Time Pdf — Emil Cioran The Fall Into

One of the most bizarre and brilliant chapters. Cioran examines medieval witchcraft not as a historical curiosity, but as a metaphor for the outcast’s rebellion against God’s tyranny. He argues that the witch’s sabbath is a parody of divine order—a necessary descent into absurdity. His line: “To be a witch is to have chosen the night of the flesh against the lie of the spirit.”

explores the existential tragedy of human consciousness as a departure from the "motionless flow" of eternity into the corrosive, destructive realm of historical time. Cioran argues that while all beings die, only man has the "vocation to fall"—a metaphysical loss of equilibrium where we have become "exiles from paradise" because we have gained consciousness and fate. Key Themes and Concepts