The Seven Deadly Sins

"Man must overcome the seven planets and transmute them into soul powers. Their negative forces are the seven deadly sins, which are overcome by a symbolic struggle with demons and dragons and, in turn, are transmuted into seven cardinal virtues. This is the key to alchemy, for from the seven base metals, first spiritualized and brought together as a secret compound, is produced the philosophers stone, the purified soul." ― Manly P. Hall - The Secret Teachings of All Ages

1. Superbia (Pride) — Humilitas (Humility)
2. Avaritia (Greed) — Liberalitas (Generosity)
3. Luxuria (Lust) — Castitas (Chastity)
4. Invidia (Envy) — Humanitas (Kindness)
5. Gula (Gluttony) — Temperantia (Temperance)
6. Ira (Wrath) — Patientia (Patience)
7. Acedia (Sloth) — Industria (Diligence)

The framework of “seven deadly sins” developed in late antique Christian monastic teaching. It did not appear fully formed at once. It evolved from earlier attempts to classify the main patterns of destructive human behavior.

The earliest organized version comes from Evagrius Ponticus (4th century). He listed eight logismoi, or “evil thoughts,” as the root distortions of the soul. His list was gluttony, lust, avarice, sadness, anger, acedia (spiritual listlessness), vainglory, and pride. These were not “sins” in the later sense but fundamental psychic tendencies that disrupt the mind in the process of prayer.

John Cassian later transmitted Evagrius’s system to the Latin West. His writings were influential in monastic communities and helped establish the idea of a fixed set of core inner struggles.

Gregory the Great (6th century) modified the Evagrian list. He reduced the eight to seven by combining vainglory into pride and folding sadness into acedia. He also shifted the emphasis from internal thoughts to morally significant behaviors. Gregory’s list—pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust—became the standard in medieval theology.

The number seven matched existing symbolic structures in Christian teaching. The tradition already emphasized seven virtues, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and seven sacraments. Organizing moral teaching into a structure of seven allowed symmetry with other doctrinal frameworks. Medieval writers often treated the seven sins as distortions of the seven virtues.

The particular items on the list reflect practical monastic psychology. These were the tendencies most consistently observed to disturb concentration, foster harmful passions, and disrupt communal life. Pride was placed at the head because it was considered the root from which the others arise.

History

An allegorical image depicting the human heart subject to the seven deadly sins, each represented by an animal (clockwise: toad = avarice; snake = envy; lion = wrath; snail = sloth; pig = gluttony; goat = lust; peacock = pride)

With reference to the seven deadly sins, "evil thoughts" can be categorized as follows:[3]

• physical (thoughts produced by the nutritive, sexual, and acquisitive appetites)
• emotional (thoughts produced by depressive, irascible, or dismissive moods)
• mental (thoughts produced by jealous, boastful, or hubristic states of mind)

The fourth-century monk Evagrius Ponticus reduced the logismoi (or forms of temptation) from nine to eight in number, as follows:[4][5]

1. Γαστριμαργία (gastrimargia) gluttony
2. Πορνεία (porneia) prostitution, fornication
3. Φιλαργυρία (philargyria) greed
4. Λύπη (lypē) sadness, rendered in the Philokalia as envy, sadness at another's good fortune
5. Ὀργή (orgē) wrath
6. Ἀκηδία (akēdia) acedia (apathy, neglect, or indifference), rendered in the Philokalia as dejection
7. Κενοδοξία (kenodoxia) boasting
8. Ὑπερηφανία (hyperēphania) pride, sometimes rendered as self-overestimation, arrogance, or grandiosity

[6]

Evagrius's list was translated into the Latin of Western Christianity in many writings of John Cassian[7][8] one of Evagrius’s students; the list thus became part of the Western tradition's spiritual pietas or Catholic devotions as follows:[3]

1. Gula (gluttony)
2. Luxuria/Fornicatio (lust, fornication)
3. Avaritia (greed)
4. Tristitia (sorrow, despair, despondency)
5. Ira (wrath)
6. Acedia (sloth)
7. Vanagloria (vanity, vainglory)
8. Superbia (pride)

In AD 590, Pope Gregory I revised this list into the form that has become common.[9] He combined tristitia with acedia; combined vanagloria with superbia; and added envy, which is invidia in Latin.[10][11] (Pope Gregory's list corresponds to the traits described in Pirkei Avot as "removing one from the world.")[12][13] Thomas Aquinas uses and defends Gregory's list in his Summa Theologica, although he calls them the "capital sins", because they are the head and form of all the other sins.

Sloth

Originally, Christian theologians believed it to be a lack of care for performing spiritual duties.

In his Summa Theologica, Saint Thomas Aquinas defined sloth as "sorrow about spiritual good".[29]

Pride, Hubris

Pride is known as hubris (from the Ancient Greek ὕβρις) or futility; it is considered the original and worst of the seven deadly sins—the most demonic—on almost every list.[39] Pride is also thought to be the source of the other capital sins. Pride is viewed as the opposite of humility.[40][41]

C. S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity that pride is the "anti-God" state, the position in which the ego and the self are directly opposed to God: "Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that Lucifer became wicked: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind."[42] Pride is understood to sever the human spirit from God, as well as from the life and grace given by God's presence.

"Pride goeth before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" (which is abbreviated as "Pride goeth before a fall" in Proverbs 16:18). 

Related Ideas

• Arishadvargas in Hinduism - the six enemies
• Five poisons in Buddhism
• Five thieves in Sikhism
• Nafs and Tazkiah in Islam
• Tree of virtues and tree of vices – Diagrams of the relationship between virtues and vices in medieval Christianity

Dante's seven deadly vices

The poet Dante Alighieri listed the following seven deadly vices, associating them structurally[13] as flaws in the soul's inherent capacity for goodness as made in the Divine Image yet perverted by the Fall:

1. Pride or vanity: an excessive love of the self (holding the self outside of its proper position regarding God or fellows; Dante's definition was "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbour"). In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, pride is referred to as superbia.
2. Envy or jealousy: resentment of others for their possessions (Dante: "love of one's own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs"). In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, envy is referred to as invidia.
3. Wrath or anger: feelings of hatred, revenge or denial, as well as punitive desires outside of justice (Dante's description was "love of justice perverted to revenge and spite"). In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, wrath is referred to as ira, which primitive vices tempt astray by increasingly perverting the proper purpose of charity, directing it inwards, leading to a disordered navel-gazing preoccupation with personal goods in isolation absent proper harmonious relations leading to violent disruption of balance with others.
4. Sloth or laziness: idleness and wastefulness of time or other allotted resources. Laziness is condemned because it results in others having to work harder; also, useful work will not be done. Sloth is referred to in Latin as accidie or acedia, which vice tempts a self-aware soul to be too easily satisfied, thwarting charity's purpose as insufficiently perceptible within the soul itself or abjectly indifferent in relationship with the needs of others and their satisfaction, an escalation in evil, more odious than the passion of hate
5. Avarice (covetousness, greed): a desire to possess more than one has need or use for (or according to Dante, "excessive love of money and power"). In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, avarice is referred to as avaritia.
6. Gluttony: overindulgence in food, drink or intoxicants, or misplaced desire of food as a pleasure for its sensuality ("excessive love of pleasure" was Dante's rendering). In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, gluttony is referred to as gula.
7. Lust: excessive sexual desire. Dante's criterion was that "lust detracts from true love". In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, lust is referred to as luxuria, which vices tempt cultivated souls in their ability to direct charity's proper purpose to good things or actions, by indulging excess. Thus in Dante's estimation, the soul's detachment from sensual appetites become the vices most difficult to tame, urges not as easily curbed by mere good manners since inflamed via appropriate use rather than inappropriate misuse. Hence conventional respect for the ninth and tenth commandments against coveting and social customs that encourage custody of the eyes and ears become prudent adjuncts to training against vice.

In Hinduism, arishadvarga or shadripu (Sanskrit: षड्रिपु; meaning the six enemies) are the six enemies of the mind.

These are the fundamental tenets of Kali Yuga. The more each individual fights against them, the longer Dharma will endure in this yuga.

1. Lust or desire for sensual pleasure – काम (Kama)
2. Anger – क्रोध (Krodha)
3. Greed – लोभ (Lobha)
4. Want/desire – मोह (Moha)
5. Ego – मद (Mada)
6. Envy or Jealousy – मत्सर्य (Matsarya)

In Sikhism, the Five Thieves (Punjabi: ਪੰਜ ਚੋਰ, pronunciation: [pand͡ʒ t͡ʃoɝ]), also called the five evils or the five vices (Punjabi: ਪੰਜ ਬੁਰਾਈਆਂ paja burā'ī'āṁ),[1] are the five major weaknesses of the human personality at variance with its spiritual essence, and are known as "thieves" because they steal a person's inherent common sense. These five thieves are kaam (lust), krodh (wrath), lobh (greed), moh (attachment) and ahankar (ego or excessive pride).

In the Mahayana tradition, the five main kleshas are referred to as the five poisons (Sanskrit: pañca kleśaviṣa; Tibetan-Wylie: dug lnga).

The five poisons consist of the three poisons with two additional poisons: pride and jealousy. Altogether, the five poisons are:

Tree of Vices & Virtues

Tree of virtues (arbor virtutum) Tree of vices (arbor vitiorum)

A matching pair of a tree of vices and a tree of virtues, from a manuscript of Speculum Virginum (Walters Art Museum Ms. W.72, foll. 25v & 26r, dated ca. 1200)

the seven heavenly virtues

the seven heavenly virtues combine the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude with the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

The seven capital virtues, also known as seven lively virtues, contrary or remedial virtues, are those opposite to the seven deadly sins. They are often enumerated as chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, kindness, patience, and humility.

The term "cardinal virtues" (virtutes cardinales) was first used by the 4th-century theologian Ambrose[1] who defined the four virtues as "temperance, justice, prudence, and fortitude".[2] These were also named as cardinal virtues by Augustine of Hippo, and were subsequently adopted by the Catholic Church. They are described as "human virtues" in the Catholic Catechism.[3]

Prior to Ambrose, these four qualities were identified by the Greek philosopher Plato as the necessary character traits of a good man, and were discussed by other ancient authors such as Cicero. They can also be found in the Old Testament Book of Wisdom, which states that wisdom "teaches moderation and prudence, righteousness and fortitude, and nothing in life is more useful than these."[4]

The traditional understanding of the difference between cardinal and theological virtues is that the latter are not fully accessible to humans in their natural state without assistance from God.[6] Thomas Aquinas believed that while the cardinal virtues could be formed through habitual practice, the theological virtues could only be practised by divine grace.[7]