📝 The Ninth Circle of Hell

Dear Greats,

Disloyalty, betrayal, treachery - we hear these stories of old and new and endeavour to avoid the pains thereof. We fear to encounter betrayers, lest we be deceived by these creatures; creatures whose words are empty yet sound full to our ears.

In Dante's Inferno, betrayal, particularly against loved ones, is the worst sin, reserved for the Ninth Circle of Hell, where traitors are punished with eternal suffering in a frozen lake, with Satan gnawing on the worst offenders.

Heaven and Hell are realities of our own making. As humans we exist on multiple levels; we can have a clear conscience and a guilty soul. For some it drives them into madness of the mind, for others they confront it and transform. We cannot be freed by anyone but ourselves and God.

If we do not correct our wrongs, we may wake to find ourselves in “hell”; do not think biblically, rather figuratively - it is a place YOU wish not to inhabit, it is unique to all. Your hell is yours alone.

Betrayal discerns disgust, a dagger pierced into the blind mans heart. To look in the mirror and confront your own disgust is a battle many avoid. Many justify their betrayal so they may face themselves; in taking this road of ease and self-deception, they become lesser versions of themselves.

You are and become the choices you make. In the present it may make no difference, in fact being lesser may be preferred in terms of your conscious experience. But in the eternal frame you are condemned. For every being desires to be complete - which can only be achieved when we surrender ourselves to God, the eternal which cannot be deceived.

Redeeming your errors - ego, pride, complexities, disappointment, self-pity, excuses.

Needing not to fill one chasm with another.

This heightened state of reality can only be attained by some.

The betrayer can obtain redemption through suffering; through destruction of their old self and rebirth into martyrdom of an ideal they forthwith strive to uphold at all costs. These are truly unique beings that deserve respect and admiration through all ages, to destroy the worldly for the eternal is no small feat - and I dare say, not many have achieved it.

The betrayed must endure the wrath of the betrayer and embark on a quest for purity, resilience and acceptance. The betrayed must battle corruption, for evil has touched their life, they must now wrestle with their own experience, lest they project it into the world they must continue to inhabit - lest they allow it to shape their future.

When a person falls short of expectations, when you believed in them beyond what they were/are. When the image shatters and the ideal you held them as falls away, and you see them as they are, you understand the meaning of ‘you cannot save another’, especially another who has no desire, nor conscious will, to be saved.

Genetics. Family dynamics. Childhood experiences. These forces compound onto themselves the longer they are endured. If you wish not to become what you were made to be, you must disrupt what you are - beware the folly of thinking that disrupting the "obvious” route is not precisely becoming what you were made to be. To discern if you hold weight = look at your closest stereotype and examine if/how you differ.

For the spiritual = Sit within and destroy your past, present and future, and walk towards the silent string that is strung, heard only by the eardrum of your soul. There awaits your salvation, there you shall meet no stereotype.

There is such a thing as better and worse, there is such a thing as superior and inferior. Ironically, it is not the cliché of the idea, but the opposite that holds meaning.

The superior is humble, willing, forgiving, accepting. The inferior, hold their pride above truth, they blame others, cannot accept the truth and never change.

The only way to truly transform is to destroy yourself and rebuild every brick. If you carry corrupted bricks into the future, you have chosen the easy path and have changed nothing, you are now worse off than before. You cannot dilute your pain; comfort, ease, convenience and justification are some of the greatest killers of excellence that the world has ever known.

Different people live life differently, sure. Animals exist and so do humans. My point… I hope… is clear... Is there such a thing as better and worse? Yes, there is - I know it now to be true. We are one, yet differ all the same.

Better does not mean a better life. In fact, suffering and sacrifice are closer to better than pleasure and egoism. To be better, one must be a willing to martyr themselves, unchanged by worldly experience and encounters with evil, steadfastly tied to ideals greater than their worldly experience.

The reality is, that many are doomed to be what they are, never to rise above their past experiences and genetic code.

You must not be one of them. 

Self-destruction is the capitulation of hope, and self-deception is to surrender to a lesser version of yourself. Both are easy in the present yet calamitous in your forever.

Take the path scattered with broken glass, walk it with bare feet. Take the path that shoots bullets at your being, walk it with a smile. You must take the path less travelled, to reach the place few have reached.

To be your highest self you MUST suffer. 

Whether betrayed or betrayer, the path is now before you: will you choose pain or pleasure? Will you choose salvation or deception? Are you doomed to repeat your life in condemnation, or will you rise above your mortal wounds and take the path less travelled?

I will ALWAYS fight, for you, my readers.

You have found your way here. And I thank you for it.

Email me your thoughts, and I shall get back to you. [email protected]

Your deepest well-wisher,

— ZYLO
Be Empowered.

I guess if you’re reading this then you’re already one of the Greats.