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A literary motif has the Devil losing a soul because of the precise wording of the pact but if you want to know what is really going on, always read between the lines.
A classic pact is split into definite parts: 1. The sorcerer wishes for an outcome that cannot be achieved through "natural" means. 2. The Devil can bring about this outcome. 3. The sorcerer offers that their soul will join the Devil upon death.
There are some key themes here. Although what the sorcerer asks for has some variation (magical power and revenge in older witchcraft trials, knowledge in Faust, immortality and beauty in Dorian Gray) the consistent thing is of a Self that has the power to fulfil its desires. In other words, the common theme is self-empowerment rather than self-denial. The Devil is seen as approving of this decision in favour of desire and will lend his strength to it. Time is also a factor. Empowerment happens in the immediate term and, later, the soul joins the Devil. However, this may not be a case of "party now, pay for it later" but joining the Devil later is an extension of fulfilling desire here and now. There's a reason that sorcerers in Eastern Europe were thought to become vampires after they died; the "party" doesn't stop, it just becomes ever more intense.
This all amounts to one thing; a pact is not about spirits, it is about You. The Devil is not the provider but the overseer of a deal between yourself and your Future Self. That Future Self comes into being through the fulfilment of desire. This is an echo of a much older idea:
I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run ~ Odin, Hávamál
A classic pact is split into definite parts: 1. The sorcerer wishes for an outcome that cannot be achieved through "natural" means. 2. The Devil can bring about this outcome. 3. The sorcerer offers that their soul will join the Devil upon death.
There are some key themes here. Although what the sorcerer asks for has some variation (magical power and revenge in older witchcraft trials, knowledge in Faust, immortality and beauty in Dorian Gray) the consistent thing is of a Self that has the power to fulfil its desires. In other words, the common theme is self-empowerment rather than self-denial. The Devil is seen as approving of this decision in favour of desire and will lend his strength to it. Time is also a factor. Empowerment happens in the immediate term and, later, the soul joins the Devil. However, this may not be a case of "party now, pay for it later" but joining the Devil later is an extension of fulfilling desire here and now. There's a reason that sorcerers in Eastern Europe were thought to become vampires after they died; the "party" doesn't stop, it just becomes ever more intense.
This all amounts to one thing; a pact is not about spirits, it is about You. The Devil is not the provider but the overseer of a deal between yourself and your Future Self. That Future Self comes into being through the fulfilment of desire. This is an echo of a much older idea:
I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run ~ Odin, Hávamál