Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Barrcast. I’m your host, Nick Barr, coming to you on a Wednesday afternoon here in New York. We’re in the middle of a major cold period here and storms may be coming this weekend. So what better time to learn about tactics for resisting the eight evil thoughts or tempting thoughts or logismoi.
So let’s get right into it. We’re picking up where we left off on chapter 15.
Chapter 15: Stabilizing the Three Faculties
The wandering nous is made stable by one reading, two vigils and three prayer. Burning epithumia, that’s desire, is quenched by one hunger, two toil and three solitude. Churning thumos, indignation, is calmed by one, the singing of Psalms, by two, patient endurance and three, mercy. But all these practices are to be engaged in at proper times and in proper measure. What is done untimely or without measure is temporary. And what is temporary is more harmful and not beneficial.
So I did some research on this because here Evagrius is presenting some new vocabulary with epithumia and thumos. And it seems like he’s creating a new kind of framework of these three faculties: wandering nous, burning epithumia (desire), churning thumos (indignation). You could map this onto the three faculties of the Enneagram or the three faculties in Buddhism. There are a lot of pre-existing maps, but just so we can ground ourselves in Evagrius’s own influences, this is from Plato’s tripartite model of the soul with kind of the logical center. I place it in the head, the logical center. Desire, epithumia in the lower body could say in the gut. And then thumos, indignation in the chest. And thumos, or indignation is a word that we’re going to visit many more times in these chapters. So let’s continue.
When our soul longs for a variety of different foods, then its portion should be reduced to bread and water to make it thankful for a little more soul. It is satiety that desires variety in food. Hunger considers it blessedness just to have satiety of bread. A great aid to chastity is deprivation of water, as persuaded by 300 Israelites who defeated Midian in company with Gideon.
Just as life and death cannot coexist in the same subject at the same time, so also is it impossible for love (agape) to coexist with wealth. Love destroys not only wealth, but also this agape, our temporal life. The one who flees all worldly pleasures is a tower inaccessible to the demon of gloominess. For gloominess is the deprivation of pleasure that is either present or anticipated. So it’s impossible for us to drive away this enemy as long as we have any earthly attachment. He sets his trap and produces gloominess just where he sees our inclinations lead us.
So, you know, typical kind of monastic advice here around receding from pleasure, down to, you know, receding from food and water.
Understanding Anger and Indignation
Anger and hatred amplify indignation. Merciful compassion and gentleness decrease it even when present. So anger is this logismos that amplifies the natural indignation, thumos. So I think, as we’ll learn later, thumos, indignation is a natural state for Evagrius, but it gets inflamed by anger and cooled in contrast by compassion and gentleness.
He continues: The sun should not set on our anger so that the demons do not, rising up by night, terrify the soul and make the nous more cowardly the day after for the fight. For terrifying phantasms are produced by the disturbance of indignation. And nothing makes a deserter out of the nous so much as disturbed indignation.
When the irascible part of our soul, that’s the thumikon, so there’s an inherently irascible part of our soul, seizes some excuse and is troubled, then the demons suggest to us how good it is to withdraw into solitude, thus keeping us from resolving the cause of the gloominess and freeing ourselves from the disturbance. But when our desiring part, that’s the epithumeticon, is enkindled, then they make us sociable and call us hardened and uncivil, so that by desiring bodies we then come into contact with bodies. We should not obey them, but instead do the opposite.
Actually I think this is very good, simple advice here, which is when our anger is inflamed, we do have a way of retreating, I think. I know for myself I can withdraw where it’s easy for me to tell myself the stories that further my anger, as opposed to, say, calling a friend, seeking to resolve the cause of the gloominess. In contrast, when we’re in a desiring state, we want to be with other people, when actually maybe we should be withdrawing.
The Danger of Mental Combat
Do not give yourself to the tempting thought of anger by fighting mentally the distressing person, nor to that of fornication by spending most of the time in fantasies of pleasures. For the one darkens the soul, the other summons it to burn with passion. Both of these pollute your nous. And thus at the time of prayer, you will fantasize images. And not being able to offer pure prayer to God, you will immediately fall victim to the demon of acedia. This demon readily leaps upon such states and like a dog with a young deer, tears the soul to pieces.
Again, acedia has this sort of special property for Evagrius. And he’s naming kind of, I would say, the three temptations that are most closely associated with these three parts of the soul. So, and I’m applying more framework and more structure than I think we ever see Evagrius do. But because we’re in relationship to the Enneagram, we’re inclined to do that kind of connective work.
So he talks about the wandering nous. And I would say this wandering nous is closest to the demon of acedia. The inflamed indignation is most closely associated with the temptation of anger or orge. And then here, he’s saying the desire, inflamed desire is most, susceptible, you could say, to the demon of, here he says, fornication or lust. We could call it elsewhere.
Interesting. Those are the eight, nine and the one. So, in some ways maybe that’s, that top part of the Enneagram is in some ways sort of the falling point of the mind or of the soul. That’s where the soul first errs in these, in potentially these three ways, depending on which part of this tripartite soul is activated.
Again, like, why do we want to even do this kind of analysis? It’s to create a map of sorts for experiential sense making. And we’ll get to that soon. What do we do here? So we’ll get to instructions, I think, in this episode. And the point of the map is to facilitate a kind of inner combat ultimately that Evagrius is going to give us.
The Nature and Role of Indignation
Here he says the nature of indignation, so that the nature of indignation, the natural quality of this part of the soul, thumos, is to fight the demons and to struggle over any kind of pleasure. I did a little bit of translation inquiry on struggle over any kind of pleasure. And what I got back from the Greek was not struggle against any pleasure but to essentially, you could say wrestle with pleasure or, you know, either fight for pleasure or fight against pleasure to some extent. But it’s ambiguous, I would say for this reason. The angels suggest to us spiritual pleasures and the blessedness coming from them. They encourage us to direct our indignation towards the demons. The latter, however, dragging us toward worldly desires, violently force our indignation against nature to fight human beings so as to darken the nous, separating it from knowledge and thus making it a traitor to the virtues.
Take heed to yourself that you never so provoke any of the brethren that he runs away, or you will never escape during your lifetime from the demon of despondency, which will always become an obstacle for you at the time of prayer.
Gifts quench memory of injury. Let Jacob convince you of this. He insinuated himself into Esau’s graces with gifts when he came against him with 400 men. But as we are poor, we should make up for our lack by hospitality at the table.
When we are oppressed by the demon of listlessness, then with tears let us divide our soul in two. Or perhaps tears, let us divide our soul in two, one part encouraging, the other sowing good hopes within us, soothing with David’s chant, why are you downcast, my soul? Why do you trouble me? Hope in God, for I will confess him, the Savior of my countenance and my God.
That almost feels like sort of prototypical parts work here, tearing one soul into two, such that one part of the soul can console the other.
Facing Temptation
We must not abandon our cell in time of temptation, making eloquent excuses. We should stay seated within and persevere and bravely receive all comers, especially the demon of acedia. It’s interesting: receive all comers, receive all demons. So this is sort of the Ajahn Chah instruction of put a chair in the middle, sit down and see who comes to visit. That’s the attitude that’s being advocated for here.
The demon of acedia, the most oppressive of all and thereby most highly proving the soul’s quality. Fleeing from such conflicts and trying to shun this teaches the nous to be incompetent, fearful, and fugitive. So Evagrius is not saying flee demonic thinking. He’s saying sit and face and receive demonic thinking. That’s the attitude here.
And then use indignation, we’ll learn more about, to fight it. I think it’s important for us to learn more about what is the nature of this indignation, how does it function?
Our holy teacher, who is greatly experienced in asceticism, said the monk must always be ready as though he were to die tomorrow, but he must as well treat his body as if he were going to live with it for many years. The first approach cuts off the thoughts of acedia and makes the monk more zealous, while the second maintains the body and keeps its control in balance.
And from a little bit of research about Evagrius and the background of Origen and Gnosticism, which I know very little about, this is one of the areas where Evagrius actually starts to get in trouble with the Church, I think, is his defense of the body and the importance of the body and spiritual work.
Dealing with Vainglory
It is difficult to escape the tempting thought, that’s logismos, of vainglory, since whatever you do to subjugate it becomes the occasion for renewed vainglory. Right. When our indignation is successful at fighting off a demon, of course, we get that vanity there. So our proper thoughts are not all opposed by the demons. Some of them are opposed by our own individual vices.
I have observed the demon of vainglory chased away by almost all the other demons, but then when its pursuers failed, it shamelessly came forward, proclaiming to the monk how great the monk’s virtues are. So this is the beginning of Evagrius’s sort of more advanced teachings on the demons. And he’s starting to note that while they all maybe serve the same purpose of having the spirit fall, they oftentimes work against each other.
One who has reached knowledge and harvested the pleasure it brings will no longer be persuaded by the demon of vainglory, setting before him all the pleasures of the world. For what could it hold out to him better than spiritual contemplation? But to the extent that we have not tasted the savor of knowledge, we should eat eagerly, engage in asceticism, demonstrating to God our goal, namely, that we do everything for the sake of knowledge of him.
By the way, asceticism here is translating as practice. This is the praktikos. So these are ascetic instructions for a monk I mentioned before. These are sort of groundwork instructions that are very much for someone in the phase of renunciation.
Remember your former life and your old trespasses, and how, while subject to passions, you transitioned to apatheia by the mercy of Christ. And how you then left the world that had so frequently and in so many ways humiliated you. And reflect on this for me, who kept guard over you in the desert and drove away the demons who gnashed their teeth against you. Thoughts of this sort will instill humility and deny entry the demon of pride.
Chapter 34: On Passions
If we have memories full of passion of certain things, it is because we once welcomed these very things with passion. Whatever things we welcome with passion, these things we will later remember with passion. This is kind of cause and effect, a sort of a simple karmic teaching here. So anyone who is defeated by the demons which activate such things makes light of the things they activate. The immaterial battle is harder than the material battle.
The passions of the soul originate from human beings. Those of the body originate from the body. And while the passions of the body are cut away by self control, those of the soul are cut back by spiritual love. So there’s sort of a two layered cutting here. And he’s being clear that the body is in some ways easier or really in many ways easier than the work of the immaterial battle. And the antidote is different: self control versus spiritual love.
There’s a deep teaching, this idea that these two battles actually have different weapons, as it were. And of course then the weapon of spiritual love is going to have a really different feel than that of self control.
The demons that preside over the passions of the soul, for example, anger, persist obstinately until death. Those that preside over the passions of the body withdraw more quickly. And other demons are like the sun that rises and sets, affecting only one part of the soul. But the noonday demon acedia generally envelops the whole soul and suffocates the nous. For this reason, the solitary life is sweet after we’ve emptied out the passions, then our memories are simple. And the monk’s struggle is thus not to prepare him to fight, but rather to contemplate the struggle itself.
So he’s making a claim here that the demons are never going to give up. That their battle will continue so long as we’re alive. But the nature of the battle changes as we empty out the passions first of the body and then as we move through the later stages of renunciation. We’re not entering a mode of fighting so much as a mode of contemplation. And it’s a gentler, sweeter life.
We must consider whether it is concepts that move passions or passions that move concepts. Some people have held the first opinion, others the second. By means of sensations, passions are naturally aroused. If both charity and self control are present, they will not be aroused. But if absent, they will be aroused.
Indignation requires more remedies than desire. And because of this, charity is called great. Because it bridles indignation and therefore holy Moses in his natural science symbolically names it snake fighter.
Recap of the Framework
So a lot of deep teaching there that we could go into. Just for what it’s worth, like I checked that Bible passage here with Moses. That’s Leviticus 11:22. And at face value it just reads about instructions about what you can and cannot eat. So, you know, this is pretty esoteric teaching here. But let’s just quickly recap here as we finish the Passions, Chapter 39.
On account of the strong stench in demons, the soul is usually inflamed against tempting thoughts when it perceives them approaching, being affected by the passion associated with a demon that is annoying it.
So in a kind of subtle, brief way, he is really laying out quite an energetic framework here where we have these three parts of the soul: the nous, which is the seat of reason, the head, and in some ways the sort of entire soul in Evagrius’s framing. In the chest we have thumos, indignation, natural indignation. In the gut we have natural desire.
And these natural parts of the soul have passions, through memories of having passions that happen in our lifetime and before our lifetime, right? The fall of Adam and Eve, the fall of Satan. These are all events that have wounded the tripartite soul of human beings. And therefore we have certain susceptibility, certain weak spots that demons seek to exploit.
Of these demons we have acedia attacking the nous overall, anger attacking natural thumos (indignation), and lust or fornication attacking desire. And he has very kind of practical advice, right? When indignation is attacked, seek others. When desire is attacked, seek solitude.
He talks about indignation being more in need of remedy than desire. In some way desire conquering the physical passions of the body, that’s sort of the initial work that requires more self control. But by the time we move toward indignation and protecting it from inflammation, that work becomes more subtle.
One of the subtleties he’s naming is demons themselves are so repulsive, they are stinky, nasty that the soul will already, thumos will already become inflamed against them when it perceives them approaching. Therefore this inflammation is already being activated.
And so if we take the approach that we took with the initial round of renunciation of self control of the body, the problem with that I think is that indignation was deployed to control the desire. But indignation’s inflammation can’t be used to control indignation’s inflammation. That only produces more inflammation, more anger.
This is where we need to call in charity, mercy, compassion, love. And the fight changes in nature. It becomes one of contemplation. Contemplation. It becomes sweet. We draw on Christian love, you know, in the Evagrius framework here. We draw on Christ’s love to, as he says here, to bridle indignation and turn indignation back on the demons to become snake fighters.
I don’t know. We’ll read the instructions. But I still think, what is the nature? You know, how does Christ, I guess, would be the question, right, for a Christian perspective here. What do we know about how Christ fights demons? How does he show this holy indignation? I think would be very important for us to study if we’re going to take up spiritual warfare in this framework. Is he angry? Or is he, you know, to use kind of Buddhist language, is he manifesting wrath? Is he wrathful presenting, but his thumos is calm? Not clear yet.
Instructions
It is not possible at all times to carry out the customary rule, but it is necessary to be watchful of the opportune time and thus to perform whatever commandments we can as best we are able. Again, discernment becomes so primary here that Evagrius is saying, as he did at the beginning of the last section, there’s, for every given time there’s a right intervention. There’s no playbook exactly. Even though he’s simultaneously sort of giving us a playbook. This is never rote. There’s never a protocol. This is never automatic. There’s a constant kind of watchfulness here that’s required.
Regarding these opportune times and what concerns them, the demons themselves are not ignorant. Thus in their movements against us, they prevent our accomplishing what is possible and force us to undertake what is not possible. They prevent the sick from giving thanks in their pain and from being patient in receiving their ministrations. And they exhort the weak to fast and those who are weighed down to sing psalms while standing.
So two really important points here. One is that the demons themselves are aware of, the demons are incredibly smart. They see the whole battlefield. Going back to Ignatius’s spiritual exercises, he compares demonic thoughts to a very brilliant general who sees all, you know, who’s on a hill and sees the whole battlefield.
So we actually are not going to outsmart the demons having access to this framework itself doesn’t put us ahead of the demons. Actually, all it sort of does is allow us to see what the demons already see. So the Enneagram in this way is kind of a demonic, I’m very sympathetic to the Christian subset who find the Enneagram demonic. It is in some ways demonology. It is a study of demonic thoughts and these ways that, you know, we move from one to another.
It is, we are not gaining transcendent wisdom that we use to fight the demons. Actually, Evagrius is very clear on this, that the demons already know all this stuff. We’re not going to outsmart them.
So that’s thing one and then thing two is given that they’re already making it hard for us to do the right intervention. They’re already ahead of the curve. So that even if we know what needs to be done, it’s going to be very difficult because the demons are already in their movements preventing us from applying the right remedy to the right sickness.
When we are compelled to spend time in cities or towns, we should especially maintain our self control on occasions when we interact with secular persons, lest our mind become coarse and be robbed of its accustomed diligence because of the present time, and so become a fugitive thrown about by the demons.
Using Anger Against Demons
Do not immediately pray when you are tempted. First speak some words with anger to the one pressuring you. For when your soul is acted upon by tempting thoughts, prayer cannot be pure. But if you speak to them with anger, you will confuse and utterly destroy the ideas that come from your enemies. This is also the natural result of anger in the case of good ideas.
Okay, let’s analyze this a little bit. So this is the first time he’s talking about speaking words with anger. I don’t know, actually, should we quickly Google, what, you know, let’s find out quickly how he’s using anger here. I’ve been using Claude. It’s been very helpful for these kinds of inquiries. So let’s paste that in and say, you know, say, what’s the Greek here? Anger here compared to indignation.
So I’m interested in this because this is really the first time that Evagrius is giving instruction about how to apply anger to demonstration. And indeed it is the same word, orge. So there’s, even though orge is listed as one of the evil thoughts, here he is advocating for speaking with orge to the one pressuring you. I mean, when he’s talking about one pressuring you, he’s talking about demons. So here he’s advocating essentially for using a demonic thought to fight another demonic thought.
Unless he’s just being maybe careless with the word orge. But you would certainly hope he’d be more intentional in the use of that word. Now, I’m not sure if he’s saying feel anger, succumb to anger, but he’s certainly saying the words, speak words of anger. Actually, don’t go to prayer first. Speak with them. Speak to them with anger. Why? Because you will confuse and destroy the ideas that are coming from them.
He says this is also the natural result of anger in the case of good ideas. I don’t quite know what he means by that. Like, natural result of anger in the case of good ideas. Maybe part of what he’s saying is because anger destroys bad ideas, the good ideas come through.
Well, since we’ve got Claude open on that, okay. He says this is actually, he’s saying the opposite, at least according to Claude’s interpretation of the Greek here. Anger naturally confuses and destroys any ideas, even beneficial ones. So again, we’re getting into really discerning territory here. We’re near the end of the treatise, and so any idea will be destroyed by anger. So be careful.
Okay. Continuing: It is necessary to be aware of the differences between demons and to interpret their different occasions. This we shall know from the tempting thoughts and the tempting thoughts from the objects they depict. Thus knowing which demons are less frequent and heavier, which are more frequent and lighter, and which leap suddenly and snatch the nous off to blasphemy. These things it is necessary to know. So that when tempting thoughts begin to move their own particular matter, and before we are driven too far from our proper state, we may speak out to them and indicate which one is present. For thus we shall, with God’s help, readily make progress, amazing them and forcing them to flee from us.
So Evagrius wants us to study this for ourselves. He wants us to say, that’s orge, that’s gluttony, that’s lust, etc. And to drive them off. That’s what he’s advocating for here.
The Intelligence of Demons
When the demons are powerless in their struggle with the monks, they withdraw for a little and carefully note which of the virtues the monks are meanwhile neglecting. And then they suddenly rush in and tear the wretched soul to pieces. The evil demons bring along even more evil demons to assist them. Temperamentally, they’re opposed to each other, but they all agree in seeking solely the destruction of the soul.
And from my coaching work and my training, this is really apparent. We can call it polarization when we get caught in these eddies of competing stakeholders or voices. Vanity and truth telling as an example. Right? Like they are at war with each other. And so even though these demons are in some sense in combat, they actually share an overarching goal, which is to destroy the soul, to tear it to pieces.
We should not be disturbed by the demon that seizes and carries off the nous towards blasphemy against God and towards unspeakable fantasies that I have not even attempted to record in writing. Nor should such things hinder our eagerness. The Lord is knower of the heart, and he knows that even when we were in the world, we were not guilty of such insanity. The goal of this demon is to hinder our prayer so that we do not stand before the Lord, our God, or dare to raise our hands on account of having these kinds of ideas.
There’s a very gentle piece of instruction here. He’s basically saying, no matter how awful the thought or the fantasy is, don’t beat yourself up over it. Actually, that’s the point of it. The demon is trying to make you feel so lousy that you abandon your prayers altogether.
The sign of the passions within the soul is some word which we utter or some movement of the body. Through these, the enemies perceive whether we have their tempting thoughts within us and are in labor of childbirth with them, or whether we have cast them away and are concerned with their salvation. For it is only the God who made us, who knows our nous and does not require signs to know what is hidden in our thought.
That’s very interesting. Another subtle point here. But the information that demons get is solely through the body. Now, the mind body. Right. I mean, I think the intellect here is part of the body. And the enemies are able to watch us labor. That’s such a gestalt metaphor. We are impregnated by these thoughts. And there’s some sort of gestation cycle. And they’re monitoring that very closely to try to induce birth of these tempting thoughts. And therefore, make us fall even further. But God is the only one who knows our nous. That’s sort of our soul. And so doesn’t require signs to know what is hidden in our heart.
Different Battles for Different Lives
While the demons prefer to fight persons who live in the world by means of external matters, they attack monks primarily through tempting thoughts. For they are separated from things because of the desert.
And someone commented on the previous barcast I did, pointing out how interesting it was that the way that Evagrius conceives of, for instance, gluttony is like fear of deprivation, or avarice as fear of destitution. So rather than these positive greedy qualities, they were actually a response to sort of not having, an aversion to not having. And here Evagrius, I think is clarifying that, you know, that’s sort of the deeper level that monks experience this. For people in the world, demons will employ external, external wanting. But for the monks it’s an internal battle and a battle with the thoughts themselves.
Since it is easier to sin mentally than by action, the mental war is more difficult than that which arises because of external matters. The nous is something that is easily moved and hard to restrain when confronted with all his fantasies. Such a simple way of putting it. But like the body isn’t that easy to move compared to the nous, that can move a mile a minute.
The Primacy of Prayer
We are not commanded to work the whole time or to keep vigil the whole time or to fast the whole time. But there is a law that we should pray ceaselessly. The first three which heal the part of the soul in which the passions are, need the body for their practice. And it is congenitally too weak for such labors. But prayer makes the mind strong and pure for the struggle, since the mind is naturally made for prayer and it is natural to it to fight demons even without the body, on behalf of all the powers, excuse me, of the soul.
Practice Instructions
If any monk wishes to experience of the savage demons and to become acquainted with their art, he should observe his tempting thoughts and note down. So here’s really clear practice instructions. And so with Lent coming up, you might want to spend your 40 days in the desert doing this. I’m not sure if I’m going to, but I’m thinking about it. So if you want to put on your monk’s habit and engage in a kind of warfare with the demons, this is how he thinks you should do it. It’s through observation.
Observe and note down their intensification and diminution and their interconnectedness and their timing and which demons produce what, and which demon comes after another and which does not follow after which. And he should seek from Christ the inner meanings of these things. They dislike, that’s the demons dislike those who approach the ascetic life with greater knowledge, for they wish to shoot in darkness at the upright of heart.
So this is observation. This is a very painful, difficult part of spiritual practice that is also an indispensable part. And in this framing it’s observation of the demons themselves. And in particular it’s so dynamic. It’s so much like the Enneagram here. Noticing which comes after the other, etc.
Buddhism in my training doesn’t have anything quite like this. I think the closest would be the six realms. And then kind of extending the six realms into the psychological domain being described here. Maybe using the five elements too. But for me there’s something very kind of useful about the Enneagram or about these thoughts that come in, particular around their relationships. How one one seems to reliably follow the other.
And you know, I mean, I think any amount of observation here will, to some extent, at least from my experience, you can’t help but see a kind of intelligence behind this attack. You know, it’s not one after another in a neutral way. There seems to be a demonic intelligence, if you want to call it that, behind this.
And I love this very brief passage. He should seek from Christ the inner meanings of these things. And I think that’s maybe for the first time that’s where I see in Evagrius, some wiggle room about, do we really need Satan in this undertaking? I mean we certainly, we’re certainly invited to. But what are the inner meanings of these things? That’s just such a great question, you know, what is underneath this gluttony that I think that invites a kind of curiosity that doesn’t have to conclude in there’s an external force that wants my soul to be destroyed. I do think that, you know, I do think that there might be other possibilities there.
Final Chapters
Okay, we’re wrapping up the instructions, last couple chapters. Through observation you will discover that two of the demons are the sharpest, so quick that they almost overtake the movement of your mind: the demon of fornication and the one which drags us off to blaspheme God. But the second does not last for long, while the first, provided it does not stir our thoughts with passion, will not impede our knowledge of God.
This is interesting. I don’t think I read this carefully the first time. Let me finish the next two sections, chapters.
To separate body from soul belongs solely to the one who united them. But to separate soul from body belongs also to one who longs for virtue. Withdrawal into solitude has been called by our fathers meditation on death and flight from the body.
Those who wickedly cherish the flesh and take thought for it to satisfy desires should blame themselves, not the flesh, for they know the grace of the Creator. Those who obtained apatheia, dispassion, of the soul by means of the body, and to some extent zealously strive for the contemplation of beings.
He mentioned zeal frequently and zeal is sometimes one of the words used as a passion in the one which is anger, orge, indignation. What I’m really struck by and what speaks so much to my spiritual practice is this deep ambiguity about what to do with ire, wrath, indignation, to what extent it is our natural gift and it’s just a matter of pointing it in the right directions, versus to what extent it itself is an obstacle that the best course is simply to kind of cool it, through mercy, compassion, love, etc.
So I just want to return as we close to this chapter 51. Two demons are the sharpest so quick that they almost overtake the movement of your mind: the demon of fornication, the eight, the lust, and the one which drags us off to blaspheme God. I’m going to just quickly go, I say Google, I mean, check with Claude about this second one. I think you would be talking about pride here.
Let’s see. You know, he’s calling it blasphemy. I’m just going to push a little bit because we have blasphemy hasn’t come up. Yeah, so Claude doesn’t know, which is fine. I do think it’s pride, because, I mean, when we talk about blaspheming God, isn’t that pride? I mean, isn’t that Satan, Satan’s thing?
Yeah. So, I mean, I guess all we can say for sure here is Evagrius is saying, go observe it for yourself. And in part, maybe, you know, part of what we could say here is that he’s, you know, he’s really encouraging us to see for ourselves how these demons operate. And, you know, this is some of the more poetic language he’s used, the one that drags us off to blaspheme God. So maybe, you know, maybe in his spiritual work he had a real relationship with the demon that would come and attack him again and again. I haven’t read other treatises yet and I’m interested to do so.
Maybe through observation, these demons start to take on much more personality. You know, we develop more of a relationship with them. Whereas I think what he’s given us as a starting place is the eight tempting thoughts. None of which is blasphemy, but if we’re thinking about the Enneagram in our head, the nine acedia, forgetting, sleepiness. The eight to the left, lust or fornication. The one to the right, ire, wrath, anger. And then down there, right after that is pride. And so, you know, we could think of the fall of Satan as one of initially forgetting, followed by indignation, potentially toward God, anger toward God, moving into pride.
Again, take of that what is useful. Really, the only thing that matters with this mapping is to somehow plant it in a way that is meaningful for us. So that, yeah, we have a kind of experiential map and a little bit more fluency and agility as we’re navigating this sort of thick, thick experiential air in our renunciation work.
So we’ll end there. The next chapter, I will review one more time to see if they’re worth recording another Barrcast on. But they’re concerning things that happen during sleep. And then some comments on apatheia, which is dispassion, which is sort of the goal of renunciative work.
So thanks for listening. See you next time.
