THE ETERNAL WAR: A Glimpse on a central aspect of EGAe's theology
by Fr.Borealis (Subdeacon), January 2008
[Note: This text is only an extract from a longer essay with the
same title and which will be availabe for members in a church-intern publication.]
We do not view this world as an evil thing, as something that needs to be
escaped from. Our goal is not to dissolve into the pleroma. Knowing that this world is
the dominion of the archontic powers does not make the world our enemy. The beauty of
nature is overwhelming, and knowing that beauty is truth (and viceversa). In this very
world and in this very matter, we have all reasons to accept and give battle to those
powers which are keeping us in the dark.
The aim of this fight is the attainment of Gnosis - for ourselves and for the whole
world; so that beauty and truth may bring about the new Golden Age, the age of peace
and truth, and the unity of man with nature and the kosmos - so the unity of man with
the Godhead (but in a different way than the ancient Gnostics saw it). (...)
Who are those sides waging this eternal war? In the theology of our Church, the fight
goes on forever between two principles: the Soul and the Spirit. The Soul is our very
core of which the mind and the body are images and expressions; it is the means through
which we can experience the unity with the Kosmos, the All of the Creation - a blessed
state of unity with all things. However, experiencing this unity in its fullness would
not be possible if we were just to dissolve in the pleroma, the kosmos, so if we were
only experiencing by means of our Soul: that way we would merely float about, not being
able to focus and use the unity in which we partake.
Instead, we want to achieve Kaivalya, a state of utter and complete individuation, in
which we are one with the kosmos but can still focus on this oneness and discover
eternally the wonders of the creation.
Now, in what might seem a paradox, we cannot achieve Kaivalya without the help of the
other principle: the Spirit. The Spirit, in its present unrefined state, is a
counterfeit Spirit, a parasite living off our Soul, feeding on our inner light - which
is ever dimming because of the influence of the Spirit. It's a force trying to keep us
in the dark, to not concentrate on the here and now - the only part of the so-called
space-time continuum that really matters. The unrefined Spirit is bound to transform
the divine creation that is man into a materialistic man-machine, ever planning his
future on grounds of modern civilisation; a soul-less automaton unaware of his true
Self and the kosmos around.
This unrefined Spirit is something that came from ''outside''. Maybe it is an invention
of the archontic powers but eventually its roots are not the most important. That which
is most important is that through working on ourselves, and particularly through the
mystery of baptism, we can transform and refine this enemy and turn it into the refined
true Spirit, a razor-sharp focusing tool that will work in perfect unison with the
Soul-Body complex and thereby make possible our eternal individuated unity with the
kosmos - fully exposed to the kosmic shivers of Life and Love, existing right here and
right now, acting right here and right now.
(...)
This war is long and hard, because we indeed fight first and foremost with ourselves,
and our enemy knows our faults and weaknesses perfectly and it will try to make use of
them every day. But the rewards are also great - beyond comprehension for the Knights
and Dames warring forever - because as it is written, "For they endure everything,
and bear up under anything, that they may finish the good fight and inherit eternal life."
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