Speaking about Evil – Day by day Meditations with Matthew Fox

Yesterday I dropped at your consideration two good items of writing by Patrice Mersault about coping with the satan.  Listed below are a couple of extra insights from that doc: The author addresses the “Prince of Darkness” telling him how “a mortal man walks amongst us whose actions and rhetoric bear an uncanny resemblance to your legendary portfolio.  That man is Donald J. Trump.”* And he asks the “Lord of the Abyss” whether or not Trump is  a “masterpiece of your infernal artistry” or one thing extra—“a rival whose depravity dangers destabilizing even your dominion of the damned”?**

Individuals are saying they don’t have the language right now to take care of the darkness they’re feeling—that is the place artwork is available in.  On this doc, artwork is talking to us and offers a really a lot wanted satire—the artwork of laughing at energy.  It places into perspective the disturbing and distressing information and information that assail us each day.  One can not stay by truth and information alone, one additionally wants perspective and laughter and the choice language that artwork brings.

That’s absolutely the case additionally in my e book on Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ.  The artwork of Hildegard of Bingen and the artwork of Luca Signorelli plus the opening story of how artwork beckoned Sigmund Freud to go to the Orvieto  Cathedral on three events regardless that he was a really seen proponent of atheism and mechanistic science.  He couldn’t resist the tales being advised.

As I level out in my first e book on Evil, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul & Society, we’re shorthanded right now relating to speaking about evil.  Scott Peck says we’re at a primitive stage of child discuss in speaking about evil.  However discuss it we should—as Carl Jung says, to fail to speak about it invitations catastrophe.

Evil dwells within the land of the non secular, its reverse is the Sacred.  It has a sort of immortality to it insofar because it retains coming again.  I suggest that the acquainted names of Lucifer, Devil, Beelzebub could be changed with different phrases akin to Racism, Sexism, Fascism or Christian Nationalism if we would like.

Hildegard paints evil—right here we have now an image of Devil sure by people who find themselves resisting him.  He’s not lifeless.  He’s nonetheless very a lot alive in her portray.  She describes the scene thus: A worm (vermis) “of unbelievable dimension and size” mendacity on its again.  It was horrible and mad, black and bushy, filled with sores and pus and filled with lethal poison.  He had a nostril and mouth like a snake, palms like a person, toes like a snake and a brief and horrible tail. 

Cirlot, an professional in symbology factors out that’s such fabulous animals depict “cosmic terror” and that’s absolutely what Hildegard has in thoughts.

A “very evil flame” emanates from the beast’s mouth to the 4 corners of the universe.  He unfold poisons akin to “worldly disappointment” and melancholy; and “tasteless irreverence;” and “false glory;” and “stinging withdrawal; and “lukewarm imitation.”  All these “deliver dying to the souls of people who associate with the satan.”  In his mouth are “toxic arrows of human air pollution which individuals train based on their will in opposition to the legislation.”

Cirlot calls arrows “an plain phallic signification.”  As soon as once more Hildegard is linking the demonic with patriarchy as she did in her portray of the antichrist.

We aren’t at a loss for language that depicts Evil. Artists, together with satirists, present us with correct language. 

* Patrice Mersault, “My Debate with Devil: Is Trump Your Masterpiece—or Your Substitute?” Substack, February 14, 2025.

**Patrice Mersault, “My Debate With Devil, Half II: The Ultimate Battle.” Substack, March 26, 2025.

Tailored from Matthew Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, pp. 132-135,

And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society.

See Fox, Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ.What artwork, whether or not satire or writing or work or music or poetry or Scriptures, help you to remain grounded and current throughout the present onslaught of Evil in our instances?

Banner picture: “The fireplace satan and the destroyer.” Photograph by Conceptphoto.data on Flickr. Says the photographer, “Sadly, Germans haven’t any voting rights within the USA.”

Queries for Contemplation

What artwork, whether or not satire or writing or work or music or poetry or Scriptures, help you to remain grounded and current throughout the present onslaught of Evil in our instances?

Beneficial Studying

Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen

An introduction to the life and work of Hildegard of Bingen, Illuminations reveals the life and teachings of one of many best feminine artists and intellectuals of the Western Mystical Custom.  On the age of 42, she started to have visions; these have been captured as 36 illuminations–24 of that are recorded on this e book alongside along with her commentaries on them.
“If one individual deserves credit score for the good Hildegard renaissance in our time, it’s Matthew Fox.”  – Dr Mary Ford-Grabowsky, creator of Sacred Voices.

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling creator Matthew Fox affords a brand new theology of evil that basically modifications the standard notion of excellent and evil and factors the best way to a extra enlightened therapy of ourselves, each other, and all of nature. In evaluating the Jap custom of the 7 chakras to the Western custom of the 7 capital sins, Fox permits us to assume creatively about our capability for private and institutional evil and what we are able to do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a greater imaginative and prescient and depth of notion far past the grasp of anyone single science.  A breath-taking evaluation.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, creator of Quantum Theology: Non secular Implications of the New Physics

Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had at all times shied away from utilizing the time period “Anti-Christ” as a result of it was so typically used to unfold management and concern. Nonetheless, given right now’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this e book using the archetype for the reason for justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a second, for inspecting the archetype of the Antichrist, it’s now…Learn this e book with an open thoughts. Good and evil are actual forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For speedy entry to Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white pictures, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To obtain a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for speedy obtain.