An Esoteric Advent: A Season of Giving

Advent and Almsgiving

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

 

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

 

That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Matthew 6:1-4

In the Christian tradition, almsgiving isn't optional; in the words of the Gospel quoted above, Jesus doesn't say "If you give alms, do so in secret"; he says when you give alms, do so in secret.

The practice of giving alms has a number of important effects on the soul and on the spiritual development. Let's take a moment to review the anatomy of the soul, and then talk about why we give alms, and how almsgiving can be used strategically to bring about changes we desire in our world and our lives.

Psychic Anatomy

In the old tradition inherited by the Christian fathers from the Platonists before them, the soul is understood to consist of three parts. In Greek, these are called nous, thymos, and epithymia. Now, the Nous refers to our minds; it includes our reason and our opinions, but at its highest, it is our capacity to perceive spiritual reality. Thymos is hard to translate-- it is often rendered "spirit," but this is used in the sense that we would talk about "a spirited horse," or about someone being "in good spirits," rather than "spirit" as in "eternal soul." Its best translation in English is probably "heart," in the sense that this term is used in sports. Epithymia, meanwhile, is appetite, and includes all of the appetites, drives, and passions of our bodies.

Each of these components of the soul has its proper mode of functioning, and each has its particular disorder. The appetite wants to rebel and become our master, driving us to indulge every craving for food or drugs or sex or facebook it can come up with. The nous wants to cloud over and forget its true nature, becoming a mere repeater of worldly opinion instead of a seer of heavenly truth. And the thymos? Well, the thymos just wants to fight.

The work of spiritual advancement is called repentance in the Gospels. This is a translation of the Greek word metanoia, which literally means "to change the nous." Through this work of metanoia we change every aspect of our souls, re-orienting them away from the created world and toward eternal things. For each component of the soul, there is a particular spiritual discipline given to us as a sort of medicine, to heal and restore it to its proper functioning. For the nous, we are given prayer; for the epithymia, fasting; and for the thymos, almsgiving.

(There is a very good talk on this subject from an Orthodox perspective here. If you have more time on your hands, you can also read about these things in Plato's Republic and Phaedrus.)

Fridays In Advent

Advent, as we have seen, is a penitential season. This means that we make use of it to double-down on our works of repentance, to purify our souls and prepare them for the coming of Our Lord at Christmas-- which is, as we've seen, itself a preparation for the coming of the Lord to us at our own deaths, and to the whole world at the End of Time.

And so we fast from food and other material goods such as technology to discipline our appetites; we re-commit ourselves to prayer, to open the eye of our souls to the vision of God--

And we give, to purify our hearts and participate in the nature of God, who by His very nature gives being to all that exists.

Fridays are particularly good days for giving, for the following reasons:

1. Friday is a penitential day. Friday is the traditional day for fasting in the Catholic Church; until the 1960s, Catholics were expected to abstain from meat on this day throughout the year and to keep the full fast during penitential seasons.

2. Friday is associated with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Each day of the week has its traditional spiritual association-- as we'll discuss in detail at a later time. Friday is particularly dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. By giving alms on this day, we imitate Jesus, who freely gave of himself, first, to bring the world into being; second, at Calvary, to redeem us; third, at all times, to sustain our ongoing existence and that of the whole world and everything in it. Remember that, in the magical way of looking at things, two things never resemble each other by "accident" or "coincidence." To imitate Christ is to participate in the very being of Christ.

3. Friday is the Day of Venus. In the astrological tradition, every day is linked to one of the seven classical planets. Friday-- in Latin, "Dies Veneris," "Day of Venus"-- is associated with Venus, the planet of Love and Beauty. In Christian Astrology, the planets are visible signs given by God to reveal something about His nature to us; each planet is governed by an angel, and is associated with a particular Christian virtue. The angel of Venus is named Hanael or Anael, and its particular virtue is Charity.

The Magical Uses of Almsgiving

Alms can, and should, be given at any time, to anyone, for any reason, with the only limit being that set by morality. It's a good habit to give for no reason at all, at no particular time-- Leave the occasional 50% tip; give a homeless person an unusually large bill; find a charity dedicated to a cause you rarely think about, and given them a hundred dollars. In a real sense, this is the highest form of charity, and we ought to engage in it regularly.

That said, there are also good reasons to give alms at certain times, and to certain people and organizations. And we can also use other methods to increase the power of our offerings.

1. Timing. Spiritual timing occurs in a couple of different forms. We have the liturgical calendar, including feast days and seasons of fasting. We have the traditional dedication of particular days and months to particular saints and causes. And we have the astrological cycle mentioned above. All of these days are like power points on the wheel of the year; appropriate activities, done at these times, are strengthened and enhanced by the energy of the time.

2. Saints and Offerings. We can increase the power of our offerings by making them in the name of a particular saint or angel. We usually do this in order to bring about specific purposes, related to the saint or angel's patronage. For example, St. Joseph is the patron of workers. We can make offerings to a church or charity named for him when we ourselves are looking for a job. We can also make the offering in his name to something under his patronage like a job training program, even if it isn't named for him. Similarly, St. Raphael the Archangel is the patron of healers; St. Francis is the patron of animals and ecology; St. Therese is an unofficial patron of alcoholics; St. Michael watches over police, soldiers, and firefighters; and so on.

3. Manifestation. It is a spiritual truism that whatever we put out into the world also manifests in our own life. It's not, as people sometimes say, that it "returns" to us-- because that implies that it goes somewhere else and then comes back. It is, rather, the case that whatever energy we participate in, for good or ill, manifests within us at that exact moment. If we bless another person, we are ourselves blessed; if we forgive, we are forgiven; if we give, we receive what we have given. Thus, if there is a change that you want to bring about in your life, giving to others will allow it to come to you as well. This is one reason why we should give what we can to our churches or spiritual leaders-- we want the grace and the teaching that they have to offer to manifest in our lives, and so we participate in sustaining them.

Time For Giving

Today, spend some time in prayer and meditation, and then make a donation to an organization, charity, or individual suitable to you. You can make a ritual out of this, first following the guide to prayer and meditation that I've posted here before, and then donating in the name or the cause of a suitable saint; or you can simply send a few dollars to a church or a nonprofit through their website. Always add a blessing, and always give without expectation of reward-- the reward has already manifested in your life by the very act of giving! "Thy Father which seest in secret shall reward thee openly."

I'm also, for the first time, including a Donation button at the end of this post. To be honest, I feel somewhat uncomfortable doing so-- but, as I just said, we give to our churches and our teachers in order to share in the life of their teachings. I think that the work that we're doing here is important, and if you feel the same way, I want to give you the chance to participate in it directly!

Click Here to Donate!