According to Simon Weil, grace is the pull of the divine. This interpretation parallels what the Buddhist tradition of Sodo calls "other power" or compassion, gratitude and the inherent interconnectedness of all things and it directly echoes the Christian traditions of Augustine and Buber, for example, that center on grace as a gift encounter, or refer to a State of Grace. Most profoundly, perhaps, in Weil's work we hear the echoes of Plato (χάρις/charis/grace) and notice references to the three daughters of Zeus and the nymph Eurynome. But what sets Weil's ideas apart from these traditions is not only that they revolve around emptying the self, but also around the multidimensional force: gravity.
For Weil, gravity is, first, the physical law that pulls the weight of our bodies toward the earth, and second, the moral force that draws the soul toward self-interest-our soul's efforts to avoid suffering, and its own tendency toward despair. Gravity and grace coexist as a living contradiction and serve as a central focus for this paper. Through a theopolitical lens, this tension reveals Weil's distinctive form of ontological anarchism. Within the word, "anarchy," the initial "a" is an alpha privative, meaning "not" or "without," and arche means beginning or ruling principle. Thus an-arche means without principle or empty of principle and we circle back to the emptiness allows for grace.
This paper argues that Weil's anarchism is not primarily political but spiritual. It calls for the dismantling of the ego and all attachments that claim ultimacy, creating a void in which grace may enter. This emptiness is not negation but the precondition for fully perceiving others. By situating Weil's concepts within a theopolitical framework, the paper shows how her thought offers a radical reimagining of political life—one grounded not in sovereignty or will, but in attention and obligation that alone can, perhaps, counteract the tyranny of necessity.