Byzantine Blog

There are some really well written, poetic books that deal with archetypes, myths and fairy tales in such a way that they stir our imagination and seduce us into believing, even if for an instant, we are omnipotent, that with the right 'tools' we can re-format our psyche and achieve the immortality without anyone's help. That we can be without God, little gods on our own and through worshipping the nature (creation), instead of Creator, and our own layers of Self, our 'inner child' can grow into the almighty entity.

Among them is Clarissa Pinkola Estes' Running With the Wolves. It speaks directly to women and in a very flattering manner - we are not only powerful, unstoppable rivers of milk and creativity, we also don't seem to bear much responsibility for our actions and misguided decisions: everything we do wrong is because of the Bluebeard within us that devours our creative juices and paralyses us, turning us into submissive slaves; or because of the selfish fisherman within who won't let the Seal Woman in us return to nourishing depths of the ocean; or because of the Match Girl we all carry somewhere, who doesn't struggle to keep and multiply her flames; or due to the foolish father figure we also have in our army of selves, who sacrifices the most precious parts within for some food and safety...

In these circles of Jungian analysts, it is the Woman who is the life-giver, not God. She is the mighty Mother from our dreams, who drums us back into life, who collects our bones and tendons and pastes us with the spit back into creation. The Mother Earth, Mother Moon, Wolf Mother who is the age-old shamaness, wise witch above the cauldron of creation, spinning the fates and stirring the primordial soup.

Apart from Jung's archetypes, the basis for these types of poetic claptrap is the New Age idea of Inner Child who likes to play and is magnificently creative. It is an urge to revert back to magical thinking, to a belief that we can will things into being, as long as we wish hard enough and allow ourselves to sink into the thick waters of 'subconsciousness', where everything is connected and everything possible. St. John Climacus said in The Ladder of Divine Ascent that "it is not darkness and desolateness of place that give the demons power against us, but barrenness of soul". It is this unbearable barrenness of the soul and thirst for something to fill us up, to warm us up, to bring back the lost joy that makes us reach for any poison, anything that might numb the pain.

New Age shamans tell us that if we pay attention to our dreams, if we create our own rituals in which demons will be placated and deities satiated, if we establish our own "altar" and "church" where we worship the archetypes, if we submerge into the deepest layers of our being to search for clues, we shall get magically connected to the Universe and find our way back to the lost paradise. Apart from being utterly blasphemous and an anathema, it is also a very dangerous idea and the trip many have regretted taking. Karl Gustav Jung himself has suffered from his own descent into the subterranean in search of symbols, archetypes and 'subconscious', plunging into psychosis and almost entirely losing his mind.

Orthodox Fathers have been warning us for centuries that it is easy to get lost in the depths of one's mind, that basing life decisions on dreams and figments of imagination is equal to building one's house on the sand, and that placing too much trust in our own moods, thoughts and emotions can lead to prelest, a serious spiritual illness.

St. Maximos the Confessor said: "The war which the demons wage against us by means of thoughts is more severe than the war they wage by means of material things", and St. Seraphim of Sarov warned in his Spiritual Instructions: "Reverent carefulness is necessary here because this sea - that is, the heart, with its thoughts and desires, which one must cleanse by means of mindfulness - is great and vast, and there are numberless reptiles there (Ps. 103:25), that is, numerous vain, unjust and impure thoughts generated by evil spirits."

Regarding dreams, visions and the importance we are all too quick to assign to ourselves, St. Nikolai Velimirovich writes in his Prologue: "The spiritists of our time accept every appearance from the spiritual world as sent by God and immediately boast that it has been 'revealed' to them. I was myself acquainted with an eighty-year-old monk who was respected by everyone as a great spiritual guide. When I asked him if he had ever seen any being from the spiritual world in his lifetime, he answered me: 'No, never; and praise be to God for his mercy!' Seeing my astonishment at this, he said: 'I have constantly prayed to God that nothing should ever appear to me, lest I fall into illusion and accept a devil disguised as an angel. And, until now, God has heard my prayer."

Speaking about the sweet trickery of imagination and the slippery slope its promises can lead to, St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain said: "The devil has a very close relationship and familiarity with the imagination, and of all the power of the soul he has this one is the most appropriate organ to deceive man and to activate his passions and evils. He indeed is very familiar with the nature of the imagination. For he, being created by God originally as a pure and simple mind without form and image, as the other divine angels, later came to love the forms and the imagination. Imagining that he could set his throne above the heavens and become like God, he fell from being an angel of light and became a devil of darkness. St. Dionysios spoke about this devil. 'What is the evil in the devils? Irrational anger; unreasonable desire; and reckless imagination.'" (A Handbook of Spiritual Counsel)

St. Seraphim of Sarov explains the spiritual delusion New Age gurus are tirelessly spinning: "Even a pious person is not immune to spiritual sickness if he does not have a wise guide -- either a living person or a spiritual writer. This sickness is called prelest, or spiritual delusion, imagining oneself to be near to God and to the realm of the divine and supernatural. Even zealous ascetics in monasteries are sometimes subject to this delusion, but of course, laymen who are zealous in external struggles (podvigi) undergo it much more frequently. Surpassing their acquaintances in struggles of prayer and fasting, they imagine that they are seers of divine visions, or at least of dreams inspired by grace. In every event of their lives, they see special intentional directions from God or their guardian angel. And then they start imagining that they are God's elect, and often try to foretell the future. The Holy Fathers armed themselves against nothing so fiercely as against this sickness -- prelest."

Unfortunately, at least on the surface, it seems like New Age and its proponents are gaining in numbers and force. When I visited the local bookstore the other day, it took me an hour to wade through the shelves piled up with books about Tarot, Astrology, Hieromancy, Rune-stones, witchcraft, Buddhism, Krishnaism, satanism, potions, magic, Vedanta, archetypes, Jungianism, Tibetan Buddhism and Lamaism, and New Age-ism of all kinds. Of course, the entrance to the bookstore is now a tunnel that leads through the walls of "Da Vinci Code". There were few books by the Protestant Christian authors available, few about the Pope, a lot about Islam and NOT A SINGLE BOOK WRITTEN BY ANY OF THE ORTHODOX HOLY FATHERS. Not one! Out of thousands of glorious Saints, master-theologians, spiritual Fathers and teachers from all over the world, not one has found his rightful place in the section about "Religion and Spirituality" in most of the largest bookstores in North America.

Therefore, it is quite befitting to recall the story told by St. Ambrose of Optina: "One time a demon was sitting in the form of a man and swinging his legs. One who saw him with his spiritual eyes asked him, 'Why aren’t you doing anything?' The demon answered: 'Nowadays I have nothing to do but swing my legs; people are doing everything better than me." Indeed, we are.