December 2020 Q&A (oKeEmnCLOkI)

https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=oKeEmnCLOkI

I’m sorry. Hello, everybody. Alright, so I see Lisa and Brad are in the chat. That’s wonderful. Sure, there won’t be that many people tonight because of the whole holiday and obviously, very slow mood. Yes, I see the chat. New house. This is my future office slash studio. For now, it is an absolute insane, crazy mess with a bunch of stuff because my family and I went nuts trying to just be in this house for Christmas. So we worked like mad the last week. That’s why you probably didn’t see me much online. Just not involved at all trying to make it for Christmas and we did. We were able to put up the Christmas tree on the 24th and wrap our presents and prepare everything. So, yeah, so we did it and then the last few days have just been winding down with the kids and the family, you know, kind of thinking in this return to our house, which is kind of a new house because everything is different. Everything is new. And so it’s pretty amazing. I actually feel like I’m on vacation because it’s just very odd to just be back and feel home. I really feel like I’m back home, which I haven’t felt like that in quite a while. So it’s pretty amazing. So I’m pretty excited. I’m pretty excited to be back. I feel tired to be back at the same time. And, yeah, I know so many people who will be watching this have been involved, you know, have thought about my family. I’ve prayed for my family. I have, you know, send us their wishes and also even have helped financially. You know, quite a few people helped us out when the flood first happened, which really kind of helped us get through those first months that we were in. And so I’m really excited to be back and help this even to fix the house. And so here we are. All right, guys. So this is the last Q&A of 2020, the greatest. I’m not good at sarcasm. The greatest year this year has just been so crazy. I guess I kind of said it would be crazy, but I can’t get over how crazy it’s been. And I think the thing about it is 2021 is probably going to be worse in so many ways, which is very annoying. And so we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens. At least we get through and see what happens next week or the next few weeks, you know, with the U.S. political situation, with all the lockdowns. We’re in we’re on lockdown now. You know, they locked everybody down for a year. No one’s allowed to visit anybody in theory. And so yeah, so it’s just it’s just a crazy time. But we will do our Q&A and hopefully it’ll help us think of other things. So Shane Artisan says 2020 the dumpster fire that keeps on giving Joe Scott. Yes, indeed. The thing is that at least if you if we had the sense that it was going to end, it would not be so bad, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to end. It seems like it’s going to continue. So yeah, all right. OK, so. All right, so here we go. We’re going to start and hopefully everything will be OK. And so, like I said, this is going to be my new studio. I even have a new camera which I’m not using tonight because I’m not totally sure how it works yet. I actually set up my computer this morning and I kind of set everything up because I had I had a meeting this morning. I hadn’t turned on my computer since Christmas, so it’s actually a good sign. It means that I actually did get some rest. And so and so hopefully this will be a nice spot. All right, so I’m going to start with so no questions on Subscribestar. I’ve been kind of pointing people away from Subscribestar. If you’re if you’re on Subscribestar, I you know, it’d probably be better to support me on PayPal or through Patreon just because Subscribestar has been odd. And, you know, it’s hard to understand how it works. Nothing is clear in the way that it’s described. And I they keep telling me I’m supposed to get so much money and then I get like half or a third of it. And so it’s just odd. They wrote me an email trying to explain it, but it’s just still odd the way they present things. So I don’t. Yeah, I mean, I’m still going to continue there as long as some people, you know, trust that platform. But I don’t think it’s not it’s not my favorite, I have to say. OK, and so here we go. I will start with Nico says, to which thing do you pray most often except Mary? And so I think that would probably be a toss up between St. Maximus, the confessor and St. Christopher, obviously. And so St. Maximus is my patron. It’s actually my name, my orthodox, my baptismal name is is Maximus or Maxim in French, I guess you would say. And and then St. Christopher, that’s obvious. If you watch my channel, you know that I’m very close to St. Christopher. All right. Nomad in socks asks. So I’ve been trying to understand and summarize the broad strokes of the points you have been making about ritual and symbolism. Can you tell me if I have this right? Ritual is used to bring those with knowledge down into feeling, thus motivating them into action. Symbolism is used to bring knowledge down to those who primarily feel thus directing their emotions. Now, I’m not sure that’s not that’s not really. So ritual helps the thinker feel and symbolism helps the feeler think. Thank you for all you’re God shines through. I think it’s that’s probably not the best way, at least that’s not the way that I would phrase it. I can kind of understand what you’re trying to do there. But symbol ritual is mostly just symbolism in action. It’s just embodied symbolism. And so symbolism is just the way in which multiplicity comes into unity. And then you can still see the multiplicity in that unity. That’s so there’s a pattern by which that happens. There’s a hierarchy by which identities manifest themselves. And that ends up being the symbolic structure, the kind of image of everything that I showed you. It happened in a fractal way at every level. And then ritual is enacted symbolism. And so it’s there are some versions of some aspects of reality which appear to us more condensed, you could say, so you can kind of see or experience or participate in the pattern in a kind of more direct way or a more concise way. And that’s usually what we’ll call symbolism. And in terms of action, then that’s what we’ll call ritual. Hope that makes sense. Nomad in socks. All right. And so I’m happy to see that Neil deGrade is there as DirtpoorRobbins in the chat. Marianne Oul is there as well. That’s cool. I can pay attention to the chat. Look at me. I’m getting better at this, you know, probably because there’s less people there. It’s not going as fast as it does sometimes. All right. So Bogdan asks, I finally got around to listening to Lord of Spirits after hearing it recommended all over the place. Thanks for bringing it, bringing awareness to it. It’s been blowing my mind. Yeah. The context the show provides makes the Old Testament story is much more understandable and gives them a sense of the context, particularly regarding Gigantoma key and fallen spirits. However, this context also makes it feel more distance, more distant from the present time. How do we have conversations about these ideas both with non-Christians and Christians who are not necessarily aware of this context in a world where the very existence of these entities is considered laughable? I love your conversation with rational rules and Adam friended and they were, I think, important steps toward answering this question. I think a good way is to see what I’m doing. I guess like what I’m doing, this is what I’m doing. I kind of joke and say that if my work, if the things that I’m doing can make it so that when you listen to the Lord of Spirits podcast, you understand what they’re talking about and it doesn’t just sound like science fiction or some kind of fantasy novel that it actually sounds like a description of reality, then I think I’ve done what I need to do. I think that I’m constantly trying to give example or show the way that being manifests itself in ways that are more immediate and more easy to kind of grasp, but then ultimately that should lead you to understanding these ancient stories and to see how they’re really describing reality. I was talking to Father Andrew about this just a few days ago because I’m going to be on one of his podcasts, like a long form interview, and I was talking about how they really tend to stay in the mythological mode quite a bit, whereas I try to bridge the mythological mode with the kind of more modern scientific way of thinking, or I try to be attentive to the way that modern people think and try to help them kind of bridge into the mythological mode, but obviously the mythological mode is better because it’s actually something you can be in, like it’s a story you can be in. And a lot of the things they’re saying really help, like they’re just so helpful. I keep coming back to this idea that Father Stephen keeps brought up, which I guess I should have realized that before. I didn’t realize it is the idea that the relationship between the sons of God and women in Genesis is just, it’s a ritual relationship. That is that it’s done through secondary causes, that there are rituals that bring about, you know, that embody these entities into the world through kind of sexual relations, ritualized sexual relations. And it’s like, I can’t believe I didn’t ever thought that that’s what he was talking about. I read the Hammer of Witches last year, for those who are on Patreon, you probably saw my video on that. You know, I read the Hammer of Witches and in that, that they basically say the same thing. They say that there is no possibility for a demon and a human to have a relationship, but it has to happen through secondary causes. And some of those are, you know, kind of these ritual relationships. They also mentioned other secondary causes, but it has to happen through secondary causes. So anyways, so I’m really excited about Lord of Spirits podcast. Everybody check it out. It’s definitely worth listening to. And it’s just the more they go, the more they’re able to kind of bridge, you know, they say some wild stuff. Like they’re really saying the things that I wish I could have been saying quite a while ago, but that I always like feel like I need to prepare people and they just got to dive in, which is great for people who are ready. You know, I think it’s wonderful. So, um, so Timothy Aspil Slaw says, hey, Jonathan, in the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction, what does Benjamin Walter Benjamin mean when he states the following fascism leads logically to an aestheticization of political life, which culminates in war. Communism, communism’s reply is to politicize art. Um, yeah, well, I think that Benjamin is right when he his opposition of communism and fascism is quite it’s quite right. And I think that’s something that Jordan also really Jordan Peterson was really able to grasp on and to be able to show how they’re really these two opposites that manifested themselves, you know, and so you can imagine that the fascist tendency or the the nationalist tendency is to try to swallow politics up into something like identity. But then that also ends up being something like beauty in the sense of pattern. Right. And so you can imagine that the because the fascists or the Nazis, especially kind of obsessed with a a manifest order. And so, you know, the idea of the, you know, the giant, the huge area filled with people in perfect squares and this this this kind of idea of the procession, you know, this this almost fetishization of the of the military march and the procession and all the pomp that goes with, you know, that kind of imagery is something which was taken to to really high levels in the in fish in fascism. So you can understand why for a fascist. Politics would be would be kind of swallowed up into identity and beauty and, you know, and this kind of aestheticization that he talks about, which is which is actually quite superficial, but nonetheless can can have an effect on you. Whereas Benjamin, Benjamin, I mean, to pronounce his name right, Benjamin is always showing how his side, which is the communist side, he’s always a communist, is always trying to destroy the patterns, is always trying to use mechanisms to destroy the the the appearance of being, you know, basically, you know, and so for him, all these things like mechanical reproduction, you know, mechanized culture was a way to destroy pattern. And so it so art became in just another kind of political a political tool which was used, especially with mechanical reproduction. So you can imagine propaganda, you know, printed posters and and kind of this mass art that was that was available to everybody was a way to take away the take away the glow. You know, I talk about sometimes the glow of something which is special or that, you know, this glow that you get when you see the cup that your grandmother gave you that it has a layer on top of just the just the regular cup. And so there’s something about it which makes it stand out. And that’s what Benjamin and the communists were trying to destroy. So all right. So Tara Thomas asks, would you consider token and or CS Lewis symbolic thinkers? If so, why? It’s interesting. I’ve been thinking about that for some reason recently. I don’t even know why. I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit. I think that I’m it took me a very long time to really understand token, why token was so adverse to saying that his work was allegorical, whereas CS Lewis’s work is very allegorical. And I think that it’s actually because token is more a symbolist in the sense that he talks about how he wants his stories to be applicable. So he doesn’t like the idea that his stories represents something else, but he likes the idea that his stories can be applied to situations. And I think that that’s a great way to understand symbolism is that he’s creating a story which is patterned in the right way so that then you can see analogies in the world. And so it actually it’s actually kind of like as if his story is above and then you can apply it to different circumstances because it manifests the pattern so well, whereas Lewis seems to have been more on the allegorical side, you know, where I was going to say it’s like Ashland is Jesus, you know, but in token, you don’t have a character that’s like this is Jesus. And I really want you to know that it’s Jesus. It’s more it’s more a laid out pattern of different of different aspects of being which kind of manifest themselves. So so I actually in terms of storytelling and in terms of patterning, I prefer toky. All right, so David Flores asked why did the principalities of the Greco-Roman myths continue to persist in the naming of the planets, moons, etc. With our expansion of scientific knowledge? Well, just because. Those are the names of those things. You know, the let’s say the naming of the planets, the moons, etc. It’s more than Greco-Roman myths. You know that the planets have names that are quite universal and that have have, you know, are cognates to to each other, you know, and so the, you know, for example, like if if we have the notion that there’s a relationship between God, Saturn and Saturday, you know, this type of relationship, it’s also there in Hebrew, like the the name for the planet Saturn is also the name for the Sabbath. And so it’s these these things are not arbitrary. They and they’re not just Greco-Roman. They’re really more ancient and more pervasive than that. And it’s because they actually are naming a pattern that’s there, that it really exists, you know, and maybe especially in the kind of later Greco-Roman culture, that pattern seems to have been somewhat forgotten or twisted for just whatever means. But but at the outset, you could kind of see that it was named the right pattern. And so you just can’t avoid it. You know, they tried. You know, it’s hilarious. During the French Revolution, they tried to do all this kind of stuff where they tried to, like, rename the months of the year and they tried to, like, rename, remake a whole calendar. And yeah, it did work. You know, they’re more they’re a little more people are a little more successful now. You know, they always have International Day of this or that, which they they mention, like they’ll mention it on the radio or something, but nobody really celebrates international this or that day, not like we celebrate Christmas or celebrate Easter or something like that. All right. So. So Marianne says I must have missed the part where he explains why we suddenly have a diagnosie of the Pedro. This is because I’m just not set up in this space yet. And so I just set up my camera the way that it could work in this space. Soon you will have a much better set up and actually have a much better camera. I actually I saw I saw that Paul VanderKlay all of a sudden had such a better image of him. And I became very jealous of Paul VanderKlay. And so I tried to listen to what tried to figure out, I listened to his videos and then I heard him mention what camera he has. And then I bought the same camera, you know, like during the during the like pre-boxing day, boxing day that everybody was doing because all the stores are closed here. All right. Why am I talking about that? It’s not important. All right. OK, so Pnumaash asks, why was it important for Paul to circumcise Timothy? Well, he basically says why it was important in scripture. He says it was because of the of the Jews that were there. And St. Paul, one of the aspects you see in St. Paul is that he has this idea that you can kind of you can in the heart or in Christ, you can transcend the forms. And so he seems to talk about that all the time. Like he he seems to talk about how, you know, this idea that there’s no longer Greek nor Roman or Greek or Greek or Jew nor man or woman in Christ. And that as you move towards the source of all things, then you transcend the the the forms like that the form in the sense of the particular. And so this is why he talks about this idea of the circumcision of the heart, which is ultimately what even physical circumcision is supposed to be about. It’s pointing towards this idea of the circumcision of the heart, which is, you know, this move where you, you know, you move towards the middle and you kind of remove the buffer, the peripheries. And so, but at the same time, he doesn’t he also acknowledges the importance of those things. Like he he has this idea that they continue to kind of exist, which is why he also tells, you know, how men and women should interact. And he talks to he talks to people in their own. And he also is a chameleon where he is a Roman to the Roman, Greek to the Greeks and all that stuff. And I think that he. Like he does, he didn’t feel the need to scandalize the people who were there by by not performing the ritual, which was recognized by them at the time. And so I think that’s why he did it. He just he just felt like it was not that it was not. The purpose is to scandalize people. And I think this is it’s actually probably a good lesson for a lot of people. It’s like, if you know, if you know, if you have access to something higher, you have access to like a higher aspect of the world or. It doesn’t mean that you go around, you know, debunking the what the lower aspects of these things, you know, you should rather try to fill them with meaning and stuff. And so so there’s. You can know what you can. You can actually recognize a charlatan when they go around telling people that they that they understand the higher mysteries and that they’re kind of above everything. And they don’t have to follow any of these these little rules and these little things because they’ve reached higher levels. Like you can smell it. You can smell it. Charlton, when someone says something like that, you see a lot of that and the kind of the weird, you know, spiritual, not religious folks. All right, so Josh, the mover says, I’ve heard it said before. I’ve heard it said that before the second coming of our Lord, a new Elijah will come as John the foreigner preceded the incarnation. Is this a dog with the Orthodox Church or your speculation? How do we distinguish such a figure from a false prophet? And so there’s this idea in Revelation of the witnesses. And so there are different traditions about how these witnesses are. You know, Elijah and and Enoch, this idea of these these people who kind of ascended into heaven and now kind of come down and and act as witnesses. You know, there’s you see that in in Revelation and in some of the early traditions. So there is kind of this idea. And I mean, it’s not that hard to. To distinguish, I mean, it’s not that hard. It’s maybe harder than you think, but, you know, way to distinguish a false prophet from a real prophet. One of the ways is that the prophet is calling on on someone else like the prophet is preparing the way, you know, saying John the foreigner was preparing the way for someone who is greater than he was. And so so he wasn’t trying to wasn’t. He didn’t want the buck to stop at him. He wasn’t calling upon people to worship him or to to, you know, admire him. He was constantly trying to, even though he did have disciples, he was constantly trying to kind of. Show people the way towards something else. And so, you know, it’s like if someone appears and wants to start their own church, then that’s already a big problem. But if someone appears and is saying telling people that they they should go back to church or that they should rediscover the the tradition that they should return, that you should repent the way that St. John talked about, then already you’re in a safer spot, I think. Anybody who starts their own church is already I’m sorry, it is just right away is a problem because authority doesn’t come from you. You can’t you can’t self your authority never comes from yourself. It always has to come from from someone else, you know. And so even Christ, for example, whose authority came directly from God for the people manifested it as being baptized by John the foreigner and and John showing everybody that this was the one that he was preparing the way for. And so this is this is just how it should be. No. And so. I always kind of joke and say that like I agree with Martin Luther when he’s criticizing the corruption of the church and the kind of the abuse of the of the the system of indulgences, all of that. I’m like, I’m with you, Luther, I’m with you. And then when Luther starts to like name his own priests and starts to act as if he’s a bishop all of a sudden, then it’s like, sorry, Mr. Luther, then I just can’t follow you anymore. Same with a lot of the other reformers. It’s like as soon as you take authority on yourself and you start to have your own church, then then seems to me like you’re on the wrong track. So Adam asks, Hi, Jonathan, I saved your Spirit of the Way video until I could get my hands on it. I watched it along with your analysis last month and I’m going through all the Miyazaki’s movies with my wife. Are there any other Miyazaki movies that stand out to you symbolically? Yeah, I mean, I would say all of Miyazaki’s movies are wonderful in terms of of symbolism. But I think Spirit of the Way is definitely my favorite. But, you know, how’s moving castles is wonderful. What is it? The castle in the sky. That’s also is that the city in the sky? The castle in the sky. That’s really wonderful. Also, Ponyo is great. They’re just they’re just all really great. He just has such a just has such a powerful symbol symbolic intuition. All right, so Mikhail asks, what is the relation between logos and logic and mathematics that is an extension of logic? Really, is math an ultimate language of angels? A prime minister of angels? There are even all those Sunday school paradoxes about God being almighty, but unable to break logic. So there’s definitely a relationship between logos and logic. That’s for sure. But I would say the one thing that differentiates logos, at least in the Christian sense, and this is, I think, one of the the powerful keys that Christianity has offered, but not only offered, but also, I would say, embodied maybe. You could probably see it a little bit in the than your plainness. That it’s embodied and that is really useful for us right now. And as we see where the sciences are and the questions of relevance, realization and emanation, all these questions and of not emanation, but with the word man, my mind, I hate when my brain does that. Anyways, the idea is the difference between just logic and the way we think of it and logos is that logos also includes the reason, like not reason in the sense of logic, but reason in the sense of purpose, like the reason for something, the why, the why of it. And so it’s not just that it shows the order of it, but it shows that the order of something is is bound up in the very reason why it exists. So the reason why it appears to us as something and not just a bunch of stuff, and so therefore the logos has the logos becomes the origin of something that is it’s the reason why it even comes out of the void of the multiplicity. Right. And so there’s there’s there’s indefinite possibilities. So out of that comes something. And so there’s a reason why it comes out. That reason shows us the order of the thing. But then it also shows us the purpose in the sense of the end of it, too. What is it? What is it moving towards? Like, what is it? What is it aimed at? You know, and so. It’s easier when we think of things that are directly, directly related to that, like if you think of a like a tool, like a hammer, right, the hammer, the reason for the hammer, it’s also its aim. It’s also the purpose for which it it it it exists. But that’s actually true of everything. It’s just harder sometimes to to see it when it’s not something that is made by humans. But nonetheless, all the categories that appear to us appear to us as as categories of meaning to us. I think Jordan Peterson talked about this quite a bit. He talked about how even when you look at a chair. Or even if you look at a certain shape of rock, you actually see like that’s a place to sit on. Or if you see an object of a certain size, you you see it as this is an object I can grab. There’s something about the way the world manifests itself to us, which is always purpose laden, you know, at the first level. And so we need to this is more related to the idea of logos in the Christian sense. All right. So Phil asks, is there a parallel between the first Sunday of Advent’s this year, November 29th reading of Mark 13, 33 to 37, where Jesus swore to the disciples, Beware, keep alert for you do not know when the time will come and Santa Claus coming at night discreetly. Staying awake might mean Santa will pass your house without stopping. Of course. But the idea that someone might come by by when you’re being inattentive or asleep is interesting. Yes, I think there’s definitely a relationship. It’s not a direct relationship, but there’s definitely a parallel relationship. One of the things that that that Santa coming down the chimney during the night when you’re sleeping has to do with it has to do with the incarnation quite a bit. You know, in the sense that that’s what happened. You know, so Christ comes to the house, he’s in the house, he’s in the house. Christ comes down. I mean, obviously, that’s not what happened. But if you look at the icon, for example, you can see it’s like there’s a star. And then down from that star in the cave is the Christ child, which appears hidden, you know, to most. And, you know, and so is this hidden gift, which is there in the in the cave that is at the bottom of the chimney, right? In the in the darkest place where the animals are and in the soot, you could say. And so the the the manger is like this is the bottom of the chimney, right? It’s it’s the darkest place. And so that’s where Santa comes down and then manifest himself in in the darkest place. So in the middle of the night, but also in the middle of winter, not in the middle of the winter, but at the solstice, right? At the lowest day, at the lowest moment when the sun is the lowest. And so this is what’s going on in the story of Santa and coming down the chimney. All right. OK, so I think I think we’re done with the website. Let’s move on to to Patreon. Less questions because of because of Christmas. Probably good. I have more time to kind of to check out the check out the chat and engage with you guys there. OK, so here we go with the Patreon question. So as you know, I guess I should tell people. So as you know, people on Patreon who are supporting me at ten dollars or more get to ask questions in advance. And then after that, then I go in and I look at the super chats. But if if we have less questions today, maybe I’ll be able to kind of pick some stuff out of the chat. Kind of I always hope that I can do that. But it just always ends up being a little bit of a hassle. But it just always ends up being like an hour and a half or two hours. And then I’m I’m out of steam anyways, by the end. So so Christopher Juarez says. I missed the advance sales from your carvings, you posted information on YouTube, but I realized too late that the icons themselves were only on Twitter. Would you consider notifying patrons by email next time? Or you want to purchase a card for me? Thank you for everyone. So so for those who don’t know, I have two Patreon projects, one which is related to these videos and is related to the Q&A and also to the monthly kind of Patreon video that I make for for patrons. And I also have a Patreon project which is related to my carvings. And then people support me there. They get access to prints and to drawings and to early access to these carvings. And so that’s probably still how I’m going to do it. And so those carvings I put up actually on my carvings Patreon first. And a lot of them went there. And then when I ended up putting them up online, then they went super fast. And like one day and I usually put up carvings, they go up super fast. And so, I mean, we’ll see. Maybe I could consider having people on the video Patreon like have some advance notice from just the general public. That might be a good idea. I could do that. I could do that. Maybe I’ll consider that. So get if you guys want to. I’m going to have another sale of these types of carvings, these kind of ornamental carvings with mosaics and some gilding, maybe, and stuff like that. I’m going to have those at just before Pascha. And so these these projects are done with with my assistant who is helping me kind of develop new styles and new new new designs. And he researches different ornamental patterns. And we kind of look at it together. You know, I kind of recarve some of the parts and we worked on them together, which is what I’m able to kind of get so many done, you know, in as a batch. And so just before Easter, I’m probably going to put out another maybe 20 of these. So get ready for that. So WalrusKing14, hi, Jonathan. Do you plan to continue your series on video game symbolism? I know 2020 has been crazy and that first Mario video wasn’t a big success, but I hope you choose to continue on with it. Maybe a video on the first Zelda game eventually. I appreciate the energy. It’s interesting because it is true that it’s because I was kind of I was kind of disappointed that that the video didn’t get more views. I thought, come on, people have been asking to do video game symbolism for a very long time. But, you know, it’s possible that no one cares about Donkey Kong and doesn’t want a video game interpretation of Donkey Kong. So I probably will make the the Mario Brothers video. See how that goes. And if that goes well, then maybe I’ll do some other video game symbolism. But no promises, because I don’t know. We’ll see. So Jesse Blaney says. I’ve begun to get a sense that the Western Church has over time placed less emphasis on the nativity. What more important what more important to understand as the story of Christ, the Nativity or the crucifixion resurrection? Are those two stories akin to the symbolic realism of heaven and earth? There’s definitely a relationship between the Nativity and the and Pascha Easter for sure in the Orthodox Church. Easter is always more is always more important. It’s always just a bigger feast. It’s the feast of feast. It’s not even considered in like the 12 feasts of the year. It’s like a feast of feast. And so so it’s definitely has more prominence. But I think that the Nativity is super important. Actually, I kind of felt the opposite. I felt like the West emphasizes Nativity more like Christmas is a way bigger deal here and is a bigger deal, it seems, than Easter here. But I think there are obviously some parallels. You can watch my video on on the Nativity. I did a video called I think it’s called Christmas as the foundation of reality, some some title like that, which I always use, Nativity as the foundation of reality or something like that, where I talk about the structure of the Nativity icon and the story and how it also relates to how the the the cave and the womb of the Mother of God also functions as the tomb and Christ that is wrapped in linen, is wrapped in swaddling clothes, is meant to resemble Christ who is wrapped for his death and the manger becomes his coffin. And so there is like this parallel which which appears for sure. And there’s also something about how in one of the versions, one of the versions of the scripture says that there were two angels in the tomb. I hope I’m not mistaken here. And one was at the feet and one was at the head of Christ. So this is related also to the ass of the ox, which is in the Nativity scene and is also related to the two cherubim on the on the Ark of the Covenant. So so those two angels are actually the two cherubs on the Ark and the Christ’s body and the tomb of Christ becomes the Ark, becomes the space where the divine revealed itself. All right. So Daniel DeMarco says, Hi, Jonathan, I hope you and your family are getting settled into your home and that the movement well. What is the meaning of Genesis 15 and 11 when Abraham sacrifices the heifer goat, ram dove and young pigeon, then drives away the birds of prey? I think it has something to do with multiplicity. Duality and unity. Wow, you got me there because I don’t remember that. It’s rare that there’s something from Genesis that I don’t remember. Cut them in two. So the Lord said, bring me a heifer, go to ram each three years old, along with the dove and the young pigeon. Is this this is actually not is it the sacrifice or is this when God is this when he makes the covenant and cuts the cuts them in two? Yeah, this is this is actually not it’s not it’s not that it’s a sacrifice. This is actually the covenant that God makes with Abraham, where he where he separates the animals into two and then then kind of God kind of comes through the middle of these two opposites. And you can understand that as these two opposites that I’m always talking about, right, left, all of this. And it seems like this the chasing away the birds of prey probably has something to do with this, let’s say, a refusal of idolatry in the sense that the birds are the spiritual represent the spiritual beings. They fly up in the sky, they’re flying to heaven. And so I’ve talked about how the bird of prey represents the manner in which some of these principalities can, let’s say, take up things. They can suck up things into themselves. I’ve explained how Prophet Samuel talks about how he talks about the downside of having a king, which is the king. If you have a king, then the king will come in and will take things from you and will kind of bring them up into him. And so we’ll take the best of you, we’ll take your best women, we’ll take your best men and we’ll kind of pick that away. And that’s what the bird of prey does, right? The bird of prey comes down and then takes the flesh and then pulls it up. And so I think that that’s what’s going on here is that Abraham is chasing away the false gods or the small principalities so that he can be in communion with the God of heaven or the creator God. At least that’s what it seems to me that that’s what’s going on. All right. And so Kenan Wang says. In the Orthodox symbol of faith, we say that Christ was crucified for our sins. This understanding on the right track, we create death through sin. And in order to conquer death, he had to die. Yes. And so the Orthodox understanding is mostly the idea of the filling up. Right. And so Christ in his incarnation had to kind of fill the different aspects of reality to kind of to manifest them. If you read St. John Chrysostom’s wonderful homily for for Nativity, he kind of talks about that, how Christ became this for he talks about different categories of human human beings. He talks about, you know, the the prostitute, the publican, you know, the shepherds, the kings, all of these different aspects of reality and how Christ kind of fills those aspects, you know, let’s say manifest his glory in those aspects. And so that goes all the way down into the grave where Christ fills death, even with his with his his glory. And so that’s the idea. So he died for our sins in the sense, like you said, that as you miss the mark. So imagine you have a bullseye, you miss the mark. And so you move away from the center. You’re moving into fragmentation, into multiplicity, into this breakdown. And so Christ actually goes all the way to the edge and kind of brings it all in and fills that with himself and shows, you know, I always kind of I was telling you guys that Christianity is a non dual religion. And that’s one of the aspects of the death of Christ is to manifest the how God transcends duality. So Drew McMahon asks, is there a distinction between mind and soul, perhaps somewhat related between thoughts and prayer? And those words are messed up. It’s just hard to know what it is that people refer to. And so it’s really difficult. So that’s a good way to if you read the Church Fathers, especially the ascetic fathers, if you read the Philokalia, for example, you’ll see that in the in the text, there is this three tier system where you have something like the noose, which would be the intellect, the highest aspect of you, right? The way in which you can grasp immediately, directly, you know, God and not just God, but also the the logos in the world. And so you can grasp the patterns directly. And so then under that you have what you would call soul or something like more like your psyche, which would be all your thoughts, all your feelings, all the nonphysical aspects of you, which are are less direct, let’s say, and also which are more related to the body in the sense that, you know, your your thoughts and your feelings will will let’s say will affect your body, right? You know, how do you although your feelings are not physical, you you you experience them in your body in certain places. So so I would say that that’s probably the best way to understand it. So Dorotea asked, are the Pentecostal charismatic churches and movements on the edge of the church? They have all these phenomena like singing, dancing, screaming, frammatation on one side, but also mega churches on the other. I also experienced some weird view where you had to be charismatic to be a real Christian. I don’t know if you could call that a pathology of the edge, but maybe that is my experience and isn’t present everywhere. Anyway, I like to hear your thoughts. I do actually think that I I really do see Christianity as a hierarchy. And I’ve talked about this before. I do see that. Like, I don’t want to justify some of the weird aspects of, you know, charismatic movements and stuff, but I nonetheless see that they have a reach and a kind of a kind of appeal to people who need more sensuality. You could say, you know, sensuality in the sense of, you know, kind of extreme experiences and all that stuff. And so so I don’t want to justify it, but I nonetheless see that it has something. And there is something like I always joke. I don’t joke about it, but I always talk to you guys about how there is this strange connection between the bottom and the top. And so there’s something about death and glory, this this flip that happens. And I think that there’s something about the charismatic movement, which is always on the verge of becoming orthodox. Like it’s like it’s really it’s really on the edge and it has all this chaos in it. But there’s something about the mind of a charismatic person, which is more capable of understanding symbolism than a than a kind of high church, super rigorous type of a Protestant, let’s say. And that’s just an intuition that I have. And I’ve noticed that, like, I’ve read some a few charismatic kind of prophetic texts and you’d be surprised sometimes how how they get it right. You know, and so so sometimes it seems like they get some of the pattern right, they get the they can see it. It’s just that it’s disordered and they don’t necessarily have the fullness of seeing how it connects to everything and how you know, you if you have a vision of a sacred mountain with like, you know, with heaven, with the paradise above. And I’ve seen these charismatic who had these visions. And it’s like, you know, maybe your church should be shaped that way. Maybe, you know, maybe that way you pray should have that pattern, too. You know, if that’s what you’re seeing in your visions. But anyway, so that’s my that’s my intuition about that. All right, so Sender Tudor says. Given that as humans, we evolved to live in symbiosis with other organisms like bacteria, why shouldn’t we negotiate? Rather than reject peace with artificial life. I don’t think I’ve ever said that we have to reject artificial, let’s say artificial life, artificial intelligence. It’s the problem is always the it’s always place. It’s always like where where is the place of things? And so one of the difficulty with artificial life, artificial intelligence is that we are we were idolizing it is that we are wanting to make these tools into the very thing that rules us. And so you that doesn’t work. And if you try to do that, then these tools, these mechanistic tools or these these empty shells are going to become vehicles for fallen principalities. That’s what they used to do. They make a body for the idol. You make an idol and then the idol comes down. The the the God comes and manifest themselves in the idol. And so there’s something about it. So it’s not that it’s not that the idea, for example, that the in the scripture, there are no graven images. It’s not true. There are graven images. Right. You have a cherubim in the temple. You have the bulls in the temple that hold the laver. You have different figures in the in the temple. You have different things. It’s just that those weren’t. They were in their right place. They weren’t. They were supporting the seat, let’s say something like that. And so this is this is the thing with this is the problem with like Facebook and Google and all of these algorithms is that we think they’re going to to to solve our problems. We think they’re going to give us a solution to the problem of meaning and they can’t. And if we try to make them give us the solution to the problem of meaning, then that’s when you create. A body for for a for a for for all of your passions to kind of come together blindly and to become a, you know, a very strange being that will not be not not be the one that won’t want the best for all of us, let’s say. All right, so Nina Morris says Merry Christmas, Jonathan. We talk about your ideas a lot in our family. Thank you for showing us. Well, thank you, Nina. I appreciate it. I really appreciate it. I know I always keep repeating this, but I don’t answer a lot of the messages that I’m getting because I just get too many and I have to be able to prioritize my time or else I’m going to go crazy, but I really do appreciate it. I’ve gotten several messages even around Christmas time of people, you know, just kind of expressing their their, you know, expressing their appreciation for what I’m doing and and telling me their story of their own personal transformation, and it always touches me very deeply, even if I don’t answer. So thank you for those stories, people. All right, the wakeful says. Dear Jonathan, if we should approach Christianity as it did not entail an afterlife, how should we interpret scripture like the story of the rich man and Lazarus? Luke 16, 1931, this passage seems to be clearly delineate a life after death. For instance, Abraham says to the rich man as he’s being tormented. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in that lifetime received good things and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he’s comforted and thou are tormented. And so so I don’t know why you say if we should approach Christianity as it did not entail an afterlife. I don’t like afterlife. I don’t know what that even I don’t know what that means. Like you have a being and you have an existence and that existence ranges and has a has a range which goes beyond your physical body. It already has that. It’s like the fact that you can even interact with me through YouTube means that my existence definitely has a range beyond just my physical body. You know, how could I write a letter to you? And you answer me if we if our existence wasn’t just for existence was just limited to our immediate physical bodies. And so we have we have an existence which is more than that. And and we have the way in which we have a totality of our existence, which spans. More than just your physical body, so I don’t I don’t have a problem with the idea of. Like, I don’t like the word afterlife, but the idea that being is not limited to your body, like your physical body now, that’s for sure. I don’t I don’t I don’t I don’t think that. But, you know, it’s it’s clear that when if you read that story, it’s clear that it’s also not just a simple continuation of of existence the way that people want to understand it in the movie Ghost or something like something as silly as that, because it’s like, OK, so Abraham is so Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham. So try to figure that one out, like in terms of trying to understand it is just a simple description of of it’s like he’s in the bosom of Abraham. And and and here is the the rich man looking at Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham. So obviously we’re describing something else, something else going on besides just a just a kind of simple continuation of existence after death. There’s something more going on and it’s real. It’s there’s nothing it’s not it’s not fake. It’s not imaginary. It’s real. But it’s not just like, you know, it’s not just like what you see in Ghostbusters or some stupid thing like that, you know, it’s it’s something else. All right. Hopefully that makes sense. Sometimes I’m wondering if I confuse you guys more with my answers than anything. All right. So Randall B says, Hi, Jonathan, love your discussion on Marshall McLuhan’s work. There is a horror movie based on his work. Videodrome 1983 will you analyze its symbolism after watching it? I was shocked by how accurate it is to McLuhan’s idea. Who made Videodrome? I think I don’t think I’ve seen it. All right, it’s made by David Cronenberg. Yeah. Now, I’ve seen a few of Cronenberg’s work in the past. I should probably watch it. I’ve never seen it. I don’t think I’ve watched it. I will look into it. As you notice, I’m not making a lot of movie interpretations these these days, partly because I don’t watch a lot of movies, but all right. So Jason Lindsay asks, Hey, Jonathan, I hope you and your family had a nice Christmas at the end of this crazy year. The perfect year for a Christmas. Yeah, I was wondering if you had any insight into the symbolism of spiders and why in so many stories they seem to be connected to the feminine. Well, the reason why a spider would be, they don’t necessarily only be a feminine. The reason why they’re connected to a family is because they because they’re associated with a web. No, they make a home. They make they make a matrix, you know. And so this matrix is, you know, is like a lattice in which things will come and get stuck. And so it’s a it’s a, you know, the the dream catchers, the dream catchers are actually a really good way to understand this. This whole symbolism of the web and how the web, the matrix, you know, the web or this underlying pattern of being will will catch potential. You know, and so if you look at a dream catcher, you’ll see that it has kind of looks like a spider web. And then there are little stones that are caught in the web. And these stones are the dreams that get caught, right, that are that are that are caught by this thing. And so it’s a it’s a condensation of a potential into a form. So you can imagine this web now with the little stones in it. Now think of it as a as a as a net that is put down into the water and then catches all the fish and pulls it up. And so that’s the net, right? That’s the that’s the this is this matrix underneath the world. And so this is related to the feminine because it’s like the home. It’s like the structure around which things happen. And so and so it’s the spider’s web, the fishers net, the stream catcher stuff. It’s all talking about the same the same thing. And then it is related to the feminine because it’s the frame. All right, so. So Charles Hiro says, Hi, Jonathan, Merry Christmas. The expression, we are all children of God, as in my mind lately, Jesus was the son of God, but aren’t we, too? Does this imply we have the ability to be as Jesus was the embodiment of the divine logos? Thank you for sharing your thoughts and wisdom and have a happy New Year. Yes, that’s exactly what it implies. It implies that we that we can participate in Christ, that we can embody the divine logos to a certain extent, that we can that we can be co-inheritors. This is how scripture talks about it. Co-inheritors, adoptive adopted sons, adopted children. All of these languages there to say that we are meant to to as much as possible become that and not just embody, but also rule with Christ. This is something that, you know, if you want, if you’re listening to the Lord of Spirits podcast, Father Andrew and Father Stephen are doing a wonderful job is about talking about how the actual purpose of. One of the purposes of humans in the world is to actually become principles, to become principles of things and to and that they manifest their being in the world in a way that glorifies God, not in the way that that is just stops at them, but in a way that kind of participates in this grand dance of multiplicity and unity. And so that’s why we have patron saints of cities and patrons, patron saints of different aspects of reality, because these in Christ, these saints have actually ascended and have become the princes, the principalities of different aspects of reality. And that is what we are called to do. That is how we are called to rule with Christ. And so it’s very mysterious. It’s very mysterious. And so in a way we are called to become like God’s like that’s what that’s the purpose of of of humans is to become like God’s not for our own sake, but in service to the most high. Then we just kind of take our place in this this massive hierarchy of beings that act as principles for that which is lower than where they are. So. That’s how I see it. All right, so Christopher Mihaly says, not quite a question, I will read it later than Christopher. So Jacobus Raudonis. What are the examples and your own thoughts on a possibility of physical violent counter-resistance response for Christian to the cancellation of the gender or hierarchy itself? Does Christianity offer an argument for a violent response or is it a case of too much mental gymnastics to constitute a courageous physical defense? I find myself among Christians who assume that there’s no need for a physical reaction to evil, even if it’s in their communities. They seem to take Jesus, Jesus story and become absolute pacifist. This is in Lithuania, Eastern Europe, post-Soviet block. Says if the Christian identity is too weak to counterattack. I think it is possible. And it’s going to be tough when you guys is going to be a tough answer for you guys. I think it is possible for Christians to in service of a higher purpose to defend their home or their territory. So I believe that the idea of the Christian knight who fights for a higher king, someone who is above them. Fights in the name of something above him and then in service to those who are below can’t defend themselves. I think that is possible now. What’s happening now is different. And what’s happening now looks way more like the story of. The the betrayal of Christ by Judas and how from within the West, from within the Christian story, rose up a traitor who was a. Antichrist and who then this dislodged, this deconstructed, you know, brought about a dying of the church. And so I don’t think that in that case, we should defend ourselves violently in the same way that Christ didn’t. And I think that it’s not. There’s a mystery, there’s a mystery in dying. I don’t know what to tell you. There’s a mystery in dying. There’s a mystery in the martyr and there’s a mystery in what’s happening right now, and the mystery of the martyr is the same mystery that is we’re seeing happen. So as we watch Christianity wane and as we watch it die. We have the responsibility to be seeds for the resurrection rather than. Fight off, how what are you going to fight off? It’s all coming from the inside. It’s like this weird rot that is kind of manifesting itself from within our country, from within our churches, from within our own traditions. And so it’s like it’s not the same. You know, it’s not the same as so through that. Then there also are attacks from the outside, which are happening. I have to admit that. But there is mostly it’s mostly this kind of this this strange betrayal from the inside. So. That’s how I see it. But I also I also have sympathy for someone who would disagree with me. And. And I have sympathy for that as well. So JL asks. Is there a connection between how we write and the way we think? We could a culture that uses local grass to represent words rather than a specialized system of describing each sound, think more symbolically. To me, an alphabet seems like scattering, fracturing there as a iconoclasm. I know ancients in the West had always used an alphabet, but math literacy is only a new thing and being facetious, but to an extent. But to an extent, but could really could be ready to could the ready adoption of emojis reflect a return to symbolic thinking? Let’s take it talking about symbolism prosaically being a necessary side effect of the fragmented. Tending towards a new unity, this is this is an interesting idea. And I think that your your basic intuition is right because ancient language were more ideographic or were more images, even ancient Hebrew. The early Hebrew letters were were were more like hieroglyphs. They actually represented images and were very simplified into forms. And it’s it’s it’s really it’s really when after the Bronze Age. When the West lost the Greeks, especially, you know, and and and the Romans lost their alphabet and they retook a a Phoenician alphabet or actually a Semitic alphabet. And so our alphabet is Semitic. Our alphabet is is based on the same alphabet that Hebrew has. But it’s just that it’s a kind of weird, like you said, a kind of weird fragmenting scattering because it’s it’s not it’s there’s no more direct relationship between the letters, their meaning, and it’s it’s just phonetic. Right. And so and so it actually shows a kind of descent, a kind of fall in the world. But it also means more power. And so it’s like that’s what happens when things go down, is that they lose their higher identities, but they also have more reach and more power. And so that’s also one of the mysteries of Christianity, is that it was supposed to go to the edge of the world, so it wasn’t going to be in Hebrew. It was going to be in like the most popular form of Greek. That’s why Dante wrote in the most popular form of of Italian is that Christianity also kind of comes down and fills up the dark spaces, you would say. But I agree that there’s something about the breakdown of grammar. That’s happening with texting, and there’s something about the return of things like emojis that are maybe hinting in a very strange and surprising way to the possibility of more of a more direct connection between the actual image and the meaning. And so can it maybe can foster symbolic thinking? I never thought about emojis that way, but that’s pretty awesome. I keep thinking about that. So Nick Scott asks, is there any symbolism to talk about with respect to superstitions? For example, not putting a calendar up early or a broken mirror causing bad luck. My best guess with the mirror is that there’s a full cycle that happens during the seven years of bad luck. But beyond that, I’m not sure. Thanks, as always. I always I’ve talked about this before, I think, in a Q&A about how there’s more to superstition than we think. And it usually has to do with seeing things in a different way, not seeing. Not seeing causality, like a mechanical causality of the cause of the effect of the superstition, but, you know, I mean, like, for example, like I’ve never heard of the superstition of saying not putting a calendar up early, but you can have a calendar up early. But you can understand why that would actually be a bad thing. Like if you putting up a calendar early can be a problem, like it can be a problem because you’re not means that you are projecting yourself into the future too much. You’re not in the now. The broken mirror seems more immediate, like it’s more it’s more immediate to imagine that if you if you’re not careful of that which holds your image and you’re not attentive to that thing which reflects your image, you know, there’s something about the way you act that if you if you break a mirror, you’re the kind of person that will break a mirror, then you’re probably in trouble in terms of it’s not a direct thing. It doesn’t mean that if you break a mirror, necessarily bad things can happen to you. But it’s mostly understand it through these secondary causes of understanding that that you need to be attentive and care for the thing which which shows you your shows you to you, like that reveals you to yourself. So if you break that, then you’re going to have a you can have a bad cycle, let’s say. So so I would say that most superstition is like that, where if you look at it carefully, you pay attention and you you you try to ask yourself, like, why this would happen, you know, then then you’ll find that it’s usually not as stupid as we think, but we have to move away from mechanical causality. All right, so Charlie Longoria asks, Hello, Jonathan, can you expand on the discussion you had with rationality rules when the topic of homosexuality came up? Our friends were gay and a person very close to me came out as non-binary. I love these people and would do anything for them, but they would see me as being a Christian as a personal attack and that I am participating in keeping them from getting married and pursuing happiness. I feel like people are confused about the word sin, that to sin means you will burn in hell for eternity. Yeah, I mean, we all sin. So I heard or read somewhere that in Leviticus, when it says, Man shall not lay with other men, that it’s actually referring to pedophilia. But I don’t know how true that is yet. It’s probably not true. So how can I navigate this social pressure to say, well, sexuality is not a sin? P.S. Tell me we need to do a Q&A with you. Yeah, you need him to do Q&A. Matthew is not going to you’re not going to see his face on the on a video any time soon. If he if he does, I’ll be very happy. But I have to say that those possibilities seem to get thinner and thinner. So this is the kind of stuff that’s going to get me banned from YouTube, but that’s OK, we’ll go down this line. This whole idea of sexuality is probably one of the best ways to understand what sin is. It’s really, really one of the easiest and most immediate way to understand what sin is, and it’s so simple and easy that it’s actually somewhat. Dirty like it’s you guys are not going to like it, and this is going to be not going to be for kids, but. Sexuality has a mark. And it’s Mark, the bulls eye of sexuality is a child, right? That’s the bulls eye of sexuality and. Everything in kind of Christian sexuality has to be somewhat aimed in the general direction of the child, because that’s the union of heaven and earth. The union of heaven and earth, that’s the image of God in the soul, and that’s also the the actual way in which the world continues to exist. You hit the mark, the world continues to exist. And this is this is this is all sin is like that now. The sexual act itself is also the same thing. The sexual act itself is also arrow hitting a mark, and that’s why sodomy is viewed as missing the mark. You’re missing the mark when you. When you don’t, when you’re not in the right place, I don’t know how to say it without becoming explicit, but it’s just that it’s just it’s just one of the easiest way to understand what sin is. It just means, you know, finishing in the wrong place. Right. That’s what that’s what sin is. It’s always that. And so sexuality is one of the most immediate representations of that representation, but embodiments of what is sin. And so so on the one hand, you understand that this is how the world works, is that there’s a reason for things and a purpose. And if you hit the mark, then there’s life. And if you miss the mark, then there are different degrees of death. Right. And. And also, we need to also understand why everybody also misses the mark. And so that’s the key to me, in my opinion, is to say that it’s not first of all, it’s not just about homosexuality, it’s about every form of sexuality, which isn’t aimed and aimed towards hitting that mark. Now, everybody falls from that. Like everybody does. No one is completely in line with that because that’s just how we are. And and so to me, that’s that’s kind of like the solution is to say, no, for he who he who who has no sin, cast the first stone. But apart from that, it’s like the pattern is still there and you just can’t. It’s very, very direct and it’s very immediate. And it’s and it’s like you can talk around it, but it’s one of the most immediate expressions or manifestations of what sin is. So I can’t it’s like I can’t deny it because I see it right in front of my eyes like it’s just so clear that I can’t for social pressure, say, say something else. So sorry, guys. And like I said, I think that what you said is right. Like it’s not about not loving people who are dealing with this. It’s not about not caring for people who who who have these desires or have these practices, just like I still love my neighbor who is living with his girlfriend, isn’t married and I still love, you know, you know, I, I, I myself haven’t had a child in quite a while. So I probably I’m right there with the same problem. And so it’s like, it’s not like we don’t have nothing to do with whether you love the person or not, whether you care for them or or it’s just about understanding the pattern, seeing what it is, recognizing it as the model and then knowing that we all fall short of it. You know, that’s all I can say. So enough about that. Right. So Lisa, don’t make a clip out of this because I just don’t I think it’s important, but I don’t think it’s worth getting banned on YouTube for this. You know. All right. So here we go. So Jay Garcia says, Hi, Jonathan, I hope I can articulate this well. How do you see overwhelming cynicism playing itself out? I see a knowledge crisis coming or getting worse as our institutions undermine themselves, indeed governmental, scientific, historical, economic and fragmented realities, breeding distrust. On the bright side, I see phenomenology and symbolism still available to us. But how do you integrate the cynicism, which seems to be intrinsic to an upside down world so that community and friendship are preserved? You know, and I you know, I there’s only one way to do that. And I I wish there was more, but it’s really to be to be a just person and to to be someone who. Foster’s trust and someone who can be trusted to do things, you know, and I say that and I’m not saying that’s what I am, but I don’t I don’t see another solution that it’s like you need to be that what you want the world to be. And so if you if you keep your word and you you know, you do that, then I think that’s the best we can do. And also, like I said, know that we all also fall short of that. At least I do. All right, so our generation is dumb, says, hello, good sir, I hope you’re doing well. I read your brother’s book. And unless I’m mistaken, it seems the two of you believe that heaven is the realm of the abstract, similar to Plato, due to the realm of forms. Am I off base here? Because if that is the case, I don’t see how we can ask the saints to intercede for us. I’ve heard you dismiss the idea of heaven as a sort of higher dimension. However, if it does contain consciousness, such as saints can really get around that idea. Thank you. It’s like so a good way to understand it would be it’s not that it’s abstract, it’s non manifest or above manifestation and and it continues to happen. It happens fractally, you know, and so it’s not just that that which is above is is is abstract, you know, but. Can I say this? And so these this hierarchy is actually not a hierarchy of of just concepts, it’s actually a hierarchy of beings, and so and so the way it works, it’s like I talked about just before, is it it actually ends up being beings that become principles of things, and so it. The way that the world shows itself is not at first and foremost through concepts, but through modes of being, and so these modes of being actually have embodiments and some humans will kind of rise up into that mode of being and become the the principle of something. And so it’s not it’s not it’s not just abstract in the way that Plato talks about. It’s more it’s it’s more it’s more like an ancient cosmology of gods and what Plato said, it’s more like this hierarchy of angels and what Plato said. Although there’s a connection, Plato can help us understand this and and there there are ways to talk about it. And I tried to, of course, to talk about it in a way that is more immediate for people that are struggling with that or find it difficult to get there. But ultimately, it ends up being a hierarchy of beings like. A good way, I always use the army as a way for you to understand it. It’s like. The army exists with purpose, and so there’s a hierarchy of beings in the army and there is a general who is something like the head or the principle. And then the general will give direction and that direction will then come down into the world and then the army can act as a as a body and can do something, can accomplish things. And so that’s more the way the world works than just a bunch of abstract things that that that exist in kind of concepts or ideas the way that that Plato talks about the ideas in St. Maximus and and I think in Christianity are bound up with purpose, not just. Abstract ideas, not just forms in that sense. Anyway, that’s how I see it. So. Ronnell, Canada says, Hey, Jonathan, what would you say is the orthodox destiny, you think we have a pure day in destiny or piece of the cosmos responsible for upholding, or would you say that it’s more of an interplay between a purpose God has given us the actions we take on in life? How might the sort of Jacob wrestling the angel relate to this? I mean, I think that it I’ve talked about this before. It’s mostly about understanding freedom somewhat differently. It’s mostly understanding that true freedom comes in, but you would say. Accomplishing your destiny, it’s not that you want to free yourself from your destiny and in Christianity, your destiny is to become like Christ to the extent that you can, to the extent that your limited being can manifest Christ in the world. That’s your destiny. Like, that’s what that’s the plan that God has for you. And so as you embody that, then you are free. And if you refuse to or if you hold on to smaller aspects of the world, then you actually are a slave. So it’s not like in the Greek world where you’re like a slave to your destiny. No matter what you do, you can’t get rid of it. It’s mostly that your destiny is to become like God and you’re a slave when you refuse that or when you you attach yourself to lower, lower things. All right, so Connor Mitchell asks. So do you have a resource that functioned as an HQ for the symbolic army of where we can share, not just analysis of symbolic patterns, but our strategies and methods by which they’ve been effectively revived and recreated in our respective lives and fields? Yes, we have a Facebook group which is acting exactly in that way. And it’s not me. I’m not the one running it. I’m actually not even a moderator on the group. It wasn’t created by me. But it is it is the place where the best discussion is happening. And and so you can check that out. It’s not it’s not an open group. You need to you need to prove yourself to the moderators before they let you in. But but it’s there. It’s called it’s called the symbolic world in the zombie invasion. Is that the right? I always forget the actual name of it. It’s called the symbolic world within the zombie invasion. And so you can check that out. All right, so I think we have the last question here. So Serda says, why is Judas always shown right next to Satan and are depicting hell? I once saw one where Judas is on the devil’s lap, just like how a child sits on his father’s lap. Could that be a representation of how on how evil is distortion of everything pure and good or does it mean something else? PSI just received the language of creation. Can we read it? I’m happy. Yeah, you need to read the book. It has to I think it mostly comes from it comes in part from Dante, where Dante places Judas. He doesn’t place him on his lap, but he places him kind of being being devoured by Satan, you know, like kind of in the bowels of Satan. And so it has to do with the idea of betrayal as being the highest sin. And and so so that’s what it has to do with. And the idea of showing him kind of sitting on the devil’s lap, the way that it’s a Christ would be sitting on the lap of the mother of God is is definitely meant to show this parallel or opposition. There is it’s a really ancient tradition of showing a kind of parallel opposition between Judas and Christ. One of the earliest crucifixions we have will shows Christ on the cross and Judas hanging from a tree. And so both are hanging from a tree, but one to his glory and one to his to his condemnation. And so so it’s a there’s a really ancient tradition of making those comparisons. All right. All right, so. So, all right, so since we have time, I’ve actually reloaded the page. I usually don’t do that because I don’t like when people write in their questions right when I’m already answering, but so Christian Sakura asked. Hi, Jonathan, sorry this is a bit long. I was walking through Christmas display at my Catholic college in Houston and saw images of Houston sports teams mixed with Christmas versions of pop identities from old shows like Charlie Brown or Star Wars. I thought it was interesting how the Christmas identity seemed to be absorbed, the pop identities and direct the narrative to a more Christian one. He concerned me, though, that the secular sports icon had no hint of Christmas identity and seemed to be colonizing the university rather than the other way around. Yeah. How do you think we should approach secular identities trying to take pieces of the Christmas story without Christ? Or is it just the beginning stages of the invasion of Christmas on the secular world? You know, it can go both ways. And this is this is like if you want to learn what the secular world is, like if you want to learn one lesson from my channel, is that you can turn the tide on this pattern for sure, I would say. And this is definitely true. We have seen in the past 60 years or maybe even more. We’ve seen a assault on Christmas, like not that kind of assault that Fox News talks about, like, you know, but rather we’ve seen a desire to make Christmas as secular as possible, which is why if you listen to the radio, you can hear Christmas songs all day and not hear one mention of the birth of Christ. And you hear about Jingle Bell Rock and whatever pop version of Christmas. And so it’s definitely a desire to reduce Christianity, Christmas to a secular holiday, to reduce it to a kind of aesthetic and feeling and all of this. And, you know, it doesn’t it just doesn’t it doesn’t work like it’s going to last for a while, but it can’t last because you know, that’s not how reality functions. If something doesn’t have a purpose at some point, it goes away. And so it’s just going to it’s just going to start to degrade and degrade and degrade. You know, and that’s one of the reasons why Christmas has been reduced to shopping, basically, because part of the secularization of Christmas means that you need a purpose for it. And so in a world that worships mammon and worships money, then shopping will become the reason for the season, let’s say. But like I said, I think there are ways to flip it. And if you watch my recent video on Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer, I think you’ll see the ways in which we can probably flip things back and surprise people with some of their stories. The more secular versions of Christmas and show how some of them end up manifesting Christmas nonetheless and point back towards Christ, not all of them, some of them are hopeless and will will be assigned to the fire. But a few, I think, can can participate in the resurrection. Let’s say it’s that way. So Kevin Patterson says, what is the symbolism of nudity and where does it fit in our lives, e.g. with our spouse, family, friends of same gender? So I’ve talked about this a few times. You know, nudity has to do with a there are two nudities. There’s one nudity, which is a nudity in the garden and has to do with revelation and a kind of of. Of safety and and a. A capacity to not need the garments of skin. Right. And so you can understand that ultimately you would hope that that’s what the relationship between a man and a woman would end up becoming. You know, and you can understand it the same like even just more immediately. It’s like when you feel safe at home, that’s when you feel safe enough to take your clothes off. Like, you know, you don’t change outside in public. You have to be somewhere where you feel safe in order to remove your clothing. And and so then but then there’s also a nudity, which is the nudity of shame, which is the nudity of being exposed in public and and, you know, and let’s say not being able to contain yourself, not being able to contain the secret, you know. And so that is also part of that is also part of of the symbolism of nudity. So, all right, guys, I’m pretty much done with the the questions, and so I’m going to go into Super Chat and see what we got here. Sorry, I’m not ready. Feeling slower than usual, so. Right. All right, this is not what I’m looking for. All right, OK, there, sorry, that’s the wrong thing. All right, here we go. Sorry about that. OK, and so let’s start with Zach counts for five dollars says, I’m from the southern United States and grew up around Southern Baptist churches. I would love to know your thoughts on the Southern Baptist tradition. And so, I mean, I grew up conservative Baptist, I guess you would call it. And so I don’t really know the difference between the two or not. I would say that. I would say the strength of Baptist is definitely their knowledge of scripture and their kind of desire to really memorize Bible verses and know all the stories. You know, I think that’s amazing. And I think that it’s a it’s why I think. It’s like my experience of kind of discovering the Church Fathers and finding the kind of deeper mystery was based on the fact that I knew the Bible so well because I grew up with it, so I really appreciate that. But nonetheless, I feel like like Baptists. Are. Not it’s hard because it’s such a big denomination, but I would say that a lot of the Baptist that I’ve encountered because they they’ve embraced materialism without knowing it, they’ve been raised kind of materialism and they’ve embraced a science, they think science is true, just true, like and so they get caught up in that stuff and they they end up, you know, they end up idolizing science without knowing it. And so because of that, they actually miss a lot of the patterns because they always try to see the description of what they see in scripture as a description at the same level as, you know, as some guy describing, you know, the speed of a car or something. So because of that, they felt like at least in my experience that they struggle, but things have changed so much. And so I don’t even know if that’s true anymore. You know, you look at. You look at like I mentioned this before, like you look at the Bible project and this kind of Protestant reawakening of patterns and stuff. And you see it in the Theopolis Institute. And so it seems like there are a lot of more conservative Protestants that are right there, like right, right at the door and are and are kind of perceiving this. So, so who knows what the future holds for all of this? So Brent Rotremel for nine ninety nine says mythology must live on. Yes, indeed it will. No, no doubt about it. So Patrick Foley for ten dollars says Armenianism, Calvinism and open theism go. I don’t have also symbology of the four living creatures in the revelation. If you’re interested, I’d rather talk about that. Like the other stuff, it’s all one. It’s all different versions of one thing that happened. You know, the. All of all of the West from the from, let’s say, the late Middle Ages, from the end of the Middle Ages until today is that. It’s just this like break apart, it’s like pulling apart of the incarnation and and a lot of the problems have to do with that. They have to do with an incapacity to understand hierarchy, an incapacity to understand how, how the world lays itself out in this kind of beautiful pattern and rather wanting to radicalize things and to see like, is it God’s will or is it free will? And it can’t be one. It’s one. It can’t be the other. And if it’s this kind of, you know, this kind of battle, which just doesn’t need to be. If you if you could just see the world in this. As this this kind of flowing out, you know, it’s just a lot of this stuff is not so small as the four living creatures in Revelation, if you’re interested. And so. I would I think that the four living creatures definitely if my understanding is that they’re related to the four faces of the cherub and the four aspects of the divine chariot, you know, and so they’re also related to the four gospels. That’s the way I understand the four living creatures. And so it just has to do with something which becomes four. And so these animal totems, you would call them, I guess, manifest an aspect of the one, you know, and so in really almost in the same way that when we talk about how your animal passions are below and your being is above and your animal passions pull you in different directions, it’s actually the same pattern. It’s just in a positive way. It’s that you have the unity of the one riding the divine chariot and then the four corners of the divine chariot manifest four different aspects which appear as animals. And so they’re the positive aspect of this multiplicity. You know. And so that’s the best way to understand it. I’m not going to go into the specifics of the different faces, but, you know, I probably talked about that in other places. If not, I probably should, but it would take too long to go into here. So Gideon, you for nine nine nine says. I’m always very cautious about people selling religion, but you have described patterns I know, but couldn’t describe. I’m looking into orthodoxy. This here tradition is so bad for us. Well, thanks for that story, Gideon. I appreciate it. I’m happy to see. That I don’t come off as a as just proselytizing. I hope not. I’m sure it happens sometimes, but I really try not to. I really it’s funny because growing up when I was young, like they would ask us to to go door to door and like knock on doors and tell them how Jesus loved them. And man, that created such an aversion to evangelism in my in myself. I always told myself it would never evangelize. Just hilarious because in a way, I guess it’s like I’m kind of doing that, but I’m doing it in a way that I feel good about because I feel like I’m actually talking about reality, not trying to convince someone of some arbitrary thing that they need to believe to be saved or something. Talking video games, I am Jesus Christ is coming out next year. Yeah. I don’t know what that sounds doesn’t sound good. What’s your take? How do you tell the story of Jesus in the form of a first person video game? You mean that you’re Jesus? That doesn’t sound right. That’s not good. That should not. Don’t play that game, folks. All right, Mason Bradford for five A.U.D. says, thanks, Jonathan. I watched a video recently in which Bishop Barron said that learning a foreign language can be seen as a spiritual exercise. Do you agree? That’s an interesting idea. It’s an interesting idea in the sense that it can definitely be a very powerful exercise in perceiving the limits of your thinking and perceiving how your your category structure doesn’t encompass all of reality because you realize like I know two languages very quite like I’m perfectly bilingual in French and English and I are already for me, it’s so useful to notice that there are actually some concepts which don’t exist in French and then some concepts which don’t exist in English. And so you realize how much the how much language is related to the manner in which things kind of frame frame the world. And so I would say it’s I would for sure suggest it to anybody to learn another language. So Chandler Turner says, to what degree are dreams real? Any thoughts on lucid dreams or visionary experiences like Swedenborg or Berm? So the way that I like to explain dreams or talk about dreams is that dreams are really kind of this descent into chaos, like it really is like this going down into the water. And so what happens is that. It’s kind of like it is kind of like something like divination, like ancient divination, you know, it’s like this chaos. So you but you throw the bones or you, you know, you look into a pool of water or you, you know, you you do something chaotic, you stir a pool and you look into the pool. And so that’s really what dreaming is. So most of the time it’s just a mesh of like nonsense, but it can also become the body for a very high manifestation. So it’s like just like the chaotic waters are that out of which God pulled out all of the world, then the same thing can happen to dreams is that it’s like once in a while. Out of the out of this chaotic mess of jumble of images, you know, it’s like God can shoot, shoot a laser down and then a very, very powerful image can come out of it, and that’s why dreams can be prophetic. That’s why dreams can be visionary. But most of the time they’re not. Most of the time they’re just whatever. They’re just not their nonsense or their their, you know, I when you meet someone who talks about their dreams too much, like usually there’s something off like they’re not to. It seems it can also be a form of escapism and you need to be careful about that. But nonetheless, I think that that dreams can be a place of visionary experience. And so and yes, I think Sweden, Borg and Berm definitely had some insight, like they definitely did have some insight. It was kind of mixed insight, I would say, but definitely had some insight. So Steven Anderson for two dollars says, I love your take on Avatar, the last airbender. Yeah, I’ve never watched that, so I don’t know. I think I watched that crappy movie that was made of the of the anime, which was just not good at all. So that didn’t help. So leftistness for usd for 10 dollars, he says, can you speak on the tradition symbolism or ortho burial sites such as being returned to the earth the 40 day and when your anniversary significance of why cremation is frowned upon? Yeah, you know, it’s funny because I really I know about the 40 days and I know about the whole process of after someone dies in the Orthodox tradition and kind of the process. But I don’t know it very well because I don’t know a lot of people that have died in the church and so something that I need to look into and I need to because I can kind of perceive something there, but I don’t really know much about it. Cremation is frowned upon that is there’s something very intuitive about that. It’s something about the need to place the body down in the earth and it returning to the earth. I think that that’s really important in terms of. Understand, let’s say, embodying what the end of life is, you know, and then also in terms of community, also kind of embodying what this return to earth is. And it’s a way to manifest what it said in scripture. And and I think that’s probably why cremation is also frowned upon. But some of these traditions about burial and cremation and stuff are super deep. They’re really, really very. At very base levels and they’re difficult to understand. Apart from a kind of superficial understanding of them, so I probably don’t have I’m not probably not doing this question justice. It’s something I definitely want to look into before I die, I hope. But before someone I am very close to dies. All right. And so we got through all this. It is quarter to eleven. Not bad. I’ve been going like until eleven until now. So I’m kind of I’m actually scrolling through the chat, which I really do. It’s just so hard to follow that. All right. So I’m going to what I’m going to do, guys, is I’m going to. I’m going to wish everybody a happy New Year. I know that’s strange to say that with twenty twenty one coming. I appreciate, you know, I appreciate everything you guys afford me in terms of. Watching it’s I keep repeating myself, but I’m just so excited to watch all these people kind of come up. And I see them in the chat. Derek is there. And I said, you know, Neil, the great is there, Brad, all these people that are kind of coming up and they start was there in the chat. Marianne, Lisa, there’s probably a lot more, but I’m just really excited to see people start to think symbolically and write and and I feel like like there’s hope. And so I always keep saying the future is symbolic. There’s no way around that. It’s happening. You know, the. The world is changing, you know, and I think most people can feel it and. Religion is coming back and the world is going to be re-enchanted whether we want it or not, and that’s for all the good and all the bad, like the light and the dark. You know, we’re going to see things in the next few years which are going to be unthinkable even now. And things are going to get loopy and crazy. And we’re going to see things that we haven’t seen in thousands of years are going to start to manifest themselves. And so. And so I’m just happy to see that there that there’s hopefully that we’ll have some people who will have enough sense to to be part of. Part of bringing things to light and to bringing light into things as well. So hopefully that doesn’t sound completely obscure to you guys. But, but, yeah, we get ready because because because none of this is over. It’s just starting. And and so so Christ is born. And glorify him. So I wish all of you guys a happy New Year and a bit of time with your family. To get some rest and get ready for the madness, which is still on the horizon. So bye, everybody. I’ll talk to you soon.