The Story behind Sins and Virtues
In many religions, the qualities of sins and their accompanying virtues are well known, even if they are not discussed in the same manner as the commonly presented Christian version of sin and virtue. For the purpose of this article, I'll be using my understanding of the mythology used in Christian bibles and stories.
To understand how sins and virtues can be applied to our own spiritual development, we must first understand the story from which they originated in. The story of the fallen angel – Lucifer.
When Lucifer began to rebel against God, it is said that he created the beginning of sin. At each stage of rebellion a new sin was created, with the aspects of the fallen angel at this stage, given the personification of a demon to reside over that sin. In an attempt to counteract these sins, the virtues were created – each with their own angel residing over them. This then resulted in the battle between sin and virtue. Sins representing qualities that prevent us from achieving our spiritual potential and enlightenment and virtues helping us defeat them and bringing us closer to God, or inner peace.
Whilst the qualities of the demons and sins, themselves, don’t enhance our spirituality, they can help us become ‘better’ beings, as we become aware of their qualities affect us and then counteracting them with the virtues that defeat them. Everyone is exposed to the temptations of sin, and only by being aware of their negative energies and how to respond to them, can we overcome that temptation.
There are seven deadly sins with the story of their accompanying demon (the face of the fallen angel) and how the qualities can block our progress: