The Demon of Noonday, also know as accidie, is a spiritual and psychological phenomenon identified by early Christian mystics who sought solitude in the Egyptian desert. They commonly experienced a sense of emptiness, hopelessness and torpor which they realised was a normal part of our human condition when we seek to deepen our spiritual life. It is a moment that provokes the question, ‘What is the point?’.

This painting explores that experience and draws on a poem by my friend Ian Adams, who’s work I highly recommend, about one of those ancient desert mystics called Abba Joseph:

Stumbling through a scorched stream-bed

a black-clad figure, spirit-led

descends once more into arid accidie

where dreams fall away from unsteady feet

thoughts spike the soul’s soft skin

and promises circle those who break them.

The Abba stops. Stands, arms outstretched.

In the wind-silence of the desert,

ever higher in the sky the sun’s

searing focus is now on this one man

consumed by the fire – a lens

through whom you too may burst into flame.

Ian Adams from ‘Unfurling’ (Canterbury Press)

Noonday Demon   Oil on canvas 92cmx115cm

The painting is on display  in the “What is the Point?” exhibition until 15th October at the Strand Gallery, London

For enquiries about the painting email rjstott@hotmail.co.uk