Part Two

Seven Devils

(You’ll Meet along the Way, and How to Outwit Them)

As we’ve traveled together through the first part of the book, I hope you’ve grown ever more confident that your Wyrd exists, is unique and powerful, and can be revealed by carefully paying attention to the details of your loves. By now, you know that your life is sending you signals all the time, that these signals are seen and felt by you alone, and that, for you to live a life that feels like your own, it’s up to you to make sense of and act on these signals.

This is within your power. Yes, no one has taught you how to do this. Yes, school and work seem more interested in teaching you from the outside in, rather than the inside out. But, even so, no one speaks your love language as fluently as you do, and no one but you can choose to pay attention to it. You don’t control everything, but, still, you control a lot.

In the last part of the book we’ll dive into what you can do to make your loves come alive, and even what choices you can make in your home, school, relationships, and work in order to help others do the same.

Before you get there, though, be careful: on your journey you’ll encounter a pack of devils that’ll try to tempt you far off your path. These devils may seem friendly. They may make you feel good about yourself. They may even seem wise. But they are devilish nonetheless. Listen to them, follow where they lead, and one day you might find yourself among the lost.

The Devil’s Greatest Power

The devil’s greatest power—according to the author Catherine Goldstein—is not his evil intent and forked tongue. It is instead that he doesn’t know he’s the devil. He is, she tells us, so powerful and persuasive precisely because he believes he is a force for good.

The devils you’ll meet on your journey have this same quality. Some will appear as worthy and well-intended morsels of advice, perhaps from a new boss or a training class. “You should welcome critical feedback,” for example.

Others will float by in the ether, invisible yet tainting the very air you breathe. “Your strengths are what you’re good at and your weaknesses are what you’re bad at” is one such ethereal devil.

There are devils that have so woven themselves into schools’ curriculum that they’ve become institutionalized. “You’ll learn most from your mistakes!”

And there are devils that began life as angels, and then, over time, mutated into something more malign. “Your identity comes solely from those who share your nationality, or religion, or gender” is angelic in its intent, unhealthy in its outcome.

What follows is a guide to the seven most devilish devils you’ll meet along the way.

My hope is twofold: First, that you’ll come to recognize them when you see them. And second, that you’ll learn how to protect yourself when they sidle up, whisper in your ear, and try to lure you into the forest.