On the special opposition of fallen spirits to prayer
Fallen spirits fiercely oppose all the gospel commandments, especially prayer as the mother of virtues. The Holy Prophet Zechariah saw in his vision “Jesus, the great priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and the devil standing right hand Him, if you resist Him" (Zach. 3 :1 ) : So now the devil relentlessly confronts every servant of God with the intention of stealing, desecrating his spiritual sacrifices and not allowing him to sacrifice, stopping and destroying it. “Fallen spirits are tormented by envy of us,” said St. Anthony the Great, “and do not cease to set in motion all evil, so that we do not inherit their former thrones in heaven.” In particular, “the demon is very jealous,” said St. Neil of Sinai, “of a person praying, and uses all kinds of intrigues to frustrate his work.” The demon uses every effort to hinder prayer or to make it powerless and invalid. This spirit, cast out from heaven for pride and indignation against God, infected with incurable envy and hatred of the human race, infected with a thirst for the destruction of people, vigilantly, day and night, concerned about the destruction of people, it is unbearable to see that a weak and sinful person is separated from everything earthly by prayer. , enters into a conversation with God Himself and comes out of this conversation sealed with the mercy of God, with the hope of inheriting heaven, with the hope of seeing even one’s mortal body transformed into a spiritual one. This sight is unbearable for the spirit, which is forever condemned to grovel, as it were, in mud and stench, in thoughts and sensations exclusively carnal, material, sinful, which, finally, must forever be overthrown and imprisoned in hellish prisons. He rages, goes into a frenzy, deceives, hypocrites, commits villains. We must be attentive and careful: only when absolutely necessary, especially at the request of assigned obedience, can you give the time designated for prayer to another activity. Do not leave your prayers without the most important reason, beloved brother! He who abandons prayer abandons his salvation; He who does not care about prayer does not care about salvation; he who abandoned prayer denied his salvation. A monk must behave very carefully, because the enemy is trying to surround him on all sides with his machinations, to deceive, seduce, outrage, seduce him from the path prescribed by the Gospel commandments, and destroy him in time and in eternity. Such a fierce, malicious and cunning persecution of the enemy is soon observed by an attentive life; We will soon notice that at the very time when it is necessary to engage in prayer, he prepares other activities, presents them as both important and impatient of delay, just to take prayer away from the monk. The machinations of the enemy turn in favor of the diligent ascetic: constantly seeing a murderer nearby with a drawn dagger raised to strike, the helpless, powerless, poor in spirit monk continually cries out with tears to the omnipotent God for help and receives it. The rejected spirit, when it cannot take away the time designated for prayer, then tries to steal and desecrate the prayer while it is being performed. For this purpose, he acts with thoughts and dreams. He dresses his thoughts in the guise of truth in order to give them more strength and conviction, and he presents dreams in the most seductive painting. Prayer is stolen and destroyed when, during its performance, the mind does not heed the words of the prayer, but is occupied with empty thoughts and dreams. Prayer is desecrated when, during prayer, the mind, distracted from prayer, turns its attention to sinful thoughts and dreams represented by the enemy. When sinful thoughts and dreams appear to you, do not pay any attention to them. As soon as you see them in your mind, the more intensely close your mind in the words of prayer and beg God with the warmest and most attentive prayer to drive away your murderers from you. The evil spirit arranges its shelves with special skill. Ahead of him are thoughts clothed in all kinds of truth, and dreams that an inexperienced ascetic can mistake not only for innocent phenomena, but also for inspiration, for holy and heavenly visions. When the mind accepts them and, having submitted to their influence, loses its freedom, then the leader of the foreign army puts forward clearly sinful thoughts and dreams for the fight. “Dispassionate thoughts,” said the Monk Nilus of Sora, referring to the former great fathers, “will be followed by passionate ones: the allowed entrance of the first is the reason for the forced entry of the second.” The mind, as having arbitrarily lost its freedom in a collision with advanced forces, disarmed, weakened, captive, cannot in the least resist the main forces, is immediately defeated by them, subordinated, enslaved by them. During prayer, it is necessary to enclose the mind in the words of prayer, indiscriminately rejecting every thought, both obviously sinful and righteous in appearance. Any thought, no matter what his attire and armor, but if it distracts him from prayer, this thereby proves that he belongs to a foreign regiment and came uncircumcised, "blaspheme Israel" (1 Sam. 17 :25 ) . The fallen angel bases his invisible warfare (struggle) with man with his own sinful thoughts and dreams on the mutual affinity of sins among themselves. This warfare does not cease either day or night, but it acts with special tension and fury when we stand up for prayer. Then, according to the expression of the holy fathers, the devil collects the most absurd thoughts from everywhere and pours them out on our soul. Firstly, he remembers to us and all those who offended us; insults and insults inflicted on us; tries to present in vivid painting retribution for them and presents resistance to them as a requirement of justice, common sense, public benefit, self-preservation, necessity. It is obvious that the enemy is trying to shake the very foundation of the prayerful feat - gentleness and meekness - so that the building erected on this foundation collapses by itself. This is how it happens, because someone who is malicious and has not forgiven his neighbor’s sins cannot concentrate during his prayer and come to tenderness. Angry thoughts dispel prayer; they carry it to the sides, just as a gusty wind carries the seeds thrown by a sower into his field, the soil of the heart remains unsown, and the intense labor of the ascetic remains in vain. It is known that forgiveness of insults and insults, replacing condemnation of neighbors with a merciful apology for them, and blaming oneself serve as the basis for successful prayer. Very often the enemy, at the very beginning of prayer, brings thoughts and dreams of earthly prosperity: either in a seductive picture he presents human glory as a fair or happy tribute to virtue, as if recognized and finally recognized by people who now come under its leadership, then in an equally seductive The picture presents an abundance of earthly means, on the basis of which Christian virtue should flourish and strengthen. Both of these paintings are false, they are depicted in opposition to the teachings of Christ, and cause terrible harm to the spiritual eye that looks at them and to the soul itself, which commits adultery from its Lord with sympathy for demonic painting. Outside the cross of Christ there is no Christian prosperity. The Lord said: “I do not accept glory from men... As much as you can believe, you accept glory from one another, and you do not seek glory other than from the one God.” (In. 5 :41, 44 ) . When doing all your good deeds “don’t be a hypocrite” (Matt. 6 :16 ) who do good for human glory, who receive human glory as a reward for their virtue and deprive themselves of the right to an eternal reward ( Matt. 6 :1-18 ) . “Don’t let your fool steal away”, that is, your own vanity, "What is your right hand doing", that is, your will, directed according to the Gospel commandments, “And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you in reality” gift of the Holy Spirit ( Matt. 6 :3 ) . The Lord also said: “No one can work for two masters: either he will love one and hate the other: or he will stick to one, but begin to be careless about his friends: you cannot work for God and mammon.”, that is, property, wealth ( Matt. 6 :24 ) . “Unless he renounces all his possessions, he cannot be My disciple.” (OK. 14 :33 ) . It is worthy of note that the devil, tempting the God-man, offered Him the vainglorious thought of being glorified by a public miracle, and the dream of the most developed and powerful position. The Lord rejected both ( Matthew 4; Luke 4): He leads us to the highest success along the narrow path of selflessness and humility, and He Himself paved this saving path. We must follow the example and teaching of the Lord: reject thoughts of earthly glory, earthly prosperity, earthly abundance, reject the joy brought by such dreams and reflections, which destroy in us contrition of spirit, concentration and attention during prayer, introducing conceit and absent-mindedness. If we agree with vain, proud, selfish and peace-loving thoughts and dreams, do not reject them, but abide in them and enjoy them, then we enter into communication with Satan, and the power of God, which protects us, will retreat from us. The enemy, seeing the retreat of God's help from us, directs two heaviest battles at us: warfare with thoughts and dreams of fornication and warfare with despondency. Defeated by the first battle, deprived of the intercession of God, we do not resist the second battle. This is what the fathers said, that God allows Satan to trample on us until we humble ourselves. It is obvious that thoughts of remembrance, condemnation, earthly glory and earthly prosperity are based on pride. Rejection of these thoughts is rejection of pride. The rejection of pride is accomplished by the establishment of humility in the soul. Humility is Christ's way of thinking and that heartfelt guarantee that comes from this way of thinking, by which all passions are killed in the heart and erupted from it. The invasion of prodigal passion and the passion of despondency will be followed by an invasion of thoughts and feelings of sadness, unbelief, hopelessness, bitterness, darkness, blasphemy and despair. The pleasure of carnal lusts makes a particularly grave impression on us. The Fathers call them desecrators of the spiritual temple of God. If we delight in them, then the grace of God will retreat from us for a long time and all sinful thoughts and dreams will receive the strongest power over us. They will continue to torment and torment us until we again attract grace to ourselves through sincere repentance and abstinence from enjoying the enemy’s excuses. Experience will not fail to teach an attentive monk all this.
Having learned the order, the rank and regulations that the enemy adheres to when fighting us, we can organize appropriate resistance. Let us not judge or condemn our neighbor under any pretext; we will forgive our neighbors all the gravest insults inflicted on us by our neighbors. Whenever a thought of malicious malice appears against a neighbor, we will immediately turn to God in prayer for that neighbor, asking him for God’s mercy in time and in eternity. Let us renounce our souls, that is, the search for human glory, the search for an overly comfortable earthly position, the search for all earthly advantages, and we surrender ourselves entirely to the will of God, thanking and praising God for our past and present, placing our future on Him. Let such behavior and our direction be a preparation for our prayer, the basis for our prayer. Before starting prayer, let us humble ourselves before our neighbors, accuse ourselves as having seduced and seduced them with our sins, begin our prayer with prayer for our enemies, unite ourselves in prayer with all humanity and beg God to have mercy on us along with all people, not because we are worthy to pray for humanity, but to fulfill the commandment of love, which lays down the law: "pray for each other" (Jacob 5 :16 ) . Although a true servant of God is allowed to struggle with the various causes of sin brought by Satan and arising from our nature damaged by the fall, the right hand of God constantly supports and guides him. The struggle itself brings the greatest benefit, providing the ascetic with monastic experience, a clear and detailed understanding of the damage to human nature, about sin, about the fallen angel, leading the ascetic to contrition of spirit, to weeping for himself and for all humanity. The Monk Pimen the Great told about St. John Kolov, the father, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, that he begged God and the struggle caused by the ailments of a fallen nature or passions stopped in him. He went and announced this to a certain elder who had succeeded in spiritual reasoning, saying: “I see myself in indestructible calm, without any warfare.” The prudent elder answered John: “Go and pray to God that the battle will return, because because of the battle the soul comes to prosperity, and when the battle comes, do not pray that it will be taken away, but that the Lord will grant patience in the battle.”
Date of publication or update 05/01/2017
IV. Images of the influence of evil spirits on people.
As already written above, the demons brought down all their anger and hatred on man, who is the image of God. All their efforts are aimed at destroying as many as possible more human souls. Why do they use all their capabilities and strength?
“The devil tortures from everywhere,” says St. Gregory the Theologian, - looks out for where to overthrow, where to wound and find what is unprotected and open to attack; the more purity it sees, the more it strengthens to defile... The evil spirit takes on a double image, spreading first one or the other net: it is either the deepest darkness (obvious evil), or it turns into a bright angel (hides behind the appearance of goodness and deceives the minds a gentle smile), which is why special care is needed so as not to encounter death instead of light.” The holy Apostle Paul also warns about the need for special care and vigilance, saying that Satan himself will be transformed into an angel of light, no matter what, if his servant is transformed as a servant of righteousness, his death will be according to work (2 Cor. 11:14-15 ).
In the fight against a person, fallen spirits affect his body, mental, sensory and volitional spheres.
Demons can kill people (Tov. 3, 8), make them sick and enter them (that is, take over their body).
Demons enter the interior of the human body with their entire gaseous being, just as air enters it. Detailed description We find this fact in Motovilov’s story about how an unclean spirit took possession of his body and tormented him for many years.
The demon, having entered a person, does not mix with the soul, but remains in the body, violently possessing soul and body. According to the instructions of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, “gases have a special development of the property of elasticity, that is, the property of taking on different volume measures; It is obvious that demons also have this property, according to which many of them can be housed in one person, as the Gospel speaks about this (Luke 8:30).” Having entered a person, according to the testimony of St. John Cassian, “demons bring a terrible darkness to the rational feelings of the soul; [this happens] like the phenomena that occur from wine, fever or excessive cold.” But he cannot make our soul his container. “Unclean spirits,” asserts the same saint, “cannot penetrate the bodies of those possessed by them unless they first take possession of their minds and thoughts.
Having stripped their minds of the clothing of the fear of God, the memory of God, evil spirits attack them as if they were disarmed and deprived God's help and God’s fences, and therefore conveniently conquered and, finally, setting up dwellings in them, as if in the possession presented to them.” St. also speaks about this. Gregory the Theologian: “The devil cannot take possession of us completely by any means: if he strongly takes possession of some, then only by his own will he takes possession without resistance” (James 4:7). Thus, from all of the above, we can conclude that the direct possession of an evil spirit in a person occurs only with the special connivance of the Lord and is often a consequence of the passionate and frivolous life of a sinner.
Not possession, but the possession of a person through the external subordination of the forces of the soul to his demonic will is observed much more often than possession. A typical example of this is Judas. The words of the Gospel about Satan going into Judas (Luke 22:3) should not be understood to mean that Judas became possessed in the full sense of the word. St. John the Theologian says that through the passion of the love of money, Satan first penetrated the disciple’s soul (John 12:6), then he more fully took possession of his heart (John 13:2) and finally decisively moved into him (John 13:27). Here is a vivid example of the demon’s gradual takeover of the soul of a sinner through the ever-increasing passion of love of money.
One of the main images of the influence of unclean spirits on people is the impact on their mental sphere by introducing various sinful thoughts there. Being out of reach of a person’s bodily senses, demons, influencing his mind, bring there various thoughts, which the individual, who does not lead a spiritual life, accepts as his own. And if he accepts them and agrees with them, then through this he becomes a conductor of someone else’s evil will, which gradually takes possession of him completely. “Often,” says Anthony the Great, “being themselves invisible, [evil spirits] present themselves as reverent interlocutors in order to deceive with the likeness of an image and draw those deceived by them into whatever they want.”
Orthodox asceticism even has special terms to denote the effects exerted by the spirits of evil on the human soul. These are “thoughts” or images rising from the lower regions of the soul, from the subconscious, then - “pretext”, not so much “temptation”, but the presence of an extraneous thought that came from outside and was introduced into consciousness by a hostile will. “This is not a sin,” says St. Mark the Ascetic, but a testimony of our freedom.” Sin begins only with “combination”, with the attachment of the mind to an incoming thought or image, or, rather, it is some interest or attention, already indicating the beginning of agreement with the enemy’s will, for evil always presupposes freedom, otherwise it would only be violence, possessing a person from the outside.
Demons, knowing that people love the truth, take on the guise of truth and by this means pour poison into their followers. This is how the devil once deceived Eve, telling her not his own words, but allegedly repeating the words of God, while perverting their meaning (Gen. 3:1). So he seduced Job’s wife, teaching her excessive love for her husband, and hence blasphemy against God: “You say a certain word (blaspheme) against the Lord and die” (Job 2:9), she said, believing that this was blasphemy against God. a person immediately undergoes death and thereby ends his grave earthly torment. Thus the devil deceived and deceived all people, perverting the essence of things, and drew everyone into the abyss of evil.
However, it should be noted that when fighting with us, demons do not know the location of our hearts, cannot read our thoughts, but from the words we utter in conversation, from actions outer man when talking, “standing up, sitting, walking, looking at us, they see - flattering all day long (Ps. 37:13) - our internal structure, so that during prayer they darken our mind with evil thoughts corresponding to the disposition of passion” (St. Evagrius the monk). This is what St. says about this. Isidore Pelusiot: “The devil does not know what is in our thoughts, because it exclusively belongs to the power of God alone; but by bodily movements he senses thoughts. Will he see, for example, that another is looking inquisitively and saturating his eyes with alien beauties? Taking advantage of his dispensation, he immediately incites such a person to commit adultery. Will he see the one overcome by gluttony? He will immediately vividly present to him the passions generated by gluttony, and will help him to bring his intentions into action. Encourages robbery and unjust acquisition.” The ascetic Christ God equalizes the strength of those who are fighting and tames the ferocious rage of evil spirits, who, without God’s permission, cannot tempt people, as can be seen from the life of Job. Even the demons themselves do not have the power to enter into a herd of pigs, and the Lord does not allow them to tempt a person beyond his strength. But in the struggle it gives the Christian strength that gives him the opportunity to emerge victorious.
In addition to the mental sphere, fallen spirits can also attack the sensual and volitional side of the human soul. This is what St. Petersburg writes about this. Neil of Sinai: “When the envious demon does not have time to set the memory in motion, then he acts on the blood and juices in order to create imagination in the mind through them and fill it with images.” By influencing the body, the demon arouses in a person feelings of lust, rage, anger, etc. This is clearly seen in the example of St. Justina, in which a demon sent by a sorcerer incited feelings of lust and sensuality, but was driven away by the saint’s prayer.
Influencing the volitional sphere of the human soul, the demon, as it were, deprives a person of strength, energy, the ability to take decisive actions and any action in general, but again, during prayer, he leaves, being defeated by the power of Christ.
Evagrius the monk writes that demons differ in the degree of evil and strength, performing different ministries. This is confirmed by St. John Cassian, saying that “some of them delight in unclean and shameful lusts, others love blasphemy, others anger and rage, others are consoled by sadness, others by vanity and pride - and each instills that passion in human hearts with which he himself personally delights; but not all together excite passions, but alternately, depending on how the time, place and acceptability of the tempted require.” The same ascetic testifies to the spiritual invisible warfare: “The weakest spirits are allowed to attack the new and weak, and when these are defeated, then the strongest are sent,” but this happens as the spiritual strength of the warrior of Christ increases.
Demons have a kind of “specialization”; being in evil, they have some freedom, because they can choose from many evils the one that is most pleasant for them. They live by this passion, they try to kindle it in a person, through this gaining access to his soul and body. In addition, it is quite acceptable to assume that demons can be nourished and strengthened by human energy transformed in passionate pleasure. If, according to St. John of Damascus, Angels “contemplate God as far as is possible for them, and have this as food,” then demons, for whom contemplation is impossible, apparently can receive energy indirectly, through a person, adapting his energy for their nutrition. To do this, they must first liken the person to themselves, thereby gaining access to his soul. A passionate and sin-loving person is an excellent breeding ground for fallen spirits. Inflating the energy of passions in him, devouring his vital forces, the demon feeds and strengthens in such an environment. In addition, having taken possession of a sinner, the fallen spirit uses his body as a tool to obtain greater pleasure from passion. This is another reason why a passionate and sin-loving person is literally surrounded by demons.
At the same time, it should be noted that fallen spirits can endow their servants with a special demonic type of energy, which allows obedient executors of the will of the forces of evil to work tirelessly in the field of multiplying sin. But due to their destructive nature, demons, deprived of the ability to create, ultimately destroy their followers.
The Lord allows the evil will of demons to manifest itself, since He does not violate the freedom of any rational being. At the same time, He always limits the harmful actions of the spirit of malice, directing them to the good of people. While after the deception of our first parents the devil more and more extended his power and dominion over people, the Lord, for His part, prepared everything to completely shake and overthrow this power, which was accomplished by the Son of God who came to earth, who, having destroyed kingdom of the devil, founded His Holy Church. He has given the true believers the power to resist and dominate the spirits of evil. “That Christ was born to crush demons,” wrote St. Justin, addressing the pagans, - this and now you can learn from what is happening before your eyes. For many of our Christians have healed and are now still healing many people possessed by demons both throughout the world and in our city, conjuring in the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate... thereby defeating and driving out the demons that have taken possession of people.”
Waging constant and bitter warfare with believers in Christ, the spirit of malice, however, never violates human freedom, resorting to enchanting seductions and crafty advice and persuasion. Therefore, with the help of God’s grace, a Christian can successfully repel all enemy attacks through the heartfelt invocation of the name of Jesus, the sign of the cross, from which demons tremble. During persistent demonic warfare, prayer and fasting are necessary, which support and strengthen the strength of the soul, as well as spiritual wakefulness (the fight against sinful thoughts), in which it is easier for the spiritual fighter to notice all the tempting devil’s tricks and repel them in time. The Savior Himself taught the rule on how to cast out evil spirits: This generation can be cast out by nothing except through prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29).
The Lord allows temptations of the devil, firstly, to shame and humiliate the devil and, secondly, to test and strengthen the will of His followers in goodness. In the fight against demonic temptations, ascetics gain spiritual experience, recognize their spiritual illnesses and, by healing them, improve in goodness. “God is a lover of mankind,” writes St. Basil the Great, “uses the cruelty of demons to heal us, just as a wise doctor uses the venom of a viper to heal the sick.” St. John Chrysostom on this occasion says the following: “If anyone asks why God did not destroy the ancient tempter, we will answer that He did this out of nothing other than out of great care for us. For if the evil one had taken possession of us by force, then this question would have some validity. But since he does not have such power, and can only incline us to himself, while we may not be inclined, then why do you eliminate the reason for merit and reject the means to achieve crowns?.. For this purpose God left the devil - so that those who had already been defeated by him deposed him, and the valiant had the opportunity to discover their (firm) will... The devil is evil for himself, and not for us: because, if we want, we can acquire a lot of good through him, of course, against his will and desire, which is where the special miracle and extraordinarily great love of God is revealed... When the evil one frightens and confuses us, then we come to our senses, then we recognize ourselves, and then we resort to God with great zeal.” According to Saint Justin, God, for the sake of Christians, “slows down to bring about the confusion and destruction of the Universe, so that there are no more evil angels or demons,” the end of whose destructive activity will be the final condemnation of evil spirits to eternal hellish torment.
Sacrifices. According to St. Basil the Great: “All the idols to which the pagans worship are invisibly cohabiting and co-present with certain demons who find pleasure in unclean sacrifices.”
The power of demons over the statues dedicated to them is clearly revealed by the content of the narrative that we read in the book of Kings (1 Samuel 5:2-3). Foreigners captured the ark of the Lord and placed it in the temple of their god Dagon. Entering the next morning, they found the statue of Dagon fallen on its face. The image visible to all was Dagon; the one who fell on his face was a demon, overthrown by the glory surrounding the ark of God. It was he who fell on his own face, and with him he overthrew and overthrew the visible thing.
For this reason, those who eat food sacrificed to idols are recognized as participants in the meal of demons (1 Cor. 10:21).
As we see from the above, the prince of this age not only invisibly captivated people with his thoughts, but also entered into open communication with them, making prophecies from idols. In this he was helped by such obvious villains as the well-known from history Iannias and Zamri and other wise men, priests, astrologers and sorcerers. The delusion of people was supported by miracles and demonic prophecies.
Rebellious and hostile authorities willingly and hastily perform such services in order to increase the number of participants in their destruction.
In addition, for the false miracles they performed, people brought them sacrifices, so beloved by demons, and gave them divine honors, thereby satisfying satanic pride.
Communion with Christ frees believers from the power of the devil, but this only with the most perfect faith; and since perfection is not achieved by everyone, the power of the devil in the world continues over the imperfect according to their passion, as well as over those who do not believe in Christ. Thus, only believers are given the opportunity to be liberated from the power of the devil as a result of the Savior’s merits on the cross. This possibility is realized according to the measure and degree of faith and moral improvement of a person. That is why, although the victory of Christ over the prince of peace was actually accomplished by the death and resurrection of Christ, the Church of Christ, in its temporary and gradual development in the world, is still a militant Church and will remain so until the end of the world and the Last Judgment.
Because of the atoning merits of Jesus Christ, we can overcome the devil. Its influence on people is weakened, especially on those who are crucified to Christ “with their passions and lusts.” Only through sin and passions do demons cling to the soul, and while it is in sin, it is blinded by them. St. Gregory of Nyssa says: “When our nature fell into sin, God did not leave our fall by His Providence, but to help everyone’s life he assigns a certain Angel from among those who have accepted an incorporeal nature, but on the opposite side, the corrupter of nature contrives to do the same through some evil one and a malevolent demon who would harm human life. A person, being among an Angel and a demon, himself makes one stronger than the other, choosing a teacher from the two with his free will. Good Angel foretells the good of virtue to the thoughts, while the other shows material pleasures from which there is no hope for good.”
As we see, the final choice of good and evil always remains with the person himself. And if he accepts the side of the Angel of Light, a Christian easily defeats the fallen spirit. The Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church show us the following means to fight the devil: faith, the word of God, calling on the name of Christ our Savior, fear of God, humility, sobriety, prayer, the sign of the cross. Every Christian can directly use these means in the fight against demons; There are also those that can be used through the clergy; this is repentance with Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and spells read over those suffering from unclean spirits. “When people of prayer (praying Christians) courageously endure temptations, repent of their sins, complacently endure insults, remain in prayer,” testifies St. John of Carnath, “the demons are tormented, tormented and crying, but people are not allowed to see this, lest they become arrogant.” Prayer, which promotes the outpouring of the grace of the Holy Spirit on a person and connects him with God, burns demons and, not tolerating the fire of grace, they run away from the one praying with screams. That is why, in any temptation, it is necessary to rise to prayer, which gives us God’s help, with which we are invincible.
Just as spirits have an influence on matter, so substance has an influence on spirits. In church practice, the repellent effect of incense on evil spirits is known. The beneficial effect of holy relics, miraculous icons and even the clothes of saints, whose presence evil spirits cannot stand, is also noted. All this is connected with the grace that emanates from them and burns the demons.
It is known that holy ascetics, even in earthly life, received power over unclean spirits. Thus, in the lives of St. Andrey, MC. Juliana and St. Anthony the Great we read that they even subjected evil demons to be beaten. The lives of the saints are filled with evidence of the victory of the transfigured man over unclean spirits.
On the nature of fallen spirits
“Fallen angels” (demons, or demons) carry within themselves all the properties inherent in angelic nature.
Saint Demetrius of Rostov points out that first “Angels were created in the image and likeness of God, just as man was subsequently created.” Angels were created immortal, intelligent, incorporeal, capable of singing - as St. Athanasius the Great.
While the devil was an Angel of God, he lived in Heaven, that is, in the spiritual world, with other Angels. But, as the prophet Ezekeel says (28:17), because of his beauty his heart became proud and because of his vanity he destroyed his wisdom. Having been created good, the former Angel of his own free will became “Satan” ( enemy God) and the “devil” ( slanderer for the goodness of God). By slandering God and, at first, by the impunity of his proud resistance to God, he seduced many other Angels and drew them along with him. The Lord decided to stop the spread of evil through the Angels who remained faithful to Him. Archangel Michael defeated the slanderer with a call to all the Angelic Heavenly Forces to remember the fact of their creation: “ Who from Angels can create them, Angels, like God created them?
The angel-demons infected with pride could not tolerate the truth of these words. Like swords and spears, the words of God’s Truth pierced their beings and forced them to leave the world of the celestials forever and, by God’s command, to find themselves in world under heaven. From now on, their place of residence is the celestial space, i.e. the entire visible space, our earthly air, the earth and its underworld - the interior of the earth.
The Lord and His faithful Angels reside in a world inaccessible to the influence of demons. Therefore, the demons turned all their anger towards man, who is the image of God, and, knowing that the Lord loves His creation, they strive to harm him as much as possible.
From the lives of the saints it is clear that the head fallen angels, Satan, until the coming of the Antichrist, remains in hell - in the core of the earth, and on the earth's surface, both in the air and in the water environment, demons act under the control of their “princes”, that is, fallen angels of the highest hierarchies who descend to hell to receive orders Satan and inform him of their actions.
Why and how demons do evil
Everyone knows what it is urgent need. We have many needs, but urgent There are significantly fewer of them. This is something you cannot live without.
Demons also have this urgent need. They do not need food, sleep or rest. They need do evil. Demons think of nothing but evil, and find no peace or pleasure in anything except evil activity. The feeling of good, like the Kingdom of God, is hateful to them. Frenzied hatred of God is expressed by terrible and incessant blasphemy, opposition and irreconcilable enmity. Not being able to commit carnal sins physically, they commit them in dreams and carry them out through people. They have internalized carnal vices into their disembodied nature and developed in themselves sins that are unusual for them, much more than people. Driven by insatiable malice towards the human race (Job 1:7), demons are the sources of various diseases and torments of people and animals, and in general of all nature on earth.
The Holy Scriptures contain many examples of the influence of Satan and his servants, demons, on the human body and soul. In the 4th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew we read how the devil, tempting the Lord Jesus Christ, with his power carries Him first to the roof of the temple, then to high mountain. The Book of Job tells how the devil sends fire on a flock of sheep and shepherds, causes a hurricane that destroys the house where Job’s children are gathered, and they die (1, 9). In the Book of Tobit, a demon named Asmodeus kills seven husbands...
But, perhaps, the most terrible effect of demons on a person, which is described in the Holy Scriptures, is their entry into his insides. The demon, having entered a person, does not mix with the human soul, but, being in the body and soul, forcibly takes possession of them. This is demonization, or obsession. In the Gospel of Luke (8:30) we read that many demons can be present in one person. Our Lord Jesus Christ throughout the entire gospel history constantly casts out demons from people (Matthew 8:28-34; 9:32-33; Mark 1:23-26; 9:17-29; Luke 11:14 and etc.).
But how does a demon possess a person?
How does a demon possess a person?
As the holy fathers teach, the demon, before moving into a person, prepares the “soil.” The main way they influence is instilling in a person your thoughts under the guise of his own. They do this very carefully, applying their thoughts to the thoughts of a person, so that it is not noticeable how the thoughts they inspire are woven into human consciousness. They gradually accustom people to think and desire only sinful things, making them similar to themselves. By subjugating the mind and will of a person, demons strive to take possession of his body. This becomes possible when the grace of God leaves an incorrigible sinner not for destruction, but for punishment. Now demons can enter his body and control him. And there is no crime or atrocity that a possessed (in modern terms, “zombified”) person could not commit, if not for God’s Providence, which sets external limits to demonic power.
In special cases, for admonition and correction, God allows demons to inhabit a believer, a church person...
...There are people in whom the presence of demons happens open. These are the most terrible and difficult cases: when someone else’s evil will using human body and forcing him to scream in a voice that is not his own, to hit the floor and throw himself at people, to perform all sorts of ugly actions - everything that we call madness. Such people are usually no longer helped by the prayers of loved ones or holy water prayers - they need special church help.
And of course, no psychiatry, no “white magic”, no psychics or “non-traditional”, “folk” healers will be able to help these unfortunate people.
Psychiatrists treat the possessed as people with ordinary mental damage - they “treat” them with pills and injections...
One spiritual writer reports interesting fact from national history. “Modern godless psychiatry,” he writes, “does not know how to distinguish a neurotic patient from a possessed person. IN pre-revolutionary Russia methods were known to allow this to be done without error. One of them: ten glasses are placed in front of a person suspected of being possessed. Nine of them are with holy water, one is with plain water. The possessed person, no matter how many attempts he makes, will always choose a glass of plain water.”
Only clergy can help such people Orthodox Church, experienced in spiritual life and having a special blessing from the hierarchy. They apply the church practice of so-called “reading” to demon-possessed people, which includes special prayers and sacred rites.
However, the following must be said about clearly possessed people: they are under the special providence of God, for a possessed person always knows about his disastrous state and always wants to get rid of the evil living in him. Only he himself, by his own will, is no longer able to do this. As paradoxical as it may sound, a demoniac has an advantage over an inveterate sinner: a drunkard, a fornicator, a covetous person. The possessed person wants to get rid of evil, but the sinner does not always want to stop sinning. True, on the other hand, a sinful person still has freedom of choice, free will, while the will of the possessed is controlled by the demon.
"Mild" obsession and constant unhappiness
How physical illnesses can have different shapes and stages, so the spiritual disease we are talking about - possession, or demonization - has its own different degrees. Everyone will agree: it is one thing when a person cannot stay in church for a long time (he is tempted to leave), and quite another thing when he barks and writhes in horror under the sign of the cross. Of course, the first case is “just” the initial degree of obsession. We'll talk about it now.
Experience shows that such initial obsession V last years is becoming an increasingly widespread phenomenon.
Non-church people constantly claim that they “don’t wish harm on anyone,” and therefore they wonder why God is punishing them, why doesn't stick life. They do not consider their sins, which they managed to hide from people, as evil and therefore do not even remember them. For example, the sin of killing a conceived baby in the womb - abortion - in the era of godless authorities was declared not a sin, not a crime, but a “physiological intervention.” And so, to this day, elderly women, child killers, who have made their husbands and other loved ones accomplices in the crime, still come to church - and they are sincerely perplexed: where do they get depression from, why does such melancholy begin in the church, some incomprehensible tears appear, it becomes stuffy, like before fainting?..
Passions and vices that have become so familiar that they can no longer be separated from a person’s personality (smoking, foul language, “everyday” lies, self-pity, lustful thoughts, passion for television, continuous condemnation of one’s acquaintances...) create fertile ground for episodic or gradually passing in the constant influence of demons on him.
As soon as such a person comes to a temple where services are held with reverence, he immediately begins to feel yourself bad. He is stuffy (from the incense), hot, and dark, lacking light and air. And if the parishioners also pray fervently, then during the Cherubic or Eucharistic canon, or even during the sermon calling for repentance, such people, for no apparent reason, begin to have an attack of coughing, hiccups, yawning, they make unnatural cries and even they faint: with some terrible (so everyone shudders) roar they fall to the floor...
Once, twice, three times - and the unfortunate (or unfortunate woman) begins to guess that something extraordinary is happening to him. This happens not because the church is actually stuffy and dark, but because of the proximity of the Holy Place: icons, relics of God’s saints, and most importantly, the Body and Blood of Christ. He makes a terrible discovery: “So, I feel bad where the Shrine is, where God is... What then am I like? What happened and is happening to me?
Cases of constant failures, misfortunes and illnesses that occurred as a result of the “slander of the enemy,” that is, due to the evil action of a sorcerer (psychic, hypnotist, sorcerer), are caused by the same human condition as cases with “slightly” possessed people. This is a graceless, non-church life, unrepentant sins (sometimes terrible, but not realized), anger at enemies, with bitterness, when in the soul there is an absolute impossibility of forgiveness, and again - sinful passions and vices.
It would be good if among the acquaintances of such an unfortunate person there was at least one who would advise him to turn to an Orthodox priest! ...
Archpriest Georgy Vakhromeev,
rector of the temple in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity on Shabolovka, Moscow
________________
Until that time, while the devil was a bright and holy angel, he lived in heaven. An unfortunate transformation took place in heaven, and a large gathering of angels separated from the holy host of heavenly powers and became a gathering of gloomy demons, with a fallen cherub at their head. Many of the highest angels, of dominions, principalities and powers, were carried away into fall and destruction (see Eph. 6:12). Here is what Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says about this: “So, the first culprit of sin and the founder of evil is the devil. It’s not me who says this, but the Lord said: because first the devil sinned(1 John 3:8). No one had sinned before him. He sinned not by nature, but out of necessity, having received an inclination to sin; otherwise the guilt of sin would fall again on the One who made him this way. On the contrary, having been created good, by his own will he became a devil, receiving a name for himself from his deeds (“devil” translated means “slanderer”). Having been an archangel, he was later called the devil for slander; Having become a good servant of God, he became Satan in the full meaning of this name, because “Satan” means “enemy.” And this is not my teaching, but the spirit-bearing prophet Ezekiel. He, lamenting about Satan, says: You are the seal of perfection, the fullness of wisdom and the crown of beauty. You were in Eden, in the garden of God(Ezek. 28:12-13). And after a few words: You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you(Ezek. 28:15). Very well said was not found in you; Evil was not brought from outside, but you yourself gave birth to it. IN the following words The prophet also said the reason: Because of your beauty your heart was lifted up, because of your vanity you destroyed your wisdom; therefore I will throw you to the ground(Ezek. 28:17). The Lord also says in accordance with this in the Gospel: I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning(Luke 10:18). You see the agreement of the Old Testament with the New. The devil fell and took many with him into retreat. He puts lusts in those who submit to him. From him comes adultery, fornication and everything that is evil. Through him, our forefather Adam was cast down and exchanged that paradise, which by itself bears wonderful fruits, for land that bears thorns.”
Another prophet, Isaiah, speaking of the fallen cherubim, Satan, writes: How you fell from the sky, Lucifer, son of the dawn! crashed to the ground, trampling the nations. And he said in his heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mountain in the assembly of gods, on the edge of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.” But you are cast into hell, into the depths of the underworld(Isa. 14:12-15).
As we see from the Bible and this testimony of the prophet, Satan desires:
1. Be like the Almighty.
2. Desires worship.
3. Devotion.
4. Desires to be served by people called to serve God.
5. Wants people to believe that he is good and God is evil. Although evil spirits are invisible to our bodily eyes, they, says Anthony the Great, “are visible in our sins. They are spiritual beings, but beings who have moved away from God, who have received different names according to their lawless properties and deeds.”
In the Bible we find the following names for fallen spirits: devil (Job 1:6-9; 12:1-7; Ps. 106:6; Zech. 3:1-2; Wis. 2:24; 1 Sam. 21: 1; 1 Mac 1:36; Matthew 4:1, 5, 8, 11; 13:19, 39; 25:41; Luke 4:2-3, 5-6, 13; 3:12, 22 , 31; Job 6:70; 8:44; Acts 10:38; 19:13, 15; 1 Pet. 5:8; 1 John 3:8, 10; 2 Cor. 12:7; 1 Sol. 2:18; 1 Tim. 3:6-7; Rev. 12:9, 12; 2:10, etc.). The word “devil” from Greek means “slanderer”, “slanderer”, “deceiver”. “Satan” translated from Hebrew (“Satan”) means “enemy,” “insidious,” “hostile,” “seducer,” “destroyer.” This name sometimes generally refers to fallen spirits, otherwise they are called evil spirits, or spirits of malice (Luke 8:2; Eph. 6:12; Acts 19:13, 15), unclean (Matthew 12:43-45; 10:1), demons (Matt. 12:24-28; Mark 16:17; James 2:19), demonic spirits (Apoc. 16:13-14), fallen angels (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6, etc.).
But primarily the name of the devil is assigned in Scripture to one, the main of the evil spirits and their leader - Lucifer (Matt. 9:34; 25:41; John 8:44; 1 John 3:8; Apoc. 12:9; 20: 2), which is sometimes called by other names, for example, the devil and Satan (Apoc. 12:7-12), the tempter (Matt. 4:3) and the seducer (Apoc. 12:9), Beelzebub (Luke 11:15) , Belial (2 Cor. 6:15), Asmodeus (Tob. 3:8), father of lies (Mark 8:44), Abbadon (Job 28:22), lord of death (Heb. 2:14), prince of this world (John 12:31), the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:1-2), the prince of demons (Matthew 9:34; 12:24), the evildoer (1 John 2:13). People are sometimes called children of the devil and Satan because of the evil qualities of their souls (John 6:70; 8:44; John 2:10; 3 Kings 11:14, 23, 25).
Another name is the word “demon”. A demon (Tov. 6:8, 15, 18; 8:3; Deut. 32:17) is an evil spirit, the devil. The Hebrew word “shedim” means lords, rulers (meaning “to possess”, “dominate”) or devastators (meaning “to be strong”, “to act violently”, “to command”, “to plunder”, “to devastate”). The word used is “belial” (Ps. 40:9), meaning “worthless,” “wicked,” “evil.” Belial (2 Cor. 6:15) - a Hebrew word meaning “wretch,” “depraved,” “wicked,” “evil” (Deut. 12:13; Judg. 19:22; 20:13; 1 Sam. 1:16 ; 2:12; 10:27; 25:17; 30:22; 2 Kings 20:1; 17:7; 1 Kings 21:10). At the same time, “the culprit of wickedness, all evil and disaster” (Ps. 17:5; 40:9). Similarly, in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul assigns this name to the devil, the author of idolatry and all atrocities (2 Cor. 6:15) and dark cults.
In the Syriac translation, instead of “Belial” there is “Beliar”, which also means “the chief of nothingness, all evil and wickedness.”
The word "Beelzebub" is found in the New Testament (Matt. 10:25; 12:24, 27; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15, 18, 19), and by it we must understand the chief of evil spirits, or the chief of them, whom the Jews called the prince of demons and whom the Lord Himself calls Satan (Mark 3:21-26). However, the literal translation of this name means “lord of the flies.” Often in the New Testament the words “demon”, “demons”, “demons”, “unclean spirits” are used (Matthew 7:22; 8:31; 9:34; 10:8; 12:24-29 ; 17:18; Mark 1:34; 5:12; 7:26, 29-30; Luke 4:41; 8:27; 10:17; 13:16; John 10:20-21; 1 Cor. 10:20-21; Rev. 9:20; 16:13-14, etc.). Demons and devils in the Holy Scriptures are the names of evil spirits that, together with their prince, the devil, constitute the dark demonic kingdom.
After the fall of evil spirits from heaven into the region under heaven, or the air (Eph. 6:12), the world of the celestial beings became completely inaccessible to them, and therefore all their malicious attention is turned exclusively to the land close to them, in order to sow evil here among people. Evil, therefore, is an urgent need for demons, who think of nothing but evil, and find no peace or pleasure in anything except evil activity. The feeling of good, like the Kingdom of God, is hateful to them.
According to the teachings of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, “fallen spirits descended from the heights of spiritual dignity; they have fallen into carnal wisdom more than men. People have the opportunity to move from carnal wisdom to spirituality; fallen spirits are deprived of this opportunity. People are not subject to such a strong influence of carnal wisdom, because in them natural goodness is not destroyed, as in spirits, by the fall.
In people, good is mixed with evil and therefore indecent; in fallen spirits, one thing dominates and operates - evil. Carnal wisdom in the realm of spirits has received the most extensive, complete development that it can achieve. Their main sin is frantic hatred of God, expressed in terrible, incessant blasphemy. They became proud of God Himself; They turned obedience to God, natural to creatures, into continuous opposition, into irreconcilable enmity. That is why their fall is deep, and the ulcer of eternal death with which they are struck is incurable. Their essential passion is pride; they have monstrous and stupid vanity, find pleasure in all types of sin, revolve constantly in them, moving from one sin to another. They grovel in the love of money, in gluttony, and in adultery. Not being able to commit carnal sins physically, they commit them in dreams and sensations; they have adopted into their ethereal nature the vices inherent in the flesh; They have developed in themselves vices that are unnatural to them, incomparably more than they can be developed among people.
Fallen spirits, containing within themselves the beginning of all sins, try to involve people in all sins with the goal and thirst for their destruction. They involve us in various pleasing of the flesh and greed, love of glory, painting before us the objects of these passions with the most seductive painting.”
As the Monk Nile the Myrrh-Streaming points out, “demons perish irrevocably not because there is no forgiveness for them, but because they not only do not repent, but are also proud of their godless deeds.”
Demons cannot do anything to the Creator, Who, being Almighty God, is beyond the reach of any influence from the creature. Therefore, they turned all their anger towards man, who is the image of God, and, knowing that the Lord loves His creation, they strive to harm the object of His love as much as possible.
IN real life Satan does everything to distract a person from the heavenly world, to plunge him into a sea of sensual passions. Influencing the sensual sphere of a person, he encourages him to drunkenness, drug addiction, fornication, love of money, etc. The fallen spirit knows: as long as the sinner grovels in the dust of his passions, he is unable to heed the calls of the Almighty. And also, if a person is satisfied with the material world around him, he will not seek the spiritual world, that is, God.
In an effort to imitate God, the devil constantly engages in a kind of forgery and counterfeiting. Thus, he pushes for the creation of false religions and heretical teachings, and in every possible way contributes to the self-deception of a person, for by professing a false faith, the deceived one, in fact, worships the devil.
Satan also tries to convince people that he is omnipotent, just like God. For this, various kinds of illusions and mirages are used. So, for example, sorcerers and psychics, using demonic spells, can create a picture of the resurrection of the deceased, but in reality this will only be an illusion, deception, and often the appearance of a demon in the form of the deceased.
The appearance of the devil and his actions were known among all the nations of the world. It is no coincidence that the word “devil” is found in all world languages. So, in Arabic it is “shaitan”, in Egyptian it is “set”, in Japanese it is “o-yama”, in Persian it is “dev”, in English it is “seitn”, in Syriac it is “beherit”, in Welsh it is “puvkka”, etc. d.
Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem. 2nd catechetical speech, paragraph 4 // “St. Petersburg Diocesan Gazette”. No. 2. 1990. P. 64.
Venerable Anthony the Great// “Christian Reading”, 1826. pp. 484-485.
Quoted from: Sanctuary Ignatius Brianchaninov. Addition to the word about death. St. Petersburg, 1881. P. 208.
Archpriest P. Solyarsky. Bible Dictionary Experience. St. Petersburg, 1879. P. 473.
Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov. About Orthodoxy // “St. Petersburg Diocesan Gazette”. No. 2. 1990. P. 83.
Posthumous broadcasts of the Monk Nile the Myrrh-streaming of Athos. Ed. Annunciation Monastery of Elder Parthenius on Athos, 1912. P. 32.
Probably, we all often come across the opinion that dark forces act on a person in connection with or witchcraft. At the same time, few people pay attention to the real impact that a person is exposed to outside of any connection with magic. This means that it is important to have a correct understanding of yourself dark forces ah and the ways they influence people.
Who are demons?
These are personal, endowed with reason, ethereal beings who have fallen away from God and formed a special world hostile to everything good. Having lost the spiritual Heaven, they are in the celestial or aerial sphere (see: Eph. 2:2) and turn their evil attention to the world of people.
They have a certain power in this world, since the crown of creation - man - in the Fall gave way to his place as the king of the world to the evil deceiver. In this regard, it is clear that dark forces are capable of causing some harm. So, in the Holy Scripture, in the book of Tobit, it is said about the demon Asmodeus, who killed seven husbands in turn, for whom Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was married off (see: Tob. 3: 8). The book of Job tells how, under the influence of the devil, fire, which seemed to come down from heaven, burned the flocks of sheep that belonged to Job along with the shepherds (see: Job 1: 16). Due to the obsession of dark forces, a hurricane also began, destroying the house where Job’s children had gathered, so that they all died (see: Job 1: 18–19). True, there is one peculiarity in this story. All the disasters that happened to his family were allowed by God, who agreed to allow such demonic sabotage to test the righteous (see: Job 1: 6-12).
This is what is important to focus on. Although the influence of demons on the world in terms of the power of their destruction can be incredibly powerful, they themselves are dependent on God and can act only when God allows. From the Gospel we know that even in order to enter the pigs, demons were forced to slavishly ask permission from the Savior (see: Matthew 8:31). Saint John Chrysostom explained about this:
“Demons do not even dare to touch pigs without His permission... Everyone knows that demons hate us more than dumb animals. Consequently, if they did not spare the pigs, but in one instant cast them all into the abyss, then all the more would they have done this with the people possessed by them, whom they dragged and dragged through the deserts, if God’s Providence had not curbed and deterred their further aspirations."
This means that the true basis for our spiritual life should not be the fear of fallen powers, but the fear of God, the fear of falling away from Him through our sins, through which we become more accessible direct impact fallen angels.
The world of fallen spirits is invisible to us, but is capable of manifesting its existence. Moreover, this manifestation often happens exactly where a person does not expect it at all, for example, in emerging thoughts, internal movements of the soul, desires. The life of the holy martyr Juliana tells how one day during prayer the devil appeared to her in the form of bright angel and urged him to sacrifice to demons. The Lord strengthened Saint Juliana, so that she remained above his temptations. The demon confessed to the holy saint:
“I am the one who once advised Eve in paradise to transgress the commandment of God to her destruction. I inspired Cain to kill his brother Abel. I taught Nebuchadnezzar to place a golden image in the field of Deira. I deceived the Jews to worship idols. I made the wise Solomon mad by arousing in him a passion for wives. I inspired Herod to kill infants, and Judas to betray the Teacher and hang himself. I'm hooked And d to stone the Jews by stoning Stephen, moved Nero to crucify Peter upside down and behead Paul with the sword. I have deceived many and subjected them to disasters.”
Evil spirits are capable of putting thoughts into us that we perceive as our own. These are all those thoughts that lead to sin and prevent you from turning to God. Dark demons try to influence the will, arousing vicious desires in us, muffle the voice of conscience in us, calling us to enjoy all earthly blessings, and after reckless consumption, when the entire emptiness of a godless life is revealed, they bring despair to the soul.
It is naive to think that demons influence people necessarily in the form of creepy ghosts
It is naive to think that demons influence people necessarily in the form of creepy ghosts or in terrible forms of possession. Their influence on people can be very diverse and not always outwardly terrifying. For example, the truly terrible thing they do is that demons prevent a person from turning to God, to living according to the Commandments of the Gospel. “To everyone who hears the word about the Kingdom and does not understand, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart” (Matthew 13:19), the Lord depicted in the parable the condition of those people who heard the gospel, but did not show zeal for it in time. A person does not even suspect that the once heard word of Truth, which lay on his heart, but was not realized in life, was stolen by the evil one. For unbelievers, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, “the god of this age (that is, the devil. - O. V.D.) blinded their minds, so that the light of the gospel would not shine on them” (2 Cor. 4:4). This is expressed in the inability to see and perceive the Truth of spiritual life, and preferring to it the dead treasures of the earthly world.
Demons, like competent psychologists, examine us, what we are most susceptible to, and with this they tempt us most of all. The Lord says: “Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). Without inner vigilance and constant turning to God, it is impossible to recognize the machinations of the evil one.
Demons, to put it in worldly terms, work individually with each person, according to his weaknesses and preferences. They seduce some with carnal pleasure, others with a thirst for honor and glory, and others with the opinion of themselves as a very virtuous person. According to Abba Evagrius, “of the unclean demons, some tempt man as a human being, while others alarm man as a dumb animal. The first ones, having come, put into us thoughts of vanity, or pride, or envy, or condemnation, which do not concern any of the dumb; and the latter, approaching, arouse anger or lust not according to their nature, for these passions are common to us and the dumb and are hidden in us under the rational nature (that is, they stand below it or under it).”
St. Anthony the Great taught that every Christian who succeeds in spiritual life is first tempted by demons through evil thoughts. If the ascetic turns out to be firm, then they attack him through dreamy ghosts. Then they take on the guise of soothsayers, so that the ascetic believes them as if they were predicting the truth.
“Therefore, when demons come to you at night, want to announce the future or say: “We are Angels,” do not listen to them; because they lie. If they praise your asceticism and please you, do not listen to them and do not get close to them at all; it is better to seal yourself and your house with a cross and pray.”
If the fallen angels see that a person wants to achieve incredible self-development and perfection, then they are happy to help him discover all the “hidden possibilities” in himself, so that the greatness of the newly-minted psychic can surprise and captivate the hearts of many others. And if a person turns to an occultist in order to remove damage, they politely remove their own slander from him, as if showing that magic and extrasensory perception are truly good for people.
The famous Bulgarian fortuneteller Vanga is a vivid example of demonic seduction
A striking example of such seduction is the famous Bulgarian fortuneteller (1911–1996). Like many others similar people, the emergence of Vanga’s special abilities was preceded by an injury: when twelve-year-old Vanga was returning to the village with her cousins, a terrible hurricane lifted her into the air and carried her far into the field. There she was covered with branches and sand, Vanga’s eyes hurt, and soon she went blind. After some time, she discovered “extraordinary” abilities. She could tell a person his past, reveal details that even loved ones did not know, determined people’s illnesses, and often predicted the future. She herself considered her abilities to be a gift from God.
Who exactly revealed to her the secrets hidden from mere mortals?
Vanga explained to her niece Krasimira Stoyanova that she sees higher powers as transparent figures, like human reflections in water, but more often hears their voice. Krasimira Stoyanova wrote several books about her aunt and in one of them she reports the following:
“I was 16 years old when one day in our house in Petrich Vanga spoke to me... only it was not her voice. There was an impression that it was not she, but some other person who was speaking through her lips. The words I heard had nothing to do with what we had talked about before. It was as if some unknown person had intervened in our conversation. I heard: “Here we see you”... - and then followed a full report of what I had done that day up to that moment. After a short pause, Vanga sighed and said: “Oh, my strength has left me”... - and again returned to our previous conversation. I asked her why she suddenly began to describe my day, but she replied that she did not describe anything, but repeated what she heard. Then she sighed: “Oh, these are forces, small forces that are always nearby. But there are also big ones who command them. When they decide to speak through my mouth, I feel bad, and after that I can’t come to my senses for the whole day.”
The feeling of oppression that Vanga herself admits unmistakably indicates that dark spirits appeared to her, who are capable of telling people things that are inaccessible to ordinary knowledge. Krasimira Stoyanova provides various details about how Vanga communicated with the other world. In general, these are typical mediumistic experiences that have been known for many centuries: “Only sometimes we could not understand why our aunt turns pale, why she suddenly feels bad and a voice suddenly comes from her lips, striking us with its strength, unusual timbre, words and expressions , which are not in Vanga’s usual dictionary.” “And suddenly she spoke to me in an unfamiliar voice, which sent shivers down my spine.”
One of the enemy’s favorite suggestions is suspiciousness
Of course, this type of seduction is exceptional. Usually people stumble over the smallest things: to better arrange earthly life, forgetting about his own immortal soul; elevate yourself and your successes to the first place, completely ignoring the sorrows and suffering of your neighbors. The goal of the devil is to sow anger, self-justification and distrust of God in people. One of the enemy’s favorite suggestions is suspiciousness: a person invents whole stories for himself in connection with individual circumstances own life, and in illnesses and failures he sees not a manifestation of God’s Providence, but a magical obsession of an ill-wisher.
But there is one truth that is worth knowing. What harms the soul most is irreconcilable hostility towards other people, and it is this that most often makes one think about witchcraft on the part of one’s enemy. Usually a distant relative, neighbor, or co-worker is suspected of corruption or witchcraft. Thus, a fearful occult worldview is created in which personal troubles are combined with resentment against the supposed ill-wisher; as a result, Christianity is forced out of our everyday life by thoughts of conspiracies and the search for magical protection from them.
Elder Paisius the Holy Mountain has very useful tips those who believe that they have been “jinxed”
Elder Paisius the Holy Mountain has very useful reasoning in this regard:
“And what evil do mediums, psychics, “clairvoyants” and the like do to people! Not only do they siphon money out of people, they also destroy families. For example, a person goes to a “clairvoyant” and tells him about his problems. “Look,” the “clairvoyant” answers him, “one of your relatives, a little dark, a little taller than average, has cast a spell on you.” A person begins to look for which of his relatives has such characteristic features. It is impossible that none of his relatives were at least a little like the one the sorcerer described to him. “Ah,” says the man, having found the “culprit” of his suffering. “So that means she put a spell on me!” And he is overcome by hatred for this woman. And this poor thing herself does not know at all the reasons for his hatred. It happens that she did him some favor, but he seethes with hatred towards her and does not even want to see her! Then he goes to the sorcerer again, and he says: “Well, now we need to remove this damage from you. To do this, you will have to pay me some money.” “Well,” says the confused man, “since he found who damaged me, I must reward him!” And he forks out. Do you see what the devil is doing? He creates temptations. Whereas a good person - even if he actually knows for sure that someone did something bad to someone - will never say this to the victim: “So-and-so did something bad to you.” No, he will try to help the unfortunate person. “Listen,” he will tell him, “don’t accept different thoughts. Go and confess and don’t be afraid of anything.” Thus he helps both one and the other. After all, the one who has harmed his neighbor, seeing how he behaves towards him with kindness, thinks - in the good sense of the word - and repents.”
It turns out an amazing thing: the real attack of the enemy is not someone’s witchcraft or damage, but the opinion that the misfortune that happened was brought upon you by witchcraft. Regarding all the temptations of fallen angels in general, I would like to recall the words of Holy Scripture: “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him with firm faith, knowing that the same sufferings happen to your brothers in the world. May the God of all grace, who has called us to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered for a short time, perfect you, establish you, strengthen you, and make you steadfast. To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen" (1 Pet. 5:8-11).
