Now lets talk a bit more about religion and the Sins.

The churches and temples tell you that they are send by the Gods to test us in this life, so that we may earn our entry into this or that paradise based on our deeds and not on the virtue of just being born.

Fair enough.

But they are wrong.

Again.

I met Priests, Saints and even a few Prophets before. And all those sanctified by a God still carry their own personal little Demon. But they also have something more in them.

They like to call it the 'Divine Spark'.

I like to think of it as that special little extra that makes them sparkle.

But if you look close enough, you will find that it's just another foreign energy.

Akin to a Demon, but without the consciousness of one.

Very few people are able to communicate with their conscious Demon, so imagine how high the threshold is for communicating with a spark of pure energy.

What would you even offer it?

More prayers?

Some electricity to improve the sparkle?

And furthermore, where does the spark exactly come from?

One receives it when becoming a Priest, but at what costs?

Why would any higher entity ever give away something that is basically a little part of itself for nothing but prayers in return?

I learned that when a sanctified person dies, no matter if only a Priest or a Prophet, then the divine spark leaves them, and it leaves them bigger than it was during that persons life.

But what does it take from a dead person?

I always felt that there was something fishy about the situation, but either nobody knows, or the people that do keep quiet. Both reasons are equally terrifying.

Now, I never met a God, and even the Prophets I met never met theirs or even dreamed of them.

But from them I learned that a Prophets gift is based on their own involvement.

The more likely they are affected by something, the more clearly and the further ahead they can perceive.

Makes it apparently nearly impossible to kill them.

And according to those I met the first thing all new Prophets will see, independent of their religion, is their own inevitable end.

A Prophets gift however is not influenced by others, not even those following the same God.

One of the Prophets that came to me once failed to foresee an earthquake that swallowed a large temple complex of his God, as well as several thousand believers. Simply because he was very far away at the time and could not even feel the movement of the earth.

One might argue that all of this might have been his Gods will or part of one of his Gods grant plans. But in my opinion the Divine Sparks are just as selfish by nature as our Demons. They offer you their best to preserve themselves for as long as possible but outside of self-preservation you have to offer them something to receive their support.

But what I did learn from my meetings with all those Priests, Saints and Prophets was that Demons and the Divine do not interfere with each other.

One does not influence the other.

Maybe because they simply cannot, maybe because of some higher covenant we are not even aware of.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

So remember, no matter what a Religion may promise you, they can not save you from your little Demon.

And neither are they themselves free of it.

The Demons lay claim to our mortal life, the Divines, good and bad alike, claim our afterlife.

Whatever and wherever that may be.

Now another really curious thing about religion is, that some of them got the Origin of Sin nearly right.

Or maybe all of them do and people just suck at writing things down in an orderly fashion.

Who knows.

You know that Human religion with the one god, the one that basically split into three different religions during it's early days because people could not agree on who the right messiah was?

According to their creation-story God created the first man and the first woman in the Garden of Eden in the center of Paradisa. He gave them everything they could ask for and left them with only one rule: Don't eat the fruits from the tree of wisdom in the center of the garden.

Very simple.

But:

A snake misleads the first woman into eating from that tree. The woman, now blessed with wisdom and fully self-aware, feels guilty but still misleads the man into also eating from the tree.

Misery truly loves company.

When god returns he is angry and they are all banished from Eden and the snake and all of it's descendants are cursed by god to forever creep on their bellies.

Now let's have a look and see what kind of Sin the snake represents.

Envy? Why would an Envy even show something as special as a Wisdomfruit to a mortal?

Gluttony? Please, have you ever seen a Glutton share anything?

Lust? A Lust would have seduced the woman and the man, they were the first of their kind afterall and something new is always special.

Pride? As unlikely as Glutton. Why would Pride even talk to the first woman, that was according to the story made out of one of the ribs of the first man?

Sloth? Unlike always said Sloths are not stupid. Instead they are among the most crafty, because only with great enough advance planning can you be lazy without putting yourself at risk. So why would or should a Sloth even risk banishment from Gods garden were everything is plenty and there is eternal peace?

Wrath? Wraths are notorious for risking their own lifes just to spite their enemies, but a Wrath would never entice. It would instead try to force you to do something, or risk it themselves to get an advantage over you. But they would not entice you.

That leaves us with Greed.

Greed would entice you to try something that it can not reach or does not dare to reach for, just to find out about the consequences.

Greed is all about getting those things it does not yet have.

And if Greed itself can not use something, it is likely to give it to someone that can, just to find out what that something does. And if that is not possible Greed will carry the object with it till it finds a use for it.

A Greed would never destroy something, just because it can not have it. That is something only Envy or Wrath would do.

Greeds are pure curiosity and hoarders. A bit like a Dragon, but without that magpie-like fixation on shiny metals and precious gems and less afraid to give something away. Greed will discard anything it sees as unworthy or has no further use for. And it would also exchange everything it owns if it in turn would receive something new.

This makes Greed very susceptible, but also dangerous. Never entice a Greed beyond reason. It will set you, it's loved ones, itself and the world on fire, just to see the results.

Disregarding common sense and everything else just to feed its curiosity.

And this is also why feeding and raising a Greed is so difficult. Your little Demon is influenced by all of your choices and actions, just as he slowely influences you. Give in to any feelings and emotions besides curiosity for too long and your Greed will get tainted and turn into something matching your emotions.

In a sense greed is pure, but only as long as you are. If you loose yourself in your emotions you taint your Greed and make it lesser.

To raise a Greed you therefore have to strife for balance.

Be lazy, feel lust, eat until your stomach hurts, follow up on your envy and anger.

But only do so in moderation and to feed your curiosity.

Feed your Greed like you would feed a good hunting dog.

Only ever enough to keep him wanting for more.

This will eventually lead to an addiction like situation were your Greed will empower you, just so that you can provide more for him. Which in turn creates a feedback loop.

Feeding can therefore be described as a balancing act, because a Greeds empowerment will also lead you to become addicted to his empowerment in turn.

Take nothing for granted when dealing with Demons.

So remember to always keep your rationality in control of the situation.

Because the very moment that your Greed turns into Pride your inevitable downfall is only a matter of time.

Stagnancy leads only to death.

Never give in to pride. Only ever feed your greed.

Only by wanting for more, reaching for more and fighting for more will you eventually become more.

And only by becoming more, can you potentially escape from your Demon.