The Three Doors and Seven Keys of Iblis

"The Three Doors and Seven Keys of Iblis"
Master of the Black Pen
20 Feb. 2022, rev. Jan. 2025

The Three Doors of Iblis

The Three Doors are based on a) the Three Rifts of the Iblisic narrative and b) are a reflection of the possible motives in the Three Faces of Iblis.

I.

The First Door

The Shadow of the Divine

In the First Rift, Iblis breaches a command of divinity to give fealty to humanity, and this act of vital sedition incites the umbra of the divine.

The umbra of the divine is retribution, tumult, and tribulation.

The signature written in the umbra of the divine is Iblis before Iblis.

II.
The Second Door
The Shadow of the Self

In the Second Rift, Iblis is on account of rupture with the divine, is cursed and exiled, earns infamy in his name, and tasked to live life by facing death.

The umbra of the self is all that is kept hidden in the heart, secret from the mind, wrung out from the pains of duty, and echoed in agony of fealty or fidelity.

The signature written in the umbra of the self is Iblis within Iblis.

III.

The Third Door
The Shadow of the Worlds

In the Third Rift, Iblis embarks on a struggle against humanity, first as the inspiration for its exile and second as the elemental threat of its extinction.

The umbra of the worlds is the barrier between times or places.

The signature written in the umbra of the worlds is Iblis after Iblis.

The Seven Keys of Iblis

The Seven Keys are based on choices made in the context of the esoteric Christian and Quranic variants of the Iblisic narrative. The Three Doors open to a different world but the Seven Keys can be used for each of the Three Doors.

I.

The First Key
Separation as Provenance

In the First Rift, in an act of vital sedition rejecting a direct command from divinity, Iblis spurns fidelity and fealty to humanity as a unity and plurality.

This primeval act by Iblis has two normative implications:

1. Spurning fidelity for mankind and an identity grounded in humanity.

2. Spurning fealty to mankind and a morality of servility to humanity.

The First Precept is incipience that dissents on humanism and denies inundation and subservience to castes in general and humanity in particular.

II.

The Second Key

Stringency as Plenitude

In the Second Rift, Iblis is cursed and exiled and, earning his name, demands time as an ally to justify his disobedience, and gaining it, arraigns humanity.

The Second Precept is preparing for life, rejecting public praise and acclaim above intuitive instinct and wisdom, and remaining aware of exile and death.

III.
The Third Key
Seedfulness across Worlds

In the Third Rift, Iblis carries his struggle against inundation and subservience underneath humanity, considered as a sum, in all times and places.

In traversing different times and places, Iblis is only wherever he is.

The Third Precept is existence through inner and outer struggle across worlds. In its inner life, it favors calm resoluteness. In its outer life, it favors quiet diligence. Iblis, for example, does not become a serpent, but hides in one to enter Eden.

IV.
The Fourth Key
Strictness over the Terrene

In all Rifts, Iblis lays stress on the form and material origins of things.

This signals the role of natural agency and brings into focus the Earth.

The Fourth Precept rejects prioritizing the intangible over the natural, distant over the immediate, functional over the structural, and calls into question the view that humanity, seen as a whole, is justified in an assumed role of steward.

V.
The Fifth Key
Sagacious to the Proximal

In all Rifts of the narrative, Iblis nurtures perspective on other castes, especially the vulnerabilities of enemy cases and preparedness to feed on them.

In recalling this, we recoil from sharing secrets and confiding in others.

The Fifth Precept is vigilance in relations of castes and predation on humanity.

VI.
The Sixth Key

Sinuousness in the Offering

In all Rifts of the narrative, Iblis maintains flexibility in relationships at the level of his personal, familial, and tribal interactions and engagements.

In the world of mankind, these are elevated to the rank of national affairs.

If a state takes from Iblis the mantle of his policies, we find intensity of purveyance, a mouth that leads to a belly, and congeniality to time as an ally.

The Sixth Precept is malleability in personal and national affairs.

VII.

The Seventh Key

Severance from the Placeless

In all Rifts of the narrative, Iblis opposes the consequences of the inundation of all creation and paradise by humanity. The proliferation of mankind into every world can only encourage and engender an inauthentic form of admiration.

In a misapplied humanism your own caste is buried or drowned.

In globalism every place eventually resembles every other place.

The Seventh Precept is calm or quiet disavowal of globalism and humanism.

"I seek to mirror the resilience of Iblis, he who was cast out for his own."