CATHOLIC DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS: Lesson One: Don’t let your guard down.

In this series about how I (a Catholic) defend myself against the dark arts of the “Ruler of the Earth” (Satan and his minions), I share with you the inspiration I received from the Holy Spirit in Lectio Divina meditation/contemplation. Whether in the body or out of it, I know not (St. Paul), these five themes wrestled themselves into my consciousness with the following meditative narrative, as much as I can remember.

MEDITATION ONE: Don’t Let Your Guard Down.

I think it was C.S. Lewis who said, “The greatest victory the Devil has over humans is convincing them that there is no Devil.” Just existing as a human in the physical and mental universes of reality, without the need for something more. i.e., the highest level of attainment for humans of their species, available only by giving up free will and reason, the two tools that define what it means to be human, is itself a victory for the existential battle between good and evil, between resonance and dissonance on a cosmic scale, and what is true versus what is easy.

All of this sounds theoretical, which it is. Still, it is so embedded in the fabric of everyday time that, moving forward, we humans are lulled into thinking that what we experience through the mere intervention of human societies and power struggles to control the mind is real. Like the movie, The Matrix, where machines project a humanity that is Garden-of-Eden-like, good and evil existing with no purpose, framed by human conceptions of what is right or what is easy for each human, someone has to break the illusion of a world guided by the human conditions of imperfection, and the strong shall inherit the earth. Where does that innate tendency to be dominant, self-centered, and use whatever means at hand to pursue happiness rather than joy come from? It has something to do with our being born from the collective animality of all that is. But looking objectively at humans, there is a curious mixture of nobility and evil toward others housed in the same container. It is passed down through genetics, the invisible yet real characteristics of our animal past, and the current dimension of collective humanity since humans first crossed the threshold from animality to rationality (Teilhard de Chardin). We possess what other species do not or cannot experience, such as looking back on a lifetime of experiences and trying to determine meaning.

Collectively, we humans migrate towards whatever our destiny is, one by one, individual by individual. Gender does not matter, race does not matter. What matters is that each individual has the freedom to choose whatever they want as their Center. This Center is an individual dimension of evolution, outside of the collective consciousness of matter toward some future point. We are what is at our Center. And yet, no book says what is good or bad for us; what makes us happy seems to be indulging our emotional side (not morally, but as a way to fulfill what we think it is to be fully human).

If you are still awake after all that flotsam and jetsam, here is the point. Mere human existence has neither the energy nor the knowledge to move to the next level of human evolution, one beyond physical nature, one beyond mere human choice and fulfillment. There is another dimension that is there, unseen but not unfelt, which draws us forward toward the completion of our humanity. We know it must be there, but where to find the keys that unlock this next step in our human consciousness, one our reason finds unreasonable?

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

The greatest and most successful temptation of Satan is to convince you that there are only two universes, and that you can be fulfilled by just living a good life as a human without any help needed to grow deeper, even though all nature is constantly moving towards more and more complexity and consciousness, qualities that humanity alone is incapable of recognizing.

The scope of this temptation is not limited to Satan but also the concept of God. If there is no God, there is no Satan, which is more correct than for me to say, if there is no Satan, there is no God.

Awareness of how to dig for that gold beneath our feet (or in the upper room of our inner selves) is key. Awareness of how to interpret the language of an energy source that continues to overshadow humans with all that they need to move to that next level of their evolution, and how to sustain it while they live from the corruption of evil (Seven Deadly Sins). The Devil, knowing the weakness of all of us to do what is easy rather than what is right, counts on discounting the energy that comes from God to humans to do the right thing, even if that right thing has boundaries that give discomfort (deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me). Satan says, to be fully human, explore your human values, be the Center of your own life, love, live, and be happy with what the world offers. And you know what? That can be true up to a point. But here is the point. Look around you at all the hatred out there, not disagreements over political viewpoints, but destroying the reputations of others because evil exists inside them. I am not talking any side or position, any left or right, but rather right or wrong. And who gives us the absolute truth as to what is right or wrong (morally or ethically)? There are only two ways to the truth; one is truth that is outside the flawed inconsistency of humans as their own Center, or to God, one that does not make sense to our humanity, nor our logical dependence on mere matter for what is true. It is a Center outside our human nature, one that sets boundaries we, with our free will, choose to accept as part of reality.

The Sly One doesn’t have to market a morality of hedonism to blind humans from what is the absolute truth, absolutely. Just be yourself. No one tells me what to do with my body. I don’t want anyone telling me what I can or cannot believe, but I believe that I can tell others what they need. The dissonance is deafening in its lack of a clear response to the cosmic background noise of what is.

Only in silence and solitude are individuals able, with awareness of the Christ Principle, to sit next to Divine Nature in the upper room of their inner self and relax, soaking up the power that comes as Divine Nature overshadows a humble heart seeking to be fully human. God became human to show us how to block Satan from successfully defining what it means to be human at the deepest level.

Key to all of this is awareness. If you listen to the whispers from Satan, the wages of sin are death. If you listen to the slight breeze on your cheek that reminds you of your humanity, and abandon yourself daily to being aware of what God is saying through Christ and the Holy Spirit, what does not make sense logically becomes the cornerstone of the next level of being human.

Copyright 2026, Michael F. Conrad, The Center for Contemplative Practice. All Rights Reserved.