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I think degeneracy in some respects requires a poetic and religious sensibility. Hedonism, decadence, and degeneracy are often seen to be bedfellows with nihilism: there are no higher values except pleasure and the material. But I think that’s not really the case, to find meaning in these things go against the definition of nihilism no? Of course, there are many types of philosophical nihilism but I never looked further into them and I don’t care to. When people think of values and principles, they often think of religion or a worldview and system that point to “higher” values, the Apollonian as Nietzsche would put it: values of altruism, rationality, order, discipline, faith in a higher being, etc. The imperfection of base materiality compels us to go beyond its instincts and sensations. Hedonism and decadence are often associated with decay especially moral decay.

Once you reach a certain level of existence and comfort, there’s no compelling and motivating reason to strive for anything. There’s nothing to really meaningfully live for. It seems like there are a couple of options to take at this point but one of them is to descend further into the bowels of existence, into the forbidden fruits of life. This is why decadence is often associated with wealth. But I don’t think this descent has to be a nihilistic one.

I really don’t think there’s a huge difference between perverts, mystics, and soldiers. To be in the mindset of these types involves a certain romanticism and the desire for the extraordinary. To live on the fringes of existence confers a certain type of gnosis, a knowledge of oneself and the world that otherwise wouldn’t be possessed in normal circumstances. The soldier, in war, is always on the precipice of death. Or at the very least, their mortality is always at the back of their minds. The precarity of existence is always salient.

The mystic desires union with God and is willing to renounce their own needs to achieve this ultimate desire. The mystic sees God in everything and the boundary between the material and the numinous is thin. Now the pervert. The pervert is a sophisticate of sorts. They understand the sacredness of the taboo. There’s almost a sacrosanct nature to their perversion. The ritual of engaging in these acts is imbued with symbolic meaning, colored with semiological richness. It’s not just about sex, it’s about the ritual and that ritual being the playing of meaning and symbols.

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When I saw a spider entrap and consume an insect, I saw God in that moment. The spider wraps its prey into its web and I also couldn’t help but compare it to gourmet chef preparing an expensive dish. I envision them all lined up, the flies and diminutive insects waiting to be feasted upon. The lambs are unwittingly led to the slaughter on this lattice alter. I was fascinated, entranced even by this brutal, yet delicate ritual.

Perched on high with eight eyes and eight limbs, it sees everything. To see is to know and the third eye chakra is associated with divine wisdom. The spider’s perception experiences all doors of reality. It posses a mobility that’s nigh unstoppable. It weaves intricate tapestries that aides in its fine kill. These tapestries are full of awe and beauty as they are treacherous and dangerous as if the kill is immanent within the seduction. What a marvelous creator-killer.

I saw the spider prepare its sacrifice. Usually gods have humans do their dirty work, but here art and the act of killing are too intimately intertwined and it makes everything about this process sacrosanct.