DEMONIC STRONGHOLD

ABOUT PRIDE
Fr Alexander Elchaninov
(Translated by Seraphim Larin)

The great expert on the depths of the human spirit, the Blessed Isaac
the Syrian, says in his discourse: “He who acknowledges his sin is
higher than he who raises the dead through his prayer; and he who is
worthy of seeing his true self, is higher than he who can see Angels.” It
is for this insight of one’s self that leads us toward the examination of
this question, which we have placed as the heading.
Pride, narcissism, and vanity, as well as arrogance, haughtiness,
pontificality can all be added to the various aspects of the one
fundamental visage – “self-centredness”; leaving it as a general term
that covers all the above-mentioned terms. From all these words, the
two most outstanding ones that carry the most abiding meaning are:
vanity and pride; and according to the “Ladder”, are like boy and man,
like grain and bread, like the beginning and end. The symptoms of
vanity, this nascent sin are: intolerance of criticism, longing for praises,
seeking the “easy way out”, uninterrupted orientation on others – what
will they say? How will this look? What will they think? “Viewed at a
distance at the approaching onlooker, vanity makes the irate – gentle,
the flippant – earnest, the distracted – focused, the glutton – temperate
etc… as long as there are spectators. Childish and youthful timidity is
often nothing but the same hidden narcism and vanity. The same
orientation is applied to the onlooker in explaining the sin of self-
justification, which often creeps unnoticed even into our confession: “I
am a sinner just like the rest”, - “only minor sins – didn’t kill anyone,
didn’t steal”.
In Countess C.A.Tolstoy’s diary, there is a characteristic entry: “And the
fact that I was unable to bring up my children properly (having married
as a girl and isolated in a village for 18 years) often torments me.” The
main contrite phrase is completely negated by the self-justification in
brackets.

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In viewing the increase of our good works, the demon rejoices over
vanity, says Saint John of the Ladder: the more successes we have, the
more food for vanity: “When I preserve Lent, I am vainglorious; when I
conceal this Christian deed (podveeg), I am vainglorious about my
wisdom. If I dress fashionably, I am vainglorious, while changing into
shabby attire, I increase my vainglory. In commencing to speak, I am
overcome with vainglory; by keeping quiet – I surrender to the same
emotion. Whichever way you turn these thorns, their needles will always
end up facing upwards”.
Leo Tolstoy knew the toxic essence of vanity very well. In his early
diaries, he savagely accuses himself of vanity. In one of his diaries of
the 50’s, he bitterly complains that no sooner a good feeling appears in
his soul through its spontaneous actions, an immediate focus on one’s
self appears: a vain-glorious application to one’s self and behold, the
precious tendency of the soul disappear, melt like snow in the sun – melt
meaning dying; which means – thanks to vanity, the best that is in you
dies and consequently, we are killing ourselves with vanity; we are
replacing the real, simple and good life with delusions. The vain
individual aspires for death and receives it.
“Rarely have I seen” - writes one of the contemporary writers – “that a
great, mute joy of suffering pass over distances of human souls, without
the accompaniment of its abominable attendant – earthly, flippant vanity.
What is the essence of vanity? In my opinion - in their inability to be an
individual entity. Vain people are in essence vacuous, who equate
themselves to other people’s opinions about them. In experiencing great
pain, vain individuals innately strive toward exhibiting these traits to
people around them, because the attentive glances of onlookers to them
are akin to floodlights on a theatrical stage” (Nicholas Pereslegin).
Intensified vanity gives birth to pride. Pride is extreme self-confidence
that rejects everything which is not mine: it’s the fount of anger, cruelty
and rancour: it’s a refusal of God’s help, a “demonic stronghold”. It is a
“steel wall” between us and God (Abba Pimen): it is antipathy to God
and is the beginning of every sin: it is in every sin. After all, every sin is
the voluntary surrender of self to your passion: a conscious trampling of
God’s Law: insolence toward God, even though “one who is subservient
to pride has an especial dire need of God, because people are unable to
save him” (Saint John of the Ladder).

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Where does this passion come from? What is its beginning? What
nourishes it? What stages does it pass in its development? What are its
recognisable signs? This last question is especially important because a
proud individual usually doesn’t notice his sin.
Once, a wise elder was admonishing a novice in a monastery for being
afflicted with pride, to which the young spiritually blind postulant replied:
“Forgive me father but I’m not proud”. The old Starets responded with:
“My son, you couldn’t have used any better words than those you have
just uttered to prove that you are proud!”.
In any case, if it’s difficult for a person to ask for forgiveness: if he is
precarious and mistrustful: if he is vengeful and judges others, all these
signs are undoubted symptoms of pride. Simeon the New Theologian
writes brilliantly about them: “Being dishonourable and vexatious and
suffering greatly from them, such a person will show that he carries the
ancient snake (pride) in his entrails. If he endures his grievances silently,
he will make the snake infirm and weak. But if he revolts with bitterness
and speaks insolently, he will bestow strength to the snake to effuse
poison into his heart and mercilessly devour his entrails.”
In his “Word on heathens”, Saint Athanasius the Great, there is the
following: “People have fallen into wilful thinking, preferring to have a
personal outlook to God’s.” (Works, Tome 1, page 8, pub. 1851.) This
short determination carries the very essence of pride: whereas up to this
point of time, God was the centre and desire to Man, has now turned
away from Him and “fallen into wilful thinking”, desired and worshipped
himself more than God: preferred to contemplate about himself rather
than about God.
In our lives, this address to “self-contemplation” and “self-desire’ has
became part of our nature and appears at least as in the form of
powerful instinct of self-preservation, both in our physical and spiritual
lives.
Just like a malignant growth often begins with a bruise or from a
prolonged irritation in the same place, so does the sickness of pride
often begins, either through a sudden upheaval of the soul e.g. great
woe or from a prolonged personal smugness, following e.g. success,
fortunate opportunity or constant application of one’s talent.
Often, this is a “temperamental” person, ‘intriguing” and talented. This, in
his own way, is a spurting geyser, which through its continuous activity

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hampers God and people to approach him. He is gorged, preoccupied
and flushed with himself. He sees and feels nothing except his own
ardency and talent, which he enjoys and from which he receives total
happiness and satisfaction. You can hardly do anything with such people
until they themselves become exhausted – until the volcano is
extinguished.
Such is the danger in every endowment, every talent. These qualities
should be equilibrated fully with profound spirituality.
In opposite cases – in suffering woes, the result is the same: the person
is “overwhelmed” with his grief, and the surrounding world is marred and
grows dim in his eyes: he can think or speak of nothing but his sorrow:
he lives it, he ultimately clings to it as though it’s all that he has left – as
his sole reason for living. But there are people, “that even in their own
personal humiliation, attempt to find enjoyment”. (Dostoevsky “Notes
from underground”).
Often this paying attention to one’s self is developed by people that are
quiet, obedient, silent, whose childhood lives were suppressed, and this
“suppressed subjectiveness gives birth – as compensation – ego-centric
tendencies.” (Jung - Psychological types.) in a great variety of
manifestations: touchiness, irascibility, coquettishness, longing to bring
attention upon himself even to the extent of spreading and supporting
gossip about himself, and finally in the form of direct psychoses in the
character of imposed ideas, mania of being followed, or mania of
greatness. (Gogol’s Pursuits).
Therefore, focusing on one’s self leads the person away from the world
and God: he, in a manner of speaking, he splits away from the mutual
stump of creation and turns into a shaving, wrapped around an empty
space.
Let us attempt to trace the main phases of pride’s development from the
light self-complacency to the extreme spiritual darkness and total
demise.
Initially, this initial attention to one’s self is just about normal,
accompanied by a feeling of good cheer, which often proceeds to
flippancy. The person is pleased with himself, laughs often, whistles,
hums and snaps his fingers. Loves to be original, astound with
contradictions in terms, to wisecrack: manifest especial tastes and fussy
with his food. Gives unsolicited advice willingly, and friendly intervenes

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in foreign affairs; unconsciously reveals his exceptional interest in
himself with such phrases (in interrupting a foreign conversation): “No,
what I will tell you”, or “No, I know a better example”, or “I have a
habit…”, or “I hold to the rule…”, “I have a habit of preferring…” (from
Turgenev).
In speaking of grief, he involuntarily speaks of himself: I was so shaken
that up to now, I cannot come to”. At the same time, it depends greatly
on outside approval from which a person suddenly blooms, or withers
and goes “sour”.
But in general, the mood in this phase remains bright. This facet of
egocentricity is very inherent in youths, although it is met in adulthood.
Fortunate is that person who at this stage is met with serious concerns,
especially about others (marriage, family), work, labour. Or, he is
captivated by the religious path and attracted to the spiritual beauty of
the deed; see his own penury and squalor and desires blessed help. If
this doesn’t happen, the illness maturates further.
A genuine belief in one’s superiority emerges. This often is expressed in
unrestrained wordiness. What is confabulation other than the absence of
modesty on the one hand, and on the other – self-indulgence through
the process of self-exposure. The egotistical nature of verbosity is such
that it’s not decreased when it’s applied on serious topics: a proud
individual can expound on humility and muteness, extol the fast, debate
the question as to what stands higher: good works or prayer. This self-
assurance soon becomes a passion to command; he invades foreign
minds (yet not tolerating any invasion into his), dispenses with foreign
attentiveness, time, powers: becomes insolent and impertinent. His
matters are important – others, a mere nothing. He tackles everything
and meddles in everything.
At this phase, the mood of the proud deteriorates. In his aggression, he
naturally meets opposition and rebuff; there is an appearance of
irritation, stubbornness, crustiness; he is convinced that no one
understands him, even his spiritual father; clash with the “world”
intensifies and the prideful makes his final decision: “I” am against
people, but not yet against God. The soul becomes murky and cold
where arrogance, contempt, anger and hatred settle in. The mind
becomes obscurantist: differentiation between good and evil becomes
confused because it replaces the delineation between “mine” and “not
mine”. He abandons all forms of submission: is not tolerated in any

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society: his aim is to promote his line, to shock others: he hungrily seeks
fame even though it’s scandalous: seek to avenge against the world for
not acknowledging him and take his revenge. If he is a monk, he
forsakes the monastery where everything is intolerable and seeks his
personal pursuits.
Sometimes, this power of self-assertion si directed on material
accumulation, career, societal and political activities, and sometimes – if
he is talented – at creativity, and here the proud can have some
successes because of his aggressiveness. It’s on these grounds that
schisms and heresies are created.
Finally, in the last phase the person ruptures his ties with God. If
previously he committed sins from devilment and rebellion, now he
allows himself everything: his sins don’t torment him as it becomes a
habit; if it’s easy for him at this stage, then it’s also easy for him to be
with the devil along the darkened paths. The condition of the soul is
bleak, unrelieved, total isolation: but together with this, there is a
genuine conviction in the correctness of his path with a feeling of total
safeness, when at the time black wings of doom are hurrying him to his
destruction. In point of fact, this type of condition is hardly different to
derangement.
The proud also abides in a state of total isolation (impenetrable
darkness). Observe how he converses, argues: he either doesn’t hear
anything that is spoken to him, or hears only that which corresponds with
his outlook: if he is told something that doesn’t coincide with opinion, he
gets angry as from a personal insult: taunts and savagely rejects it. In
those around him, he can only see those attributes which he himself has
imposed, so that even in his praises he remains proud, withdrawn and
impenetrable to objectivity.
Characteristically, that which is the most widespread form of spiritual
sickness – mania of greatness or of being persecuted – flows directly
from an “elevated self-awareness”, and is completely unthinkable to the
humble, plain and self-effacing people. After all, even psychiatrists
regard that in the main, exaggerated feeling of self-importance:
animosity toward people: loss of normal ability to adapt, and warped
judgment, all lead to spiritual paranoia. A classical paranoiac never
criticises himself: in his eyes, he is always correct and is sharply
dissatisfied with the surrounding people and conditions of his life. Here is
the profound determination of Blessed John of the Ladder: “Pride is

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extreme wretchedness to the soul.” The proud sustains defeat on all
fronts: Psychologically – angst, gloom, unfruitfulness.
Morally – loneliness, withering of love, anger.
From a theological standpoint – the death of the soul, a premonitory of
physical death, Gehenna during life.
Gnosisologically – solipsism [ 1 ]
Physiologically and pathologically – nervosi and spiritual sickness.
In conclusion, it’s natural to pose the following question: how do you
combat this ailment: what resistance do you put up against this doom
that threatens those that walk this path?
The answer flows from the essence of the question – humility, objective
obedience: obedience step by step – loved ones, close friends, earthly
laws, objective truth, beauty, everything good that is in us and outside,
obedience to God’s Laws, and finally – obedience to the Church, her by-
laws and Statutes: Her mysterious reactions. But to achieve this, there is
that which stands at the commencement of the Christian path: “If anyone
desires to come after Me, let him deny himself.” Deny himself… yes,
deny himself every day; akin to what is recorded in the ancient
chronicles, let him deny himself every day and pick up his cross – the
cross of enduring grievances, placing himself last, enduring offences
and ailments, and accepting vilifications silently, complete and
unreserved obedience – immediate, voluntary, joyful, unafraid, constant.
Only then will the path to the realm of tranquillity be opened to him,
“profound wisdom of humility that destroys all passions.” To our God,
“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble”, glory be to Him.
Annotation
[ 1 ] The extreme form of subjective idealism, acknowledging only
recognisable subjects as undoubted reality and declaring all the rest as
existing only in his consciousness. In an ethical sense – extreme
egoism, egocentrism.