Do animals and plants have souls? Do animals and plants have a Soul and how does it differ from humans? Do birds have souls?

Anastasia Ivanovna Tsvetaeva, who, by the way, was a deeply religious person, shortly before her death wrote a letter to her longtime friend Archimandrite Viktor (Mamontov) with her thoughts about the future fate of animals. No matter how many times she asked the priests, no one gave a clear answer. Meanwhile, for Tsvetaeva this question was far from idle.

In her letter, she refers to the artist Surikov’s story about the cat’s extraordinary devotion to his relative, and this feeling did not fade away even after the death of the owner. The cat sat on the threshold throughout the funeral service, and then wandered off with everyone to the funeral and remained at the grave, where it froze to death.

Anastasia Ivanovna found the answer to her question in the book “Heaven and Hell.” There was a story about blessed Andrew, who was raptured to the third heaven and there, marveling at the indescribable height and beauty of the trees of paradise, he saw gliding animals the color of dawn and sky, and their wool was like silk, and they echoed with musical sounds. And while he was marveling, a Voice came to him from above: “Why are you surprised, Andrey? Do you really think that God will give even one of His creatures decay?”

Where will our pets be after death? Will we meet them? Probably, everyone in whose care a dumb creature is, tried to find the answer to this question. One day, a girl asked Father Alexander Me if her dog would go to heaven. And about. Alexander replied that the Gospel does not say this directly, but he really hopes that when he comes to the next world, his two dogs will run out to meet him with joyful barking.

Marina Andreevna Zhurinskaya, editor of the Orthodox educational magazine “Alpha and Omega”, author of the wonderful book “Teddy Bear and Some Other Cats”, believes that it is possible to communicate with our pets after death: “They probably won’t talk, but we can understand them. There is such a nice theory that pets are the saints of the animal world. Animals are completely innocent creatures and do not know sin, but all the consequences of the human fall fell on them. They suffer for a person, but still come to him and live with him. You’ve probably seen more than once how some vile drunkard almost hits his dog in the face with his boot, and she looks at him with adoration.”

I have heard more than once that priests refuse to bless a house if there is a dog in it. A person is faced with a difficult choice. In fact, priests are ordinary people who can be mistaken. Dogs have no place in the temple, not because they are “dirty” animals. The reason is that the dog does not always know how to behave decently. She can bark during the service - that's all.

The late patriarch had both dogs and cats in his house. And if His Holiness is not a decree for these people, then what can we talk about?

Peace to you, Sveta!

On the issue of the presence of spirit and soul in animals:

just be strictly careful not to eat blood, because blood is the soul: do not eat the soul along with the meat;
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because the life of the body is in the blood, and I have appointed it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for this blood makes atonement for the soul;
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The question is not even whether animals have souls, but what is their “soul”? In the Bible this word is often used as an equivalent to the concept "LIFE". Take a look. People, instead, usually imagine a certain “ethereal image” that continues to exist after the destruction of the organic body.

21 Who knows whether the spirit of the sons of men ascends upward, or whether the spirit of animals descends down to the earth?
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Ezekiel also talks about some other animals - cherubim, at least the prophet calls them “animals”, using the same word as in the chapter where it talks about living beings:

20 Wherever the spirit wanted to go, there they went; Wherever the spirit went, the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the animals [was] in the wheels.
21 When they went, they also went; and when they stood, they stood; and when they rose from the ground, then the wheels also rose along with them, for the spirit of the animals [was] in the wheels.
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16 And when the Cherubim walked, then the wheels walked beside them; and when the Cherubim lifted up their wings to rise from the earth, and the wheels were not separated, but were with them.
17 While they stood, they also stood; when they rose, they also rose; for they [had] the spirit of animals.
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You should not quarrel with your neighbors over these issues. Better go and make peace!

There is no obvious sin in blood transfusions, and today synthetic plasma is used instead of blood. When the life of your neighbor depends on this transfusion, then remember what Jesus did - He gave His blood and flesh for your salvation.

Blessings,
Victor

Read more on the topic "Death, heaven and hell, soul and spirit":

Probably every Orthodox Christian would like his pet to receive eternal life. A logical question arises: can animals get into the Kingdom of Heaven? First, it’s worth studying the comments of theologians on this matter and understanding whether animals have a soul at all.

The soul of animals and humans: what is the difference

Do not forget that all life in this world was created by the Lord God. Initially, man was the crown of creation and lived with the Almighty in harmony and love. As you know, man was created in the likeness of God.

God created the first people, Adam and Eve, in his own image and likeness

Man's stay in Paradise was the best and most beneficial time. From biblical stories and descriptions one can understand that animals also inhabited the Garden of Eden. They lived in harmony with the first people, Adam and Eve. Adam himself gave names to these animals, and they were in his power. Death and suffering did not exist, but all this ended when the forefathers committed the Fall. Along with human nature, the nature of animals has also been damaged. Now all living things were subject to physical and spiritual death.

The man was faced with sin, which he had to overcome in order to return the lost Paradise. Scripture speaks of the renewed nature of man after the second coming of the Savior and of a Paradise inhabited by various animals. Hence, animals also have souls. But this soul differs from the human one, since it is perishable. According to Scripture, the soul of an animal is in its blood. And blood is nothing more than flesh. Flesh is characterized by death and decay. The soul of man is immortal, since man himself was created in the image of God.

What do we know about the soul:

However, the nature of the animal's soul is not fully revealed. Theologians have tried to interpret the words from the Holy Scriptures on this matter, but there are no clear opinions to this day. It is not known how the renewed animals will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Some theologians believed that such animals would be those who once met a person during earthly life. Saint Theophan the Recluse believed that for each animal and plant the Lord will create one soul, like one ideal collective image of a dog, cat, etc.

Important! Sometimes love for a pet goes beyond all acceptable boundaries. Jesus Christ commanded first to love God, and then our neighbor and all living beings.

For example, if a person’s pet is more important than his own relatives or friends, then we can safely talk about the wrong spiritual life of such a person.

Where does the soul of animals go after death?

As was said earlier, the soul of an animal is mortal, since animals were originally created to serve man. The Lord even commanded Noah to eat animals and plants for food and to sacrifice them, but forbade him to consume blood, since it contains the soul of the animal.

Every person should treat animals with love

Christian theologians have never come to one point of view regarding the afterlife of animals:

• some expect to meet their pets in heaven;
• others insist that they will meet only a renewed image of the animal.

However, only the future life will lift this veil of ignorance. As for earthly life, everything is a little clearer here. It turns out that you can pray for pets. It is not about the forgiveness of sins or the repose of the soul, because animals by nature did not sin, but were forced to follow man after his fall. And the soul of the animal dies along with its body.

You can turn to God in prayer when an animal is sick or lost. There is a patron saint of cats. There are other saints in the history of the Church who, without any fear, lived side by side with wild animals and even fed them from their hands. Every person should treat animals with love, because these creatures are forced to suffer for the fall of the human race.

Interesting! Orthodox Christians to this day are not recommended to consume animal blood for food. In the Middle Ages, animals that consumed the blood were excommunicated from Communion.

What awaits animals after death?

The word soul is understood by people in different ways. For those who do not believe in God, this is the consciousness, emotions, character of a person, his personality, which will die along with the body. For believers, it is a link between life and expected eternity. Let us consider the question of the existence of the soul in animals from different points of view. By the way, if you can’t help the four-legged one, then it’s worth looking at the information on the website, which is needed only in the most extreme and hopeless situations.

It will not be superfluous to familiarize yourself with other articles of this project, which provide answers to numerous questions from the owners of such cute and beloved pets, and also highlight the most interesting aspects of their life, their care and treatment of diseases.

Do cats, cats, kittens and dogs have souls?

Those who have ever kept pets will say with confidence that all the signs of personality can be observed in them.

They understand human speech, experience emotions, and have an individual character. This means that animals have all the signs of having a soul.

Where does the soul of a kitten go after death?

To answer the question of where the soul of a deceased animal goes, you need to know where the human soul will be after death. It is useless to convince a person who does not believe in God that after death his beloved kitten will go to heaven.

Where does a cat's soul go after death? Psychic answer

For some reason, psychics in our age are considered people with special knowledge and gifts. But in fact, these are either charlatans or those who communicate with demons. The soul of a cat, according to psychics, can haunt its owner or help him after death. If this bothers you, the psychic will know what you need to say to be believed.

Do cats have a soul and at what time and where does it go after death?

It is possible to say that the soul of a cat goes to some place after death only if one believes in immortality and the existence of God. The Bible, the book left to people by God, does not specifically say whether animals have a soul and where it goes after death.

Of course, when you get to heaven, you want to meet your beloved cat, who got there after death.

Does a cat have a soul according to Orthodoxy (Orthodoxy) church opinion

According to the church, the connecting link between God and man is the spirit, which comes to life after repentance and baptism and is immortal. Therefore, the Orthodox Church cannot recognize the existence of a cat’s soul.

Is it possible to pray for an animal and how to pray for animals

You can pray for an animal if it gets sick. Pray for recovery. If the animal has died, you need to pray for yourself in order to calm down and humble yourself.

Soul of a cat after death 9 and 40 days

Funeral services for a deceased person are traditionally held on the 9th and 40th day after death, in order to intercede for him with prayers before God. There is no such tradition for remembering dead cats.

Soul of a cat after death ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians deified the cat. After her death, she was buried with honors in a special cemetery. The body of a deceased cat was mummified so that after death it could gain eternal life.

The cat's soul returns home, can stay close to its owners and be reborn into a human or not.

The belief that the souls of animals after death move into new bodies of animals or people is characteristic of many religions, except Orthodoxy. Dead animals or people should not return home, because they will only be resurrected on the last day of judgment.

A person, under the guise of the spirits of deceased beloved animals (a cat, for example), can be bothered by demons.

This is how our Orthodox Church covers the topic “do animals have souls”:

The soul of an animal is in its blood. And an animal, like a person, consists of spirit, soul and body.

What is the soul? In its simplest form, in animals, it is a complex of organic and sensory perceptions, thoughts and feelings, traces of memories, or only (in lower animals) a complex of organic sensations, united by self-consciousness (the mind in higher animals). The primitive spirit of animals is only the breath of life (among the lower ones).

As creatures rise up the ladder, their spirituality grows, and the rudiments of mind, will and feeling are added to the breath of life.

In man, the soul is much higher in its essence, for the spirit participating in its activity is incomparable with the spirit of animals. He may possess the highest gifts of the Holy Spirit, which St. The prophet Isaiah (11:1-3) calls it the spirit of the fear of God, the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of strength and strength, the spirit of light, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of the Lord, or the gift of piety and inspiration to the highest degree.

The spirit and soul of a person are inseparably united during life into a single essence; but you can also see different degrees of spirituality in people. There are spiritual people, according to the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 2:14).

There are people - cattle, people - grass, there are people - angels. The former are not much different from cattle, for their spirituality is very low, and the latter are close to disembodied spirits who have neither body nor soul.

So, the soul can be understood as a set of organic and sensory perceptions, traces of memories, thoughts, feelings and acts of will, but without the obligatory participation in this complex of higher manifestations of the spirit, which are not characteristic of animals and some people. The Apostle Jude speaks about them: These are natural people who have no spirit (Jude 1:19).

In self-consciousness during life, the life of the spirit is closely intertwined with those mental acts that are common to man and animals, that is, with organic sensations and sensory perceptions: these latter, in turn, are inextricably linked with the life of the body, especially the brain, and disappear with death bodies. Therefore, the primitive soul of animals is mortal, just as those elements of human self-consciousness that emanate from a deceased body (organic and sensory perceptions) are mortal.

But those elements of self-consciousness that are associated with the life of the spirit are immortal. Materialists deny the immortality of the soul precisely because they do not want to know anything about the spirit. But we are not talking about the immortality of self-consciousness, understood purely physiologically.

Let us now see whether Holy Scripture gives us the right to understand spirit and soul in the way we have just outlined. We think that our understanding of the soul and spirit is completely consistent with Revelation.

The word “soul” is used in Scripture in various senses. In common parlance, it simply means the whole person: “Not a single soul,” “no soul.” Not a single soul of you will perish, says St. Apostle Paul to his ship companions.

That soul is synonymous with life.

His soul will be his instead of prey (Jer. 21:9).

Those who sought the soul of the Child died (Matthew 2:20).

Their bread is for their souls (Hosea 9:4).

Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink (Matthew 6:25).

And here are a number of texts that clearly talk about what could be called the “animal soul.”

Their soul melted away within them... He satisfied the thirsty soul and filled the hungry soul with good things... Their soul turned away from all food... Their soul melted away in disaster (Ps. 106:5-26).

He will feed... and his soul will be satisfied on Mount Ephraim (Jer. 50:19).

My soul will be satisfied with them (prey) (Ex. 15:9).

A hungry man dreams that he is eating... and his soul is lean... he dreams that he is drinking... and his soul is thirsty (Is. 29:8)..

Let those who are accustomed to the idea of ​​the immortality of the soul not be confused by our words about the immortality of the spirit. This is not an innovation, for in most places in Holy Scripture where death is discussed, it is the leaving of the body by the spirit, and not the soul, that is spoken of.

Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead (James 2:26).
And her (Jairus’s daughter) spirit returned (Luke 8:55).
I commend my spirit into Your hand (Ps. 30:6; Luke 23:46).
Lord Jesus! receive my spirit (Acts 7:59).
His spirit will depart, and he will return to his land: on that day all his thoughts will perish (Ps. 145:4).
And the dust will return to the earth, as it was: and the spirit will return to God, who gave it (Eccl. 12:7).

These last two texts are especially important for substantiating our opinion that those elements of mental activity that are associated with the life of the body are mortal: feelings and thought processes that are inextricably linked with the activity of the brain.

On that day all his thoughts will perish, that is, the activity of consciousness, for which all perceptions of the living brain are necessary, will cease.

It is not the soul that will leave, but the spirit, and will return to its land, that is, to eternity. The dust will return to the ground as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

And the spirit of animals, of course, must be immortal, for it also has its beginning in the Spirit of God, the immortal Spirit.

The idea of ​​the immortality of the animal spirit is clearly contained in Paul’s famous words about the hope of all creation (Rom. 8:20-21): ... in the hope that the creation itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

In a few places in Holy Scripture, death is defined as the departure of the soul (and not the spirit) from the body (Gen. 35:18; Acts 20:10; Ps. 15:10). This is easily explained by the fact that in the Bible in general, especially in the psalms, the word soul is often used in the generally accepted sense, that is, as the totality of all mental and spiritual activity. But we say that during life, the spirit and soul of a person are united into a single essence, which can simply be called the soul.

In this sense, we must also understand those texts that speak about the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When will His soul bring the sacrifice of propitiation... (Is. 53:10).
His soul was not left in hell (Acts 2:31).
My soul grieves unto death (Matthew 26:38).
My soul is now troubled (John 12:27).

The Lord suffered and died according to His human nature, and therefore these texts are understandable.

But the soul of God Himself is also spoken of in the following texts: And My soul will turn away from them, just as their soul turns away from Me (Zech. 11:8). His soul did not endure the suffering of Israel (Judges 10:16). He who loves violence is hated by His soul (Ps. 10:5).

But, of course, this is not only a metaphor. It is impossible to speak of the soul of the absolute Spirit as of the soul of man, a limited and embodied spirit. Here we can only talk about an analogy with the human spirit, according to which we attribute mind, thinking, will and feelings to God. This is how we understand the image of God in man.

A person’s consciousness of his personality is formed from organic sensations received from his body, from perceptions received by his senses, from the entire set of memories, from an understanding of his spirit, character, and moods.

Where is self-awareness formed from these elements, who is its subject? Not the mind, as is usually understood, but the spirit. For the mind is only a part of the spirit, and not the whole spirit. But a part cannot embrace the whole. This is an important conclusion... not arbitrary, but based on the words of the Apostle Paul: For what man knows what is in a man, except the spirit of man which dwells in him? Likewise, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:11-12).

We perceive the deepest essence of our being not with our minds, but with our spirit. Self-awareness is a function of the spirit, not the mind. We recognize the effect of God’s grace given to us from God not by the spirit of this world, but by our spirit, given to us by God.

The same thought is in the words of the wise Solomon: The lamp of the Lord is the spirit of man, testing all the depths of the heart (Proverbs 20:27).

Much can be found in the Holy Scriptures about the spirit, as the highest force of our spiritual activity. Here are examples: He who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (Gal. 6:8). But not the spiritual first, but the natural, then the spiritual (1 Cor. 15:46). This means that spirituality is the highest achievement of the human soul.

The fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). Be on fire in the Spirit (Rom. 12:11). He speaks mysteries by the spirit (1 Cor. 14:2). The spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding (Job 32:8). The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41). Both my word and my preaching are not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power (1 Cor. 2:4). Cast away from yourself all your sins that you have committed, and create for yourself a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek. 18:31).

Here is the idea of ​​a close connection between the heart and spirit, confirming what we said about the primary role of the heart in consciousness.

And my spirit rejoiced in God my Savior (Luke 1:47).

He rejoices in God. God worships, the human spirit strives and approaches God. And this, of course, is the highest ability of our soul.

Of course, such a perfect manifestation of the spirituality of the human soul can only be a gift of the Holy Spirit. Revelation testifies to this quite clearly: I will put My spirit within you (Ezek. 36:27).

And since you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: “Abba, Father!” (Gal. 4:6).

What can we say about the spirit of animals? They, like people, are by nature carriers of a certain spirit.

Animals of the same breed can be brave and cowardly, angry and gloomy, affectionate and cheerful. They are not characterized by the highest properties of spirituality - religiosity, moral sense, philosophical and scientific thinking, subtle artistic and musical sensitivity. But love and the beginnings of altruism, as well as aesthetic feelings, are also characteristic of animals.

Not the highest form of love, not Divine love, but only family love; but in this love swans and doves are perhaps even superior to people. There are known facts of the suicide of a swan that has lost its girlfriend: it flies high, folds its wings and falls like a stone to the ground.

The lower the level of the zoological ladder of perfection of forms they stand at, the lower the degree of spirituality in animals. The exception to this rule is love among birds. In parallel with this, one can to some extent put the fact that the highest forms of love and religiosity are often discovered by simple, uneducated people.

Higher animals, bearers of at least limited spirituality, must have self-awareness in a primitive form.

Couldn't a dog say: I'm cold, I'm sick, my owner is treating me badly. The degree of self-awareness of animals is determined by the development of their minds and the degree of spirituality available to them.

Materials used from the website "Orthodoxy in Tatarstan"