Haecceity and Wyrd

The French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari, performing a postmodern play upon a medieval scholastic concept, develop the idea of the haecceity as a moment in time that takes on its own individuality or subjectivity. Their radical concept is that it is not atomized individuals who are the true subjects of history, but moments in time.

There are moments in time that take on a perfection and character of their own, and all the actors participating in these moments feel truly alive for the time that they are involved in the individuality of this time. Even when the moment is "over", it continues to resonate through time, sustaining them until the next coalescence of a new, vital moment.

This suggests that Wyrd arranges coincidences so that people, animals, things, and events may come together into alliances that are mutually beneficial. These feel like "lucky" times. "Magic" would then simply be the surfing of these Waves of Wyrd so that one was in the right place at the right time in order to feel truly alive. Staying outside the Surf and attempting to manipulate it would accomplish nothing but prestidigitation of the banal, while true magic would be found in those moments that come alive.

This is worth contemplating, because it has elements that ring true. If you look back over your life, you'll find that there are these vibrant times when everything came together just right, in which you and every other participant felt not only most alive, but most yourselves, and that these became defining moments. These are the moments to live for.

Wisdom in the old sense of full-cunning or magical perception of wyrd's potential, would then consist in a deep intuitive study of those moments that really lived, so one can grasp the signals and track the scents to where true moments are in coalescence of coming alive. Since Wyrd suggests that true moments never die but continue to pulsate, we can utilize old moments of life to find the new ones.

It's an interesting idea.