Demonkind was born from the embrace of two fundamental principles: Celebration of Darkness and Liberation for Everyone. Each of them independently has a long history of associations, philosophers, tendencies, and symbols; but Demonkind forges them together into an uncommon alloy.
Celebration of Darkness
The things we normally see or believe about the world only have meaning in relation to other parts which remain hidden from view, occulted. We all contain “dark” qualities: our shadow selves, our animal impulses, the traumas we’ve endured, the mistakes we’ve made, the desire for vengeance, our kinks, the bony hand of mortality tapping our shoulder, and other fears. When these remain bottled up, unexamined and denied, they tear us apart from the inside.
Instead we, Demonkind, choose to celebrate that darkness! Uncork your bottled heart, and pour it from above your head, allowing the fears and lusts to fill your mouth, sting your eyes, and drench your breast. Dance for the dead–dance for your own death–dance for the unknowable multitudes that will die in this moment, and in this night, and in all the years to come. Each of us will find countless ways, large and small, to keep that festival alive.
This does not mean indulging in destructive behavior without a care for those around you; it means obliterating the cultural prohibition against revealing our shadows. Using the language of celebration and festivity prepares us for the much harder work of honestly examining those qualities within us, and addressing them with love rather than fear or judgment. It also frees us to take and share joy from the darkness.
Liberation for Everyone
…Not just for you! Commonly, people on the “dark side” grow up as outsiders, and we naturally develop a fierce pride of independence. But if we stop there, thinking of ourselves alone as free from social or religious rule, then we incidentally support the oppression of others. You may say “I don’t oppress anyone, live and let live” but if you don’t actually work to liberate other people, then you don’t believe in freedom–you only believe in hiding behind social constructs that let you get away with selfishness and arrogance.
Liberatory thought begins with critically examining our own beliefs, words, and actions to see whether they play into old established patterns that keep other people down. We all make careless judgments, but the key is to catch yourself in that moment, and unflinchingly question whether those assumptions actually helped free anyone–including you. This process takes a lifetime.
Along the way, you can participate in mutual aid, to build community. This fundamental component of anarchist (“libertarian socialist”) theory means different people or groups providing material support to each other, for the benefit of the whole system, free from coercion. We do not exist entirely independently from others, or from our environment, even though many people would like to believe that they do. Not everyone reading about Demonkind will want to call themselves an anarchist, or any other political label, but that very fact dovetails nicely with the egalitarian values of mutual aid. It does not matter what you call yourself, as long as you do the work.
Demonkind: a Conspiracy of Ravens
We fuse these concepts together through understanding that we all have dark sides and we all need support. So why not bring our shadows forward, and embrace them, while we also work to give everyone else that same luxurious opportunity for healing and growth? Extend your black wings to bring others in, rather than to brush them away. You can have your defiant independence of thought, without denying that we all actually do depend on each other for love, and nutrition, and purpose in life.
By making a conscious, focused practice of raising up that which we previously buried, and making deep changes in ourselves that encourage liberation to flourish outward -like seeds and pollen- we can reshape our world. We shall forge our Demonic nature into powerful, beautiful wings of transformation, together.
