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Dark Magic (Magia Erebea)

"Magia" is Latin for "magic." "Erebea" is the feminine singular nominative case of the adjective meaning "of Erebos." According to Hesiod, Erebos ('Ερεβоς) is the god of darkness in Greek mythology, the son of one of the original gods, Chaos. The children that Erebos begat with his twin sister Nyx (night) were Aether (shining air)*1 and Hemera (day), (cf. Theogony 123-125), and, being darkness and night, they are divine beings that precede light. In the words of the German romantic philosopher F.W.J. Schelling (1775-1854), "All birth is birth from darkness to light." (Investigations of Human Freedom, SW360; but according to Hesiod, it wasn't that everything was born from Chaos and darkness†•the heavens, the oceans, and many others were born from Gaia, who was born at the same time as Chaos.)

Thus, light cannot give birth to darkness, but darkness can give birth to light. Darkness is not in opposition to light. Darkness is a source that holds all things within it, and is tremendously broad-minded. And this broad-mindedness becomes a power that takes in all opposites such as good and evil, superiority and inferiority, self and others, etc. This is because light is the basis for opposition and disparity. Schelling says, "Light's advance on the dark aspiration to create something … is due to the thoughts that are mingled in chaos becoming distinct … and unity being erected" (ibid. SW361). If light is the basis of opposition and disparity, darkness is the basis of nondiscrimination. Therefore, dark magic has the tremendous broad-mindedness to take in all power without discriminating between self and others.

However, things are not that simple, Within darkness, all disparity becomes invisible; the difference between self and others vanishes as well, and the spellcaster loses sight of himself. But magic spells are never anything more than techniques the caster uses to accomplish his willful purposes; their purpose is not to reach some kind of absolute truth. As stated by Schelling's school colleague, G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1830), "To pit this single assertion, that 'In the Absolute, all is one,' against the organized whole of determinate and complete knowledge, or of knowledge which at least aims at and demands complete development†•to give out its Absolute as the night, in which, as we say, all cows are black†•that is the very naivete of emptiness of knowledge." (Phenomenology of Spirit, preface). In order to use a technique as a technique, especially within darkness, one must make sure not to lose sight of one's self.

What is needed then is a "confrontation with one's shadow," or "an encounter with one's anima." The battle Negi fights in Phantasmagoria is none other than a "confrontation with his shadow," or "an encounter with his anima."

The Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung (1875-1961) said the following in regards to encounters with one's self and one's shadow: "A meeting with one's self first means a meeting with one's shadow. By shadow, I mean none other than a single narrow path, a single gate … What comes after that gate is, unsurprisingly, a limitless, unprecedented uncertainty. There, it is believed there is neither inside nor outside, up nor down, far nor near, self nor other, good nor evil. That is a world of water, and approximately everything with life there is floating, drifting"*2 (The Archetypes and the Collective Unconcious).

By encountering one's shadow, one enters into his own soul and, as Hegel points out, enters into an obscure darkness. Jung states the following: "There, I am joined directly and firmly to the world, and it's all too simple to forget who I am in actuality. If I were to characterize this condition, the most appropriate phrase would be 'lost within oneself'" (ibid.). Thus, if one goes through their shadow into darkness, they face the fundamental danger of losing sight of oneself.

What is needed to conquer this danger is an "encounter with one's anima." Those who pass through their shadow selves and search out their souls, (as explained above) enter into a "world of water," but inside this water, people (especially men) meet their anima. "What one who gazes into the water first sees is a form of himself, but soon a living entity surfaces from beneath it. … It is a unique kind of water creature. Sometimes a water sprite, or a mermaid caught in a fisherman's net. … The water sprite is an early, instinctive stage of the mystical, feminine entity called anima." (ibid.) It is said that the anima's early stage sometimes takes the form of erotic spirits, such as demon girls or vampire women (Lamie). And it is said that "anima appear in the form of goddesses or witches." (ibid.) The Evangeline that Negi encounters in Phantasmagoria in this story is this early stage, this anima. Evangeline first appears in the nude, and we don't even have to point out that she is a vampire and also a witch. And this encounter with an anima results in a certain wisdom. "Indeed the anima is a chaotic life impulse, but on the other hand, in a mysterious sense, it has on hand secret knowledge and concealed wisdom, and is in the most peculiar opposition to one's illogical, spiritual nature. … This wisdom aspect appears only to one who confronts his anima. This is an intense labor … and can more strongly indicate that something like a secret intention hides behind all the cruelty that plays with man's fate. This unpredictable thing, this chaotic thing that brings anxiety is precisely what exposes deep meaning. As one becomes aware of this meaning, the anima loses its aggressive personality. The embankments that hold off the flood of chaos gradually build up." (ibid.) When the one who has passed through his shadow and set foot into darkness confronts his anima and touches on that wisdom, he conquers the fundamental danger of losing sight of himself in the darkness and chaos, and obtains a way to use dark magic, or, in other words, the original broad-mindedness that encompasses all opposites.

*1: Aether (αθήρ) is the "ether" that we speak of in modern language. In premodern cosmology, it is said to be one of the five elements that makes up things in the heavens. However, going further back and looking at mythological texts, Aether was thought of as the air in the clear sky. The Aether that Hesiod speaks of is one of the twins of light born from the twins of darkness. Because the genealogy of the goddesses goes from night (Nyx) to day (Hemera), the male gods' genealogy would go from darkness to light (however, because the Greek word "aether" does not mean light, but is translated to "kirameku kÅ«ki," meaning "bright upper air" in Japanese, it was translated to the single word "kōki," shining air.)

*2: According to Archetypes (Kinokuniya Shoten), take Tode as Tor.

He Astrape Huper Ouranou Mega Dunamene



***

With the body turned into a particle mass, the caster can spread a positively charged particle swarm (a group of his own positive particles) away from the main body, and thus able to prepare an electric field of a certain span. The caster can control the swarm – Negi manages this using wind magic – and thus the field itself, arbitrarily switching it from dunamis/potentia to energeia and vice versa. When the field is actualised, the caster’s negatively charged main body (particle mass) will be powerfully drawn towards the positively charged particle swarm, due to the electrical potential difference between them. Essentially, the caster uses an electrostatic discharge as a medium to achieve extremely high agility.

(Note that 150km/s is the average speed of a stepped leader during a lightning strike and the main †˜branch’ occurring within the opened circuit will be many times faster. In any case, the exact speed of discharges depends on local conditions, but it should exceed 2,260km/s.)

During this, the caster’s main body (a high-speed negatively charged particle mass) collides with the molecules and atoms in the air. As the massive amount of kinetic energy becomes ionisation energy and causes repeated impact ionisation (an electron avalanche), this releases a large amount of charged particles, resulting in a burst of electricity (hence, “lightning”).

The negatively charged particles that compose the caster’s main body will for the most part join with the positively charged particles newly generated within the circuit. Thus, the caster cannot simply repeat the high-speed movement to another positive particle swarm. This magic is not as simple as “moving as fast as lightning”.

Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning is electricity in 1752. However, before the modern era, lightning was assumed to be “the fire of the sky”. For example, Aristotle believed that lightning was caused by the burning of ejected exhalations (9b) and Hesiod referred to Zeus’ thunderbolts as “sacred flame” (iere phloz [ιερη φλοξ]). In magical terms, †˜to become a charged particle mass’ is equivalent to †˜becoming fire’.

To put it this way, you can say that †˜Raiten Taisou’ is a spell to change the caster’s body into fire, and mutating yourself into a jinni (eg. the Spirit of the Lamp in the story of Aladdin); jinn, beings made of fire, will never †˜burn out’, similar to how living beings can †˜grow back’ from injuries. Thus, during impact ionisation, even though the caster has lost his initial charged mass, he can absorb the charged particles within the circuit as a replenishment, and maintain his body (and life).

By unleashing the lightning within the caster (Khilipl Astrape) onto an actualised electric field, the caster can create a sudden, extreme electrical potential difference, resulting in a large electrical strike: Perfectus Plasmationis Per Emissionem, “Chihayaburu Ikazuchi”.

†˜Chihayaburu’ is ancient Japanese, meaning “mighty, great, vigourous power”. †˜Chihayaburu’ in this case is written as “breaking a thousand rocks” (千磐破). Thus, “Thousand Rocks Breaking Lightning”.

In the case of †˜Raiten Taisou’, until the caster removes the positively charged particles from his main body and to elsewhere in his expanded electric field, he cannot use a circuit for high-speed movement. However, with †˜Duplex Complexio’ and a doubled †˜Mega Dunamene’ (†˜Raiten Sousou’), the caster can change particle arrangement during movement, allowing him to create the next circuit while still in mid-movement. As the caster can create new circuits indefinitely, the caster can remain in a high-speed form infinitely – Constant Lightning Form.