At the beginning of Rocketman, the new Elton John movie, Tara Egerton bursts onto the screen in one of the flamboyant musician's signature outrageous outfits. It is no accident that this particular getup resembles some glam rock demon from one of the more fabulous corners of the netherworld. Carl Jung noted that the Latin word for alcohol is spirtus , that it is "...the same word that we use for for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison”. Addiction is a spiritual disease; that's why we say that the addict is "wrestling with their demons". Alcohol and other drugs, food, sex, gambling, shopping...all forms of addiction are demonic in the truest sense of the word; they are pathogens that infect our spirit and possess our souls, hijacking our lives and steering us toward ruin. In the depths of his addiction, Elton John has recognized the demon that he has assimilated; he spends the rest of the movie physically and spiritually rem
"You must watch their shadows, not the puppets." - Billy Kwan, The Year of Living Dangerously.