Real flowers are designed to bring happiness to the house. However, what does folk wisdom about if synthetic plants appear in the house? It turns out that signs about artificial flowers are not at all positive. But what is the reason for such a dislike for unfading plants? After all, even a willow on Palm Sunday It is customary to decorate with a sprig of artificial flowers, and then keep the icon for the whole year.
Pros and cons for artificial plants
Many people try to buy artificial flowers for their home, as they do not want to constantly spend money on natural ones. Or those who want to enjoy the unfading beauty, tend to acquire unnatural colors.
Today, many facts about artificial flowers are known. So, according to historical sources, even in ancient Egypt they began to make bouquets from unnatural inflorescences. Also, evidence of clay and porcelain plants can be found in ancient Chinese scrolls. Flower figurines made of papyrus were worn by girls as decorations.
According to the traditions of Feng Shui, it is advised to put a red or orange flower in the apartment to activate the special energy "chi". Many sources mention, they say, the flower must certainly be alive, but this is a myth. For Feng Shui, there is no difference: a live flower or not, the main thing is its color.
There is a church tradition to decorate a church church with artificial flowers for the holidays: why is it bad for a person that is good for God?
There is only one minus, but a serious one: artificial flowers are firmly associated with the cemetery, its dark energy of death. And an impressionable person will feel himself in his native walls, like at the grave, constantly bumping his eyes at dead plants.
People say "No!" to dead flowers.
As you can see, such decoration of premises is widely practiced in everyday life, but what do folk signs say about this? It turns out that artificial flowers in the house, as signs, are not so good. Our ancestors tried not to have them in their homes at all, endowing plastic and fabric inflorescences in beliefs with dead energy. According to them, the emptiness hidden in their lovely buds fills itself with positive trends that exist in the house.
Ask any old woman: is it possible to give artificial flowers? She will answer: no way! They cannot be given or accepted as a gift. If such flowers are given, this can cause illness or major troubles, since with such flowers the negative energy of the one who gives them is transmitted.
At one time, it was popular to keep artificial reeds in the house. But according to legend, this promises lingering ailments to all the inhabitants of such a dwelling.
An inanimate plant in the matrimonial bedroom will cause the separation of loved ones.
And if it is in the bedroom of a man or girl without a partner, then they will be alone until it is removed. At least, so categorically asserts folk wisdom.
Wax candles in the form of flowers bring death to their owners. You should get rid of them as soon as possible so as not to cause misfortune. But ivy fell into special disgrace. And this living plant is not very good for the home, and even artificial, according to signs, is fraught with mortal danger for the owner, entangling, like a web, everything bright and good that could come into his life.
What if you really, really want to?
It is impossible to give a definite answer to this question. There is another sign that answers many questions: everyone will be rewarded according to faith. If you believe that an unnatural plant will cause you misfortune, get rid of it. If on the contrary, you think that you will get a lot of benefits - please use its power on health. So choose what to believe.
Artificial flowers are very popular in offices, shops, various salons, as they retain their original appearance and do not need care.
There are many signs regarding the house and things in it. People are interested in the favorable arrangement of mirrors, furniture, beliefs about icons, food products. Also, one of the pressing questions is the following: "Is it possible to keep artificial flowers at home?".
What is the power of belief?
Fresh flowers radiate warmth, give inspiration, help people, while artificial ones are only an appearance. Empty inside, they absorb all living things from the outside, like nourishment.
When a person is delighted with the beauty of a living plant, it responds to him with its warmth, reacts with the opening of petals and lush growth. A flower, made by its perfection, will every time attract the eye and cause a tide. positive emotions but will give nothing in return. Establishing an exchange in this case is like resurrecting the dead.
Any imitation at the energy level emphasizes the inconsistency with the desired. The scarcity of money makes people buy fakes for any expensive items: jewelry, gems, fashion product brands made to look like natural ones. But false prosperity is unsatisfactory, it is poverty. And this is its negative energy meaning: it triggers the attraction of everything that is not real into life.
What to follow?
There are related forms of home decor that are not uniquely colors. For example, fabric paintings with embossed elements, as a fashionable design trend. And preferring such a finish, you need to decide for yourself whether it is possible to keep artificial flowers of this variety at home. Or it is necessary to compensate for the negative factor with living plants.
Is it possible to keep artificial flowers at home according to Feng Shui? Ancient Chinese teaching focuses on the color, not the life of the flower. A red or orange object must be present to activate qi. According to Eastern sages, artificial flower- a symbol of loneliness.
At Christmas time, the temple is decorated with inanimate decor. The question arises why it is impossible to put artificial flowers at home, if this is acceptable in the church? The answer is simple: the image of inanimate jewelry is associated with ritual ceremonies, so decorating the home space with them is considered unfavorable.
What happens in a well-off home?
In a family where joy radiates, love is present, artificial flowers for home interiors take on positive energy, become consumers of the good manifestation of residents, leaving nothing in return.
If at first they were used in a bad house, and then they got to another owner, they are able to give off negativity and poison the home atmosphere. Thus, a source of "unclean power" appears.
According to signs and superstitions, artificial flowers in the house do the most harm in the bedroom. For a couple resting in such a room, they portend a separation. For a lonely person, they increase the feeling of emptiness and disappointment, and his personal relationship will not take place.
"Bad" houses
How good or bad are artificial flowers in a house where scandals and quarrels are frequent? In fact, for a dysfunctional home with a gloomy atmosphere, absorbent and cleansing "funnel" is very useful.
Just do not leave them for a long time, so that the absorbed energy does not begin to return. There comes a moment when jewelry is not able to absorb more negativity. After a month, they need to be removed from the house. But if you don’t want to part with the “beauty”, you should apply the energy purification of objects so that you can keep them with you.
Dangerous Jewelry
Kinds of popular artificial plants at home:
- A frequent preference of modern housewives is ivy or climbing plants on the walls. Such decorations are categorically not recommended in the living space: they attract diseases to the owner of the house.
- Synthetic reed is the most unfavorable type of plant for the home, as it provokes serious diseases. Ivy has the same effect.
- Is it possible to keep wax at home? It is undesirable to store them in a residential area. It is believed that sooner or later even candles in the form of flowers will lead to death.
According to beliefs, one should not accept artificial flowers for home interior as a gift, especially from unfamiliar people, because through them negative energy can be transmitted and affect the state of the owner. Such gizmos have long been used by ill-wishers to convey the evil eye, slander, and get rid of the disease.
Energetic flower cleaning
It is necessary to collect all the flowers and place them in a vase on an empty table. Light twelve candles around the vase, placing them at equal intervals. It is necessary to prepare a red thread, holy water and light candles. Moving clockwise, you should pronounce words like these: "Flowers gather evil in a circle, do not return it back, destroy all evil with fire."
Candles must burn out themselves, flowers must be removed from the vase, tied with red thread, put back, sprinkled with holy water. Such energy cleansing is enough once every six months.
Alternative
According to popular beliefs, an acceptable option is dried flowers. But they should not be wilted or dead, but must be carefully dried and presented in the form of a composition.
It was not in vain that the peasant custom was so widespread to hang dry wreaths and bunches of field plants in the house. They have been successfully used as amulets. There were also undesirable types of flowers: feather grass, for example, took strength from the head of the family, for which he received the second name "widow grass".
If, despite beliefs and signs, the choice still fell on artificial flowers, shades close to natural should be preferred: they look nobler than "acid". It will be better if the flowers are made of silk or cotton than polyurethane or latex. And so that the decorations do not lose their bright color, you should not place them on windows under direct sunlight. You can carefully remove dust from the petals and stems with a jet of water, a brush or a hairdryer.
Is it possible to keep artificial flowers in the apartment? How do artificial flowers affect the energy of an apartment or house?
Decorating the interior with artificial flowers is just an imitation of the life of rich people, an ornament for the poor. They will not spoil the energy of the home, but will be another block on the path to prosperity. Do you want to know why?
The letter received from a reader of my site contained a short question, to which I first wrote, there was an equally short answer. But a little later I expanded my answer. And some time later I decided that this topic requires even deeper consideration, so now you are reading my new article, which may make you reconsider your attitude to some everyday things.
The question is: " Vladimir Petrovich! How do you feel about artificial flowers in the apartment? Now they look almost lifelike. Is it also possible to decorate the bathroom with shells from the sea and stones, doesn’t it bring heavy energy?"
There are no complaints about sea stones and shells, therefore, further discussion will not be about them. But artificial flowers - that's another topic. Are you asking how I feel about artificial flowers? My attitude to everything "unreal" is negative. I don't like artificial flowers. As well as inflatable rubber women, polyurethane and foam elements of decor, plastic "wood-like" inserts in cars and all sorts of other imitations and props.
Somehow I already wrote that ladies who acquire fakes for expensive things (bags "like Louis Vuitton", scarves like Burberry, etc.) continue to attract into their lives only all sorts of fakes and cheap things. Because it is not so harmless deception. Such is the law of attraction. I quote myself: “Very expensive “status” items, so loved by rich people, have the energy of wealth and attract even more money, wealth and luxury to their owners. But cheap fakes for such things attract even more fakes and “cheap things” to their owners. ". Everything that surrounds us shares its energy with us. If this energy is positive, we will have best quality life, better health and more material fortune. And vice versa".
I recommend that you pay attention to my article: "HOW TO IMPROVE THE ENERGY OF A HOUSE OR APARTMENT", which highlights many facets of the topic under consideration. In particular, in it I cited the following quote from the etiquette guide: "Avoid buying fakes" for luxury "for decoration. They look like tasteless props. In any apartment there will be completely inappropriate cheap works by mediocre artists and poorly executed copies of famous paintings. Do not clutter up the apartment low-grade products made of bronze and plaster, various-sized figurines and trifles. If you don’t have the means to have two or three real things, it’s better to do without them altogether "
It should not be overlooked that decorating the interior with artificial flowers is only an imitation of the life of rich people, in whose houses there are usually arrangements of fresh fresh flowers (remember "Dynasty" and similar television series?). As well as in expensive hotels and restaurants, artificial flowers cannot be - this is a frank bad manners. Artificial flowers do not have any negative energy by themselves. Just accept the harsh truth: it is an ornament for the poor. There are things that symbolize wealth. And there are things that symbolize mediocrity. Artificial flowers definitely belong to the second group. And if you personally do not have any obvious desire to improve the quality of your life, you can put in a vase that imitates expensive Chinese porcelain, plastic products that imitate fresh flowers. Such a campaign will not spoil the energy of the home, but will be another block on the path to prosperity. Unless, of course, this path is relevant for you.
Prot. Andrey Tkachev: - Greetings, dear radio listeners! Live at the microphone Archpriest Andrey Tkachev. I arrived at the studio and there was a note waiting on my desk asking for prayer and four quick questions.
First question. Is it possible to keep artificial flowers (from expensive ones) in the apartment?
You can keep any flowers from expensive and cheap at home. There is nothing shameful in this. Like it - keep it. Of course, artificial flowers are a thing for everyone. They are well executed, then on health, are tasteless - then it's not worth it. Where it is impossible to keep them for sure, it is in the temple. I remember that there were especially deliberate instructions from Patriarch Alexei I of Simansky, who died in Bose, who, referring to the decoration of the temple, emphasized that any falsehood is unacceptable either in worship or in decorating the church. Since the world of prayer is the world of truth, the world of real values, not imaginary ones. It is necessary that everything be real, i.e. you need to pour oil into the lamp, not kerosene. Put at the icon - if you really put - fresh flowers, not artificial ones. Do not roar with a bullish voice, but sing with your heart and mind. And in general, behave in the Church in a natural and plausible manner, and not in a strained and theatrical manner. So artificial flowers are unacceptable in the temple. The house is a matter of your taste. Here you should not pay attention to such nuances. For example, there are things in the Bible written about the Old Testament law. For example, according to the Old Testament, you cannot wear clothes made from two types of fabric. For example, you have clothes made of polyester and silk - this is forbidden according to Scripture, but according to the Old Testament, i.e. We have lifted this ban. Although we need to understand the meaning of this prohibition. It means that it is impossible to engage in mixing heterogeneous entities at all. That's why a man can't wear women's clothing, woman male. You cannot sow a field with two kinds of seeds. You need either barley or wheat, but you can’t sow both together. There is a specific indication of what to do and what not to do. Here, artificial flowers are not forbidden to be kept at home anywhere. If you like it, keep it.
There is even a connection between the owner and his belongings. It is painful for a man to leave a house in which he has dug a well with his hands, and trees have been planted, and the walls have been painted. His soul breaks when he leaves some things. See how people cry and suffer when their car gets scratched. There is also a connection between a scratched bumper and the owner's heart. But this does not mean that, for example, the car should be in heaven! The fact that a connection exists between a person and other different things and with living beings does not mean anything. In addition, the Lord God has revealed many things to us, but he has not revealed much and does not want to reveal so that we do not deal with secondary things. As for the afterlife of animals, the Lord did not reveal anything to us, and as I understand it, He is not going to reveal anything. And as I understand it, there are reasons for this, so that we do not put feline love and dog love in the place of philanthropy. Because it's no secret that people love cars and flowers and dogs and mother-of-pearl beads and new whitewash more than their neighbors. Therefore, so that you and I do not replace the main thing with the secondary, the Lord does not tell us anything about this. What He will do with this sea of birds, penguins, fish, beasts, mammals, herbivores, carnivores, we do not know. We don't have to do minor things. Christ came into the world not for animals, but for man. If a person lives according to God, then the animals will be fine. What we see as evidence in the lives of the saints, when a bear came to Seraphim of Sarov to eat bread. Not to find raspberries in raspberries and indulge in a sweet berry, but to eat bread with a holy person. And in the same way, birds flew to Sergius, and to other saints. The fish listened to the saints, the deer listened to Eustathius Plakida. The bears came to them. In general, a person must be holy according to the Gospel, and then the animals will be fine.
In the old days, a person needed a horse and a cow or a goat for life - the nurses who gave milk, meat, skins, which with their strength replaced the weak human forces on arable land. But the peasants, for all their religiosity and dependence on livestock, never wondered if my cow would be in heaven. The cow fed the family, the horse fed the family. The peasant loved her, affectionately called her, sprinkled her with holy water on a holiday. He fed her with consecrated kinds of food. He drove out with a twig on a special day for prayer, to the first pasture. But with all the religiosity of ancient times, people never bothered with the question: will my cow be in paradise? When the cow fell, they cried: sorry, the cow died. But they did not go to the priest with the question: father, will our Zorka be in paradise? But today, with the decline of religiosity, people are preoccupied with questions: will my dog be in paradise, will my canaries be in paradise? This shows a serious decline in religious interest, its convergence from top to bottom. Therefore, do not worry about God, do not worry about what you love, you did not create any of this, but He did. Therefore, let us trust His love, as He does, so it will be, and what He does will be right. If He thinks so, then so be it.
Maybe paradise will be teeming with all sorts of birds, fish, dogs, including those that lived on earth. Or maybe they won't be there, we won't even notice. We will have higher interests. Anything can happen. Therefore, let us, once again, having spoken out on this topic, gently curtail it, as falling short of what should be of interest to us in the first place.
Third question. Jesus told his disciples: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. What does it mean?
Let us recall several interpretations that exist on this topic. If you pick up a needle, look at the eye of the needle, then imagine a real camel and ask yourself the question: how can it pass through the eye of the needle? We get a completely simple answer: no way. This means that it is just as impossible for a rich man to be saved as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. If we are talking about the eye of a needle. Here is the first interpretation. No rich person will be saved. And people took these words concretely and threw everything they had and ran away from all wealth. Then biblical archeology gives us other answers, more tied to the history of the Holy Land. And the question arises, was David rich as a king? He was, but he survived. Yes, we see him depicted among the people who are saved by Christ descending into hell. David is everywhere among the saved. We use his Psalms and are grateful to him. So what is the contradiction here? Biblical archeology comes to our aid and says that the “Ear of the Needle” in Jerusalem was the name of some gates that were not locked at all or were locked later than everyone else. You know that the ancient cities were surrounded by walls, i.e. "city" literally means "enclosed area". The thicker the walls - the better, the higher - the better, and there are several gates. Gates for entry and entry. Gate for entry and exit. A gate for the removal of sewage, a separate gate for the removal of corpses, a separate gate for the king, i.e. there are 5,6,7 gates. Every city is built like this. Red gates, main gates, Varvarsky gates - as in that Moscow. Here were some gates in Jerusalem, as scientists, biblical archaeologists tell us, which had the shape of an eye of a needle, i.e. pear-shaped, with a sharp end to the bottom. The gates were closed at night, i.e. for example, a man went for a walk in the evening either in the field, or on the river to rest, went out of town. And fell asleep there by the river. In the evening the gates are closed. The cities are all locked up at night. People come - and the gates are closed. For such spree, wandering townspeople, there were special gates in the form of an eye of a needle. By tight size - for the average density of a person. Where a person could climb with some effort and end up inside the city. There, too, the guard was standing, he did not let everyone in, only the townspeople. A camel could not get through this gate either. But these are already comparable values. It's not a needle, it's a hole in the wall. Or they say that he could climb through some of these gates, but only after unpacking the luggage. Those. when all bags are removed from him, trunks - that's it. And with pain, peeling off his sides, he climbed in there. This already means a different meaning. This means that the rich can climb into the Kingdom of Heaven with incredible weight if they unload all their luggage. In fact, he will make a spiritual renunciation, internal, dying, from everything that he possessed. Somehow he bequeaths to someone to dispose of it correctly, and transfers it to someone else for management. And he himself was naked, like Job, who was also rich. He said: “Naked I came out of my mother's womb, naked I will leave this world. God gave, God took. For a person to be like Job. We get several meanings. First, you will never pass when it comes to a needle and a camel. But we know that the rich are saved. By the standards of his time, Alexander Nevsky was rich, but he was in paradise. By the standards of his time, Fedor Ushakov, recently celebrated, was rich. He could do a hundred peasants on his pension without feeling any special costs. People lived in poverty, and he had decent money as he served the fatherland for a long time and faithfully. He was a wealthy man. The same wealthy people were many, as we now use foreign words, sponsors and patrons, philanthropists, donors, many merchants. And we cannot say, probably - we cannot, that all the rich, without exception, by the fact of wealth, the entrance to paradise is closed. No, it means that we need to look for other answers. These answers are offered, choose - or you will climb into paradise, but only get naked, i.e. take everything off yourself, give up everything, or something else. This is such a narrow path, in fact. This is an illustration of the words of Jesus Christ that through the narrow gate, through the narrow path, people enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In general, there are few people who find this path and follow it. I hope I didn't confuse you. It seems to me that the rich man is also saved, as well as the poor. For example, a generous rich man will be saved faster than a greedy and envious poor man. The poor die in the same way as the rich, because of malice, envy, unforgiven insults, and so on. Therefore, our conscience tells us about it. I think that there really is such an interpretation, in which we can consider some conditional gates in Jerusalem as “needle ears”. By the way, there is our women's compound in Jerusalem. They show the actual needle eyes, the gate is like that. A camel can't get through there, only a man can get through. But, nevertheless, this is a kind of hole in the wall through which you can enter the city. And the meaning of it being difficult for a rich man to be saved is very difficult. This is the main meaning of this place in the Lord Jesus Christ, His words, because a person is attached to everything and cannot get away from it anywhere. Then it chokes him, torments him, and he is dependent on him, and it drags him to the bottom, like a stone tied to his feet. Like this.
Last fourth question. John the Baptist did not drink wine and did not drink strong drink, i.e. strong drinks, did not eat meat. And how to explain that Jesus Christ drank wine, ate meat, He was a Nazarene? I will try to answer this question, starting with the next one. Nazareneism was a kind of vow of the ancient Old Testament Church, i.e. Jewish statute, established by God, which some call the Forerunner of monasticism. But it has little to do with monasticism, because Nazarenes could marry. And in our monasticism, the most important thing is chastity. Plus, the Nazarene could have property and use it. And our monasticism presupposes non-acquisitiveness, i.e. I don’t have anything, and I don’t live with my wife, I only pray to God. Those ancient covenant Nazarenes did not undertake to do all this. They were only supposed not to touch dead bodies, not to cut their hair, and not to eat grapes. Not only wine, but also raisins and fresh grapes, as well as not drinking hard liquor. These were votive properties, which now, I don’t know, are hardly fulfilled anywhere at all, including among the Jews. John the Baptist was not a Nazarene. He did not drink wine and strong drink and was filled with the holy spirit in his mother's womb, according to the foreknowledge of God. As the archangel said to his mother Elizabeth, that "this one will be great, and he will be called the prophet of the highest." Christ is called the Nazarene in the Gospel of Matthew at the end of the second chapter: “When he came, he settled in a city called Nazareth, so that it might be fulfilled that was spoken through the prophets, that He would be called a Nazarene.” This is where homonymy happens. Christ was not a Nazarene in the sense that He could not eat grapes - He ate grapes, could not drink wine - He drank wine, drank it at the Last Supper and established the sacrament of the Eucharist for us. Christ probably cut his hair or shaved, or somehow trimmed his hair, because. He did not grow hair. He was meticulous and simple. He was not bald and was not shaggy. It was standard, classic. He was good without flaw. Not thin, not fat, not old, not young, not cowardly, not arrogant. Not shaved bald and not overgrown with knee-length hair. He was wonderful everywhere. He was not a Nazarene in the sense in which the Nazarite is described in the ancient Jewish texts in the Old Testament. He settled in the city called Nazareth, and here this Nazareth as a city and the Nazarite as a vow coincide in sound. What is obviously expected - perhaps church philologists will clarify or correct me - Nazir and Nazareth. Nazir is a Nazarite, Nazareth is a person living in Nazareth. These are similar words that for a Greek, Latin, Russian translator can coincide up to unambiguous. You see, there is no 100% quality translation in the Gospel. Why do we have many translations - not only the translations of Filaret Drozdov, the Bible Society or the Elizabethan Bible, Cyril - Methodius, Ostrog. Current translations by Kasyan Bezobrazov, some other Bible Society. Because each translation tries to find out the nuances and deepen the meanings. It seems to me that there is a verbal parallelism here, which to the ear is read as the same thing. In fact, it is just one who lives in Nazareth - this is one thing, and he who has taken the Nazarite vow is another. But both can be called in our language by one word. Homonyms, you know, like a braid and a braid. The girl untwisted her hair. The man went with a scythe to mow the grass. There is a braid and here a braid, but completely different braids. Here the Nazarene and here the Nazarene are different concepts. He is a Nazarene because he lives in Nazareth. And he is a Nazarene, because he does not eat grapes according to a vow and does not cut his hair. I hope for help and confirmation of my words or for their clarification on the part of connoisseurs of the Hebrew language and the exact biblical text. Because the Gospel of Matthew was written in Hebrew.
So - artificial flowers, dead animals, needle ears and Nazarenes. Here are the four questions that were asked. Thank you. In general, it's really interesting, and I'm interested. I hope - and listeners are interested, i.e. there is something to think about and something to listen to, something to speculate about.
Phone call: - Bless, Father Andrew! Roman, from Germany. Very often you quote the poetry of Joseph Brodsky in your programs. Can you please tell me how great is the influence of poetry on your life? Is it comparable to the influence of spiritual literature, and do you have it favorite poem? Thank you.
Father Andrey Tkachev: - God bless you and all Orthodox with you.
How much does it affect me? - affects seriously. I don't even read it for years, because when I start reading it and rereading it, I get sucked in, and then I don't read anything else. It harms me. But initially, of course, he produced an electrical effect on me, as if he had given me an electric shock. I really consider him among the galaxy of those people who shaped the literary Russian language the way it is. Now it is a great, powerful, rich language. This is the language of Pushkin, Mandelstam, Mayakovsky, oddly enough, because he is also a great language reformer and a brilliant poet. What brought him into the revolution is a separate moral issue. And so, in general, Mayakovsky is a brilliant poet, and Brodsky, and many others, of course. He was not alone, he did not live in a vacuum. He talked, read, imitated, argued, envied someone. So his influence on me is very serious. Omar Khayyam also influenced me very much in my youth, despite the fact that he is not of our faith. People generally influence each other, especially through books, over the centuries. Of course, this is incomparable with the fact that, let’s say, you want to beg God for mercy, or you ask for something, or you communicate with God in general, then, of course, here Brodsky is standing in the corner and Mayakovsky and Mandelstam are standing next to him, the now living Yevtushenko and the recently deceased Akhmadulina. They all stand aside. Not because they are bad, just because the level of questions and problems has moved an order of magnitude higher, where they do not help. There are certainly many poems that I like. I really like "The Province Celebrates Christmas": "The governor's palace is entwined with mistletoe, and torches flicker on the porch. Cheerful, idle, dirty, crazy people crowd behind the palace. The governor is sick. Lying on a bed, covered with a shawl taken from the Alcazar. I like a lot of poems, perhaps most of all I like “Letters to a Roman friend”: “Come, let's drink wine, eat bread or plums, tell me the news. I will make a bed for you in the garden under a clear sky and tell you what the constellations are called. This is a brilliant poem: “I am sitting in my garden, a lamp is burning. No girlfriend, no servants, no acquaintances. Instead of the weak of this world and the strong, there is only the consonant buzz of insects. But in general I like it, he has written in the Union, it is separate. This, in fact, is the basis of genius. There is something written abroad. This is a percentage of life earned at home. There is something written before death. There are Venetian cycles, antique cycles. His poetry is all close to me. I love this poet.
Phone call: - Hello! Please tell me, in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13, what happened there? "At this time some came and told Him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices."
O. Andrey Tkachev: - Thank you. The fact is that any text is immersed in context, i.e. no isolated texts. Any text arises in time, and it is invisibly connected with contextual concepts. Here is the gospel story. When we study the Gospel, we are compelled to take an interest in biblical historical science and what it has written to us. Namely, who is Herod? Herod the Great, then another Herod the Tetrarch. Then another third Herod. We need to understand who Pilate is and what is he doing there? Who is Tiberius Caesar, and why is everyone so afraid of him. We must find out who the Pharisees are and how they differ from the Sadducees. We must understand why the Jews have among them radical revolutionaries who regularly take up knives under the name of Zealots, who are trying to fight for national independence. We need to understand the context of the event process. Who is a centurion, who is a centurion? A certain centurion came to Jesus and asked. What kind of centurion is this? We don't have a centurion in the army now. We have a squad leader, a company commander, a platoon commander. Who is a centurion? We need to understand the denarius, the widow threw in her mite, the denarius was paid. 30 pieces of silver were given for Christ. Who is the Sanhedrin, what is it? As we study the text, we must make some kind of immersion in the context and expansion of the field of consciousness. The same applies to chapter 13, i.e. there is written about something that was well known among people, but about which the evangelist does not consider it necessary to tell us. Because how many towers have fallen since then until today, including the two twin towers in New York in known time ! Towers fall, people die. You never know there were different uprisings, in which the soldiers who suppress the uprisings kill the rebels, and the blood of these rebels is mixed either with mud, or with the water of the river, or with the blood of the victims that they bring. This happens all the time, up to today's event in Turkey. Imagine that, for example, the Gospel was being written today. The evangelist wrote, Jesus said, and the evangelist wrote: do you know how many soldiers died in Turkey during the suppressed uprising, during the attempted coup? By the way, it doesn't say how much. Everyone says: we know, we know, because rumors are circulating, and everyone knows something. Yes, of course we heard, they say: 20,000 arrested. Do you know how many people died when the twin towers collapsed? They say we know. New York City Hall official data reports about one and a half thousand dead. Do you know how many people died when the Titanic sank from a collision with an iceberg? History also writes how many passengers were, how many were saved, how many died, minus the difference. And how could the Lord tell us: listen, what do you think that those who died on the Titanic, ended up in the twin towers, or those arrested now during the suppressed coup, are the most sinful of all, or what? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will also perish. And the Lord takes examples for his teaching from the surrounding life. And we don't need to know which tower fell in Galilee, because the tower fell, and all kinds of towers will fall. And some are standing, let them stand "Ostankino", "Eiffel". Let them stay healthy. Some fell like twin towers. Some squint and do not fall, like the Pisa. Here she stands and does not fall. You can't access it for a long time now. Because the hour is uneven, it will collapse at any moment, so tourists can no longer go there. But there is no need for us to specify what kind of tower it is, it's just that the Gospel is tied to some specific events, based on which the Lord brings us some conceptual things. He speaks about a specific case, but deduces from it a great commandment speech for us, i.e. commandment. Do not think that you are better than those who died. The ship sank on the Volga not so long ago, warped, scooped up water, turned over. Masses of people drowned. What do you think, you are the best, they drowned, and you are alive? Do you think they are bad and you are good? No, I tell you, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way. Now that's a concept thing. A person is saved from troubles by repentance. In our troparia and kontakia, which are addressed to different saints, as a rule, the endings of troparia and kontakia are quite similar. For example, "pray that our souls be saved." Pray for our souls, reverend such and such, such and such. You did this and that in your life, and now you are in the Kingdom of God. And the last line: pray for our souls. And, as a rule, this is a kind of common place. But there are some, for example, the troparion of Blessed Xenia ends in a very interesting way. It is written there: “having loved the poverty of Christ, enjoys it at an immortal meal, denounced the madness of the world with imaginary madness,” etc. . There it is written better: "deliver us from all evil by repentance." This is very valuable in church hymnography. You don't see that very often. Those who write texts are accustomed to, and come on: save our souls. And then someone took and wrote from the people who made up the troparion, kontakion, prayer, magnificence: “pray to Christ God to deliver us from troubles by repentance.” Because people get rid of troubles by repentance. God does not want to repent of you, you repent - and there will be no troubles. Here it is, you do not think that you are better, but if you do not repent, you will all perish in the same way. If you don't want to die, repent. This is what chapter 13 in the Gospel of Luke is talking about - about some perfect events that you and I do not need to know, because we need the principle of the commandment, and not the specific situations that took place in Galilee. I hope we understand each other.
Phone call: - Good evening, father! I have a question: the Bible is a bottomless book, it is impossible to know it. There you can cling to the line and further unwind. There are other books, and life is not enough to understand all this. But I would like to know the chronology of events, in terms of pedigree. What is the best way for me to do this, maybe write it out? Everywhere there is some general thought, some direction, a turn in life. Maybe I can draw a diagram? Here, I read the Old Testament, I read it - then I start to come back.
O. Andrey Tkachev: - If you use a computer - use it, it's there, everything has already been done before you, i.e. there is a pedigree. There are even illustrative maps and plans, such as those on which a diagram of the relationship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham is drawn in the form of a tree. It's already there, you just have to look. Do not reinvent the wheel yourself, because there are so many things already done and it is a pity to waste time. One has only to find interpretative biblical sources. Search, please.
Phone call: - Father, the second question. You know, I caught myself thinking, I work with children all the time, and with schoolchildren of junior, senior classes and with schoolchildren. Children used to blush when they told a lie. And now children do not blush, and people in general are neither children nor adults. Where does it all go?
O. Andrey Tkachev: - First of all, I think that mutation processes can take place in the world. But on the other hand, there is one more such interesting thing. Still, in our childhood there were more trees, the trees were big. And everything was better. The bread is tastier, the sky is bluer, the girls are prettier. This is the psychological law of any generation. I won’t tell you for sure right now, i.e. for example, by centuries, by names. But I read, I think, by Mamardashvili. There was such, the Kingdom of Heaven, a Georgian philosopher, a modern, original person of a very deep mind and interesting thoughts. It gave me pleasure to read his lectures in fragments. In a lecture, he writes that one of the oldest literary written testimonies about the life of Egypt is a certain complaint of an Egyptian that everything has become bad, that young people do not obey their elders. That the yield in the fields has fallen. That the weather cycles are changing. That wives cheat on their husbands, husbands cheat on their wives. That the children have become naughty, etc. The point is that the oldest texts of the world say that everything is lost. Once upon a time, everything was fine. The pies were tastier, and the snow crunched more cheerfully underfoot, and the weather was better. And now everything has crumbled, people do not blush and girls are not ashamed, young men do not go in for sports. This is, of course, actually true. And we will be great dreamers and liars or eyewashers if we say that everything is fantasy. It's not fantasy, it's true. There is entropy, not only in physics and in the physics of dead bodies, but also in morality. People are gradually relaxing, degrading, but various ugly processes are also taking place. You need to reassure yourself that all generations of the inhabitants of the earth, who tried to understand why a person lives, and how our ancestors lived, how we live, they all noticed the same thing. That families began to break up, children became arrogant towards adults. As Cyprian of Carthage wrote almost in the 1st - 2nd century - here, people say: there is not enough tiller in the field, there is not enough soldier in the army, in the sea at the pier there is a ship without sailors. Everything shows that life is impoverished and soon the end. This was not written by some depressed journalist. This was written by a holy man who was not afraid to enter the houses of plague people, to carry them in his arms into the fresh air, who prayed to God from morning to evening. It must be understood that this is a certain general tendency of our human psychology. As a child, it was always better. Maybe you didn’t eat as much sweets as a child as they eat today, but your childhood was unique. Instead of normal skates, you tied a piece of iron to felt boots, but still your childhood was better, but today it’s worse. This is the general tendency of human thinking. Therefore, restrain yourself when you want to criticize. I assure you that people blush. Old people blush, young people blush. Men and women blush from the cold, sometimes from drunkenness or from shame. They come to confession, cry sincerely. Confess in different ways. Some confess terrible sins. Some very touchingly open their soul, which suddenly, upon opening, turns out to be childish and pure. We think our youth is gone. And sometimes you look and think: in the 21st century in a metropolis, a boy who is 20 years old, like Alyosha Karamazov, you think: where did he come from? And they are, and I tell you with all responsibility. All the same, when we are swung to the left, we need to remember that there is still a right side. And when it swings to the right, you need to remember that there is a left. When they tell us: yes, everything is fine, everything is fine, calm down, everything is in order. We will answer: well, yes, all right, wait - all right. And we list the facts that will say that not everything is in order. There are a lot of tragic things. Then, when they tell us, listen, everything is gone, the end of the connection, that's it. Children do not blush, women do not give birth, men do not work - we will say to such a person: wait. But you know this N.N. - No, you don't know, but I know, this is a real holy man. He lives today, not yesterday. And such as N.N. we have hundreds, it reaches tens of thousands. So it's still going on. Don't let your mind be one-sided. It is very dangerous to have a one-sided mind when you fall into either "everything is good" or "everything is bad." Both of those are not true. Both of these are only part of the truth. And that is a partial truth, not the whole truth. In addition to all this, there is still God, but God has all the truth. So work with the kids and besides those non-blushing little brats, be able to spot the little blushing angels. And I think that they will come across to you in speed.
Phone call: - Father Andrei, good evening! My younger sister has cancer. She lives in another city. She had already undergone one operation ten years ago. And now the disease has worsened, chemotherapy is needed. For all these years, I tried as best I could to attract her to God, you can’t force it, you know perfectly well. Now she says: I read morning and afternoon prayers on the tablet. The tablet includes all this, I don’t know how it is: to read on the tablet. I don't know, I say, but where is the heart, where is the soul?
O. Andrey Tkachev: - Do you think that reading a book is fundamentally different from reading on a tablet? No, it's not different. For example, we read the Commandments with you written on paper. I am the Lord thy God, may there be no other gods but me. Do not take the name of your God in vain. Do not make yourself an idol. Honor your father and mother, do not kill, do not commit adultery. We read it all, it is written on paper. But excuse me, at first it was all written on the tablets - i.e. on the stone, there were stone boards. It's all carved in stone. And we, today's people, do not read it from stones, but from paper. An ancient person could say the same thing: what are you reading from paper? You don’t understand anything, how can you read from paper, you have to read from a stone! It will be clear from the stone. When people came to confession with a tablet and instead of notes they read the list of sins on the phone, on the iPod, I turned over. I don’t like it even now, I don’t like notes at all. But, nevertheless, I see that there is no difference. There is a carrier, there is a text, that's all. And it is written on the wall with paint, on paper with ink or stamped on a stone with a chisel - this is completely unprincipled. You can read liturgical texts. People are downloading the whole Bible into these gadgets. Then they stick headphones in their ears and go to the subway. You think - he listens to music, and he turned on the Apostle Paul. How does it matter where you read it from or take it - from a tape recorder, disk, flash drive? Please don't pay any attention to this. See how the world is changing. What matters is not what you read on your phone, but whether you catch Pokemon or read the Gospel, or morning or evening prayers. It's really important what you read, and from what medium, from a paper book or an e-book, it seems to me that these things are already unimportant. Therefore, you should not pay attention to this. It's just a generation gap. You are used to it, she is used to it. You are used to the fact that candles should be yellow. They came - and there are red candles. Say, how are these red candles, what is it? And we have red candles all our lives. He says yes, but I see it for the first time. So, look and see for the first time. We have all the candles poked into nests in the candlestick, then poor women pick out all the cinders, smear them with oil, and do this fuss. And in the east, everywhere they put it in the sand, put it in boxes with sand, and then they stick candles into these boxes. Our pilgrims, when they first traveled east to Greece, Israel. Do you think it's like a candle in the sand? And what is it, what difference does it make to put it in the sand or stick it to the wall or put it in a nest? The principle is, what is sinful here? Exactly the same here. The iconostasis used to have only candles, but today there are light bulbs. I didn't hear any outrage. For example, I would like all iconostases to have candles, not light bulbs. No electric light is needed for prayer. Maybe such zealots as they read a prayer from an iPod. And they then: how do you want to remove electricity from the temple, only light it with candles? We're not used to it, we didn't have that. Under our old rector, this was not the case, under our current one, too. So it will turn out: who are you, fighters for the truth, or are you just fighters for what you are used to? Every person gets used to something. But this does not mean that the whole world should live the way we are used to. There are things that are completely secondary. Here is what you said, and there is one of them.
Phone call: - Good evening! Peace to your home. Speaking of drinking wine, Luke chapter 22, verse 17 et seq. It says that the Lord Jesus Christ blessed His cup, gave it to His disciples. The same thing is said about the bread that He also blessed, gave to the disciple and said that they break it off for themselves in My memory. But it is not said in this place in the Gospel, I do not remember that it is said in other places, that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself drank wine, which He declared to the whole world as His blood. It is not said that He ate the bread which He claimed to be His body. Information for reflection. Thank you.
O. Andrey Tkachev: - Thank you, the remark is original and very attentive. Does Christ need to partake of His own body? No, of course, He carries within Himself what He gives us. He does not need to take His own from Himself. Of course, does he need to drink his own blood, which is the wine of the New Testament? Of course not. Thank you, this is a very interesting remark that Christ Himself communes, but does not commune. On all the frescoes and icons, classically depicting the Eucharist in the Byzantine spirit, where Christ gives the Holy Bread separately to the apostles. Separately, he gives the Holy Thicket, where Peter, Paul, Andrew, John approach from different sides for her Eucharistic Gifts. Nowhere do we see Christ Himself riding and drinking. We see him blessing, breaking and giving. Yes, thank you, this seems to be a non-binding remark, in fact, a very subtle remark about an event from the history of the holy Church of Christ.
Phone call: - Hello, Father Andrei! I have a question. One person said: your Orthodox people drink wine all the time. And Christ as if never drank wine. I answered that Christ Himself said about John the Baptist: they say about him that he did not drink wine, and he has a demon in him. And he said to himself: they will say about Me that I drank wine with tax collectors and sinners. Is it right or not?
Father Andrey Tkachev: - Yes, you absolutely correctly said that Jesus Christ was reproached for being a poisonous and wine-drinker, He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners. He said you can never please people. If you wanted to be ascetics, then I would tell you that John the Baptist does not eat or drink, but they say: he has a demon. Therefore, he does not eat or drink. He says: okay then, eat and drink, behave like me. As the Lord says: I eat and drink. And they say he is a friend of publicans and sinners, i.e. how do you please people? If you fast strictly, they will say: a Pharisee, a saint, a fanatic. If you don’t fast at all, they will say: a glutton, a lazy person, an atheist. If you walk in the middle, they will say: some kind of half-measure, neither fish nor meat, neither shaky nor rolly. That's why you can't please people. They don't need to be pleased. Still, it should be borne in mind that you need to please God through people. And people are fickle, so you answered correctly. In addition, Christ performed the first miracle at a marriage in Cana of Galilee. If He were an opponent of wine drinking, would He say to the servants at the wedding feast: take, scoop, bring. Would He turn water into wine at a marriage in Cana of Galilee? Of course not, He would say: you can’t drink, drink water. But He didn't say so. People didn't have enough wine, and there was a wedding, what is a wedding without wine? No musicians, no wine, no bride, no groom, no food, no parents, no gifts. What is this wedding? It's like a snack at McDonald's. If He was against wine, his mother would tell him: they have no wine. He said, Woman, that my hour has not come to me and to you. In principle, he would say: listen, you can’t drink, that they didn’t know, or something, let them drink water or compote. But He didn't say so. He said: scoop it up, bring it to the head of the feast. They brought, drank everything and rejoiced. The groom also got hit on the neck, because he allegedly saved the best wine, but put the worst one first. No, of course not, but the Lord created the grapes. The Lord is the father of the vineyard. There are four blessed, sacred things without which the Church cannot live. This is wheat, water, wine, oil, i.e. anointing oil, unction oil, wheat - the bread of the Eucharist, wine for communion, water for baptism. The Church can live without chocolate, if there is no chocolate - the Church will not feel it. The church can live without a server. She can live without peanuts, but sorry, without olives or without oily cereals, without sunflowers (a replacement for olives in our latitudes). Without grapes, without wheat, without water, the Church cannot live. So what they make up is that He was against wine. No, always God's wisdom says that it is impossible to abuse. God is not against money and not against marriage, not against fun and not against food, and not against a knife. If only they did not kill with a knife, fun did not turn into madness, marriage was not corrupted, wine drinking was not drunkenness, money was not loved more than Himself. You answered absolutely correctly, thank God that He enlightened you to the right answer. Once again we will understand with you: the truth is with the Church, there is no truth outside of it. There may be good people there, but there is no truth there. But also to be good people outside the Church is just as dangerous as looking at Noah who is building the ark, approving his work, but not entering the ark. Some laughed at Noah, why he makes such an awkward hulk, somewhere in the mountains without any water, lake, sea. And some did not laugh: no, probably, he is doing a good deed, which God has revealed to him. But these good people remained behind the threshold of the ark, and the water washed them away. Therefore, to be good without the Church is dangerous. Being bad in the Church is also dangerous. But being good outside the Church is also dangerous. Truth in the Church of God. No matter how unworthy we are, the Church has the truth.
Phone call: - Hello, father! Good health to you. I have such an idea. I've been reading the Old and New Testaments for some time now. So, one day I heard that it turns out that Universal time goes much slower than on earth. As the scientists said, our minute is 35 years there. And I compared that I only live on earth for two minutes. And here the Lord says in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 24, verse 34: “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” It seems to me that here is not the kind that was next to him, but the Ecumenical time is meant.
O. Andrey Tkachev: - Perhaps dear, you quite rightly noticed. Indeed, no one gives us a definition of time. Time is a kind of mystery, the length of time. People are asking if time can flow backwards, which they never asked before, thought they couldn't. That's right, it's homogeneous. Or maybe it somehow accelerates, or slows down, who knows? In fact, time is a mystery. Something as simple as time is an absolute mystery. Therefore, you correctly say that there is a different dimension of time. This kind, what is meant here? Perhaps, indeed, there are different points of reference of time. At least God lives outside of time. For him, a thousand years are like one day, and one day is like a thousand years. In one story about a man who went to hell with his soul. He suffered greatly and says to God: Lord, I'd rather endure in hell. The angel says to him: listen, can you endure a minute of hellish torment in exchange for full health on earth? He: yes, of course, I can, because I suffer unbearably. And, at the command of God, an angel plunged his soul into hellfire. He sits there, and it seems to him that they closed and left him in the steam room. He goes crazy there, it seems to him that he has been sitting there for an hour. And he screams: I've been sitting here for a long time - Wait, wait, they just lowered you. It seems to him that he has been sitting there for a month. The angel says: Yes, only half a second has passed, you have to sit there for an hour. It seems to him that he has been sitting there for a year. He says, wait, only three seconds have passed - No, no, better back to the ground. Everything earthly is generally nonsense compared to what will happen later. Come on, let me back, I will endure on the ground.
Yes, indeed, the measurement of time there and here is completely different. In this you are absolutely right. And we don't know the details yet. Thank you for your attention.
Fresh flowers give people joy and warmth, help people, sometimes even treat them. But the artificial flowers in the house have an empty form inside and this form constantly needs energy filling, so artificial flowers draw nourishment from the outside world. Especially such flowers are dangerous in a house where peace, love, peace and mutual understanding reign. Artificial flowers in such a house absorb positive energy and leave a void in return. And if earlier they were in a house where scandals and quarrels often occurred, then flowers can change positive to negative and poison the atmosphere in the house. In the house with bad energy, artificial flowers work like pumps, absorbing all the negativity, in which case they will even be very useful. But you can’t just leave artificial flowers for a long time, otherwise they will begin to return all the accumulated negativity back.
The Book of the Hidden Tree of Life says:
"A dead flower is looking for a way to come to life: if it comes across rays of kindness, it will absorb them, but it will quickly absorb the rays of hatred."
It is not recommended to take artificial flowers as a gift, especially from unfamiliar people. Artificial flowers can be kept in the house for a month, then they must be thrown away. However, if you really like them and you do not want to part with them, then you need to clean them from energy dirt and then you can keep such flowers indefinitely.
Energetic cleaning of artificial flowers
It is necessary to collect all artificial flowers together, put such a bouquet in a vase in the middle of an empty table. Arrange 12 white candles at the same distance from each other around this vase, you also need to prepare some holy water. Close windows and doors tightly to prevent drafts. Next, you need to light all the candles clockwise and then say:
Twelve candles, twelve beams
They gather evil in a circle,
They don't let go back
Everything that is there is burned.
After that, the candles should burn out themselves, then you need to get the flowers out of the vase, tie the bouquet with red thread, put it back in the vase and sprinkle it with holy water.
Such energy cleaning of artificial flowers in the house is recommended to be carried out once every six months.