About the devil (spiritual experience of the ascetics)

[Daniel Hoseini]

The methods used by the devil are:
a) the slander, as he did with the first-created ones, when he told them that God forbade them to eat the forbidden fruit, because that way they would become gods
b) his transformation, as it happens in dreams and in visions, to deceive man
c) scare with his appearance and noise, to terrify man
d) he presents sins as very minor to man and when man commits them, then he enlarges them to bring him to despair (hence he is called the ant-lion (mirmingoléon))
e) the method of exchange, i.e. what do you give me, human, in exchange for what I give you, as is the case e.g. with the mediums, where the request is granted, but the soul of the one who visits them is bound
f) the method of exaggeration by the thoughts of the right, so that man would wage a reckless spiritual battle and
g) he fights everyone in his weak point, in his "Achilles heel", which for everyone is different. (Athanasios Mytilineos)

The central interest of the devil is that we have no joy. So that we are gloomy, miserable, desperate. (Barnabas Yagou)

The devil doesn't fight you from the start. He lets you enter the church, advance, and then he starts his war. He's in no hurry. He is cunning. First, he makes you feel discouraged. He moves like the Turks in the disaster of Asia Minor. The Turks let the Greeks go as far as Eskişehir - Afyonkarahisar and then decimated them. The obedience of the Greek soldiers to their officers destroyed them. Kemal Ataturk said: "What a waste that such a Greek army should be lost!" If they had stayed as far as Smyrna, they would have suffered nothing. However, those who spread very quickly will have to accumulate. He who goes for the much, loses the little. It takes caution and strategy to overcome the enemy. (Arsenios Kotsopoulos)

If it were possible to see the fury and mania with which the devil attacks us, the wildest and most carnivorous beasts would seem to us quiet and calm lambs! Such a terrible enemy he is! (Charalambos Vassilopoulos)

The sight of the demons is so ugly and terrible that if you saw one now and there was a deep cliff or a burning furnace nearby, you would rather fall into the cliff or into the furnace to burn than to see the demon. The evil spirits became so ugly after their fall, for just as before the fall they were the most beautiful creatures of the Creator, so also after their fall they became the ugliest. (Agapios Landos of Crete)

- Nothing infuriates the devil more than the practical humility exercised with all the strength of the soul.
- The devil always works harder when people go on vacation, on leave or on strike! When man relaxes, his thoughts are different and he cannot come to repentance, because repentance requires vigilance and not relaxation.
- There is not much devil in our time. There are many devilish disciples in our time. (said an elder)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

The devil uses 3 ways to lead man to sin: a) forgetfulness b) negligence and c) evil desire. When forgetfulness takes over the soul, it immediately breeds negligence, and negligence breeds evil desire. If we did not forget God and our destiny so easily, we would not neglect our salvation and Divine Grace would never allow us to be tempted by the irrational desires that nest within us. (fathers of the church)

The Christian who does not believe that he is at war with the devil will be lost, not to mention that he is already lost. The Christian must know that he has a friend Christ, but he also has an enemy, the devil. Most people, unfortunately, know nothing of the person of the devil, this cunning, deceitful one, and do not know how he works. If people had known about the devil, they would appreciate the Church and its sacraments, which protect him from the devil. So people, who have no knowledge on the subject of the devil, live carelessly, not knowing who their enemies are, they go about their lives unprotected and the results are catastrophic… (Panagopoulos)

- When the devil makes great deeds (in his work), he does it because we give him the right. Don't listen to people who say they are tempted by satan. People are tempted by their own lust, selfishness and self-interest. To be tempted by satan, man must be a saint.
- If man can make poison a saving medicine for his body, why can't God make the devil a saving medicine for the human soul? (Panagopoulos)

- There are some people whom satan holds in his hand in such a way that it is impossible for anyone to help them. It is like that mother in the village, who leaves her baby alone in the garden of her house for half a minute, to go to the kitchen to watch the food and when she comes back she sees her baby wrapped with his whole body by a large snake around him. What should the mother do and what can she do to free her child from the snake, without the baby being tormented?
- The devil sprays us with a "spray", to give us dizziness and headaches and to prevent us from opening our eyes, in order to keep us away from our duty (spiritual and material). It is then necessary for man to discern this trick of his, to make a sign of the cross and say: My God, help me!
- The devil is a coal, which will set us on fire if we blow on it, and if we spit on it, it will be extinguished. (Panagopoulos)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

- Satan allows you anything, as long as you don't do it right. That's where you confuse him... The devil is not afraid when you light a candle for a saint and go to church and communion. He will leave you and you will not profit unless you turn from sin and repent.
- From the moment man says "no" to satan and "yes" to Christ, satan's war begins. For as long as you do the will of satan, he will not bother you and everything will be fine with you. Satan does not tempt "his own" folk. Folk theology says: A crow does not peck out a crow's eye.

- The devil is so cunning (he has 7500 years of experience), that most people work for him without knowing it. Someone tells you, "I'm saying him to get out of here." Who must get out of here while he (the devil) is in you? And he works in us in his own way and we don't understand it at all...
- Satan is an optician. He makes us wear his own glasses, magnifying the flaws of others while minimizing our own.

- Try to see the devil in person once and you'll see that you can never sin again! †
- If the devil wouldn't exist, the saints wouldn't exist either. The devil is useful and unintentionally he does them good.
- The devil promises people to make their lives happy quickly and easily. What he did to Eve namely.
- The devil's tactic is to divide and conquer. And when he sees someone who can help a person by saying the right word, he presents him as an enemy in the eyes of the one who needs help, in order to isolate himself from him (his benefactor).
- The devil cannot repent, for he is the source of evil. (Panagopoulos)

Satan prevents us from doing good. If we do succeed, he makes us regret it or become proud of it. Let us do good for the glory of God and the good of souls and not for our own glory.

Often the adversary (devil) urges you to waste your bullets so that you no longer have them when they are needed. And there are situations where you need them, but you can't shoot them. If the adversary sees that he cannot stop us, he will help us (with evil intention at the end). He makes it conducive to give alms and fast.

The devil cunningly troubles us, because he is as cunning as the fox. Once a fox entered a pen, ate several lambs and was unable to jump over the fence to get out. So it activated her cunningness and pretended to be dead. Someone who saw him, kicked him to see if he was still alive, but there was no response. Then he grabbed him by the tail and threw him away. After his removal, the fox started to run away ... (Father Panaïs of Lysi, Cyprus)

 

[Lukaris]

Daniel Hoseini,

Thank you for this treasury of wisdom.

Christ is risen.

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

In truth He is risen!

- There is a big devil's trap where the devil gives you the idea that you have supernatural abilities. E.g. you are at home and he gives you the idea - thought that after a while you will see an uncle of yours whom you have not seen for a while. To the devil this is a toy, very easy. Since he is a ghost, he has seen that your uncle got off the bus and is on his way to your house. He brings you the message and when after a while your uncle appears you are amazed at the so called supernatural ability you have ... And so he deceives man. (Yorgos - former Satanist)
- Satan possesses some souls and makes them think that they can also have a good relationship with God. But if you give one half of your soul to the devil, the other half is useless to God. (Lacondair)
- He who does not listen to Christ will listen to the devil! (Dostoevsky)
- God manifests through all things. The devil only through man. (Carbel)
- The devil's greatest craftiness is to convince us that he does not exist. (Baudelaire)
- In the devil's quiver there is no better arrow to the heart than the soft voice. (Lord Byron)

When the devil decides to drag you to the disaster, he doesn't push you towards it, he pulls you in!
The Fathers of the Church call the devil "ant-lion" because he casts man first into the minor sins and then into the great ones. And at first he looks like a sick and little one, like an ant, but then he appears to the sinner as a brave and big lion.
The devil always acts with our will. No matter how hard he tries, no matter how much he fights us, he can achieve absolutely nothing if we don't open the door for him to enter. Nevertheless, the most cunning one has ways by which he succeeds on us and overturns all our plans.
One of the devil's tricks is to preoccupy us with the past and the future, to deprive us of the peace of the present.
The devil is an artist. He paints sin with the most attractive and vibrant colors.
The devil tempts those who tempt him.
The devil always works more and better when people go on vacation, on leave or on strike! Because then people are relaxed and not vigilant.
The devil doesn't care what we worship, as long as we don't worship God.
Satan wins the believers whom he cannot throw into "major sins" very often when he throws them into a "minor frustration".
One of the devil's tricks is to preoccupy us with the past and the future, to deprive us of the peace of the present.
The devil promises pleasure and gives bitterness.
It is the devil's cunningness to mix enough truth with falsehood to make it appear credible.

Satan cannot rightly rule over any human being except those who sin coldly and unrepentantly.
Although we cannot tolerate the stings and bites of fleas, lice, flies, mosquitoes and bees, we do not care that the imaginary dragon bites us every day, sucks us, swallows us and injures us everywhere with the poisonous sting of the dead and we don't want to leave him.
The devil managed to persuade people to create a multitude of gods, where he hides behind them.
The devil is not afraid of believers who work hard and pray a little. This is why the results of so much Christian work are so few.
The black forces of darkness are weak. People make them strong by turning away from God, because that is how they give rights to the devil.
The devil does what he wills to man who is outside of Christ.
If believers would be watchful and pray, they will be able to understand the methods of the devil.
You can't stop the devil from getting in your way. But you can prevent him from staying in your house.
Christ leads, the devil drags.
When the devil gives us the wheat, the devil takes our sack from us.
Where God gathers them, the devil comes and scatters them.
• The devil has many legs. (From unimportant causes many satanic incidents and obstacles may arise)
• Where there is haste, the devil comes in.
• If you do good to the devil, he will send you straight to hell as a reward. (Czech saying)

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

Once the saint Makarios of Egypt met the devil in the desert with his tools and forced him to reveal all his pitfalls. So the devil revealed to him this: "Whoever I find ready to study, I smear him with the feather of the contents from the vessel that I have in my head. He immediately gets a headache and leaves his studies behind. For the one who wants to stay vigilant, I take something from the barrel, which hangs from my eyelids, smear it a little on his eyes and I bring him so much sleep that he runs straight to the mattress. The barrels in my ears have a recipe fit for disobedience. I chase the novices with it. From the contents of the vessel that hangs on my nose, I give some to young people, to tempt them to carnal lust. From the vessel that is in my mouth I give something to the modest, to make them voracious, and to others again, to drag them into drunkenness and filthiness. The vessel I wear around my neck evokes pride and arrogance. The other thing you see in my belly causes callousness and debauchery. And the rest causes envy, murder, theft and everything else evil. With this I take people off the right path and lead them wherever I want until I bring them to damnation. But I never managed to approach you, Makarios, because you are constantly fighting me...!

• Once a demon revealed to Saint Nifon the following: ''We also have our bosses, who watch us and check whether we are doing our job well, that is, whether we fight day and night against you, the people, or we even stop for a little bit. And woe to the demon who catch our superiors sitting! He is brutally punished, tortured mercilessly and banished far away. Because you should know that we also have the negligent, the slow, and the lazy among us, just like you. So the fear of punishment makes us never leave you alone!...

• A pig herder told how he always managed to lead the pigs to the slaughterhouse: ''Because they like beans a lot, I go ahead of the herd and here and there I throw a few beans behind me. The pigs run to grab it first and their attention is all on the road, devouring the beans I throw. And so without much trouble I take them to the slaughterhouse." A kind of swineherd is the devil, who tries in every possible way to deceive people, to drag them away from God, to the eternal catastrophe. With a bag in his hand, he continues to fling at the souls that follow him with the 'beans' that can work for everyone. For one pleasures, for another glory, for yet another vanity, ostentation, etc. And man goes to the slaughterhouse of eternal damnation. Oh, if we lifted our eyes and saw where our passions lead us, we would change course and seek the path that leads to Heaven.

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

• A clairvoyant elder had the gift of seeing not only angels but also demons. So one day he sees a demon and asks him, "What is it that scares you the most and makes you tremble?" By God's permission the demon replied, "You Christians have three things by which, if you use them rightly, we cannot tempt you." "And what are these three things?", - the elder asked him with amazement. “You bathe with the first (he meant baptism and the sacrament of repentance and confession). You eat the second (he meant Holy Communion). The third you wear around you (he meant the cross)''. That is the reason why, every time we go to confession, take communion and seal our bodies with the sign of the Holy Cross, the demons shiver and are afraid ...

• In a field, someone had once killed the owner of the field. After 150 years, a summer house was built on that field. The owner of the summer house was a rich man, and one day his son took his company of friends and they went to the cottage for a short vacation. It was the first time that any people would spend the night in that house. On the first day, the children ate and drank, and at 8 o'clock in the evening, where they were enjoying themselves, the power suddenly went out and automatically the whole house was plunged into darkness. The atmosphere then started to smell of gunpowder and in the bathroom of the house it sounded like they were slaughtering pigs and emptying bags of onions! The children got such an impression from the noise, and they stiffened with fear. Then they heard downstairs in the cellar, as if they were breaking pots! The children grabbed a flashlight and went to the bathroom, from where they heard moans and see the bathtub full of fresh human blood!!! They were shocked by the sight... The children were terrified by their inexperience, without being responsible for this situation, and instead of saying prayer to Christ, they ran out of the house. If we find ourselves in such a situation, we must first believe that they are demons, because doubt and unbelief makes them stronger, and secondly, we must fast and pray so that they would be completely banished from that place. Wherever innocent blood is shed, that's where the demons make their "hangout". This is how things are and when we don't know, then we say that there are ghosts and haunted houses...

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

• Some scientists once took a frog and threw it into a cauldron of boiling water. The frog immediately jumped out. Then they threw him a second time, third time and so on, but he always jumped out and escaped. Then they threw him into a kettle of cold water. The frog was pleased and began to rejoice and swim. What he did not understand, however, was that a fire was lit under the cauldron and the water was slowly heating up. As the frog swam happily and joyfully with dives and jumps, the water slowly warmed up and boiled and the water temperature gradually changed and rose, without his realizing it. And so in the hot water the frog was boiled alive, without realizing it. The devil uses the same tactic. He does not abruptly throw man into hot sin, because he will react and jump out. He puts him in the cauldron of lukewarm water, turns on the fire and boils it like a frog. He begins with the minor and insignificant sins, silently passes to addiction, and reaches the major and grave sins, with the result that man is led to damnation.

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

• The devil appeared to a pious man and revealed to him the following: I rule the world by means of great abuses, namely: the abuse of knowledge, the abuse of power, the abuse of wealth, the abuse of physical beauty, the abuse of art and the abuse of food and drink. With the help of these abuses and my magic mirror I show the people the Land of Impossible Happiness and they run like crazy...
• Once two elegant young infidels, traveling on a steamboat, saw on the deck an old man, known for his faith and holy life, and wanted to make a joke at his expense. So they approached him and said, "Father, did you hear the news?" "What news, kids?" asked the good elder. "Didn't you know the devil died?" Then the pious old man laid his hands on their shoulders, not being disturbed by the impudence of those young people, and said kindly to them: "My dear children, the proof that he did not die is your conduct towards an old man and your words are his hunches... !!!"

Saint Marina the demon-slayer

 

[Daniel Hoseini]

There are more useful things that we can say about the devils. For example, they never can give praise to Jesus Christ or God the Holy Trinity, not even hypocritically, unlike human hypocrites. If they do praise 'lord god', then they mean by it their leader, former Lucifer. You can find more about the struggles with devil and the lessons that came out of it in the lives of the saints. Especially the life of saint Anthony the Great, written by saint Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria; see also the life of saint Basil the New, where you can find the story about the demonic, aerial 'toll-houses' after one dies, described in a dream by his deceased follower Theodora to another of his follower. Consider also to study the teaching of Evagrius Ponticus in the Philocalia (now available in English).

I would like to end this topic by telling something that I once heard from someone else:
Just like God has His plan for the world and each person, so also the devil, being the parodist of God. The devil fulfills his plan through his servants. His servants are not only satanists. In fact every one of us can be and sometimes are his servants by accepting his suggestions and doing sin to the harm of our soul. The way of avoiding this is continual repentance not only of our particular sins, but of our whole human sinfulness in general. Repentance presupposes humility and is based upon it. If we don't have tears of repentance, then we can cry from our heart even without tears, but it must not be a superficial hysterical crying that harms our nerve system. Reading of prayers, fasting and prostrations are also some helping tools that put our repentance in practice.

 

[ArmyMatt]

St Marina beating a demon with a hammer is one of my favorite images.

 

[Jude1:3Contendforthefaith]

When I was EO the number one thing that I dealt with was demons and wicked people gaslighting me with mind games. (Even people in The Church / the younger priest that I had) It wasn't everyone though. The true Christians never did this to me.

Also, demons pretending to be human to harass me. (I'm self aware of how ridiculous that sounds, but I'm telling you it was Beyond weird.)

You learn to just pray through it / deal with it / ignore it.

 

[The Liturgist]

St Marina beating a demon with a hammer is one of my favorite images.

I want that icon. That and St. Nicholas slapping Arius are pretty epic, but this one more so, since strictly speaking St. Nicholas was not supposed to slap Arius, whereas one cannot be faulted for taking out a demon with a hammer.

I did just get a beautiful icon of our Lord from Greece today. I believe they sent me the wrong one, alas, as I had intended to get Extreme Humility, and this is rather the icon of Christ that appears on the iconostasis opposite the Holy Doors from the Mercy Seat icon of the Theotokos.

 

[ArmyMatt]

I did just get a beautiful icon of our Lord from Greece today. I believe they sent me the wrong one, alas, as I had intended to get Extreme Humility, and this is rather the icon of Christ that appears on the iconostasis opposite the Holy Doors from the Mercy Seat icon of the Theotokos.

nice