1. How to Understand the Toll-Houses
Perhaps no aspect of Orthodox eschatology has been so misunderstood as this phenomenon of the aerial toll-houses. Many graduates of today’s modernist Orthodox seminaries are inclined to dismiss the whole phenomenon as some kind of “later addition” to Orthodox teaching, or as some kind of “imaginary” realm without foundation in Scriptural or Patristic texts or in spiritual reality. Such students are the victims of a rationalistic education which is lacking in a refined awareness of the different levels of reality which are often described in Orthodox texts, as well as of the different levels of meaning often present in Scriptural and Patristic writings. The modern rationalistic over-emphasis on the “literal” meaning of texts and a “realistic” or this-worldly understanding of the events described in Scripture and in Lives of Saints — have tended to obscure or even blot out entirely the spiritual meanings and spiritual experiences which are often primary in Orthodox sources. Therefore, Bishop Ignatius — who on the one hand was a “sophisticated” modern intellectual, and on the other a true and simple child of the Church — can well serve as a bridge on which today’s Orthodox intellectuals might find their way back to the true tradition of Orthodoxy.
Before presenting further Bishop Ignatius’ teaching on the aerial toll-houses, let us make note of the cautions of two Orthodox thinkers, one modern and one ancient, for those who enter upon the investigation of other-worldly reality.
In the 19th century, Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, in his discussion of the state of souls after death, writes: “One must note that, just as in general in the depictions of the objects of the spiritual world for us who are clothed in flesh, certain features that are more or less sensuous and anthropomorphic are unavoidable — so in particular these features are unavoidably present also in the detailed teaching of the toll-houses which the human soul passes through after the separation from the body. And therefore one must firmly remember the instruction which the angel made to St. Macarius of Alexandria when he had just begun telling him of the toll-houses: ‘Accept earthly things here as the weakest kind of depiction of heavenly things.’ One must picture the toll-houses not in a sense that is crude and sensuous, but — as far as possible for us — in a spiritual sense, and not be tied down to details which, in the various writers and various accounts of the Church herself, are presented in various ways, even though the basic idea of the toll-houses is one and the same.”5
Some specific examples of such details which are not to be interpreted in a “crude and sensuous” way are given by St. Gregory the Dialogist in the Fourth Book of his Dialogues which, as we have already seen, is devoted specifically to the question of life after death.
Thus, when describing the after-death vision of a certain Reparatus, who saw a sinful priest being burned atop a huge pyre, St. Gregory notes: “The pyre of wood which Reparatus saw does not mean that wood is burned in hell. It was meant, rather, to give him a vivid picture of the fires of hell, so that, in describing them to the people, they might learn to fear eternal fire through their experience with natural fire” (Dialogues, IV, 32, pp. 229-30).
Again, after St. Gregory has described how one man was sent back after death because of a “mistake”—someone else with the same name being the one who was actually called out of life (this has occurred also in today’s “after-death” experiences)—St. Gregory adds, “Whenever this occurs, a careful consideration will reveal that it was not an error, but a warning. In His unbounded mercy, the good God allows some souls to return to their bodies shortly after death, so that the sight of hell might at last teach them to fear the eternal punishments in which words alone could not make them believe” (Dialogues, IV, 37, p. 237).
And when one person in an after-death vision saw dwellings of gold in paradise, St. Gregory comments: “Surely, no one with common sense will take the phrase literally.... Since the reward of eternal glory is won by generosity in almsgiving, it seems quite possible to build an eternal dwelling with gold” (Dialogues, IV, 37, p. 241).
Later we shall have some more to say on the difference between visions of the other world and actual “out-of-body” experiences there (the experiences of the toll-houses, and many of today’s “after-death” experiences, clearly belong to the latter category); but for now it is sufficient for us to be aware that we must have a cautious and sober approach to all experiences of the other world. No one aware of Orthodox teaching would say that the toll-houses are not “real,” are not actually experienced by the soul after death. But we must keep in mind that these experiences occur not in our crudely material world; that both time and space, while obviously present, are quite different from our earthly concepts of time and space; and that accounts of these experiences in earthly language invariably fall short of the reality. Anyone who is at home in the kind of Orthodox literature which describes after-death reality will normally know how to distinguish between the spiritual realities described there and the incidental details which may sometimes be expressed in symbolic or imaginative language. Thus, of course, there are no visible “houses” or “booths” in the air where “taxes” are collected, and where there is mention of “scrolls” or writing implements whereby sins are recorded, or “scales” by which virtues are weighed, or “gold” by which “debts” are paid — in all such cases we may properly understand these images to be figurative or interpretive devices used to express the spiritual reality which the soul faces at that time. Whether the soul actually sees these images at the time, due to its lifelong habit of seeing spiritual reality only through bodily forms, or later can remember the experience only by use of such images, or simply finds it impossible to express what it has experienced in any other way — this is all a very secondary question which does not seem to have been important to the Holy Fathers and writers of saints’ lives who have recorded such experiences. What is certain is that there is a testing by demons, who appear in a frightful but human form, accuse the newly-departed of sins and literally try to seize the subtle body of the soul, which is grasped firmly by angels; and all this occurs in the air above us and can be seen by those whose eyes are open to spiritual reality.
Now let us return to Bishop Ignatius’ exposition of the Orthodox teaching of the aerial toll-houses:
2. Patristic Testimony of the Toll-Houses
“The teaching of the toll-houses is the teaching of the Church. There is no doubt whatever (emphasis in the original) that the holy Apostle Paul is speaking of them when he declares that Christians must do battle with the spirits of wickedness under the heavens (Eph. 6:12). We find this teaching in the most ancient Church tradition and in Church prayers” (vol. III, p. 138).
Bishop Ignatius quotes many Holy Fathers who teach concerning the toll-houses. Here we shall quote just a few.
St. Athanasius the Great, in his famous Life of St. Anthony the Great, describes how once St. Anthony, “at the approach of the ninth hour, after beginning to pray before eating food, was suddenly seized by the Spirit and raised up by angels into the heights. The aerial demons opposed his progress: the angels, disputing with them, demanded that the reasons of their opposition be set forth, because Anthony had no sins at all. The demons strove to set forth the sins committed by him from his very birth; but the angels closed the mouths of the slanderers, telling them that they should not count the sins from his birth which had already been blotted out by the grace of Christ; but let them present — if they have any — the sins he committed after he entered into monasticism and dedicated himself to God. In their accusation the demons uttered many brazen lies; but since their slanders were wanting in proof, a free path was opened for Anthony. Immediately he came to himself and saw that he was standing in the same place where he had stood up for prayer. Forgetting about food, he spent the whole night in tears and groanings, reflecting on the multitude of man’s enemies, on the battle against such an army, on the difficulty of the path to heaven through the air, and on the words of the Apostle, who said: Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of this air (Eph. 6:12; Eph. 2:2). The Apostle, knowing that the aerial powers are seeking only one thing, are concerned over it with all fervor, exert themselves and strive to deprive us of a free passage to heaven, exhorts: Take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day (Eph. 6:13), that the adversary may be put to shame, having no evil thing to say of us (Titus 2:8).”6
5
Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow,
6
Bishop Ignatius, Vol. III, pp. 138-39; Life of St. Anthony, Eastern Orthodox Books, ed., p. 41.