the Magus also refuses to inflict suffering and thus places themselves outside the circle of mutual consumption, drawing closer to his goal — freedom and self-realization.
Very strong and truthful, Enmerkar. You hit the nail on the head. Each of your posts is each step in overcoming distractors, a step towards impeccability…
A strong wolf NEVER becomes a lone wolf – he becomes the LEADER of the pack. A weak wolf – NEVER becomes a lone wolf – he does not have the courage for that. A lone wolf is a state in which it is already unacceptable to obey the leader, but to become a Leader requires developing STRENGTH. This is the path of the WOLF. A wolf howling at the moon from the grief of injuries inflicted upon him is not a LONE WOLF – he is in a crowd. He is surrounded by phantoms of his offenders and even argues with them. A wolf who has refused to fight is not even a wolf – for a bag made of wolf skin with bones, muscles, and entrails in it is only a container for the soul of a chicken. The lonely wolf of Andras is merely a distorted romantic parody of a wolf – a werewolf, who has ceased to be a human but has not become a wolf. The wolf of STRENGTH – a mighty totem beast – the Leader of the pack, surrounded by wolves but always LONELY. He rushes in the pack for the prey but always first – he has no one to follow, and in this lies his loneliness – THE CHOICE OF THE PATH. The entire pack rushes for the prey, but the first to dart for the prey is the LEADER – and in this lies his LONELINESS OF BATTLE – the loneliness of the first bite. The entire pack raises the prey, but the first to the feast is the LEADER – and in this lies the LONELINESS OF POWER. The quantity and success of the pack are based on the LONELINESS OF THE WOLF OF STRENGTH, although he is always surrounded by other wolves. His loneliness is a DISTINCTION – he merges with the pack in some ways but is NEVER ABSORBED by it, due to his distinction. It is the loneliness of the WOLF OF STRENGTH, without strain and grief, but only in the UNDERSTANDING that the PATH OF STRENGTH is taken individually, that gives development. It is in the understanding that no one can take even a single breath on this path for you, and companions on it are A GIFT OF STRENGTH (regardless of whether they are friendly or hostile towards you) THE WISDOM OF THE WOLF OF STRENGTH. Friendly companions provide warmth, hostile ones – the excitement of battle, hardening STRENGTH. There is only one danger looming for someone who truly and honestly wants to make the wolf their totem beast – THE WOLF-PREDATOR. And the simple truth that allows one to use the WOLF TOTEM without becoming a predator lies in the principle of balance: (it is also the principle of partnership, it is also the principle of sacrifice) – if you take something – give something in return. Give out of STRENGTH and BALANCE, knowing that the total STRENGTH and ENERGY have increased, for you took what was needed for you and gave what was needed to the one to whom you were giving. This is the Wolf lunar edge that allows avoiding both the victim’s position and the predator’s position 🙂
“…of one who truly and honestly WANTS TO MAKE the wolf their totemic beast”…”the truth, ALLOWING TO USE the wolf totem” – Is it possible, dear Doctor, to put on a totem for oneself, to make it yours, to use it? – A PERSON IS ALREADY BORN WITH A TOTEM INSIDE. One can know and accept their totem. TO BE IT. – but one can use it, for example, as toilet paper))) “…and the number and success of the pack are based on the LONELINESS OF THE WOLF OF STRENGTH, although he is always surrounded by other wolves.” Is the LONE WOLF OF STRENGTH sure that he is surrounded by wolves and not HYENAS that are picking up the crumbs from his Feast and waiting for the moment (and it will definitely come))) of his weakness to devour him and his Strength……IS STRENGTH ALWAYS THE MAIN VALUE? https://enmerkar.com/en/way/is-power-always-the-highest-value ………………………..The Leader IS NOT the one who is the strongest. – The strongest often fall first. The LEADER is the one who CAN LEAD the pack forward, not stomp in place and throw lightning, showing their Strength. THE TRUST IN AUTHORITY, the internal Knowledge of each participant that THIS PERSON CAN lead the pack to the most effective result makes him the leader. THE KING IS MADE BY HIS COURT.
P.S. Once… above the blue sky, a wolf, filled with eyes, said with a look, that Wolves only soar in a pack….
Yes, exactly… the last sentence – distractor – is a substitution. The King – the Suite gives the same associative array as Lord – Vassals: the egregoric device. Other words are needed to express the non-egregoric device. Words are weapons of the parasite. For example, even the word Success is the word of the Parasite. – it gives an associative row: career, money, things, etc….. correct words need to be chosen carefully…
Dear Tavita Shauta, you are launching a very powerful vortex that provokes me to respond. Considering that you are an intelligent and pleasant interlocutor, I succumb to conscious foolishness and respond to you.
A person is indeed born with a Totem – an ancestor. One for life; a Mage who goes through a series of rebirths can, within the framework of a ritual, acquire a new Totem. To use a Totem means to actualize it to a certain extent. Feeling the thick, warm wolf fur in the wind in winter is the right and timely use (actualization) of the totem, while feeling wolf paws while driving is an erroneous and untimely use (actualization).
Even more interesting is that you call it a pack of hyenas. The Wolf of Forces invests Power in the whirlwinds that govern the pack. And for this, he has to pay, just like for any application of power. You can pay in advance – if he has led an approved pack out of the crowd, they will follow him (for a while) at the expense of his authority. You can pay at the current time – by entering a battle with a competitor. You can pay later – by suddenly losing everything. The Wolf of Forces consumes the pack as an environment for the whirlwind of power. The pack consumes the Wolf of Forces as a conduit to fullness and safety. This is total consumption. As long as the balance is maintained and there is an increase in power through reasonable exchanges – the pack thrives.
Power is ALWAYS the MOST IMPORTANT, for without power, there is no guiding thread to the development of the mage. The application of power can be different though. There is the power of light, there is the power of darkness, there is the power of power, there is the power of weakness (especially the power of female weakness :-)). There are many incarnations of power, and those strong who fell first were not strong with the same power that those who stood firm were strong with.
Both components make the Wolf of Forces the leader – both the degree of development of the environment for the application of power (how strong the wolves in the pack are – “the Suite”), and the degree of his own development “the King.” In magic, this also has an interesting application – when injecting intention into a spell and its corresponding material base, one should take into account the degree of resistance of the environment and the current trends of whirling balance. For example – any applicant can save freedom for an honest person; however, saving freedom for an entrepreneur who has been ordered by competitors to five controlling structures is a task for a MAGE. The goal is the same, but the environment is different 🙂
🙂 Doctor, wouldn’t the Mighty Warrior have heard languid words? Allow me to disagree that within the framework of a ritual one can obtain a new totem – the Totem came to me at 11 years old without a ritual. It took me a while to recognize it, but the more I learned, the more I felt it was mine. Even when I was fleeing from myself, the totem was with me. Within the framework of a ritual, one can summon their totem, perceive it as an unseen facet of themselves… Ah, I wouldn’t have gone after that Wolf, who consumes the pack as a medium for the whirlwind of power. I do not wish to consume him, as a conduit to fullness and safety. There is such a concept as CO-CREATION; evidently, the Wolf of Forces is unacquainted with it… ‘as long as the balance is maintained’ – but what if it gets disrupted, if the Wolf of Forces becomes sick or is injured in battle? Different things occur. The mentioned pack will simply choose a new Wolf of Forces, and the weakened will be trampled? And what does Power mean in the understanding of the Wolf of Forces? Can it be known? Very interesting…
Co-operation is the principle of partnership – the Gebo rune – and the principle of sacrifice. I understand this article in part, where Enmerkar urges the mage not to become both predator and victim in this way. Gebo is the ability of the mage to make sacrifices within the path they are on. Any sacrifices within the framework of partnership that world balance requires from the mage ultimately are sacrifices of some part of the mage themselves. The sacrifice made by the mage is, in any case, a part of their life force. This part of the mage – their time and life force is invested in the material foundation. The purest and most sacred sicils and pantacles need to be made – consuming the mage’s life time and their life force. Even sacrificial animals need to be raised, bought, or caught – which entails equally the expenditure of life force and time of the mage. At the same time, in sacrificing a part of their life force (to avoid becoming a predator – consuming and paying the price), the mage is obliged not to become a victim (not to sacrifice themselves completely – both permanently and temporarily). To achieve this, it is important not to dissipate life force and life time allotted for the MAGE to REALIZE THE PATH on things that are not the mage’s intentions but are imposed on them by predators (including Andras’ werewolf). Co-operation is self-aware balance of expenditures and acquisitions, where each side embodies their TRUE INTENTION. Predation – provoking others’ expenditures of life force to execute the PREDATOR’S INTENTIONS accepted by the victim as their own intentions. For me, from the point of view of impeccability, the only path that is unclear is the path of the hyena (already mentioned by you), which picks up what the satiated predators do not have time to devour, and does not provoke the victim into unproductive energy expenditures. Thank you for the deep magical questions raised by you. Regarding what happens with the losing Wolf of Power – the outcomes you described are absolutely fair, and I have nothing to add to them, except that with mages who lose the battle the same things happen. A mage is not a human – they cannot retire from battle. Either the force of awareness increases, or they have already been “stamped” by predators. As for POWER, in my understanding, POWER is how synchronized the psychocosmos is with the macrocosm and, as a consequence, how the INTENTION formed in the psychocosmos, being the true intention of the MAGE, not the predator, has its REALIZATION in the MACROCOSM. I do not claim this as the ultimate truth. Moreover, I remain perplexed about what the global restructuring of the very way of existence of consciousness means, to overcome the limitations of the psychocosmos. If there is understanding of this – please write.
Doctor, it is reasonable………………………Based on experience…………..cooperation in my life began with actions. There were specific goals set by higher management and there were teams with whom interaction was needed to achieve the set goals. Goals were almost always achieved, with the exception of the last time. Then I lost the desire to achieve the goal…………………………… And indeed, sacrifices are worth making within certain limits. To give oneself as a sacrifice is a mistake. A deep understanding, an internal feeling of Gebo, overlaying erroneous experience helps to realize that thin line that separates a justified sacrifice from an unjustified one. Probably, I had complete emotional burnout and loss of strength about four times, precisely because I made unjustifiably large sacrifices in favor of achieving a common goal with the team. Sometimes it touched me to tears when, already after leaving, I met on the street people – former subordinates, who simply said: “Thank you for working with us.” Reflecting in other consciousnesses allows one to adequately assess the outcome of their actions – whether I acted right or wrong. But…..at what cost……Sometimes I was wrong to do others’ work for them, because thereby I encouraged them to consume, and thus did not contribute to their development…………………………………………..…There is also the Dynamic harmony of Ehwas – this is exactly what was always missing. When all members of the group, the team act in one rhythm, and when there are no distortions in that one gives more, and another less, there are also no conflicts arising on this basis – then the whole group moves dynamically, smoothly and quickly, while each optimally realizes their individual abilities. That is, Gebo + Ezvas. In this case, in my opinion, the best result of cooperation will be achieved – not only achieving the goal, but the very process of movement, of actions will be the most optimal………………………………………………………..
If we return to the question of the leader – the ability to lead and the disruption of balance………I remembered one of the trainings – we had to “build a ship” out of people. At first, since we were almost strangers, it was unclear how to do this at all, and then someone wanted to be the “rudder”, and someone the “sail”, but still it didn’t work. Then one person calmly and unobtrusively distributed the remaining roles. The sprinter became the “bow”, and a lady with a massive pelvis – the “stern”, some became the “deck”, while someone became the “cladding” and the “ship was built”, the host said: “And now choose a captain” – and almost everyone chose the person who took on the responsibility, assigned roles……………………… There was another question about the submarine: “If you were the captain and the submarine was sinking, and it was necessary to throw off ballast, and all bags of sand and other junk had long been thrown off, who would you throw overboard?” – someone replied – I would jump myself, but that’s not an answer, that’s fleeing from responsibility, while someone said – I wouldn’t throw anyone overboard – in these two cases the ship would sink, meaning the captain did not meet his place. A captain or a leader or a head – is someone whom people have chosen themselves because they trust him to make decisions in critical moments, they trust his choice because they know he will make the right choice, and that the sacrifice, if it is needed – will be justified. It is he who sees the Gifts, abilities of each participant and according to individual characteristics distributes the roles, creating the dynamic balance of the entire group. And if he suddenly weakens or becomes ill, then the entire group will exert maximum effort, show maximum care to help him recover because everyone must occupy Their Place to optimize the realization of Their Gifts………this is possibly an idealistic view I arrived at by analyzing my own experience……………………………………….
Hyenas…..oh, there are many of them in offices….that is not the way. A Hyena is the inner essence of a person. Scavengers cunningly flatter those from whose feast they receive pieces. They are polite and work for show and even do something, not just evade work, but when the Strong suddenly weakens or stops feeding them with fat pieces or loses control, relying on their flattering words – they immediately aim to devour him, set him up, provoke actions that lead him to defeat.
It makes you think. These eternal and fruitless attempts to figure out why everything is as it is with me – it is indeed a tiring circle to walk. However, just recently I realized that essentially my attitude towards people is negative, but I do not have to hate people and stand in opposition to society. It became freer 🙂 Please explain. “…it represents a retreat, a replacement of battle with growling in the woods…” Would the battle in this case be the elimination of the causes of pain? And is breaking the agreement with the predator also a battle, or is it something else? Can pain be eliminated by the refining of the soul?
At the end of this article, you posted an image of Semargl. Is the victory over Andras a kind of necessary condition for accessing the Semargl component in consciousness? My respect. Glory to Semargl and us)
Dear Enmerkar, did I understand correctly that there are two main modes of human existence in our humanity – either you are a victim and suffer, feeding demons and gods knows who, or you are a tormentor and provide food for demons. It turns out that a magician emerges from this dualism and exists in a state of impeccability, not allowing manifestations of their weaknesses, melancholy, etc., in order not to give away power?
Well, the number of gradations is vast, but a magician indeed must step beyond duality, not belonging to either pole, yet not depriving them of creative activity.
Demons either camouflage well or come bundled so that one’s eyes are overwhelmed.