Talking about Evil

Yesterday I brought to your attention two brilliant pieces of writing by Patrice Mersault about dealing with the devil.  Here are a few more insights from that document: The writer addresses the “Prince of Darkness” telling him how “a mortal man walks among us whose actions and rhetoric bear an uncanny resemblance to your legendary portfolio.  That man is Donald J. Trump.”* And he asks the “Lord of the Abyss” whether Trump is  a “masterpiece of your infernal artistry” or something more—“a rival whose depravity risks destabilizing even your dominion of the damned”?**

People are saying they don’t have the language today to deal with the darkness they are feeling—this is where art comes in.  In this document, art is speaking to us and provides a very much needed satire—the art of laughing at power.  It puts into perspective the disturbing and distressing news and facts that assail us every day.  One cannot live by fact and news alone, one also needs perspective and laughter and the alternative language that art brings.

That is surely the case also in my book on Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.  The art of Hildegard of Bingen and the art of Luca Signorelli plus the opening story of how art beckoned Sigmund Freud to visit the Orvieto  Cathedral on three occasions even though he was a very visible proponent of atheism and mechanistic science.  He could not resist the stories being told.

As I point out in my first book on Evil, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society, we are shorthanded today when it comes to talking about evil.  Scott Peck says we are at a primitive stage of baby talk in talking about evil.  But talk about it we must—as Carl Jung says, to fail to talk about it invites disaster.

Evil dwells in the land of the spiritual, its opposite is the Sacred.  It has a kind of immortality to it insofar as it keeps coming back.  I propose that the familiar names of Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub can be replaced with other words such as Racism, Sexism, Fascism or Christian Nationalism if we want.

Hildegard paints evil—here we have a picture of Satan bound by people who are resisting him.  He is not dead.  He is still very much alive in her painting.  She describes the scene thus: A worm (vermis) “of unbelievable size and length” lying on its back.  It was horrible and mad, black and hairy, full of sores and pus and full of deadly poison.  He had a nose and mouth like a snake, hands like a man, feet like a snake and a short and horrible tail. 

Cirlot, an expert in symbology points out that’s such fabulous animals depict “cosmic terror” and that is surely what Hildegard has in mind.

A “very evil flame” emanates from the beast’s mouth to the four corners of the universe.  He spread poisons such as “worldly sadness” and melancholy; and “tasteless irreverence;” and “false glory;” and “stinging withdrawal; and “lukewarm imitation.”  All these “bring death to the souls of humans who go along with the devil.”  In his mouth are “poisonous arrows of human pollution which people exercise according to their will against the law.”

Cirlot calls arrows “an undeniable phallic signification.”  Once again Hildegard is linking the demonic with patriarchy as she did in her painting of the antichrist.

We are not at a loss for language that depicts Evil. Artists, including satirists, provide us with proper language. 

* Patrice Mersault, “My Debate with Satan: Is Trump Your Masterpiece—or Your Replacement?” Substack, February 14, 2025.

**Patrice Mersault, “My Debate With Satan, Part II: The Final Conflict.” Substack, March 26, 2025.

Adapted from Matthew Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, pp. 132-135,

And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.

See Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.What art, whether satire or writing or paintings or music or poetry or Scriptures, assist you to stay grounded and present during the current onslaught of Evil in our times?

Banner image: “The fire devil and the destroyer.” Photo by Conceptphoto.info on Flickr. Says the photographer, “Unfortunately, Germans have no voting rights in the USA.”

Queries for Contemplation

What art, whether satire or writing or paintings or music or poetry or Scriptures, assist you to stay grounded and present during the current onslaught of Evil in our times?

Recommended Reading

Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen

An introduction to the life and work of Hildegard of Bingen, Illuminations reveals the life and teachings of one of the greatest female artists and intellectuals of the Western Mystical Tradition.  At the age of 42, she began to have visions; these were captured as 36 illuminations–24 of which are recorded in this book along with her commentaries on them.
“If one person deserves credit for the great Hildegard renaissance in our time, it is Matthew Fox.”  – Dr Mary Ford-Grabowsky, author of Sacred Voices.

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science.  A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.