A word on the sensory and spiritual vision of spirits

Starting to explain, to the best of my limited understanding, the profound vision of created spirits inherent in man, I find it necessary to expound the doctrine of the profound blindness of man, acquired by him through his fall. Most people are alien to any concept of this blindness; doesn't even suspect its existence! Most people are alien to any concept of spirits, or have only a theoretical, the most superficial, most unclear and indefinite concept about them, almost equivalent to complete ignorance. In modern human society, mainly in educated society, many doubt the existence of spirits, many reject it. Even those who recognize the existence of their soul 1, recognize its immortality or its existence after death, recognize it as a spirit, doubt it and reject it. A strange combination of mutually contradictory concepts! If souls exist after their separation from bodies, then this already means that spirits exist. If the souls of villains do not die along with the souls of virtuous people, this already means that there are both good and evil spirits. They exist! Their existence becomes quite clear and obvious to those who have engaged in a correct and detailed study of Christianity. Those who reject the existence of spirits certainly reject Christianity at the same time. “For this reason the Son of God has appeared,” says the Holy Scripture, “so that he may destroy the works of the devil, and by death abolish him who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14). If there are no fallen spirits, then the incarnation of God has neither reason nor purpose. The existence of spirits remains a dark subject for those who have not studied Christianity or have studied it superficially, to the letter, while the Lord Jesus Christ commanded and established the teaching of Christianity and its preaching and observance of the Gospel commandments (Matthew 28:19, 20). The Lord commanded the study of Christianity, both theoretical and practical, connected these two studies with an inextricable connection, and commanded that theoretical knowledge should certainly be followed by practical knowledge. Without the second, the first has no value before God! Without the second, the first cannot bring us any benefit! (Matthew 7:21–23). The second serves as proof of the sincerity of the first, and is crowned with the overshadowing of Divine grace (John 14:21–24). The first can be likened to a foundation, the second to a building erected on this foundation. A building cannot be erected unless the foundation is first laid, and laying the foundation remains a futile labor unless a building is erected on the foundation. The results of human sciences and the method for achieving these results remain inaccessible to the concept of people who have not studied science: the results and the method of achieving them in the science of the sciences, in the science that came down from heaven, given to humanity by God, in the science that completely changes man, transforming him from the carnal and spiritual into the spiritual, in Christianity, all the more remain inaccessible to those who did not study it legally, according to the method established by God. It is unreasonable for some to demand that the results of the study of Christianity, its lofty and deep mysteries be completely clear to them without any study of Christianity! Do you want to know the secrets of Christianity? - Study it. School teaching, literally, is not only very useful, but also necessary, as it provides accurate and detailed knowledge about Christianity according to the tradition of the Orthodox Church. For eighteen centuries, efforts have been made against Christianity with the aim of overthrowing it, especially now countless false teachings are being directed; now, more than ever, there is an urgent need for a thorough preaching and study of Christianity. But theoretical study requires that it must be accompanied and followed by active teaching. “The law of freedom is honored by doing the commandments” 2. A Christian scribe must learn the Kingdom of Heaven not only from hearing sermons about it, but also through experience (Matthew 13:52). Without this, the teaching in its letter will become exclusively human teaching and will serve only for the development of fallen nature. We see sad proof of this in the Jewish clergy, contemporary with Christ. Teaching according to the letter, when left to its own devices, immediately gives rise to conceit and pride, and through them alienates a person from God. While appearing outwardly to be knowledge of God, in essence it can be complete ignorance, a rejection of Him. While preaching faith, you can drown in unbelief! Mysteries that are open to unlearned Christians very often remain closed to the most learned men, who are satisfied with the mere school study of Theology, as if it were one of the only human sciences 3 . And this is precisely the character given to Theology throughout the heterodox West, both papal and Protestant. Due to the lack of experimental knowledge of Christianity, in our time it is very difficult to hear the correct, thorough teaching about the vision of spirits, so necessary for every monk who wants to engage in spiritual feats in the field of spirits, to which we belong with our soul, with whom we must share both eternal bliss and eternal torment (Matthew 22:30; 25:41). The vision of spirits is purely. There is a sensual vision of spirits, when we see them with our sensual, bodily eyes, and there is a spiritual vision of spirits, when we see them with our spiritual eyes, mind and heart, purified by God’s grace. In the ordinary state of fall, in which all humanity finds itself, we do not see spirits either sensually or spiritually; we are stricken with extreme blindness. For the blind, different colors and objects of the sensory world do not seem to exist: and for those blinded by the fall, the spiritual world and spirits seem to not exist. Our failure to see something does not in any way serve as a sign of its non-existence. Alas! Alas! I interrupt the Word by crying. “The land of Israel was brought down by the sword, it became desolate! The tongue, gathered from the tongues of many, has become weak and faint to the extreme” (Ezek. 38:8, 12). “How can we not cry,” said St. Isaac the Great, an Egyptian desert dweller, “where will we go now? Our fathers have died. Previously, we did not have enough handicrafts to rent the boats in which we traveled (along the Nile River) to the elders. Now we are orphans: that’s why I’m crying.”4 “Lord, save me, for the venerable one has become impoverished, for the truth has fallen away from the sons of men. A vain verb every one to his sincere: a flattering mouth in the heart" (Psalm 11:1-3). If Isaac the Great, in his contemporary high state of monasticism, mourned the debasement of the elders and mentors, then what kind of work does it take for a monk of our time, who truly wants to be saved, to find the advice that is so necessary in his arduous feat? “Evil men and sorcerers” (that is, all deceivers in general who have entered into explicit and implicit communication with Satan) “will prosper in evil, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13), the Apostle predicts, speaking about the last days of the world. This prediction is being made before us. I often used to say to the unanimous brethren during private conversations that I now consider myself obliged to put pen to paper. It would not be for me, who is in slavery to sin, to instruct the brethren! In deep silence and solitude I should mourn my sad state of mind. But I am forced to speak and write for edification, so as not to leave my neighbors and those who love me in the Lord without any edification. “It is better,” said Pimen the Great, “to eat unclean bread and have food than to remain without bread at all” 5 . With this view of myself and the surrounding circumstances, I am writing a Word on the vision of spirits, recognizing correct knowledge of the vision of spirits as essential and necessary for ascetics, who will have to fight not “against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, and against the powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). This knowledge is necessary. The spirits of evil wage war against a person with such cunning that the thoughts and dreams they bring to the soul appear to be born within itself, and not from an evil spirit alien to it, acting and at the same time trying to hide 6 . To fight the enemy, you must definitely see him. Without a vision of spirits, the struggle with them does not take place: there can only be fascination with them and slavish obedience to them. Calling on Divine grace to help my feeble-mindedness, I will first talk about the sensual vision of spirits, about its unnecessaryness and danger, then about the spiritual vision of spirits, about its necessity and benefit. 1. About the sensual vision of spirits Before the fall of man, his body was immortal, alien to ailments, alien to his real plumpness and heaviness, alien to sinful and carnal sensations, now natural to him 7 . His feelings were incomparably subtler, their action was incomparably more extensive, completely free. Clothed in such a body, with such sense organs, man was capable of a sensual vision of spirits, to the category of which he belonged with his soul, was capable of communicating with them, of that vision of God and communication with God, which are akin to holy spirits (Gen. 2-3). The holy body of man did not serve as an obstacle to this, did not separate man from the world of spirits. Man, clothed in a body, was capable of living in paradise, in which only the Saints are now able to abide with their souls alone, into which the bodies of the Saints will ascend after the resurrection. Then these bodies will leave in their graves the plumpness that they acquired after the fall; then they will become spiritual, even spirits, in the words of St. Macarius the Great 8, will reveal in themselves those properties that were given to them at creation. Then people will again enter into the ranks of holy spirits and into open communication with them. We see an example of a body that was both body and spirit in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection. Both the soul and body of man were changed by the fall. In the proper sense, the fall was also death for them. The death we see and call, in essence, is only the separation of the soul from the body, which had already been killed by the departure of true life, God, from them. We are born already killed by eternal death! We do not feel that we are killed; due to the general property of the dead, they do not feel that they are killed! The ailments of our body, its subjection to the hostile influence of various substances from the material world, its fatness are the consequences of the fall. Due to the fall, our body entered into the same category with the bodies of animals; it exists through the life of animals, the life of its fallen nature. It serves as a prison and a coffin for the soul. The expressions we use are powerful! But they still do not sufficiently express the descent of our body from the heights of a spiritual state into a carnal state. We need to cleanse ourselves through thorough repentance, we need to feel at least to some extent the freedom and height of the spiritual state in order to acquire an understanding of the disastrous state of our body, the state of its deadness caused by alienation from God. In this state of deadness, due to extreme fatness and coarseness, the bodily senses are incapable of communicating with spirits, do not see them, do not hear them, do not feel them. Thus, a blunted ax is no longer capable of being used for its intended purpose. The holy spirits have shied away from communicating with people as unworthy of such communication, the fallen spirits, who carried us into their fall, mixed with us, and, in order to more conveniently keep us in captivity, they try to make themselves and their chains invisible to us. If they open themselves, they open them in order to strengthen their dominion over us. All of us, who are in slavery to sin, need to know that communication with the holy Angels is unusual for us because of our alienation from them by fall, that it is characteristic of us, for the same reason, to communicate with rejected spirits, to the category of which we belong in soul - that the spirits that sensually appear to people who are in sinfulness and fall are demons, and not holy Angels. “A defiled soul,” said Saint Isaac of Syria, “does not enter the pure kingdom and is not united with the spirits of saints” 9. Holy Angels appear only to holy people who have restored communion with God and with them through holy life. Although demons, when appearing to people, most often take on the appearance of bright Angels for the most convenient deception, although they sometimes try to convince them that they are human souls and not demons, 10 although they sometimes predict the future, although they reveal secrets, one should not trust them in any way. For them, truth is mixed with lies, truth is used at times only for the most convenient deception. “Satan is transformed into an angel of light, and his servants are transformed as ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:14, 15), said the holy Apostle Paul. Saint John Chrysostom, in conversation 2 about the beggar Lazarus and the rich man, narrates what happened in his time: “The demons say: I am the soul of such and such a monk. Of course, I don’t believe this precisely because demons say it. They deceive those who listen to them. For this reason, Paul commanded the demon to remain silent, although he spoke the truth, so that he would not turn this truth into an excuse, would not subsequently mix lies into it, and would not attract trust to himself. The devil said: “These men are the servants of the highest God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17). The Apostle, upset by this, commanded the inquisitive spirit to come out of the girl. And what did the evil spirit say when it said: “These men are the servants of the Most High God”? But since the majority of those who do not know cannot thoroughly judge what is said by demons, the Apostle decisively rejected any trust in them. “You are one of the outcasts,” the Apostle says to the demon, “you do not have the right to speak freely; be silent, be numb. It is not your business to preach: that is left to the Apostles. Why are you stealing something that is not yours? Be silent, outcast." So Christ, when the demons said to Him: “We know You who You are” (Mark 1:24; Luke 5:34), very strictly forbade them, thereby prescribing a law for us, so that we should not trust the demon under any pretext, even if he said what was fair. Knowing this, we must absolutely not believe the demon in anything. If he says something that is fair, we will run and turn away from him. We must learn sound and saving knowledge not from demons, but from Divine Scripture.” Further in this conversation, Chrysostom says that the souls of both the righteous and sinners immediately after death are taken from this world to another, some to receive crowns, others to be executed. The soul of the beggar Lazarus, immediately after death, was lifted up by the Angels into the bosom of Abraham, and the soul of the rich man was cast into hellish fire. In conversation 28 on Matthew, Chrysostom will tell you that in his time some people who were raging said: “I am the soul of such and such.” “In truth, this is a lie and deception of the devil,” adds the great Saint. “It is not the soul of the deceased who cries out this, but a demon who is pretending to deceive the listeners.” Demons do not know the future, known to the One God and to His rational creatures to whom God is pleased to reveal the future; but just as smart and experienced people foresee and predict events that are about to happen from events that have happened or are happening, so cunning, experienced crafty spirits can sometimes predict with certainty and predict the future 11 . They are often wrong; very often they lie and with unclear messages lead to bewilderment and doubt. Sometimes they can foretell an event that is already intended in the world of spirits, but has not yet been fulfilled among people: thus, before the temptations befell the righteous Job, the allowance of these temptations had already been decided in the council of God and was known to the fallen spirits (Job 1); Thus it was decided at the judgment of God, known to the holy heavenly powers and the rejected angels, and handed over to the execution of the evil spirit in the battle of the king of Israel Ahab, before the king entered the campaign (1 Kings. 22:19–23); This is how the devil predicted the temptation to Saint John, Archbishop of Novgorod, which he subsequently brought upon him 12. There were cases when holy angels appeared to sinners, but this happened according to the special vision of God and extremely rarely: so to the false prophet and sorcerer, i.e. a holy angel appeared to a person who was in special close communication with demons (Num. 22). Exceptional cases, according to the special vision of God, should not have any influence on the general rule for everyone 13. The general rule for all people is not to trust spirits in any way when they appear in a sensual way, not to enter into conversation with them, not to pay any attention to them, to recognize their appearance as the greatest and most dangerous temptation. During this temptation, we must direct our thoughts and hearts to God with a prayer for mercy and deliverance from temptation. The desire to see spirits, curiosity to learn something about them and from them is a sign of the greatest recklessness and complete ignorance of the moral and active traditions of the Orthodox Church. The knowledge of spirits is acquired in a completely different way than what an inexperienced and careless examiner assumes. Open communication with spirits for the inexperienced is the greatest disaster, or serves as a source of the greatest disasters. The divinely inspired writer of the Book of Genesis says that after the fall of the first people, God, having pronounced judgment on them, even before their expulsion from paradise, “made them garments of skins and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). Leather vestments, according to the explanation of the Holy Fathers 14, mean our coarse flesh, which changed during the fall: it lost its subtlety and spirituality, and gained its true plumpness. Although the initial cause of the change was the fall, the change took place under the influence of the Almighty Creator, through His ineffable mercy towards us, to our greatest good. Among other beneficial consequences for us that flow from the state in which our body now finds itself, we must point out that by allowing our bodies to become fat, we have become incapable of sensually seeing the spirits into whose region we have fallen. Let's explain this. We have acquired, as it were, a natural attraction to evil. This attraction is natural to fallen nature: this attraction is similar to the attraction of demons towards evil: “a man has been intent on evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). But good and evil are mixed in us: we are sometimes attracted to evil, then, leaving this desire, we are directed towards good. Demons, on the contrary, are always and completely directed towards evil. If we were in sensual communication with demons, then in the shortest possible time they would completely corrupt people, constantly instilling evil, clearly and constantly promoting evil, infecting with examples of their constantly criminal and hostile activities to God. It would be all the more convenient for them to do this, since fallen man is naturally drawn to evil, that fallen man is subordinate to demons, submitting to them arbitrarily. In the shortest possible time, people, having succeeded in evil, would have become demons: repentance and rise from the fall would have been impossible for us. The wisdom and goodness of God placed a barrier between people cast down to earth from paradise and spirits cast down to earth from heaven - the gross materiality of the human body. Thus, earthly governments separate evildoers from human society with a prison wall, so that they do not arbitrarily harm this society and corrupt other people 15. Fallen spirits act on people, bringing them sinful thoughts and sensations; Very few people achieve a sensual vision of spirits. In the multiplication of humanity in its present state of fall, the body renders a service to the soul very similar to that service which the swaddling clothes perform for the newborn body. The baby's body, wrapped in swaddling clothes, receives correctness; without the swaddling clothes, its members, due to their softness, could take on ugly forms: so the soul, clothed in a body, closed and separated by it from the world of spirits, gradually forms itself by studying the law of God, or, what is the same, by studying Christianity, and acquires the ability to distinguish good from evil (Heb. 5:14). Then she is granted a spiritual vision of the spirits and, if it turns out to be consistent with the goals of the God guiding her, a sensual one, since deception and seduction are much less dangerous for her, and experience and knowledge are useful. When the soul is separated from the body by visible death, we again enter into the ranks and society of spirits. From this it is clear that for a successful entry into the world of spirits it is necessary to educate ourselves in good time by the law of God, and that it is for this education that we are given some time, determined by God for each person to wander the earth. This wandering is called earthly life. People become capable of seeing spirits through some change in their senses, which occurs in an inconspicuous and inexplicable way for humans. He only notices in himself that he suddenly began to see what he had not seen before and what others do not see, to hear what he had not heard before. For those who have experienced such a change in feelings, it is very simple and natural, although inexplicable for themselves and for others; for those who have not experienced it, it is strange and incomprehensible. So everyone knows that people are capable of falling into sleep; but what kind of phenomenon is sleep, how, imperceptibly for ourselves, we move from a state of vigor to a state of soporific and self-forgetfulness - this remains a mystery to us. A change in feelings, in which a person enters into sensory communication with beings of the invisible world, is called in the Holy Scriptures an opening of the senses. “God opened,” says Scripture, “the eyes of Balaam, and the sight of the Angel of God stood in the way, and the sword was drawn in his hand” (Num. 22:31). Surrounded by enemies, the prophet Elisha, in order to calm his frightened servant, “prayed and said: Lord, open now the eyes of the child, that he may see. And the Lord opened his eyes, and saw: and behold, a mountain full of horses, and a chariot of fire round about Elissea: and He descended upon him: And Elisha prayed to the Lord and said: Smite this tongue with blindness. And strike them with blindness according to the word of Elisse... and take them to Samaria. And when she came down into Samaria, Elisha said, “Open their eyes, O Lord, and let them see.” And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw” (2 Kings 6:17–20). When the two disciples walked with the Lord along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, “they kept their eyes on it,” the Evangelist narrates, “so that He,” the Lord, “did not know.” When they came to spend the night, then, at the breaking of bread, “the eyes were opened dumb, and they knew Him” (Luke 24:16, 31). From the above passages of Holy Scripture it is clear that the bodily senses serve as doors and gates into the inner cell where the soul resides, and that these gates open and close at the behest of God. Wisely and mercifully, these gates remain constantly enclosed in fallen people, so that our sworn enemies, fallen spirits, do not invade us and destroy us. This measure is all the more necessary because, after our fall, we are in the region of fallen spirits, surrounded by them, enslaved by them. Not having the opportunity to break into us, they let us know about themselves from the outside, bringing various sinful thoughts and dreams, with them attracting a gullible soul into communication with them. It is not permissible for a person to remove the gaze of God, and by his own means, by God’s permission, and not by the will of God, to open his feelings and enter into obvious communication with spirits. But this also happens. It is obvious that by one’s own means one can achieve communication only with fallen spirits. It is unusual for the Holy Angels to take part in a matter that does not agree with the will of God, in a matter displeasing to God. What attracts people to enter into open communication with spirits? Those who are frivolous and ignorant of active Christianity are carried away by curiosity, ignorance, and unbelief, not realizing that by entering into such communication they can cause themselves the greatest harm; people who have given themselves over to sinfulness and have departed from God enter into this fellowship for the most vicious motives and for the most vicious purposes. What happens to us according to God’s providence is always filled with the greatest wisdom and goodness, it is done out of essential necessity for our essential benefit, and not at all to satisfy our curiosity or any other petty, unworthy of God, impulse of ours. For this reason, the usual order and course are very rarely violated; It is very rare that a person is introduced into the sensory vision of spirits. It is pleasing to God that His servant should constantly remain in the greatest reverence before Him, in unconditional submission to Him, in unconditional devotion to His most holy will. Any violation of this relationship is unfavorable to God, and places the seal of God’s wrath on us 16 . Those who frivolously attempt to violate the order established by God and willfully invade what God has hidden from us are recognized as tempters of God and are expelled from His presence into pitch darkness, in which the Light of God does not shine. Let us give a few examples that will explain to us with what saving precautions for us, for the purpose of our greatest spiritual benefit, God allows us the sensory vision of spirits. In Africa 17 there was a tax collector named Peter, a most hard-hearted man, who gave alms to a beggar once throughout his entire life, and that not out of a move of compassion, but out of a passion for anger. When Peter was carrying a large amount of loaves, the beggar began to relentlessly ask him for alms; Peter, angry and unable to hit the beggar with anything else, threw bread at him. Two days after this incident, Peter fell ill; the disease has intensified; the patient was very exhausted and seemed to be approaching death. In this situation, his eyes were opened: he saw scales in front of him; On one side of them stood dark demons, on the other - bright Angels. The demons, having collected all the evil deeds committed by Peter during his life, put them on the scales. The light-bearers, not finding any good deeds to contrast with the evil deeds of Peter, stood in despondency and said to each other in bewilderment: “We have nothing here.” Then one of them said: “Exactly, we have nothing here except one bread, which Peter gave to Christ two days ago, and that was against his will.” They put the bread in another pan of the scale, and it immediately began to pull the first one. Then the light-shaped men said to the publican: “Go, poor Peter, add some bread to this, so that the dark-shaped murins do not kidnap you and throw you into eternal torment.” Peter recovered, became unusually merciful to the poor brethren, exhausted all his very significant property on them, gave freedom to the slaves, and, having moved to Jerusalem, sold himself as a slave to one of the pious inhabitants of the Holy City, so that through humility he would become even closer to God, to whom he had already become accustomed through alms. Peter was granted great spiritual gifts 18. In the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery there was a monk Arefa; he had significant wealth, and kept treasure in his cell, being extremely stingy not only to the poor, but also to himself. Thieves robbed him at night. Arefa fell into depression and almost killed himself; began to search for stolen property and expose many innocent people to trouble. The brothers begged him to stop such searches and cast his sorrow on the Lord (Ps. 54:23); but he did not want to hear admonitions, he answered them harshly and rudely. A few days later, Arefa fell into a serious illness and approached death. The brothers gathered to him; he lay as if dead, saying nothing; then suddenly, out loud to everyone, he began to cry out in a loud voice: “Lord have mercy! Lord forgive me! Lord I have sinned! The property is yours! I don’t regret it!” He immediately recovered, and thus told the brethren about the reason for his exclamations: “I saw,” he said, “that angels and a regiment of demons came to me. They began to argue about me about my stolen wealth. The demons said: “On this occasion he did not give praise to God, but grumbled, and therefore he is ours, and must be betrayed to us.” The angels told me: “Wretched man! If you, when your property was stolen, had brought thanks to God, then the theft of your property would have been imputed to you as alms, like Job. When someone gives alms, it is great before God, because the giver does so out of his good will; to the one who endures the violent abduction with thanksgiving, the temptation inflicted by the devil is imputed to a good will. The devil, although he plunges a person into blasphemy, arranges for the theft of his property; but a person who thanks God, committing everything to God, acts in the same way as a merciful giver.” When the Angels told me this, I exclaimed: “Lord, forgive me! Lord, I have sinned! The property belongs to You; I don’t regret it!” Then the demons disappeared, and the holy Angels rejoiced and, having charged me with the stolen money as alms, left.” After this vision, Arefa changed both in his way of thinking and in his character, he led the most virtuous, ascetic life, growing rich in God; he was honored with a blessed death, and he testified his bliss by the incorruption of his relics: they rest in the caves with the relics of the other reverend Fathers, among whom Arefa was rightly numbered by the Holy Church 19 . In the same Kiev-Pechersk Lavra lived the blind elder Theophilus, who was constantly immersed in repentance and, due to incessant tenderness, incessantly shed abundant tears, which is recognized as a sure sign of a holy soul that moved into eternity with its thoughts even during its stay on earth 20 . Theophilus wept over the vessel and collected a significant amount of tears into it. This was a consequence of a subtle conceit that he did not understand, so harmful to the soul for an ascetic who should not give any value to his exploits, completely leaving their assessment to God (Phil. 3:12–14). Three days before his death, Theophilus received his sight, as was predicted to him by his mentor, the Monk Mark. Realizing that the time had come to move into eternity, Theophilus redoubled his crying and, referring to the tears he had accumulated in the vessel, begged God to accept his tears. Suddenly an angel appeared before him with a fragrant vessel and said to him: “Theophilus! It's good that you prayed and cried; but in vain do you boast of the tears you have collected in a vessel. Here is a vessel, much larger than that, filled with your own tears, which you poured out during fervent prayer and wiped away either with your hand or with a handkerchief, or left to fall on the ground and your clothes. I gathered them at the command of my Lord and Creator, and now I am sent to tell you the joy of exile to the One who said: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4) 21. From the events presented here, the general nature of the appearance of spirits, arranged by the providence of God, is clearly visible. According to God, spirits appear only in times of extreme need, for the purpose of saving and correcting people; are in such a way that their occurrence cannot have harmful consequences. Peter and Arefa were pulled out of the abyss of sin by fear from the competition they saw between angels and demons, and Theophilus, whose lack lay not in his lifestyle, but in his way of thinking, was instructed in humility and together informed of the bliss awaiting him. He could not be exalted by the appearance of an Angel and the promise of bliss, because at the same time his deficiency was revealed to him and salvation was announced before his death, as a gift bestowed solely by the grace of God. Only the most perfect Christians, mainly monks, who were worthy to see with the eyes of their souls, had the world of spirits opened to them; but there were very few such Christians even in the most flourishing times of monasticism, according to the testimony of St. Macarius the Great 22. The property of all visions sent by God, notes St. John Climacus, is that they bring humility and tenderness to the soul, filling it with the fear of God, consciousness of its sinfulness and insignificance. On the contrary, the visions into which we arbitrarily invade, in opposition to the will of God, lead us into arrogance, into conceit, and bring joy, which is nothing more than the satisfaction of our vanity and conceit that we do not understand 23 . Demons, most often appearing in the form of Angels, try to flatter a person with praise, to amuse his curiosity and vanity; then they conveniently plunge him into self-delusion and cause him severe, more or less obvious mental harm. The idea that there is anything especially important in the sensory vision of spirits is erroneous. Sensual vision, without the spiritual, does not provide the proper concept of spirits, it provides only a superficial concept of them, and can very conveniently provide the most erroneous concepts, and these are the ones that most deliver to the inexperienced and infected with vanity and conceit. Only true Christians achieve a spiritual vision of spirits, while people of the most vicious lives are most capable of a sensual vision. Who sees spirits and is in sensual communication with them? The Magi who renounced God and recognized Satan as God 24 (Acts 13:10). When reading the Chetya-Menya, you can get a sufficient understanding of the Magi: people who gave themselves up to passions and, to satisfy them, resorted to the Magi, through them entering into clear communication with fallen spirits, which is done under the indispensable condition of renouncing Christ 25; people exhausted by drunkenness and depraved life; ascetics who have fallen into conceit and pride; very few are naturally capable of it; Very few people are visited by spirits on occasion of some special circumstance in life. In the last two cases, a person is not subject to censure, but must make every effort to get out of this situation as very dangerous. Nowadays, many allow themselves to enter into communication with fallen spirits through magnetism, and fallen spirits usually appear in the form of bright angels, seduce and deceive with various interesting tales, mixing truth with lies, and always cause extreme mental and even mental disorder. The use of magnetism is a branch of sorcery. With him there is no obvious renunciation of God, but undoubtedly there is a hidden renunciation, since at the present time in general the devil very much covers his nets, being more concerned about destroying the essential than the external. Leaving without any attention to the decrees of God, without carefully checking whether what is being undertaken is pleasing to God, whether it is in accordance with the will of God, the frivolous explorer of the mysterious blindly entrusts himself to the action of magnetism, without any precaution enters into communication with spirits, believes in them and entrusts himself, acts under their guidance and according to their instructions. What is this if not a retreat from God? It happened that, according to the special vision of God, holy spirits appeared to people of vicious lives and even to idolaters. The appearance of the holy Angels to them did not bring any benefit to these people; Yes, it was not arranged for their personalities, and therefore did not serve as a sign of their dignity. The Holy Scripture narrates that at the time when the Patriarch Jacob secretly left Mesopotamia from his father-in-law Laban, an idolater, and Laban set off in pursuit of his son-in-law, “God came” (here we must understand the Angel of God: the messenger is named after the Sender) to “Lavan the Syrian in a dream, and said to him: Be careful that you do not say what you say.” Jacob has evil” (Gen. 31:24). God appeared to the idolater Laban not for Laban, but in order to bring salvation to Jacob. The idolater remained an idolater, despite the fact that he saw God face to face and talked with Him. Sense vision was of no use because it was not preceded by knowledge. Having seen the true God, the idolater does not cease to recognize his idols as gods; he says about them: “What have you stolen, my gods?” (Gen. 31:30). The idolater, false prophet and sorcerer Balaam clearly saw the holy Angel on the way and talked with him; at the inspiration of this Angel, he pronounced a true prophecy, a divinely inspired prophecy about the people of Israel, but this did not bring him any benefit: he continued in his wickedness, dared to act hostile to the determination of God and was executed with the enemies of God (Num. 22:23, 24, 31). Saul, the king of Israel, who clearly did not apostatize from God, but often violated the commandments of God, which was imputed to him as apostasy (1 Sam. 15:22, 23), completed his iniquities by communicating with a sorceress. He knew that magic was a grave sin, for he put to death all the magicians in the land of Israel; but, carried away by his behavior, he decided to take an action that was clearly repugnant to God. Wanting to know what the outcome of the battle in which he intended to enter with the Philistines would be, Saul asked the sorceress to call the soul of the deceased prophet Samuel from hell to confer with him. The sorceress performed this. Appearing in response to her call from the underground dungeons, the prophet predicted the king's defeat and death in battle. Saul, instead of plunging into repentance, fell into despair; The appearance of the prophet and foreknowledge of the future, instead of benefit, brought him the greatest harm (1 Sam. 28) 26. The army of pagan Syrians, which entered the land of Israel, suddenly saw a regiment of holy angels and fled (2 Kings 7:6). Holy Angels and deceased righteous people often stopped barbarians and robbers from attacking the homes of the saints of God with similar phenomena. Let those who have seen sensually spirits, even holy angels, not imagine anything about themselves: this vision alone, in itself, does not at all serve as evidence of the dignity of those who have seen: not only vicious people, but also the most dumb animals are capable of it (Numbers 22:23). The Holy Fathers preferred all spiritual vision to sensory vision. The great mentor of monks, Saint Isaac of Syria, said: “He who is worthy to see himself is higher than he who is worthy to see Angels: for the latter enters into communion with the eyes of the body, and the former with the eyes of the soul.”28 Those reverend monks who were vouchsafed an abundant vision of the spiritual were abundant in spiritual reasoning and other sublime gifts of the Holy Spirit: those reverend Fathers who, for their simplicity and purity, were awarded only a sensual vision of the spirits, were meager in them. The Monk Daniel of Skit told about a certain elder of a very strict life, who lived in Lower Egypt, that he said out of ignorance: “Melchizedek, king of Salem, mentioned in the Book of Genesis (Gen. 14:18), is the Son of God.” This was conveyed to Blessed Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria. Cyril invited the elder to his place, who performed signs, to whom God revealed what the elder asked. The archbishop acted very wisely. He said to the elder: “Abba! Pray for me. One thought tells me that Melchizedek is the Son of God, and another thought says: no! He is a man and a bishop of God. I hesitate which of these thoughts to believe. That's why I invited you. Pray to God that God will reveal this to you by revelation.” The elder, trusting in his residence, answered with determination: “Give me a period of three days: I will ask God about this, and I will tell you who Melchizedek is.” After three days, the elder came to the archbishop and said to him: “Melchizedek is a man.” The archbishop answered: “How did you know this, father?” Elder: “God showed me all the patriarchs, from Adam to Melchizedek. At the same time the Angel said to me: here is Melchizedek. Rest assured that this is so." Returning to his cell, the elder himself preached to everyone that Melchizedek was a man, and not the Son of God. Saint Cyril rejoiced at the salvation of his brother, who, despite the fact that he performed signs and received revelations from God, was in communion with the holy Angels and with the souls of departed Saints, perished from assimilating blasphemous thoughts, not understanding his spiritual distress 29. A similar thing happened to some holy presbyter in the first centuries of Christianity. Due to his purity and gentleness, during the service of the Divine Liturgy, he was constantly vouchsafed to see an Angel who stood near him. A wanderer deacon visited the presbyter. The presbyter invited the deacon to perform a bloodless sacrifice with him. When they began to perform sacred services, the deacon noticed to the presbyter that during his prayers he was uttering words that contained heretical blasphemy. The presbyter was struck by the remark. He turned to the Angel, who was present here, and asked him: “Are the words of the deacon fair?” The angel answered: “Fair.” “Why,” objected the presbyter, “didn’t you tell me this when you were with me for so long?” “It pleases God,” answered the Angel, “that men should be instructed by men.” Constant communication with the Angel did not prevent the holy presbyter from falling into a fatal error. Seeing spirits with the sensual eyes always brings more or less harm to those people who do not have spiritual vision. Here on earth, images of truth are mixed with images of lies, 30 as in a country in which good and evil are mixed, as in the country of the expulsion of fallen angels and fallen men. The God-Man descended into this country to save people; In this country, before the incarnation of God the Word, holy Angels descended to people as fallen beings, but who had received the promise of salvation; into this country, after the incarnation of God the Word, holy Angels descend to help people working out their salvation: but in this same country, people who arbitrarily remain in their fall, and fallen angels, rigid and established in their fall, in enmity towards God, constantly live. Just as people who have loved their fall, their sinfulness, use all measures to attract all people in their direction, so fallen spirits are especially concerned about this. They carry out the work of destroying people with incomparably greater success than the most malicious people. The damage to people lies in the mixture of good and evil in them; the damage of fallen spirits consists in the complete predominance of evil, with a complete absence of good. The abilities of fallen spirits are far superior to the abilities of fallen people, who are bound in their endeavors by the very heaviness and whiteness of their bodies. Demons flow freely and quickly around the universe, and freely accomplish things that are completely impossible for humans (Job 1:7). People must inevitably be satisfied with the experience in evil that they acquire during their short earthly life; their evil intentions are destroyed by themselves at the hour when they involuntarily leave the field of earthly life, being called for the judgment of God and into eternity. Demons, on the contrary, have been left to remain on earth since their final fall (Gen. 3:14) until the end of the world: everyone can easily imagine what experience in creating evil they acquired over such a long time, given their abilities and constant malicious intent, not in the least dissolved by any good aspiration or passion. If they pretend to be well-intentioned, then this is only with the aim of more accurately succeeding in evil intentions. They are completely incapable of good intentions. One who sees spirits sensually can easily be deceived into his own damage and destruction. If, when seeing spirits, he shows trust in them or gullibility, then he will certainly be deceived, will certainly be carried away, will certainly be sealed with a seal of seduction incomprehensible to the inexperienced, a seal of terrible damage in his spirit, and the possibility of correction and salvation is often lost. This has happened to many, very many. This happened not only with the pagans, whose priests were for the most part in open communication with demons; This happened not only to many Christians who did not know the mysteries of Christianity and for some reason entered into communication with spirits; This happened to many ascetics and monks who did not acquire spiritual vision of spirits and saw them sensually. Christian asceticism alone provides the correct, legal entry into the world of spirits. All other means are illegal and must be rejected as obscene and harmful. The true ascetic of Christ is brought into vision by God Himself. When God leads, then the ghosts of truth, in which lies are clothed, are separated from the truth; then the ascetic is granted, firstly, a spiritual vision of spirits, which reveals in detail and with accuracy the properties of these spirits. After this, some ascetics are granted a sensual vision of spirits, which supplements the knowledge about them provided by spiritual vision. Evil spirits are bound in their actions towards the ascetic of Christ by the power and wisdom of the God guiding him and, despite the fact that they breathe the most special malice against the servant of God, they cannot cause him the harm that they would like. The misfortunes they inflict contribute to his success 31 . A detailed, essential teaching about the spirits of evil is expounded by the Monk Anthony the Great in the teaching that he delivered to his disciples. The Great One borrowed this teaching from his own holy experiences, from his abundantly blessed state; it is attested by the Holy Scriptures. Anthony had a vision of spirits, both sensual and spiritual. Both visions reached the highest degree of development in him. By self-mortification, by a deeply silent life, by “living in heaven” (Phil. 3:20), where the Holy Spirit who dwelt in him elevated him, Anthony, while still in the body, already seemed to belong to the spirits 32. He was constantly either in communication with the holy Angels or in the fight against demons 33 . The instruction was delivered to hermits - monks who were very successful, such as the disciples of the Great. The sensual vision of spirits is part of the hermit's life; Demons fight with communal monks most invisibly, bringing them sinful thoughts, dreams, sensations, very rarely appearing sensually. Anthony the Great, having sufficiently taught the Monk Paul the Most Simple the monastic life, arranged for him a hermit’s cell at a considerable distance from himself, and brought his holy disciple into it, saying to him: “Behold! By the grace of Christ, who gave help, you learned the monastic life: from now on, stay alone in order to gain experience in the fight against demons” 34. “The Scripture commands,” said Anthony the Great 35, “that we “guard our hearts with all care” (Proverbs 4:23). We have terrible and insidious enemies 36, that is, crafty demons; We have to fight with them, as the Apostle says: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). A great many of them are found in the air that surrounds us; they are not far from us; great disagreement prevails between them 37 . Others who surpass us in spiritual success can say a lot about their nature and diversity, but we have a special need to know the intrigues they use against us.” “First, we must be convinced that demons are called demons not because they were created in their present dispensation. God did not create anything that in itself was evil. Demons are created good. Subsequently, having fallen away from heavenly wisdom and cast down to earth, they deceived the pagans with ghosts. Flaming with hatred towards us Christians, they use all means to deny us access to heaven, so that we do not ascend to where they fell. Intensified prayer is needed, a great feat is needed, so that those who they are, having received the grace of reasoning through the action of the Spirit, can recognize them. Some of them are less vicious, others more vicious; but everyone has one desire: to arrange for us to fall and perish in different ways. Their cunning is varied; There are a variety of methods for preparing intrigues 38. Of course, the blessed Apostle and his followers knew this with accuracy. “For we are not ignorant of his (Satan’s) devices (2 Cor. 2:11). We must instruct each other, borrowing knowledge from the temptations that we were subjected to from demons; That’s why I, as having acquired some experimental knowledge about spirits, am sharing it with you, my children.” “If the demons see that one of the Christians, especially the monks, begins to struggle and succeed, they approach him and immediately begin to put obstacles in his path. These obstacles are sinful thoughts. One should not be embarrassed and bewildered by the suggestions they bring: they are immediately destroyed by prayers, fasting and faith in the Lord. But having been repulsed, the demons do not stop fighting: they attack again with evil cunning and insidiousness. Not having time to seduce the heart with secret action through lust, they approach in a different way and try to frighten with empty ghosts, taking on various images, now women, now animals, now reptiles, now the greatest giants, now many warriors. But one should not be afraid of these ghosts shown by them: having no meaning, they instantly disappear if anyone tries to protect himself with faith and the sign of the cross. However, they are daring and extremely shameless: defeated by one method of struggle, they resort to another. They imagine themselves gifted with prophecy, able to predict the future. They stretch like a ghost to such a height and great width that they seem to touch the roofs of houses. This is how they act with the goal of seducing with wonders those whom they could not seduce with their thoughts. If even during this assassination attempt they find their soul strengthened by faith and hope, then they finally bring their boss with them” 39 . Anthony said that he often saw the devil as the Lord revealed him to Job in the following words: “His eyes are the vision of the star. From his mouth come forth like burning candles, and like sparks of fire are placed. From his nostrils comes the smoke of a furnace of coals burning with fire. His soul is like coals, and like flames come from his mouth” (Job 41:10–13). Appearing like this, the prince of demons, eloquent and aged in evil, tries, as I said, to instill horror, which the Lord accuses him of, saying again to Job: “he counts iron as chaff, copper as rotten wood, he thinks of the sea as a world-maker, and Tartarus of the abyss, like a captive, counts the abyss as a passage” (as a place of walking) ( Job 41:18, 22, 23); through the prophet: “having been persecuted, I will comprehend” (Ex. 15:9); through another prophet: “I will take the whole world in my hand like a nest, and like an abandoned egg” (Isaiah 10:14). Thus, demons boast and promise to do this and that in order to deceive the ascetics of piety. We, believers, should not be afraid of their ghosts, should not heed their proclamations. They always lie, they never say anything fair. Although the devil boldly expressed so many things about himself, 40 the Lord pulled him out like a snake on a hook, put a bridle on him like a draft animal, chained him in an iron hoop like a runaway slave, and put a ring through his nostrils and lips. He is bound by the Lord like a sparrow and handed over to us as a playground. Together with him, his accomplices, demons, like scorpions and snakes, were cast down to trample upon us Christians. The proof of this is that we fight the devil by the very way we live; and the one who boasted to dry up the sea and embrace the universe can no longer resist your asceticism, cannot prevent me from speaking against him. Let's not pay any attention to his words, because he constantly lies! Let us not be afraid of his ghosts, which, of course, have no meaning! The light shown by demons is not true: rather, it is an omen and pre-image of the fire they have prepared: they intensify to appear to people in the flame in which they will burn. Exactly - they appear, but disappear immediately, without harming any of the believers, in the thing itself revealing only the image of the fire into which they will be plunged. We should not be afraid of them for any reason: the grace of Christ made all their attempts against us futile 41 . Demons are crafty: they are capable of taking on different images and forms. They often imagine themselves singing psalms while remaining invisible, and recall the words of Scripture 42 . Very often, when we read, they immediately repeat what they read, like an echo. When we sleep, they excite us to prayer, so as not to allow us to completely calm down with sleep. Sometimes, assuming the appearance of monks, as if they were the most pious, they enter into a conversation in order to deceive with the ghost of clothing and image, and take the deceived where they want. We should not listen to them, whether they encourage us to pray, whether they exhort us not to eat anything at all, or whether they accuse and convict us of sins that they know are behind us. They do this not for the purpose of piety or virtue, but in order to lead the simplest to despair. They represent ascetic life as useless, instill disgust for monastic life as unbearably painful; they act with the goal of putting all sorts of obstacles in this life 43 . The same is the cunning and the same is the goal of demons when they act with thoughts or through people devoted to sensuality and the world. Demons slander monastic life, calling it unnatural and impossible; by instilling these false concepts, they try to cool the zeal of the ascetic, plunge him into neglect of salvation, drown him in carnal life and in gratification of passions. The prophet sent by God announces the disastrous state of the demons, saying: “Woe to him who intoxicates his friend with muddy corruption” (Hab. 2:15). Such suggestions and thoughts tarnish the path leading to salvation. When the demons spoke the truth - they spoke the truth when they said: “You are the Holy One of God” (Luke 4:41) - the Lord shut their mouths and commanded them to be silent, so that they would not mix their wickedness with the truth and to teach us a decisive distrust of the demons, even if they spoke the truth. It is indecent for us, who have the Holy Scriptures and freedom granted by the Savior, to learn from the devil, who did not maintain his own rank and changed in mind, falling from the spiritual to the carnal. For this reason, when the devil attempts to speak, Scripture forbids him to do so with the following words: “God says to the sinner: You will tell all my justifications, and you will receive My covenant with your lips” (Ps. 49:16). In order to deceive the simplest, they resort to all sorts of means, to all kinds of pretense, they talk a lot, make noise, cause confusion, knock, laugh excessively, whistle. If no attention is paid to them, then they finally begin to cry and sob like “defeated.” The Lord, as God, shut the mouths of demons; It is fitting for us, taught by the saints, to imitate them, to become like them in courage. When they saw something like this, they exclaimed: “When the sinner stood up before me, I became dumb and humbled, and kept silent from good things” (Psalm 39:2-3). And again: “I am as if I were deaf and did not hear, and as if I were dumb and did not open my mouth; and I was like a man who did not hear” (Psalm 37:14–15). Why should we not even listen to demons as alien to us, not obey them in anything, even if they incite us to prayer, even if they teach us to fast. On the contrary, let us firmly adhere to the regulations of our residence, so as not to be deceived by their actions, which are all filled with malice and malicious intent. There is nothing to be afraid of them, even if they appear to be attacking, even if they threaten death: they are weak, they can only threaten, they cannot do anything more 44 . I have spoken briefly about this subject so far, but I will stop to say in more detail: such behavior will lead you to the strictest vigilance over yourself. With the coming of the Lord to earth, the enemy fell, his forces were crushed. Like a deposed tyrant, unable to do anything, he cannot remain calm, and at least threatens with words. Each of you should know this; each of you, on the basis of this knowledge, can despise demons. If they were connected by such bodies as we are connected, then, without a doubt, they could say: “We do not find people because they are hiding; if we found them, we would harm them; We could also, by closing the doors, hide from them, just as they hide from us.” But their position is not at all like this: they can enter with locked doors, both they and their boss the devil can act freely in the air, ready to cause evil and harm; The devil, as the Lord said, “has been a murderer from time immemorial” (John 8:44). Despite this, we live, even in opposition to it we established our residence: from this it is clear that the demons have lost all power. The place does not serve as an obstacle to their intrigues; They have no guarantee of love for us, so that they would spare us because of love; They are by no means righteous and are not well disposed towards us to take care of our correction. On the contrary, they are malicious, and try not to do anything so much as to harm the ascetics of virtue and piety. The only reason they don’t do anything is because they can’t do anything, they can only threaten; they cannot refrain from evil, they are eager to cause us any harm, having a completely directed will towards this. Here! We have gathered and speak against them; they know that according to our success they become exhausted. Probably, they would not allow any Christian to live if they had the power to do so: a pious life according to God is abominable for a sinner. Having no strength, they are tormented by the sight that they cannot fulfill any of their plans. Let us be convinced that we should not be afraid of them at all. If only they had any power; then they would not have approached with noise, in various ghosts, they would not have arranged scheming, changing the images; One of them would be enough to fulfill what he wants and what is possible for him. He who has the power to kill does not approach in an empty ghost, does not terrify with noise and rebellion, but acts freely according to his power. On the contrary, demons, having no power, act out a kind of theatrical performance, changing their appearance and horrifying children with noise and their ugly faces; for this very reason they deserve contempt as weak. The true Angel, sent by the Lord against the Assyrians, did not need any noise, nor a striking situation, nor knocking, nor splashing of hands: calmly acting according to the given authority, he killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers in a very short time (2 Kings 19:35). Those who have no power - such as demons - only try to terrify with vain ghosts. Maybe someone, based on the story of Job, will ask in refutation of what has been said: why was the devil, armed against this righteous man, able to do everything: he took away his property, killed his children, and struck him himself with stinking leprosy? ( Job 1:15–22, 2:1–17 ). Let the questioner know that this was not done by the power of the devil, but by the power of God, Who handed Job over to the devil for temptation. The devil, precisely because he himself could not do anything, asked permission to do what he had done. This event serves as the basis for greater contempt for the enemy, who, although he wanted, did not have the opportunity to act against one righteous person: if he had, he would not have asked. But he asked, asked more than once, asked twice: this exposed his weakness and powerlessness. It is not surprising that he could not do anything to Job when he could not harm his flocks, without the permission of God. Even over pigs he had no power: because the demons asked the Lord, as it is written in the Gospel, saying: “Command us to go into the herd of swine” (Matthew 8:31). If they have no power over pigs, much less over men, created in the likeness of God. One must fear God alone: ​​one must despise demons and not be at all afraid. The more persistently they act against us, the more zealous we should be in asceticism. The great weapon against them is pure life and faith in God. There is no doubt that they are afraid of fasting, vigils, prayers, meekness, heartfelt silence, contempt for money and vain glory, humility, love for the poor, mercy, goodness, and most of all, piety in Christ 45 when they see these virtues in ascetics. For this reason, they make every effort to prevent anyone from trampling on them: they know the grace that the Savior gave to believers against them. “Behold, I give you power to tread on the serpent and the scorpion, and on all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). So, if demons predict the future, let no one listen to them. They often foretell the coming of the brethren several days in advance, and in fact the brethren come. The demons do this for no other reason than to instill trust in those who listen to them, in order to gradually subjugate them to their influence and destroy them. For this reason, we should not listen to them, we should reject their words when they speak, because we do not need them at all. Is it surprising that they, having bodies lighter than human bodies, and seeing someone setting off on a journey, come before him and announce him? In this way, those riding horses can warn pedestrians: in this regard, they are not at all worthy of surprise. They know nothing that has not yet happened: God alone knows all events before they happen. When they see something, they notify about it, running across hastily. So they announce to many what is happening between us, that is, that we have agreed, that we are conspiring against them, before any of us, leaving here, could retell it. Of course - any agile boy could do this, warning the slow one. What I said should be understood this way. If someone is preparing to travel from Thebaid or from some other country, then they do not know whether he will go or not. When they see that he has gone, they run forward and herald his coming, and after a few days he definitely comes. It happens that those who set off on a journey return back: then the demons turn out to have lied 46 . In the same way, they often chatter about the profit of water in the river: seeing that heavy rains have fallen in Ethiopia, and concluding from this that the river will overflow its banks, before the water reaches Egypt, they hastily come running and announce the coming flood. This could also be proclaimed by humans if they had the ability for rapid movement that demons have. How did David's bodyguard (2 Sam. 18:24), having ascended to a high place, rather see the person coming than the one who stood below; also how that one of the messengers who warned the others by his arrival announced before them not about what had not yet happened, but about what had begun to happen: in this way the demons also warn by announcing, solely for the purpose of deception. Meanwhile, if, by God's providence, circumstances turn out differently, the water does not arrive, or the travelers do not come, then the demons will turn out to be lying, and those who believed them will be deceived 47 . This is how the oracles (oracles) of the pagans began in ancient times; Thus, from ancient times, the pagans were deceived by demons. But the deception has come to an end. The Lord came and cast down the demons and their devices. They don’t know anything on their own, but, like thiefs, they say what they see from others. It would be more correct to say: “They do not so much predict as foresee.” For this reason, even if they had told the truth, even then they would not deserve surprise. Experienced and skillful doctors, having studied any disease in many patients, very often predict its consequences; Also, helmsmen and farmers, constantly monitoring the state of the air, predict clear and cloudy weather, but attribute these predictions not to Divine revelation, but to experience and clarity. For this reason, no one should be surprised if the demons, perhaps on the basis of such cleverness, say something rightly; Let no one be influenced by their attention to them. What benefit can there be for those who hear if they find out in a few days what is going to happen? Or what is the need to know this, if you can find out fairly? Such knowledge does not bring any progress in virtue, does not serve as evidence of holiness. None of us are called to judgment for not knowing the future; none of those who received this knowledge are recognized as blessed; everyone will give an answer at the trial as to whether he kept the faith and fulfilled the commandments exactly. It is not for this reason that we undertake many labors, not for this reason that we spend our lives in exploits, in order to foreknow the future, but in order to please God with virtues. One should be diligent in prayer not in order to receive foreknowledge of the future; This is not the reward of asceticism: we must ask the Lord to help us gain victory over the devil. If we certainly want to acquire foreknowledge of the future, then we will acquire purity of mind for this. I am convinced that the soul, having purified itself and ascended to a natural state 48, becomes perspicacious and, through the action of Divine revelation, can see further and more hidden than what the devil sees. Such was the mind of Elisha, who saw the actions of Gehazi (2 Kings 5:26) done in the distance, and also saw the heavenly army sent to protect him (Elisha) (2 Kings 6:17). So, if demons come to you at night and start talking about the future, telling about themselves “we are angels,” then do not believe them. They are lying. If they praise your residence and call you blessed, then do not listen to them, do not pay attention, do not even look at them; but immediately mark yourself and your home with the sign of the cross, turn to prayer, and you will see that they will disappear. They are timid and extremely afraid of the sign of the cross, because the Savior with the cross deprived them of their strength and handed them over to shame. If they act persistently and shamelessly, jumping around and changing the images of their vile faces, do not be afraid, do not be horrified, do not trust them, as if they were good. Very soon one can distinguish, by the grace of God, the presence of good spirits from the presence of evil ones. The appearance of holy spirits does not cause confusion in the soul. “For the holy Angel will not cry, nor will he weaken, nor will his voice be heard outside” (Is. 42:2) he is so pleasant, so many blessings, that from the sight of him joy, joy, and delight appear in the soul 49. This is because the Holy Angels are co-present with the Lord, Who is our joy, and the power of God the Father. The thoughts of the soul are calm, free from confusion; embraces her desire for Divine, future blessings; she would like to remain in them forever, and depart from here with the holy Angels. If someone, like a person, is afraid of the appearance of good Angels, then they will immediately take away this fear with their goodness. This is what Gabriel did regarding Zechariah (Luke 1:13), this is what the Angel did who appeared to the women in the tomb of the Lord (Matthew 28:5), and the one who said to the shepherds mentioned in the Gospel: “Do not be afraid” (Luke 2:10). Fear in those who have seen it will not be born from the indignation of the soul, but from the presence and contemplation of the superior dignity of beings. These are the signs of visions of holy angels. On the contrary, the invasion and apparition of evil spirits is accompanied by noise, knocking, sounds and screams, similar to the chaos caused by ill-mannered youths and robbers. Their presence causes fear in the soul, confusion and bewilderment in thoughts, melancholy, disgust from achievement, laziness, despondency, memories of relatives, fear of death, then sinful lusts, cooling of jealousy for virtues, moral disorder. So, if you see someone appearing and you are overcome by fear, but this fear will immediately be washed away, and it will be replaced by inexpressible joy, joy, information, renewal of the soul, peace of thoughts and the rest of the above, strength of soul and love for God, then be calm and pray; joy and such a state of soul are a sign of the presence of holy spirits. So Abraham, seeing the Lord, rejoiced (John 8:56); so John “springed for joy” (Luke 1:41) when Our Lady Mary said a greeting. If any phenomenon appears to you, accompanied by noise, knocking and an environment according to the custom of the world, with the intimidation of death and with the above signs, know that evil spirits have come. And let the following serve as a sign for you. If fear does not recede from the soul, then this is a sign of the presence of enemies. Demons do not take away fear in any way, just as the great Archangel Gabriel took away fear when he appeared to Mary and Zechariah, and the Angel who appeared to the wives in the tomb of the Lord. On the contrary, the demons, seeing that a person is afraid of them, strengthen the ghost in order to strike with great fear and scold, extracting worship from themselves. Having approached, they say to the frightened: “Prostrate yourself and offer worship.” In this way they deceived the pagans and were recognized by them as gods. The Lord does not allow us to be deceived by demons. When the devil approached the Lord with such apparitions, the Lord forbade him with the following words: “Follow Me, Satan, for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and serve Him alone” (Matthew 4:10; Deut. 13:4). Therefore, we must despise more and more this evil one, who takes on different forms. What was said to the devil by the Lord was said for our sake, so that the demons, hearing these words from us, would be crushed by the power of the Lord, who forbade them with these words. One should not be vain about the grace-filled power of casting out demons; should not be extolled by the grace-filled gift of healing illnesses. The one who casts out demons deserves no surprise, nor contempt does the one who does not cast them out. Anyone who wants to speak correctly about the monk, let him examine the image of his feat. Performing signs is the Savior’s work, and not ours: that’s why He said to His disciples: “Do not rejoice in this, for the souls obey you; rejoice, for your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). The fact that our names are written in heaven serves as evidence of our virtue and godly life, and the power to cast out demons is a gift from the Savior. For this reason, he was famous for his miracles, and not for his virtue, and said: “Lord, Lord! Have we not prophesied in Your name, and in Your name we have cast out demons, and in Your name we have done many mighty powers?” answered: “Amen I say to you: we do not know you” (Matthew 7:22; 25:12). The Lord does not know the ways that the wicked walk. We must constantly pray, as I have already said, to receive the “gift of discerning between spirits,” so as not to be entrusted to “every spirit” (1 John 4:1), as Scripture teaches us. Now I wanted to shut up and no longer continue the conversation; but, so that you do not think that what I said was said at random, and are convinced that I told from knowledge acquired by experience, I become, as it were, “nonsensical” (2 Cor. 12:11), continuing the word. The Lord, who hears what I say, knows the purity of my heart’s intention, that I am not beginning for my own sake, but for the sake of your love and your edification, about the demonic intrigues known to me from experience. How many times have the demons called me blessed, and I cursed them in the name of the Lord! How many times did they foretell to me the profit of water in the river, and I answered them: what do you care about that? One day they approached me menacingly, in the likeness of warriors, armed with various weapons, intending to chop me to pieces. Another time, taking the form of horses, animals and snakes, they filled my house. Then I repeated the saying of the Psalm: “These are on chariots, and these on horses: but we will call in the name of the Lord our God” (Ps. 19:8). While I was praying in this way, the Lord drove them away. One day, at night, they came to me, making an apparition of light and saying: “Antony! We came to you and brought light.” I closed my eyes and began to pray, and immediately the light of the wicked went out. A few months later they came, singing psalms and pronouncing sayings from the Holy Scriptures: “But I am deaf and do not hear” (Ps. 37:14). It happened that they shook my home; I, without being embarrassed, remained in prayer. After that they came again, knocking, whistling and dancing; but seeing that I was praying and lying down, singing psalms with my mind, they immediately began to cry and sob as if they had lost their strength, and I sent up praise to the Lord, who had curbed and perverted their insolence and ferocity. One day a demon appeared to me as an apparition of extraordinary size and dared to say: “I am God’s power, I am God’s providence: I can give you good; what do you want? But I, calling on the name of Christ, breathed on him, and attempted to subject him to beatings; in fact, it seemed to me that I subjected him to beatings 50, immediately this giant, with all his demons, disappeared. One day, while I was fasting, the devil came to me, taking on the image of a monk; he seemed to be holding loaves of bread in his hands, and made me the following proposal: “Stop your great fast and taste the food, because you are a human being and are in danger of falling into illness.” Realizing his deceit, I stood up to pray. Unable to bear this, he disappeared and entered through the door like smoke. How many times has the devil presented me with a ghost of gold in the desert so that I would at least touch it or look at it! But I resorted to the weapon of psalmody, and the ghost disappeared. Many times they beat me severely and covered me with wounds; but I exclaimed: Nothing will separate me from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:35). Then they rushed at each other and struck each other. It was not I who tamed and drove them away: this was done by the Lord, who said: “I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven” (Luke 10:18). My children! Remembering the saying of the Apostle, “transform this on yourself” (1 Cor. 4:6), so that you learn not to lose heart while pursuing the field of asceticism, and not to be afraid of the ghosts of the devil and his demons. I told this as if it were senseless, but listen to the following, so that we may live without fear or stumbling. Believe my untrue story. One day someone knocked on the door of my secluded home. I went out: a giant of the highest stature stood before me. I asked him: “I am Satan,” he answered. - Why did you come here? - In vain do the monks and all Christians accuse me! In vain they do not stop cursing me for an hour. “They do this because you are persecuting them and not giving them peace of mind.” “Not me,” he objected to this, “but they are embarrassing themselves, and I have completely lost all my strength.” Don’t they really read: “The enemy has run out of weapons to the end, and you have destroyed cities” (Ps. 9:7). There is no place left in my possession, no country, no city. Christianity has been adopted everywhere, and now the deserts are filled with monks. Let them watch themselves, and do not blame me in vain. Then, amazed at the grace of the Lord, I said to the demon: “You are a lie, you always remain a lie, and you never tell the truth.” But now you involuntarily told the truth: because Christ, by His coming, weakened you, cast you down and exposed you. The demon, hearing the name of the Savior and not tolerating the fire emanating from this name, disappeared. If the devil himself admits that he has no power, then, of course, he is worthy of our contempt, and his demons are worthy of contempt. The enemy with his dogs resorts to intrigue, and we, knowing his weakness, must despise him. Let’s not bother our minds with thinking, let’s not consider the reasons for fear, let’s not allow ourselves to internalize thoughts of fear, saying: “Lest the demon attack me and overthrow me! No matter how he picks me up and then hits me on the ground!” Or: “No matter how you frighten me with a sudden attack!” Let us never allow ourselves to have such thoughts; Let us not allow ourselves to be sad, as if we must perish. On the contrary, let us be more and more established in faith, filled with joy, as those who are destined to inherit salvation, keeping in mind that the Lord is with us, having put to flight and crushed the demons. Let us also think and constantly remember that as long as the Lord is with us, our enemies cannot cause us any harm. When they come to us, they act towards us according to how they find us, and adapt their ghosts to the thoughts that will then embrace us. If they find us in fear and confusion, then they will invade our state, like thieves who find some place unguarded by anyone. What we ourselves think, they try to present in an exaggerated form. If they see that we are frightened and trembled, then, according to our state of fright, they imagine ghosts and insurance, and the unfortunate soul is actually punished for its internal state. If they find us rejoicing in the Lord, reflecting on future blessings, confirmed in the thought that everything is in the right hand of God, that demons are completely weak in relation to Christians, that they do not have the slightest power in anything; if, I say, they find a soul protected by such weapons, then they will retreat from it in shame. The enemy found Job so armed and retreated from him; He found Judas without this weapon and carried him into enslavement. If we want to despise the enemy, then let us remain carefully in Divine thoughts, so that the soul constantly remains in the joy produced by hope in God. Then we will attribute the shameful performances of demons to smoke; we will see that they are running away from us rather than pursuing us: because, as I said above, they are extremely cowardly; They are constantly kept in awe by the fire of Gehenna, which they expect and prepare for them. And the following is what you need to know for your safety. When any vision presents itself, do not allow yourself to be frightened, but whatever this vision may be, courageously ask it, first: “Who are you and where are you from?” If the saints appear, they will calm you down and turn your fear into joy. If the phenomenon is diabolical, then, having encountered firmness in the soul, it will immediately begin to waver, because the question “who are you and where are you from?” serves as a sign of an undaunted soul. Having asked such a question, Joshua was convinced of the truth (Joshua 5:13), and the enemy did not hide from Daniel (Dan. 10:20). Those of the ascetics who did not acquire the gift of “reasoning of spirits”, did not see their fall in themselves, did not understand that Christ for a Christian is everything that must reject the very goodness of the fallen nature and renounce his soul, who for this reason are capable of conceit to a greater or lesser extent - were subjected to great disasters and death itself from the sensual manifestation of spirits that followed due to the exhaustion of the flesh by bodily exploits and conceit that crept into the soul. When spirits captivate or trap a person in the secrets of his heart and mind, then they conveniently act outside 51 . A person trusts a lie, thinking that he trusts the purest truth. The Monk Isaac of Syria narrates: “A certain Asinas, a native of the city of Edes, the author of many trilogies that are sung to this day, lived a high (apparently) residence. He recklessly imposed upon himself the most difficult feats with the (secret) thought of gaining fame. The devil deceived him: he took him out of his cell, placed him on the top of a mountain called Storium, and, having previously received his consent, showed him an image of a chariot and horses, and said: “God sent me to take you to heaven, like Elijah.” Asinas fell into seduction in his infancy and climbed onto the chariot: then this whole dream collapsed, he fell from a great height, fell to the ground and died a death worthy of crying and at the same time laughter” 52. Obviously: Asinas died due to a lack of spiritual knowledge about fallen spirits, about the mystery of the redemption of humanity by the God-man. With this knowledge, there is no place in a person for conceit, on which intrigue and deception were based. Two Kiev-Pechersk hermits, Saints Isaac and Nikita, suffered a terrible disaster and for the same reason: a demon appeared to the first in the form of Christ, to the second - in the form of an Angel 53 . The words of the holy Apostle Peter are quite true: “Your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). He devours the weak and infants according to spiritual intelligence; He is not ashamed to attack the great saints of God, hoping to deceive them and bring them down into moments of spiritual slumber or insufficient vigilance over oneself. The means that the devil used so successfully against Asinas, he wanted to use to crush the Monk Simeon the Stylite. He extracted preliminary consent from Asinas; He wanted to catch the stylite by surprise - to destroy him, taking away both the time and the opportunity to consider the prepared deception. He was transformed into a bright Angel - he appeared with a chariot and horses of fire to Simeon, who stood on an elevated pillar. “Hear, Simeon! - he said. “The God of heaven and earth sent me to you, as you see, with a chariot and horses, to take you to heaven like Elijah: you are worthy of such honor for the holiness of your life.” Your hour has already come, in which you must reap the fruits of your labors and accept the crown of kindness from the hand of the Lord. Go without delay, servant of the Lord, so that you may see your Creator, so that you may worship your Creator, who created you in His image. May the Angels and Archangels, prophets, apostles, martyrs who want to see you see you.” When the tempter said this and similar things - demons are verbose and loquacious - the monk did not understand that he was dealing with a seducer. The character of the saint was particularly simple and inclined towards unquestioning obedience, as can easily be seen from a careful reading of his life story. Simeon said in response, turning to God: “Lord! Do you want to take me, a sinner, to heaven? With these words, he raised his leg to step into the chariot, and with his hand he made the sign of the cross on himself, from which the devil and the chariot and horses instantly disappeared 54. It goes without saying that, because of this temptation, Simeon plunged even more into humility, became even more afraid of conceit, which, hidden to the smallest extent, almost destroyed him. If the saints were in such danger of being deceived by evil spirits, then for us this danger is even more terrible. If the saints did not always recognize the demons who appeared to them in the form of saints and Christ Himself, then how is it possible for us to think of ourselves that we unmistakably recognize them? One means of salvation from spirits is to resolutely renounce visions of them and communication with them, recognizing oneself as incapable of such vision and communication. The holy mentors of Christian asceticism, enlightened and taught by the Holy Spirit, comprehending the beneficent and God-wise reason why human souls during their stay on earth are covered with bodies, like veils and veils, command pious ascetics not to entrust themselves to any image or vision, if they suddenly present themselves, not to enter into conversation with them, not to pay attention to them. During such phenomena they command us to protect ourselves with the sign of the cross, to close our eyes and, in the decisive consciousness of our unworthiness and inability to see the holy spirits, to pray to God to cover us from all the intrigues and deceptions that are cunningly placed on people by the spirits of malice, infected with incurable hatred and envy of people. The fallen spirits hate the human race so much that if they were allowed to invisibly restrain them by the right hand of God, they would destroy us instantly 55 . The teaching about the above-mentioned caution and about saving distrust of the manifestations of spirits is accepted by the entire Church: it is one of her moral traditions, which her children must carefully and carefully preserve. Saints Xanthopoulos say: “Never accept if you saw anything sensually or mentally, inside or outside you, even if it was the appearance of Christ, or an Angel, or some Saint, or a dream of light; but remain not believing this and being indignant about it” 56. In the prologue we read the following instruction about this: “The devil appeared to a certain monk, transformed into a bright Angel, and said to him: “I am Gabriel; sent by God to you." The monk answered: “Look: you were sent to someone else, because I, living in sins, am not worthy to see the Angel.” Ashamed by this answer, the demon immediately disappeared. For this reason, the elders say: if an Angel really appears to someone, do not accept him, but humble yourself, saying: I, living in sins, am not worthy to see an Angel. A certain elder said about himself: While staying and asceticizing in my cell, I saw demons in reality, but did not pay any attention to them. The devil, seeing that he was defeated, one day came to the elder (transformed and in great light), saying: I am Christ. The elder, seeing him, closed his eyes and said: I am not worthy to see Christ, Who Himself said: “Many will come in My name, saying, I am Christ: and they will deceive many” (Matthew 24:5). The devil, hearing this, disappeared; the elder glorified God. The elders said: do not wish to see Christ or an Angel sensually, lest you go completely mad by accepting a wolf instead of a shepherd and worshiping your enemies, demons 57 . The beginning of the deception of the mind is vanity: the ascetic, carried away by it, attempts to imagine the Divine with images and likenesses. And you should know that sometimes demons are divided into parts: first some come in their own form, then others - in the form of Angels, as if to help you 58. Ave. Gregory of Sinaite, in his instructions to the silent man, says: “I want you to have an accurate understanding of delusion, so that you can be protected from it, so that you, in ignorance, rushing (towards a lie covered with the guise of goodness), do not receive the greatest harm and do not destroy your soul. The autocracy of man (free will) conveniently bows to communication with the resistant (with fallen spirits), especially the autocracy of those who do not have spiritual knowledge (mind), as being under the constant influence of them (spirits). Demons are close to the novices and self-made ones, they surround them, spreading networks of thoughts, ditches of falls and dreams of destruction, for their city (the mind and heart of the novices and self-made ones) is in the possession of barbarians. And one should not be surprised if someone is deceived or goes crazy, accepts or accepts delusion, or sees what is contrary to the truth, or speaks inappropriately out of inexperience and foolishness. It is not surprising if a beginner is deceived by deception and through many labors, for this happened to many ancient and modern ascetics... You do not accept in any way if you see something sensually or mentally, outside or inside yourself, whether it be the image of Christ or an Angel, or some Saint, or if the light is dreamed and imagined in the mind, for the mind itself is inherent in dreaminess by nature, and it conveniently composes the images it desires, which usually does not pay strict attention to itself, and by which they harm themselves... Often what God has allowed to bring about the crown has harmed many: for God is pleased that our autocracy should be tested where it bends. If someone accepts, without questioning those who know, what he sees mentally or sensually, he is conveniently seduced, or is prone to delusion, like a gullible... No little work is required to achieve the exact truth and become pure from everything that is contrary to grace: for the devil usually shows his delusion to beginners in the image of truth, transforming his evil cunning as if into something spiritual. Why does anyone who wants to achieve pure prayer in silence have to walk in a lot of trembling and weeping, always weeping over his sins, grieving and fearing, lest he fall away from God and suffer excommunication in this or the next century. The devil, when he sees someone living mournfully, does not stay there, fearing the humility brought by crying. If someone, driven by conceit, dreams of achieving something high, and has acquired jealousy that comes from Satan, and not the true one, Satan conveniently entangles him with his nets, like his servant. For this reason, a great weapon is to combine crying with prayer... Those who live impudently and are led by their own understandings are conveniently damaged... A person needs a lot of reasoning (i.e., spiritual reason) in order to acquire the difference between good and evil. Do not give in quickly and frivolously to phenomena, but, being heavy, hold on to the good through many trials, and reject the evil: for you are obliged to test and reason, and then believe (that which turns out to be worthy of faith). Know that the effects of grace are obvious. The devil, although he is transformed, cannot give them; cannot give meekness, nor quietness, nor humility, nor hatred of the world, does not quench sweets and passions, which is all an action of grace. The action that flows from the devil is arrogance, arrogance, insurance and all types of malice. From the action (performed on your soul) you can know the light that has shone in your soul, whether it is from God or from Satan” 59 . In general, thoughts, heart sensations, and sensory phenomena of demons are known by their fruits, by the effect they produce in the soul, just as the Savior said: “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:16, 20). Confusion and bewilderment are sure signs of demonic thoughts, sensations and phenomena. But even by these signs the tempter can be recognized only by those who have trained the senses of their spirit over a long period of time to distinguish good from evil (Heb. 5:14). The Monk Eleazar of Anzor was once visited by the holy Apostle Paul and told him some mysterious teaching. The next day, exactly the same phenomenon appeared to the monk. “I spat in his face,” Eleazar writes in his notes, “and said to him: go away, seducer, with your deceptions! Because I felt it in my heart" 60. Here is an example of the action of feelings trained to distinguish between good and evil! In exactly the same way, the Monk Pachomius the Great denounced the devil, who appeared to him in the form of Christ 61. But for the inexperienced and beginners, the only way to avoid deception, damage and destruction is a decisive renunciation of all vision, due to a complete inability to make a correct judgment about it. What is the reason for the terrible hypocrisy of spirits, terrible hypocrisy both in its beginning and in its consequences? The reason is obvious. We can consider it most clearly in ourselves: because a person participates in the fall of rejected angels, and if he follows the evil suggestions brought by them and arising from a fallen nature, he becomes like a demon. Among the properties of our fall, we notice the desire to hide the crime and justify ourselves that accompanies all human lawlessness. This is what Adam and Eve did in violation of the commandment of God (Gen. 3); This is what their firstborn Cain did after killing his brother, Abel (Gen. 4). The further a person is from correction and virtue, the stronger and more subtle is his desire to cover himself with hypocrisy. Intentional, desperate villains are usually also the most unscrupulous hypocrites. Covered in the mask of hypocrisy, covered in the mask of virtue and holiness, they prepare and commit the greatest atrocities. The more skillfully the mask is composed, the more successfully the crime is carried out. The fallen angels also hide behind the mask of hypocrisy. They are desperate, constant, incorrigible villains - they commit crimes, most often taking the form of holy angels, prophets, martyrs, apostles, Christ Himself. They try to conform to the circumstances, to the person’s way of thinking, to his inclinations, to the impressions he has received. To some ascetics they present piles of gold and silver, as well as other items of luxury and earthly splendor, in order to find an echo of the dream in the spiritual passion of greed and covetousness, if it is hidden in the soul; For a similar purpose, other ascetics are presented with meals with abundant food and drink; in others, vast halls resounding with music, with crowds of people playing and dancing; others appear in the form of women who arouse lust with their own beauty and artificial adornment. When the fallen angels want to overthrow someone with fear, then they appear in the form of animals, in the form of executioners, in the form of prison and city guards, in the form of warriors with sparkling weapons, with flaming torches - mainly in the form of persons who have ever aroused fear in the ascetic. They tried to seduce others with singing, as if angelic, - with harmonious music, as if heavenly. They tried to mislead others with voices and prophecies, as if divine. To others they appeared in the form of absent relatives and acquaintances; they appeared to others in some form characteristic of humans, persuading those who saw them not to doubt them, not to think that they were rejected spirits, trying to assure them that they were human souls whose fate had not yet been decided, and who for this reason were wandering the earth, having not found refuge for themselves; at the same time, they compose some interesting tale that can arouse curiosity in the frivolous and attract their trust to lies, presenting it as the purest and most holy truth. The latter method of seduction is especially used by spirits in our time. Wandering souls are also trusted by those who do not believe the existence of evil spirits. This is what evil spirits need: thieves and murderers can then commit and undertake all the atrocities when those against whom their malice is directed do not even believe their existence. “From everywhere,” says the Monk Macarius the Great, “the enemy’s intrigues, deceptions and evil actions should be very carefully noted. For just as the Holy Spirit, through Paul, “makes all things possible to all, so that he may gain all things” (1 Cor. 9:22), so also the evil spirit, through malice, strives to be all things, so that he may bring everyone down to destruction” 62. Man arbitrarily rejected communication with God and the holy Angels, arbitrarily entered into communication with evil spirits, in the same category with them, in the category of beings rejected by God, hostile to God, and submitted to evil spirits. Salvation for fallen man was granted to “tuna” by God; but one is left to one's choice to accept or reject this salvation. He was given the opportunity, given the grace-filled power to break free from the ranks of fallen spirits, to overthrow their yoke; but left to their own devices and remain in the same state of communication with them, enslavement to them. For people, either captivity or struggle are inevitable. A pious feat is nothing more than the active acceptance of salvation, as a manifestation of our will, shown and proven by experience itself, by life itself. It is very natural that fallen spirits try to keep us in their captivity and communication when we want to break communication and free ourselves from captivity; and we need to prove our sincere desire to overthrow their yoke by putting into action all the means in our power to do so. Entering asceticism into the world of spirits to acquire freedom, we meet, firstly, with fallen spirits. Although the Divine grace given to us at Holy Baptism secretly guides us, helps us and fights for us, without which the struggle with spirits and liberation from their captivity is impossible; however, at first we are surrounded by them, and, due to the fall, being in communication with them, we must forcibly for ourselves and for them be torn out of this communication. Due to the fall of our nature, good and correct thoughts and sensations are mixed in us with evil and false thoughts. Due to confusion with the latter, the former are also obscene. Fallen spirits try to keep us in the state of our fall, in which we are necessarily enslaved by them, and therefore bring us sinful thoughts and dreams, such as those that our fallen nature sympathizes with and enjoy, or those in which evil, rejected even by fallen nature, is covered with the guise of good and truth. Acting in this way through thoughts and dreams, spirits act in exactly the same way when they begin to appear sensually. The general order of monastic Christian asceticism is that the monk, upon entering into the ascetic endeavor, is met and surrounded by fallen spirits, who first act against him with thoughts and dreams, and then in a sensual way. This is clearly seen from the lives of Anthony, Macarius, Pachomius the Great, Mark of France, Mary of Egypt, Andrew Christ for the Fool's sake, John the Long-Suffering and all other holy ascetics. First, they had to fight thoughts, dreams and sensations that were clearly sinful and covertly sinful; After a long time, after many and constant efforts, holy thoughts and sensations were sent down to them. When they achieved a sensual vision of the spirits, they were first met by hordes of rejected angels, and then, after a fierce struggle, the holy Angels approached them and entered into communication with them, as with those who actively rejected the first communication and actively showed the ability for the second communication. This order in asceticism was revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, who accepted all our weaknesses, except sin: first the tempter the devil appeared to him in the desert, then, after the devil was defeated by the Lord, the holy Angels approached the Lord and “served him” (Matthew 4:11), says the Gospel. For young monks who had not acquired sufficient knowledge of spirits from invisible warfare with them in thoughts and sensations, experienced monastic mentors forbade the intensified feat of fasting, vigil, and seclusion, during which deeds spirits soon begin to appear sensually and can conveniently deceive the ascetic to his damage and destruction 63 . Very few are capable of openly fighting demons, even among monks; those who have acquired detailed knowledge about spirits through invisible warfare with them are capable. They taught the feelings of the heart to distinguish good from evil through spiritual sensation, the feat of which was overshadowed by Divine grace 64. The only correct entrance into the world of spirits is Christian asceticism. The only correct entrance to the sensory vision of spirits is Christian prosperity and perfection. God Himself introduces into this vision those who must ascend into it. He who intrudes into the sensory vision of spirits spontaneously acts incorrectly, illegally, contrary to the will of God: it is impossible for such a person to avoid deception and the self-delusion and damage that follows deception. Its very intention is based on deception and self-delusion. 2. About the spiritual vision of spirits Much less embarrassing for a person is the limitation of his sensory vision, the blindness in relation to primitive vision produced by the fall, than the blindness of the spirit produced by the same fall 65. What kind of blindness of spirit is this? What kind of blindness of spirit? The sages of the world will ask in particular and, without expecting an answer, will immediately call the announcement of the blindness of the human spirit, of its deadness, idle talk and absurdity. Such is this blindness! It can unmistakably be called death. “Food and we are blind?” (John 9:40) - the blind and arrogant Pharisees said to the Lord. Not feeling blindness is not a sign of vision. Fallen people, who did not want to acknowledge their blindness, remained blind, and those born blind, who recognized their blindness, received their sight in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 9:39, 40). Let us try, in the light of the Holy Spirit, to discern the blindness of our spirit. Our mind and heart are stricken with blindness. Because of this blindness, the mind cannot distinguish true thoughts from false ones, and the heart cannot distinguish between spiritual sensations and spiritual and sinful sensations, especially when the latter are not very gross. Because of the blindness of the spirit, all our activities become false, just as the Lord called the scribes (scholars) and Pharisees “boisterous and blind, blind leaders,” who do not enter the kingdom of heaven and do not allow people to enter it (Matthew 23). With true spiritual achievement, the grace of God, planted in us through holy Baptism, begins to heal us little by little from the blindness of the spirit through tenderness. In contrast to the state of blindness, we begin to enter into a state of seeing. Just as in the state of vision the viewer is the mind, then vision is called by the Holy Fathers mental vision, that is, mental. Since the state of vision is brought about by the Holy Spirit, vision is also called spiritual, being the fruit of the Holy Spirit. This is how it differs from contemplation. Contemplation is common to all people; Every person engages in contemplation whenever he wants. Vision is characteristic of those who purify themselves through repentance; it appears not by the will of man, but from the touch of the Spirit of God to our spirit, therefore, according to the All-Holy will of the All-Holy Spirit. The doctrine of spiritual, or mental, visions is set forth with particular clarity and detail by the Holy Martyr Peter, Metropolitan of Damascus 66. Tenderness is the first spiritual sensation delivered to the heart by the Divine grace that has overshadowed it. It consists of tasting Godly sorrow, dissolved by gracious consolation, and opens before the mind a spectacle that has never been seen before. From spiritual sensation comes spiritual vision, as the Holy Scripture says: “Taste and see” (Ps. 33:9). The vision makes the sensation worse. “From doing with compulsion, immeasurable warmth is born, kindling in the heart from warm thoughts new to the mind. Such doing and storing refines the mind with its warmth and gives it the ability to see. From this, warm thoughts are born, as we said, in the depths of the soul, which is called “Vision”. These visions give birth to the warmth that gave birth to him. From this warmth, growing from the grace of the Vision, an abundant flow of tears is born” 67. As long as sensation lasts, so does vision. With the cessation of sensation, vision ceases. It comes unknown, it goes unknown, not depending on our arbitrariness, depending on the dispensation. The gateway to spiritual vision is humility 68. The constant presence of tenderness is accompanied by constant vision. Vision is the reading and acceptance in the spirit of the New Testament. With the cessation of tenderness, communication with the New Testament ceases, and communication with the Old Testament begins; instead of the predominance in the soul of humility, which does not resist evil (Matthew 5:39), there is justice, which strives to tear out an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Matthew 5:38). For this reason, the Monk Sisoes the Great used to say with lamentation: “I read the New Testament, but return to the Old” 69 . Anyone who wants to constantly remain in tenderness and spiritual vision must take care to constantly remain in humility, driving out self-justification and condemnation of others, introducing humility through self-reproach and the consciousness of one’s sinfulness before God and people. The first spiritual vision is the vision of one’s sins, hitherto hidden behind oblivion and ignorance. Having seen them through emotion, the ascetic immediately receives experimental knowledge of the previous blindness of his spirit, in which what exists and existed seemed to him to be completely non-existent and non-existent. This existing thing, when tenderness recedes, again disappears into oblivion, and again appears non-existent. When tenderness appears, it appears again. The ascetic experimentally moves from the consciousness of his sins to the knowledge of his sinfulness, with which his nature is infected, to the knowledge of passions or various ailments of nature. From the vision of his fall, he gradually moves to the vision of the fall that embraces all human nature. Then the world of fallen spirits gradually opens up to him; he studies them in his passions, in the struggle with them, in the thoughts, dreams and sensations brought by spirits. The seductive and deceptive view of earthly life, which hitherto seemed endless to him, is taken away from him: he begins to see its edge - death; he begins to admire, that is, to be transported in spirit, by a feeling to the very hour of death, to the hour of God’s impartial judgment. From his fall, he also sees the need for a Redeemer, and by applying the commandments of the Lord to his ailments and seeing the healing and life-giving effect of these commandments on ailments and on the suffering soul, he acquires a living faith in the Gospel and begins to profess the Gospel with his life. In the Gospel, as if in a mirror, he sees even more clearly his fallen nature, the fall of humanity, and evil spirits. We limit ourselves to counting these visions as essentially necessary and quickly becoming accessible to the diligent monk; Let us conclude the calculation with the words of St. Maximus the Confessor: “It is impossible for the mind (i.e., the spirit) to achieve dispassion from one act (i.e., from physical feats alone), if many and different visions do not “accept” it” 70. The word “accept” shows that these visions are not contemplations, arbitrary states or creations of the mind; You can translate the word “accept” with the word “visit”. It is very natural for our spirit to acquire dispassion, when the sensations of fallen nature are replaced by spiritual sensations that follow and accompany tenderness, and the mind of fallen nature is replaced by spiritual mind, formed from concepts delivered by spiritual visions. In order to distract us from living according to the Gospel commandments, from Christ-like humility, from tenderness, from spiritual vision, from liberation from the slavery of passions or from dispassion, from the resurrection of the soul, in order to keep us in blindness, in death, in captivity, fallen spirits wage a fierce battle with ascetics. In this battle they exhaust all their inherent malice, all their characteristic cunning. Cunning and malice are called here characteristic of fallen spirits, not because they were given to them at creation - no! Fallen spirits were created good, alien to evil, as we already know from the teachings of Anthony the Great, because through their arbitrary fall they internalized evil and became alien to good. We repeat what was said above: the fall of man consists in mixing good with evil; the fall of demons is in the complete rejection of good, in the complete assimilation of evil 71 . “I was guided by all your commandments, I hated every way of unrighteousness” (Ps. 119:128), says the Holy Spirit about His guidance of man to salvation; so, in contrast to this, the spirit of malice opposes every commandment of the New Testament, hates every image of living a life pleasing to God. But in this opposition to the Gospel commandments, in the promotion of all sinful inclinations, fallen spirits are studied by the ascetic of piety, they are seen by him, they are known: with the knowledge of spirits acquired by this means, the sensual vision of spirits, if allowed, only replenishes knowledge. This is exactly how knowledge about a person is obtained: essential knowledge of a person is acquired by studying his way of thinking and feeling, his way of acting; The more detailed such study is, the more definite the knowledge becomes. This knowledge is replenished by face-to-face acquaintance; Personal acquaintance alone has almost no significance in relation to the essential knowledge of a person. Fallen spirits act on us with different thoughts, different dreams, different touches. In these actions they are seen and studied. All these actions are mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Gospel depicts the devil as first putting into the heart of Judas Iscariot the thought of the tradition of the God-man (John 13:2), then ascending into Judas (John 13:27). It is clear from the Gospel that Judas had an inclination towards the love of money (John 12:6) and, contrary to the commandments of the Lord, began to satisfy the desires of this passion, hiding behind a plausible, but essentially crafty concern for the poor. Based on this passion, the devil began to instill in him the idea of ​​betrayal; When Judas internalized the devil’s idea and decided to carry it out, then the devil completely prevailed over him. “Look,” says Blessed Theophylact, “Satan has ascended into him, that is, he has ascended into his very heart and embraced his soul. Previously, he chilled him from the outside with the passion of love of money, but now he has completely mastered him.” It is scary to agree with the devil’s thoughts; For such consent, God retreats from man, and man perishes. This happened to Ananias and Sapphira, mentioned in the Apostolic Acts, who, at the suggestion of the devil, agreed to lie before the Holy Spirit, and immediately, after the crime, were struck by death. “Ananias,” said the holy Apostle Peter, “why would Satan fill your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and hide the price of the village?” (Acts 5:3). That the devil tempts man with dreams is evident from the devil’s temptation of the God-man: the devil showed the Lord all the kingdoms of the earth and their glory “in the hour of time” (Luke 4:5), that is, in a dream. Our mind has the ability to think and the ability to imagine; through the second, he acquires images of objects. The devil, based on the first ability, tries to convey sinful thoughts to us, and based on the second ability, he tries to capture us with seductive images. “Just as a small and kindly child,” says Saint Hesychius, “seeing some magician, has fun and follows the magician out of kindness, so our soul, simple and kind, being created by the All-Good Lord, is amused by the dreamy pretexts of the devil; being seduced, it cleaves to evil, as if to good, and mixes (combines) its thoughts with dreams of demonic pretext" 72. Demonic daydreaming has a very harmful effect on the soul, arousing in it special sympathy for sin. Appearing often, it can make an indelible, detrimental impression. We read about how the devil acts on a person through touch in the book of Job (Job 1–2) and in the Gospel story about a woman who was bound by Satan with a special strange illness (Luke 13:10–16). The touches of demons arouse carnal passions and give rise to diseases that are not affected by ordinary human healing. All these images of demonic aspirations on a person can be studied by reading the lives of the Saints and the writings of the Fathers, mainly compiled for the edification of monks. But learning from reading is very insufficient: for satisfactory knowledge, learning by experience is necessary. When the human spirit begins to be purified by Divine grace, then it gradually moves from the knowledge of spirits to their spiritual vision. This vision is accomplished by the mind and heart, bestowed by the Holy Spirit. It is natural to a renewed mind and heart: so sensual vision is natural to the sensory eye, which sees not because of learning, but according to a natural property, and does not see only in the event of an illness that prevents natural action or stops it. Spiritual vision of spirits is accomplished with the mind and heart. The heart reproves the evil spirits; the mind is insufficient for this: it cannot distinguish by its own forces the images of truth from the images of lies covered by images of truth. Spiritual reasoning is based on spiritual sensation, as Saint Isaac of Syria said: “Spiritual intelligence is the sensation of the eternal life” 73, or as two disciples testified about their sensation and the meaning of this sensation during a conversation with the Lord, whom they did not recognize either with sensual eyes or by mental consideration: “Isn’t our heart sorrowful when He said (the Lord) nama on the way, and whenever the scriptures said nama” (Luke 24:32). This heart, which testified with fidelity about the Lord, also testifies with fidelity about the spirits, and tempts them, “if they are from God” (1 John 4:1), or from the kingdom of darkness and hostility. A heart purified by repentance and renewed by the Holy Spirit is capable of such testimony; but a heart captured by passions and demons is capable only of false and erroneous testimony. For this reason, the Monk Barsanuphius the Great said to a monk who asked him how to distinguish between thoughts coming from God, from nature and from demons: “What you are asking about applies to people who have reached a great measure (spiritual age). If the inner eye is not cleansed by many healings, then it cannot get rid of thorns and thistles and gather a bunch of grapes that strengthen and make glad the heart. If a person does not reach this measure, then he cannot discern (these thoughts), but will be mocked by demons and fall into deception by believing them: because they change things as they want, especially for those who do not know their wiles” 74 . Further in this message, the Great Father says: “Thoughts originating from demons are, first of all, filled with confusion and sadness, and they drag after themselves hiddenly and subtly: for enemies dress in sheep’s clothing, that is, they instill thoughts that are apparently right, but inwardly they are “predatory wolves” (Matthew 7:15), that is, they delight and “deceive the hearts of the gentle” ( Rom. 16:18) by what seems good, but is actually evil. – The light that comes from demons subsequently turns into darkness. Whatever you hear, or think, or see, and at the same time your heart is troubled even by a hair, all this is from demons.” In another message, the Great One said: “Know, brother, that every thought that is not preceded by the silence of humility does not come from God, but clearly from the left side. Our Lord comes with quietness; yet the enemy happens with confusion and rebellion. Although (demons) are shown clothed in sheep's clothing, being inwardly ravenous wolves, they are revealed through the confusion they cause: for it is said, “By their fruit you will know them” (Matthew 7:15, 16). May the Lord enlighten us all, so as not to be carried away by their (imaginary) truth” 75. Let us conclude our Word with the spiritually wise instruction of St. Macarius the Great: “A lover of virtue should be very concerned about acquiring reasoning, so that he can fully distinguish good from evil, so that he can explore and learn the various demonic machinations with which the devil has the custom of corrupting the mind under the guise of good ideas. It is good to always be careful to avoid dangerous consequences. Out of frivolity, do not quickly succumb to the suggestions of spirits, even if they were Heavenly Angels, but remain unshakable, subjecting everything to the most careful examination, and then accept what you see as truly good, and reject what turns out to be evil. The actions of God’s grace are not implicit, which sin, even if it has assumed the appearance of good, cannot in any way give. Although, according to the Apostle, Satan is transformed into a Bright Angel (2 Cor. 11:14) in order to deceive a person, even if he presented bright visions, then, as it is said, he cannot give a good action at all, which serves as a clear sign of it. He cannot teach either love for God and neighbor, nor meekness, nor humility, nor joy, nor peace, nor curbing thoughts, nor hatred of the world, nor spiritual peace, nor desire for heavenly gifts; below he can tame passions and lusts, which is a clear action of grace, for it is said: “The fruit of the spiritual is love, joy, peace” and so on (Gal. 5:22). On the contrary, he can conveniently convey pride and arrogance to a person, as he is very capable of this. So, you can recognize the intelligent light that has shone in your soul by its action, whether it is from God or from Satan. However, even to the soul itself, if it has sound reasoning and can distinguish between good and evil, both immediately become clear through rational feeling (spiritual sensation). Just as vinegar and wine are identical in appearance, but by taste the tongue immediately recognizes the difference between them, revealing what is vinegar and what is wine: so the soul, with its own strength, its spiritual feeling, can really distinguish between the gifts of the Good Spirit and the dreams of the evil one” 76 . The heart, overshadowed by Divine grace, is resurrected into spiritual life, acquiring a spiritual sensation unknown to it in the state of the fall, in which the verbal sensations of the human heart are killed by mixing with bestial sensations. A spiritual sensation or feeling with all justice is called rational, because its giver is “the Holy Spirit, Light and Life, and the Living Source of the Intelligent, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Reason, God and the God-creator.” “Taste and see” (Ps. 33:9), we repeat the saying of the Holy Scriptures that we have already cited. Spiritual vision, from which spiritual reasoning, comes from spiritual sensation 77. “Those who are perfect,” says the Apostle, “have solid food; those who have senses are trained by long training in the discernment of good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). So spiritual reasoning is the property of perfect Christians; those who have significantly succeeded in pious deeds participate in this good; it is alien to beginners and inexperienced people, even if they are old in physical age. What should newbies do? By entering into monasticism, they at the same time enter into a struggle with spirits; What rules should they follow so as not to become a victim of their ignorance, a victim of the malice and deceit of spirits? The Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church answer this question as follows: “We achieve true reasoning only through true humility, which consists in revealing to the Fathers not only what we do, but also what we think - so that we do not believe in anything our thoughts, but in everything follow the words of the elders and recognize as good what they approve. This work not only keeps the monk in true reasoning and on the right path, but also protects him from all the snares of the devil. It is impossible for someone who manages his life according to the judgment and advice of those who have succeeded to fall from the deception of demons: for before anyone is granted the gift of reasoning, the very fact that he reveals and reveals to his fathers his thoughts fades them and takes away their strength. Just as a snake, brought out of a dark hole into the light, tries to run away and hide, so evil thoughts, being discovered by sincere confession and their announcement, try to escape from a person” 78. The revelation of thoughts and the guidance of the council of successful fathers and brethren was the common work of ancient monasticism. It is the tradition of the Apostles: “Confess your sins to one another,” says the Apostle James, “and pray for one another, so that you may be healed” (James 5:16),” and the Apostle Paul told about himself that he was most carefully engaged in the edification of every Christian, tried to raise everyone to Christian perfection, so that the grace of the Holy Spirit acted in him (Col. 1:28–29). The holy mentors of ancient monasticism acted similarly: being vessels of the Holy Spirit, they soon raised their disciples to perfection, making them churches of God. This can be verified with all satisfaction from their writings that remain to us. Not gray hair, not the number of years, not earthly learning, but communion with the Holy Spirit elevated him to the level of a mentor and attracted the listeners of the word to the speaker of the Word of God, and not his own, human word. “It is good,” says the Monk Cassian in the above word, “not to hide your thoughts from your fathers, as I have already said; however, they should not be revealed to anyone but to spiritual elders who have the gift of reasoning, beyond their years and gray hairs. Many, having trusted in old age and confessed their thoughts, did not receive healing, but fell into despair from the lack of skill of those who accepted confession.” The Monk Abba Moses of the Skete asked for advice from the young monk Zacharias, who lived in the Skete. Zechariah fell at the feet of the elder and said to him: “Father! Are you asking me? The elder answered him: “Believe me, my son Zechariah, that I saw the descent of the Holy Spirit on you, and therefore I find it necessary to question you” 79 . The revelation of thoughts and living under the guidance of spirit-bearing fathers was considered so necessary by the ancient monks that monks who rejected this work were considered to be outside the path of salvation 80 . With the gradual weakening of Christianity, monasticism also began to gradually weaken; the living vessels of the Holy Spirit began to diminish; many hypocrites, in the form of self-interest and the acquisition of human glory, began to pretend to be holy and spiritual, to attract inexperienced people to themselves with a skillfully constructed guise, to damage and destroy them. Already Simeon the New Theologian, who lived in the 10th century after the birth of Christ, said: “Study the Divine Scripture and the writings of the Holy Fathers, especially active ones, so that by comparing the teaching and behavior of your teacher and elder with their teaching, you can see them (these teaching and behavior) as in a mirror, and understand; to assimilate what is consistent with Scripture and contain it in thought; recognize and reject what is false and bad, so as not to be deceived. Know that these days there are many deceivers and false teachers." 81 Over time, the spirit-bearing teachers became more and more diminished, as the later Holy Fathers painfully recount. “Nowadays such mentors have become extremely impoverished,” 82 says the Monk Nilus of Sorsky, who lived in the 15th century. With the shortage of mentors, the Holy Fathers, at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who had opportunely and insightfully provided for the spiritual needs of monks of recent times, compiled many edifying works, the totality of which satisfactorily defines the monastic feat 83 . These holy scriptures replenish to some extent the lack of living organs of the spirit. The later fathers are already offering more guidance to the Holy Scriptures and patristic writings, as the New Theologian proposed them, without rejecting very cautious advice with modern fathers and brethren, with all possible distance from wandering and from acquaintance outside and inside the monastery, while carefully keeping the spirit in thoughts and feelings of humility and repentance. The monastic prosperity brought by this work is very difficult and very inert; but this work was given by God to our time, and we are obliged to reverently use the gift of God given to us for salvation. The inertia of success and the numerous stumbling blocks involuntarily humble our spirit, so prone to vanity and exaltation, provide precious knowledge of our weaknesses, and lead to trust in the sole mercy of God. This “confidence will not put you to shame” (Rom. 5:5). Why were we not given the fiery wings of ancient monasticism, with which it flew across the sea of ​​passions with speed and strength, as was revealed to one of the great ancient fathers 84? These are the destinies of God that exceed our understanding; their investigation is forbidden to us: it would be a futile labor, an arrogant and criminal undertaking, 85 “for His judgment has not been tried, and His ways have not been explored. Who understands the mind of the Lord? or who will be His adviser? To him be glory forever. Amen" (Rom. 11:33–36). Called by the mercy of God to monastic life, let us use all diligence to acquire knowledge and spiritual states that are essential for our salvation. Let us not satisfy empty curiosity, vain and useless curiosity. It is terrible to allow yourself to be frivolous in a holy feat: the fruit of such frivolity can be serious, incurable injuries, and often even death. Let us try to achieve poverty of spirit, crying, meekness, hunger for heavenly truth. Let us beg God to reveal our sins to us and grant us true repentance! Let us ask God to reveal our passions to us and grant us healing from them! Let us beg God to reveal to us the fall of humanity, its redemption by the God-man, the purpose of our earthly journey and the eternity awaiting us either in never-ending pleasures or in never-ending torment, so that He prepares us and makes us capable of heavenly bliss, so that He removes from us those seals and destroys those manuscripts according to which we must be cast into the dungeons of hell! Let us beg God to grant us purity and humility, the fruit of which is spiritual reasoning that accurately distinguishes good from evil! Spiritual reasoning unmasks the action of our passions, which often appears to the inexperienced and passionate as an action of the highest good and even an action of Divine grace; spiritual reasoning tears off the mask from fallen spirits, with which they try to cover themselves and their machinations. Let us ask God to grant us a spiritual vision of spirits, through which we could discern them in the thoughts and dreams they bring to us, break off communication with them in our spirit, throw off their yoke, and get rid of captivity! Our destruction lies in communication with fallen spirits and in enslavement to them. Let us refrain from ignorant, harmful desires and desires for sensual visions, outside the order established by God! With humility and reverence let us follow the teaching of the Holy Fathers and the tradition of the Orthodox Church! Let us reverently submit to the institution of God, who covered our souls with thick curtains and shrouds of bodies for the duration of our earthly pilgrimage, separating us with them from the created spirits, shielding and protecting us from the fallen spirits. We do not need a sensual vision of spirits to complete our earthly, difficult journey. For this we need another lamp, and it is given to us: “A lamp for my feet is your law, and a light for my paths” (Ps. 119:105). Those who travel under the constant radiance of the lamp - the Law of God - will not be deceived either by their passions or by fallen spirits, as Scripture testifies: “There is peace for many who love Your law, and there is no temptation for them” (Ps. 119:165). This lamp reveals all the secret and obvious dangers on our path; reveals not only our fall, not only fallen spirits, but also the very miracles of God: “Thou hast made me wiser than mine enemies through Thy commandment,” says the Prophet (Ps. 119:98). “Turn away from me, you who are evil” (Ps. 119:115), there is no place for you: because I constantly exercise myself in studying the law of my God. His law is teaching throughout the whole day and all night, throughout my entire life, which I can rightly call day, as illuminated by the law of God, and I can rightly call night, according to the predominance of darkness over human society, emanating from the ruler of the world (Ps. 119:98, 115, 97). “The commandment of the Lord is bright:” it “enlightens” the mental “eyes” (Ps. 18:9), sin, pretending to be virtue, and the dark demon, taking the guise of a bright Angel, cannot hide from them. In due time, appointed by the one God and known to the one God, we will certainly enter the world of spirits. This time is not far from each of us! May the All-Good God grant us to spend our earthly life in such a way that, even during it, we break off communion with fallen spirits and enter into communion with holy spirits, so that on this basis, having stripped off our bodies, we are numbered among the holy spirits, and not among the rejected spirits. Then, in inexpressible joy, we will see both the ranks of holy Angels and the ranks of holy men in their wonderful abodes not made by hands, at their eternal spiritual holiday. Then we will recognize and see the fallen cherub with his dark hordes; then the God-given vision of demons - these most unfortunate creatures - will completely satisfy our curiosity about the Lord without any danger to us, as sealed by the finger of God in immutability and incapacity for seduction and damage by evil. Amen. I have also heard the denial of the existence of the soul! Thus, the intellectuals claim that in us there is an incomprehensible vital force, still unsolved by science, like in all animals, acting only during the life of the body and dying with it - that we are in no way higher than other animals; that we recognize ourselves as superior to them only because of our pride. This judgment belongs to those who, according to the proverb, do not hear the soul within themselves! Of course, due to the prevailing carnal state, and the whole person becomes flesh (Gen. 6:3). St. Mark the Ascetic on the Spiritual Law, ch. 32. Dobrotol., part 1. “Those who have renounced the world, although they do not know the alphabet (the alphabet), are wiser, enlightened by God’s light, more than those who know all Scripture, but seek to be glorified in this world. For the Holy Scripture was given to us from God for the sake of our salvation and the glorification of the name of God: for this reason we must read it, and study it, and listen to it. And when for the sake of our glorification we read and strive to know: then it will not only not be beneficial, but will be harmful to us.” Saint Tikhon of Voronezh, volume 15, letter 32. Alphabetical Patericon and memorable legends about Isaac the Great, presbyter of the Cells. Kelleys was the name given to a separate desert adjacent to Mount Nitria. Alphabetical Patericon, sayings of St. Pimen the Great. Venerable Macarius the Great, Homily 7, ch. 31. This image of seduction is currently in a special “fashion” among demons, due to the special disposition of modern people to trust it. Vita sanct. Pachomii, cap. XLIX, Patrologiae Tom. LXXIII. Chetiy-Minea September 1st day. St. Isaac of Syria, Homily 1. St. John of Damascus. An Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book 3, Ch. 1. Ave. Cassiana Interview 8, ch. 12. Ave. Isaac of Syria, Homily 36. The Carthage region was called Africa in the Roman Empire. See Chetii-Minea, life of St. Martyr Artemia, October 20th day. Cheti-Minea September 22 days. Chetyi-Minea October on the 24th day. St. Isaac of Syria Sermon 65. Chetiy-Minea December on the 29th day. Ladders Word 3, about dormouse. The Holy Apostle Paul defined the meaning of a sorcerer this way: “full of all deceit and all evil deeds, the son of the devil, the enemy of all righteousness”: Cheti-Minea, see the life of Basil the Great on January 1, The Tale of Theophilus, who fell and repented, June on the 23rd day. Look at the various opinions about this in the Chetya-Minaia of March 11, in the life of the holy martyr Pionius, presbyter of Smyrna, and in the notes to this life. A demon could appear to Saul in the form of a prophet and pronounce a prophecy at random, based on previous true prophecies and on the course of the case; Samuel himself could have appeared, by God's permission, for the Old Testament righteous before the coming of Christ were kept in hell and under the power of the devil, although not to the same extent as sinners and wicked people. See the life of St. Macarius of Zheltovodsk, June 15, Chetya-Minea. St. Isaac of Syria Sermon 2. Rev. Macarius the Great, Homily 4, ch. b and 7. Maronite monthly book. Sancti Antonii magni opera, Patrologiae Graecae, Tom. XL, pag. 960. Chet'i-Minea, life of St. Anthony the Great, story about Zerefer. “Great in perfection, the Venerable Anthony, who was perspicacious, overcame demonic temptations, to whom their deceit was imputed for nothing: and many times in vain were the sensual tosses of both Angels and demons.” Historia Lavsaica cap. XXVIII. Patrologiae Graecae Tom. XXXIV Patrologiae Graecae Tom. XXVI. Vita s. Anthony pag. 873.874–907.908. According to another reading; "skilled in deception." Patrologiae Tom. LXXIII, pag. 137. According to another reading: “An extraordinary multitude of them flies in this air; A horde of enemies is flowing not far from us.” Pag. 137. According to another reading: “God did not create anything that in itself would be evil. It was not by His institution that demons received their beginning: the reason for their transformation was not nature, but will. God created them good; but they, at the will of their own spirit, fell from heaven to earth, where, groveling in the stinking mud, they established the wicked beliefs of paganism. Now, tormented by envy of us, they constantly arrange all sorts of misfortunes for us so that we do not inherit the thrones that previously belonged to them. Their malice is manifold and manifold. Some of them have fallen into the very depths of depravity; others, in comparison with the most evil ones, seem not so fierce; but all of them, to the best of their ability, organize various battles against every virtue, against every ascetic. For this reason, it is necessary to ask God for the gift of reasoning between spirits (1 Cor. 12:10), so that we, foreseeing their intrigues and tricks, can raise one and the same banner against their various attacks - the cross of Christ" (PG. T. 73. Col. 137). According to another reading: “Fierce is the hatred of fallen spirits towards all Christians, especially towards monks and those who have dedicated their activities to Christ. On their way, spirits spread nets, trying to seduce their minds with illegal and nasty thoughts. But this should not strike you with fear: the machinations of demons are immediately crushed by the prayers of the faithful (Christians) to God and their fasts. However, if the demons stop fighting for a short time, do not think that this is a sign of complete victory over them. They usually rebel when they are wounded with greater cruelty and resume the attack, changing the way they fight. When they do not manage to do anything, acting with thoughts: then they try to sway them with insurance, they take the form of women, then animals, then snakes, then giants of extraordinary size, then they appear like regiments of warriors. All such ghosts disappear at the first sign of the cross. When these means of deception are recognized and remain futile, then they begin to prophesy and attempt to predict the events of the coming days. When they are trampled upon in this too, then they call upon them to help, to fight the ascetics, the very leader of their wicked host, the head and fullness of all evil.” Pag. 138. This refers to the great praise of the demon, depicted in the above passages of Holy Scripture. The great Egyptian hermit describes grandeur, extraordinary promises proclaimed by demons in order to seduce and deceive people, as well as monstrous ghosts represented by demons, their incredible and vain threats. By various means, demons try to entice people into submission to themselves, appearing to them sensually. An attentive doer of Christ’s commandments can discern exactly this action of demons, when they invisibly approach the soul and try to influence it with thoughts and dreams. Wanting to incline a person to voluptuousness, they present to him in his imagination picturesque seductive images and numerous means to satisfy carnal lust. Wanting to seduce with vanity, they present earthly prosperity in a seductive picture. Wanting to be shackled by the love of money, they imagine a long and painful old age, as well as the pretexts on which this vice is based. In a word: they seduce and threaten, they try by all means to steal faith in God, to distract from following the commandments of the Gospel, to bring people under their leadership. To those who submit to demons, they act cruelly, act like their worst enemies, offering everything with one intention - with the intention of causing all kinds of harm. Those who are inclined to seek glory are sometimes struck with disgrace immediately after obedience to flattery, sometimes they seem to be satisfied for a long time in order to be led into a most difficult situation, into a disastrous abyss. When the right hand of God leaves a person for his constant and deliberate enslavement to passion, then the demons plunge him into all types of humiliation. This is what they do with the money-lover and the sensualist. They seduce with sinful pleasure in order to pour out their mortal bitterness into those who obey them; they deceive with an abundance of blessings, so as to more accurately plunge them into the abyss of disasters; they threaten disasters so that a person, having renounced his trust in God, who protects people from the onslaught of disasters and in the onslaught of disasters, deviates to the measures of self-preservation offered by demons, and falls into disasters, the most confusing, inextricable. According to another reading: “Usually demons sometimes sing psalms in harmonious agreement, and - oh, wickedness! - they pronounce with unclean lips the holy sayings of Scripture,” pag. 139. According to another reading: “When we sleep, they excite us to prayer in order to take away the sleep of the whole night. Many of them, assuming the appearance of venerable monks, persuade the brethren to examine in detail previously committed sins, known to demons, in order to renew the feeling of pleasure in these sins or to lead to despair. We must despise the conviction of sins brought by demons, we must despise their insidious advice when they persuade us to fast or incite us to all-night vigil. They take on an appearance that is familiar and close to us, precisely for the purpose of making it more convenient to harm under the guise of virtue, so that it is more convenient to let in their poison, so as to deceive simple-heartedness with a plausible appearance. Subsequently, when they become close to those they are, they inspire them that the monastic feat is unbearable and impossible; presenting the beginning of monastic life as a heavy burden, they lead to hopelessness, hopelessness leads to despondency, despondency leads to complete relaxation.” Pag. 139. The prudent and cautious behavior prescribed towards demons during their sensory appearance must be strictly observed even when they act with thoughts alone. Acting with thoughts, they try, as with a sensory phenomenon, to defile and pervert every virtue with their admixture, in order to shake and overthrow the life of the ascetic, in order to shake and overthrow in him moral concepts, concepts on which truly pious life is based. Demons inspire the monk to impose on himself immoderate fasting, immoderate vigil, onerous prayer rules, excessive poverty in clothing, excessive zeal for bodily labor, in order to lead him into arrogance or, having exhausted his strength and health, to make him incapable of pious deeds. They try to strengthen the godly sadness of someone crying over sins and turn it into disastrous sadness, mixing it with repentance for sins. By piety in Christ we mean strict Orthodoxy, combined with strict living according to the commandments of the Gospel. According to another reading: “If they (the demons), imagining themselves to have foresight, announced the coming of the brethren, and it happened that those whom they had foretold would definitely come, then even then one should not allow oneself to trust their lies. They only announce those who are coming, so that by this announcement they can instill confidence in themselves, and then, because of the power of attorney, have free access with their deceptions. A Christian should not see any miracle in such predictions: not only they, by the subtlety (lightness) of their nature, freely wandering everywhere, can warn those walking on foot, but also people, mounted on fast horses, foretell the arrival of pedestrians. They do not proclaim something that has not yet begun to happen—God alone knows the future—but, having seen something that has begun to happen, they announce it, and in this way, like thieves, plant confidence in themselves in those who do not have a spiritual mind. In this way, a young man gifted with the speed of running could announce to those at a distant distance about our current meeting and what we are talking about before any of us came to that place. What has been said can be explained by facts. If someone from Thebaid or from a city in any other country sets out on a journey, then the demons, seeing him walking, can, due to their aforementioned speed, predict his coming. In the same way, they predict the flooding of the Nile, when they see that heavy rains have begun in Ethiopia, from which the river, when filling, usually protrudes from its bed, they run over to Egypt and announce the onset of the flood. This could easily be proclaimed by people, if they were gifted by nature with such speed.” Pag. 141. According to another reading: “The demons, examining everything with the greatest care, convey messages to each other, quickly running across. If it happens that what has been started, by the will of God, is not brought to an end, that is, if the traveler turns back from half the road or the rain clouds are blown away by the wind, then the deception is revealed, both of those who deceived and those who believed them.” Pag. 141–142. The Fathers call the natural state the state in which men were created; they call the state of falling unnatural. According to another reading: “The appearance of the holy Angels is pleasant and calm: they do not argue with each other, do not shout - they are so quiet that their voice cannot be heard. Appearing with kindness and quietness, they pour joy, pleasure, and information into the soul.” Pag. 142. A person, when seeing spirits - since this state is outside the usual order - cannot immediately give himself a true account of whether what he sees is actually happening, or whether it is just a vision (Acts 12:9)! Another reading, in some places included here in callouts, is a translation of the Greek text into Latin by Evagriem. Saint Demetrius of Rostov used this reading when compiling the biography of Saint Anthony the Great. Evagrius admits to the lack of accuracy of his translation; but this translation, being made by a monk who had experienced knowledge of hermit life, has its price. Chetyi-Minea, life of St. Isaac February 14, life of St. Nikita January 31st. Ave. Macarius the Great conversation 26, ch. 3. Such worship was given to the devil, who appeared in the form of Christ, Prov. Isaac of Pechersk, and suffered terribly. The last of the very useful chapters of St. Gregory the Sinaite. Dobrot., part 1. Chetyi-Minea, life of St. Pachomius the Great, May 15th day. Ladder, Word 27. Pr. Nile of Sorsky Word 11, Prologue of January on day 9, about a monk seduced by demons, life of St. Nikita of Pechersk, Chetya-Minea on January 31. Ave. Nil Sorsky, Homily 11, other teachers of Christian asceticism also reason this way. Saint Tikhon of Voronezh speaks a lot about the blindness of the spirit in his cell letters. Volumes 14 and 15. St. Isaac of Syria, beginning of 59 Words. Saying by St. John Kolov, Alphabetical Patericon. Monks Callista and Ignatius on silence and prayer, ch. 68, Philokalia, part 2. Ladders, Word 4, ch.35. All St. are of the same opinion. Fathers. A word on sobriety, chapter 43. Dobrot., part 2. About spiritual sensation, see Conversation 8, St. Macarius the Great and 1 Homily of St. Simeon, the New Theologian. Ave. Cassian the Roman, Discourse on Reasoning, Dobrot., part 4. Abba Dorotheos, a lesson about not abandoning your mind. This idea is found in the life of Elder Paisius Velichkovsky, a most skillful mentor of monks, who died at the end of the 18th century. His life and writings were published by Optina Pustynya in 1847. Alphabetical Patericon, in the life of St. John Kolov. There, in the life of Anthony the Great. You might be interested in: