{"id":3342,"date":"2011-10-02T07:11:28","date_gmt":"2011-10-02T11:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=3342"},"modified":"2011-09-29T07:19:21","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T11:19:21","slug":"the-noonday-demon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/10\/the-noonday-demon.html","title":{"rendered":"The noonday demon"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Hieronymus Wierix, "Acedia", 16th century<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We learn from fairytales the importance of knowing the name<\/em> of the demon that is on our case. Remember Rumplestiltskin?<\/p>\n

One of the most horrible demons that besets modern lives nearly succeeded in erasing his name from our minds. The word acedia was once pronounced obsolete by the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary. Now it\u2019s coming into common usage, thanks in part to a luminous memoir-cum-meditation by Kathleen Norris titled Acedia and Me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Acedia literally means \u201cnot-caring\u201d. Let\u2019s note that our word \u201ccare\u201d derives from an Indo-European root meaning to \u201ccry out\u201d. Not to care is not to cry out, in the midst of life and death, to be perennially numb. Acedia produces a state of torpor and disaffection more serious than depression. Norris contends that while depression is an illness that can be treated, acedia is a \u201cvice\u201d that can only be contained by spiritual practice and prayer.<\/p>\n

The Desert Fathers identified acedia as \u201cthe noonday demon\u201d\u00a0that sucks the joy and the will to action out of life. Maybe it\u2019s a cousin of the dementors in the Harry Potter novels. Let’s not give it any traction. Let’s start by never<\/em> saying, “I don’t care.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  We learn from fairytales the importance of knowing the name of the demon that is on our case. Remember Rumplestiltskin? One of the most horrible demons that besets modern lives nearly succeeded in erasing his name from our minds. The word acedia was once pronounced obsolete by the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,26,21,27],"tags":[631,633,632],"class_list":["post-3342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conscious-living","category-life-direction","category-psychic-health","category-self-help","tag-acedia","tag-kathleen-norris","tag-spiritual-torpor"],"yoast_head":"\nThe noonday demon - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/10\/the-noonday-demon.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The noonday demon - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  We learn from fairytales the importance of knowing the name of the demon that is on our case. Remember Rumplestiltskin? One of the most horrible demons that besets modern lives nearly succeeded in erasing his name from our minds. The word acedia was once pronounced obsolete by the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/10\/the-noonday-demon.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-02T11:11:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-09-29T11:19:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2011\/09\/Hieronymus_Wierix_-_Acedia_-_WGA25736-221x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Moss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The noonday demon - Dream Gates","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/10\/the-noonday-demon.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The noonday demon - Dream Gates","og_description":"  We learn from fairytales the importance of knowing the name of the demon that is on our case. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3342"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3345,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342\/revisions\/3345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}