My dear Julie, this post is EXACTLY what I needed to read today! This feels like a dusting off of our old RH studies, but a much more enriching and evolved explanation to carry me forward with the incessant questions that continue to live in my head. Evil as an egregore... but of course!
Beautifully expressed. You know that this message will not be for everyone -and that's OK. It reached here. Funny thing is after I woke this morning, the normal rituals, I went out back hit my phone and here was your piece. I don't even think I hit substack, but there it was. It's the suffering of others that I think bothers anyone with a heart the most. Who asks for that? Someone tried to tell me that the soul asks for that before entering here. I don't but that. I think something is very terribly wrong here, not in your perspective, but the world. Hang on to love. I thank you for your insight.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I too have a hard time believing anyone would "ask" for the worst case scenario lives. I think there must be an element of chance and risk when we come into this realm that can't be predetermined or necessarily avoided. But we do have that promise of something good resulting, even if it takes a few lifetimes.
Hi Julie, I much appreciate your thoughts on this, and even more your intent. However, you're making some basic mistakes.
First, here are two roots in the Hebrew that get translated "evil" or "wickedness", not just one. Here's a comparison from DeepSeek:
רַע (raʿ) vs. רָשָׁע (rashaʿ):
רַע (raʿ) is broader and can refer to non-moral evil (e.g., natural disasters), while רָשָׁע (rashaʿ) is specifically about moral evil and wickedness.
רַע (raʿ) is often used to describe actions or events, while רָשָׁע (rashaʿ) describes people.
Second, I agree with you completely that all evil/wickedness is the result of psychic damage/brokenness. The problem, though, isn't a lack of recognition of that, it's the wholly superstitious intuition/feeling that "evil" is an entity unto itself. From examining human behavior that hinges on this superstition, it has become clear that "evil" is a term much like "infinity" or even "God": a reference to an ineffable that lies beyond our conceptual horizon. What's the first question a person asks when confronted by serious evil (e.g., a child-fucker)? "Why?" So, the fix isn't to downplay the heinousness of evil to approximate what most people would consider "brokenness" **as they would conceive of it inside the limits of the conceptual horizons**, but to get rid of the superstitiousness.
Third, you're making an attribution mistake. The good things that arise from **redeeming** the results of evil are not attributes of evil, but of the goodness that motivates redemption. Even Paul touched on this: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be!" Romans 6:1-2 Or should we do more evil so that we'll get greater benefits from having redeemed those situations? HELL NO. There's no question that people develop ingenuity, strength, and character from dealing with evil, but the assumption that this is the only way to develop them has never been intelligently shown.
We need to bring our thinking about good and evil down from lofty abstractions, down to Earth and embodiment in us personally, so that we can actually deal with evil so that we **eradicate** it. Otherwise, we've implicitly acquiesced to the (also baseless) idea that evil is unstoppable, permanent, i.e., **eternal**. Evil is heinous, but love and good are so far more powerful it's not even funny. People don't see this, but not because evil is so powerful, but because they are so deluded that they take fakes and misdirects and illusions and shams of power for real power.
**Violence is not power -- it's anti-power.**
People swear that violence is power for a very simple reason, pointed out by the writer of Hebrews: "... and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." Hebrews 2:15
They're operating under the delusion that violence is "power" because they're afraid of death. Oodles of sages both ancient and modern have taught about ridding ourselves of that fear and being freed from that delusion.
It's just not that difficult to get rid of our fear of death. Not at all. Millions of people throughout history have proven this: just ordinary, regular, run-of-the-mill people like you and me.
My dear Julie, this post is EXACTLY what I needed to read today! This feels like a dusting off of our old RH studies, but a much more enriching and evolved explanation to carry me forward with the incessant questions that continue to live in my head. Evil as an egregore... but of course!
Thanks Barb. Love that you felt encouraged. These crazy ideas keep rolling through my head!
Beautifully expressed. You know that this message will not be for everyone -and that's OK. It reached here. Funny thing is after I woke this morning, the normal rituals, I went out back hit my phone and here was your piece. I don't even think I hit substack, but there it was. It's the suffering of others that I think bothers anyone with a heart the most. Who asks for that? Someone tried to tell me that the soul asks for that before entering here. I don't but that. I think something is very terribly wrong here, not in your perspective, but the world. Hang on to love. I thank you for your insight.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I too have a hard time believing anyone would "ask" for the worst case scenario lives. I think there must be an element of chance and risk when we come into this realm that can't be predetermined or necessarily avoided. But we do have that promise of something good resulting, even if it takes a few lifetimes.
Hi Julie, I much appreciate your thoughts on this, and even more your intent. However, you're making some basic mistakes.
First, here are two roots in the Hebrew that get translated "evil" or "wickedness", not just one. Here's a comparison from DeepSeek:
רַע (raʿ) vs. רָשָׁע (rashaʿ):
רַע (raʿ) is broader and can refer to non-moral evil (e.g., natural disasters), while רָשָׁע (rashaʿ) is specifically about moral evil and wickedness.
רַע (raʿ) is often used to describe actions or events, while רָשָׁע (rashaʿ) describes people.
Second, I agree with you completely that all evil/wickedness is the result of psychic damage/brokenness. The problem, though, isn't a lack of recognition of that, it's the wholly superstitious intuition/feeling that "evil" is an entity unto itself. From examining human behavior that hinges on this superstition, it has become clear that "evil" is a term much like "infinity" or even "God": a reference to an ineffable that lies beyond our conceptual horizon. What's the first question a person asks when confronted by serious evil (e.g., a child-fucker)? "Why?" So, the fix isn't to downplay the heinousness of evil to approximate what most people would consider "brokenness" **as they would conceive of it inside the limits of the conceptual horizons**, but to get rid of the superstitiousness.
Third, you're making an attribution mistake. The good things that arise from **redeeming** the results of evil are not attributes of evil, but of the goodness that motivates redemption. Even Paul touched on this: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be!" Romans 6:1-2 Or should we do more evil so that we'll get greater benefits from having redeemed those situations? HELL NO. There's no question that people develop ingenuity, strength, and character from dealing with evil, but the assumption that this is the only way to develop them has never been intelligently shown.
We need to bring our thinking about good and evil down from lofty abstractions, down to Earth and embodiment in us personally, so that we can actually deal with evil so that we **eradicate** it. Otherwise, we've implicitly acquiesced to the (also baseless) idea that evil is unstoppable, permanent, i.e., **eternal**. Evil is heinous, but love and good are so far more powerful it's not even funny. People don't see this, but not because evil is so powerful, but because they are so deluded that they take fakes and misdirects and illusions and shams of power for real power.
**Violence is not power -- it's anti-power.**
People swear that violence is power for a very simple reason, pointed out by the writer of Hebrews: "... and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." Hebrews 2:15
They're operating under the delusion that violence is "power" because they're afraid of death. Oodles of sages both ancient and modern have taught about ridding ourselves of that fear and being freed from that delusion.
It's just not that difficult to get rid of our fear of death. Not at all. Millions of people throughout history have proven this: just ordinary, regular, run-of-the-mill people like you and me.