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I woke up in the middle of the night in a faintly cold sweat, nervous and anxious, as from a bad nightmare. I think I dreamed of demons, calling and pursuing me.
Maybe I am spending too much time in Christian literature, and with Augustine’s “City of God” in particular. Augustine is writing after a critical sack of Rome, perhaps the final and dispositive sack, and he is writing in defense of Christianity against all those who are decrying that the Western empire is crumbling because of Constantine’s conversion of the empire to the Christian faith, and because of the ban against pagan worship and their animal sacrifices to their gods.
It is in this work that Augustine elucidates the idea that the pagan gods are really the fallen angels that rebelled against the one true God, and hence are really demons, who mean nothing but harm to humans, wishing us to share their eternity of torment and trying to deceive us into blowing our great chance at eternal bliss in the City of God. Augustine writes at length and in detail about these demons and their malice.
Anyway, in this dream, I am in the kitchen in the dark of night, as if I’m on one of my bathroom trips, getting a drink of water, when I hear a chorus of female, demonic voices, as influenced no doubt by the movies, along with some “Macbeth”. They are calling me, but I cannot make out the rest of what they are saying or chanting, not that I am trying hard to figure it out, because I desperately start shouting out prayers, if only to drown out those voices. I barely started before I woke up, shivering a little, wondering what this is about.
This dream especially caught me off guard, because, if anything, I have been rather hoping to hear from the other team, a sort of welcome and camaraderie from the heavenly angels, to receive a personal revelation for the faith, having opened myself up through my daily reading and prayers. Instead, I get this presentiment of Hell. Maybe it really is time for me to lay off the Internet porn.
Maybe I am spending too much time in Christian literature, and with Augustine’s “City of God” in particular. Augustine is writing after a critical sack of Rome, perhaps the final and dispositive sack, and he is writing in defense of Christianity against all those who are decrying that the Western empire is crumbling because of Constantine’s conversion of the empire to the Christian faith, and because of the ban against pagan worship and their animal sacrifices to their gods.
It is in this work that Augustine elucidates the idea that the pagan gods are really the fallen angels that rebelled against the one true God, and hence are really demons, who mean nothing but harm to humans, wishing us to share their eternity of torment and trying to deceive us into blowing our great chance at eternal bliss in the City of God. Augustine writes at length and in detail about these demons and their malice.
Anyway, in this dream, I am in the kitchen in the dark of night, as if I’m on one of my bathroom trips, getting a drink of water, when I hear a chorus of female, demonic voices, as influenced no doubt by the movies, along with some “Macbeth”. They are calling me, but I cannot make out the rest of what they are saying or chanting, not that I am trying hard to figure it out, because I desperately start shouting out prayers, if only to drown out those voices. I barely started before I woke up, shivering a little, wondering what this is about.
This dream especially caught me off guard, because, if anything, I have been rather hoping to hear from the other team, a sort of welcome and camaraderie from the heavenly angels, to receive a personal revelation for the faith, having opened myself up through my daily reading and prayers. Instead, I get this presentiment of Hell. Maybe it really is time for me to lay off the Internet porn.
