On pride

[boccaderlupo]

In certain quarters—Origen, Athanasius, Evagrius, John Damascene—there are intimations that demons both envy and loathe the material, insofar as they are spiritual and lack material bodies, and perhaps in spite of the foreknowledge that the God of Heaven and Earth would "empty himself" and incarnate.

Such a model has a number of interesting corollaries. Nature and the material are created fundamentally good, although presently subject to entropy and death; demons will seek to corrupt the material wherever possible, in particular human beings' response to it, whether by exalting the material (see also consumerist culture) or by causing revulsion to the material (we see this is certain religious contexts). As the exorcists emphasize, demons' limited purchase on matter means they frequently rely on incarnate agents, especially human beings, to perform their will and enact physical and spiritual evil, through behavior and perpetuation of disordering ideas. They rely, then, on persuasion, which requires the participation of a person's will; over time, this can devolve into oppression and ultimately full-on possession, much as an individual's participation over time with the Divine can progressively lead to henosis and theosis. This is not something that happens inadvertently, for the most part—it expressly depends on intent.

This model also underscores the importance of Mary and her humanity, as she is the path whereby the God of hosts, the pleroma of the myriad divine powers, becomes expressed in the material world--that is, whereby his will is accomplished on Earth as it is Heaven (as above, so below). It also suggests the need for our own engagement with the material, in the form of action, both behaviors infused with divine love but also in ritual action, through participation in the mysteries.