November 2019 Q&A (mbIkOx15sLI)

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All right, guys, here we are. Here we go. November Q&A. Man, this month feels like it has lasted a year. It has been crazy. Yeah. So I started in Chicago, did a, no, I was in Chicago in the last week of October. Then I went to St. Vladimir’s in November and gave some talks there, which I haven’t put up yet, but I will be putting up soon, at least one of them. And yeah, a lot of stuff. There was a, I don’t know if all of you have seen this, there was a Newsweek article on my Kanye West video, which brought a lot of strange attention, which was fine, which is fine. And what else? I did the first interview on ThinkSpot that has ever happened. So we did that with Stephen Blackwood. If you’re on ThinkSpot, I think you can access it. And yeah, just so much stuff. Oh, also there’s Lisa Parrott and a few other people from the Facebook Symbolic Discussion Group started a clips channel. So I encourage you all, you guys all to go see that. Maybe I can put, maybe I can put, I don’t know, I’m gonna be able to do it. Maybe someone can post the link to that in the chat. I don’t know. I don’t think I have, I’m going to find it right away. But anyways, so that happened in November and yeah, just a bunch of stuff, just a bunch of stuff happening. Good stuff and not as good stuff. Hard stuff to deal with. My house, we finally insulated the basement for the winter. And so that feels really good that that happened. And I’ve also started carving quite a bit more now. People who follow me on Facebook and Twitter probably saw that I’ve been posting more pictures of carvings, which is good. So Jacob just posted the clips channel in the chat. So if you guys want to check that out and subscribe there. It was great about the chat and I’m really excited to see how it’s going to go is that I do own the chat and but it’s going to be run by people who, by volunteers, people who want to go into the videos and find clips and put them up. So for me, it’s going to be exciting to see what, what in the end, what is the thing that people are, are liking about my videos. And so hopefully that’ll help me as well to be able to put up some, to put up some better stuff. All right. And yeah, so the, the subs our subscribers, the subscriber amount this month has gone up quite a bit, I think because of the Kanye West video, the Joker video, and also because the rise of Jordan Peterson video video was number one on at least iTunes in Canada. I know I don’t know in the US, but it seems to be doing pretty well. And so I think people are coming in through that. Not sure. But yeah, still though. Twitter is like the worst month because it’s not, because it’s, it’s, it’s dark here at like almost like 4 30. And so it just weighs on you. I got in this stupid Twitter fight with Brett Weinstein. My goodness. I’m like a child. When I, when I get into these stupid Twitter fights, I, I just, I just want to slap myself. It’s like, what am I doing? Anyways. All right. Enough of that. All right, guys, let’s go into the questions. Okay. So I’ll wait. I’m gonna, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna unpin. There’s a way to unpin the chat so that I can have it all the way, all the always up there. You do that. So anyways, I’m in a strange mood. Hopefully I don’t fall into rant mode. That’s always like my worst, my worst mode. All right. Okay, here we go. So I’m going to start as usual, as you guys know, people who give 10 on my, on my different platforms, they get to ask questions in advance. And then after that, I'll look into the chat and see if there are super chats. There's a lot of questions. There are a lot of questions. I think soon I'm going to ask people to in the, in the advanced questions to just each person post one, because at some point we're going to run out of, going to make these three hour streams. I don't think I can do that. I know some people do that. I don't think I can. All right, here we go. So Joshua the mover asks silly question, but perhaps there's more to it. Are there guitars in heaven? Musical instruments are worldly things. Yes. But in making music, they serve a purpose, which is intrinsic to being. Perhaps this ties more loosely into the greater subject of technology. Could you elaborate? I don't know how to answer. Well, yeah, I do know how to answer a question like that. Okay. No, there are no guitars in heaven. Maybe I'm being, I'm being, okay, let me, I'm going to be technical with you guys for a few seconds, but no, there are no guitars in heaven. Maybe there are guitars in the kingdom of heaven. There's quite a difference between the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven and heaven itself. Heaven is not material. There's no, there's no, the kingdom of heaven is the place where let's say the spiritual essences meet the manifestation. And so in the kingdom of heaven, I think that the guitar plays some role. It probably does, or that something, the idea of maybe not the guitar per se, maybe something a little higher up on the hierarchy, maybe something like stringed instruments, something like that, I think probably has some role in terms of manifesting something important about pattern and about, about rhythm. All these things are related to. So yeah, I don't have a problem with musical instruments, but there are no musical instruments in heaven. I hope you understand, Josh. I understand what I mean when I say that the, that the, that the difference between heaven and the kingdom of heaven, let's say. All right. So Jesse Blaney says, hi, Jonathan. I loved your last two videos that help us better understand craziness of the Halloween tradition. I've been reading Stephen King's nonfiction book, dance macabre, where he gives an anatomy of the horror genre. In the second chapter, he lists that there are three fundamental horror archetypes, the vampire, the werewolf, and the thing without a name, AKA Frankenstein. So I already covered the symbology of the vampire in the video. Could you share your thoughts on the symbology of the werewolf and, or the thing without a name? I have suspicions that the thing without a name could be the most critical to understand because often it's a creature made from our own human devices. So for sure, if you take those three categories, they're interesting categories to understand the types of monster. The idea of the werewolf as being a hybrid is an important, is one of the most important categories in terms of monsters. The idea of an animal man, it doesn't necessarily have to be a werewolf. There are all kinds of animal men. There are, you know, you can think of fauns in ancient, you know, in ancient ideas. You can think of centaurs. If you look at the ancient ideas of these human-animal hybrids, they usually always represent something similar, a kind of giving in to animality, you know. And so I think that the werewolf represents that as well in our culture. In terms of the monst, the thing without a name, I think that he's mixing two things together. There is another type of monster, which is really important, which is the foreign thing, like the thing without the name in the sense of like the blob or, you know, the idea of a monster that comes from below, you know, like an octopus or a sea monster, the kraken, all these types of monsters that are kind of like these huge, gigantic chaos monsters or the dragon even as well that kind of come up and will devour you. I think that's different from Frankenstein. Frankenstein is a golem, really is just another version of a golem, which is a human fabrication, which has gone wrong, a human experiment which has gone wrong. And you see that in a lot of stories, especially modern stories, the idea of the human experiment gone wrong or the, you know, you see that in Marvel comics and in popular culture, you know, the kind of the Hulk. He's also a human experiment gone wrong. But obviously these mixed together. But I think that hopefully that answers a little bit in terms of understanding. I mean, he's obviously, Stephen King knows what he's doing because he's mastered frightening people. So, okay, so White Ear asks, what is the symbolism of the magic mirror in Snow White? The Queen repeatedly asks the mirror for validation of her beauty. It seems like there may be some parallels with social media, especially Instagram. Yeah, that's interesting. That's interesting. I mean, in a way, the mirror, the magic mirror, you could see it just as the mirror. We make it magic, but in the sense that it doesn't necessarily have to be magic, just the mirror. That is, the mirror reflects back at you and you see yourself. And so it's looking into the mirror can be a form, obviously it can be a form of vanity, but then it can also turn on you because as that vanity can become judgment as you lose your beauty. And so I think that, I mean, it makes sense that it's a magic mirror, but it also makes, you could imagine that it would just be a mirror. So she looks into the mirror, she sees she's the most beautiful. And then at some point she looks into the mirror and she sees she's not the most beautiful anymore, you know, and she recognizes that it's someone else. Of course, the magic mirror tells her that it's Snow White, but, you know, she already knows that it's Snow White. That's why she's so mean to her in the story is because she knows that it's Snow White. And so just looking into the mirror will at some point reveal to her at what point that she's lost she's lost that to Snow White. So you can imagine the mirror just as. You can imagine the mirror as vanity turned against itself, you know, as. The reason why she looks at herself in the mirror ends up being that which is going to judge her. I don't know if that makes sense. Hope it makes sense. There's probably more to it, but that's what I can think of right now. I mean, I'll probably do a video on Snow White at some point. There's so many things to talk about. It's like an endless thing to talk about. So so I'll probably I'll probably do a video on Snow White and hopefully I'll have thought about it more by that time. All right. So David Flores asks, what is your favorite song on Kanye's album? I think it's I think it's that song Sela. I just really like that. I just really like it. I think when the album came out, I hadn't done that in years. I hadn't done it in years where I just had it on repeat at some point and I was just listening to it over and over. I must have listened to it like 50 times. I don't know why. I mean, I do think I know why. I really like the last part of the song. It feels like a kind of anthem or a kind of pep talk. Or something where he talks about he says, you know, we are the we are the youth. We have the power. We are the truth. Like, I really love that part. I just find it just find it very encouraging. So you said in one of your recent videos, oh, by the way, I hope everybody saw that Kanye West is doing a opera on Nebuchadnezzar, which is you can't imagine, you know, who would you know, when we say symbolism happens, guys, it's like, could you I could I don't think I could have figured that out on my own. But it's like when I saw that Kanye West is doing a he's doing of an opera on Nebuchadnezzar, I thought this is the perfect story. It's the perfect story for now. You know, like Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who in his pride, you know, makes a statue of himself so that everybody would worship him and then finally becomes a beast becomes a becomes, you know, falls into a kind of bestiality bestial mode until he repents and recognizes the true God. It's like it's a it's a it's a perfect story. It has that U shape. It has that fall into into death, moving out into the margin. It has all of it. But also it is so relevant to today in terms of. Babylon as the great whore. And some of the things that I said in my video, but also this relationship with 666 that I. The aspect of Babylon, which is also a kind of system, which encompasses. All the things that should not be part of society or that should be on the margins of society. And so and so anyways, I'm really looking forward to see what he comes up with that guy. Kind of West is like. Is really is a tuning for for reality. He seems to be really tapped in. So it's worth it's worth paying attention to that. OK, and then David Flores also asked, you said in one of your recent videos that there's a legend of King Arthur being a Trojan. Could you elaborate on that tale? I never heard of it. And where can I find it? I've always been partial to Arthurian legend. Well, the idea that King Arthur comes from Trojan, it's it's one of the earliest ideas. It comes from from Geoffrey of Monmouth, from his his history of the kings of England. And in that he mentions that. He mentions that Arthur is a descendant of one of the Trojans. But the idea of the Trojans is really, really important to understand. Because Rome also saw itself as a descendant of the Trojans. So you have to you have to kind of understand. The the shift, the change from the Greek world to the Roman world as a flip. I've been thinking about that a lot, quite a bit these days, this idea of this of this flip. And so you go from a narrative where the Greeks are the heroes to where the Trojans are the heroes. And then when you now read the Iliad, if you read the Iliad, you will see that the Trojans seem much nobler to us. And it's because we're more like the Trojans, even even even today. We struggle to understand Achilles in his tent, brooding and and complaining that someone took his sex slave away from him. Like, it's just harder to to understand that them. But the Trojans just have more. We just have more sympathy for them. Anyways, so so it is it's a very old tradition and it's definitely worth looking into. Jeffrey Monmouth's book is definitely worth looking into, guys, if you want a great book, if you want a great book on legends and helping you understand what Europe is and what Britain is in relationship to Europe and what, you know, the role that it plays, that book is great. You know, people have cast it aside because they say it's just a bunch of legends. But, you know, that's why we should look at it. All right. OK, so let's keep going. So why do you to also ask so many more young adults have nose piercings today? You see nose rings as a fashion trend, fed, or is there some deeper symbolism at work? Thank you sincerely for your work. I don't think the question of nose rings is particular in itself. I think that we need to understand the idea of piercings, like the return of piercings is definitely important. And it also it kind of manifests itself as some kind of rebellion. Not so much anymore, but a little bit, like a little bit. You rarely see people in their 40s who still have nose rings. Once in a while you do, but it's rare. It has to do with. You know, it's the same people getting pierced all over the place, you know, in our culture. It has it's the same as smoking. It's the same. It's the idea of doing dangerous things, you know, and and and doing things which are different from others and and attract attention to you. For sure. For sure. Piercing in general and wearing jewelry is related to ornamentation. And I've talked about that quite a bit, but I don't think that I don't think that the nose ring is more significant than the eyebrow ring or or the multiple earrings or, you know, the tongue ring or whatever. Like in the live, like people just pierce their whole body now. So for sure, it is it. You can't avoid seeing that it's some somehow a breakdown of. A breakdown of conventionality. All right. Hopefully that answers that. So SLS 94 asks, Dear Jonathan, thank you for your recent coverage of St. Christopher in one of your talks. It really spoke to me. Thank you for the good work you're doing on this channel. You played a large part in me becoming more interested in traditional Christianity and liturgy. I'm not sure if anyone already asked this in a previous Q&A, but do you have any advice as to what sort of advice you would like to give to people who are interested in the liturgy of the church? I'm not sure if I have any advice as to what sort of local church I might join being disillusioned by my own branch of Protestantism as I do have some issues, disagreement with Catholicism and the local Russian Orthodox Church's liturgy is largely in Russian, which I do not speak. Keep up the good work. Look, I don't know. I mean, it'd be interesting to know where you are in terms of, you know, if it's possible to find an Orthodox church nearby. If there are really no Orthodox churches at all nearby, I would say to look for a, at least look for a church that is liturgical. The difficulty with the liturgical church, especially the Protestant liturgical churches, is that let's say the Anglicans can sometimes have a pretty good liturgical structure, but they're so wild. They're so crazy. Their thinking has gone completely nuts. And so it's not necessarily going to be great for you to go there, but you might be okay. It just depends where you are. It just depends what's around you. There's also the possibility you can reach out to someone. There are some priests, Orthodox priests online that you can talk to, and sometimes they can help direct you in a direction to find something. That's the best. That's it. You know, we do what we can. You know, I understand that it's sometimes difficult and it's hard to find a good church. It's hard to find a good church for everybody. You know, it's in a tough time for Christianity. You know, we have to be the church. We always have to tell ourselves that is that we have to not just think that we're going to a church and that church is going we're going to join something, but we have to become like it's the only way things are going to get better. Hope that makes sense. All right. So Jacob. Jacob Russell. Asks. All right. I've been thinking a lot about the physical manifestations we may use in our attempt at participating in the sacred. Well, I can see a meaning behind many of the things done during a liturgy or even prayer, crossing oneself, frustrations and bowing, etc. And even the meaning behind non-sacred practices such as waving to say hi, shaking hands or even flipping someone off. I struggle to understand whether there could be deeper implication on one's soul if they are doing physical things related to other traditions. Right. The most obvious example is yoga, which was a practice with within many Eastern religions and can still be found being practiced in the West, though arguably a watered down version. Do you think that there is a valid argument for staying away from such a physical practice when it isn't a Christian tradition? On the flip of this, could a non-theist begin to align themselves with Christ if they make the sign of the cross, even if done in a mocking manner? How does much ignorance or naivete play in our willing and wanting to align ourselves with the sacred? Hope that makes sense. I think it's a great question and I think I don't have a clear answer to you. And it's hard because it's like I think everybody kind of has a different answer or a different standard. For example, I don't personally have a problem with people who do yoga. I know people do yoga. I would never do yoga. Like I would just would never do that because it's funny because one of the reasons why I wouldn't do yoga is because it's not the only reason, but one of the reasons is that I'm pretty sure that the people are in here in my city who are doing hot yoga or doing some kind of yoga don't understand what they're doing. And it's like they're playing with fire and they don't know what it is they're playing with. They don't understand what it is. They don't understand that the purpose of yoga in India was to bring people towards enlightenment. It was to create spiritual experiences. And so, you know, it's like I'm not I'm certainly not going to go to some class with some 25 year old lady who had, you know, who doesn't know anything about this and is has learned to do yoga and is going to take you on these exercises. And it has no and she has no understanding of what those are supposed to really link to. To me, that's just dangerous. It's just a dangerous thing. But anyway, like I'm not saying that if you go take a yoga class, you're going to you're going to I don't know, you're going to be possessed by a demon or something. I don't think it's that simple. I just I just myself have never have always felt like it's it's not it's too weird. Like I'll give you an example, though, something that I I have no problem with. And maybe some people would disagree with me is that I have taken some martial arts classes. And if there was an opportunity, like a really good opportunity, I probably would do that again. And because that because martial arts is also a fighting technique and because it is although it's obvious, like if you look at Kung Fu or if you look at some of the some of the practices that they do understand things analogically, they understand it spiritually to a certain extent. There's also the idea that you really do have to beat the guy in front of you. Like you actually have to win the match. You have to learn the move. Like if you if you don't if you don't know how to block, you don't know how to block it. You know, there's no it's there's also a grounded aspect to it, which seems to make it less dangerous, in my opinion. But like I said, that's that's just my standard. You know, the idea that that doing like would someone who's an atheist making the sign of the cross, would it maybe align them with Christ? Look, I don't know. I don't know. One of the things that I that I know is that my father my father does this this thing, I think, what is it called? EMD EMDR or something like that. It's like a psychological technique to help people who are traumatized. And he was telling me that in order to help people who is traumatized, like they have they have to go back to their memories and and they move and he moves his fingers like this and and they have to follow his fingers. And I was like, really? So interesting. It's like there's actually something in the brain which is activated when people follow a certain gesture of the fingers. And so it's just interesting. Like, I think that we don't totally understand how these types of these types of gestures can have can have an effect on us and can realign us, as you said. Now, whether or not an atheist doing that would help them, I have no idea. Well, I'd rather they do that than other things. All right. OK, so Eddie T asks, what is the meaning of Jesus's commandment to his disciples that they should watch each other's feet? In a way, it's like in a way, this is the mystery of Christianity, like this is the mystery of Christianity, which is. That Christ, both like Christ is both he said, Christ said, if you want to be the first of these, you have to become the last, like you have to become the servant of all. And it's this idea, it's first of all, this idea that there's actually a link between the highest and the lowest, and it's related to the idea of ornament that I've talked about the related the relationship between death and glory. You know, I've talked about this quite a bit as well. And and so there's it's like there's this relationship between death and glory. It's a one can be transformed into the other. And it seems that a lot of what Christ. Is talking about is how to operate that transformation, how to make the low, how to make the the the how to turn death into glory, basically. And so. And so, for example, like if you want to understand Christ washing his disciples feet, you also have to understand. Christ at the Last Supper, giving the food out, he's at the head of the table, he is giving the food out, he is he is. He is telling the disciples who's going to betray him, he's acting as the the the king, he's acting as the the one who's giving his own body out for them to to to eat it. And so he's in this absolute position of authority. He's he's taking the position of a god. Right. He's he's he's and so right after that moment, that's when he washes the disciples feet. So you have to have those two stories together to separate them. You miss out on what Christ is doing. If you only have the washing the feet part, you end up with a a inverted hierarchy in the sense of something like social justice. You end up with something that looks like these social justice warriors who who only talk about the who who idealize the marginal, who idealize the poor, who idealize the who make the lowest, the highest automatically. It's like that's not what Christ is doing. It's like Christ is joining. He's he's doing these two things. He's he's he's joining them together. And and and that is different and it creates something very it's difficult to understand it. Christ is really difficult to understand because his story is too big and his actions are too big. But but if you want to understand washing the feet, you have to have those two things together. And like I said, if you separate them, that's when you end up seeing things like you see an excess of the kingly part in Christianity sometimes where, you know, there's an excess of temporal power, an excess of imposing this type of excess. And then you have the other excess in Christianity, which is this this celebration of the victim, you know, excessive celebration of the victim, you would say, or or of the upside down hierarchy, something like that. And so you need those two together in order to have all of reality. Sorry, I'm not giving you any more of that. But these types of questions, man, when you ask me, like, what does it mean when Christ does this? It's really hard to exhaust that because. You know, it's Christ. All right. OK, here we go. So we're done with done with the the website. And so I'm going to subscribe star. Here we go. All right. So Samuel asks, Hi, Jonathan, I've always wondered about the quote from Luke where Jesus says, Father, if you'd be willing, remove this cup for me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. I always found this to be a mysterious moment as God, the father and the son are one. I read a little on the subject, but many of the explanations I have heard essentially say he did not really feel this as he could never have had any doubt. That and Jesus is acting, but this seems slightly odd. To be honest, to be honest, I don't I don't think that Christ was acting. OK, so the way you can understand it, if you understand the idea that Christ is acting, you have to understand it in the sense that Christ is playing out the story. But you can't understand it in the sense that Christ is playing out the story. But you can't understand it as he's pretending. You have to understand it as he is fully engaged in the story. He's fully engaged, right? He did suffer on the cross. He didn't. He wasn't the God laughing as his body was dying on the cross. He wasn't. That's the incarnation. He wasn't. He wasn't being cynical about what was happening. And so. If you if you if you look at that mysterious moment, you have to. You have to kind of understand it as a manifestation of. Of Christ's identity in the sense that Christ. The Christ can only be the logos like he is only the logos if he submits himself himself to the father. But he is I'm not saying he could have done something else, but to understand that that is what makes him the logos is that he is doing the will of the father. And so and so that moment is is like playing out the story. And so that moment is is like playing out, playing out the submission of the son to the father, the submission not only of the son, but then ultimately you could say all of creation and all of us that we also have to die to ourselves in order to participate in that process. And so it's it's not that he's pretending, but that he's playing it out completely and fully in the story. I don't know if that makes sense. It's the best way that I can explain it to my understanding. All right. So so Nicola asks, what is the difference between two icons in the church? One is printed as high quality poster and the second one is painted by hand. I understand that it is OK to have printed icons in the church, but I would guess that they have their limits in terms of where they could be implemented. For instance, I don't think I've ever seen a printed icon on an iconostasis in any of the Orthodox churches. Yeah, I've seen I've seen printed icons and iconostasis for sure. It's a difference of quality is what it is, and it's a it's a problem of modernity in the sense that it's a it's a problem of of having access to these printed images. And they do the job. You know, there's there's nothing theologically wrong or there's nothing heretical about a printed icon for sure. But they they show you the problem of technology, right? They show you the problem of. What it can do to tradition, because. You have to imagine a world, you know, because if you see people using printed icons, you have to imagine a world where everybody uses printed icons And we don't have iconographers iconographers anymore, so it's not a it's not a living tradition. It's not it's not a living tradition that is being that is organically existing and being modified and participating in the in the church. It has become this fixed thing which is printed out. Mechanically, and so that is where the problem arises is that if we if we give in to printed icons, then we're actually killing the we're killing the. The art of the church in the long term, you know. Obviously, this could never happen, but because it would be heretical to do that, but you can imagine that. Someone might be tempted at some point when there's no no singer to just play, you know, to just play it to have music playing like recorded music. While during the liturgy, they would never do it because it would be it would actually I don't think you could even canonically not have people singing, but to me. To me, the printed icon is akin to that in the sense that it's beautiful. You know, you look at a printed icon, it can be beautiful. It can be probably be a better icon than you could even get if you got it painted, but it's yeah, it's destroying the art of the church. So. Alright, so Nicola also asked if a man is symbolically confused, what is the meaning of the word? Alright, so Nicola also asked if a man is symbolically considered to be the head of the house, what would a woman's role be in that analogy? Would she be the heart of the house or maybe even the house itself? Yeah, I think that I think that understanding that that the woman is is in a way the house or the home. Maybe home is a better word than house. That she is the knitting of the private sphere, like the possibility of the of the home. You could say it's that way that without the without. Without a woman. You know, a man. A man would not have a home like would not have a would not have a home, would not have a family. And so she is the possibility. She gives the possibility of the family and then and then the man is seen as the leader, you could say. But both are necessary. Both are really important, you know, and it's not I've been talking about this recently. I did an interview with Benjamin Boyce, which I hope is going to be made made public where we talk about this as well. The absolute necessity of the feminine, not only in society, but also even in understanding discourse and understanding how reality lays itself out. You need the opening up of the space. You need the possibility of discourse before discourse happens, before the actual terms of discourse happen. So you you you have to understand that. You have to understand that. So that's how you can understand, like in a discourse, you would say you would say that the feminine is the possibility of the discourse is the frame of the discourse. And then the masculine would be the direction or the terms of the discourse itself. But without that first frame, without that first question, there's nothing right. There's no question. There's no question. There's no family. There's no discourse. All right. Hope that make hope. I hope that makes sense. All right. So Craig Henry asks, goals, conscious and unconscious manifest the world to us. I notice that people don't like to discuss their goals for a variety of reasons. Is this related to the power of the implicit? Do we hide these goals in darkness for fear of our hierarchies in space, family, culture, spirit, because they don't glorify God? They make us feel naked. So like, why do people don't like to discuss their goals? Because they don't want to discuss their goals. Why do people don't like to discuss their goals? Because. So this is something very important in terms of understanding logos, let's say, or understanding purpose is that. A purpose is on the one hand, your. It is, let's say that which motivates you or the direction that you're you're aligned with. Right. And you need that. You need you need that in order to move. You need to have a telos. You need to have a direction of a way you're going. But that purpose is also. Ultimately, is your judge. It's going to judge you because once you come to the end, let's say of something. That the purpose of that thing is going to judge you. Right. You can think about it just in terms of a race. It's like as you're running the race, the end or the goal, the finish line, that's you're doing everything to reach the finish line, to reach first. Like you. That's what's motivating you. That's what's making you go. But once the race is finished, then that goal is judging you and is going to tell you how you did. And so I think that one of the reasons why people don't like to discuss their goals is that they don't want to expose themselves. They don't want to expose themselves to the judgment of the world. They don't want the world to participate in that judgment if they don't succeed in the goals. That's one. The second is also because the second has a little more to do with the idea of the secret, like you said, or the idea of the hidden aspect or the idea of. Your heart, that your heart, which is hidden, and that is also also like has to do with the idea that. There's a fragility in the seed itself, and people would rather with reason, would rather you see the results of the goal, right? Would actually would rather see you play it out rather than the seed itself, because the seed is very fragile until it has a body. So the purpose is nothing until it starts to have a body. And so once you know, I mean, you see it in the parable of the of the of the seeds. Christ talks about that, where he talks about the the the the seeds that were thrown next to the road, and they were picked up by the birds. You know, the ideals of the seeds that that grew really fast right away. And then they they they died in the sun. It's like you can see that in related to goals, not just related to Christ himself or to salvation. Each goal also has that structure where it's like the seed is very fragile unless it finds the right the right land in which to to body in which to grow. So it's best to have your goal and to hide it in the earth like a seed and then wait till it starts to grow something before you make it public. Because if you make it public right away, it can be snatched from you. I mean, also just just by people criticizing you just by, you know. By you seeing that you're not accomplishing it, there's all these ways in which it can it can start to not play out. But it's always best to have people see the results of your goals. And then, you know, then they can figure out the goal on their own. They can see it once it starts to have body. And usually when people start to have a body, like when people start to manifest their goal, then they'll they'll say it. It's like, you know, it's after you've lost five pounds that you start telling people that, you know, you're on a diet. If you tell them right away, you know, then if you fail, that's it. Like you're going to get judged. All right. OK, so done with Subscribestar. Moving on to Patreon. Patreon is where a lot of the questions are. Man, I think there's like a lot of questions. All right, here we go. All right. So Norm Grandin says, Can you speak up to the symbolism of Advent wreath and candles? Also, any recommendations of things to do, not to do during the Advent season? I mean, I think the symbolism of candles, let's say, are pretty much always the same. Just depending on the circumstance, they usually have to do with. They usually have to do with focusing in terms of, you know, you you focus something, you focus your intention on a candle, you light the candle and then that flame going up, you know, is carrying your intentions up to heaven. I mean, obviously, it's a symbolic gesture. So you focus your attention, you light the candle, and then that that flame goes up. You focus your attention, you light the candle, and then that that candle, that flicker becomes a spark, becomes that spark of your intention, which is now being carried up in in a prayer. All right. And so that's usually what candles in the religious sense have to do. But they can also be related to memory. And it's very close, like it's very close in the sense that we light a candle to remember the dead. And I think that we light a candle also to remember in the time of Advent. If you see the wreath and the candle together, you can kind of understand what it's about in the sense that it also has to do with this darkening. I talk about this all the time in my videos about the idea that from, you know, as we move towards Christmas, we're moving towards the solstice, we're moving towards the shortest days. And so lighting candles in that time has to do with a kind of preserving of memory, preserving of the memory of light and a preserving of it's like almost like a preserving of hope, you could say, something like that. So lighting a candle can also be a sign of hope, hope, like hope and memory are related. It's weird for people to think that, but hope and memory are related in the sense that it's like keeping today that which was in the past or that which will come in the future. It's like you're keeping it today. You're mindful of it now. And so that I think is what lighting candles are. And so the candle and the wreath, so the wreath seems to have to do with the idea of something green in a time where everything's dying, like to have something green to remember as you're moving towards the solstice, as you're moving towards death, you're preparing the notion of this light that's going to be, it's going to come in the darkness that this new life which is going to appear at Christmas, all of these images seem to be related to each other. I'm sure the wreath has a lot of other connotations that I'm missing now and that if I thought about it, they would probably come to me. And so what to do, not to do during Advent. I think you have to follow the tradition of your church. Different people do different things. Like in the Orthodox Church, there's actually a fast during Advent, which is not as strict and is not as practice. I find the Advent fast very difficult to follow just because all my family is in Orthodox and then people start having holiday season way before the 24th. They start having parties and you're invited and so you engage with people more than, it's more important to engage with people rather than fasting. So I find the fast, Advent fast, very difficult. Lent is easier for me at least. But yeah, people fast. And it's difficult. Even for me, like I can see in my family, I've been kind of trying with my kids to kind of remind them that preparing for the Christmas season, Advent is like a time of celebration yet. It's almost like a time of meditative calling, of preparing yourself for the celebration. But everything is all mixed up now. So it's just Christmas right away. It's all Christmas because we're all decorating and getting ready. So it's tough. It's tough to have actual Advent practices. So if you guys are able to do it, I'd love to hear about it because seriously, I find it difficult to have Advent practices. All right. So another question about Advent. As the church approaches Advent, the Magnificat is recalled and its similarities to Hannah's prayer in one Samuel. Looking into this, I saw some church fathers held that Mary symbolically fulfills the role of the Ark of the Covenant. What is the Orthodox understanding of the parallels between Mary and the Ark? Yeah, for sure. Mary is the Ark. Mary is all the places of epiphany. All the places where God manifests himself, you'll see people using Marian imagery to talk about that. In the sense that in the Old Testament, every place of revelation is an image of Mary as the ultimate personal revelation, as the bringing of that revelation into the heart. And so not just the Ark, but the Ark, the Tabernacle, the Paradise even, the mountain, sometimes the ladder. And it's funny because the ladder seems to be, seems you can understand it as being masculine or feminine. It depends because there's the road and there's the way. It's like the Mother of God is the road and Christ is the way. The Mother of God, so you can have the ladder can be the Mother of God, but ascending the ladder and descending the ladder could be Christ. So it's like every aspect of revelation has those two aspects, the masculine and feminine aspect. The glory and the Ark, and the glory and the Tabernacle, the Temple, and then she's also Jerusalem. She's also, she's all these things. She's also the earth itself. All the places of manifestation are related to the Mother of God. And really, like we, man, we were, last week we celebrated the entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple. And I was paying really, paying attention to some of the readings during the services. And my goodness, it's all there, guys. It's so amazing. The services in the church just have so much to offer. I mean, it was like she was the heavenly temple and there was the heavenly Tabernacle and there was all these things about her. It was really, it's really wonderful. All right, so Father Scott Murray asks, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, could you speak about the symbolism of blood, particularly why the blood of Christ gives us access to the Holy of Holies? Symbolism of garments of skin putting on death to protect from death seems applicable. Well, what does that really mean in this context? In this sense, in Hebrews, I think that we really have to understand the blood of Christ as a purifying agent. And so it's because the blood of Christ purifies that it gives you access to the Holy of Holies. So why does blood purify? Purify. Well, one of the reasons is it does have to do in the sense with this, the capacity for liquid to cover, let's say, and to wash. So the idea that we're washed in the blood of the Lamb, like that kind of imagery, that the liquid aspect is there to remove that which is external and peripheral. So it can have something to do with baptism in a way, in the sense that it has to do with the liquid aspect, which is purifying. So that's as much as I'm going to give you, because the symbolism of sacrifice and the symbolism of blood, and these types of symbolisms are so old and so profound that it is extremely difficult to pierce them. I've been thinking about the idea of sacrifice for 20 years, and I don't think that I totally get it. I think that I understand aspects of it, like Mathieu's book has helped me to understand some aspects of it, but I still think that there's some things that are missing. But if you see in the image of the crucifixion, you see the blood of Christ coming down and dripping onto the skull of Adam, and that seems at least for sure to be a representation of what you see here in Hebrews, this idea that by the blood of Jesus, by being covered by his blood, we're able to enter into the Holy of Holies because it purifies us. And it does have to do with death, healing from death for sure. But Father, I found even, there's some text that I found in St. Gregory of Nyssa, which talks about some of that stuff, talks about the blood on the horn of the altar and everything, and you can see that even he is like, I don't know, he's on the verge of going insane, it feels like sometimes, and it's very difficult to pierce those, but yeah, so sorry I'm not giving you, I'm not going to be able to give you any more on that. So Yavor Ivanov says, I've grown up in a household and culture where people just aren't Christian. Right now I'm trying to make my way to the Bible and use you, your and Paul Vanderklees' videos almost as dictionaries, because I find the meaning rather impenetrable otherwise. What advice would you give to someone who has to encounter the Christian stories and teachings for the first time? Thank you for all the time you spent patiently explaining symbolism to slow pokes like me. Hope you and your family are doing well. Yeah, I understand. I think it's tough if you have grown up in a place where, one of the things that I would say is, for sure I would say to, like if you have enough, let's say this, if you have enough interest to do it, I would say to try to suspend your desire to right away criticize, in the sense that, especially in the Old Testament, like you read the Old Testament stories, if you never had contact with some of those stories, you're going to flip out because some of them are wild, like just wild and wild. So, but you just take them into stories, like just read them as stories, and just try to see the connection between things. I don't have a better advice for you, is to try to see how images repeat in different parts of the Bible, different parts of the story. And for sure, I mean for sure you should look at what the Church Fathers said. You should look at the different mystagogies that were written by the Church Fathers, which explain to the newly converted Christians what these texts mean, like how they relate to Christ, how they all point to Christ. And so I would say that that is something that can help you. And ultimately I would say you should go to church, like find a church, and the people there will be very happy to help you through. I mean, try to get in contact with people that are in a church nearby. You can kind of gauge them too and see what's going on in that church. But I would say that being in the community of people who love those stories will help you a lot. So Ryan Pinkham asks, I think these are inverted. Okay, so first question he asks, and you said something like things started to break down in the 11th century. I would say 12th century. Can you elaborate on specifics of what you mean? Do you mean thinkers like St. Alessim? Also, can you recommend some history books about the Middle Ages? Thanks. I mean, I think that I'm not someone who likes to put everything in a quietness. I think for sure, Occam is a sign that things are not going well. And that let's say that the connection or the incarnational thinking that was present in the early Middle Ages and was present in the Orthodox tradition is starting to kind of break down. I think that you also see certain things happen in the 12th century that are wild. Like you see the King of France try to take precedence over the spiritual authority of the Bishop of Rome. Like you see him try to kind of humiliate him, to kind of take onto himself maybe even the power that the Pope has. If you look at the arrest and the execution of the Templars by the King of France, you can see that there's this weird desire to kind of usurp spiritual authority. And I think that that's a place where you start to see this competition between the political realm and the spiritual realm. And you start to see the political world try to take over. And it's going to open up the space for at some point Luther getting the support of princes in order to lead political revolutions. And so I think that that's what happened. That's what started to happen in the 12th century. And I think that there's also the plague that played a huge role also in kind of breaking things down. And yeah, all right. And then the other question, as I said, one more. St. Gregory of Nyssa taught apocatastasis, right? I imagine you don't agree with him. Why do you think he came to that conclusion? You know, this is the way I deal with this. Seriously, like this is the way I deal with this is that I think that you cannot you cannot pretend like there isn't something. That there aren't some pronunciations in scripture that talk about suggest a kind of all so that all can be saved. Like St. Paul talks about that so that all can be saved. St. Paul talks about, you know, you have this image of Christ uniting himself with all of creation. That all of creation is going to be in God will be all in all. You have all these, you have certain pronunciation in scripture. And in if you read in the like, for example, if you read in the life of Moses, he he doesn't say, Gregor Nyssa doesn't I don't think he even uses the word apocatastasis. But he he traces the pattern and you can see how the whole pattern that he traces leads to this fully filling up of the world with with the divine. And so if you read St. Maximus the confessor is reading some acts of the confessor just a few weeks ago and he says, you know, that the goal of creation is Christ like the goal of creation is that it becomes the body of Christ. That that is the reason for creation. That is the telos of creation. That's the goal. Right. So all of that is there and is real. But there's also another strain, which is which is clear as day, which is that human freedom is is what makes us in the image of God. And therefore it is God does not violate human freedom. And we. A human person can resist transformation. And that's it. Like a human person can resist transformation. And in that case, you know, St. Isaac the Syrian, I posted something about this a few weeks ago, St. Isaac the Syrian says, you know, the fire of hell is the love of God. That it is it would be unacceptable to say that those who are in Gehenna in the fire are removed from God. They are in God. They're there. It is actually God, the love of God, which is burning them because God does not force himself on anybody. Right. In that sense, in the sense of the human soul and sense of the human person, you know, his capacity to to be transformed, you know, and so that's that's that's that seems those two things seems to seem to be there. Like they seem to be inevitable. And so I don't have a solution. I always tell people that you always need to have you always need to hold St. John Chrysostom's homily for Easter. Easter Saturday, you know, the day that Christ is in the tomb and you and his homily for Easter Sunday, the for his Paschal homily. He has these two homilies where they're almost like opposites of each other, where on the one hand, he describes the punishment and the, you know, and the falling short of the grace of God and and the fact that that, you know, that we're not good enough that all of this, you know, and that we need and that there's this this burning and all of that. Like he describes this, these scenes. And then the next day, the very next day, he talks about how, you know, if you have not even if you have fasted only one hour, you know, God opens his arms and says, welcome to the kingdom. And it's like, to me, you just have to hold those two together as as something that is not is not easily resolvable, but manifest two aspects of a reality, which is beyond our understanding. It's as good as it's going to get. All right. Okay, so Norm Gronach, I'm trying to explore the story of Jonah in order to better understand. Lois Laurie's the giver. I don't know. I never read that. The lead character's name is Jonas, an obvious illusion. So I'm having a hard time with some of the story, though, and and I wonder if you can help. Why does Jonah run away initially from the call? Is this is is his desire. So why does he run away from the call? He runs away from the call because he doesn't want to be made wrong. He doesn't want God to have mercy on the city. So he doesn't want to go tell the city that they'll be destroyed because he he doesn't doesn't want them to repent. And then it doesn't happen. You know, Jonah, the Book of Jonah is a comedy guys. Seriously, it is hilarious. If you read the Book of Jonah as a comedy, you will you will laugh as you're reading it. It's like. Anyways, so that's why he doesn't want to go. He doesn't want to go because he doesn't want. He doesn't want to be made its pride. He doesn't want to be shown to be wrong. So it's his desire to be thrown overboard and owing up to responsibility or just another way of trying to get away from God through death. I know I think I think I think it's. I think it is in a way in owning up to responsibility. Yeah, but that scene to that scene is really important. It's important in the joke, you understand the joke in the Book of Jonah. You have to understand that scene because Jonah is on the boat and. The pagans are there, right? They're not they don't believe in the one God. They have all their gods and they're praying their gods and nothing's happening and. And Jonah is come to them and he's like, you know, you need to throw me a boat overboard and they don't want to. They're like, no, no, no, we don't want to throw you overboard, you know, and he's a foreigner to them. So he's like he doesn't want he doesn't want they don't want him and they're pagans. They don't want him to be thrown overboard, even if he's responsible for his for the sin that that is bringing about this this calamity on them. And so do you need to see that as a as a mirror of when Jonah goes to Nineveh and. He wants them to be punished and doesn't want them to repent. Right, he he's angry because the people of Nineveh repent and God and God saves them and he's annoyed. He's like, I knew it. I knew you wouldn't destroy the city, you know, and so it's like you have to see those two next to each other or else you don't get the joke. Anyways, all right, let's see what else we got in terms of Jonah. So what does it mean for Jonah to be angry with God at the end about the plant being eaten? I mean, that's that. It's the same place, the same place. It's like it's like Jonah wants God to destroy the city because he doesn't want to be made wrong. Because he doesn't want to be made wrong. He doesn't like the idea that he's a prophet and he's going to tell them that God's going to destroy the city and then they repent and then it doesn't happen. And then he looks like an idiot. It's like he wants God to destroy the city, you know, because it makes him look bad. That's just because of his pride. And so then he God doesn't destroy the city. And so he's like annoyed and he goes out into the desert and then God makes this plant to grow to give him shade. Like it's kind of like a city. It's something around him to protect him. And then that plant dies. And then Jonah's like, ah, you know, kill me. This is horrible. This is the worst thing ever. You know, it's a joke. The whole thing is hilarious. And it's like it's the worst thing ever. But he just wanted God to destroy an entire city. And now because he didn't get his plant, he got his plant and then he lost it. Now he wants to die and it's the end of the world. So it's all about these. It's all about these relationships between different things. Like how one is showing the opposite of the other in order to make you show how it's a funny situation. I mean, it's not just funny. It also shows a very important aspect of reality. So what does it mean for people to not know the difference between their right and their left hand? You know, that is something that I have been thinking about that phrase in the book of Jonah. Something that I've been thinking about for 20 years, seriously, at least 20 years. And to be honest, I don't think I totally have an answer to that. I'm probably going to be making some videos at some point about that question of right and left hand. And hopefully I'll build up enough stuff to be able to talk about that phrase in the book of Jonah. But to be honest, that is one of my opinion that is one of the most mysterious, one of the most mysterious sentences in scripture to me at least. OK, so I'm trying to make some connections. Norm Grosin asks another question. I'm curious to know what you think. The seed is like Christ whereby it needs to die and fall away from the tree, away from the center in order to be reborn. This can only happen though away from the center, from the tree. Otherwise it dies in the shadow of the bigger tree. I wonder then if this is akin to J.B.P.'s notion of rescuing your father from the underworld where the child becomes a new center, starting a family so that the cycle can continue. Not sure how much sense this thread is making. I don't know if it's related to Jordan's rescue from the underworld, but it's related to the way that the child is being rescued from the underworld. It's related to the idea that for anything to have an identity, it has to on the one hand be the same as something and on the other hand be different from something. You can't have two things which are exactly the same because then they would just be one thing. Like they have there has to be different things. So I'm trying to make a connection. There has to be a difference. And so in order for the world to exist, there always has to be a play between one and many, between one and many. And so I'm trying to make a connection. I'm trying to make a connection. I'm trying to make a connection. I'm trying to make a connection. I'm trying to make a connection. I'm trying to make a connection. I'm trying to make a connection. I'm trying to make a connection. There has to be a play between one and many, between identity and difference, you know, between, yeah, between center and periphery, between all of these things. And so the idea of the the idea of the seed that moves away from the tree and has to move a certain distance in order to be able to find life, that it has to do with that. Hope that makes sense. All right. So Simone LaBerge asks, and symbolism seems to be everywhere at different scale. I was wondering if you ever noticed the symbolic meaning in the gender of French nouns. For instance, I heard you mentioned once that the church was symbolically feminine. As you already know, every native French speaker already knew that. P.S. I know the context matter and that something can be seen symbolically as feminine or masculine at different levels of analysis. Nonetheless, my question stands. I think, you know, I think that I think that it would be probably worth thinking about that. To be honest, I've never put any effort into it. And I think that. I think that it could it could maybe have some give you some fruit. It could also lead you on a very strange path, which which would. Which might be just nonsense, like, but it would be worth thinking about it. Like, I think that it would be interesting to make a list of things that are. Let's say traditionally associated with feminine and things that are traditionally associated with masculine and see if you can find a pattern there. I've never done it. I mean, I don't think it would be stupid to do that. I think it would be dangerous to try to stretch it sometimes and to try to like find really weird reasons why they connect. But, yeah, I don't know. Like, I've never I've to be honest, I've never really thought about it, but it would be worth it would be worth thinking about. So, a Garz Mamis asks, What would you say is the symbolic meaning of Christ being a carpenter? That's a good question, a Garz. Well, he's the son of a carpenter. It doesn't say that he is a carpenter in the sense of he's being the adopted son of Joan of. Joseph, my goodness, my mind just went blank there for a second. But he is related to carpenter. And in this in the scripture, there's a place where the Pharisees, that's where you find out where the Pharisees say that he's the son. Like, you know, who is this son of a carpenter? And I think it's important. I think it's important. And it wouldn't be in scripture if it wasn't important. And I think that it has to do with the saving of Cain. There's a lot of things about Christ which are a restoration of of Cain. One of the things is the idea that Christ is the firstborn. That is extremely important because the Bible, do you have this idea that the firstborn is the most important? But it never happens. It's always the secondborn. It's always the secondborn, not the secondborn or somewhere the smallest or someone lower down the line. It's always Jacob. It's always Joseph. It's always David. It's always the little one. And so I think that and it's able to. And I think that Christ is the firstborn. So because Christ is the firstborn, he takes upon himself the symbolism of the symbolism of Cain. And that is why Christ converts Rome, I think. And that's why Christ is a carpenter, a techne, you know, a tecton, an artisan, someone who who builds things. Like the descendants of Cain built things, built the first cities and developed technology. And that's why also Christ is described as an agriculturalist. You know, all these images of seed, all these images of the harvest, all of these images are all related to agriculture. And not only. So Christ is both a shepherd and a farmer. So he's Cain and Abel. Christ gives bread and wine and he gives flesh and blood. So he gives both the sacrifice of Abel and the sacrifice of Cain. He gives both sacrifices at the same time. So he's actually uniting Cain and Abel together in a new Adam. And that's what Christ is. And so the idea that he's a carpenter, I think, has to do with this saving of Cain. You know, hope that answers that. All right, let's see. There's more. There's more. There's more. OK, so Taylor Wilson asks, if the Bible Christianity is properly viewed through a symbolic frame, then what is there to stop its symbolic equation with other religions or text? There are many parts of the of the Tao Te Ching, for example, which parallel with Christ when he says he is the way, the truth and the life. How do you stop making a maps of meaning universal universalism out of Christianity? And should you? I don't have a problem with. I don't have a problem with the aspects of other traditions that are good. Like I don't. There are a few things like. There are a few things. One is that. The world, the world cannot be completely in completely in darkness because it would cease to exist. The world cannot be completely disconnected from logos because it would cease to exist. The world is always connected to logos. And so you see the. You know, St. Justin Martyr talks about the logos, the idea of the seed of logos, which is planted in people from the beginning of the world, which is which is there, which is what is what holding the world together. And so we shouldn't be surprised when we see. When we see in other religions or in other traditions, things that reflect that it's not it's not odd. It's not strange. It's not shouldn't be surprising. But it also should certainly shouldn't encourage us to become syncretic and to kind of mix things together and to and to practice different aspects of different religions and and to do all that kind of stuff, because that's just chaos. It doesn't it doesn't it doesn't help you. You know. And so I think but I think that it can be useful. Like I don't. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel threatened. I don't. I don't feel threatened by other religions. I don't feel threatened by by Asian religions or Hinduism. It's like when I hear people talk about, you know, advice to Vedanta, I find it extremely fascinating. And I and I'm trying to understand and I'm trying to see like how can it help me understand my life and understand the world. But I do that. I do that always in the light of Christ. Like I do that knowing that I am attached to Christ and that I am a Christian. I'm not a Hindu and I'm not Muslim and I'm not something else. I am a Christian. And so it's like that's what I am. And that's my that's the path. That's the path. Like I don't there is no other path. You know. So I don't know if that makes sense. I know that like some people struggle to understand me because they either want to say that I'm some kind of universalist. I'm not or that I'm a relativist. I'm not. I don't. I do completely practice Christianity and believe in Christianity. But I also don't think that everything that is not explicitly Christianity is evil. And I don't see how a traditional Christian can think that. It's absurd because you know we use the words of the Greek philosophers. We use terms that were there in other religions like we know some of the titles for the Mother of God or titles that were given to ancient goddesses like all these these things are there and they shouldn't bother us. Yeah. So. You know I just I just hope that people can understand the difference between being able to see that which is good and what is outside from you and making it equal to you and want and thinking that you can just pick and choose a hodgepodge from everything in order to kind of create you know some religion in your own image. Yeah. All right. All right. Okay so Drew McMahon asked if all things are being worked for good it would follow that every tragedy is ultimately good. If we are seeing the world properly through this lens we should never be without joy. Is sorrow and suffering just a product of not seeing the world properly or are we actually seeing it correctly and sorrow is justified or is there something off with my logic. There's. There's a there's a term that people use in the Orthodox tradition which is joyful sorrow. And there's there's an idea that in in. In some sense you can read the state and you have these saints that have the gift of tears they call it where the saints cry all the time. And this gift of tears is in a way a kind of infinite compassion where you you actually cry as you see the suffering. But that also that compassion also becomes the source of a of a like an unbounded joy or an unbounded peacefulness. And so I think that I think that. We do need to mourn for that which which for people who die we need to mourn for the difficult things that we need to cry with those who cry. But in doing that is also how the good comes out of it like compassion is also the manner of the good. And so it's the very it's the very way that that it happens. It's the way that God you one of the ways that God uses to bring good out of bad is through compassion and through our compassion. So how that makes sense. All right guys. I still need to now I still need I still need to check into the the super chats and see what happened there. So I have been paying. A lot of attention to. I haven't been paying a lot of attention to the chat. I've been looking a little bit in there but not too much. So let's see what we got here. Okay so we're not so many free chats we can start. Okay so I'm going to go ahead and click on the chat. Okay so I'm going to click on the chat. Okay so I'm going to click on the chat. Okay so I'm going to click on the chat. Okay so we're not so many free chats we can start. Okay so. So we're going to start with the mad truth. Good to see you happy that you could actually post your chat your super chat for 10 pounds. He says Paul says the wife should be submitted to her husband. Why should a sinful human submit to another. Is this not sexist. And if this idea is fundamental to the West are feminists not correct we live in a patriarchy. Why should a sinful human submit to another. That's an interesting that's an interesting question. It's funny because I never thought about it because. When I think of the idea that a woman should submit to her husband when I see that in Paul I. I never see it as an isolated thing. It's not like. Women have to submit to their husbands and that's it. No you have to submit to the people above you like you have to submit to your boss to your to your. Father you have to submit to your. To the judge the police officer to those who have authority over you. Right. So it's not it's not. It's not just the image of the family and the and the woman submitting to her husband. Is. Is only one aspect of that and it's not only about. It's not only about like the feminine submitting to the masculine because you know if you if you. If you encounter a female police officer you should submit to her. If you if you were in the middle ages and you had a queen or or a lady then you would have to submit to her because she would be above you in the hierarchy. And and then that would just be that would doubt you know like it would just be part of reality. You know by the way. We learn to we learn to discipline our passions we learn to not. Give in to all our wins and all our all our our little thoughts and all our little desires we have to learn to to discipline them. And so it's important to learn to you know be a little bit more of a leader and you know be a little bit more of a leader. And so it's important to learn to submit to someone who's above you like as a child you learn to submit to your parents because you you you learn to to. Let's say. Hone yourself in a manner and not be out of control. And so. The idea is I talked about this before it's like. A let's say a police officer that's corrupt and is taking drug money use if you are speeding if you're speeding and that police officer stops you and you were speeding and he gives you a ticket. You still have to take the ticket because the authority figure represents a higher order than himself as well. So if you look at the image of of in in scripture of it says that the the the wife has to submit your husband. It's like he's relating that also to Christ it's like like as the church has to submit to Christ and the husband has to submit to Christ. Right it's not just it's not doesn't just stop there and it's like it's not just that the wife has to submit your husband with that husband has to love his wife. So it's one those two things go together it's not just one it's like the husband has to love and the woman has and the wife has to submit that's how it's presented in in St. Paul and so. And that's the same structure as you facing the person above you your priest your bishop your boss your you. You have to learn to submit to that which is above you and you have to learn to submit to that which is above you. If you're above someone else then you have to learn to love that person and to care for them and to take care of their needs and it's like everybody is always below someone and above somebody. So. Yeah. I think that that's that's the best I can do my friend. So Richard Roland asked could you ask about talk about the symbolism of saints who go to odd places to pray stylized Saint Guthbert in the ocean Saint Seraphim praying on the rock. So the I mean it's mostly understanding let's say that symbolism of aestheticism in general the idea of removing yourself from normal life or removing yourself from. The regular world in order to be able to pray you know and it's to be honest I mean it's no different than it's not that different than when you're. Reading a book or you're doing your homework or you're working on something and you want people around you to shut up because they're distracting you you know it's mostly that it's it's it's that the world if you're trying to be on a path of. Let's say of acquiring of going up the head the ladder of virtues of ascending the spiritual ladder there isn't there is one aspect which is that you have to be able to. Get rid of the distractions get rid of the things that are pulling you apart so that you can truly become you can truly enter into the heart you could say. And so aestheticism is mostly about that and extreme aestheticism is an extreme version of that and there's also an aspect of aestheticism which is that when you. It's like fasting it's like when you fast would you would you're doing is your you're revealing your passions you're revealing your passion. Because. It's like you know it I mean it it's like someone who says you know. I'm not I don't need to drink like I could stop anytime you know until you take the drink away from them then when you take the drink away from them then they realize that no. That actually they're hooked on this thing. And so one of the reasons for a set of system is that as well you know it's like to reveal your passions and so the extreme aesthetics they're doing it in an extreme manner where even. They they're trying to be able to not be distracted by pain not be distracted by physical uncomfortable by hunger by thirst by. All these bodily things that are not bad in themselves there's nothing wrong with that. But they they can be a distraction they can be they can pull your attention. And so that's why I think that's the best way I could explain that. All right so starting with the extreme aesthetics and the extreme aesthetics of the system. All right so Stephen Anderson for gave 5 thank you Stephen. Dead frogs dead frogs for five Australian dollars said. I fell psychologically from what I perceived as king to lover I burnt. Dude I have no idea what you’re talking about. I fell psychologically from what I perceived as king to lover I burnt. Dude I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now attempting a great work any advice how to get to magician. I should not have read that sorry dead frogs. All right so Thomas for five dollars said hi Jonathan I should read these before reading them out loud my goodness. Hi Jonathan can you speak to what’s motivating the rise of paganism occult and what the best way to react reach those people might be. I mean I think that I think that. One of the reasons why people are interested in paganism and the occult is because Christianity has become so milk toast and boring and and pathetic right. It’s like the deep spiritual aspects that the deep symbolic connections that the powerful cosmic vision all of this stuff in Christianity like no one knows about it anymore. And so when someone who is looking for something that is that is beautiful and powerful and coherent and and and and isn’t just this mundane you know. Just this mundane go to church once a week sing songs and and feel good and go back home you know it’s like. They they they don’t want that and so I have a lot of sympathy for people who are attracted to that stuff because I think that their motivation is to find deep connections and to find this this this cosmic vision and all of that stuff. I think the best way to reach people like that is to understand that Christianity. What Christianity has and to to to understand the cosmic vision that Christianity offers and to understand how connected everything is and how powerful the the the cosmic vision of the logos and how it manifests itself in the way that Christianity is. The the cosmic vision of the logos and how it manifests itself in the world is and you know how symbolic Christianity is. I think that’s the best that’s the best way like I know that I have some some neo pagans that follow me like some some Nordic type guys who are into the Nordic gods and and I know that there’s also. Kind of new agey people that follow what I’m doing and and I think the reason why they do is because they’re hungry for those connections or hungry to see things make sense and so it’s like I have a lot of sympathy for them. I mean I think I think they’re wrong I think they’re wrong and the reason why I think they’re wrong a great reason is that a lot of the stuff is that the the neo pagans especially it’s just made up it’s it’s not it doesn’t go deep at all it’s it’s a it’s it’s all kind of a modern reinvention and it’s improvised and it doesn’t have the deep roots that they think it does. You know I once met a druid and my goodness he was like he was telling me that he was a druid and and you know I kept asking questions and asking questions and asking questions like where does it come from is was there a transmission is there a transmission of druidic knowledge from the know from the time of of of Caesar you know really and then you keep prodding and prodding and then at some point you know they just he just admitted that he was a druid. It was all pretty much made up it was all new and it was all a kind of made up thing it’s a bit of young and a bit of this and a bit of that and it’s like yeah that’s not that’s not gonna that’s not gonna hold guys. So yeah all right. So David Markham asked how can I contact you to invite you to speak at an anti-op anti-okian Orthodox event you can you can just write me an email email is the best way to reach me if you’re looking for my email you can find my email on my carving website page o carvings.com and my my email is there I don’t I don’t put it out on my YouTube videos or whatever but if people really want to find me that is the best way to contact me. So Riaz 125 says I’m a novice priest in the Shingon tradition Japanese Vajrayana Buddhism what is your opinion of other spirit traditions can Buddhism Christianity coexist thank you. I think I kind of answer that question before I think that I think that there are places that I think there are places where there are connections and those connections are real I think that I think that that which holds the world together holds the world together and and and hold the world together everywhere and so and so I think that that there are that there are definitely. Powerful things to be found in all the authentic religions you could say not so much I’m sorry but not a lot of the new age stuff is really just just horrible but but let’s say in all the kind of. More traditional religions I think that there’s something that can be that can be found there. But I do think that. Ultimately. I mean I do think that ultimately Christianity does present itself as a. A. A final revelation as a total revelation you know and so and so I and so I don’t think that Christianity could ever like let’s say. Hinduism for example which is kind of sees everything as you know as a manifestation of of some aspect of reality and and it’s all good you know it’s and it’s okay and it’s there’s this variability. I don’t think that Christianity is compatible with that. But in the end I mean I do but I also do think that I think Christians are meant to love their neighbor and to you know and to treat others as they wanted to be treated and so. You know I don’t think that excuses some of the violence that Christians have wrought upon the world and some of the let’s say some of the colonizers and their their kind of attitude of imposing I don’t think that excuses that in any way. All right let me refresh this and see. Okay so Yvonne Boivin for $12asks.SalutJonathanIseeyo{u}^{\prime }reFrench.WhatisthesymbolicsignificantofJordanPetersononlybeingabletoeatbeef?DudeIdo{n}^{\prime }tknowthat.Ther{e}^{\prime }sdefinitelysomethinggoingonlikeIhavetoadmitIhavetoadmitthatIandIdothinkthatitismeaningful.Ido{n}^{\prime }tIdo{n}^{\prime }ttotallyunderstandit.Ithinki{t}^{\prime }smorethanjustaphysicalthingforsure.Ther{e}^{\prime }smorethanjustaphysicalthing.Itseemstohavetodowiththerolethath{e}^{\prime }splayingintermsofbeingthis.Thiskindofnoblepaganorthiskindoftransitionist.But{I}^{\prime }mnotgoingtogiveyouanymorethanthatbecauseIdo{n}^{\prime }tIdo{n}^{\prime }tthinkIhavethoughtthat{I}^{\prime }mnotIdo{n}^{\prime }tthinki{t}^{\prime }sasillyquestionbutIdo{n}^{\prime }tthinkIcompletelyunderstandit.Sow{e}^{\prime }regoingtomoveontothenextquestion.SoJonathanOughtfor$5 says. Any suggestions for a single person in a congregation and they’re the only one their age group. Yeah that’s tough that’s tough I understand your pain. I think that’s a tough question. I think that’s a tough question. I think that’s a tough question. Yeah that’s tough that’s tough I understand your pain. I think it depends what age you are. I think that if you’re at an age where you’re wanting to meet people and you’re looking to get married I would say that you need to not get stuck in your congregation. And you need to start to to kind of look at other churches or to try to see if there are ways to meet other Christians so that you can find someone. In terms of that it depends also on what age you are. So Jonathan also says should someone consciously seek to embody a specific type of symbolic manifestation I either fool. No I don’t think so. I think that that you should always look to embody to to be an image of Christ. And I think that if you end up if you end up manifesting a specific aspect of Christ then that’s going to just happen on its own just because of who you are. And so but I think you should always look to Christ as as the ultimate pattern I would say. So what is so Senor Dench asks what is the meaning of the mudras as this. I don’t know what the mudra depicted in your icon carving which are quite similar to mudras depicted in Eastern religions. You guys who knows what a mudra is. Is it a halo. Is that what it is. All right here I’m going to. Oh it’s the it’s the it’s like a blessing. It’s like a sign of the hand. It’s a gesture. Yeah OK. Yeah OK. Well there are different types of gestures in icons and they mean different things. But mostly what they mean and I’m going to put out a talk very soon that the talk that I gave at St. T. Collins I addressed this question in a question one of the questions. Mostly what they mean is direct influence. That’s mostly what it means in the sense that you have usually the hand gesture will be done with the right hand and the left hand will be holding something a book a or will be covered sometimes or will be holding a scroll. And so it’s it has to do with with direct influence and indirect influence or authority and power. The idea of direct authority. So it’s like Christianity. So the let’s say Christ blessing and holding a book is the idea that Christ both has authority and power. That is he both can do something directly like like bless or curse or answer all these things. But he also has the earthly power you would say. He also has the text. He has the traditions. He has the capacity to to to to affect the world in that way. And so so in so in Christianity you have the bishops let’s say who have who have where you have the spiritual lineage which is the direct authority of bishops and priests and everything who have the capacity to bless and curse and everything. And then you also have the Bible the liturgy the text all these external things. So you have the internal and the external the direct and the indirect. That’s something like that. That’s something like that. But my the talk will come soon. So if you want more on that you can you can find it and you can also look on the Orthodox Arch Journal. I wrote a whole series of articles on the left and the right hand. And in that I talk about these hand gestures and I also talk about the left and the right hand in general. All right. Let’s see. All right. So Elie Nars asks what is the symbolic significance of QAnon? Oh man. Well I mean it’s it’s just it’s just it’s just has to do with not trusting authority. I talked about I did a video on on on conspiracy theory or conspiracy theory or conspiracy theory. And I think that it has to do with the fact that one of the signs of a breakdown of a society or something is that we don’t trust the narrative. We don’t trust the narrative that we’re getting anymore. And I think that 4chan QAnon is a very important part of the narrative. And I think that it’s a very important part of the narrative. And I think that 4chan QAnon this idea of these alternative meaning makers all have to do with this image that the world that the narrative or the identity of our nations is fragmenting. And we don’t trust the people that are there that are supposed to be there to to care for us that are supposed. We don’t trust our authorities anymore. And that’s a sign of breakdown. And I think that people who go to QAnon that’s that seems to be what it is. And also it’s like a weird spirit. It has a weird spirituality to it. I haven’t really followed it very carefully because I honestly I feel I’m kind of put off by that kind of stuff. Feels a lot of it feels like it’s it’s also trying to affect reality kind of Nostradamus style. You know give these obscure pronouncements. Yeah that’s what I see. But like I said I really haven’t I haven’t followed it close enough to really be able to tell you. So B-Strick asks, Are superheroes considered some form of modern mythology given how prevalent it is in film and gaming nowadays pushing the hero’s journey narrative? I think it’s I think it’s an attempt to manifest some aspects of that. I think it’s lacking. But I think I think it’s not totally lacking. There are some interesting aspects about it. One of the things that we’re seeing now in the superhero genre like you see it with the Joker movie and you’re seeing it with with the like the Batman movies and is that you you have in mythology you really have like a character and you have basic storylines. And then you have variations which appear and manifest different aspects of the character that are possible. So it’s like you have that you have just a very simple character and then you have all these different versions of the same story that appear because ancient mythology wasn’t what we find in text. It was there were all these variations. And so you would have if you went to a certain area they would have different stories and then even in time they would have different stories. And so there were all these different these variations on the same characters. And I think that that’s something we’re seeing happen with superheroes, which is interesting, kind of interesting to see that. So you have a simple character like the Joker, very basic. But then you then you have everybody giving a take on the Joker. And so it shows you how there’s an identity which joins them together. Then there’s also this identity is strong enough to handle like a multiplicity of different types of of realities. And so I do think that I do think that it’s playing a part similar to what mythology was playing before. There is a difference, of course, which is that you can’t engage in it really. Like it’s not your story. They’re not you know, the stories of the ancient gods or the demigods or the heroes. It was always your story. It was your ancestors, your and you were a you were a descendant of this. Like you were you were the you were the result of them, you know, no matter how you see it. You know, you were a result of the Trojan War. You were a result of the battle, the fight between the gods. You were a result of of the mythological stories. But that is something that you don’t find in superhero stories. And and also superhero stories are owned. They’re their own material. They’re they’re copyrighted. They’re they’re you know, the only way you can participate really in superhero stories is by merch. And it’s not totally there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with buying merch. There’s nothing wrong with with wanting to engage in a story that way. But I think that we have to be careful. We have to be able to see the difference to the difference between what ancient mythology, the role it was playing and and and the superhero stories. So Jamie Day asks for five dollars, how can someone motivate themselves to love God more than a passion which pulls his attention? So. Prayer is the way that the fathers talk about that is. There even is this idea that you really can’t like you really can’t motivate yourself to love God more than a passion. Right. You you have to depend on God for that. And so there’s almost this idea that that even if you don’t feel the love or you don’t feel this this desire for God, that if you if you have a prayer discipline, then that will kind of spark like it. It’s like, you know, it’s like starting a run, like you push start a a an old car, you know, it’s something like that. And so so the fathers, they talk about reading the Psalms, reading them out loud, praying the Psalms is a good way to kind of melt the heart, you would say. And I, you know, going to church, the singing hymns, you know, music is also a way to kind of to melt some of the some of the the passionate element of yourself. Yeah, I think that that that’s the best way going to confession is a good way also to help you because it forces you to face your passions. And and then also talking about it with someone, you know, and being encouraged by other people is also a way for that to happen. But I don’t think I don’t think that you can just motivate yourself to love God more than a passion. You have to go about it through others, through a more roundabout way. All right, guys, we met almost two hours this. I think this has been the longest Q&A since the beginning. So, guys, thank you. Thank you for coming on and thank you for everything. Thank you for for getting involved in discussions. Thanks to the moderators, to Jacob. I don’t know if Christian Chad is there. Thanks also to Gregory Heisman, who runs the Facebook group, and to Lisa, who’s running the Clips channel and to all the people that have just been awesome and involved and excited about symbolism. You guys, you guys keep me going. So, so, yeah, so stay tuned. My my next video is going to be an analysis of Tim Cook’s speech at the ADL because because I talked about it in my video on the 666. And and I realized that I wasn’t clear enough about why it’s connected. So I need to kind of do an analysis of that, which is going to be fun. And and yeah, and and also for the patron only video, I kind of changed my mind this month. I was going to do a video on on witches. But I’m going to what I’m going to do is I’m going to put up a video that I did in a private discussion with some of with some of the people I talk to every month. And it’s I wanted to give you guys a glimpse of like the edge of symbolism. And in this discussion that I that I did, you you really see me like struggling with with some of these ideas and trying to understand them. And and it’s like it’s it’s almost like it’s like you’re in the laboratory with me trying to understand things. And I thought that that might be that might be fun. Maybe you’ve been disconcerting to some people, but but I’m going to try it out and see how people react to that. So so, guys, thanks a lot. And and looking forward to seeing all of you next month. Bye bye.