The Agitation of the Soul and Demonic Strategy

a second shipwreck, harder than the first, will receive us, when the demon of vainglory blows against us. Wherefore our Lord in the Gospels, training the governing mind, says: ‘Take heed not to do your almsgiving before men to be seen by them; otherwise you have no reward from your Father who is in the heavens.’ And again: ‘When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand praying in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, so as to appear to men; truly I say to you, they have received their reward.’ And again he says: ‘When you fast, do not become gloomy like the hypocrites; for they disfigure their faces so as to appear to men fasting; truly I say to you, they have received their reward.’

But here one must attend to the Physician of souls, how through almsgiving He heals thumos, through prayer He purifies the mind, and again through fasting He withers desire, from which the new man is composed, being renewed according to the image of Him who created him, in whom there is neither male nor female through holy dispassion, nor, through the one faith and love, Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, slave and free, but Christ is all things in all.

Chapter 4. One must inquire how the demons imprint and shape our ruling faculty in the phantasies during sleep; for such a thing seems to happen to the mind, whether seeing through eyes, or hearing through hearing, or again through some sense or other, or from the memory, which imprints the ruling faculty — not through the body, but moves those things which it received through the body. The demons, then, it seems to me, move the memory and imprint the ruling faculty; for the organ is held inactive by sleep. How, then, they again move the memory must be inquired — perhaps through the passions? And this is clear from the fact that the pure and dispassionate no longer suffer anything of the sort. There is also a certain simple movement produced by us or by holy powers, according to which we meet with saints in dreams and converse and feast together with them. Yet one must attend to this: that the images which the soul receives together with the body, these the memory moves without the body, and this is clear from the fact that often we suffer this even in dreams while the body is at rest.

For just as one may remember water both with thirst and without thirst, so one may remember gold both with greed and without greed, and likewise with other things. But for the mind to find differences between such and such phantasies is a mark of their evil craft.

And at the same time one must know this too: that the demons also use external things for their phantasies, as in the case of those sailing, with the sound of the waves. Our thumos, when moved contrary to nature, contributes greatly to the demons’ aim, and becomes most useful for all their scheming; hence none of them declines to trouble it by night and by day; but when they see it bound by gentleness, then they immediately release it under just pretexts, so that, having become sharper, it may serve their beastly thoughts; wherefore one must neither provoke it over just nor over unjust matters, nor give an evil sword to those who suggest them. Which I know many do often, and more than they should, being kindled by small pretexts.

Chapter 5. For over what, tell me, do you fall so quickly into battle, if you have despised foods and glory and money? And why do you feed the dog, you who profess to have nothing? But if it barks and attacks men, you are clearly shown to possess something within, and to wish to guard these things. But I am persuaded that such a one is far from pure prayer, knowing thumos to be the destroyer of such prayer.

And besides these things I marvel, as though the saints were forgotten — David crying, ‘Cease from anger, and forsake thumos’ (Ps 37:8); the Preacher commanding, ‘Remove thumos from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh’ (Eccl 11:10); the Apostle commanding, ‘to lift up holy hands to the Lord in every place, without anger and doubting’ (1 Tim 2:8). And why do we not learn from the mystic and ancient custom of men, which drives the dogs out of the houses at the time of prayer, hinting at this: that thumos must not be present with those who pray? And again: ‘Their wine is the venom of dragons’ (Deut 32:33). The Nazirites abstained from wine.