Spiritualism was quite the popular thing in Emerson’s day and no doubt he was often asked his opinion on the matter which is also probably why he has a lecture on Demonology. For Emerson, the term “demonology” covers a wide range of things including ” dreams, omens, coincidences, luck, sortilege, magic and other experiences which shun rather than court inquiry.” If you go no further you can probably guess easily enough from that last bit: “other experiences which shun rather than court inquiry,” just how Emerson feels about the subject.

In the lecture Emerson talks about dreams more than any other topic. He reveals himself to be baffled by dreams and their purpose:

the astonishment remains that one should dream; that we should resign so quietly this deifying Reason, and become the theatre of delirious shows, wherein time, space, persons, cities, animals, should dance before us in merry and mad confusion; a delicate creation outdoing the prime and flower of actual Nature, antic comedy alternating with horrid pictures.

Uncomfortable from the loss of Reason which dreams afford us, he tries to fit them into his awake and reasoned world, declaring that they have a certain “poetic integrity and truth.” This does not mean, however, that dreams are prophetic. Emerson argues that dreams we deem prophetic are nothing more than “the maturation…of opinions not consciously carried out to statements, but whereof we already possessed the elements.”

As for the thing called fortune or luck, there is no such thing. To believe that there is insinuates:

that the known eternal laws of morals and matter are sometimes corrupted or evaded by this gypsy principle, which chooses favorites and works in the dark for their behoof; as if the laws of the Father of the universe were sometimes balked and eluded by a meddlesome Aunt of the universe for her pets.

Heh. Can you just imagine what God’s meddlesome Aunt would be like? Her pets, of course are cats. And she has a lot of them. She keeps her reading glasses on a chain around her neck. But I digress… Luck is only a term we use to describe a line of cause and effect that we cannot see of comprehend. “There is as precise and as describable a reason for every fact occurring to him, as for any occurring to any man.”

Emerson believes that “The soul contains in itself the event that shall presently befall it, for the event is only the actualizing of its thoughts.” Luck then belongs to those who pay attention to their souls, who act when the time is right. Those who think they need lucky dice or other tokens to bring luck just don’t get it. “The fault of most men is that they are busybodies; do not wait the simple movement of the soul, but interfere and thwart the instructions of their own minds.” If we’d stop being such busybodies, we’d put Kewpie and Troll dollmakers out of business, not to mention makers of orthotics for all those rabbits with missing feet.

When it comes to omens and signs Emerson is equally as derisive:

What more facile than to project this exuberant selfhood into the region where individuality is forever bounded by generic and cosmical laws? The deepest flattery, and that to which we can never be insensible, is the flattery of omens.

Why look to demonology for answers when the answers we seek are right in front of us in Nature? Nature is no conjurer, all is there for us to discover if only we pay attention. Ever practical, Emerson declares,

I am content and occupied with such miracles as I know, such as my eyes and ears daily show me, such as humanity and astronomy. If any others are important to me they will certainly be shown to me.

I must say, he has a good point there. Every day is filled with little miracles, why do we need to create dubious ones? As October nears and our thoughts turn to Halloween, don’t take things too seriously, keep Emerson in mind. I finished reading The Haunting of Hill House yesterday, and let me just say, Emerson is a good antidote.

Next week’s Emerson: Aristocracy