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Posthumous ordeals of the soul and the terrible judgment of God. The ordeals that the human soul goes through after death

The afterlife and its uncertainty is what most often leads a person to think about God and the Church. After all, according to the teachings of the Orthodox Church and any other Christian doctrines, the human soul is immortal and, unlike the body, it exists forever.

A person is always interested in the question of what will happen to him after death, where will he go? The answers to these questions can be found in the teachings of the Church.

The soul, after the death of the bodily shell, awaits the Judgment of God

Death and the Christian

Death always remains a kind of constant companion of a person: loved ones, celebrities, relatives die, and all these losses make me think about what will happen when this guest comes to me? The attitude towards the end largely determines the course human life- waiting for it is painful or a person has lived such a life that at any moment he is ready to appear before the Creator.

Trying not to think about it, erasing it from your thoughts, is the wrong approach, because then life ceases to have value.

Christians believe that God gave man an eternal soul, as opposed to a corruptible body. And this determines the course of the whole Christian life- after all, the soul does not disappear, which means it will definitely see the Creator and give an answer for every deed. This constantly keeps the believer on his toes, preventing him from living his days thoughtlessly. Death in Christianity is a certain point of transition from worldly to heavenly life, and where the spirit goes after this crossroads directly depends on the quality of life on earth.

Orthodox asceticism has in its writings the expression “mortal memory” - constantly holding in thoughts the concept of the end of worldly existence and the expectation of the transition to eternity. That is why Christians lead meaningful lives, not allowing themselves to waste minutes.

The approach of death from this point of view is not something terrible, but a completely logical and expected action, joyful. As Elder Joseph of Vatopedi said: “I’ve been waiting for the train, but it still doesn’t come.”

The first days after leaving

Orthodoxy has a special concept about the first days in the afterlife. This is not a strict article of faith, but the position held by the Synod.

Death in Christianity is a certain point of transition from worldly to heavenly life

On special days after death are considered:

Third- This is traditionally a day of commemoration. This time is spiritually connected with the Resurrection of Christ, which occurred on the third day. St. Isidore Pelusiot writes that the process of Christ’s Resurrection took 3 days, hence the idea that the human spirit also passes into eternal life on the third day. Other authors write that the number 3 has a special meaning, it is called God’s number and it symbolizes faith in the Holy Trinity, therefore a person should be remembered on this day. It is in the requiem service of the third day that the Triune God is asked to forgive the deceased’s sins and forgive him;
Ninth- another day of remembrance of the dead. St. Simeon of Thessalonica wrote about this day as a time to remember the 9 angelic ranks, to which the spirit of the deceased can be ranked. This is exactly how many days are given to the soul of the deceased to fully understand its transition. This is mentioned by St. Paisius in his writings, comparing a sinner with a drunkard who becomes sober during this period. During this period, the soul comes to terms with its transition and says goodbye to worldly life;
Fortieth- This is a special day of remembrance, because according to the legends of St. Thessalonica, this number is of particular importance, because Christ was ascended on the 40th day, which means that the deceased on this day appears before the Lord. Also, the people of Israel mourned their leader Moses at such a time. On this day, not only should there be a prayer asking for mercy from God for the deceased, but also the magpie.

Important! The first month, which includes these three days, is extremely important for loved ones - they come to terms with the loss and begin to learn to live without loved one.

The above three dates are necessary for special remembrance and prayer for the departed. During this period, their fervent prayers for the deceased reach the Lord and, in accordance with the teachings of the Church, can influence the final decision of the Creator regarding the soul.

Where does the human spirit go after life?

Where exactly does the spirit of the deceased reside? No one has an exact answer to this question, since this is a secret hidden from man by God. Everyone will know the answer to this question after their repose. The only thing that is known for sure is the transition of the human spirit from one state to another - from the worldly body to the eternal spirit.

Only the Lord can determine the eternal place of the soul

Here it is much more important to find out not “where”, but “to whom”, because it doesn’t matter where a person will be after, what’s most important is with the Lord?

Christians believe that after the transition to eternity, the Lord calls a person to judgment, where he determines his place of eternal residence - heaven with angels and other believers, or hell, with sinners and demons.

The teaching of the Orthodox Church says that only the Lord can determine the eternal place of the soul and no one can influence His sovereign will. This decision is a response to the life of the soul in the body and its actions. What did she choose during her life: good or evil, repentance or proud exaltation, mercy or cruelty? Only a person’s actions determine eternal existence and the Lord judges by them.

From the book of the Revelation of John Chrysostom, we can conclude that the human race faces two judgments - individual for each soul, and general, when all the dead are resurrected after the end of the world. Orthodox theologians are convinced that in the period between an individual trial and a general one, the soul has the opportunity to change its verdict, through the prayers of its loved ones, good deeds that are done in its memory, memories in Divine Liturgy and funeral service with alms.

ordeals

The Orthodox Church believes that the spirit goes through certain ordeals or tests on the way to the throne of God. The traditions of the holy fathers say that ordeals consist of conviction by evil spirits that make one doubt one’s own salvation, the Lord or His Sacrifice.

The word ordeal comes from the Old Russian “mytnya” - a place for collecting fines. That is, the spirit must pay some fine or be tested by certain sins. The deceased person’s own virtues, which he acquired while on earth, can help him pass this test.

From a spiritual point of view, this is not a tribute to the Lord, but a complete awareness and recognition of everything that tormented a person during his life and with which he was not able to fully cope. Only hope in Christ and His mercy can help the soul overcome this line.

Orthodox lives of saints contain many descriptions of ordeals. Their stories are extremely vivid and written in sufficient detail so that you can vividly imagine all the pictures described.

Icon of the Ordeal of Blessed Theodora

Especially detailed description can be found at St. Basil the New, in his life, which contains the story of Blessed Theodora about her ordeals. She mentions 20 trials of sins, including:

a word - it can heal or kill, it is the beginning of the world, according to the Gospel of John. The sins that are contained in the word are not empty statements; they have the same sin as material, committed actions. There is no difference between cheating on your husband or saying it out loud while dreaming - the sin is the same. Such sins include rudeness, obscenity, idle talk, incitement, blasphemy;
lie or deception - any untruth spoken by a person is a sin. This also includes perjury and perjury, which are serious sins, as well as dishonest trial and falsehood;
gluttony is not only the pleasure of one’s belly, but also any indulgence of carnal passion: drunkenness, nicotine addiction or drug addiction;
laziness, together with hack work and parasitism;
theft - any act the consequence of which is the appropriation of someone else's property, this includes: theft, fraud, fraud, etc.;
stinginess is not only greed, but also thoughtless acquisition of everything, i.e. hoarding. This category includes bribery, refusal of alms, as well as extortion and extortion;
envy - visual theft and greed for someone else's;
pride and anger - they destroy the soul;
murder - both verbal and material, incitement to suicide and abortion;
fortune telling - turning to grandmothers or psychics is a sin, it is written in Scripture;
fornication is any lustful actions: viewing pornography, masturbation, erotic fantasies, etc.;
adultery and the sins of Sodom.

Important! For the Lord there is no concept of death; the spirit only passes from the material world to the immaterial. But how she will appear before the Creator depends only on her actions and decisions in the world.

Memorial Days

This includes not only the first three important days(third, ninth and fortieth), but any holidays and simple days when loved ones remember the deceased remember him.

The word “commemoration” means remembrance, i.e. memory. And first of all, this is prayer, and not just a thought or bitterness from separation from the dead.

Advice! Prayer is performed in order to ask the Creator for mercy for the deceased and to justify him, even if he did not deserve it himself. According to the canons of the Orthodox Church, the Lord can change His decision about the deceased if his loved ones actively pray and ask for him, doing alms and good deeds in his memory.

It is especially important to do this in the first month and the 40th day, when the soul appears before God. Throughout the entire 40 days, the magpie is read, with prayer every day, and on special days a funeral service is ordered. Along with prayer, loved ones visit church and cemetery these days, give alms and distribute funeral food in memory of the deceased. Such memorial dates include subsequent anniversaries of death, as well as special church holidays commemoration of the dead.

The Holy Fathers also write that the actions and good deeds of the living can also cause a change in God's verdict on the deceased. The afterlife is full of secrets and mysteries; no one alive knows exactly anything about it. But everyone’s worldly path is an indicator that can indicate the place in which a person’s spirit will spend all eternity.

What are ordeals? Archpriest Vladimir Golovin

In that fallen world The habitat of demons, the place where the souls of the newly departed meet them, is the air. Bishop Ignatius further describes this kingdom, which must be clearly understood in order to fully understand modern “posthumous” experiences.

“The Word of God and the Spirit who assists the word reveal to us through their chosen vessels that the space between heaven and earth, the entire azure abyss of the airs visible to us, the heavenly regions, serves as a dwelling for the fallen angels cast out of heaven...’’

"The Holy Apostle Paul calls the fallen angels the spirits of wickedness in high places (Eph. VI, 12), and their head the prince of the power of the air (Eph. II, 2). The fallen angels are scattered in multitudes throughout the transparent abyss that we see above us ". They do not cease to disturb all human societies and each person individually; there is no atrocity, there is no crime in which they were not the instigators and participants; they incline and teach a person to sin by all possible means. Your adversary is the devil," says the holy Apostle Peter, "like a lion walks roaring, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter V, 8) both during our earthly life and after the separation of the soul from the body. When the soul of a Christian, leaving its earthly temple, begins to strive through the air space to the mountainous fatherland, demons stop it, try find in her an affinity with themselves, their sinfulness, their fall and bring her down to hell, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew XXV, 41). So they act according to the right acquired by them "(Bishop Ignatius. Collected works, t 3, pp. 132-133).

After the fall of Adam, Bishop Ignatius continues, when paradise was closed to man and a Cherub with a fiery sword was placed to guard it (Gen. III, 24), the head of the fallen angels - Satan - together with the hordes of spirits subordinate to him, “became on the way from earth to heaven, and from that time until the saving suffering and life-giving death of Christ, he did not let a single human soul separated from the body pass along that path. The gates of heaven were closed for man forever. Both the righteous and sinners descended into hell.

Eternal gates and impassable paths were opened only before our Lord Jesus Christ” (pp. 134-135). After our redemption by Jesus Christ, “all who have clearly rejected the Redeemer are now the property of Satan; their souls, after separation from their bodies, descend straight to hell. But even Christians who deviate towards sin are not worthy of immediate relocation from earthly life to blissful eternity. Justice itself demands, so that these deviations to sin of the Christian soul, these betrayals of the Redeemer are weighed and evaluated. Judgment and analysis are necessary to determine what prevails in it - eternal life or eternal death. And every Christian soul awaits, upon its departure from the body, the impartial judgment of God, as said the holy Apostle Paul: man lies to die alone, and then comes the judgment (Heb. IX, 27).

To torture souls passing through the airspace, the dark authorities have installed separate courts and guards in remarkable order. Along the layers of heaven, from the earth to the sky itself, there are guard regiments of fallen spirits. Each department is in charge of a special type of sin and torments the soul in it when the soul reaches this department. The aerial demonic guards and judgment seats are called ordeals in the patristic writings, and the spirits serving in them are called tax collectors.

How to understand ordeals

Perhaps no aspect of Orthodox eschatology has been more misunderstood than the aerial ordeals. Many graduates of contemporary modernist Orthodox seminaries tend to reject this phenomenon altogether as some kind of “late addition” to Orthodox teaching or as a “fictional” kingdom with no basis in Holy Scripture, or patristic texts, or spiritual reality. These students are victims of a rationalistic education that lacks a nuanced understanding of how different levels that reality, which is often described in Orthodox texts, and the various levels of meaning often found in biblical and patristic texts. The modern rationalistic overemphasis on the “literal” meaning of texts and the “realistic” or down-to-earth understanding of the events described in the Holy Scriptures and the lives of saints obscures or even completely obscures the spiritual meaning and spiritual experience that often serve as the main Orthodox sources. Therefore, Bishop Ignatius, who, on the one hand, was a sophisticated modern intellectual, and on the other, a true and simple son of the Church, can serve as a good mediator with the help of which Orthodox intellectuals could find ways to return to the true Orthodox tradition.

Before further expounding the teaching of Bishop Ignatius on aerial ordeals, let us mention the warnings of two Orthodox thinkers - one modern and one ancient - to those who begin to study the otherworldly reality.

In the 19th century, Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, speaking about the state of the soul after death, wrote: “It should, however, be noted that, just as in general in the depiction of objects of the spiritual world for us, clothed in flesh, features that are more or less sensual, humanoid are inevitable - so , in particular, they are inevitably admitted in the detailed teaching about the ordeals that the human soul goes through upon separation from the body. And therefore we must firmly remember the instruction that the Angel gave to the Monk Macarius of Alexandria, as soon as he began to talk about the ordeals: “Take earthly things here for the most faint image of heavenly ones''. It is necessary to imagine the ordeals not in a crude, sensual sense, but as much as is possible for us in the spiritual sense, and not become attached to particulars, which in different writers and in different legends of the Church itself, despite the unity of the basic thought about the ordeals, are presented as different” (Met. Macarius of Moscow, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, St. Petersburg, 1883, vol. 2, p. 538).

Some examples of such details, which should not be interpreted rudely and sensually, are given by St. Gregory Dvoeslov in the fourth book of his “Interviews,” which, as we have already seen, are specifically devoted to the issue of life after death.

Thus, describing the posthumous vision of a certain Reperat, who saw a sinful priest standing on top of a huge fire, St. Gregory writes: “Reperat saw the preparation of fires not because wood was burning in hell; but for the most convenient story to the living, he saw in the burning of sinners that which usually maintains the material fire of the living, so that they, hearing about what is known, would learn to fear what they not yet known'' (IV, 31, p. 314).

And also, having described how one person was sent back after death because of a “mistake” - in fact, someone else, bearing the same name, was recalled from life (this also happened in modern “posthumous” experiments), St. Gregory adds: "When this happens, careful consideration will show that it was not an error, but a warning. In His infinite mercy, the good God allows some souls to return to their bodies soon after death, so that by a vision of hell they will finally be taught the fear of eternal punishment, which words alone could not make them believe” (IV, 37).

And when one person in a posthumous vision was shown the golden dwellings of paradise, St. Gregory notes: “Of course, no one with common sense, will not understand these words literally... Since generous alms are rewarded with eternal glory, it seems quite possible to build an eternal dwelling of gold” (IV, 37).

Later we will dwell in more detail on the difference between visions of another world and real cases of leaving the body there (the experience of the ordeals and many of the modern “posthumous” experiences clearly belong to the latter category); but for now it is enough for us to be aware that we must approach all collisions with the other world carefully and soberly. No one familiar with Orthodox teaching will say that ordeals are not “real”, that in fact the soul does not go through them after death. But we must keep in mind that this does not take place in our gross material world that although there is time and space there, they are fundamentally different from our earthly ideas, and that in our earthly language stories can never convey otherworldly reality. Anyone well acquainted with Orthodox literature will usually be able to distinguish the spiritual reality described there from the transcendent details that may sometimes be expressed in symbolic or figurative language. Thus, of course, there are no visible “houses” or “booths” in the air where “taxes” are collected; and where "scrolls" or writing instruments are mentioned with which sins are recorded, or "scales" on which virtues are weighed, or "gold" with which "debts" are paid - in all these cases we can correctly understand these images as figurative or explanatory, used to express the spiritual reality that the soul faces at that moment. Whether the soul then really sees these images, thanks to the constant habit of seeing spiritual reality in bodily form, or whether later it can remember the experience only through such images, or simply cannot express the experience in any other way - this is a secondary question, which, apparently, for the holy fathers and the writers of the lives of saints, where such incidents are narrated, does not seem significant.

Another thing is important - that there is torture by demons, who appear in a terrible, inhuman form, accuse the newly deceased of sins and literally try to grab his subtle body, which the Angels hold tightly; all this happens in the air above us and can be seen by those whose eyes are open to spiritual reality.

Now let us return to Bishop Ignatius’ presentation of the Orthodox teaching on aerial ordeals.

Patristic testimony on aerial ordeals

“The doctrine of ordeals is the teaching of the Church. There is no doubt that the holy Apostle Paul speaks about them when he proclaims that Christians must contend with the spirits of evil in high places (Eph. VI, 12). We find this teaching in the most ancient church tradition and in church prayers.” (p. 138).

Bishop Ignatius quotes many saints. fathers who teach about ordeals. Here we quote some of them.

St. Athanasius the Great in his Life of St. Anthony the Great describes how once St. Anthony "at the onset of the ninth hour, having begun to pray before eating food, he was suddenly caught up in the Spirit and taken up by the Angels to a height. The air demons opposed his procession; the Angels, arguing with them, demanded an explanation of the reasons for their opposition, because Anthony had no sins. Demons tried to expose the sins he committed from birth; but the Angels blocked the mouths of the slanderers, telling them that they should not count his sins from birth, already blotted out by the grace of Christ, but let them present, if they have, the sins he committed after the time when By entering monasticism, he dedicated himself to God. When accusing the demons, they uttered many blatant lies; but since their slander was devoid of evidence, a free path opened for Anthony. He immediately came to his senses and saw that he was standing in the very place where he stood for prayers. Forgetting about food, he spent the whole night in tears and lamentations, thinking about the multitude of human enemies, about the fight against such an army, about the difficulties of the path to heaven through the air and about the words of the Apostle, who said: our struggle is not for blood and flesh, but to the principalities and to the powers of the air (Eph. VI, 12; Eph. II, 2), who, knowing that the authorities of the air are just looking for this, are concerned about this with all their effort, are straining and striving for this in order to deprive us of free passage to heaven, exhorts: accept all the weapons of God, so that you will be able to resist on the day They are cruel, so that the enemy will be put to shame, having nothing to say reproachfully about us (Eph. VI, 13; Tit. II, 8; p. 138).

St. John Chrysostom, describing the hour of death, teaches: “Then we need many prayers, many helpers, many good deeds, great intercession from the Angels during the procession through the air. If, traveling to a foreign country or a foreign city, we need a guide, then how much more do we need guides and assistants to guide us past the invisible elders and authorities of the world rulers of this air, called persecutors, publicans, and tax collectors!'' (A word about patience and thanksgiving and that we do not cry inconsolably for the dead, which in the Orthodox Church is supposed to be read on the seventh Saturday after Easter and at the burial of the deceased).

St. Macarius the Great writes: “Hearing that under the heavens there are rivers of serpents, mouths of lions, dark powers, a burning fire that brings all members into confusion, don’t you know that if you do not receive the pledge of the Holy Spirit, when they depart from the body they will thy soul they will understand and prevent you from going to heaven'' (Conversation 16, chapter 13).

St. Isaiah the Hermit, one of the authors of the Philokalia (IV century), teaches that Christians must “have death before their eyes every day and be concerned about how to accomplish the exodus from the body and how to pass by the powers of darkness that are about to meet us in the air "(Homily 1, 4). When the soul leaves the body, Angels accompany it; dark forces come out to meet it, wanting to hold it and torturing it to see if they find something of their own in it" (Homily 17).

And again, Saint Hesychius, the presbyter of Jerusalem (5th century), teaches: “The hour of death will come upon us, it will come, and it will be impossible to avoid it. Oh, if only the prince of peace and air, who should then meet us, would find our iniquity insignificant and insignificant and not could have denounced us correctly!" (A Word on Sobriety, 161, Philokalia, vol. 2).

St. Gregory the Dvoeslov (+604) writes in his Discourses on the Gospel: “We must think thoroughly about how terrible the hour of death will be for us, what horror of the soul then, what remembrance of all evils, what oblivion of past happiness, what fear and what apprehension Judges. Then the evil spirits in the departing soul look for its deeds; then they visualize those sins to which they disposed it, in order to entice their accomplice to torment. But why are we talking only about the sinful soul, when they come even to the chosen dying and do they find their own in them, if they have time to do anything? Among people there was only One, Who, before His suffering, fearlessly said: To whom I speak not much with you. For the prince of this world is coming, and in Me he will have nothing (John XIV, 30) (Words on the Gospels, 39, on Luke XIX, 12-47: Bishop Ignatius, vol. 3, p. 278).

St. Ephraim the Syrian (+373) describes the hour of death and judgment in the ordeal: “When terrible armies come, when the divine takers command the soul to move from the body, when, dragging us by force, they take us to the inevitable judgment seat, then, seeing them, the poor man ... everything comes into vibration, as if from an earthquake, everything trembles ... the divine takers, having revealed the soul, ascend through the air, where the rulers and powers and rulers of the world of opposing forces stand. These are our evil accusers, terrible tax collectors, inventory clerks, tax collectors; they meet on the way, describe and calculate the sins and handwritings of this person, the sins of youth and old age, voluntary and involuntary, committed by deed, word, thought... There is great fear there, great trembling of the poor soul, indescribable need that he then suffers from the countless multitude of darkness surrounding her enemies, slandering her, in order to prevent her from ascending to heaven, settling in the light of the living, entering the land of life. But the holy Angels, having taken the soul, take her away "(St. Ephraim the Syrian. Collected works. M., 1882 , vol. 3, pp. 383-385).

The divine services of the Orthodox Church also contain numerous references to ordeals. Thus, in "Octoechos", the work of St. John of Damascus (8th century), we read: “At the hour, O Virgin, of the end of my end the hands of demons will snatch me up, and judgment and debate, and terrible trials, and bitter ordeals, and the cruel prince, the Mother of God, and eternal condemnation” (Tone 4, Friday, troparion of the 8th song of the canon at Matins).

Or: “Whenever my soul desires to be separated from life through carnal union, then stand before me, O Lady, and destroy the ethereal enemies’ counsels, and break the jaws of those who seek to devour me mercilessly: for let the standing princes of darkness in the air, O Bride of God, pass unchallenged” (voice 2 , Saturday Matins, stichera on stichera). Bishop Ignatius gives seventeen similar examples from liturgical books, but this list, of course, is incomplete.

The most profound presentation of the doctrine of aerial ordeals among the early Church Fathers can be found in the “Sermon on the Exodus of the Soul” by St. Cyril of Alexandria (+444), which was always included in editions of the Slavic Followed Psalter, that is, the Psalter adapted for use in worship. Among other things, St. Cyril says in this “Word”: “The other fear and trembling that the soul desires on this day is to see terrible and wondrous and cruel and merciless and cold-free demons, like the gloomy murines that are coming! Just as vision itself is the only cruelest torment, Seeing that their soul is confused, worried, ill, restless and hides, resorting to God's Angels, the soul is supported by the holy Angels, passing through the air, and is exalted, finds ordeals, guarding the sunrise, and holding, and rebuking the ascending souls: each time their ordeals every passion of the soul brings sins, and every sin has its own publicans and torturers.”

Many other St. fathers both before and after St. Kirill talk about ordeals or mention them. Having quoted many of them, the above-mentioned historian of church dogma concludes: “Such continuous, ever-present and widespread use in the Church of the doctrine of ordeals, especially among the teachers of the fourth century, indisputably testifies that it was transmitted to them from the teachers of previous centuries and is based on the apostolic tradition.” (Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow. Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, vol. 2, p. 535).

Ordeals in the Lives of the Saints

Orthodox lives of saints contain numerous and sometimes very vivid stories about how the soul goes through ordeals after death. The most detailed description can be found in the Life of St. Basil the New (March 26), which contains the story of Blessed Theodora to the saint’s disciple, Gregory, about how she went through ordeals. This story mentions twenty special ordeals and tells what sins are tested for them. Bishop Ignatius sets out this story at some length (vol. 3, pp. 151-158). It does not contain anything significant that cannot be found in other Orthodox sources about the ordeals, so we will omit it here in order to quote some of these other sources, which, although less detailed, follow the same outline of events.

The story of the warrior Taxiot (“Lives of the Saints,” March 28) tells, for example, that he returned to life after spending six hours in the grave, and said the following: “When I was dying, I saw some Ethiopians standing in front of me; their appearance was very terrible, and my soul was confused. Then I saw two young men, very beautiful; my soul rushed to them immediately, as if flying from the earth. We began to rise to heaven, encountering on the way the ordeals that hold the soul of every person. Each tortured it about a special sin: one about lies, another about envy, the third about pride; so every sin in the air has its testers. And so I saw in the ark held by the Angels, all my good deeds, which the Angels compared with my evil deeds. So we passed these ordeals. When we, approaching the gates of heaven, came to the ordeal of fornication, fears kept me there and began to show all my fornicating carnal deeds that I had committed from my childhood to death, and the Angels leading me said to me: “Everything God forgave you the bodily sins that you committed while in the city, since you repented of them.” But the nasty spirits said to me: “But when you left the city, you committed fornication with your farmer’s wife in the field.” Hearing this, the Angels did not find a good deed that could be opposed to that sin, and leaving me, they left. Then the evil spirits took me, began to beat me and then took me down; the earth parted, and I, being led through narrow entrances through dark and stinking wells, descended to the very depths of the dungeons of hell.”

Bishop Ignatius also cites other cases of ordeals in the lives of St. Great Martyr Eustratius (IV century, December 13), St. Niphon from Constantia of Cyprus, who saw many souls ascending through ordeals (IV century, December 23), St. Simeon Christ for the sake of the Fool of Emesa (IV century, July 21), St. John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria (VII century, Prologue for December 19), St. Macarius the Great (January 19).

Bishop Ignatius was not familiar with the numerous early Orthodox Western sources, which were never translated into Greek or Russian and which are so replete with descriptions of ordeals. The name “ordeal” seems to be limited to Eastern sources, but the reality described in Western sources is identical.

For example, St. Columba, the founder of the island monastery of Iona in Scotland (+ 597), many times during his life saw demons fighting in the air for the souls of the dead. St. Adamnan (+ 704) talks about this in the life of the saint he wrote. Here is one of the cases:

One day St. Columba called his monks and told them: “Let us help with prayer the monks of Abbot Comgel, who are drowning at this hour in the Lake of Veal, for at this moment they are fighting in the air against the forces of evil, trying to capture the soul of a stranger who is drowning with them.” Then, after prayer, he said: “Give thanks to Christ, for now the holy Angels have met these holy souls, freed that stranger, and saved him in triumph from the warring demons.”

St. Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon apostle of the Germans (8th century), conveys in one of his letters a story heard at Wenlock from the lips of a monk who died and a few hours later returned to life. When he left his body, “he was picked up by Angels of such pure beauty that he could not look at them...” “They carried me,” he said, “high into the air.”... Then he said that during that time that he was outside his body, so many souls left their bodies and crowded into the place where he was that it seemed to him that there were more of them than the entire population of the earth. He also said that there was a crowd of evil spirits and a glorious choir of high angels. And he said that the evil spirits and the holy angels had a fierce dispute over the souls that had left their bodies: the demons accused them and aggravated the burden of their sins, and the Angels lightened this burden and brought extenuating circumstances.

He heard how all his sins, starting from his youth, which he either did not confess, or forgot, or did not recognize as sins, cry out against him, each with their own voice, and with sorrow they accuse him... Everything that he did for everything days of his life and refused to confess, and many things that he did not consider to be sins - they all now shouted against him scary words. And in the same way, the evil spirits, enumerating his vices, accusing and bringing evidence, even naming the time and place, brought evidence of his evil deeds... And so, having piled up and counted all his sins, these ancient enemies declared him guilty and undeniably susceptible their power.

“On the other hand,” he said, “the small, pitiful virtues that I had unworthily and imperfectly spoke in my defense... And these Angelic spirits in their boundless love protected and supported me, and the slightly exaggerated virtues seemed to me beautiful and far greater than I could ever demonstrate in my own strength."

Modern cases of ordeal

In the book “Incredible for many, but a true incident,” you can get acquainted with the reaction of a typical “educated” person of our time to meeting with ordeals during his 36-hour clinical death. "Taking me by the arms, the Angels carried me straight through the wall from the chamber to the street. It was already getting dark, a big, quiet snow was falling. I saw it, but the cold and the general changes between room temperature and I didn’t feel it outside. Obviously, such things have lost their meaning for my changed body. We began to quickly climb up. And as we rose, more and more space opened up to my gaze, and finally it assumed such terrifying proportions that I was overcome with fear from the consciousness of my insignificance in front of this endless desert... The idea of time faded away in my mind, and I I don’t know how long we were going up, when suddenly we heard some kind of unclear noise, and then, floating out from somewhere, a crowd of some ugly creatures began to quickly approach us, screaming and cackling.

“Demons!” - I realized with extraordinary speed and became numb from some special, hitherto unknown horror. Demons! Oh, how much irony, how much sincere laughter would have been caused in me just a few days ago by someone’s message not only about that he saw demons with his own eyes, but that he admits their existence as creatures of a certain kind! As befits an “educated” person late XIX centuries, by this name I meant bad inclinations, passions in a person, which is why this word itself had the meaning not of a name, but of a term that defined a well-known concept. And suddenly this “known definite concept” appeared to me as a living personification!..

Having surrounded us on all sides, the demons, with shouting and uproar, demanded that I be given to them; they tried to somehow grab me and tear me out of the hands of the Angels, but, obviously, they did not dare to do this. Among their unimaginable and as disgusting to the ear as they themselves were to the sight, howl and din, I sometimes caught words and whole phrases.

“He is ours, he has renounced God,” they suddenly screamed almost in unison, and at the same time they rushed at us with such impudence that all thought froze for a moment from fear.

It's a lie! It is not true! – Having come to my senses, I wanted to shout, but an obliging memory tied my tongue. In some incomprehensible way, I suddenly remembered such a small, insignificant event, which, moreover, belonged to a long-past era of my youth, which, it seems, I could never remember.

Here the narrator recalls an incident from his studies, when one day, during a conversation on abstract topics such as students have, one of his comrades expressed his opinion: “But why should I believe, when I can equally believe that there is no God. After all, really? And maybe He doesn’t exist?’’ To which he replied: “Maybe not.” Now, standing at the ordeal before the demonic accusers, he remembers:

“This phrase was in the full sense of the word “an idle verb”; The stupid speech of a friend could not raise any doubts in me about the existence of God, I didn’t even particularly follow the conversation - and now it turned out that this idle verb had not disappeared without a trace in the air, I had to justify myself, defend myself from the accusation brought against me, and so In this way, the Gospel legend was confirmed that, if not by the will of God, who knows the secrets of the heart of man, then by the malice of the enemy of our salvation, we really have to give an answer in every idle word.

This accusation, apparently, was the strongest argument of my destruction for the demons; they seemed to have drawn from it new strength to boldly attack me and with a frantic roar they were already spinning around us, blocking our further path.

I remembered prayer and began to pray, calling for help on all the saints I knew and whose names came to my mind. But this did not deter my enemies. A pitiful ignoramus, a Christian only in name, I almost for the first time remembered the One who is called the Intercessor of the Christian race.

But my impulse towards Her was probably ardent, my soul was probably so filled with horror that I, barely remembering, uttered Her name, when some kind of white fog appeared around us, which quickly began to cover the ugly host of demons. He hid it from my eyes before it could move away from us. Their roar and cackling could be heard for a long time, but by the way it gradually weakened and became muffled, I could understand that the terrible pursuit had left us” (pp. 41-47).

Ordeals endured before death

Thus, from numerous clear examples one can see what an important and unforgettable test for the soul after death is the meeting with demons at aerial ordeals. This, however, does not necessarily happen only immediately after death. We saw above that Rev. Anthony the Great saw ordeals while praying while outside his body. Rev. John Climacus describes an incident that happened to one monk before his death: “The day before his death he went into a frenzy and with open eyes looked around now to the right, then to left side his bed and, as if being tortured by someone, he would sometimes say out loud to everyone present: “Yes, indeed, this is true; but I fasted for this for so many years”; and sometimes: “No, I didn’t do it, you’re lying”; then he said again: “So, truly so, but I cried and served the brethren”; sometimes he objected: “You are slandering me.” To others he answered: “Yes, indeed it is, and I don’t know what to say to this; but God has mercy.” This invisible and merciless torture was truly a terrible and trembling sight; and worst of all, he was accused of something he did not do. Alas! The silent man and hermit spoke about some of his sins: “I don’t know what to say to this,” although he spent about forty years in monasticism and had the gift of tears... During this torture, his soul was separated from his body; and it remains unknown what the decision and end of this trial was and what sentence followed" (John, Abbot of Mount Sinai, "The Ladder", word 7, 50).

Indeed, meeting with ordeals after death is only a special and final form of that general battle that every Christian soul wages throughout its life. Vladyka Ignatius writes: “Just as the resurrection of the Christian soul from sinful death takes place during its earthly wanderings, in the same way, here on earth, its torture by the aerial authorities, its captivity by them or liberation from them is mysteriously accomplished here on earth; during the procession through the air, this freedom and captivity only are discovered" (vol. 3, p. 159).

Some of the students of Rev. Macarius the Great was seen going through ordeals. From their testimony the following can be concluded. Individual saints pass by demonic “publicans” without hindrance, because they have already fought with them in this life and won the battle. Here is the corresponding episode from the life of St. Macaria:

"When it's time to die St. Macarius The Great Cherub, who was his Guardian Angel, accompanied by a multitude of heavenly hosts, came for his soul. The faces of the apostles, prophets, martyrs, saints, reverends, and righteous descended with a host of Angels. Demons set up in rows and crowds at the ordeals to contemplate the procession of the spirit-bearing soul. She began to ascend. Standing far from her, the dark spirits shouted in their ordeals: “O Macarius! What glory have you been honored with!” “The humble husband answered them: “No! And I’m still afraid, because I don’t know if I did anything good.” “Meanwhile, he quickly rose to the sky. From other higher ordeals the air authorities again shouted: “Exactly, you escaped us, Macarius.” “No,” he answered, “and I still need to escape.” When he had already entered the heavenly gates, they, sobbing with anger and envy, shouted: “Exactly! You escaped us, Macarius!” - He answered them: “Protected by the power of my Christ, I escaped your snares” (Skete Patericon). – With such great freedom, the great saints of God overcome the aerial fears of the dark authorities because in earthly life they enter into irreconcilable warfare with them and, having won victory over them, in the depths of their hearts they acquire complete freedom from sin, they become the temple and sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, who makes the word his monastery inaccessible to a fallen angel" (Bishop Ignatius. T. 3, pp. 158-159).

Private court

In Orthodox dogmatic theology, going through aerial ordeals is a stage of private judgment, through which the fate of the soul is decided until the Last Judgment. Both private judgment and the Last Judgment are carried out by Angels, who are instruments of God's justice: So it will be at the end of the age: Angels will come out and separate the wicked from among the righteous, and throw them into the fiery furnace (Matthew XIII, 49-50).

Happy are Orthodox Christians that they have the doctrine of aerial ordeals and private judgment, clearly set forth in numerous patristic writings and lives of saints; but in fact, any person who meditates deeply on the Holy Scriptures alone will come to a very close teaching. Thus, Protestant evangelist Billy Graham writes in his book about Angels: “At the moment of death, the spirit leaves the body and moves through the atmosphere. But Scripture teaches us that the devil lurks there. He is the prince of the power of the air (Eph. II, 2 ).

If the eyes of our understanding were open, we might see how the air is filled with the enemies of Christ - demons. If Satan could delay the Angel sent to Daniel on earth for three weeks, then one can imagine what kind of opposition a Christian can expect after death... The moment of death is the last opportunity for Satan to attack a true believer, but God sent his Angels to protect us at this time" (Billy Graham. Angels are secret

The ordeal of the soul after death

There are many versions of what happens to the soul after death. In Christianity, it is believed that she will have to go through ordeals - certain tests. This is a kind of cleansing that is important before meeting God. This period lasts 40 days.

What ordeals does the soul go through after death?

It is believed that the soul spends six days on an excursion in heaven, and then it goes to hell. All the time there are angels nearby who tell information about the good deeds performed by the soul during life. Ordeals are represented by demons who seek to drag the soul to hell. It is believed that there are 20 ordeals in total, but this is not the number of sins, but passions, which include many different vices.

20 ordeals of the soul after death:

Celebration. This category includes vain conversations, irrational laughter and songs. Lie. A person is subjected to these ordeals if he lies in confession and to other people, as well as if he pronounces his name in vain...

When the sacrament of death is performed and the soul is separated from the body, it (the soul) remains on earth for the first days and, accompanied by angels, visits those places in which it used to create truth. She wanders around the house in which she was separated from her body, and sometimes stays near the coffin in which her body rests. On the third day, every Christian soul is supposed to ascend to heaven to worship God.

On the third day, the body is consigned to the earth, and the soul must ascend to heaven: “and the dust will return to the earth, as it was, and the spirit will return to God, who gave it.”

If the soul has not known itself, has not fully realized itself here on earth, then, as a spiritual and moral being, it must, of necessity, realize itself beyond the grave; to realize what she had developed in herself, what she had adapted to, what sphere she was accustomed to, what constituted food and contentment for her. To become aware of oneself and thus carry out judgment on oneself before God’s judgment - this is what heavenly justice wants.

1. Trials

St. Theophan the Recluse explains the spiritual meaning of ordeals:

“What ordeals? - This is an image of a private court after death, at which the entire life of the dying person is reviewed with all sins and good deeds. Sins are recognized as atoned for by opposite good deeds or corresponding repentance.

Find “Cheti-Minei month March”. There, on the 26th, the passage of the ordeals of St. Elder Theodora is described. — All unjustified sinners who die in life undergo ordeal. Only perfect Christians do not linger at ordeals, but ascend straight to heaven like a bright streak.”

Saint John (Maximovich):

“The soul...continues to live, without ceasing its existence for a single moment. Through many manifestations of the dead we have been given partial knowledge of what happens to the soul when it leaves the body. When vision with the physical eyes ceases, spiritual vision begins.

...on leaving the body the soul finds itself among other spirits, good and evil. She usually reaches out to...

In the 19th century, Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, speaking about the state of the soul after death, wrote: “It should, however, be noted that, just as in general in the depiction of objects of the spiritual world, for us clothed in flesh, features that are more or less sensual, humanoid are inevitable, so , in particular, they are inevitably admitted in the detailed teaching about the ordeals that the human soul goes through when separated from the body. Therefore, we must firmly remember the instruction given by the angel Venerable. Macarius of Alexandria, as soon as he began to speak about ordeals: “Take earthly things here for the weakest image of heavenly ones.” It is necessary to imagine the ordeals not in a crude, sensual sense, but as much as is possible for us in the spiritual sense, and not get attached to the particulars that are given by different writers and in different legends of the Church itself, despite the unity of the basic thought about the ordeals.” These extremely significant words of the angel cannot in any way diminish when we come into contact with messages about that world. For…

Body and soul are one, however, the body is mortal, but the soul is not. When a person dies, his soul has to go through ordeals - a kind of exams. We'll tell you what these tests are and how long they last.

Those who have faced terrible grief - the death of a loved one, are probably interested in what happens next to the human soul, what path does it take and why are 40 days considered important? We will tell you about what trials the human soul faces, how long they last and how its final fate will be decided.

Living our earthly life, our body is one with our soul, however, when a person dies, his soul is separated. At the same time, this soul does not forget all the passions and habits, good and bad deeds, character and attachments that were formed over the years. And after death she has to answer for all her actions and actions.

40 days after death are the hardest for the human soul. In Orthodoxy this day is considered...

Soul after death: 3, 9, 40 days - what do these numbers mean? What can we do for the dead? We will talk about this in this article!

Soul after death: Chapter 10. Brief summary of Orthodox teaching on the posthumous fate of the soul

The soul after death: Chapter 1. Some aspects of modern experiments

The soul after death: Chapter 2. Orthodox teaching about angels

Soul after death: Chapter 3. Appearances of angels and demons at the hour of death

Soul after death: Chapter 4. Modern experience of “Heaven”

The soul after death: Chapter 5. The airy kingdom of spirits

Soul after death: Chapter 6. Air ordeals

Soul after death: Chapter 7. Experiences of “leaving the body” in occult literature

The Soul After Death: Chapter 8. Authentic Christian Experiences of Heaven

Soul after death: Chapter 9. The meaning of modern “posthumous” experiences

In the first nine chapters of this book we have attempted to set out some basic aspects of Orthodox Christian view for life after death...

ordeals

Ordeals are obstacles through which every soul must go through upon separation from the body on the way to the throne of God for private judgment; this is a test (conviction of sins) of the soul carried out in the air by evil spirits. The ordeal takes place on the third day after death.

Two angels lead the soul along this path. Each of the ordeals is controlled by demons - unclean spirits who try to take the soul going through the ordeal to hell. Demons provide a list of sins related to a given ordeal (a list of lies at the ordeal of lies, etc.), and angels provide good deeds committed by the soul during life.

There are 20 ordeals in total:

1. idle talk and foul language
2. lies
3. condemnation and slander
4. binge eating and drunkenness
5. laziness
6. theft
7. love of money and stinginess
8. covetousness
9. untruths and vanity
10. envy
11. pride
12. anger
13. rancor
14. robbery
15. sorcery, charm, poisoning...

Posthumous ordeals. A forty-day journey of the soul. Valentina Yakushina

I was born to the sound of bells. My parents' house located a few tens of meters from the huge temple, which today is included in the Golden Yaroslavl Ring. As a child, I woke up to the sound of the gospel sounding from the bell tower. I remember the blessed state of mind with which we left the church to the sound of the bells after Sunday service. In every room, including the kitchen, of our large house there was a red corner with large icons in gilded icon cases. In the evenings, my grandmother always gathered us, five grandchildren, for home prayer. I left the village (parental) house at the age of 16 to study in Yaroslavl. Then my life with God was interrupted. After all, I was studying to be a teacher, and this was a time when teachers were forbidden to believe in God. My childhood habits of praying, going to church, repenting, and taking communion disappeared from my life.
I worked in schools for more than 40 years. But, k...

2. Patristic testimony about aerial ordeals

“The teaching about ordeals is the teaching of the Church. There is no doubt that the holy Apostle Paul speaks of them when he proclaims that Christians must contend with the spirits of wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). We find this teaching in the most ancient church tradition and in church prayers” (p. 138).

Bishop Ignatius quotes many saints. Fathers who teach about ordeals. Here we quote some of them.
St. Athanasius the Great in his life of St. Anthony the Great describes how once St. Anthony

“at the arrival of the ninth hour, having begun to pray before eating food, he was suddenly caught up in the Spirit and lifted up by the Angels to a height. The air demons opposed his procession; The angels, arguing with them, demanded an explanation of the reasons for their opposition, because Anthony had no sins. The demons tried to expose the sins he had committed since birth; but the Angels stopped the mouths of the slanderers, telling them that they should not count his sins from...

Where does the soul go after death? What path does she take? Where are the souls of the deceased? Why are All Souls' Days important? These questions very often force a person to turn to the teachings of the Church. So what do we know about afterlife? “Thomas” tried to formulate answers according to the doctrine of the Orthodox Church to the most frequently asked questions about life after death.

What happens to the soul after death?

How exactly we relate to our future death, whether we wait for it to approach or, on the contrary, carefully erase it from consciousness, trying not to think about it at all, directly affects how we live our present life, on our perception of its meaning. A Christian believes that death as the complete and final disappearance of a person does not exist. According to Christian doctrine, we will all live forever, and immortality is the true goal of human life, and the day of death is at the same time the day of his birth for a new life. After the death of the body the soul...

Is there life after death? What happens to a person when he dies? Every person has asked these questions at least once during his life. Common sense undoubtedly assures us that there is life after death, and that the human soul is immortal! All people who have ever experienced clinical death tell approximately the same thing. In all cases, the consciousness of the deceased does not cease. The functions of the body and the organism as a whole cease, but consciousness not only does not die, but also acquires some special distinctness and clarity. All these people say that when their hearts stopped, they continued to be fully aware of what was happening. The person continues to see, feel and experience fear. At a certain moment, the deceased suddenly realizes that he sees himself as if from the outside, sees his body in a hospital bed, doctors trying to restore the activity of the heart, the whole ward. Help from psychics, video blogs and video tips on...

What happens to the soul after death: theories and hypotheses about where the human soul ends up

Sooner or later, every mortal thinks about the upcoming afterlife. Most people are terrified by the prospect. A detailed answer to the now popular question of what happens to the soul after death can be read below.

Structure of the Universe

The universe can be described as a structure consisting of three layers:

Reality. Physical world. Our current location. Correct. The world of the subtlest energy. Here a new soul is born. Nav. A certain layer between “Reality” and “Rule”. The soul that appears in “Rule” passes through this world and strives for “Reality”. The soul of the deceased travels this path in the opposite direction.

The path of the soul after the death of a person:

Death. The soul leaves the physical body. For some time, and we will describe this period in more detail below, the entity is in the world of Reality. Cleansing. The soul rises to Nav. In that high world cleansing is underway...

Tannarh
TRIALS OF THE SOUL
(Compilation from various sources) IntroductionWorks of the Holy FathersOther sourcesAfterword

No matter how wild the thought of ordeals may seem to smart people, going through them cannot be avoided.

Feofan the Recluse

Introduction

Death of Saint Theodora
and visions of the ordeals of the soul. XIX century

According to Macarius of Alexandria, during the first two days after death the soul still remains on earth and, accompanied by angels, visits its familiar places. And only on the third day does she ascend to heaven to worship God. On this day, which is called tretina, they commemorate the deceased, pray for his soul (serve a memorial service) and bury him. On the same day, the soul will have to go through the so-called “ordeal” - fallen spirits (“publicans”) try to intercept the soul ascending to God, convicting it of committed (and imperfect) sins. And everyone has many sins - idle talk, lies, slander, gluttony, laziness, theft, greed, envy, arrogance, malice, murder,...

In this fallen world, the habitat of demons, the place where the souls of the newly departed meet them, is the air. Bishop Ignatius further describes this kingdom, which must be clearly understood in order to fully understand modern “posthumous” experiences.

“The Holy Apostle Paul calls the fallen angels spirits of wickedness in high places (Eph. VI, 12), and their head the prince of the power of the air (Eph. II, 2). Fallen angels are scattered in multitudes throughout the transparent abyss that we see above us. They do not cease to outrage all human societies and each individual individually; there is no atrocity, there is no crime in which they would not be the instigators and participants; they incline and teach a person to sin by all kinds of means. Your adversary...

What are ordeals?

In the 19th century, Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, speaking about the state of the soul after death, wrote: “It should, however, be noted that, just as in general in the depiction of objects of the spiritual world, for us clothed in flesh, features that are more or less sensual, humanoid are inevitable, so , in particular, they are inevitably admitted in the detailed teaching about the ordeals that the human soul goes through when separated from the body. Therefore, we must firmly remember the instruction given by the angel Venerable. Macarius of Alexandria, as soon as he began to speak about ordeals: “Take earthly things here for the weakest image of heavenly ones.” It is necessary to imagine the ordeals not in a crude, sensual sense, but as much as is possible for us in the spiritual sense, and not get attached to the particulars that are given by different writers and in different legends of the Church itself, despite the unity of the basic thought about the ordeals.” These extremely significant words of the angel cannot in any way diminish when we come into contact with...

Even science confirms that life after death exists. But what then awaits us beyond the grave? What are ordeals? What are these, some kind of customs points? What tests must a person go through to get to heaven? What sins will you have to answer for there? What can you take with you to another world?

Imagine that you are going abroad. For example, you have long dreamed of seeing the ocean. You already imagine the Cote d'Azur, the gentle sun, the sound of waves and the singing of seagulls. But wait, it's not that simple! Before the plane takes you to the pictured paradise, you need to apply for a visa, go through all customs... But even all these procedures do not overshadow the beauty of what you have to see and comprehend.

Death is like a journey abroad

Certainly, Orthodox teaching air ordeals can hardly be called preparation for a vacation abroad.

But still, some parallels will help to better understand the depth of this concept.

Death in a peculiar understanding is...

The other world is very interesting topic, which everyone thinks about at least once in their life. What happens to a person and his soul after death? Can he observe living people? These and many questions cannot but worry us. The most interesting thing is that there are many different theories about what happens to a person after death. Let's try to understand them and answer the questions that concern many people.

“Your body will die, but your soul will live forever”

Bishop Theophan the Recluse addressed these words in his letter to his dying sister. He, like other Orthodox priests, believed that only the body dies, but the soul lives forever. What is this connected with and how does religion explain it?

The Orthodox teaching about life after death is too large and voluminous, so we will consider only some of its aspects. First of all, in order to understand what happens to a person and his soul after death, it is necessary to find out what the purpose of all life on earth is. IN…

According to Christian beliefs, after death a person continues to live, but in a different capacity. His spirit, having left the physical shell, begins its path to God. What is ordeal, where does the soul go after death, should it fly away and what happens to it after separation from the body? After death, the spirit of the deceased is tested by trials. In Christian culture they are called “ordeal.” There are twenty of them in total, each more complex than the previous one, depending on the sins committed by a person during his lifetime. After this, the spirit of the deceased goes to Heaven or is cast into the Underworld.

Is there life after death

Two topics that will always be discussed are life and death. Since the creation of the world, philosophers, literary figures, doctors, and prophets have been arguing about what happens to the soul when it leaves the human body. What happens after death and is there life at all after the spirit leaves the physical shell? It just so happens that a person will always think about these burning topics in order to know the truth - turn to the Christian religion or other teachings.

What happens to a person when he dies

Having passed your life path, the person dies. From the physiological side, this is the process of stopping all systems and processes of the body: brain activity, breathing, digestion. Proteins and other substrates of life decompose. Approaching death also affects a person's emotional state. There is a change in the emotional background: loss of interest in everything, isolation, isolation from contacts with outside world, talk about imminent death, hallucinations (past and present are mixed).

What happens to the soul after death

The question of where the soul goes after death is always interpreted differently. However, the clergy are unanimous in one thing: after a complete cardiac arrest, a person continues to live in a new status. Christians believe that the spirit of the departed, who lived a righteous life, is transferred by angels to Paradise, while the sinner is destined to go to Hell. The deceased needs prayers that will save him from eternal torment, help the spirit pass tests and get to Paradise. The prayers of loved ones, not tears, can work miracles.

Christian doctrine says that man will live forever. Where does the soul go after a person dies? His spirit goes to the kingdom of heaven to meet the Father. This path is very difficult and depends on how a person lived his life. worldly life. Many clergy perceive their departure not as a tragedy, but as a long-awaited meeting with God.

Third day after death

For the first two days, the spirits of the dead fly around the earth. This is the period when they are close to their body, to their home, wander through places dear to them, say goodbye to their relatives, and end their earthly existence. Not only angels, but also demons are nearby at this time. They are trying to win her over to their side. On the third day, the ordeal of the soul begins after death. This is the time to worship the Lord. Relatives and friends should pray. Prayers are performed in honor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

On day 9

Where does a person go after death on the 9th day? After the 3rd day, the Angel accompanies the spirit to the gates of Paradise so that he can see all the beauty of the heavenly abode. Immortal souls stay there for six days. They temporarily forget the sadness of leaving their body. While enjoying the sight of beauty, the soul, if it has sins, must repent. If this does not happen, then she will be in hell. On the 9th day, the Angels again present the soul to the Lord.

At this time, the church and relatives perform a prayer service for the deceased with a request for mercy. Commemorations are held in honor of 9 angelic ranks, who are protectors during the Last Judgment and servants of the Almighty. For the deceased, the “burden” is no longer so heavy, but very important, because the Lord uses it to determine the future path of the spirit. Relatives remember only good things about the deceased and behave very calmly and quietly.

There are certain traditions that help the spirit of the departed. They symbolize eternal life. At this time, relatives:

They perform a prayer service in the church for the repose of the spirit.
At home they cook kutya from wheat seeds. It is mixed with sweets: honey or sugar. Seeds are reincarnation. Honey or sugar is a sweet life in another world, helping to avoid a difficult afterlife.

On day 40

The number “40” can be found very often in the pages of the Holy Scriptures. Jesus Christ ascended to the Father on the fortieth day. For the Orthodox Church, this became the basis for organizing commemorations of the deceased on the fortieth day after death. Catholic Church does this on the thirtieth day. However, the meaning of all events is the same: the soul of the deceased ascended to the holy Mount Sinai and achieved bliss.

After the spirit is reintroduced before the Lord on the 9th day by the Angels, it goes to Hell, where it sees the souls of sinners. The spirit remains in the Underworld until the 40th day, and appears before God for the third time. This is the period when a person’s fate is determined by his earthly affairs. In posthumous fate, it is important that the soul repents of everything it has done and prepares for the future correct life. Remembrances atone for the sins of the deceased. For later resurrection of the dead What matters is how the spirit passes through purgatory.

Six months

Where does the soul go after death six months later? The Almighty has decided future fate the spirit of a deceased person, it is no longer possible to change anything. You can't sob and cry. This will only harm the soul and cause severe torment. However, relatives can help and ease the fate with prayers and remembrances. It is necessary to pray, calming the soul, showing it the right path. Six months later the spirit last time comes to relatives.

Anniversary

It is important to remember the anniversary of death. Prayers performed before this time helped determine where the soul would go after death. A year after death, relatives and friends perform a prayer service in the temple. You can simply remember the deceased from a heartfelt heart if it is not possible to attend church. On this day, souls come to their families for the last time to say goodbye, then a new body awaits them. For a believer, a righteous person, the anniversary gives a start to a new one, eternal life. The annual circle is the liturgical cycle after which all holidays are permitted.

Where does the soul go after death?

There are several versions of where people live after death. Astrologers believe that the immortal soul ends up in space, where it settles on other planets. According to another version, she floats in upper layers atmosphere. The emotions that a spirit experiences influence whether it ends up on highest level(Heaven) or lower (Hell). In the Buddhist religion it is said that having found eternal peace, a person’s spirit moves into another body.

Mediums and psychics claim that the soul is connected with the other world. It often happens that after death she remains close to loved ones. Spirits who have not finished their work appear in the form of ghosts, astral bodies, phantoms. Some protect their relatives, others want to punish their offenders. They contact the living through knocks, sounds, the movement of things, and the short-term appearance of themselves in visible form.

In the Vedas, scriptures Earth, it is said that after leaving the body, souls pass through tunnels. Many people who have experienced clinical death describe them as channels in their own body. There are 9 of them in total: ears, eyes, mouth, nostrils (separately left and right), anus, genitals, crown, navel. It was believed that if the spirit came out of the left nostril, it went to the moon, from the right - to the sun, through the navel - to other planets, through the mouth - to the earth, through the genitals - to the lower layers of existence.

Souls of dead people

As soon as the souls of deceased people leave their physical shells, they do not immediately understand that they are in subtle body. At first, the spirit of the deceased floats in the air, and only when he sees his body does he realize that he has separated from it. The qualities of a deceased person during life determine his emotions after death. Thoughts and feelings, character traits do not change, but become open to the Almighty.

Soul of a child

It is believed that a child who dies before the age of 14 immediately goes to the First Heaven. The child has not yet reached the age of desires and is not responsible for actions. The child remembers his past incarnations. The First Heaven is the place where the soul awaits rebirth. A deceased child is awaited by a deceased relative or a person who loved children very much during his lifetime. He meets the child immediately after the hour of death and escorts him to the waiting place.

In the First Heaven, a child has everything he wants, his life resembles great game, he learns goodness, receives visual lessons on how evil deeds affect a person. All emotions and knowledge remain in the baby’s memory even after rebirth. People who live nobly in ordinary life are believed to owe these lessons learned and experiences in First Heaven.

Soul of a Suicidal Man

Any teaching and belief states that a person does not have the right to take his own life. The actions of any suicide are dictated by Satan. After death, the soul of a suicided person strives for Paradise, the gates of which are closed to it. The spirit is forced to return, but it cannot find its body. The ordeal lasts until the time of natural death. Then the Lord makes a decision according to his soul. Previously people Those who committed suicide were not buried in the cemetery; suicide items were destroyed.

Animal souls

The Bible says that everything has a soul, but “they are taken from dust and will return to dust.” Confessors sometimes agree that some pets are capable of transformation, but it is impossible to say exactly where the animal’s soul ends up after death. It is given and taken away by the Lord himself; the soul of an animal is not eternal. However, Jews believe that it is equal to human meat, so there are various prohibitions on eating meat.

Video

I was born to the sound of bells. My parents' house is located a few tens of meters from a huge temple, which today is included in the Golden Yaroslavl Ring. As a child, I woke up to the sound of the gospel sounding from the bell tower. I remember the blessed state of mind with which we left the church to the sound of the bells after Sunday service. In every room, including the kitchen, of our large house there was a red corner with large icons in gilded icon cases. In the evenings, my grandmother always gathered us, five grandchildren, for home prayer. I left the village (parental) house at the age of 16 to study in Yaroslavl. Then my life with God was interrupted. After all, I was studying to be a teacher, and this was a time when teachers were forbidden to believe in God. My childhood habits of praying, going to church, repenting, and taking communion disappeared from my life.
I worked in schools for more than 40 years. But, unfortunately, far from God. I was devoted to the country, not to God. That’s why I didn’t instruct my students or my own children. God's rules, did not teach me how to live like a church. We had a different faith then. Patristic literature came into my life when I had already retired. My younger son, and then my grandson often brought me books from churches. Now that my end is approaching, I increasingly wonder if I lived my life correctly. In church literature there are many indications of what awaits all of us after death. I thought this information would be useful for those working in the funeral industry. I decided to write an essay like a schoolgirl, as I once did, which I propose below.
Following Orthodox tradition, the burial and first commemoration of the deceased takes place on the third day after death. The next commemorations occur on the ninth and fortieth days. Why is this happening?
According to the teaching Orthodox Church, in the first three days the soul is allowed to fly around all the places on earth, which are dear to it, where it felt good, where it did good deeds. Therefore, the funeral service and funeral follow only on the third day, and the soul moves into other spheres. On this day, the first commemoration occurs, because, starting from this day, she goes through ordeals - tests of the soul until her fate is decided at the Last Judgment. These tests consist of meeting with demons, whose will a person fulfilled during his life on earth, when he committed his sins. The spatial zone of these meetings is between earth and heaven, where the soul moves, and where it is periodically stopped and interrogated about certain sins by “spirits of wickedness in high places.” It is curious that one of the meanings of the word “ordeal” is “places where duties are collected,” otherwise known as “customs.” Thus, we can say that just as customs puts a barrier to the smuggling of smuggled goods across the border, so the ordeals put a barrier to the entry of souls burdened with sins into the Kingdom of Heaven. During the ordeal, the duty for earthly human sins is collected in full. Christian sources speak of different quantities ordeals: from twenty to thirty or more. According to the teachings of the church, there are twenty of them. We'll talk about them.
Mental illnesses - sins - are imprinted on the soul, and it, being unhealthy as a result, is no longer able to really perceive the phenomena of the surrounding world. Just as a physically ill person cannot work normally, so a soul with an illness cannot live correctly and understand the processes of life. For this reason, a person makes a huge number of mistakes in his life and is not even able to see them. Committing sins, he seems to be in a “spiritual fever.” And only when going to heaven after death, going through ordeals, the soul becomes “sighted.” Here is a list of mental illnesses that, during ordeals, are imputed to the soul as sins, including minor ones.
FIRST ORDERAL - CELEBRATION AND FOLLOWING
At this ordeal there is an answer for foul language - speech filled with obscene words; blasphemy - an offensive attitude towards any shrine; desecration - desecration of something that is sacred to others; disorderly behavior - unsteady, obscene, unceremonious behavior; listening to anecdotes, witticisms, stupid jokes in relation to God and the church; listening, watching, reading negative: literature, television, video, radio programs.
SECOND ORDERAL - Slander
At this ordeal, spirits torture the soul for false promises; perjury - giving false or distorted testimony; hypocrisy - insincerity, ill will; flattery - obsequious praise covering up insincerity; betrayal.
TRIAL THIRD - RESULTS AND UNTRUTHS
Here the spirits of malice find out whether the soul has been noticed in humiliation - oppression by insults or belittling of its abilities; condemnation - disapproving opinion, censure; rudeness - lack of culture, discourtesy; indelicacy.
FOURTH ORDERAL - EMBRACE
Here they are tortured for gluttony - pleasing one's stomach to the detriment of the spirit and soul; drunkenness - constant and excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages; alcoholism - morbid attraction, addiction to alcohol; smoking; drug addiction - an irresistible attraction to drugs; uncleanliness - dirt, sloppiness; intemperance - lack of desire or ability to limit oneself in something; long-suffering - lack of long-suffering when you have to endure something for a long time; whim - capricious desire, whim.
FIFTH ORDERAL - PRIDE
During it, sinners are tortured for not working on their spiritual development; inertia of thinking - insusceptibility to new things, backwardness; negligence - a careless attitude towards one's duties; carelessness - a manifestation of carelessness; idleness is an insignificant activity that does not yield anything; laziness - lack of desire to act, work, love of inaction; killing time; killing an idea; life in vain.
SIXTH ORDERAL - THEFT
Here comes the answer for the sins of theft - the criminal appropriation of someone else's property; robbery - violent theft of someone else's property.
SEVENTH ORDERAL - LOVE OF AMERY
This is the ordeal of love of money - greed for money, wealth, stinginess, love for gifts; speculation - buying and reselling valuables for the purpose of profit.
THE EIGHTH ORDERAL - BRIBERY
It is responsible for extortion - bribery, usury, flattery.
THE NINTH ORDERAL - BRIBERY
Here one is held accountable for the incorrect use of power or measure; committing extortion or any injustice.
TENTH ORDERAL - ENVY
Next, the soul reaches the tenth ordeal, where they are tortured for jealousy - painful doubt about someone's fidelity or love; envy; unfriendliness.
ORDERAL ELEVENTH - VANITY
Demons accuse a soul that has reached the eleventh stage of vanity - arrogant arrogance, love of fame, veneration; megalomania - a painful exaltation of one's abilities; stubbornness - extreme intransigence, the desire to get one's way; egoism - preferring one's personal interests to the interests of others; stupidity - thoughts, words, actions devoid of reasonable content; disrespect for traditions; oblivion - loss of memory about something, neglect of something; disrespect for parents.
TWELFTH ORDERAL - ANGRY
The souls of sinners are tortured for anger - a feeling of strong indignation, indignation; irritability; hatred - a feeling of strong disgust, reluctance to see; enmity - actions imbued with hatred; anger - a feeling of angry irritation; gloat; ignorance; impudence.
THIRTEENTH ORDINARY - GREAT REMEMBER
At it, the souls of those who are vindictive are interrogated - those who have not forgiven the harm caused; touchy; vindictive - those who wanted to take revenge for the grievances caused; sowing discord and division.
The following ordeals are the most complex and difficult to pass, because here the most serious human sins are called to account.
FOURTEENTH ORDERAL - ROBBERY
So, the fourteenth stage is the ordeal of self-mutilation - injuring someone or oneself; beatings; intentional poisoning; assassination attempts - attempts to take the life of another person or oneself; murder of love for God and neighbors; deliberate abortion.
FIFTEENTH ORDERAL - MAGIC
This is the ordeal of spiritualism - the mystical belief in the possibility of communication with the souls of the dead; fortune telling - recognizing the past or future using various techniques; gambling - strong excitement, enthusiasm, passion.
SIXTEENTH ORDERAL - FORMARRY
It tortures those souls who in earthly life were engaged in fornication without being bound by the sacraments of marriage; committed the sin of incitement; temptation; shamelessness - contradictions of public morality, indecent behavior; debauchery - sexual immorality, vicious lifestyle; vulgarity; passions. The prince of this ordeal is dressed in stinking clothes, sprinkled with bloody foam, which were made for him by the shameful and nasty deeds of those who indulged in these sins on earth.
SEVENTEENTH ORDERAL - ADULTERY
Those who did not maintain marital fidelity both in reality and in dreams are tortured; committed fornication and kidnappings; as well as those who promised their purity to Christ, but broke the vow.
THE EIGHTEENTH ORDERAL - SODOMA
Here they hold the answer for the sin of sexual perversion.
NINETEENTH ORDERAL - IDOLATRY
Or the ordeal of heresy. Here they are tortured for selfishness - actions carried out without God's blessing; misunderstanding of one's purpose on earth; blasphemy - defamation of the name of God, God's works and creations, insult of church relics; lack of faith; superstition is a prejudice due to which many things that happen seem to be a manifestation of supernatural forces; fear; loss of will; suspiciousness; despair; weakness - insufficient consistency in one’s movement towards God; delusion - false ideas that lead away from the true path, from God; blind trust; murmur; despondency; cowardice; discontent.
THE TWENTIETH ORDERAL - UNMERCEFULNESS AND CRUELTY
The last, twentieth ordeal of no mercy may turn out to be completely impassable. The list of sins here includes: callousness - a heartless attitude; silent cry - a timid call that does not express one’s opinion, as well as a refusal of help and attention to someone in need; cruelty; turning a wake for the dead into an ordinary drunken feast. The main spirit of this ordeal is dry and sad, as if after a long illness, he cries, sobs and breathes the fire of unmercifulness.
Until the ninth day, the soul visits the heavenly abodes and admires the beauties of paradise. On the ninth day, the commemoration is performed again, because from this moment until the end of the forty-day period, the torment and horrors of hell are shown to the soul, which still does not know where it will end up.
The souls of saints who have accepted martyrdom. They immediately go to heaven. In the Orthodox lives of saints one can find many stories about how the soul after death goes through ordeals. The story of the warrior Taxiot tells how he returned to life after spending six hours in the grave, and told about his meetings with the spirits of evil: “When I was dying, I saw some Ethiopians (demons - author’s note), their appearance was very scary, and my soul was confused. Then I saw two young men, very handsome; my soul rushed to them. We began to rise to heaven, meeting on the way the ordeals that hold the soul of every person.” Going through ordeals becomes especially difficult not only because a person is sinful by nature, but also because demons try to add sins not committed to the sins they have committed. After all, it is very important for them to get a human soul. But the soul is not alone in its encounters with demons. She is accompanied by angels. They weigh sins and good deeds on the scales, and if the latter outweigh, the soul goes through ordeal. In addition, the angels take out gifts and give evil spirits as ransom. These gifts are those good deeds that the soul did while on earth, repentance for sins committed, as well as the prayers of the Church and loved ones. Therefore, commemoration is very important, because only the love and good memory of those left on earth will help the soul of the deceased to withstand torture and go through all the ordeals. Only on the fortieth day will she be assigned a place where she will await the resurrection of the dead and the Last Judgment. Many souls are in fear and confusion at the moment of waiting. It is possible to change their condition through prayers and remembrance, which is performed within forty days. Observing Orthodox traditions burials and commemorations, we help the souls of deceased relatives and friends on their difficult journey until they find an eternal home.

Valentina YAKUSHINA

References
The ordeal of St. Theodora. Comp. Abbot Anthony, “The Ladder.”
Life, illness, death. Metropolitan Sourozhsky Anthony, Sergiev Posad.
About death and afterlife. "Diopter".
Afterlife. "Danilovsky Blagovestnik"
Soul after death. Seraphim Rose. "Royal Affair"
A word about death. "Sofia's Rays".
The afterlife or the final fate of a person. Tikhomirov E. “Father's House.”
How our dead live and how we will live after death. Monk Mitrofan. "Orthodox Brotherhood of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian."
Secrets of the underworld. Archimandrite Panteleimon. "Blagovest".
A word about death. Brianchaninov. "Lepta-press".
The secret life of the soul after physical death. St. Gregory (Dyachenko). "Orthodox Brotherhood in the Name of the Exaltation of Chestnago Life-giving Cross The Lord's."
Afterlife in the light. Revealed teachings. St. George Orlov. "Pilgrim".

Read the full version of the material in the printed version of the magazine

Diagnostics and diseases. Medicines from A to Z

Posthumous ordeals of the soul and the terrible judgment of God. The ordeals that the human soul goes through after death

Death and the Christian

The first days after leaving

Where does the human spirit go after life?

ordeals

Memorial Days

What ordeals does the soul go through after death?

Soul after death: Chapter 10. Brief summary of Orthodox teaching on the posthumous fate of the soul

ordeals

What happens to the soul after death?

Structure of the Universe

Introduction

Death is like a journey abroad

“Your body will die, but your soul will live forever”

Is there life after death

What happens to a person when he dies

What happens to the soul after death

Third day after death

On day 9

On day 40

Six months

Anniversary

Where does the soul go after death?

Souls of dead people

Soul of a child

Soul of a Suicidal Man

Animal souls

Video