Destroying Lust & Desire by Shadowysweetspaper

Writer: Shadowysweetspaper

Subject: Destroying Lust & Desire

Link: Tumblr / 26.01.2025

Destroying Lust & Desire

The Idiot Practice of Applying Personal Pain to Rid One’s Self of What Can’t Be …

An interesting topic which comes to mind again in response to a query from my daughter who is reading about Martin Luther and his seeking spiritual closeness and admiring the Duke of Anholt, who had become a self-denying ascetic monk who battered his body to keep from sinning … doing so to quell any lust and desire which is impossible to accomplish because lust and desire are with us as long as we live because it is inherent in our creation.

The flagellum was a whip used by monks and others to whip themselves, similar to what is seen in the illustration, to suppress their sinful desires and to deal with sin within them. There was and is this idea that the body is somehow separate from the soul. I take issue with that theology because if the Christian Almighty made us, why would he create us condemned from the beginning — I don’t doubt there is a creator — that is my opinion, however.

I see Him as the Dark Lord, a point one can readily see if they read my other articles about how I see “Satan” — nonetheless — in the early church and up until today the practice survives tho the whip may not.

If one watches the movie “The DaVinci Code,” one will witness a brother wearing a painful apparatus around his thigh which he wore to help him deal with sin as he strove to overcome feelings of sin. Another movie is, “The Name of the Rose”, starring Sean Connery, where there is a scene where a monk is whipping himself as part of his devotions.

The ascetics were admired for their willingness to torture their bodies to deal with if not try to rid themselves of what was called “Inbred sin”. Hermits and anchorites are examples. One immensely admired ascetic was St Simon Stylites who was known for sitting on the top of tall columns to be closer to heaven while almost naked in all kinds of weather and eating little to punish his body seeking what couldn’t and can’t be achieved.

We do that today but the punishment is pretty much mental … a Christian can go through the motions where they pray for forgiveness while trying to live in a manner which doesn’t violate the moral code. However, sin continues, it is an ongoing battle and in our minds, the believer is constantly confronted with the reality that she or he is striving to achieve the impossible. Of course, there are Christians and theologians who will challenge how I express this fruitless goal.

How often do we find we are, ‘Whipping ourselves,” trying to overcome what we are told is a sin when lust and desire can’t be avoided because of the way we are? And persons engage in asceticism in any number of ways, not in the sense of whipping ourselves as such. However, we can deny ourselves in some way where we are trying to do just that.

I’m not going to write an in-depth treatise about asceticism and flagellation and this whole theology surrounded by denial when it comes to things sensual and sexual and how the human body responds. We feel and we think. These can’t be denied so are they wrong? It’s easy to sin in thought all the time much less in deed.

All one has to do is see a handsome hunk and, voila!, we sin. And then there is the issue — what is sin? — How does Heaven feel about sin? How do we define it? How do we deal with it? Does this change over time?

This topic can go on forever and much is written about it online. And from all manner of perspectives, I refer myself and others to explore the topic beyond what I have shared here. Hopefully, this is helpful. Forgive the usual flaws in this effort. Some will say the illustration should have had a monk rather than a nude. I’m female so it’s my blog thus my choice.

The Dark Lord doesn’t demand I indulge in a type of Holy BDSM to experience the right relationship with Him. Why should He? or the Christian Almighty if He created us as we are ? We can’t destroy how we are and live. Think about it.