You may place your testimony at the bottom of the Page that applies to where God has brought you from. Check out the Pages on this site below.
Breaking the Chain of Lies so you can be FREE!
This is my Battle cry: Gal. 4:16
“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”
Read "END TIME DELUSIONS"
By Steve Wohlberg
This is A MUST READ IF YOU WANT TRUTH ABOUT THE LAST DAYS IN THIS TIME OF MUCH DELUSION ABOUT THE LAST DAYS!
MOST THINGS FROM RAY COMFORT I really love EXCEPT the "prophetical minefield" called dispensationalism!
I TRUST VERY LITTLE TODAY ABOUT "THE LAST DAYS" AS I AM NOW AN HISTORICIST AND DO NOT BELIEVE A MAJORITY OF THE PREACHERS OUT THERE THAT HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAST DAYS!
I spent years teaching this prophetic nightmare, I was "Left Behind" the 8 Ball so to speak....
It's NOT that they don't love God or even are purposefully deceiving us, it's just that we have left our true roots!
The Church WAS NEVER this prophetically confused in it's early days, they had real purpose and direction and didn't hide behind the shell game of man-made prophetic ideas!
THE HISTORICIST VIEWPOINT IS THE MOST BIBLICAL VIEWPOINT HELD BY A MAJORITY OF OUR CHURCH FATHERS AND BIBLE WRITER'S
CHECK IT OUT ON HISTORICIST.COM SOMETIME!
Break out of your religious and intellectual Chains!
Break out of your religious and intellectual Chains!
- Truth ONLY comes to those who search for it not to those who settle for less!
Click the following links to listen to audio recordings of a series of sermons on Matthew 24 by Pastor Joe Haynes.
The sermon series is titled, "Are We Living in the End Times?" Delivered during the month of January, 2008.
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The Real Truth about the organized Church of today may surprise you, unless you are one of its deceived victims!!!
It is PAST time that TRUE Christians the world over stop what their doing and realize that its their "Church-ianity" that the world really does hate!
I mean really, their supposed to hate US not our FAKE CHRISTIAN LIVES we surround ourselves with.
Not because we go to DEAD churches to hear DEAD sermons about DEAD faithless, platitude's that don't change lives. I as a minister of the Gospel these 37 ys.
I have both witnessed my OWN hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of the church in general; BUT is this not the MAIN reason the world hates us (Because of our Hypocrisy) and not the true reason THAT Jesus said we should be hated for (Because we TRY to convict of sin and unrighteousness)?
Think about it!
Matthew 7:22-24 (King James Version)
"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:"
We should not be despised because we can't follow the Lord the way he told us too, we should be hated literally because they hate Jesus and see him in us.
"A cult is a religion with no political power." — Tom Wolfe.
"A religion is a cult that succeeded." And true Christianity was NEVER meant to be ether one.
The Organized Church of today DOES NOT IN ANY WAY resemble the New
Testament believers because these days we spend so much wasted time
DISPROVING WHAT WE SHOULD BE BELIEVING !
The Warriors Creed says it all about what we all should be doing for God!
"I Am a Soldier
I am a soldier in the army of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is my Commanding Officer.
The Holy Bible is my code of conduct.
Faith, Prayer, and the Word are my weapons of Warfare.
I have been taught by the Holy Spirit, trained by experience, tried by adversity, and tested by fire.
I am a volunteer in this army, and I am enlisted for eternity.
I will either retire in this Army or die in this Army;
but, I will not get out, sell out, be talked out, or pushed out.
I am faithful, reliable, capable, and dependable.
If my God needs me, I am there.
I am a soldier. I am not a baby.
I do not need to be pampered, petted, primed up,
pumped up, picked up, or pepped up.
I am a soldier. No one has to call me, remind me, write me, visit me, entice me, or lure me.
I am a soldier. I am not a wimp.
I am in place, saluting my King, obeying His orders,
praising His name, and building His kingdom!
No one has to send me flowers, gifts, food, cards, candy, or give me handouts.
I do not need to be cuddled, cradled, cared for, or catered to.
I am committed. I cannot have my feelings hurt bad enough to turn me around.
I cannot be discouraged enough to turn me aside.
I cannot lose enough to cause me to quit.
When Jesus called me into this Army, I had nothing.
If I end up with nothing, I will still come out even. I will win.
My God will supply all my needs.
I am more than a conqueror.
I will always triumph. I can do all things through Christ.
Devils cannot defeat me. People cannot disillusion me.
Weather cannot weary me.
Sickness cannot stop me.
Battles cannot beat me. Money cannot buy me.
Governments cannot silence me, and hell cannot handle me!
I am a soldier.
Even death cannot destroy me.
For when my Commander calls me from this battlefield,
He will promote me to a captain.
I am a soldier, in the Army, I'm marching, claiming victory.
I will not give up. I will not turn around. I am a soldier, marching Heaven bound.
There are four kinds of soldiers:
1. Active Duty: Serving the Lord faithfully, daily, and on duty 24-7-365.
2. Reserve Status: Serving only when called upon, or twice a year: Christmas and Easter.
3. Guard Status: Backing up the Active Duty group.
4. AWOL! Absent With Out the Lord.
Which kind are you?
Be an army of one TRUE SOLDIER for an audience of One TRUE GOD.
The answer to the question " Can God really free me?
is of course..YES...YES...YES!!! If your "god " cannot deliver from anything and everything...THEN WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU SERVE that god?
The personal testimony of The "Minister of Blog" Clarence F. Sargent
I was raised in a small town, called Taunton, Mass., after having moved from Ellsworth Maine where I was born.
I do not know who my real mother and father were [yet] but I do know I know of the Sovereignty of God and his personal care of my life.
I can go on with my life knowing his plans have my best interest at heart.
In God's plan, I was adopted at birth by a very loving couple who were childless and really wanted me, my mother Mary was a "backsliding Baptist" and my Father, an agnostic who was level-headed and down to earth.
Now you have to realize that I only found out about my adoption when I turned 29; long after my Adopted mom and dad had died and I had already become a Christian.
I found out when I received a letter from the social security administration telling me of a Sister who wished to get in touch with me.
My Sister told me that my real mom was a full-blooded native American Indian, of which I am proud to have in my bloodline. The reason I was adopted was because she had originally wanted an abortion as she could not care for me and all my siblings, something many single mom's experience!
( I know now, that this is the ultimate rejection of a child in the womb, not an act of love but of selfishness because of personal inconvenience.)
She was actually at the doors of the Abortion clinic when some pro-lifers began to talk her into adoption instead of murdering me, I thank God for those who will stand up and stand out in this world for something good; if they had not, I would be among the millions a dead babies in a dumpster somewhere in Maine. I am proud also of My REAL MOM, that she had the courage to give me up for adoption, and it does take real courage!
I think you know where I stand on abortion as a result of this.
No amount of arguments can convince you if YOU would have died BY Abortion that a child in the womb is not human enough to live, I have a unique perspective.
I was raised in a lower middle class family and not used to the so-called "good things in life" as far as wealth is concerned but I was very much-loved and that’s what really mattered anyway.
BUT.... all that said, it was soon to change because of an "utterly stupid" decision of mine.
I began to practice the occult in small ways in my teen years; and it all started one afternoon when I was 6 years old sitting in front of the “boob tube” watching an seemingly innocent television show called “Bewitched” and from the moment that show aired [in 1964] I was hooked, on the concept at least; of witchcraft, very innocently at first but nevertheless I was hooked.
What is the Craft? Who are the Witches? And should we be afraid of them?
What is a Witch or Wizard? What do I Have to Fear?
By Clarence Sargent (The Ministerofblog)
What is a Witch?Well in a most basic way witches or wizards are people who can mentally afflict others with harm or good by thinking them harm or good. But that is as far as they believe they can do because it is in the Freudian doctrine of the Omnipotence of Thought, that we find the belief that mankind can make use of their imaginations so they can affect others actions.They believe even the course of nature or circumstances themselves, simply by the projection of their thoughts towards them, either in an evil or good way can change the way nature or circumstances in the natural order of things works.
What about spells or hexes?
Casting spells are the ways and means to defend themselves against their fears, these actions are the end result of a base fear in all of mankind without the truth of God.Man always fears things he doesn't have the ability to understand outside of his or her personal space.This is the philosophy behind spell-casting in the first place, to use a person's own fears against them, to do themselves in by personal fear dwelling within them.The Witch or Wizard simply needs to find out specific information about their enemies life which in this day and age is not to hard to do. Once this information is known, all that is needed then is a personal item, a lock of hair or picture of them or family for personal connection, and the CURSE takes root in the mind and filters down to the spirit of the victim.
The real secret any form of witchcraft lies in the very nature of the human mind itself, and the projection of mental energies, which is simply conversion of feelings of guilt or anger into hostility towards others and is a well-known human problem that God hates.
This is responsible not only for the illusion of persecution but the need for a scapegoat. This seems to be a tendency in the human mind ( What the Bible terms the human Soul ) that doesn't get the renewing of spiritual rebirth through the Word of God.
Unfortunately this basic definition of a Witch covers a wide range of Christian practice in the church of the modern day as well as the occult.
This form of practice in the Church reveals itself through our worship and our prayers which we OVERLY ATTACH to the "emotion center" of our the brains, which if not kept in check by the reborn spirit can LEAD US DOWN A PATH THAT IS NOT OF GOD'S CREATION.
God never intended for our emotions to control our lives but only to enhance our spiritual experience.
Witchcraft utilizes ONLY that part of spirit (The Soul) which is LIMITED in man's incomplete understanding because of sin, it is not a TRUE SPIRITUAL POWER at all; but is anchored to the mind of the flesh as is taught in Galatians 5:18-25
"But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition's, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
The old adage that says "If you do not set your belief on something that makes sense you'll set it upon NON-sense instead" and ANY form of the craft is "spiritual non-sense" because no amount of mind or flesh can ever equal an once of spirit!
How exactly is the Human Psyche effected by the "power of suggestion?" Well let's look at the radio broadcast drama "The War of the World's" by Orson Wells in the early 50s, not only was the power of suggestion well utilized, but it also began the era of mythical urban legends of our modern day society.
This broadcast proves that this is a power to be reckoned with when properly instituted, even if it were by accident.
The human psyche acts just like a shield; but like anything else, it eventually is pierced through by the power of over and over suggestion, this is how urban legends get a foothold in our minds and how traumatic events that happen in succession can change our thoughts to a more negative overall belief system .
Unbelievably, the power of suggestion can be not only our mental undoing in the negative sense; but can also be the catalyst for the complete mental regrouping or intuitive spark of the human psyche in the most positive sense as well, so we cannot throw out this power as "of the devil", he simply uses what he has available in the creation of God. This is how God changes our lives so it is a good thing if used by him through us.
What this is, is a mental faculty that we were created with so that we could use our faith to function in life, without the power to suggest to our minds we would never be able to believe God for anything.
When we speak of the power of suggestion in the Christian faith it can be BOTH a negative in the sense of believing a "wrong doctrine" over all the facts to the contrary.
But it can be a positive in the sense that our faith in God is better increased because the mind is taken out of the way and put in a proper place, it simply translates to the mind being convinced of spiritual facts no matter what the physical circumstance reveals.
Thus faith rules over physical law and can "recreate the physical circumstances" preventing a miracle from happening or being viewed in the physical realm.
The power of suggestion can indeed be viewed as the "omnipotent" part of God's faith when used in positive conjunction with affirmations as a method of the treatment of disease.
We have all experienced the power of suggestion any time we go shopping yet there is no witchcraft involved here, so it is a safe form if used alone with a heavy dose of "Self-control". The power of suggestion is everywhere and those who practice the Craft are simply using a tool available to the whole of mankind.
Another great example of the power of suggestion is the" placebo effect" where in testing they use a "sugar tablet" instead of the drug with half the group and the drug with other half and tell both groups they are getting better and watch the effect work time after time.
The bad news is that this power can work in the opposite direction and cause great damage and hurt simply because man without God has a missing part- Hope. There is no power so persuasive as the power of suggestion and Satan knows this all to well, after all he received 2/3rd's of heaven angels to follow him!
The power of the mind is the form of putting words in an order to make others interested in what you have to say...Advertising plan and simple....advertising what you want others to think about over and over. When we work to conquer obstacles in our way, we work to put the power of suggestion in motion.
When people are conditioned, it is usually easy to use the power of suggestion if our words are distributed properly, this is how "Organizations" of all types control their memberships to think the common thread of thought as one.
Everyday we are all open to the power of suggestion, whether we are at home, at work, or other areas of society. Recognizing the positive and negative forces of the power of suggestion can help us to avoid unwanted feelings that can affect our thinking process.
If you think about the hypocrisy in many religions today, you can see that people are often under the power of suggestion. Learning, reading, and meditating can help us to gain control over our thoughts vs. others' thoughts and avoid the unwanted suggestions.
When we have "evidence" that upholds our words such as the Bible, we have the ingredient that leads us to the proper use power of Self-suggestion effectively and Biblical based.
It is very important that as believers we NOT fear anything that God intends for good, but simply use as intended. Witchcraft cannot harm a true believer solidly standing upon the rock of God's commands!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Clarence_Sargent
By Clarence Sargent (The Ministerofblog)
What is a Witch?Well in a most basic way witches or wizards are people who can mentally afflict others with harm or good by thinking them harm or good. But that is as far as they believe they can do because it is in the Freudian doctrine of the Omnipotence of Thought, that we find the belief that mankind can make use of their imaginations so they can affect others actions.They believe even the course of nature or circumstances themselves, simply by the projection of their thoughts towards them, either in an evil or good way can change the way nature or circumstances in the natural order of things works.
What about spells or hexes?
Casting spells are the ways and means to defend themselves against their fears, these actions are the end result of a base fear in all of mankind without the truth of God.Man always fears things he doesn't have the ability to understand outside of his or her personal space.This is the philosophy behind spell-casting in the first place, to use a person's own fears against them, to do themselves in by personal fear dwelling within them.The Witch or Wizard simply needs to find out specific information about their enemies life which in this day and age is not to hard to do. Once this information is known, all that is needed then is a personal item, a lock of hair or picture of them or family for personal connection, and the CURSE takes root in the mind and filters down to the spirit of the victim.
The real secret any form of witchcraft lies in the very nature of the human mind itself, and the projection of mental energies, which is simply conversion of feelings of guilt or anger into hostility towards others and is a well-known human problem that God hates.
This is responsible not only for the illusion of persecution but the need for a scapegoat. This seems to be a tendency in the human mind ( What the Bible terms the human Soul ) that doesn't get the renewing of spiritual rebirth through the Word of God.
Unfortunately this basic definition of a Witch covers a wide range of Christian practice in the church of the modern day as well as the occult.
This form of practice in the Church reveals itself through our worship and our prayers which we OVERLY ATTACH to the "emotion center" of our the brains, which if not kept in check by the reborn spirit can LEAD US DOWN A PATH THAT IS NOT OF GOD'S CREATION.
God never intended for our emotions to control our lives but only to enhance our spiritual experience.
Witchcraft utilizes ONLY that part of spirit (The Soul) which is LIMITED in man's incomplete understanding because of sin, it is not a TRUE SPIRITUAL POWER at all; but is anchored to the mind of the flesh as is taught in Galatians 5:18-25
"But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition's, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
The old adage that says "If you do not set your belief on something that makes sense you'll set it upon NON-sense instead" and ANY form of the craft is "spiritual non-sense" because no amount of mind or flesh can ever equal an once of spirit!
How exactly is the Human Psyche effected by the "power of suggestion?" Well let's look at the radio broadcast drama "The War of the World's" by Orson Wells in the early 50s, not only was the power of suggestion well utilized, but it also began the era of mythical urban legends of our modern day society.
This broadcast proves that this is a power to be reckoned with when properly instituted, even if it were by accident.
The human psyche acts just like a shield; but like anything else, it eventually is pierced through by the power of over and over suggestion, this is how urban legends get a foothold in our minds and how traumatic events that happen in succession can change our thoughts to a more negative overall belief system .
Unbelievably, the power of suggestion can be not only our mental undoing in the negative sense; but can also be the catalyst for the complete mental regrouping or intuitive spark of the human psyche in the most positive sense as well, so we cannot throw out this power as "of the devil", he simply uses what he has available in the creation of God. This is how God changes our lives so it is a good thing if used by him through us.
What this is, is a mental faculty that we were created with so that we could use our faith to function in life, without the power to suggest to our minds we would never be able to believe God for anything.
When we speak of the power of suggestion in the Christian faith it can be BOTH a negative in the sense of believing a "wrong doctrine" over all the facts to the contrary.
But it can be a positive in the sense that our faith in God is better increased because the mind is taken out of the way and put in a proper place, it simply translates to the mind being convinced of spiritual facts no matter what the physical circumstance reveals.
Thus faith rules over physical law and can "recreate the physical circumstances" preventing a miracle from happening or being viewed in the physical realm.
The power of suggestion can indeed be viewed as the "omnipotent" part of God's faith when used in positive conjunction with affirmations as a method of the treatment of disease.
We have all experienced the power of suggestion any time we go shopping yet there is no witchcraft involved here, so it is a safe form if used alone with a heavy dose of "Self-control". The power of suggestion is everywhere and those who practice the Craft are simply using a tool available to the whole of mankind.
Another great example of the power of suggestion is the" placebo effect" where in testing they use a "sugar tablet" instead of the drug with half the group and the drug with other half and tell both groups they are getting better and watch the effect work time after time.
The bad news is that this power can work in the opposite direction and cause great damage and hurt simply because man without God has a missing part- Hope. There is no power so persuasive as the power of suggestion and Satan knows this all to well, after all he received 2/3rd's of heaven angels to follow him!
The power of the mind is the form of putting words in an order to make others interested in what you have to say...Advertising plan and simple....advertising what you want others to think about over and over. When we work to conquer obstacles in our way, we work to put the power of suggestion in motion.
When people are conditioned, it is usually easy to use the power of suggestion if our words are distributed properly, this is how "Organizations" of all types control their memberships to think the common thread of thought as one.
Everyday we are all open to the power of suggestion, whether we are at home, at work, or other areas of society. Recognizing the positive and negative forces of the power of suggestion can help us to avoid unwanted feelings that can affect our thinking process.
If you think about the hypocrisy in many religions today, you can see that people are often under the power of suggestion. Learning, reading, and meditating can help us to gain control over our thoughts vs. others' thoughts and avoid the unwanted suggestions.
When we have "evidence" that upholds our words such as the Bible, we have the ingredient that leads us to the proper use power of Self-suggestion effectively and Biblical based.
It is very important that as believers we NOT fear anything that God intends for good, but simply use as intended. Witchcraft cannot harm a true believer solidly standing upon the rock of God's commands!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Clarence_Sargent
The "Craft" appealed to me on so many level’s both physically and spiritually, I could not resist the power it promised me.
I was an introvert with very few friends and low self-esteem in school, other than befriending a few people smoking dope in the parking lot of my High school I had few Good friends.
And being an only child caused me to develop many "imaginary friends".
Now I do believe this is Healthy to a point, but as I grew up these "imaginary friends" would drive my interest in the Occult and Drugs, for they were demonic in nature not the "imaginary"as others thought they were.
Since my interest was peaked by these "familiar spirits" I found the Guts to seek deeper experiences at my own peril.
[A "familiar spirit" is a Witches guide in the realm of spirit, usually taking the form of a Black cat or Raven, but mine remained invisible to me as I could not have pets in my barracks. I now know that these spirits were guiding me into deeper and deeper FLESHLY TIES to my sinful nature, much of my trouble was my family tie to the Craft through my real mom. As an Indian, the connections go back Centuries.]
Watching that show sent me headlong into a downward spiral of flesh in control living.
AS a child I knew little about the fact that "Hollywood Witch-craft" was not the real thing which is the reason I was driven to know the real practice and THEREIN lies the true danger of parents allowing their children to view and read things [I.E. Harry Potter] WITHOUT PROPER SUPERVISION; the television is NOT a good babysitter because it has no respect of age levels.
Understand this well, it’s alright for an older child to be curious about it, as long as YOU the parent are there to guide them away from the evil content and to explain why God hates those things in a reasonable manner, my parents didn't have a clue about those things so I received no instruction concerning it.
It’s usually the great special effects and acting that are the lure in the beginning, but that will not stand before a holy God at the judgment seat as your excuse as too why you allowed your child to be deceived.
I dedicated myself without any spiritual direction whatsoever to find out about this ancient earth religion, as I began studying and looking for deeper truths in the world of magic and sorcery I was witness both to its "beauty of focus" and its "pure savagery of intent".
But it wasn’t until after my adopted Mom died when I was only 17 that I was free to do as I pleased....and boy did I do as I pleased! My Dad was still grieving and wasn't watching me all the time so I went crazy as teens do.
I must add to my testimony here because there may be some confusion as to how I could claim to an Atheist and at the same time a Witch?
Well, first of all I said plainly that I wasn't a TRUE atheist but an atheist in that I mouthed the words of "hating all things God connected", but at the same time I turned toward Witchcraft to replace him spiritually.
My mothers death was the catalyst that started my hatred of God boiling!
I simply didn't hate all "other gods" I was learning about in the Craft!
I jumped headlong into drugs, Drinking, and Partying while trying to keep up a c+ to b average in high school, failing many courses because a lack of focus on them and because many of my teachers just wanted me out of their classes and passed me through without the proper training.
I joined Wicca, as a private practitioner taking a course in the art of magic by Gavin and Yvonne Frost by mail order; The Wicca fascination I had did not last very long as I was hungry for a darker side; the more power and knowledge of the occult the better.
I began to delve deeper and deeper into the so-called "Deep things of Occult Knowledge“, reading Anton LaVeys "Satanic Bible" just to rebel against the God who, I felt “TOOK MY MOM FROM ME”.
Now this is how I now know a true Atheist from a fake one who is just a rebellious person trying to hate the God he knows exists but can't get close too in his sin.
Understand that if you were a REAL ATHEIST you would have NO NEED to rebel against anything godly because HE ISN'T REALLY THERE.....I mean get down to earth, if God is not there what's the issue with the bible;
"the concept of God is the ONLY thing that could make that book real in any way, so if God isn't real then the bible cannot matter."
This is why I've never really meet a real Atheist because you all WASTE so much time trying to find evidence to DISPROVE what you say isn't there...is that healthy behavior?
After all I as a Christian I don't get mad and spend any of my time trying to disprove the existence of "Fairy Tales" in books, why do you?
Remember what has happened to you is what makes you become great, so don't let life run you over. It is only if God is real that rebellion becomes necessary to one who hates God.
Slow down, THINK for a moment:
Isn't there more to life than chasing an idea down rabbit holes? If you are CONVINCED God isn't there, there should be NO sweating the small ideas of men, if God in your view is simply a concept like all other myths, then why are you not trying to take the name of Zeus out of kids textbooks, why not eliminate Mt. Olympus from Greek and Roman history so our Children will be safe from Myth's and think pure Logical thoughts, free of ALL GODS?
The very fact you WASTE so much energy standing against the Biblical God is living PROOF that He alone bothers you. It is the Bible not the Koran, not the Book of Mormon that you hate with evil lust, sure you dislike all mentions of gods but you exude great pains against the God of the Bible and not the other books considered Holy by other Faiths.
ASK YOURSELF:
The very fact you WASTE so much energy standing against the Biblical God is living PROOF that He alone bothers you. It is the Bible not the Koran, not the Book of Mormon that you hate with evil lust, sure you dislike all mentions of gods but you exude great pains against the God of the Bible and not the other books considered Holy by other Faiths.
ASK YOURSELF:
WHY DO I HATE THE GOD OF THE BIBLE SO MUCH?
WHY IS IT, THAT THE MENTION OF HIS NAME MAKES ME SHAKE WITH HATRED?
Now back to my testimony-
The guy below is :
The guy below is :
Aleister Crowley, I used to think he was the bomb but I was wrong.......big time!
He along with me knew nothing of God and who he really IS!
This is what I played with in my early years in the Occult, it is not recommended by ANY OCCULTIST worth their salt to PLAY with these spirit boards, they are very dangerous and can and WILL open you up to demon influences!
Don't be fooled into the idea that what you do is innocent, ALL involvement is dangerous!
This board is asking for HELP as I ended up doing.
This board is asking for HELP as I ended up doing.
I began mixing in Aleister Crowley's works {Below}with my own personal spells and ideas, crafting a huge cage around my life!
ALEISTER CROWLEY
(ALPHABETIC LIST OF WORKS) below is a list of the works of Aleister Crowley in alphabetic sequence. Crowley provided many of his texts with numerical identifiers in Latin. there is also a numeric index for this collection, which consists of a list of titles followed by a brief description of their content and importance. several of these files have multiple versions, being keyed in by different people or formatted for enhanced readability, and these versions are identified in no particular order other than when they were acquired as part of the archive. descriptive text in {set brackets} is taken from Crowley's "Book Four" appendices (capitalization regularized in many instances), text other than the titles of books or essays in "quotation marks" is from the work being described (whether in the subtitle or elsewhere). text followed by "-- (name)" identifies a description by the sourcename cited (detailed at the end of this document). text in [brackets] is commentary or interpretation from the Archivist. # Absinthe: The Green Goddess
# An Account of the A.'. A.'. sub figura 33
{[An account of the Order of the Silver Star or "A.'.A.'."] first written in the language of his period by the Councillor von Eckartshausen, revised and rewritten [by Crowley].}# Across the Gulf sub figura 59
{A fantastic account of a previous incarnation. It story of the overthrowing of Isis by Osisis may help the reader to understand the meaning of the overthrowing of Osiris by Horus in the present aeon.}# AHA! sub figura 242
{An exposition in poetic language of several of the ways of attainment and the results obtained.}# Amrita
[A lecture on the creation and application of the Elixir of Immortality.]# Ararita sub figura 813 (version 1)
# Ararita sub figura 813 (version 2)
{An account of the Hexagram and the method of reducing it to the Unity, and beyond.}
# De Arte Magica (version 1)
# De Arte Magica (version 2)
# De Arte Magica (version 3)
[Sex magick instructions.]
# The Artistic Temperament
[A Simon Iff story (fiction).]
# Astrology sub figura 536 (Preface)
{A textbook on astrology composed on scientific lines by classifying observed facts rather than deducting from *a priori* theories.}
# Batrachophrenoboocosmomachia sub figura 536
{An instruction in expansion of the field of the mind.}
# The Beast sub figura 666 (?)
{An account of the magical personality who is the Logos of the present aeon.} [Some suggest this became "The Equinox of the Gods", first published in 1936.]
# Berashith: An Essay in Ontology
"With Some Remarks On Ceremonial Magic".
# Book Four sub figura 4
# Book Four sub figura 4 (Interlude)
# {A general account in elementary terms of magical and mystical powers.} Book Four Part Three ('Magick in Theory and Practice')
# 'Magick in Theory and Practice' Introduction
# Book Four Part Three ('MiTaP'): excerpts relating to magic
# The Book of Lies (falsely so-called)
{Deals with many matters on all planes of the very highest importance. An offiial publication of the Babes of the Abyss, but is recommended even to beginners as highly suggestive.}
# The Book of the Operation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
# "The Book of Thoth sub figura 78"
{A complete treatise on the Tarot.}
# "The Book of Wisdom or Folly vel Aleph sub figura 111"
{An extended and elaborate commentary on "The Book of the Law",in the form of a letter from [To Mega Therion] to his magical son, [Frater Achad]. Contains some of the deepest secrets of initiation, with a clear solution of many cosmic and ethical problems.}
# "The Butterfly Net sub figura 81" aka "Moonchild"
{An account of a magical operation [of the Homunculus or Magical Child], particularly concerning the planet Luna, written in the form of a novel.}
# The Cephaloedium Working (version1)<
# The Cephaloedium Working (version 2)
# The Chymical Jousting of Brother Perardua sub figura 55
{An account of the magical and mystic path in the language of alchemy.}
# Concerning "Blasphemy" in General & the Rites of Eleusis in Particular
# Concerning Death sub figura 106
{A treatise on the nature of death and the proper attitude to be taken towards it.}
# Concerning the Law of Thelema sub figura 161
"Specific instances of the application of the various programs and policies outlined in other papers such as The Open Letter."
# Desert Justice (Simon Iff Abroad)
[Tales of Simon Iff (fiction).]
# Duty
"A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema."
# EGC Gnostic Mass sub figura 15
[The central religious ritual of Crowley's O.T.O.]
# Eight Lectures on Yoga (version 1)
# Eight Lectures on Yoga (version 2)
[Instructions on the practice of Raja Yoga after the style and rigor of Patanjali.]
# Energized Enthusiasm
"A Note on Theurgy"
An essay developing the idea of creativity -- and genius -- as a sexual phenomenon. -- Crowley Cross-Index.
# Enochian Keys
# Enochian Notes
# The Equinox
{Crowley's regular periodical in which many of his works appeared.}
# The Equinox of the Gods
"The circumstances surrounding the dictation of [The Book of the Law]." -- Crowley Cross-Index
# Eroto-Comatose Lucidity (version 1)
# Eroto-Comatose Lucidity (version 2)
[An excerpt from De Arte Magica.]
# Gilles de Rais (version 1)
# Gilles de Rais (version 2)
[A historical lecture billed by Crowley as 'banned.']
# The Greek Qabalah (short form)
"A complete Dictionary of all sacred and important words and phrases given in the Books of the Gnosis and other important writings both in the Greek and the Coptic."
# A Handbook of Geomancy
"Attributions of geomantic figures to planets, zodiac, and ruling genii."
# The High History of Good Sir Palamedes the Saracen... sub figura 197
{A poetic account of the Great Work and enumeration of many obstacles.}
# An Intimation on The Constitution of the Order (O.T.O.) sub figura 194
{The Constitution and Government of our Holy Order [Crowley's O.T.O.]; by the study of its Balance you may yourself come to apprehension of how to rule your own life.}
# John St. John sub figura 860
{The record of the magical retirement of Frater O.M. A model of what a magical record should be, so far as accurate analysis and fullness of description are concerned.}
# Khabs Am Pekht sub figura 300
{A special instruction for the promulgation of the Law. This is the first and most important duty of every aspirant of whatever grade. It builds up in him the character and karma which forms the Spine of Attainment.}
# Khing Khang King sub figura 21
["The Classic of Purity", by Ko Hsuen. Interpolation by Crowley.]
# The Law of Liberty sub figura 837 (version 1)
# The Law of Liberty sub figura 837 (version 2)
{A further explanation of "The Book of the Law" in reference to certain ethical problems.}
# De Lege Libellum sub figura 150
{A further explanation of "The Book of the Law", with special reference to the powers and privileges conferred by its acceptance.}
# Liber 8 (the 8th Aethyr of
'The Vision and the Voice sub figura 418')
"[A description of attaining unto] the mystery of the knowledge and conversation of [the] Holy Guardian Angel" [originating in "The Vision and the Voice sub figura 418". See below for a commentary on the entire document.].
# Liber A vel Armorum sub figura 412 (version 1)
# Liber A vel Armorum sub figura 412 (version 2)
{An instruction on the preparation of the Elemental Instruments.}
# Liber A'ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici sub figura 370
[Sexual magick heavily veiled in symbolism.]
# Liber Adonis sub figura 335
{An account in poetic language of the struggle of the human and divine elements in the consciousness of man, giving their harmony following on the victory of the latter.}
# Liber Al vel Legis sub figura 220
{"The Book of the Law", the foundation of Crowley's [religious] work.}
# Liber Al vel Legis Commentary
[Crowley's commentary on "The Book of the Law".]
# Liber Amalantrah sub figura 97 (version 1)
# Liber Amalantrah sub figura 97 (version 2)
{Diary concerning the Wizard Amalantrah and the working of like name.}
# Liber Arcanorum sub figura 231
{An account of the cosmic process so far as it is indicated by the Tarot Trumps in relation to the Genii of the Qliphoth.}
# Liber Astarte vel Berylli sub figura 175
{An instruction in attainment by the method of devotion, or bhakti-yoga.}
# Liber B vel Magi sub figura 1
*{An account of the Grade of Magus, the highest grade which it is ever possible to manifest in any way whatever upon this plane. Or so it is said by the Masters of the Temple.}
# Liber Cadaveris sub figura 120
[Zelator initiation ritual for the Order of Thelemites. Also called 'the Ritual of Passing Through the Tuat'.]
# Liber Causae sub figura 61
{The history and origin of the A.'.A.'. The object of the book is to discount mythopeia.}
# Liber Chanokh sub figura 89
{A brief abstraction of the symbolic representation of the universe derived by Dr. John Dee through the scrying of Sir Edward Kelly.}
# Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni sub figura 156
{An account of the task of the Exempt Adept, considered under the symbols of a particular nonintellectual plane.}
# Liber Collegii Sancti sub figura 185
{The tasks of the Grades of the A.'.A.'. and their Oaths as pertains to "Graduum Montis Abiegni sub figura 13".}
# Liber Cordis Cincte Serpente sub figura 65
{An account of the relations of the aspirant [to the A.'.A.'.] with his Holy Guardian Angel.}
# Liber E vel Excitiorum sub figura 9
{Instructs the aspirant in the necessity of keeping a record. Suggests methods of testing physical clairvoyance. Gives instruction in Asana, Pranayama and Dharana, and advises the application of tests to the physical body, in order that the student may thoroughly understand his own limitations.}
# Liber Gaias sub figura 96
{A handbook of Geomancy.}
# Graduum Montis Abiegni sub figura 13
{An account of the task of the aspirant to the A.'.A.'. from Probationer to Adept.}
# Liber Had sub figura 555
{An instruction for attaining Hadit.}
# Liber HHH sub figura 341 (version 1)
# Liber HHH sub figura 341 (version 2)
{Three methods of attainment through a willed series of thoughts.}
# Liber Israfel sub figura 64
{An instruction in a suitable method of preaching.}
# Liber Jugorum sub figura 3
(version 1)
# Liber Jugorum sub figura 3 (version 2)
{An instruction for the control of speech, action and thought.}
# Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli sub figura 7
{The emancipation of an Exempt Adept from his adeptship. The birth words of a Master of the Temple.}
# Liber Librae sub figura 30
{An elementary course of morality suitable for the average man.}
# Liber Nikh vel Tzaba sub figura 93 (version1)
# Liber Nikh vel Tzaba sub figura 93 (version 2)
{A diary of heroin and cocaine use.}
# Liber O vel Manua et Sagitae sub figura 6
{Instructions given for elementary study of the qabalah, assumption of god forms, vibration of divine names, the rituals of Pentagram and Hexagram, and their uses in protection and invocation, a method of attaining astral visions so-called, and an instruction in the practice called 'Rising on the Planes'.}
# Liber Os Abysmi vel Da'ath sub figura 474
{An instruction in a purely intellectual method of entering the Abyss.}
# Liber Oz sub figura 77 (version 1)
# Liber Oz sub figura 77 (version 2)
[A Bill of Rights for the Aeon of Horus.]
# Liber Porta Lucis sub figura 10
{An account of the sending forth of [To Mega] Therion by the A.'.A.'. and an explanation of his mission.}
# Liber Pyramidos sub figura 671
{A ritual of self-initiation.}
# Liber Reguli sub figura 5
"The Ritual of the Mark of the Beast: an incantation proper to invoke the Energies of the Aeon of Horus, adapted for the daily use of the Magician of whatever grade."
# Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura 200 (version 1)
# Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura 200 (version 2)
{An instruction for the adoration of the Sun four times daily, with the object of composing the mind to meditation, and of regularizing the practices.}
# Liber Ru vel Spiritus sub figura 206
{Full instruction in Pranayama.}
# Liber Samekh sub figura 800
{The ritual employed by the Beast 666 for the attainment of the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel during the semester of his performance of the operation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. [from the book, apparently translated by Mathers]}
# Liber Stellae Rubae sub figura 66
{A secret ritual, the heart of IAO-OAI.}
# Liber Tau sub figura 400
{A graphic interpretation of the Tarot on the plane of initiation.}
# 777 (Fragment) {_777_: aka _Vel Prolegomena Symbolica Ad Systemam Sceptico-Mysticae Viae Explicandae, Fundamentum Hieroglyphicorum Sanctissimorum Scientiae Summae _: A complete dictionary of [Crowley's] correspondences of magical elements, reprinted with extensive additions.}
# Liber Trigrammaton sub figura 27
{A book of trigams of the mutations of the Tao with the Yin and the Yang. An account of the cosmic process.}
# Liber Turris vel Domus Dei sub figura 16
{An instruction for attaiment by the direct destruction of thoughts as they arise in the mind.}
# Liber Tzaddi vel Hamus Hermeticus sub figura 90
{An account of initiation, and an indication as to those who are suitable for same.}
# The Lost Continent sub figura 51
{An account of the continent of Atlantis: the manners and customs, magical rites and opinions of its people, together with an account of the catastrophe, so called, which ended in its disappearance.}
# Magick Without Tears
{A compilation of correspondence between Crowley and an anonymous pupil concerning the basics of magick.}
# The Manifesto of the O.T.O. sub figura 52
"A concise summary of the various threads of initiatic tradition that make up the O.T.O."
# The Mass of the Phoenix sub figura 44
{A ritual of the Law.}
# The Message from the Master Therion sub figura 2
{Explains the essence of the new Law in a very simple manner.}
# An Open Letter to Those Who May Wish to Join the Order (O.T.O.) sub figura 101
"Guidelines for Thelemic social intercourse" [in the O.T.O.}
# The Paris Working
[Homosexual magick instructions.]
# The Rites of Eleusis
[Planetary rites in a regular cycle.]
# Sepher Sephiroth sub figura 500
{A dictionary of Hebrew words arranged according to numerical value. An encyclopedia of the Qabalah, a map of the universe, enabling man to attain perfect understanding.}
# The Soldier and the Hunchback (! & ?) sub figura 148
[Philosophy of expression, inquiry and logic.]
# The Star Ruby sub figura 25
{An improved form of the Lesser [Banishing] Ritual of the Pentagram.}
# Liber Star Sapphire sub figura 36 (version 1)
# Liber Star Sapphire sub figura 36 (version 2)
{An improved ritual of the Hexagram.}
# Tao Teh King sub figura 157
{"The Classic of the Way and its Virtue/Power", by Lao Tzu, Interpolated by Crowley.}
# De Thaumaturgia sub figura 633
{A statement of uncertain ethical considerations concering magick.} {"The Vision and the Voice" aka "Aerum vel Saeculi": the classical account of the thirty aethyrs and a model of all visions, the doctrine of the function of the Great White Brotherhood which is the foundation of the aspiration of the Adept. An account of a Master of the Temple.}
# Vision and Voice (418) Commentary
# Yi King sub figura 216
["The Classic of Changes". Interpolated by Crowley.]
# Liber Yod sub figura 831 {An instruction giving three methods of reducing the manifold consciousness to the Unity. Adapted to facilitate the task of the attainment of Raja Yoga and of the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.}
(ALPHABETIC LIST OF WORKS) below is a list of the works of Aleister Crowley in alphabetic sequence. Crowley provided many of his texts with numerical identifiers in Latin. there is also a numeric index for this collection, which consists of a list of titles followed by a brief description of their content and importance. several of these files have multiple versions, being keyed in by different people or formatted for enhanced readability, and these versions are identified in no particular order other than when they were acquired as part of the archive. descriptive text in {set brackets} is taken from Crowley's "Book Four" appendices (capitalization regularized in many instances), text other than the titles of books or essays in "quotation marks" is from the work being described (whether in the subtitle or elsewhere). text followed by "-- (name)" identifies a description by the sourcename cited (detailed at the end of this document). text in [brackets] is commentary or interpretation from the Archivist. # Absinthe: The Green Goddess
# An Account of the A.'. A.'. sub figura 33
{[An account of the Order of the Silver Star or "A.'.A.'."] first written in the language of his period by the Councillor von Eckartshausen, revised and rewritten [by Crowley].}# Across the Gulf sub figura 59
{A fantastic account of a previous incarnation. It story of the overthrowing of Isis by Osisis may help the reader to understand the meaning of the overthrowing of Osiris by Horus in the present aeon.}# AHA! sub figura 242
{An exposition in poetic language of several of the ways of attainment and the results obtained.}# Amrita
[A lecture on the creation and application of the Elixir of Immortality.]# Ararita sub figura 813 (version 1)
# Ararita sub figura 813 (version 2)
{An account of the Hexagram and the method of reducing it to the Unity, and beyond.}
# De Arte Magica (version 1)
# De Arte Magica (version 2)
# De Arte Magica (version 3)
[Sex magick instructions.]
# The Artistic Temperament
[A Simon Iff story (fiction).]
# Astrology sub figura 536 (Preface)
{A textbook on astrology composed on scientific lines by classifying observed facts rather than deducting from *a priori* theories.}
# Batrachophrenoboocosmomachia sub figura 536
{An instruction in expansion of the field of the mind.}
# The Beast sub figura 666 (?)
{An account of the magical personality who is the Logos of the present aeon.} [Some suggest this became "The Equinox of the Gods", first published in 1936.]
# Berashith: An Essay in Ontology
"With Some Remarks On Ceremonial Magic".
# Book Four sub figura 4
# Book Four sub figura 4 (Interlude)
# {A general account in elementary terms of magical and mystical powers.} Book Four Part Three ('Magick in Theory and Practice')
# 'Magick in Theory and Practice' Introduction
# Book Four Part Three ('MiTaP'): excerpts relating to magic
# The Book of Lies (falsely so-called)
{Deals with many matters on all planes of the very highest importance. An offiial publication of the Babes of the Abyss, but is recommended even to beginners as highly suggestive.}
# The Book of the Operation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
# "The Book of Thoth sub figura 78"
{A complete treatise on the Tarot.}
# "The Book of Wisdom or Folly vel Aleph sub figura 111"
{An extended and elaborate commentary on "The Book of the Law",in the form of a letter from [To Mega Therion] to his magical son, [Frater Achad]. Contains some of the deepest secrets of initiation, with a clear solution of many cosmic and ethical problems.}
# "The Butterfly Net sub figura 81" aka "Moonchild"
{An account of a magical operation [of the Homunculus or Magical Child], particularly concerning the planet Luna, written in the form of a novel.}
# The Cephaloedium Working (version1)<
# The Cephaloedium Working (version 2)
# The Chymical Jousting of Brother Perardua sub figura 55
{An account of the magical and mystic path in the language of alchemy.}
# Concerning "Blasphemy" in General & the Rites of Eleusis in Particular
# Concerning Death sub figura 106
{A treatise on the nature of death and the proper attitude to be taken towards it.}
# Concerning the Law of Thelema sub figura 161
"Specific instances of the application of the various programs and policies outlined in other papers such as The Open Letter."
# Desert Justice (Simon Iff Abroad)
[Tales of Simon Iff (fiction).]
# Duty
"A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema."
# EGC Gnostic Mass sub figura 15
[The central religious ritual of Crowley's O.T.O.]
# Eight Lectures on Yoga (version 1)
# Eight Lectures on Yoga (version 2)
[Instructions on the practice of Raja Yoga after the style and rigor of Patanjali.]
# Energized Enthusiasm
"A Note on Theurgy"
An essay developing the idea of creativity -- and genius -- as a sexual phenomenon. -- Crowley Cross-Index.
# Enochian Keys
# Enochian Notes
# The Equinox
{Crowley's regular periodical in which many of his works appeared.}
# The Equinox of the Gods
"The circumstances surrounding the dictation of [The Book of the Law]." -- Crowley Cross-Index
# Eroto-Comatose Lucidity (version 1)
# Eroto-Comatose Lucidity (version 2)
[An excerpt from De Arte Magica.]
# Gilles de Rais (version 1)
# Gilles de Rais (version 2)
[A historical lecture billed by Crowley as 'banned.']
# The Greek Qabalah (short form)
"A complete Dictionary of all sacred and important words and phrases given in the Books of the Gnosis and other important writings both in the Greek and the Coptic."
# A Handbook of Geomancy
"Attributions of geomantic figures to planets, zodiac, and ruling genii."
# The High History of Good Sir Palamedes the Saracen... sub figura 197
{A poetic account of the Great Work and enumeration of many obstacles.}
# An Intimation on The Constitution of the Order (O.T.O.) sub figura 194
{The Constitution and Government of our Holy Order [Crowley's O.T.O.]; by the study of its Balance you may yourself come to apprehension of how to rule your own life.}
# John St. John sub figura 860
{The record of the magical retirement of Frater O.M. A model of what a magical record should be, so far as accurate analysis and fullness of description are concerned.}
# Khabs Am Pekht sub figura 300
{A special instruction for the promulgation of the Law. This is the first and most important duty of every aspirant of whatever grade. It builds up in him the character and karma which forms the Spine of Attainment.}
# Khing Khang King sub figura 21
["The Classic of Purity", by Ko Hsuen. Interpolation by Crowley.]
# The Law of Liberty sub figura 837 (version 1)
# The Law of Liberty sub figura 837 (version 2)
{A further explanation of "The Book of the Law" in reference to certain ethical problems.}
# De Lege Libellum sub figura 150
{A further explanation of "The Book of the Law", with special reference to the powers and privileges conferred by its acceptance.}
# Liber 8 (the 8th Aethyr of
'The Vision and the Voice sub figura 418')
"[A description of attaining unto] the mystery of the knowledge and conversation of [the] Holy Guardian Angel" [originating in "The Vision and the Voice sub figura 418". See below for a commentary on the entire document.].
# Liber A vel Armorum sub figura 412 (version 1)
# Liber A vel Armorum sub figura 412 (version 2)
{An instruction on the preparation of the Elemental Instruments.}
# Liber A'ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici sub figura 370
[Sexual magick heavily veiled in symbolism.]
# Liber Adonis sub figura 335
{An account in poetic language of the struggle of the human and divine elements in the consciousness of man, giving their harmony following on the victory of the latter.}
# Liber Al vel Legis sub figura 220
{"The Book of the Law", the foundation of Crowley's [religious] work.}
# Liber Al vel Legis Commentary
[Crowley's commentary on "The Book of the Law".]
# Liber Amalantrah sub figura 97 (version 1)
# Liber Amalantrah sub figura 97 (version 2)
{Diary concerning the Wizard Amalantrah and the working of like name.}
# Liber Arcanorum sub figura 231
{An account of the cosmic process so far as it is indicated by the Tarot Trumps in relation to the Genii of the Qliphoth.}
# Liber Astarte vel Berylli sub figura 175
{An instruction in attainment by the method of devotion, or bhakti-yoga.}
# Liber B vel Magi sub figura 1
*{An account of the Grade of Magus, the highest grade which it is ever possible to manifest in any way whatever upon this plane. Or so it is said by the Masters of the Temple.}
# Liber Cadaveris sub figura 120
[Zelator initiation ritual for the Order of Thelemites. Also called 'the Ritual of Passing Through the Tuat'.]
# Liber Causae sub figura 61
{The history and origin of the A.'.A.'. The object of the book is to discount mythopeia.}
# Liber Chanokh sub figura 89
{A brief abstraction of the symbolic representation of the universe derived by Dr. John Dee through the scrying of Sir Edward Kelly.}
# Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni sub figura 156
{An account of the task of the Exempt Adept, considered under the symbols of a particular nonintellectual plane.}
# Liber Collegii Sancti sub figura 185
{The tasks of the Grades of the A.'.A.'. and their Oaths as pertains to "Graduum Montis Abiegni sub figura 13".}
# Liber Cordis Cincte Serpente sub figura 65
{An account of the relations of the aspirant [to the A.'.A.'.] with his Holy Guardian Angel.}
# Liber E vel Excitiorum sub figura 9
{Instructs the aspirant in the necessity of keeping a record. Suggests methods of testing physical clairvoyance. Gives instruction in Asana, Pranayama and Dharana, and advises the application of tests to the physical body, in order that the student may thoroughly understand his own limitations.}
# Liber Gaias sub figura 96
{A handbook of Geomancy.}
# Graduum Montis Abiegni sub figura 13
{An account of the task of the aspirant to the A.'.A.'. from Probationer to Adept.}
# Liber Had sub figura 555
{An instruction for attaining Hadit.}
# Liber HHH sub figura 341 (version 1)
# Liber HHH sub figura 341 (version 2)
{Three methods of attainment through a willed series of thoughts.}
# Liber Israfel sub figura 64
{An instruction in a suitable method of preaching.}
# Liber Jugorum sub figura 3
(version 1)
# Liber Jugorum sub figura 3 (version 2)
{An instruction for the control of speech, action and thought.}
# Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli sub figura 7
{The emancipation of an Exempt Adept from his adeptship. The birth words of a Master of the Temple.}
# Liber Librae sub figura 30
{An elementary course of morality suitable for the average man.}
# Liber Nikh vel Tzaba sub figura 93 (version1)
# Liber Nikh vel Tzaba sub figura 93 (version 2)
{A diary of heroin and cocaine use.}
# Liber O vel Manua et Sagitae sub figura 6
{Instructions given for elementary study of the qabalah, assumption of god forms, vibration of divine names, the rituals of Pentagram and Hexagram, and their uses in protection and invocation, a method of attaining astral visions so-called, and an instruction in the practice called 'Rising on the Planes'.}
# Liber Os Abysmi vel Da'ath sub figura 474
{An instruction in a purely intellectual method of entering the Abyss.}
# Liber Oz sub figura 77 (version 1)
# Liber Oz sub figura 77 (version 2)
[A Bill of Rights for the Aeon of Horus.]
# Liber Porta Lucis sub figura 10
{An account of the sending forth of [To Mega] Therion by the A.'.A.'. and an explanation of his mission.}
# Liber Pyramidos sub figura 671
{A ritual of self-initiation.}
# Liber Reguli sub figura 5
"The Ritual of the Mark of the Beast: an incantation proper to invoke the Energies of the Aeon of Horus, adapted for the daily use of the Magician of whatever grade."
# Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura 200 (version 1)
# Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura 200 (version 2)
{An instruction for the adoration of the Sun four times daily, with the object of composing the mind to meditation, and of regularizing the practices.}
# Liber Ru vel Spiritus sub figura 206
{Full instruction in Pranayama.}
# Liber Samekh sub figura 800
{The ritual employed by the Beast 666 for the attainment of the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel during the semester of his performance of the operation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. [from the book, apparently translated by Mathers]}
# Liber Stellae Rubae sub figura 66
{A secret ritual, the heart of IAO-OAI.}
# Liber Tau sub figura 400
{A graphic interpretation of the Tarot on the plane of initiation.}
# 777 (Fragment) {_777_: aka _Vel Prolegomena Symbolica Ad Systemam Sceptico-Mysticae Viae Explicandae, Fundamentum Hieroglyphicorum Sanctissimorum Scientiae Summae _: A complete dictionary of [Crowley's] correspondences of magical elements, reprinted with extensive additions.}
# Liber Trigrammaton sub figura 27
{A book of trigams of the mutations of the Tao with the Yin and the Yang. An account of the cosmic process.}
# Liber Turris vel Domus Dei sub figura 16
{An instruction for attaiment by the direct destruction of thoughts as they arise in the mind.}
# Liber Tzaddi vel Hamus Hermeticus sub figura 90
{An account of initiation, and an indication as to those who are suitable for same.}
# The Lost Continent sub figura 51
{An account of the continent of Atlantis: the manners and customs, magical rites and opinions of its people, together with an account of the catastrophe, so called, which ended in its disappearance.}
# Magick Without Tears
{A compilation of correspondence between Crowley and an anonymous pupil concerning the basics of magick.}
# The Manifesto of the O.T.O. sub figura 52
"A concise summary of the various threads of initiatic tradition that make up the O.T.O."
# The Mass of the Phoenix sub figura 44
{A ritual of the Law.}
# The Message from the Master Therion sub figura 2
{Explains the essence of the new Law in a very simple manner.}
# An Open Letter to Those Who May Wish to Join the Order (O.T.O.) sub figura 101
"Guidelines for Thelemic social intercourse" [in the O.T.O.}
# The Paris Working
[Homosexual magick instructions.]
# The Rites of Eleusis
[Planetary rites in a regular cycle.]
# Sepher Sephiroth sub figura 500
{A dictionary of Hebrew words arranged according to numerical value. An encyclopedia of the Qabalah, a map of the universe, enabling man to attain perfect understanding.}
# The Soldier and the Hunchback (! & ?) sub figura 148
[Philosophy of expression, inquiry and logic.]
# The Star Ruby sub figura 25
{An improved form of the Lesser [Banishing] Ritual of the Pentagram.}
# Liber Star Sapphire sub figura 36 (version 1)
# Liber Star Sapphire sub figura 36 (version 2)
{An improved ritual of the Hexagram.}
# Tao Teh King sub figura 157
{"The Classic of the Way and its Virtue/Power", by Lao Tzu, Interpolated by Crowley.}
# De Thaumaturgia sub figura 633
{A statement of uncertain ethical considerations concering magick.} {"The Vision and the Voice" aka "Aerum vel Saeculi": the classical account of the thirty aethyrs and a model of all visions, the doctrine of the function of the Great White Brotherhood which is the foundation of the aspiration of the Adept. An account of a Master of the Temple.}
# Vision and Voice (418) Commentary
# Yi King sub figura 216
["The Classic of Changes". Interpolated by Crowley.]
# Liber Yod sub figura 831 {An instruction giving three methods of reducing the manifold consciousness to the Unity. Adapted to facilitate the task of the attainment of Raja Yoga and of the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.}
The Man, Myth, and Magic encyclopedia series was a great source of knowledge from my High School Library on class breaks.
But Just about anything dealing with works on Witchcraft I would give place to simply because I was hungry for knowledge.
PLEASE DO NOT EVER UNDERESTIMATE A CHILD'S SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE, without good direction that child will end up in a spiritual ditch!
CLICK HERE NOW TO:Get Real help to keep your Children free from Occult influences!
They will circumvent all efforts to stop them if all you do is say "Because I said so!" instead of explaining with evidence WHY they can't do it and finding others that have done it and failed! Allow you child with your help to read this testimony of deliverance to gain knowledge toward good direction!
The occult became an obsession, a lifestyle that I was hooked on just like my drug use, it was “Mind-altering“.
I learned still more from friends, many of which were Questionable at best but they knew what I wanted to know, about how to tell fortunes and use Tarot cards and playing cards to make money on the side.
I began to cast spells on others, while I worshiped the horned god and the goddess. I mixed all this knowledge together to form my own form of the Craft, never being a conformist, I made it my own and would put it all in my journal called a "Witches Book of Shadows".
"An example of a Book of Shadows is below!"
The Book of Shadows is a Witch's greatest tool. It provides a place for all personal Craft secrets, your spell work, rituals, family traditions if you have any, almost anything a Witch can think or act on is contained in this book.
As I figured out what my personal practices were I would write them in this journal .
As I figured out what my personal practices were I would write them in this journal .
This was my personal "bible" to turn to anytime I needed help with a spell or spiritual concept, its ancient name is called a "Grimoire".
I soon found out that when I would cast spells of evil intent on those I hated or disliked it began to work and I would also work "good magic" on those I liked that worked also. Everything seemed to be going my way.
But the problems I was going through at this time in life had nothing to do with what happened to me in the daytime hours when I worshiped other gods and goddesses; or even my study time in the craft when I gained deeper knowledge and power as a black Witch.
My real trouble was a night-time issue, an issue of fear and discontent both in my dreams and waking hours. I felt LOST and alone even in a crowd of people, my soul was empty and void of life.
My real trouble was a night-time issue, an issue of fear and discontent both in my dreams and waking hours. I felt LOST and alone even in a crowd of people, my soul was empty and void of life.
I was in a constant deeply seated fear at the height of my power as a Witch. And no matter what anyone tells you about the Craft; good intent or bad intent it will produce the same results that any lifestyle outside of God’s grace produces, and that is DEATH IN YOUR LIFE.
Just what is a book of shadows?
Book of Shadows
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Book of Shadows is the name used for a book that contains magical and religious texts in the religion of Wicca and certain other neopagan witchcraft traditions. Typically, a Book of Shadows contains the core rituals, magical practices, ethics and philosophy of Wicca within it, and more often a list of the witch's personal spells.In British Traditional Wicca, which largely revolves around the structure of the coven, the book is traditionally copied by hand from that of one's initiating High Priestess or Priest, who copied theirs in turn from their initiator. In Eclectic Wiccan terminology, however, a Book of Shadows is a personal journal, though often serves in a similar capacity to that of traditionalists.Within traditional lineaged forms of Wicca there are a number of versions of the Book of Shadows, their contents varying to a greater or lesser degree from the early versions belonging to Gerald Gardner, who first popularised Wicca. While Gardner seems to have originally treated the book as a personal journal, it has come to be considered a religious text in most traditions.
Origins
Gerald Gardner, the "father of Wicca", first introduced the Book of Shadows to people that he had initiated into the craft through his Bricket Wood coven in the 1950s. He claimed that it was a personal cookbook of spells that have worked for the owner; they could copy from his own book and add or remove material as they saw fit. He said that the practice of Witches keeping such a book was ancient, and was practiced by the Witch-cult throughout history. According to tradition, Gardner claimed, the book was burned after a person died, so that it would not be discovered that they had been a witch.Gerald Gardner did not mention any such thing as a "Book of Shadows" in his 1949 (though written three years earlier), novel about mediaeval witchcraft, High Magic's Aid. Doreen Valiente claimed that this was because at the time, Gardner had not yet conceived of the idea, and only invented it after writing his novel.High Priestess Doreen Valiente made the claim that Gardner found the term "Book of Shadows" from a 1949 edition (Volume I, Number 3) of a magazine known as The Occult Observer. In this edition, she claimed, was an advertisement for Gardner's novel, High Magic's Aid, which was opposite an article titled "The Book of Shadows" written by the palmist Mir Bashir. The article in question was about an allegedly ancient Sanskrit divination manual which explained how to foretell things based upon the length of a person's shadow. Valiente theorised that Gardner then adopted this term for his Witches' grimoire. She maintained that "It was a good name, and it is a good name still, wherever Gardner found it".
A page of Ye Booke of Ye Art Magical.A leatherbound manuscript written in Gardner's handwriting that was titled Ye Booke of Ye Art Magical (Ronald Hutton claims that it was spelt Ye Bok, but Valiente claims Ye Booke) was later found amongst his papers from the Museum after his death and was obtained by Valiente. It appeared to be a first draft of Gardner's Book of Shadows, and featured sections based upon the rituals of the Order of Templars of the Orient which had been devised by the occultist Aleister Crowley. Gardner had gained access to these rituals in 1946, when he had purchased a charter from Crowley giving him permission to perform the OTO rituals.Taking this evidence into account, it seems that Gardner invented the idea of a Witches' Grimoire sometime between 1946 (when he finished his novel High Magic's Aid), and 1949, and had named it Ye Booke of Ye Art Magical. In 1949, he had renamed it to the Book of Shadows, and soon began to make use of it with his Bricket Wood Coven.
Adding weight to the evidence indicating Gardner invented the Book was that other neopagan witches of the time, such as Robert Cochrane, never made use of such a book.
Valiente's rewriting
In 1953, Doreen Valiente joined Gardner's Bricket Wood coven, and soon rose to become its High Priestess. She noticed how much of the material in his Book of Shadows was taken not from ancient sources as Gardner had initially claimed, but from the works of the occultist Aleister Crowley, from Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, from the Key of Solomon and also from the rituals of Freemasonry. She confronted Gardner with this, who admitted that the text he had received from the New Forest coven had been fragmentary and he had had to fill much of it using various sources. He also stated that "well, if you think you can do any better, go ahead", and Valiente thought that she could, later stating that:
“ I accepted the challenge and set out to rewrite the Book of Shadows, cutting out the Crowleyanity as much as I could and trying to bring it back to what I felt was, if not so elaborate as Crowley's phraseology, at least our own and in our own words. ”
Valiente rewrote much of it, cutting out a lot of sections that had come from Crowley (whose negative reputation she feared), though retaining parts that originated with Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, which she fealt was genuine witchcraft practice. Valiente dramatically rewrote sections such as the Charge of the Goddess and also wrote several poems for the book, such as The Witches Rune. She also helped to create a poem to include the Wiccan Rede within it.
Valiente also noticed that a chant in one ritual in the book was based upon the poem "A Tree Song" from Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling, which she had enjoyed as a child.. The chant in question stated that:
Oh, do not tell the priest our plight,
Or he would call it sin;
But - we have been in the woods all night,
A-conjuring summer in !
And we bring you news by word of mouth -
Good news for cattle and corn -
Now is the Sun come up from the South,
With Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!
This version, written by both Gardner and Valiente, but containing sections adopted from various sources, such as Aleister Crowley, Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, and even Rudyard Kipling, went on to become the traditional text for Gardnerian Wicca.
In British Traditional Wicca
In forms of British Traditional Wicca, which include Gardnerian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca and Algard Wicca, the Book of Shadows used by adherents is based upon that written by Garder and Valiente.
Although his own book had been put together with the help of Doreen Valiente and included material from a variety of modern sources, (notably from Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches and the writings of Aleister Crowley) it also included sections written in an antique (or mock-antique) style, including advice for witches brought to trial and tortured. Gardner claimed that these sections were genuinely historical in origin, and that witches had not been allowed to write anything down until recently, to avoid incrimination; when at last Books of Shadows were allowed, the rituals and spells had to be written in a jumbled manner to prevent any non-initiate from using them. More recent scholars however have doubted their authenticity.
It seems likely that Gardner told his three subsequent initiatory lines that the book should be copied word for word, and Wiccans descended from Eleanor Bone, Patricia Crowther and Monique Wilson have widely believed that the book was of ancient provenance. North American Gardnerians of the Long Island line allow covens to add rituals and teachings to the book, but nothing may be removed.
Contemporary usage
Some Traditional Wiccans keep two Books of Shadows: one book of core rituals which does not change, and from which new initiates copy; and another coven book for ritual use, which is different from group to group and may contain much added material. Such material is often traded between covens.
Some Wiccans keep a personal Book of Shadows in addition to that of their tradition. This is typically for individual use and is not passed on to one's initiates.
Publication
After Gardner's death, his rival, Charles Cardell, published much of the material from the Gardnerian Book of Shadows. In the 1970s, the Alexandrians Janet Farrar and Stewart Farrar decided, with the consent of Doreen Valiente, that much of the Gardnerian book should be published in its true form. Much of it was published by the Farrars in their 1984 book The Witches' Way.
In Eclectic Wicca
In non-traditional or "eclectic" forms of Wiccan or neo-pagan practice, the term Book of Shadows is more often used to describe a personal journal, rather than a traditional text. This journal records rituals, spells, and their results, as well as other magical information. This can be either an individual or coven text, and is not normally passed from teacher to student. In many cases, this kind of Book of Shadows is an electronic document (disk or website) instead of a hand-written one. Some reserve the Book of Shadows for recording spells and keep a separate book, sometimes called the Book of Mirrors to contain thoughts, feelings and experiences.
In popular culture
The television fantasy series Charmed features a fictional Book of Shadows which contains spells and arcane law, and has a supernatural ability to defend itself from harm. In the 1996 film The Craft, which some critics saw as a major influence on the series Charmed, the Book of Shadows was referred to as an object in which a witch keeps her "power thoughts".
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Book of Shadows is the name used for a book that contains magical and religious texts in the religion of Wicca and certain other neopagan witchcraft traditions. Typically, a Book of Shadows contains the core rituals, magical practices, ethics and philosophy of Wicca within it, and more often a list of the witch's personal spells.In British Traditional Wicca, which largely revolves around the structure of the coven, the book is traditionally copied by hand from that of one's initiating High Priestess or Priest, who copied theirs in turn from their initiator. In Eclectic Wiccan terminology, however, a Book of Shadows is a personal journal, though often serves in a similar capacity to that of traditionalists.Within traditional lineaged forms of Wicca there are a number of versions of the Book of Shadows, their contents varying to a greater or lesser degree from the early versions belonging to Gerald Gardner, who first popularised Wicca. While Gardner seems to have originally treated the book as a personal journal, it has come to be considered a religious text in most traditions.
Origins
Gerald Gardner, the "father of Wicca", first introduced the Book of Shadows to people that he had initiated into the craft through his Bricket Wood coven in the 1950s. He claimed that it was a personal cookbook of spells that have worked for the owner; they could copy from his own book and add or remove material as they saw fit. He said that the practice of Witches keeping such a book was ancient, and was practiced by the Witch-cult throughout history. According to tradition, Gardner claimed, the book was burned after a person died, so that it would not be discovered that they had been a witch.Gerald Gardner did not mention any such thing as a "Book of Shadows" in his 1949 (though written three years earlier), novel about mediaeval witchcraft, High Magic's Aid. Doreen Valiente claimed that this was because at the time, Gardner had not yet conceived of the idea, and only invented it after writing his novel.High Priestess Doreen Valiente made the claim that Gardner found the term "Book of Shadows" from a 1949 edition (Volume I, Number 3) of a magazine known as The Occult Observer. In this edition, she claimed, was an advertisement for Gardner's novel, High Magic's Aid, which was opposite an article titled "The Book of Shadows" written by the palmist Mir Bashir. The article in question was about an allegedly ancient Sanskrit divination manual which explained how to foretell things based upon the length of a person's shadow. Valiente theorised that Gardner then adopted this term for his Witches' grimoire. She maintained that "It was a good name, and it is a good name still, wherever Gardner found it".
A page of Ye Booke of Ye Art Magical.A leatherbound manuscript written in Gardner's handwriting that was titled Ye Booke of Ye Art Magical (Ronald Hutton claims that it was spelt Ye Bok, but Valiente claims Ye Booke) was later found amongst his papers from the Museum after his death and was obtained by Valiente. It appeared to be a first draft of Gardner's Book of Shadows, and featured sections based upon the rituals of the Order of Templars of the Orient which had been devised by the occultist Aleister Crowley. Gardner had gained access to these rituals in 1946, when he had purchased a charter from Crowley giving him permission to perform the OTO rituals.Taking this evidence into account, it seems that Gardner invented the idea of a Witches' Grimoire sometime between 1946 (when he finished his novel High Magic's Aid), and 1949, and had named it Ye Booke of Ye Art Magical. In 1949, he had renamed it to the Book of Shadows, and soon began to make use of it with his Bricket Wood Coven.
Adding weight to the evidence indicating Gardner invented the Book was that other neopagan witches of the time, such as Robert Cochrane, never made use of such a book.
Valiente's rewriting
In 1953, Doreen Valiente joined Gardner's Bricket Wood coven, and soon rose to become its High Priestess. She noticed how much of the material in his Book of Shadows was taken not from ancient sources as Gardner had initially claimed, but from the works of the occultist Aleister Crowley, from Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, from the Key of Solomon and also from the rituals of Freemasonry. She confronted Gardner with this, who admitted that the text he had received from the New Forest coven had been fragmentary and he had had to fill much of it using various sources. He also stated that "well, if you think you can do any better, go ahead", and Valiente thought that she could, later stating that:
“ I accepted the challenge and set out to rewrite the Book of Shadows, cutting out the Crowleyanity as much as I could and trying to bring it back to what I felt was, if not so elaborate as Crowley's phraseology, at least our own and in our own words. ”
Valiente rewrote much of it, cutting out a lot of sections that had come from Crowley (whose negative reputation she feared), though retaining parts that originated with Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, which she fealt was genuine witchcraft practice. Valiente dramatically rewrote sections such as the Charge of the Goddess and also wrote several poems for the book, such as The Witches Rune. She also helped to create a poem to include the Wiccan Rede within it.
Valiente also noticed that a chant in one ritual in the book was based upon the poem "A Tree Song" from Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling, which she had enjoyed as a child.. The chant in question stated that:
Oh, do not tell the priest our plight,
Or he would call it sin;
But - we have been in the woods all night,
A-conjuring summer in !
And we bring you news by word of mouth -
Good news for cattle and corn -
Now is the Sun come up from the South,
With Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!
This version, written by both Gardner and Valiente, but containing sections adopted from various sources, such as Aleister Crowley, Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, and even Rudyard Kipling, went on to become the traditional text for Gardnerian Wicca.
In British Traditional Wicca
In forms of British Traditional Wicca, which include Gardnerian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca and Algard Wicca, the Book of Shadows used by adherents is based upon that written by Garder and Valiente.
Although his own book had been put together with the help of Doreen Valiente and included material from a variety of modern sources, (notably from Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches and the writings of Aleister Crowley) it also included sections written in an antique (or mock-antique) style, including advice for witches brought to trial and tortured. Gardner claimed that these sections were genuinely historical in origin, and that witches had not been allowed to write anything down until recently, to avoid incrimination; when at last Books of Shadows were allowed, the rituals and spells had to be written in a jumbled manner to prevent any non-initiate from using them. More recent scholars however have doubted their authenticity.
It seems likely that Gardner told his three subsequent initiatory lines that the book should be copied word for word, and Wiccans descended from Eleanor Bone, Patricia Crowther and Monique Wilson have widely believed that the book was of ancient provenance. North American Gardnerians of the Long Island line allow covens to add rituals and teachings to the book, but nothing may be removed.
Contemporary usage
Some Traditional Wiccans keep two Books of Shadows: one book of core rituals which does not change, and from which new initiates copy; and another coven book for ritual use, which is different from group to group and may contain much added material. Such material is often traded between covens.
Some Wiccans keep a personal Book of Shadows in addition to that of their tradition. This is typically for individual use and is not passed on to one's initiates.
Publication
After Gardner's death, his rival, Charles Cardell, published much of the material from the Gardnerian Book of Shadows. In the 1970s, the Alexandrians Janet Farrar and Stewart Farrar decided, with the consent of Doreen Valiente, that much of the Gardnerian book should be published in its true form. Much of it was published by the Farrars in their 1984 book The Witches' Way.
In Eclectic Wicca
In non-traditional or "eclectic" forms of Wiccan or neo-pagan practice, the term Book of Shadows is more often used to describe a personal journal, rather than a traditional text. This journal records rituals, spells, and their results, as well as other magical information. This can be either an individual or coven text, and is not normally passed from teacher to student. In many cases, this kind of Book of Shadows is an electronic document (disk or website) instead of a hand-written one. Some reserve the Book of Shadows for recording spells and keep a separate book, sometimes called the Book of Mirrors to contain thoughts, feelings and experiences.
In popular culture
The television fantasy series Charmed features a fictional Book of Shadows which contains spells and arcane law, and has a supernatural ability to defend itself from harm. In the 1996 film The Craft, which some critics saw as a major influence on the series Charmed, the Book of Shadows was referred to as an object in which a witch keeps her "power thoughts".
The 2000 sequel to The Blair Witch Project was titled Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, despite there being no mention of a Book of Shadows during the film, the title was seen as an attempt to capitalise on the Charmed series' established market.
Here is a COMMON excuse by those without knowledge of the Dangers of ALL FORMS of Witchcraft:
..."The Harry Potter books present a Godless universe -- one in which the most powerful wizard wins,"And that "most powerful wizard wins" this thing differs from evangelical christianity exactly how?"
Here they speak of Religion being different from Witchcraft and they would be very wrong as God hates false religion just as much, but the point is well taken, there are powerful "Wizards" of religion in all of man's inventions.
God must be the most powerful being in your life PERIOD!
NO EXCEPTION IS ALLOWED!!
And if you want your children to read only the bible, go right ahead. You'll end up having children who don't read unless they're forced to, and who don't like to read, its not that reading the bible is bad but a child's curiosity will lead them down paths that the Bible forbids simply because curiosity must be directed and just reading scripture can't accomplish that without YOU the parent doing the turning of the ship, never let your child get control of the rutter.
Kids need to enjoy reading in order to learn how to do it well, and that is what seems to get missed every time this topic comes up. Oh, and reading is important when it comes to getting an education, especially a college one." Allow your child to experiment SAFELY with reading books as you read with them, explaining as you go!
Don't assume that to get an education it means to sacrifice your child's soul in the process, learn what they like to read and nourish it well.
The Bible is THE most important book ever written NOT because of its religious dogma, FAR FROM IT...The bible teaches children about every facet of life they could ever hope to encounter outside of "Religious training" and you should be well versed in it in order to train up your child in it!
ENJOY reading?
ENJOY reading?
YES... but always balance that skill with good MORAL TEACHINGS so that when they read something your not there to see, you'll know their perspective is right!
Harry Potter, what's wrong with its story?
Click here for the facts!
Deut. 7:26 says:
“Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.”
Lev. 20:27; 19:26
the second part of the verse says:
“A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist (wizard KJV) among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads. Do not practise divination or sorcery.”
Lev. 20:6 says:
“I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritist's (wizards KJV) to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.”
Is. 47:13-14
says clearly: “ Let your astrologers come forward, those star-gazer who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame."
“ I am a Christian now and I’m proud of it, but I’m NOT RELIGIOUS and will not fit willingly into a denominational mold. I mean let’s be real here-Religion has killed and maimed it’s share of truth at the altar of good intention JUST as atheism has murdered it’s share FREE THOUGHT in the name of Fake science and paranoia.
Let’s face real facts here for once shall we?
BOTH RELIGION AND HUMANISM have dropped the ball as far as getting it right is concerned, so let’s not blow smokescreens up each others HINDQUARTERS about what’s true and what’s not.
BOTH RELIGION AND HUMANISM have dropped the ball as far as getting it right is concerned, so let’s not blow smokescreens up each others HINDQUARTERS about what’s true and what’s not.
A personal relationship is what God requires, he’s never been interested in “Church-ianity” or any form of man-made silliness on our part.
It’s about YOU and God, and not about YOU FITTING INTO A MOLD of like-minded minds which most of the FAKE CHURCH is now doing.
I get asked endlessly if I can prove that God exists?
Well, an Atheist has already answered that question for me as I wrote in an article at ezinearticles.com
Well, an Atheist has already answered that question for me as I wrote in an article at ezinearticles.com
Proof That God Exist's From The Mouth Of An Atheist!
By Clarence Sargent
This question is one of the latest being asked by atheists and skeptics alike, and comes from the book," why doesn't god heal amputees""the bible clearly promises that god answers prayers. For example, in mark 11:24 Jesus says, "therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." And billions of Christians believe these promises. You can find thousands of books, magazine articles and web sites talking about the power of prayer. According to believers, god is answering millions of their prayers every day. So what should happen if we pray to god to restore amputated limbs? Clearly, if god is real, limbs should regenerate through prayer. In reality, they do not. Why not? Because god is imaginary.
Notice that there is zero ambiguity in this situation (which simply put means I've got these Christians in a box under my rules and they can't get out!). There is only one way for a limb to regenerate through prayer (now I ask you, how do you know that, if it cannot happen? What's happening here is just a silly game of word play because no atheist has a clue how prayer must work!): god must exist and god must answer prayers. ( Are you certain you still want to word it that way? Because your own words are about to "bite you in the..... But that can't happen in my little life box! ) what we (atheists) find is that whenever we create a unambiguous situation like this and look at the results of prayer, prayer never works. " ( That could be because you put it in a self created "box" with rules that prayer cannot function within? But that's just what the bible says!) this atheist is saying that god could prove he exists, once and for all, by restoring someones lost limb as if healing un-healable disease and deformity was not proof enough. They point out that millions of Christians pray for healing every day, but nothing "irrefutable" by physical explanations, but such a restoration if it could ever be verified by doctors would be irrefutable proof that god is there. It always amazes me just how much atheists know about how god does things when they don't even give him the status of existing! Somehow an excuse will be found when this is shown to have happened. Let me eliminate part of this problem for you by stating that very few of these so-called prayers are ever prayed in faith nothing doubting as is required to get the result, so that leaves out all the unsaved who cannot trust in god without his help, which they must ask for. ( That's called salvation by the way! ) many people who say they are saved or were saved at one time ( the so-called ex-Christian convert or "recovering Christian") ( here's a revelation for some of you : what did Jesus do before the so-called "sinners prayer" was written in modern times? How were people saved before the "four spiritual laws" were printed? These are just man's ideas of salvation, they are in no way scriptural. You can be saved only one way......By faith alone! ) these people are not and never were Christians, so that eliminates a vast pool of millions of the so-called unanswered prayer issues right there. This is simply the biblical facts taught in scripture clearly, not an excuse! These are the bibles rules of interpretation not our rules, one way, one door, one path....Period! Atheists make the claim that every prayer that Christians have said were answered by god, can be explained by the natural forces of the universe and therefore are not real proof that there is a god! Wow! If natural law can do the things I've personally witnessed then the universe is god so you still have disprove the existence of a god no matter how you look at it...Hard to get out of you little box isn't it? That's a tall statement to say all prayers, clearly this atheist has not seen the evidence I've personally witnessed or they would never have put their extremely large foot in their mouth concerning things they understand not! But the question remains are they right? Is there no evidence out there of god "growing a brand new limb where one was missing"? Has the spirit of the almighty ever done this ? Well... Yes, many, many times in the bible god has made whole, missing flesh....It's called leprous skin. What is leprosy? It's a chronic bacterial disease of the skin and nerves in the hands and feet and, in some cases, the lining of the nose. The infection is characterized by abnormal changes of the skin. These changes, called lesions, are at first flat and red. Upon enlarging, they have irregular shapes and a characteristic appearance. The lesions are typically darker in color around the edges with discolored pale centers. Because the organism grows best at lower temperatures the leprosy bacillus has a preference for the skin, the mucous membranes and the nerves. Infection in and destruction of the nerves leads to sensory loss. The loss of sensation in the fingers and toes increases the risk of injury. Inadequate care causes infection of open wounds. Gangrene may also follow, causing body tissue to die, fall off or become deformed. This disease was common in biblical days and probably misdiagnosed many times, the point is this: these people had missing limbs and whenever Jesus healed them "they became whole from their disease" as he would tell them to "go show yourselves to the priest and offer the sacrifice commanded by moses to prove they had no disease in their bodies." If Jesus had the power to make whole from twisted bone and withered flesh, where is the problem in restoring missing flesh and bone? Yes god can and will heal completely, totally, and wholly of any and all things related to the physical, mental and spiritual world or healing is a farce...It's all or nothing with god's will you are not allowed to pick and choose what god can or can't do....Remember you cannot doubt or have any unbelief in regard to what you want for prayer to work! The bible is clear! So..... Here's the thing, the skeptics want an irrefutable, verifiable miracle by medical personnel, one that cannot be refuted. This is exactly what I would like them to do with their scientific facts....Prove and not just claim that god doesn't exist, this is their failure in all the talk, they have never presented evidence that can be examined with our hands and mind's that the god of the bible is not there!. But the real point is that even if they were presented with one right now and I will present said miracle in this article, they won't believe it no matter what the proof. They will always have an excuse or claim the photos were altered or the video was fake.What would it take to convince any skeptic that god does indeed exist? How about this: god appears as a man (Jesus the Christ), he walks among us for 33 years, claims to be god himself in human flesh and performs a multitude of outstanding miracles, miracles that have no earthly reason to have happened even to this day to disprove them, including (and this cannot be overstated) his own resurrection. That should do it for all time but no atheist will accept these irrefutable proofs that god already did, so what makes us think that a present day miracle will meet with any belief. what do skeptics do with this evidence anyway? they simply deny that it ever happened a completely childish response, they will not take pure evidence at face value as they think we should with evolution which has no evidence at all to prove it! Christian evidence is always just thrown out with the babies bath water...Baby and all, without the slightest protest and their lack of evidence is not even noticed in the school system...Why? There is no excuse for this unscientific approach to the evidence of god but that is all we can expect from people who are not honest in their evaluation of evidence.What skeptics really want is for god himself to appear to them and show them a personal miracle that even they cannot disprove. The only problem with this line of reasoning is that god did that already did that when he came the first time. He is not going to return for every skeptic to personally be proven wrong just like the missing link that never seems to appear for scientists to prove once and for all that "natural selection" is true. He was born once and he died only once, but in doing that he personally fulfilled more than 450 Jewish prophesies.Hebrews 9 says:that in itself is mathematically impossible to do unless you have perfect knowledge of all that would happen thousands of years in advance.......my friend that is a miracle! Hebrews states "and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many ; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." One time was enough, now it's up to trust & faith! Now back to the offer of the atheist it was if I can prove that god could and did heal an amputated limb that you will believe in god ...Is that right? ( start sweating now.) http://healingsandmiracles.Org/ have I got a web-site for you to view and I absolutely dare you as an atheist to disprove this women's testimony. God healed her not only of an amputated leg but many, many fatal diseases that the doctors cannot explain! Go to this site if you have the nerve and can find any real evidence ( not excuses ) to refute Carole Miller Mccleery-Greenes claims... She has every form of evidence your "skeptical minds" have asked for and then some! This testimony of faith is an irrefutable evidence that god really does love and care for his creation on a level only seen by faith.....What will you do with this one my skeptical friend? Remember we know your trick double talk is not going to work here so "zip it" and examine the evidence honestly! Yet, I am fully aware that some of you are so steeped in doubt and unbelief that you wouldn't believe even if it was your personal limb that god was growing back! You might even say "well that leg came back over time, now if god is so powerful why didn't he instantly make it appear?" it is a well known fact of life that unbelief is a bottomless pit of excuses and not one thing that god or man shows you will ever get through your thickened faithless mind unless you stop and think for yourself and not as the status quo does. It is the "cynics" not the "skeptics" that act like this,so be a true skeptic but don't deny the facts before you...That's just plain stupid, a free-thinker is one who thinks freely unhindered by other opinions -- one who is prepared to consider any possibility no matter if it goes the direction he or she wishes, and who determines which ideas are right or wrong not by what they have been indoctrinated to think but by bringing reason to bear, according to a consistent set of rules such as the scientific method. As far as god is concerned man is not to reason with man about god, that's like standing in a room with others and they constantly refer to you in the third person as if you were not there (sounds like two atheists talking about god or two Christians discussing doctrine). The bible is clear on this: in Isaiah 1:18 this plain statement is made by god himself "come now, and let us (me & you) reason together, saith the lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."think for a moment...How in the world can two minds that are finite (small) reason together about a god so big in scope and dynamic that the bible says he held the oceans and the land in the palm of his hand and measured them out? Even as a skeptic you can appreciate the size of the facts at stake here and that god is a bigger issue than reasoning about the weather! The trouble with most skeptics and atheists is that you are not trying to find proof that god is real your only trying to protect beliefs just as any false religion does. If your beliefs are that fragile then get some that can stand up to evidence! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Clarence_Sargent am always amazed when those who hate God say “I cannot be a part of a faith that attacks science and reality.” as if science were a humanistic invention, if you believe that you must have failed in history.
By Clarence Sargent
This question is one of the latest being asked by atheists and skeptics alike, and comes from the book," why doesn't god heal amputees""the bible clearly promises that god answers prayers. For example, in mark 11:24 Jesus says, "therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." And billions of Christians believe these promises. You can find thousands of books, magazine articles and web sites talking about the power of prayer. According to believers, god is answering millions of their prayers every day. So what should happen if we pray to god to restore amputated limbs? Clearly, if god is real, limbs should regenerate through prayer. In reality, they do not. Why not? Because god is imaginary.
Notice that there is zero ambiguity in this situation (which simply put means I've got these Christians in a box under my rules and they can't get out!). There is only one way for a limb to regenerate through prayer (now I ask you, how do you know that, if it cannot happen? What's happening here is just a silly game of word play because no atheist has a clue how prayer must work!): god must exist and god must answer prayers. ( Are you certain you still want to word it that way? Because your own words are about to "bite you in the..... But that can't happen in my little life box! ) what we (atheists) find is that whenever we create a unambiguous situation like this and look at the results of prayer, prayer never works. " ( That could be because you put it in a self created "box" with rules that prayer cannot function within? But that's just what the bible says!) this atheist is saying that god could prove he exists, once and for all, by restoring someones lost limb as if healing un-healable disease and deformity was not proof enough. They point out that millions of Christians pray for healing every day, but nothing "irrefutable" by physical explanations, but such a restoration if it could ever be verified by doctors would be irrefutable proof that god is there. It always amazes me just how much atheists know about how god does things when they don't even give him the status of existing! Somehow an excuse will be found when this is shown to have happened. Let me eliminate part of this problem for you by stating that very few of these so-called prayers are ever prayed in faith nothing doubting as is required to get the result, so that leaves out all the unsaved who cannot trust in god without his help, which they must ask for. ( That's called salvation by the way! ) many people who say they are saved or were saved at one time ( the so-called ex-Christian convert or "recovering Christian") ( here's a revelation for some of you : what did Jesus do before the so-called "sinners prayer" was written in modern times? How were people saved before the "four spiritual laws" were printed? These are just man's ideas of salvation, they are in no way scriptural. You can be saved only one way......By faith alone! ) these people are not and never were Christians, so that eliminates a vast pool of millions of the so-called unanswered prayer issues right there. This is simply the biblical facts taught in scripture clearly, not an excuse! These are the bibles rules of interpretation not our rules, one way, one door, one path....Period! Atheists make the claim that every prayer that Christians have said were answered by god, can be explained by the natural forces of the universe and therefore are not real proof that there is a god! Wow! If natural law can do the things I've personally witnessed then the universe is god so you still have disprove the existence of a god no matter how you look at it...Hard to get out of you little box isn't it? That's a tall statement to say all prayers, clearly this atheist has not seen the evidence I've personally witnessed or they would never have put their extremely large foot in their mouth concerning things they understand not! But the question remains are they right? Is there no evidence out there of god "growing a brand new limb where one was missing"? Has the spirit of the almighty ever done this ? Well... Yes, many, many times in the bible god has made whole, missing flesh....It's called leprous skin. What is leprosy? It's a chronic bacterial disease of the skin and nerves in the hands and feet and, in some cases, the lining of the nose. The infection is characterized by abnormal changes of the skin. These changes, called lesions, are at first flat and red. Upon enlarging, they have irregular shapes and a characteristic appearance. The lesions are typically darker in color around the edges with discolored pale centers. Because the organism grows best at lower temperatures the leprosy bacillus has a preference for the skin, the mucous membranes and the nerves. Infection in and destruction of the nerves leads to sensory loss. The loss of sensation in the fingers and toes increases the risk of injury. Inadequate care causes infection of open wounds. Gangrene may also follow, causing body tissue to die, fall off or become deformed. This disease was common in biblical days and probably misdiagnosed many times, the point is this: these people had missing limbs and whenever Jesus healed them "they became whole from their disease" as he would tell them to "go show yourselves to the priest and offer the sacrifice commanded by moses to prove they had no disease in their bodies." If Jesus had the power to make whole from twisted bone and withered flesh, where is the problem in restoring missing flesh and bone? Yes god can and will heal completely, totally, and wholly of any and all things related to the physical, mental and spiritual world or healing is a farce...It's all or nothing with god's will you are not allowed to pick and choose what god can or can't do....Remember you cannot doubt or have any unbelief in regard to what you want for prayer to work! The bible is clear! So..... Here's the thing, the skeptics want an irrefutable, verifiable miracle by medical personnel, one that cannot be refuted. This is exactly what I would like them to do with their scientific facts....Prove and not just claim that god doesn't exist, this is their failure in all the talk, they have never presented evidence that can be examined with our hands and mind's that the god of the bible is not there!. But the real point is that even if they were presented with one right now and I will present said miracle in this article, they won't believe it no matter what the proof. They will always have an excuse or claim the photos were altered or the video was fake.What would it take to convince any skeptic that god does indeed exist? How about this: god appears as a man (Jesus the Christ), he walks among us for 33 years, claims to be god himself in human flesh and performs a multitude of outstanding miracles, miracles that have no earthly reason to have happened even to this day to disprove them, including (and this cannot be overstated) his own resurrection. That should do it for all time but no atheist will accept these irrefutable proofs that god already did, so what makes us think that a present day miracle will meet with any belief. what do skeptics do with this evidence anyway? they simply deny that it ever happened a completely childish response, they will not take pure evidence at face value as they think we should with evolution which has no evidence at all to prove it! Christian evidence is always just thrown out with the babies bath water...Baby and all, without the slightest protest and their lack of evidence is not even noticed in the school system...Why? There is no excuse for this unscientific approach to the evidence of god but that is all we can expect from people who are not honest in their evaluation of evidence.What skeptics really want is for god himself to appear to them and show them a personal miracle that even they cannot disprove. The only problem with this line of reasoning is that god did that already did that when he came the first time. He is not going to return for every skeptic to personally be proven wrong just like the missing link that never seems to appear for scientists to prove once and for all that "natural selection" is true. He was born once and he died only once, but in doing that he personally fulfilled more than 450 Jewish prophesies.Hebrews 9 says:that in itself is mathematically impossible to do unless you have perfect knowledge of all that would happen thousands of years in advance.......my friend that is a miracle! Hebrews states "and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many ; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." One time was enough, now it's up to trust & faith! Now back to the offer of the atheist it was if I can prove that god could and did heal an amputated limb that you will believe in god ...Is that right? ( start sweating now.) http://healingsandmiracles.Org/ have I got a web-site for you to view and I absolutely dare you as an atheist to disprove this women's testimony. God healed her not only of an amputated leg but many, many fatal diseases that the doctors cannot explain! Go to this site if you have the nerve and can find any real evidence ( not excuses ) to refute Carole Miller Mccleery-Greenes claims... She has every form of evidence your "skeptical minds" have asked for and then some! This testimony of faith is an irrefutable evidence that god really does love and care for his creation on a level only seen by faith.....What will you do with this one my skeptical friend? Remember we know your trick double talk is not going to work here so "zip it" and examine the evidence honestly! Yet, I am fully aware that some of you are so steeped in doubt and unbelief that you wouldn't believe even if it was your personal limb that god was growing back! You might even say "well that leg came back over time, now if god is so powerful why didn't he instantly make it appear?" it is a well known fact of life that unbelief is a bottomless pit of excuses and not one thing that god or man shows you will ever get through your thickened faithless mind unless you stop and think for yourself and not as the status quo does. It is the "cynics" not the "skeptics" that act like this,so be a true skeptic but don't deny the facts before you...That's just plain stupid, a free-thinker is one who thinks freely unhindered by other opinions -- one who is prepared to consider any possibility no matter if it goes the direction he or she wishes, and who determines which ideas are right or wrong not by what they have been indoctrinated to think but by bringing reason to bear, according to a consistent set of rules such as the scientific method. As far as god is concerned man is not to reason with man about god, that's like standing in a room with others and they constantly refer to you in the third person as if you were not there (sounds like two atheists talking about god or two Christians discussing doctrine). The bible is clear on this: in Isaiah 1:18 this plain statement is made by god himself "come now, and let us (me & you) reason together, saith the lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."think for a moment...How in the world can two minds that are finite (small) reason together about a god so big in scope and dynamic that the bible says he held the oceans and the land in the palm of his hand and measured them out? Even as a skeptic you can appreciate the size of the facts at stake here and that god is a bigger issue than reasoning about the weather! The trouble with most skeptics and atheists is that you are not trying to find proof that god is real your only trying to protect beliefs just as any false religion does. If your beliefs are that fragile then get some that can stand up to evidence! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Clarence_Sargent am always amazed when those who hate God say “I cannot be a part of a faith that attacks science and reality.” as if science were a humanistic invention, if you believe that you must have failed in history.
Science has many Christian roots.
Most of the early scientists were Christians such as Copernicus, Galileo, Pascal, Isaac Newton, Johannes Keppler, Robert Boyle, Louis Pasteur, Jean Henri Fabre, Michael Faraday, and John Ambrose Fleming.
These great scientists operated within a Christian framework. An interesting fact is that the vast majority of all scientific development has come out of western civilization, what are the odds of that happening?
And IT had Christianity as its basis to top that off. The idea is that the “laws of nature” came from Christianity, NOT HUMANISM; not to mention that the concepts of subduing nature and being stewards of nature are right from the first book of the Bible--Genesis and not in any way the invention of witches or their Craft.
THAT IS WHY I view God as a rational and trustworthy person, which implies automatically that His creation is rational and orderly and thus can be examined FOR EVIDENCE OF HIS FINGERPRINTS.
The Art Of Knowing Your Enemy In Order To Defeat Him!By Clarence SargentUnderstand that demons ARE what they do...demons of (rebellion,sickness,doubt,unbelief..etc.) ARE BOUND TO ACT WITHIN THEIR PARTICULAR MISSION (Murder,Lust, etc..a devil of deception is as much deceived by his nature as the person he inhabits.
Devils are filled with "Infighting among themselves" and ONLY WORK TOGETHER FOR THE COMMON GOAL OF DESTROYING YOU so they CANNOT do anything beyond what YOU allow them to do or to get away with in your life!
THEY ARE BOUND TO "Flesh/Soul existence" doomed to eternal death, UNABLE TO ATTACK US IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM (Remember they were CAST OUT of heaven and INTO the heaven lies surrounding the earth.)- In fact DEMONS MUST ASK PERMISSION TO STAND BEFORE US IN ORDER TO TEMPT US,( Unless of course they have LEGAL GROUND to attack our lives. This can come through "Bloodline"curses or simply because YOU have invited the attack by playing around with witchcraft's of ANY TYPE.) All THAT Satan can do is DECEIVE, LIE AND MANIPULATE US AND THE LAWS OF SCIENCE WHICH HE IS BOUND TOO HIMSELF.Understand this simple truth about Satan and demons, NATURE ITSELF was created to be bound by certain laws of motion and energy, God HAS TOTAL CONTROL OVER SATAN because of these laws, he cannot go beyond the natural realm of science and nature. BUT understand something important here, SCIENCE AS WE KNOW IT IS STILL A LIMITED CONCEPT (IN OTHER WORDS SATAN KNOWS THINGS ABOUT NATURE AND ALL PHYSICAL LAWS THAT HUMANS ARE ONLY BEGINNING TO LEARN ABOUT.
Thus he can APPEAR AS AN ANGEL (Messenger) OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (or Light) which he did to me as a black witch...HE'S VERY GOOD AT BEING VERY BAD..BUT HE'S EVEN BETTER AT DRESSING UP AS YOUR FRIEND UNTIL IT'S TIME TO PAY THE PRICE! Then all of a sudden he's on the inside as your conscience, condemning the actions he helped you produce.The problem is Most people think of demons in terms of Ugly, revolting, lizard like, or ghostlike creatures which are easy to detect well, they can appear as that if it suites the purpose at hand (i.e. Hunting's or Fantasy Illusions of the mind) BUT The real truth is that demons are most likely to appear in an attractive form that you relate to and even love to be with, a form that fulfills deep seated desires and practice THAT YOU ALREADY ARE COMFORTABLE WITH (i.e. Religious practices or even personal habits). Demons are deceivers.They love to masquerade, so even Christians are fooled by them (If it were possible even the elect could be fooled but it were for the spirit of God within to WARN US). They really love the deception of appearing as "PASSED ON LOVED ONES" with the end result being a misrepresentation of the spiritual laws which the bible makes very clear cannot ever happen (i.e. The fact that scripture says in the book of Hebrews that "After death is Judgment NOT HANGING AROUND IN A LIFE THAT CANNOT SUPPORT THEIR EXISTENCE)
A Demons NATURE (or How they act because of what their individual MISSIONS IN THE LIVES OF CERTAIN HUMANS are.) binds them within a certain moral framework by which they are controlled.
For instance a demon of LUST is bound to his lust just as his host is and this can be the undoing of his power over you if you learn how to counter it with scripture and DELIVERANCE.
The Bible clearly portrays them as personal beings.
They have personal intellect (Mark 5:7), knowledge (Acts 19:15), emotion (Matthew 9:31; Mark 5:7; James 2:19), self-awareness (Mark 5:9), will (Matthew 8:31), and ability to speak (Mark 1:24; 5:7-12; Acts 19:15).
They are in all ways just as PERSONAL as you are!
Demons act in conjunction with Satan's planed purpose BUT do not always obey his lead because they are inherently rebellious in their innermost being and can be TURNED UPON EACH OTHER as God has done many times in Scripture, turning whole armies upon themselves to protect Israel.
Each demon has its own "personal Agenda"aside from Satan's ultimate purpose, just as human hosts have personal agendas that drive them to success or failure aside from what family or friends might suggest.
The occult can certainly be a gateway for demonic activity and the Bible forbids us to be involved in occult activities EVEN IF IT SEEMS INNOCENT TO US THE DANGER IS THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT ABLE TO RESIST IT'S ALLURE!
(Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Leviticus 19:26b,31; Isaiah 47:8-15):
1.) Divination = fortune telling (i.e. Taro cards, Crystal balls, E.S.P.) ,
2.) clairvoyance (Physics, Ghost whisperers).
3.)Sorcery which operates by charms (This also includes RELIGIOUS ITEMS worn to protect from evil as in Voodoo),
4.) music ( that instills or inspires to NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENTS),
5.) drugs (Including anything that diminishes your ability to resist Demons from attaching to our past bloodline or current fleshly habits)
6.) Witchcraft that operates by spells, curses, hypnosis and in some cases a form of MASS HYPNOSIS IS EMPLOYED TO DECEIVE LARGE AMOUNTS OF ADHERENTS AT ONE TIME.
7.) A Medium or spiritualist is someone who acts as a channel through whom the spirit {demon} speaks. They are Consulting the dead (or necromancer's), calling up the dead (spiritual entities)
Yet think about this : most of those whom Jesus delivered from demons were religious Jews, forbidden ever to practice witchcraft or idolatry.
They were "normal" people, neither criminal, insane, nor spooky (Matthew 8:16; Mark 1:39).
Demons are active in less obvious ways than the occult.
a.) The worship of other gods or idols is in fact the worship of demons (1 Corinthians 10:19-21; Revelation 9:20; Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 106:36-37)
.
b.) Demons are involved in the teaching of false doctrines (1 Timothy 4:1-2; 1 John 2:18-22; 4:1-3).
c.) Demons preach from the pulpit of some churches (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
d.) Causing jealousy and discord among God's people is an activity of demons (1 Samuel 18:8-10).
e.) So too is lying (1 Kings 22:21-24).
REMEMBER RELIGIOUS DEMONS ARE JUST AS DANGEROUS AS if not all the more dangerous than THOSE BEHIND THE OCCULT!
But let's look at this closer, is not FALSE RELIGIOUS PRACTICE NOTHING MORE THAN "Witchcraft" anyway?
Do not false religious people curse and otherwise defile the temple of God by hurting his true purpose in the earth "To FREE MANKIND FROM THE WORK OF SATAN"?
So in effect religion is a form of the Occult because it fulfills the purpose of the occult which is to spread the words of darkness throughout the earth - Anything that disobeys the word of God is IN DARKNESS!
Remember well that "Witchcraft"has received a BUM RAP OVER THE YEARS BY HOLLYWOOD IN THAT MOST OF THE SO-CALLED witch crafts on the screens that we see are nothing more than HYPED UP WISHFUL THINKING.
The Salem witch trials were more "Religious-craft" than witchcraft, the real witches were the PHONY RELIGIOUS PEOPLE THAT SHOWED THEIR PIOUS CONTEMPT FOR ALL THAT WAS TRULY GODLY IN NATURE IN EXCHANGE FOR SELF-GRATIFICATION and PERSONAL HATRED!
At times Jesus spoke directly to demons, and they to Him (Mark 3:11-12; 5:6-13).
However, there is no New Testament pattern for holding lengthy USELESS conversations with demons and I know personally this only works to the advantage of Satan keeping him in the host longer while we reveal info that he can use to stay there.
This should be avoided since their basic nature is that of deception (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 20:3,7,8,10).
What deliverance ministries do is to be specific and to the point in their questions to demons:
1.)"What is your name (Nature)?
2.) Why are you here? revealing the root cause of infection
3.) When did you come in, pinpointing their source?
Revealing the first reason and possibly the generational binding that holds the devil to a person. But facts prove that this method is not always successful for the ground that gave the demon a place to reside cannot be cast out, only the demon. The Ground needs to be cleansed by prayer and fasting.
Deliverance from demonic influence will not be obtained by "casting out" only.
The ground which admitted the evil spirit in the first place is the ground that can keep a person in possession or oppression (Ephesians 4:27 - "foothold").
Evil spirits can be cast out in the Name of the Lord Jesus, but the ground they have gained can only be removed by the intelligent choice of our wills refusing the territory given to them, and appropriating the deliverance by death with Christ on Calvary.
This should not surprise us for Jesus Himself plainly warned that demons will seek to return and may bring others with them (Matthew 12:43-45). Once your mind is free it must be FILLED with the word of God.
Upon at least one occasion Jesus commanded the demon to come out and specifically added "and never enter him again" (Mark 9:25) this was HIS word filling the empty space.
Unless the ground of demonic influence is dealt with, no full relief can be obtained, or change seen, in the majority of deliverance's, this is akin to washing a pig, it will only go back to its nature of filth.
God had other plans for me..he and he alone had the nerve to put two Christians into my life that could not be SCARED OR MOVED by my appearance or actions and kept coming day after day,night after night inviting me to church (No GUTS No GLORY)..THEY NEVER GIVE UP ON ME!
I remember giving them the SLIP so many times I lost count.
But one fateful Wednesday night Bible Study I sat at the BACK of the this little Church of God in Cheyenne Wyoming, half Drunk and half High.
I don't remember much of the service BUT I do remember hearing that God did not hate me for what I'd done but that HIS LAWS REQUIRED HIS JUDGMENT on my soul, God's LOVE reached out and touched this Witch and suffered him NOT to live a life without hope but revived him into NEW LIFE in Christ!
I saw a literal Light of deliverance shine down into my mind and for the first time in years I could think for myself without the "VOICES OF DEMONS (My Familiars) "interfering with my thoughts, that DARKNESS became as "DAYTIME for me and now I am a new creation, OLD things HAVE PASSED AWAY and Jesus is my Lord and Savior FOREVER!
Of course there will be those who think "Well, that's you..you were special to God and he loved you more than me..I've done to many sick things for God to love me!"
THAT IS A LIE!
God loves ALL MANKIND EQUALLY AND WITHOUT BEING PARTIAL TO ANY PERSON
(Since all go to hell for the same reason, REJECTION OF JESUS AS their PERSONAL SAVIOR and NOT PERSONAL SIN!)
... the MASTER of the HALF-TRUTH tells us these things because HE LOST IT ALL TO HIS OWN PRIDE and wants YOU to suffer for his stupidity. Don't let him lie to you, God thinks as much of you as he does of his own son..just give him your heart and he'll do the rest! As a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ I extend this invitation to know him as I do now, get free and stay free it's your personal choice and no ones business but yours alone.
Accept what God has done on your behalf
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Clarence_Sargent
Nature in the Christian view (as compared to our non-Christian worldviews such as witchcraft) is that nature is no longer an object of fear and worship, because let‘s face it…we only “worship in ignorance” what we “Fear in ignorance”. God on the other hand only DEMANDS KNOWLEDGEABLE WORSHIP.
It is “False Religion” that MYSTIFIES GOD to the point that you can’t relate to him BUT must “BLINDLY FOLLOW PRECEPTS AND RULES THAT MAKE NO SENSE” to a freethinking mind.
We need to do a self-check, to make sure we get rid of all of our idols, good luck charms, crosses, medallions, and demonic symbols.
We must repent fully of trusting in fate, destiny, and luck: and put our whole trust in the Living Christ, follow Him wholeheartedly without exception to our fears from the past. Trusting in fate or luck is clearly a dependence upon evil spirits which I knew as “familiars.”
Well I'm here to tell you that JESUS CHRIST is God and HE CAN AND WILL SAVE YOU NO MATTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE...he looks past what you do and love's you deeply.
A spiritual adventure of another witch:
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
"My walk in darkness began when I was about three. I was sexually abused by my father. Unable to cope with the trauma, I developed alternate personalities to carry out the everyday demands of life. I retreated from life as much as I could, and had no real friends until Eighth grade.
Growing up in a hostile, abusive environment, I became addicted to seconals as a teenager, and I experimented with a great many drugs. My preference was always LSD. I dated and married abusive men. There was much violence in my life, a lot of death, a lot of horror. I never knew peace. Because my father read the Bible a lot, and shouted scriptures, I was confused about Jesus.
I became fascinated by the occult. I believed that my will, if strong and directed properly, could change anything. This is one of the foundations of witchcraft, which I started to embrace. I found the study appealing at the time, though difficult.
I began to be haunted in my dreams by a woman dancing in a way I had never seen before. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Supposing she must be another witch who wanted to teach me something, I began looking for her.
I was getting sick. Physically, the doctors could find nothing wrong. I was getting thinner, and increasingly, the spirits I thought I controlled were beginning to control me - taking over the body, while I was somewhere on the ceiling watching the horror they inflicted.
I called my best friend, who knew Jesus. She said, 'The Lord will bring a sword between us if you don't come out of witchcraft.' She had never known I was involved in witchcraft. I had kept her from knowing my beliefs.
Then she asked me to visit a church where she knew they weren't afraid to help abused women. She asked me to promise to just sit through one service. I promised. She knew I would do all I could to keep my word.
I'm glad of that promise, because it was the only thing that kept me in my seat. I had been in and out of all kinds of churches, but none of them affected me because they were spiritually dead. The presence of the Lord was not there. But it was very different in this place! I was ill before I reached the door.
Nauseous, and in pain - tearing pain - I rode an emotional rollercoaster. It was like some bad drug having an alien affect on me. Suddenly, I wanted to hurt people in the church.
I wanted to hit them and tear the skin off their faces. I knew I had no personal problem with these people, to cause all these feelings to erupt. Then, when the haze of pain began to clear, who should I see dancing before the altar worshipping the Lord but the woman in my dreams!
Now, beside the promise, I had another reason to fight to stay. I was beginning to realize that there must really and truly be a God, a supreme God, just like all the Bible stories. That woman in my dreams was here. I gripped the chair in front of me until my knuckles turned white, and I stayed.
The pastor was such a gifted speaker, that even the pain and nausea began to fade as I concentrated on what he was saying. He was talking about Jesus but in a real way - one that I could relate to in everyday life. He had my attention.
As he was beginning to draw to a close, he stopped, as though he could hear something that we couldn't. Then he said, 'There is someone here whose only wish is to die, because she is so tired. Rae? Rachel? Rachel, will you come to me?'
In one overwhelming second, I suddenly knew that this God loved me, called me by name, and wanted to know me. Without hesitation I stood up. I had tried committing suicide several times in my life. I was so tired; all I had really wanted was to die.
But God knew this. He had to have told this man, who was a stranger to me and yet had called me by name. I had to get to the front of the church! But the spirits took over and the battle was on. They recognized the pastor, and told him in the ugliest voice ever to come from my body, 'I know you!'
The pastor, must have somehow known by the Holy Spirit about these spirits. 'You will stop tearing the child,' he told them.
The pain stopped, but I began slithering like a snake. Then pray-ers in the church surrounded me. I couldn't breathe. I discovered later that that is an important sign.
When evil spirits quit trying to intimidate, and show off by making the person unable to breathe, they are about to exit the body. When I accepted Jesus, I immediately saw a glorious Being that I could not lift my unworthy face to look at. But the light . . . !
I can't describe it!
There was a sword in his hands. It was covered in leaping flames. 'Take my sword,' he told me. When I reached up for it I came into his world - Christ's realm. I was whole, and crying a river of tears - me who before would never allow myself to cry.
There was healing in those tears. I was also aware of the fear that the demons were in in those final moments. The Bible really is true: Every knee shall bow before Jesus. He is indeed Lord of Lords, King of Kings, and the Savior of our soul.
There is no life and no peace without Jesus. This is my birth experience into the Kingdom of the Living God.
As 2 Timothy 1:7 says:
Fear was the first spirit to enter me, but one of the first things I learned is that God is love." I was a sold-out, goddess-worshipping witch!
. . .by William Schnoebelen
"I was a witch! I was a sold-out, goddess-worshiping witch!
When my "lady" and I chipped the ice out of a stream in the middle of Iowa wilderness to bathe and then celebrate the March equinox naked under the stars, we were totally consumed with zeal for the Wicca.
We drove 170 miles one way every weekend to teach classes in Wicca in a car with a bumper sticker which said "In Goddess We Trust!"
We were kicked out of almost every apartment we tried to rent for wild circle dances and burning frankincense; and we had a firebomb thrown into one temple because we dared to publicly proclaim the goddess!
Wicca is one of the more seductive deceptions that Satan has come up with.(1) It is the contemporary name for the cult of so-called "white" witchcraft or Neo-Paganism, which has been enjoying a renaissance in the United States.
It claims to be a "back to nature" religion which worships the sky and earth, and thus has attracted many adherents among those sympathetic to environmental and ecology issues. Yet, for all its charm and nostalgic fantasy, Wicca drew me into the deepest quagmire of satanic evil imaginable.
Almost everything we did back then raised eyebrows. Regrettably, we see people today doing things openly that we had to do in secret. We see books that used to only be available in dark, musty occult bookstores now being sold openly in shopping malls.
The meditation practices we taught in secret witchcraft circles are now being taught in "respectable" churches.
Naturally, we believed we were doing good. I was a sincere devotee of the chief deity of Wicca, the Great Mother. At first I believed the rites we did were for the benefit of humanity and the earth itself. I also believed what I was told: that there was a profound difference between the Wicca and those called satanists or devil-worshipers.
I thought that the whole meaning of Wicca was beneficial rituals to nature deities like Pan, Diana or Cernunnos; and of course rites of passage and initiation. I stood, blindfolded, naked and bound at the edge of the Circle "which is placed between the worlds."
I heard the words of the Great Mother and felt the prick of the swordpoint challenging my courage. I was anointed as a "Priest of the Goddess" and learned her secret name. I gave my life to her service.
I truly believed that she was the One "who was with me from the beginning, and who was attained at the end of desire." I walked the earth and felt her a living, breathing thing; and I worshiped her as "Holy Mother Earth."
It took me sixteen years of ardent devotion to her and the Craft to find out that I was terribly wrong. I had to learn the hard way that my only hope for true spiritual fulfillment in life was Jesus Christ!
I finally learned in the most graphic fashion imaginable that the difference between witchcraft or Wicca and satanism is actually non-existent.
To be sure, an anthropologist or sociologist of religion might find them different, but such distinctions mean little when you are gambling with the eternal fate of your own immortal soul.
The actual spiritual difference between Wicca and satanism might best be illustrated this way: Practicing Wicca is like having a hand-grenade blow up in your face, in terms of the spiritual impact.
Practicing satanism is like having a neutron bomb detonate in your face. The difference is there and discernable, but it is still an utter disaster for you, either way.
In eternal perspective, the disaster of Wicca is altogether real and no less dangerous than that neutron bomb.
Why Should YOU Believe This Warning?
Before we discuss this subject, allow me to give my credentials. I was initiated into the Alexandrian Wicca on Imbolc, February 2, 1973 and made a High Priest and Magus is September of the same year.
That summer my lady and I were also promoted to the High Priestly rank in the Druidic Craft of the Wise. We also helped establish a Church of All Worlds "nest" in Milwaukee and studied under Gavin and Yvonne Frost and their Church and School of Wicca.
Wicca has many "denominations" or traditions. Some are large and well-known, like the Alexandrian, Gardnerian, Druidic, Welsh Traditionalist, Gerogian, Dianic and Church of Wicca. Others are as small as a single coven or 13, or even a family tradition.
My wife and I established covens all over the Midwest; Dubuque and Davenport, Iowa; Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Chicago. Over the years, we advanced to higher levels of witchcraft.
Up to our departure from the city of Milwaukee in 1984, we were presiding over one of the oldest and largest networks of covens in the Midwest.
About a year after becoming a High Priest (1974), I was told by our initiators that Wicca was not what it seemed.
Although much of the extant literature written by witches (and Dr. Margaret Murray's work(2)) would lead one to believe that Wicca is a survival of the ancient pagan fertility cults, especially of Northern Europe and the British Isles; there is not a shred of real historical proof for any connection between Bronze Age cults and modern witchcraft.
I learned from our initiators that it seemed that Wicca is, in fact, a manufactured religion not much older than this century. There did not seem to be evidence for any Book of Shadows (a combined "bible" and ritual book for Wiccans) much older than the 1910's!
You see, Wicca is one of Satan's "nicer" creations, tailor-made for the last half of this century.
Although it may have existed for perhaps a century at most, it "came out of the broom closet" in 1951, when the British laws against witchcraft were repealed.
It is nothing really new, but its packaging is subtly different, tailored to a world strangling on its own technology and dying for romance, idealism and meaning.
A Cult of Deception
You may say:
"So you got sucked in too deep. So what? I've been a witch for years and never got into that satanic junk. It's just a Christian myth for real losers. As long as I stay where I am, I'm cool. I'm happy!" That may be so, but do you honestly want to belong to a cult that deals in deception?
Let's look at the word, "Wicca," as an example. The OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY reveals that the word does not mean "wise one." It means twisted, bent, or warped.
Even Margot Adler admits that the word has its roots in the Indo-European roots "wic" or "weik" meaning "to bend or to turn." Of course, she tries to put the best possible face on it by saying that:
"According to this view, a Witch would be a woman ( or man) skilled in the art of shaping, bending and changing reality." (4)
Elsewhere, she asserts that:
"The lexicographical (dictionary) definitions of witch are rather confusing and bear little relation to the definitions given by Witches themselves."(5)
But this is playing games, the same sort of word games most cultists play to conceal the truth. By this standard, anyone, including Anton LaVey, could say they were a witch and be right.
Yet you should hear the howls of rage among the Neo-Pagan community when even Gavin and Yvonne Frost first claimed to be witches. They couldn't be witches, they were monotheists, fakes and gay-bashers!
So all of a sudden there WAS an objective standard of what makes one a witch. Yet like many things in occultism, it vanishes like mist when you try and pin it down.
In my own personal development as a witch, and the development of almost all our colleagues, I found that after about five or six yeaars it was necessary to begin pursuing the study of the "Higher Wisdom" of Satan in order to keep growing. Magick is like a drug. You keep needing more in order to stay at a level at which you feel fulfilled. There is no end to it!
If you've stayed a Wiccan or "white" witch for a long time, it's only because you don't have enough of the Promethean itch to grow. OR it may be that you have many Christian friends or loved ones praying for you. Did you ever think of that?"
Footnotes Introduction
1. Wicca, pronounced "Wicha," contrary to popular practice, is the term most witches prefer to use for their faith. They pronounce it "Wikka" and frequently assert that it means "Wise One."
2. Margaret Murray's books, THE WITCH CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE and THE GOD OF THE WITCHES, did much to popularize the concept that Wicca is a survival of ancient religions. In recent years, though, their scholarship has been seriously challenged.
3. See Margot Adier's DRAWING DOWN THE MOON, Beacon Press, Boston, 1986 rev. ed., p.46.4. Adler.p.11.5. lbid.p.10.
* This chapter was used by permission from William Schnoebelen's book.Wicca:Satan's Little White Lie".
Kimberly's Story - From Wicca to Christ
"When I read Candace's story I couldn't help but feel an eerie sence of familiarity. Much of what had happened to her happened to me, just not to the same harsh extent.
Growing up I had never been to church (beyond the occasional wedding) and my family never really spoke much of God or religion.
We were a happy family and maybe that's why we never talked about God or questioned his existence. We never had anything bad happen to make us ask "why?"
Then I became a teenager.
I don't know why I was attracted to the rebellious side of being a teen.
I wasn't doing it on purpose, it's just what I really wanted to be like. My "crowd" wasn't a bad one, at least we didn't think so, but we got into trouble now and then. I started smoking, ciggerattes and marijuana,drinking and staying out all night and lying to my Mother.
I was having sex at 13 and pregnancy scares at 14. I didn't care, I was having fun. Then it all went downhill.
I had broken up with my boyfriend of 5 years, and I was only 16. I started to do anything for any guy who would give me the time of day.
Then I did get pregnant, and I thought maybe I had found love again, but it wasn't so.
He never beat me but the verbal abuse I put up with threw me into a deep depresion. I tried so hard to be a good mother and house wife (even though we were not married) and nothing was ever good enough. He called me a slut and a whore.
He refused to claim his daughter when he knew I was with no one else. He called me fat and lazy while I was pregnant.
Sometimes I wished he would have beaten me. It probably would have hurt less. When I thought I could not take it anymore and was on the verge of suicide I happened upon something that would change my life.
I was watching an afternoon talk show one day. The subject was a new religion called Wicca. I heard them talk of thier love and worship of nature and all living creatures and the spiritual force of the earth and I was hooked.
I went out and found everything I could on wicca. I trained and practiced and finally I proclaimed myself a bonafide witch.
Wicca had opened up a whole new world for me. It gave me hope, it helped me with struggles, and it made me friends. It was a community where I belonged. For once I was happy.
I found the courage to take my 3 year old daughter and leave her father, and it was the best choice I had ever made. I moved into my own apartment and I was in total bliss. No more complaining if something wasn't cleaned right or put away in the right place.
I was finally on my own. But on your own can be a very lonely place.
I started to pray to my God and Goddess for someone to love me the way I needed to be loved. Someone that understood me. And it happened.
He was perfect in every way and we really got along great. We saw each other for a couple of weeks and then we slept together and I never heard from him again. I found out a while later that he was a virgin and that he had only used me to "get it over with" so to speak.
I was crushed. What self-esteem I had rebuilt was gone and I went wild. I started sneaking into bars and taking guys home I didn't even know for meaningless sex.
Sometimes these guys were 30 or 40 years old and I was only 19 going on 20. I had gone from having had slept with nine people to twenty seven people in two months. I had given up all hope of ever finding someone to love. Then I met Jeff.
I met him while I was working at one of my twelve jobs that I had had in that year. I had never seen him before but I just couldn't get him out of my head.
Well he kept coming back and it turned out that his ex-girlfriend was my co-worker and he had her ask me out. I said yes and we went to the only place I knew how to talk to guys at, the bar.
We hit it off instantly and I could tell that he wasn't like other guys. At the end of the night he asked for my phone number but I knew as I handed it to him that he would never call.
Much to my surprise the phone rang the next day and it was him asking me out on a second date. I twas the start of a long and beautiful relationship. But there was one problem. My beliefs were a conflict to his.
He was a strict christian and I was a witch. He never said anything but I could tell it bothered him. So finally one night we sat down and talked about it. I explained to him that it was what I had chosen because I knew of no other choice. He would talk to me about God and the Bible and I had no idea of anything that he said.
So he taught me. I resented it at first but then I started to see so many things falling in to place that I had given dumb luck and Wicca credit for.
He explained to me that Christianity was not a religion, it was a relationship. He never got frustrated, even when I did and was patient.
Almost a year into our relationship I accepted Jesus Christ and became a Christian. I have never been happier. I realize now that my ultimate unhappiness came from not knowing where I was going. I know now. "
Kimberly S. Pa
© Copyright 2006http://www.occultresearch.org/- occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved. Witchcraft explained
Witchcraft is said to be the use of magic through gardless of sex.
Practices which are classed as witchcraft
Throughout time, any practice which is thought to harm others by intent is said to be a form of witchcraft, some of the more common types of witchcraft are
Wishing harm on another’s person or property
This is perhaps the most well known of all witchcraft and usually involves the use of a curse or hex performed with the sole purpose of bringing harm to the intended victim or that persons property.
Spells can also be used to change a persons will and make them do something they otherwise wouldn’t, an example of this would be to make someone fall in love with you and this type of witchcraft is said to be white magic.
Spell casting
Perhaps one of the most well known aspects of witchcraft is the witches ability to cast spells, we all visualise the witch stirring the bubbling cauldron whispering an incantation over the spell.
However concocting spells in cauldrons is not the only way witches cast spells, spells can be cast through a variety of means. Some of the more popular methods involve the use of candles burning, chanting and reciting incantations, physical rituals and the preparation of herbal remedies.
Awakening the dead
Awakening or conjuring the spirits of the dead is a practice of witchcraft known as necromancy, the “witch of endor” is said to have routinely practiced this form of witchcraft for divination and prophecy, and it is also a form that the witch doctors of Jamaica performed in their voodoo ceremonies.
Witchcraft in the past
The practice of witchcraft using the methods described above was widespread in the past and was foremost in ancient Egypt and Babylonia as documentation has shown. During the Vedic, age witches were then called yoginis and the form of witchcraft was abhichara, witchcraft in this era was mainly aimed at Aryan people and took on the form of magical incantations.
The Hebrew bible constantly makes reference to witchcraft and condemns the practices as does also the New Testament in the bible, other popular forms of witchcraft which have been documented is African witchcraft and neopagan witchcraft.
The African form of witchcraft we all know is the witch doctor, the witch doctor traditionally practiced medicine as ways of healing people and also putting a curse or hex on unfortunate victims.
During the 20th century a lot of interest was taken into neopagan witchcraft with the most famous documentation being that of Margaret Murray in 1921 when she documented the theory of a pan European witch cult. Magical terms & traditions
* Alchemy – alchemy combines elements of chemistry, physics, medicine and spiritualism and was practiced in ancient Egypt, China, Persia and India. Today alchemy is mainly of interest to historians of science and philosophy for its mystic and artistic aspects.*
Astrology – there are many systems, traditions and beliefs that make up astrology and it is thought that knowledge of the positions of the stars can help us to get a better understanding and bring more knowledge of human affairs and events.
* Athame – the Athame is a ceremonial knife that witches use in ritual magic, the witch will take great care when purchasing or choosing the Athame and very often will use a family heirloom as their ceremonial knife.
* Banishing – this is the banishing of evil forces or spirits and is often performed before and after the main ritual.
* Black magic – this is a form of magic that is used to summon evil and direct evil which in turn brings bad luck and destruction to those on the receiving end.
* Ceremonial magic – this is a very elaborate and complex ritual and practitioners will use a variety of aids and accessories when performing the ceremonial ritual.
* Curse – a curse is the effect of a supernatural power aimed at someone to bring them bad luck and trouble, the gypsy curse was the more well known among curses.
* Demonology – demonology refers to a group of people that attempt to name demons and spirits which are said to be malevolent, it is the opposite of angelology which attempts to compile information from the angels for good intentions.
* Divination – this is an attempt to gain information by interpreting omens or a supernatural agency, it is a universal cultural belief which is seen in many cultures and religions up to the present day.
* Dowsing – dowsing has existed for thousands of years and has also been called water witching, those who practice it are said to be empowered with the ability to find water, precious metals, gemstones and hidden objects. Those practicing divination will use a rod, pendulum or y shaped twig over a piece of land or map.
* Geomancy – this is a form of divination which relies on interpreting markings on the ground, or how a handful of dirt will land when thrown back to the ground, it is a form of divination which was chiefly practiced in Africa.
* Hoodoo – hoodoo is an African traditional branch of folk magic which has been around for thousands of years, it is often used to describe a potion or spell and those who practice it are called hoodoo man. Some people also refer to this type of magic as hoodooism.
* Invocation – this is a spell or chant that is used to call upon the god or goddess for a favour or for protection.
* Magic circle – wicca and pagan traditions use what is known as circle casting, this is generally done with salt, crystals, candles or some other purifying substance, the circle is said to offer protection.
* Mojo – the mojo is a tiny bag which is normally worm under the clothes and holds a charm, it is used for protection and can also be used when practicing black magic with the intent to bring harm to others.
* Necromancy – this type of black magic involves conjuring the spirits of the dead in order to gain knowledge of future events.
* Obeah – those who practice magic in the west Indies call it obeah and it is similar to voodoo and hoodoo.
* Paganism – this refers to a broad range of spiritual and religious beliefs and is generally associated with someone who worships someone other than god.
* Shamanism – this is a type of magic which users are said to be able to cure suffering and illness, shamans are thought to have some control over many aspects such as the weather, interpretation of dreams and astral projection.
* Tarot – a deck of tarot cards consists of 78 cards which are used for divination, the tarot cards are thought to date back to 12th century Italy when they were used as a game.
* Voodoo – voodoo is a form of black magic that is practiced in west Africa, it is a system of religious worship and practices that is widespread in a multitude of African groups.
* Wicca – wicca is a form of neopagan religion which is found in many countries, the wiccan only practice magic for good and follow the rule of do no harm to others.
* Witchcraft – there are many forms of witchcraft and the term witchcraft is used when someone practices magic or sorcery of any kind both white and black magic. Types of witchcraft
There is a lot more to witchcraft and witches than the haggard, wart nosed old woman with the black cape, broomstick and black cat. Witchcraft comes in many shapes and forms and has been practised the world over in many different cultures.
The renaissance and gothic Satanism
During the renaissance in the middle ages, the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed that evil people, mostly women had sold their sole to the devil and worshipped him in exchange for certain supernatural powers the devil bestowed upon them.
They were said to be witches who worshipped Diana and other goddesses of this time, they were classed as pure evil and are said to have took part in the kidnapping of babies and killing and eating their victims.
They were said to posses the ability to fly through the air in the middle of the night and hold meetings where spell casting took place and evil wrong doings.
These were all beliefs that the people during this period held and thousands of people were convicted of being a witch and worshipping the devil and were executed in what has come to be known as the “burning times”.
Wicca
Wicca is a more recent form of witchcraft and is a religion-based form of witchcraft; it is based on deities, seasonal times and symbols and is a form of celebration for the Celtic people.
Some followers of Wicca call themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans and both men and women who follow this religion are called witches.
There are basically two laws that must be followed and these are the Wiccan rede and the three-fold law. The Wiccan rede says that those following the religion are free to do as they please as long as they harm no other; the three-fold law says that any evil that is done to others will return three times over.
These laws obviously encourage the Wiccan to do only good and any magic they practise is white magic and usually involves healing spells and incantations.
Religious Satanism
Modern day Satanists worship Satan and there are three main traditions to the followers of this religion, the church of Satan, the temple of set and church of satanic liberation. The church of Satan is thought to be the biggest of these and currently holds thousands of members in the United States.
Most Satanists believe that Satan is a force of nature not a particular deity and has nothing to do with the usual associations we think of when we think of Satan or the devil.
Satanists as you would expect are the total opposite of Wiccan and delight in causing harm and destruction wherever possible and only practise black magic.Witchcraft & wicca FAQs
* Can I follow the path of Wicca and witchcraft and still be a Christian?
There are many common factors of Wicca and being a Christian so the two are not worlds apart, so some say that yes the two can go hand in hand while others (Myself included) claim that there are no real connections of substance at all to Wicca and Christianity.
The two seem to compliment each other and the most important issue is doing what GOD SAYS FOR YOU TO DO NOT WHAT "FEELS GOOD" Because feelings can deceive the Heart. Having been a Wiccan I can attest to the fact that most Wiccans HAVE GOOD INTENTIONS TO HARM NO ONE ELSE, BUT ONLY TO LIVE AND ENJOY LIFE AS THEY SEE FIT, the problem is not in the intent of the witch but in the intent of the spirits that truely control the witch even if they do not see it.* Are witchcraft and Wicca the same thing?
People have different views regarding this; however, there are some main differences to the two which are worth noting, in general, Wicca’s are free to review different systems of belief and take what they want from the different beliefs and blend them together.
Pure witchcraft however relies on using magic and rituals to work with elemental and spiritual forces of nature. Some feel these differences are only slight and Wicca and witchcraft both have the same goals of working to achieve balance and harmony within nature.
* Whom does the witch worship?
Witches believe that there is a single force and this force is defined as “the one”, with the force being the universe. This divine energy is usually personified and witches will call it the goddess or god; however, this title is only put there to make it easier for the human mind to comprehend.
When some witches invoke the god or goddess, they might give those names such as Odin, pan, Dianna or Astarte, but this is only a matter of personal preference.
* Are witches anti-Christian?
Witchcraft and followers of Wicca are very tolerant towards other religions and views, Wiccan withhold the law of “harm no other” and as such allow others to speak their beliefs freely.
Wicca’s believe that there are many paths to the same destination and it doesn’t matter which one you choose to get there as long as no harm is done along the way.
* Wicca’s profess to follow the Wicca rede and this says, “harm no others and do as you will”, does this mean that the witch can do anything they want as long as they can justify it?
The whole philosophy behind Wicca is based on living in complete harmony with all other things; this includes every living thing in the world around them.
Following this rule, the witch has to make sure that no harm comes to any living thing in the world so the answer would be no, they could not please themselves if they thought that harm was going to come from something no matter how much it could be justified. The tools of witchcraft
There are many sacred tools that witches have used for thousand of years and there are numerous systems and traditions that they use, with some witches choosing to work in very elaborate settings while others use only the bare essentials and prefer a more natural approach.
Listed below are some of items and tools that witches commonly use and items which we associate with witches.Athame
The Athame is more commonly know as a knife and most witches will own several ritual knives, the Athame is a very personal and magical tool which the witch will take great care over when obtaining. The Athame should fit comfortably in the hand and feel right with many witches going to great lengths to make their own blades and hone them to perfection.
They also personalize them with great care with runes, carvings and other symbols with special meanings to them, with some witches preferring to use family heirlooms such as letter openers as their Athame.
The broom
Who doesn’t think of witches without thinking of the broom, this has been a symbol of the witch for thousands of years and indeed they do use it for the cleansing ritual. Many witches will also place a broom outside of their door with the brushy side up to ward off evil spirits and to stop unwanted outside energies from entering the home.
The bell
Perhaps not one of the most widely known tools of the witch, the bell is said to have magical properties and for centuries, it was thought to posses magical or spiritual powers. Bells are also associated with the divine and are commonly used in the opening and closing of ceremonies and the start and closing of spell casting.
The cauldron
The cauldron is another symbol that we all associate with the witch; the traditional cauldron has three legs and is thought to represent bounty and blessings.
The cauldron has also come to be known as representing the reincarnation and the cycles of birth, death and rebirth.
Witches will burn incense in them or create spells in them and the witch will have cauldrons in different sizes for the different tasks they want to perform.
The chalice
The chalice is a cup which is used on the altar and normally represents the female principle of water, chalices can be made of any material but most witches prefer silver or pewter.
The chalice is used with the Athame in the enactment of the great rite, which is the union of male and female from which life springs forth. The chalice can also be used to form a bond and will be passed around from person to person so they can all drink from it.
The Paton or altar pentacle
The pentacle for the altar is usually a disk or plate which is inscribed with a five pointed star surrounded by a circle, this will be used to consecrate the various other tools used and is also used as a concentration point for other magical spells. The laws of witchcraft
Unlike most religions and beliefs witchcraft does not have a long list of rules which have to be adhered to, there are only two basic laws which must be followed and adhered to at all times. These two rules are known as the Wiccan rede and the three-fold law; these two principles hold what the witches define as ethic and moral behaviour within the practice of witchcraft.
The three-fold law
Many people will have heard the three-fold law put a different way, some people call it cause and effect, it literally means “what we reap, we will sow” and get back three times.
This is thought to be the reasons why many witches of today are loathe to practice black magic as this would turn around and come back at them three-fold. The witches of today primarily belong to a group or coven called the Wiccan and this law and the Wiccan rede are strictly followed.
The Wiccan rede
The law of the Wiccan rede states that witches are free to do whatever they wish as long as no harm befalls themselves and others. Harm is defined as physical, mental and physic damage to themselves and others around them.
For the majority of today’s witches harming others is simply something that is unthinkable and as such only good or white magic spells are performed.
The universe plays a big part in modern witchcraft and all things are thought to be connected to all others.
All spells which are cast by the witch of today are directed towards a specific task and are only cast after a great deal of thought has been given to them and the outcome.
One question that is often asked of the modern witch is while upholding this law are they then to take mistreatment from others without retaliating, the answer of course is no, witches will place a protection spell around themselves and their loved ones.
The protection spell will then neutralize harmful energies back into the universe without doing harm, the witch then waits for justice to even out as what comes around goes around and therefore justice will take place.
Code of ethics for healers
Certain witches are pagan healers and as such, they are bound by a code of ethics which they must follow, the ethics are:
* The primary obligation of the healer is to those they are healing.
* Any knowledge gained during a consultation should be kept confidential.
* Always be self critical and acknowledge your limitations.
* Work in co-operation with other healers.
* Always take into account the customs, values and beliefs of your client.
* They must not act in any way that would bring the wicca community into disrepute.
* If you feel ethically or morally compromised you have the right to refuse treatment.
* The healer should seek help when treating with herbal treatments. © Copyright 2006 Occultresearch.org - occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved
© Copyright 2006http://www.occultresearch.org/- occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved. Black magic explained
Black magic or dark magic as it is sometimes called is a form of magic that is intended to draw malevolent spirits or entities and is usually performed for acts of evil.
During the inquisition, Christians were frightened of witches and warlocks who practised these black magic rituals but now in modern times witches will use the term black magic to offset the good magic they profess to practise, as black magic is said to be very rarely used.
In olden days, black magic was performed to gain benefit without regard to the harm that it caused others and indeed most performed black magic solely to hurt and inflict damage on others.
The difference between black magic and white magic is still debated amongst modern witches with several theories contrasting the two branches. Theories such as the “all as one”, “no connection” and “separate but equal” theories all being popular and open for debate. The most popular theories include
The all as one theory
Believers of this theory believe that all magic, black or white is evil with black magic generally being associated with the devil or Satan. Religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism all follow the belief that any type of magic is bad.
The dark doctrine theory
As black magic refers to powers of darkness, believers of this theory believe that this type of magic relates directly to Satan.
The formal differences theory
There are thought to be many forms and components to black magic and those casting the black magic have different interests and reasons for doing so, followers of this theory believe that black magic is only harmful when it involves the use of personal items such as clothing, hair or blood of those the spell is directed towards.
The no connection theory
Followers of this theory believe that black and white magic have no connection at all as both practises use totally different forms, followers to this theory see both forms as totally opposing each other.
The separate but equal theory
People who follow this theory believe black and white magic are the same thing with the only difference being the goals they accomplish and the means by which witches get there.
All spells are spells and the difference is only determined by the outcome of the particular spell cast.
Black magic is usually said to be performed more by those who worship the devil hence the term black magic, magic spells cast this way will usually involve the use of ones personal belongings such a piece of clothing, a lock of hair or blood.
The spells cast are said to usually be for the sole purpose of bringing harm to the one they are directed at.
White magic is usually thought to help people and do no harm to others; popular spells of this type are love spells and potions, with the hope of bringing the love of your life into your arms.
However, spells of this type usually involve the use of personal belongings too but for different means.Curses & hexes
The basic curse or hex is perhaps one of the oldest forms of magic dating back thousands of years with forms of hexes and curses being used in many cultures and traditions.
Hexes vary considerably in different hands and can range from the simple to the more elaborate and can be cast in a variety of ways, the most simplest of curses and hexes do nothing more than bring the person bad luck while the more elaborate can cause many problems with the victims wealth, health and even specified body parts.
The very basic hex or curse can be a spoken curse wishing bad luck and unhappiness on the intended victim; this is usually invoked by briefly describing what you want to happen to the victim followed by a sacred word or magical name.
Gypsy curses
Gypsy curses are perhaps the best known of all curses, exactly why is not known, but it probably stems from gypsy fortune telling of many years ago and one of the most famous of all gypsy curses which has been portrayed on TV many times is.
“May you wander over the face of the earth forever, never sleep twice in the same bed, never drink water twice from the same well and never cross the same river twice in a year”.
As you can see gypsy curses can be pretty elaborate and not just simply one or two words, after all if we could be cursed or hexed with just a couple of simple words the parents of almost every teenage child would drop dead on the spot.
Voodoo, curses and hexes
Voodoo has long been recognised as a form of curse or hex, this tradition involves the use of a figure crafted in the fashion of the intended victim and often has some trait of the victim such as hair or blood.
The practitioner of voodoo would then use pins to stick in the doll with the hope of causing the victim great pain and suffering; the practice of voodoo is thought to have come from the Caribbean.
Different forms of curses and hexes
People throughout the world have their own different beliefs on curses and hexes with all of them intending to bring trouble and strife to the unsuspecting victim, the Chinese believe that they can deliver a curse by leaving a few grains of rice and some pennies on the victim’s doorstep. This type of curse symbolizes a wish for the victim to have great financial difficulty.
More recently a Tanzanian member of parliament declared they would put an Islamic death curse on the board members of a Tanzanian executive branch if they didn’t clean up corruption.
The aboriginal Australians strongly believe that a curse can be put on someone by pointing a kangaroo bone at them and curses have always been associated with the Egyptians.
King Tutankhamen’s tomb is a great example of this and it has always been shrouded with mystery and anyone said to have been associated with the opening of the tomb was cursed with six of the people involved with the opening of the tomb meeting untimely and unfortunate deaths.
The curse of Rasputin
Perhaps one of the most famous of all curses was the one which Rasputin mumbled from his deathbed, Rasputin cursed Russia’s ruling monarchs due to being shot, almost drowned and castrated by the Romanov prince.
This curse was apparently very effective as the entire family were dead within one year. What is Necromancy?
Necromancy is a form of divination which is used to conjure the spirits of the dead in order to gain knowledge about the future and the outcome of events in the future, the spirits conjured this way are called spirits of divination.
The spread of necromancy
During the middle ages, illiterate members of society were either nobility or Christian clergy and it is thought that either of these groups was responsible for the propagation and practice of necromancy, even though in Christianity it is forbidden and denied.
Some people deny that necromancy has anything to do with witchcraft while others say that it is a form of black magic and witchcraft and necromancers were tried as witches and hanged, the confessions of those accused of necromancy suggest that a wide range of spell casting and magical practices were involved in necromancy.
The practice of necromancy
It is though that to be able to conjure up the dead the practitioner needs the help of powerful spirits for both the practitioners’ protection and to make the corpse or ghost of the dead submit to his will. An ancient spell is the used to call upon the powers of powerful spirits to bind the dead with two essential elements that are needed to summon the dead, a burnt sacrifice and a blood-drenched altar.
Elaborate preparations are made which includes the careful study of the planets and in particular the moon and the influence of Saturn.
The site for the ritual also has to be chosen with great care with the most favourable sites being crossroads, vaults, ruins or a deserted forest.
Once the site has been chosen and the alignment of the planets is in favour a concentric circle of power is drawn on the ground, within the circle are inscribed crosses and other symbols.
For the magic to work, the necromancer and his assistant must stand within the circles centre and the circle must be blessed or consecrated.
The summoning of the dead or spirit of the dead can then take place using the names of power, when this is successful the dead will return full of anger at being summoned against his will to return to the land of living.
The necromancer must then struggle to gain control over the dead and when control has been gained, the necromancer can then control them and questions will be asked which the dead must answer.
After the ritual has finished the necromancer must not leave the circle until the dead has been dismissed and all flowers must then be removed from the area and burned and the ashes buried deep into the earth.
The ritual is one of the darkest forms of black magic and is the most dangerous of all forms of witchcraft.
© Copyright 2006 Occultresearch.org - occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved
© Copyright 2006 http:// www.Occultresearch.org/ - occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved.
Séances and Ouija boards : are a form of black magic and witchcraft which are a method of divination involving the summoning of the dead in order to gain information about future or past events.
Séances involve the use of a medium, which is the person who will go into a trance like state and then invoke spirits of the dead and open a channel of communication with them.Séances are usually held in a darkened room with the participants being seated around a table holding hands.
During the séance, the table can tilt and move slightly and a breeze can often be felt when the presence of the spirit is said to be in the room, some say these are all tricks by the medium and associates.
When the spirit of the dead person is within the room they will then speak through the medium and questions can be asked, very often people will go to a medium and request that they speak with loved ones who have departed.
Another popular method of communication with the dead is by use of a Ouija board where people will place their fingers lightly on a planchette on a board with letters of the alphabet, once the spirit has been raised then questions are asked by the medium and the planchette will begin to form letters on the board resulting in answers.
Belief in communication with the dead stems back to the 1820`s and was widely known as a form of sorcery and witchcraft, it is a form that is still practiced today and many sceptics regard mediums and séances as nothing more than scams.
Channelling during the séance
Channelling is a very common practice to the séance and is the practice of allowing the spirit to enter the body of the medium in order for it to be able to communicate with those present. This process is thought to be entirely different from that commonly known as possession, possession is said to be the non-consensual take over of a persons body by a malevolent spirit or demon.
Channelling involves welcoming the spirit of the dead into the body for the sole purpose of gaining information and interaction between the living and the dead. The physical manifestations of the channelling is the onset of an unusual voce and uncharacteristic behaviour of the medium, due to the nature of this, this is why so many people are sceptical as to how genuine séances are.
Sceptics believe that, as the bereaved are so emotional over the loss of their loved ones they can easily be tricked into giving information before the ritual which the medium then uses to their advantage during the séance.
Very often, the bereaved will clutch at any straw and if they believe they have a chance of speaking with their loved one for one last time then they take it with open arms and wallets.
How genuine séances and Ouija boards are is something that has been debated for many years and will continue to be debated and regarded with scepticism for some time to come.Tarot cards
The exact origins of the tarot cards are unknown but they are thought to closely resemble a pack of cards which were used to play a game in 15th century Italy where the cards were known as tarocchi.
How exactly tarot cards came to be used for divination is unclear but as early as 1540 drawings show simple cards being drawn and used as methods of divination or fortune telling.
The tarot deck
The typical deck of tarot cards holds 78 cards and are in two distinct parts, the first part is called the trump cards and these consist of 21 cards without suits, with the addition of a 22nd card which is called the fool.
These cards are known as the major arcana or greater secrets; the second part consists of 56 cards which are divided into 4 suits of 14 cards in each.
In the traditional Italian card deck, they were known as swords, batons, coins and cups but decks that are more modern call the baton suit rods or staves while the coins suit is called pentacles or disks.
These cards are known as minor arcana or lesser secrets.
The use of the tarot cards
In most parts of the world, the tarot deck is widely used as a form of divination or as a tool for assessing the unconscious. The cards are shuffled as a deck and then dealt out in various formations or patterns; they are often thought to show a persons thoughts or desires.
The cards can be used to show events that have happened in the past, present or future and are able to give answers to questions regarding uncertainties and indecision.
Each card in the deck has a variety of meanings which have varied widely throughout the years and many decks are customized for a particular person’s use, the kings, queens, pages and knights signify different people in the readings of the cards and each suit can provide information about the person’s attitude, emotional state and physical characteristics.
Scepticism of tarot readings
Many religious groups oppose the use of tarot cards because of their association with divination and fortune telling and consider them a form of witchcraft, many sceptics also oppose the readings of the tarot deck and believe that readers mislead their clients and exploit vulnerable people.
These people often come to depend on the tarot reader and return on a regular basis for help with problems of course at great expense. The witches' pentacle
The pentacle has long been thought of as a symbol of witchcraft, the pentagram dates back over 8,000 years and is said to represent an ancient philosophical concept both in the east and in west and is the most misunderstood and stigmatized of all symbols.
For the modern pagans of today the five points of the pentacle symbolize the four directions with the fifth as the sanctity of the spirit, with the circle symbolising unity and wholeness.
The pentacle is used and is one of the most powerful symbols, by those involved in ceremonial magic and Wicca, in magic the shape of the pentacle is draw in the air with a sacred blade.
Altars feature a pentacle in the form of a flat disc and are widely used as a tool in rituals and are featured on many tools such as cauldrons, chalices or the handles of daggers.
Spells and invocations are often repeated 5 times to ensure the effectiveness of the spell and many pagans wear the sign of the pentacle for protection and to show others that they are involved in the practice of magic and divine wisdom.
The pentagram is used the world over and has been recognised as a sacred symbol since ancient times with almost all cultures having some form of five folds symbol which bears significance to religion.
The elements of the pentacle
When the pentacle is drawn or written, it is called a pentagram and was originally made from clay or dough but today pentacles are more often found crafted in metals such a copper, brass and silver or gold. Many witches wear the pentacle as a sign or their religion and when made out of silver it is said to represent the moon energy.
It is widely used in the practice of magic and is used to either invoke or banish energies when draw certain ways, the simplest of these magic spells will usually involve the use of a candle placed on the points.
Each of the five angles on the pentagram are said to represent the five metaphysical elements and these are:
* Earth – this is the lower left hand corner and represents stability and physical endurance.
* Fire – the lower right hand corner and which represents courage and daring.
* Water – the upper right hand corner which represents intuition and the emotions.
* Air – the upper left hand corner which represents the arts and intelligence.
* Spirit – the topmost point which represents the divine.
The circle which encloses the points is thought to represent God or Goddess which brings protection and gives the wearer universal wisdom.
The pentagram dates back to pre-Babylonian times and is used by many people in many different cultures and has slightly different meanings to each religion. Pagan cults & evil practices
The origins of witchcraft date back to times when drawings were found in caves revealing that from the beginning of time magic rituals involving animals, birth and death have been associated with evil doing and witchcraft.
Tribes and communities each had their own form of leader such as high priest or priestess, sorcerer or wizard or witch.
The sole functions of these were to assist the tribe or village with weather conditions causing poor crops, disease, wars, birth and deaths.
Many of these practices involved the use of elaborate rituals or ceremonies and included the use of certain objects and plants which had carefully been passed down over time.
It was the Romans who associated Christians with magic and witchcraft believing them to take part in rituals involving sexual orgies, worshipping a god who had the head of an ass and who were said to make sacrifices using babies.
The empress Theodora ordered the death of over one hundred thousand members of what was believed to be a sect or cult, however after the 6th and 7th centuries were past the witch hunts died down and there were only a handful of executions for practicing witchcraft until the beginning of the 12th century.
When the church became the official cult in Europe, the Christian monks and priests began trying to eradicate any religion or belief that wasn’t Christian or part of the churches beliefs. Witches and wizards became sworn enemies of the church and those who followed Christian beliefs; it was the theologians of the Middle Ages who created the appalling witch massacres that occurred in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.
The popular image of the devil or Satan as being horned with the hoofs of a goat was brought about by the early missionary church of the European horned god who was known in Greece as pan, to the Nordic people as Thor and to the ancient Gauls as cernununos.
The Jewish and Muslim religions were also considered as demons and heretics as these too opposed the church and their beliefs, as were the pre Christian cults of South America and India.
Christianity was therefore imposed upon the world and it is thought that only by sheer force on such a scale has the church maintained its dominance on religion for so many centuries.
Interesting facts
* A study into the victims of witch trials has shown that among the poor people, rich people were also condemned as witches; it was so easy to accuse and destroy reputations as tangible proof was claimed for the evidence of witchcraft.
It is thought that very often jealousy and rivalry were the prime motives for making accusations.
* Over 90% of all people accused during the witch-hunts were woman and many of these were old women, it is thought that the church believed that the devil could easily seduce women into joining him and so they were persecuted on this belief alone.
* The church itself used witchcraft in major accusations against other religions and followers of those religions, the albigensians of France were drowned in their own blood on the orders of pope innocent III.
When King Philip le bel of France tried to take over the vast knight’s templar wealth and dispose of his allies the templar’s were captured and tortured.
They subsequently confessed to worshipping an idol by the name of bapomet who was said to take on the form of a cat.
Perhaps the most famous was Joan of ark who it was thought became such a political threat to the hierarchy of power and being a woman, she was accused and burnt as a witch. What are Runes?
Runes are connected to witchcraft and they are a tool used in divination and magic which have been used throughout Europe, Scandinavia, the British Isles and Iceland from around 100 b.c.e.
They are used as an oracle for seeking advice and are said to work best on asking a specific question once having given details of the circumstances, although the outcome is sometimes questionable and unclear.
The runes at best will point you in the right direction but you will have to conclude the answer yourself from the information they give you and figure out exact details yourself, there is never a clear cut and dry answer to your problems.
However, rune casting or runic divination as it is called is not a way of fortune telling but rather a way of analyzing the particular path you are on and what the outcome is likely to be.
The word rune means mystery or secret and each rune has a special meaning and properties associated with it, each of them translates into a word or phrase that has a special meaning representing the forces of nature and the mind and each is associated with a Norse god.
The runes were also used as a method of writing and first made their appearance among German tribes in central Europe, it is thought that some of the rune symbols may have come from other languages such as Greek and early roman.
Inscriptions on the runic stones have been dated as far back as the 3rd century AD though it is thought that they existed a long time before then.
How to read runes
By far the simplest way of reading runes is to use the one rune method, after you have cleared your mind of all other thoughts ask the question in mind, concentrating on it.
When you have concentrated on your question and you feel the time is right take just one rune from your bag and from this stone, you will gather information relating to the question at hand, what you make of this information is entirely up to you.
If you think that more information is needed then you can take three runes instead of just the one from the bag, you will deduct information from the first rune regarding the circumstances of your question.
The second rune will give you an indication of the route you should take and the third is the likely outcome should you choose to go with the action.
This of course is only a very brief glimpse of casting runes and there are several books and websites you can read should you wish to delve deeper into the magic of runes. The tradition of Halloween
Obeah in the Virgin Islands
Perhaps the most famous form of obeah that we are all familiar with if we have visited the Virgin Islands is the mocko-jumbie or the stilt dancer.
Obeah tradition in the virgin islands proclaim that a jumbie is a lost or evil spirit and is thought to be related to the word nzumbi or as we more commonly know them zombies.
However as dark as the word suggests a jumbie might be they are totally opposite and wear brightly coloured clothing, they dance during the daylight hours and stilt dancing is very popular at holidays and at carnivals.
Obeah and wanga
The wanga is associated with obeah and it is a small magical charm packet which is used in the practice of black magic in Haiti, it is a form of magic that is associated with voodoo.
Wanga is also known as mojo, toby and jomo, it is usually a drawstring bag in which a charm is held and is worn under the clothing.
They are thought to hold supernatural powers and can protect the wearer from harm and evil, they are also used in the casting of evil spells with the intent to harm others, usually something relating to the person such as a lock of hair or fingernail clippings is used.
Particular attention is taken to the tying of the bag as this is thought to ensure that the particular spell works correctly and once it has been sealed then it is encouraged to work by using perfume or anointing oils on it regularly. The witches coven
When we think of a witches coven, we think of a group of old wart nosed witches standing around a simmering cauldron reciting incantations, however the true witch’s coven is nothing like this and they do exist today.
Of the covens existing today, the Wicca coven is perhaps the most notable and joining a coven or becoming the leader of one is is not a task that should be taken lightly.
There are many unqualified Wicca teachers out there who give bad advice and teachings, and it seems that just about anyone can and will set up a website claiming to be a Wicca.
Before letting you join the coven you will have to take a kind of interview and of course, you will have to decide as much as the coven if you want to be a part of the group.
The pagan belief system is very diverse and as such, practices from group to group will vary, however one thing that all groups or covens have in common is that they rely on the blending of spiritual energies within the group.
There are several questions you should ask of the group leader or high priest or priestess and also yourself before you join the group, questions to ask could be:
* What is this coven trying to accomplish?
* How many members are in the coven and how big do they expect to grow?
* What is the group’s general experience in the Wicca practice?
* What is the turnover rate of the coven, do members leave frequently? * Have the coven been forced to banish a member and if so why?
* What qualities are the groups leaders looking for and why?
* How do the covens leaders get to chosen as leaders?
* Do leaders have an excessive amount of power over the coven?
* Does the coven have a set of written rules they will let you see?
* What contributions are expected of its members?
* Who prepares and decides the rituals?
* What magical practices does the coven perform or use?
* Do the other members of the coven seem welcoming?
* Are the members committed to spiritual progress?
* Is input readily accepted from members?
Points to be wary of
* Be very wary of anyone who approaches you to ask you to join the coven, this is not normal wiccan behaviour, people aren’t asked to join.
* Beware of any covens that have young people under the age of 18 within their coven, responsible high priests and priestesses will never have anyone under the age of 18 in their coven.
* Beware of any coven that asks members to do chores or work for the high priest and priestesses, genuine high priests and priestesses never have this rule.
* Beware of any coven that abuses members for wrongdoing.
* Beware of any coven whose leader insists that a sexual ritual must take place with the high priest or priestess before being enrolled into the coven. The Salem witch trials
Perhaps the most famous of all witches and witch hunts were those accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in what was then known as Salem village in Massachusetts U.S.A.
It was the bizarre behaviour of two of the daughters of the towns minister reverend Samuel Parris who started events in the small town in 1692.
The events of the Salem witch trials
In January of 1692 Elizabeth parris age 9 and 11 year old Abigail Williams began to show signs of disturbing behaviour which ranged from seizures, trance like states, blasphemous screaming and shouting and mysterious happenings around them.
Within a very short space of time, other girls of similar age began to show these strange signs and symptoms, doctors were baffled as to the cause of these happenings and when they couldn’t find any medical cause for them they were declared to be under the influence of Satan.
By late February of that year after many prayer meetings and fastings conducted by the reverend parris in the hope of revealing their true identity and expose them as witches and under ever-increasing pressure, the girls named three women as witches.
By the end of February of that year these three women Tituba a Caribbean Indian slave of the parris family, Sarah good and Sarah osbourne were all arrested despite proclaiming their innocence.
However, the slave Tituba confessed that the devil sometimes appeared to her in the shape of part dog, part hog and said there was a conspiracy of witches at work in the village of Salem.
By march 1st after unrelenting questioning from the people of Salem Tituba finally admitted to practicing witchcraft, following this confession several of the towns people came forward and claimed they had seen or being harmed by strange apparitions of people in the community.
Accusations were made of many people in the village and among those accused were faithful churchgoers and upstanding citizens in the community along with those who had records of criminal activity.
During this period of time, several people were accused of witchcraft examined and denounced, with many of the townsfolk now starting to oppose the witchcraft trials petitions were being signed to protest people’s innocence.
By October 19th of that year over 20 people had been condemned as witches and hanged on the gallows during what was to be known as the Salem witch trials.
A letter was wrote during this time criticizing the trials and eventually the governor by the name of Phips ruled that spectral and intangible evidence no longer be admissible in the trials.
Salem today
Salem village is now known as Danvers and still standing is what was then known as the witch house on the corner of North and Essex in Salem, where guided tours with tales of the Salem witchcraft trials take place.
After all this time over 552 documents documenting the trials are still stored and preserved at the Peabody Essex museum along with several other pieces of memorabilia such as the pins used in the examination of the witches and what is said to be the finger bones of one of the victims of the Salem witch trials. What is Satanism?
Satanism is a form of witchcraft which is religion based and is more prevalent in the United States with the church of Satan being the most popular choice for followers of the devil. It is based on deep-seated philosophy and followers are bound by certain conditions and rules.The nine satanic statements
* Satan represents indulgence and abstinence is forgotten.
* Satan represents vital existence.
* Satan represents wisdom instead of self-deceit.
* Satan represents kindness to those who earn it.
* Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek.
* Satan represents responsibility to those who deserve it.
* Satan represents man as just another animal.
* Satan represents all of the so called sins.
* Satan is the church's best friend without him the church wouldn’t have lasted.
The eleven satanic rules of earth
* Do not give opinions or advice unless asked for it.
* Do not profess your troubles to others unless you’re sure they want to hear them.
* When in another lair treat them with respect.
* If a guest in your lair treats you disrespectfully treat them cruelly without showing mercy.
* Do not make advances sexually unless you are given a mating sign.
* Do not take something that doesn’t belong to you unless given it.
* Acknowledge the power of magic and use it successfully to obtain your desires.
* Do not complain about anything which doesn’t concern you.
* Do not harm small children.
* Do not kill non human animals unless they are food or for your protection.
* Bother no one but if someone bothers you ask them to stop, if they don’t destroy them.
The nine satanic sins
* Stupidity – Satanists must learn to see through the tricks that people can try.
* Solipsism – never show people your true feelings, reactions and responses.
* Self-deceit – never deceive yourself, the only time this is permissible is when self-deceit is for fun.
* Herd conformity – only conform to a person's wishes if it benefits you.
* Lack of perspective – never lose sight of who and what you are and the threat you can be to others.
* Forgetfulness of past orthodoxies – this is one of the keys to brainwashing people into accepting and trying something new.
* Counter productive pride – pride is acceptable up to a point but only if it works for you.
* Lack of aesthetics – aesthetics is important in lesser magic and should be cultivated. What is Voodoo?
Voodoo is one of the world’s oldest forms of religion which has been associated with witchcraft and has been around in Africa since the beginning of human civilisation.
Those who practice voodoo believe that nothing and no event happens on its own but that all things are connected, following this theory what you do to another, you do to yourself.
Rituals involved in voodoo ceremonies include prayers, singing, dancing and the sacrifice of animals, those following the beliefs of voodoo believe that god manifests through the spirits of dead ancestors and so must be honoured in these rituals.
Music and dance play a key role in the rituals and this has often been portrayed as the lead up to sexual frenzy and orgies, this however isn’t true. Voodoo dancing is an expression of spirituality, a way of connecting with divinity and the spiritual world.
The ancestors of those who follow the voodoo religion are thought to be part of the world of spirits and these spirits can be called on to help and give protection and guidance.
The voodoo priest or priestess can also use herbal remedies or medicines which have been passed down through families to help those who are sick, with faith healing playing a big part also in the religion.
Voodoo has always wrongly been categorised as an evil form of witchcraft with the rites and rituals being performed for evil doings however this is untrue.
The misconceptions of voodoo
Despite voodoo being one of the oldest of all religions it has been characterised as being barbaric and primitive based on superstition and fear, the Europeans seem to fear anything that comes out of Africa and especially anything they don’t fully understand.
Voodoo has however adopted several elements from Christianity but despite this when the French colonised Haiti they saw the voodoo religion as a threat and prohibited the practice of the religion severely punishing those who took part in rituals.
The struggle to banish the religion of voodoo lasted over three centuries but despite every effort it couldn’t be stopped and voodoo is still practiced today in a number of countries.
The power of voodoo
Due to the strength the Africans gained from their religion, voodoo survived the persecutions of the French and it is thought that the voodoo priests used their religion to determine how to fight the political battle in order to win it.
In 1804, the Haitians finally won the battle and independence and today the practice of voodoo reflects its history. © Copyright 2006 Occultresearch.org - occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved
Below I will give links to TRUSTED web-sites that explain in small ways some of the so-called unexplained events that captivate Christian & non-Christian ALIKE!
In future blogs I will do detailed studies about all the unexplained things and HOW SATAN deceives MILLIONS into a belief system so close to the FACTS BUT OHHHH! SO FAR FROM THE TRUTH!
Remember the Occult is very real and just because "A FEW" PHONIES EXIST IN THE WHOLE DOES NOT MEAN THE THE WHOLE IS INNOCENT FUN.
Dangers of the Occult
By Richard F. Ames
Are witchcraft, astrology and spiritism just harmless hobbies, or are they deceptive sources of information and guidance?
Many do not realize that the occult now pervades modern culture, and that Christians must remain on guard against its evil influence.
Millions are pursuing astrology, witchcraft and the occult. Are they sowing seeds of doom and destruction? Are these just harmless hobbies, or can you face real dangers if you dabble in the occult?
Less than three months after its release, the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone became the second-highest-grossing film ever, selling nearly $1 billion of tickets to theatergoers eager for a tale of witchcraft, wizardry and the occult.
The first of seven installments in author J. K. Rowling’s planned series, Harry Potter is at the helm of a multi-billion-dollar media empire that has made Rowling one of the three highest-paid women in Great Britain. Her books have sold more than 60 million copies in 200 countries around the world.
Yet, for many, the occult is more than fiction. A May 2000 Zogby America poll revealed that 57.7 percent of Americans aged 18–29 believe in ghosts.
This phenomenon is not confined to the United States; Time Magazine reported recently that belief in ghosts is shared by 45 percent in Britain.
Melbourne’s Saturday Herald Sun reported that 46 percent of Australian women, and 34 percent of Australian men, believe in ghosts (January 16, 1999).
Leger Marketing reported in October 2001 that 30.2 percent of Canadians believe in ghosts.
In Rowling’s books, characters routinely interact with ghosts.
Harry communicates with his dead parents through a special mirror. Characters seek guidance from astrologers, cast occult spells and use their paranormal powers to fight their enemies.
The Bible condemns this as sorcery, yet it is a part of the ordinary world of Harry Potter.
The Harry Potter series teaches young minds a false and evil worldview in which occult powers, condemned in Scripture, can be used as tools for good.
Sadly, instead of condemning the dangerous and un-biblical world of witches and wizards, some churches and clergy have tried to exploit its appeal to youth.
Last year, a vicar in one English church held a special "Harry Potter liturgy." A serpent was hung in the church, while a clergyman wearing a wizard’s robe led the service. Other elements of the Harry Potter story were brought into the church service.
Incredibly, many other pastors expressed interest in having that liturgy for their own churches.
What have the world’s churches come to?
As one American commentator observed:
"Nobody respects a religious institution willing to compromise willy-nilly with the secular culture, on a fool’s quest for popularity. A church that will try anything stands for nothing!" (Rod Dreher, New York Post, Sept. 5, 2000).
Today’s media fascination with the occult extends far beyond Harry Potter.
Thirty-five years ago, many considered the television series Bewitched controversial. Today, it seems tame compared to such popular television fare as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Charmed, which glamorize the occult.
And the occult is not just for teenagers or couch potatoes.
Even leaders of nations pursue the occult. Former White House chief of staff Donald Regan reported, in his autobiography For the Record, that President Ronald Reagan’s travels and activities were approved by an astrologer of his wife’s choosing.
The London Daily Telegraph reported that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher consulted an astrologer "for signs of future dangers."
Most members of India’s Parliament have personal astrologers on retainer. Even in the former Soviet Union, once a bastion of materialism, the occult holds sway, as Russia is "swamped by astrologers, UFOlogists, soothsayers, parapsychologists, bogus doctors and other charlatans, whom genuine scientists make few efforts to contradict.… One of the main tasks of a senior official in the Presidential Security Service is to study astrology and prepare horoscopes" (London Daily Telegraph, July 29, 1996).
How Has Mankind Been Deceived?
Scripture reveals the source of occult deception. "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him" (Revelation 12:9).
Satan deceives the whole world, not just a part of this world. And he also has spirit helpers, called demons.
How does Satan deceive the whole world? He does it through the occult, false religion and false education—and through a social system that seeks licentious pleasure rather than God!
The prophet Isaiah wrote:
"And when they say to you, ‘Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people seek their God?
Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?" (Isaiah 8:19).
Who are people seeking today:
mediums, wizards or the true God?
Isaiah wrote:
"To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).
We need to understand that there is a real spirit world!
Notice this warning:
"When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.
There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead" (Deuteronomy 18:9–11).
God Almighty condemns sorcery and witchcraft. If you are "playing around" with such darkness, then you need to reject that underworld of evil!
Seek the true God of your Bible! God’s warning continues:
"For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.
You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you" (Deuteronomy 18:12–14).
Can anything be more clear concerning the evils of witchcraft and sorcery?
And yet millions of adults are teaching their children that there is nothing wrong with a Harry Potter actively pursuing witchcraft and wizardry.
But the prophet Samuel told King Saul that witchcraft is sin. "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king" (1 Samuel 15:23).
God says that participation in the occult is spiritual harlotry (Psalm 106:38–39)! How did God punish His people for their wickedness?
"Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His people, so that He abhorred His own inheritance. And He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles, and those who hated them ruled over them.
Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand" (Psalm 106:40–42).
The nation of Israel went into captivity because of these abominable practices. A great tribulation and captivity will also come upon our peoples, if we fail to repent of our evil practices!
Some might argue that dressing up in Halloween costumes is "innocent" fun, and rationalize that parents today are not encouraging their children to expose themselves to symbols and practices of the occult.
But parents who take this approach are risking their children’s spiritual lives by underestimating the devil’s influence (Ephesians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4).
In Luke’s gospel, we find that our Savior cured many individuals who were plagued by evil spirits:
"And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight" (Luke 7:21). Do we live contrary to our Savior’s example?
Do we teach our children to attract and cultivate evil spirits at Halloween? Certainly, dressing up like a demon or a witch invites evil rather than opposes it!
The Apostle James advises us to resist evil, not entertain it!
"Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).
That is your Creator’s instruction to you! He promises that the devil will flee from you. Yes, "Resist the devil!"
Do not join the masses in celebrating the dark world of Satan and the occult!
Do not participate in the dark traditions of Halloween or any other such practices.
Notice God’s warnings against mediums and familiar spirits:
"Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them:
I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 19:31).
The Creator God plainly states that we should avoid mediums and spiritists.
He does not want you to be defiled by evil influence. Notice His strong language:
"The person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 20:6–7).
When a person consorts with mediums and familiar spirits, God says that he is prostituting himself. Christians are to be clean and wholesome.
They should be "holy" as we just read. Remember what the Apostle Peter wrote: "But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’" (1 Peter 1:15–16).
Astrology and False Prophecy
Satan also deceives mankind through astrology. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Astrology originated in Mesopotamia, perhaps in the 3rd millennium bc, but attained its full development in the Western world much later, within the orbit of Greek civilization of the Hellenistic period.
It spread to India in its older Mesopotamian form. Islamic culture absorbed it as part of the Greek heritage; and in the Middle Ages, when Western Europe was strongly affected by Islamic science, European astrology also felt the influence of the Orient….
Although various Christian councils condemned astrology, the belief in the worldview it implies was not seriously shaken.
In the late European Middle Ages, a number of universities, among them Paris, Padua, Bologna, and Florence, had chairs of astrology."
Even though all true Christians have condemned astrology over the years, it has persisted. In our modern time, astrologers admit that the newspaper variety of horoscope advice is mainly entertainment.
But when world leaders consult astrologers for guidance, they are seeking the wrong god!
Listen to God’s warning through the prophet Jeremiah:
"Thus says the Lord: ‘Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them" (Jeremiah 10:2).
We have already seen that Jesus predicted that signs and wonders would deceive the many.
The book of Revelation reveals dramatic events leading up to the Second Coming of Christ. There will be a great false prophet and religious system that will perform miracles, signs and wonders.
The Apostle John writes this about the great false prophet. "He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men" (Revelation 13:13).
Millions, if not billions, of people will be deceived by these impressive miracles. "And he [the false prophet] deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast" (Revelation 13:14).
How can you tell whether someone is truly a minister of God, and not someone controlled by the occult world? Deuteronomy gives us a key.
"If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’; which you have not known; ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him" (Deuteronomy 13:1–4).
A false minister or prophet may even prophesy accurately concerning some sign or wonder.
But God says that if he leads you after other gods—if he leads you away from the God of the Bible and the true Jesus Christ of your Bible—then he is a false prophet. Notice also that God may be testing you, to see if you will be faithful to His Word and to His way of life!
Satan has deceived the whole world. He has many methods of deception, including witches, wizardry, channeling, sorcery, astrology, spiritism and false religion.
You need to be on guard against the dangers of the occult.
The Apostle Peter gave us this instruction in 1 Peter 5:8–9:
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world."
God promises us protection from evil. Jesus taught us to pray:
"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:13).
Paul exhorted Christians: "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:11–12).
You can overcome the wicked one by knowing the word of God—the Bible—and living by it.
You can overcome the temptations and deceptions of the occult and false religion. As the Apostle Paul encourages us in Philippians 4:13:
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." May God empower you to go forward in faith. May you live not by the dark deceptions of this world, but by the light of truth, God’s Word.
King Saul's Séance
Movies like The Sixth Sense, and television programs such as Crossing Over With John Edward, play on mankind’s wish that the dead could communicate with the living.
This is an age-old wish; nearly 3,000 years ago, a desperate King Saul sought help from a medium—and suffered greatly for doing so.
Saul had disobeyed God’s instructions regarding the Amalekites. He received God’s judgment that "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king" (1 Samuel 15:23).
Because of Saul’s disobedience, the Spirit of God was no longer guiding him (1 Samuel 16:14; 28:6).
Desperate for guidance, Saul asked a medium to perform a séance, though he knew this violated God’s law, which prescribed the death penalty for witchcraft or mediumship (Leviticus 20:27).
During the séance, a spirit identified as Samuel (1 Samuel 28:14–15) warned that the Philistines would defeat Israel’s armies, and Saul would soon die.
Saul became "dreadfully afraid" because of these words, and "fell full length on the ground" (v. 20).
Clearly, this spirit’s message terrified Saul. But was the summoned spirit really Samuel?
No, it was not.
Scripture explains that Saul never actually saw Samuel; he only perceived that the spirit was Samuel because of the medium’s descriptions (1 Samuel 28:14).
The Bible faithfully records Saul’s experience, from his terrified point of view, but does not teach that the spirit was Samuel.
Interestingly, most of today’s mediums follow a similar practice, claiming to communicate with deceased spirits even though—like Saul—their clients never actually see those spirits.
Crossing Over With John Edward is wildly popular in some circles, and has even spawned imitators like The Pet Psychic, whose host claims to communicate with families’ dearly departed pets.
Spirit communication is not only the stuff of horror movies and cable television; even "innocent family fare" like Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol stirs the hope that our loved ones can still call to us from beyond the grave. But this is a false hope.
Our dead friends and relatives are unconscious, and will remain so until the resurrection (Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalm 146:4). Their state in death is compared to a sleep from which only God can wake them (1 Corinthians 15:51). No medium can summon the dead.
The Apostle Paul warned that some in the "latter times" would give "heed to deceiving spirits" (1 Timothy 4:1). Some modern mediums may be charlatans, who infer details about the dead by "reading" their living, paying clients.
But other "genuine" mediums may be genuinely deceived, communicating with demonic spirits who impersonate the deceased.
"Genuine" or not, mediumship is dangerous business. But few today realize the serious consequences of rebelling against God’s law and seeking after spirits.
What was the result for Saul?
Scripture explains:
"So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance" (1 Chronicles 10:13).
Christians today should heed Saul’s cautionary example.
It has come to my attention through some contacts I have in Wicca and I have confirmed it to be true, that "Born Again Bible thumping Church Goers" are CONDEMNING, ACCUSING, and INSULTING PEOPLE OF OTHER FAITHS without knowing the facts about what they critisize.
{FACTS SHOULD NEVER BE USED TO CLUB PEOPLE OVER THE HEAD WITH, BUT ONLY TO CONVINCE AND LEAD us in the proper direction.}
This behavior of beating people up with "Bible Facts" IS NOT a GODLY practise, and God will not hold you ,whoever you are male or female blameless for these actions!
This behavior is "Mid evil"at best and shows a complete LACK of the love of God, for it is and ALWAYS HAS BEEN GOD THE FATHERS JOB TO LEAD THEM TO HIS SON...JESUS....NOT OURS! John 3:16-21 (GW)
" God loved the world this way:
He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world.
18 Those who believe in him won't be condemned. But those who don't believe are already condemned because they don't believe in God's only Son.
This is why people are condemned:
The light came into the world. Yet, people loved the dark rather than the light because their actions were evil. People who do what is wrong hate the light and don't come to the light.
They don't want their actions to be exposed. But people who do what is true come to the light so that the things they do for God may be clearly seen."
It is NOT the place for Christians (If you can call yourselves that)I RECENTLY READ A BUMPER STICKER ON THE CAR OF A WICCAN THAT HURT MY HEART, NOT BECAUSE IT WAS SOME MOCKING OF GOD BUT BECAUSE IT STATED WHAT I'M SAYING HERE...."GOD...SAVE ME FROM YOUR GOOD PEOPLE!"
Please understand that God HATES SIN BUT REALLY DOES LOVE THE SINNER,therefore YOU have no RIGHT to call a sinner anything that God would not call them!
I was angered (Righteously) when a friend (ON YAHOO 360) I treasure as a good,honest,and caring person was SLANDERED by a SO-CALLED CHRISTIAN for being a Wiccan...This is wicked behavior CHURCH (I know you are few,but it only takes one rotten apple to spoil the good ones) Witches, Satanists, Atheist's and Skeptic's view "God and Jesus" through OUR BEHAVIORS and if we can't truly show the love of God to them then WE NEED TO SHUT UP and go away UNTIL WE GROW UP INTO HIS LOVE.
Psalms 101:5-7 (GW)
" I will destroy anyone who secretly slanders his neighbor. I will not tolerate anyone with a conceited look or arrogant heart. My eyes will be watching the faithful people in the land so that they may live with me.
The person who lives with integrity will serve me. The one who does deceitful things will not stay in my home. The one who tells lies will not remain in my presence. "
2 Corinthians 3:2 (KJV)
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
Romans 2:24 (GW) As Scripture says, “God's name is cursed among the nations because of you.”
PRAY THIS PRAYER IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF THE DARKNESS AND I PROMISE IF YOU PRAY WITH FAITH,BELIEVING YOU WILL BECOME FEARLESS IN THE LORD'S WORK AND NO-LONGER NEED TO CONDEMN THOSE WHO ARE DIFFERENT,BECAUSE YOU'LL BE FREE!!!
Let's all learn to get along with those we don't agree with in the spirit of Christian LOVE,you will draw more bees with HONEY(LOVE) THAN WITH VINEGAR (UNWISE ZEAL).
There are many people out there that WON'T LISTEN TO US BECAUSE WE SHOW IGNORANCE OF WHAT THEY BELIEVE AND THEREFORE CAN'T REASON WITH THEM!
I know first hand how ignorant believers are for they condemned and beraded me for ever being a witch in the first place, NOT understanding that circumstances in my life led me into wiccan and black witchcraft..those were my choices at the time and I thank God that he had "a Remnant"of faithful followers that LOVED and reasoned with me for "Months"before God finally broke through my stubborn heart!
DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF PATIENCE WHEN DEALING WITH PEOPLE.The high value of a person's heart is WORTH THE WAIT,and above all don't be so naive as to believe that you can't learn from others..some of my Witch friends have good hearts that get HURT and BLEED just like yours..so be very careful with their hearts...please! to condemn and cause people to hate our God because of your misplaced ZEAL.
The Following Article is needed in the Church today because it says it all.....I have experienced both side of this issue and can confirm to you that it is true, so take back this holiday in confidence knowing the facts and tossing out the bull that religion has created!
The History of Halloween -- It's Probably Not What You Think
by Dennis Rupert, pastor New Life Community Church of Stafford
Last update: 05/30/2008
This article has been carefully researched in an attempt to separate fact from hype and exaggeration.
Sources include scholarly works by folklorists, books by Celtic experts, internet sites, and various reference works. I read and talked with pagan sources to find out how they viewed Halloween, but did not rely upon them for information on the origins of Halloween.
I am especially indebted to folklorist W.J. Bethancourt III for initially bringing this history to my attention.
I have confirmed his research by my own limited study and highly recommend his site as the first place to view for information on Halloween practices (History of Halloween : Myths, Monsters and Devils).
The Celtic Connection
Our modern celebration of Halloween is a VERY distant descendant of the ancient Celtic fire festival called Samhain. (The word is pronounced "sow-en" rhyming with cow, because "mh" in the middle of an Irish word has a "w" sound.) It was the biggest and most significant holiday of the Celtic year.
The Celts (pronounced 'Kelts") lived more than 2,000 years ago in what is now Great Britain, Ireland, and France. Their new year began on November 1.
Celtic legends tell us that on this night, all the hearth fires in Ireland were extinguished, and then re-lit from the central fire of the Druids at Tlachtga, 12 miles from the royal hill of Tara. (The Druids were the learned class among the Celts.
They were religious priests who also acted as judges, lawmakers, poets, scholars, and scientists.) Upon this sacred bonfire the Druids burned animals and crops.
The extinguishing of the hearth fires symbolized the "dark half" of the year. The re-kindling from the Druidic fire was symbolic of the returning life that was hoped for in the spring.
The feast of Samhain is described by MacCane as order suspended.
"During this interval the normal order of the universe is suspended, the barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily removed, the sidh lies open and all divine beings and the spirits of the dead move freely among men and interfere sometimes violently, in their affairs" (Celtic Mythology, p. 127).
The Celts believed that when people died, they went to a land of eternal youth and happiness called Tir nan Og. They did not have the concept of heaven and hell that the Christian church later brought into the land.
The dead were sometimes believed to be dwelling with the Fairy Folk, who lived in the numerous mounds or sidhe (pron. "shee") that dotted the Irish and Scottish countryside.
The Celts did not actually have demons and devils in their belief system. Some Christians describe Halloween as a festival in which the Celts sacrificed human beings to the devil or some evil demonic god of death.
This is not accurate. The Celts did believe in gods, giants, monsters, witches, spirits, and elves, but these were not considered evil, so much as dangerous.
The fairies, for example, were often considered hostile and menacing to humans because they were seen as being resentful of men taking over their lands.
On this night of Samhain, the fairies would sometimes trick humans into becoming lost in the fairy mounds, where they would be trapped forever.
Folk tradition tells us of some divination practices associated with Samhain. Among the most common were divinations dealing with marriage, weather, and the coming fortunes for the year.
These were performed via such methods as ducking for apples and apple peeling. Ducking for apples was a marriage divination.
The first person to bite an apple would be the first to marry in the coming year -- like the modern toss of the wedding bouquet. Apple peeling was a divination to see how long your life would be.
The longer the unbroken apple peel, the longer your life was destined to be. In Scotland, people would place stones or nuts in the ashes of the hearth before retiring for the night. Anyone whose stone had been disturbed during the night was said to be destined to die during the coming year.
Inaccurate Christian Teaching about Halloween
You will often read in the literature published by Christian organizations (such as the tracts and comic books from publisher Jack Chick) that, "Samhain was the Celtic God of the Dead, worshipped by the Druids with dreadful bloody sacrifices at Halloween."
Chick embroiders this fantasy in a tract called "The Trick" and a full-sized comic book called, "Spellbound?", shown here.
His writings describe evil Druids going from castle-door-to-door seeking virgin princesses to rape and sacrifice, leaving carved pumpkins illuminated by candles ("made from human fat!") for those who cooperated, and arranging demonic assassinations for those who refused to give them what they wanted.
This, according to Mr. Chick, is supposed to be the "true" origin of trick or treating.
Let's look at a few historical facts : Contrary to information published by many Christian organizations, there is no historical or archeological evidence of any Celtic deity of the dead named "Samhain."
We know the names of some 350 Celtic deities and Samhain isn't found among them. The Celtic gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd for the British, and Arawn for the Welsh. The Irish did not have a "lord of death" as such.
McBain's Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language says that "samhuinn" (the Scots Gaelic spelling) means "summer's end."
It's not just Christian organizations that perpetuate this fallacy -- even the World Book encyclopedia (1990) writes about "Samhain, the Celtic lord of death" (World Book is in discussion with scholars in order to change this in future editions.)
This idea is based on a fallacy that seems to have come from Col. Charles Vallency's books in the 1770s before the reliable translations of existing Celtic literary works and before archaeological excavations.
(Col. Charles Vallency also tried to prove that the Irish were descended from the inhabitants of Armenia!) Samhain is the name of the holiday.
There is no evidence of any god or demon named "Samhain," "Samain," "Sam Hane," or however you want to vary the spelling.
Contrary to Christian criticism from many sources, Halloween did not originate as a Satanic festival, but was religious in nature (of course, the religion I am referring to is the Celtic faith of the ancient Druids rather than Christianity).
This is an important distinction, for Halloween’s association with Satanic worship is a modern phenomenon. The Celts didn't worship the devil (or any god of death) on Halloween.
It is important to distinguish between paganism and Satanism. Pagans are people who believe in more than one god.
Some modern day pagans call themselves Wiccans. [For more on Wicca and modern witchcraft see What is Witchcraft?] Pagans are quick to emphasize that they do not worship Satan or the devil.
The devil is a Judeo-Christian concept, they say, because one has to believe in a single God to believe in God's opposite: "We do not accept the concept of 'absolute evil,' nor do we worship any entity known as 'Satan' or 'The Devil.'" (Drawing Down the Moon, pp. 103).
Celts were pagans, not Satanists.Of course, from a Christian standpoint both are in error. But to my mind there is a major difference between:
(1) pagans (who have not heard the gospel) practicing a holiday containing fairies and elves and
(2) Satanists (in rebellion against God) who sacrifice children to the devil. There is no original evidence to indicate that Samhain was any more Satanic than pagan harvest festivals of other religions, like the Romans or the Greeks.
We have no evidence any where (from tradition, Celtic texts, or archaeology) that virgin princesses or any one else were being offered to the lord of death on Halloween.
There is general agreement that the Celts did in fact practice some form of human sacrifice or human execution, but this seems to have been limited to criminals, prisoners-of-war, or volunteers.
(For more information on human sacrifice and the Druids see History of Halloween : Myths, Monsters and Devils.)
We have no evidence that Druids practiced human sacrifice on Halloween (let alone sacrificed "virgin princesses").
The pumpkin is a New World plant that never grew in Europe until modern times, so it couldn't have been used to make jack-o-lanterns by the Druids.
There's zero evidence that the ancient Druids or their congregants ever dressed in costume or engaged in ritualized begging at harvest time. One Christian tract entitled Trick or Treat says:
The Druids went from house to house asking for a contribution to their demonic worship celebration. If a person didn't give, their trick was to kill him. The people feared the phrase "Trick or Treat."
This charge has been laid at the door step of the Celts so often that it's hard to believe there is no evidence for it, but there is absolutely none.
Tad Tuleja (a folklore expert) writes:
An exhaustive Victorian survey of Irish calendar customs mentions divination games and apple bobbing as Halloween pastimes, but says nothing about food collection or a procession of "spirits."...On the question of masked begging at the Celtic New Year, authorities on the Druids do not say a word. (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 83).
Where did costuming at Halloween come from? There is a lot of confusion on this point.
But in spite of what you may have read in an encyclopedia or seen on the History Channel, I can find absolutely NO historical evidence of costumed begging among the Druids or as part of the Samhain festival.
We do have records of costumed processions in a much later time (Christian times), but these costumed processions were NOT limited to the Halloween holiday. They appear much more frequently at Christmas.
The earliest actual historic practice seems to have been poor folk in masks and costumes going from house to house.
They would put on a simple play or musical performance in return for food and drink. This practice is called mumming or guising and has no discernable connection to the Celts.
You may be surprised to learn that your parents or grandparents know nothing about costuming on Halloween. A reader sent me this email:
You mentioned in your article that the American custom came about in the 1930s as a reaction to vandalism.
My parents were kids in New York City in those days, and I started looking for more info because of a comment my mom made on Halloween night.
It seems that Halloween as we know it did not exist at the time--it was all pranks, as you mentioned (my mom mentioned taking gates off posts and moving outhouses, as you did, and my dad said that in the days of coal fuel there were big cans of ashes that the kids would tip over--a big mess).
The interesting part was that both of them said (Dad was born in 1924 and Mom in 1927) that each year as kids, they did go from door to door begging for food--but it was on Thanksgiving Day, not Halloween!
My mom said that rather than "Trick or Treat!" their line at each door was "Anything for the poor? Anything for the poor?"
They were given fruit, nuts, a cup of cider, or the occasional coin--that sort of thing.
This email is similar to conversations with my own father and mother (born 1928 and 1930 in western Pennsylvania), who told me that no one dressed in costumes or went door-to-door when they were children.
There were lots of pranks on Halloween (some of which make great stories for the grandchildren), but they know nothing of dressing up.
So where did costuming come from? That's a big question mark. Folklorist Tad Tuleja says that costume parties are frequently mentioned in the early decades of the 1900s (but nothing about going door-to-door in costume).
The costume parties themselves seem to be an attempt to involve children in disciplined "fun" as opposed to destructive "fun."
The actual phrase trickor treat" is not Druidic! The earliest known reference in print dates only to 1938 in an article in the Los Angeles Times entitled "Halloween Pranks Plotted by Youngsters of Southland," Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California), October 30, 1938, p. A8:
"Trick or treat!" is the Halloween hijacking game hundreds of Southern California youngsters will play tomorrow night as they practice streamlined versions of traditional Allhallows Eve pranks."
The phrase is not recorded by the Merriam-Webster Company until 1941. And the term is actually American, not European (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 47,86-90)!
It's not only the phrase that is American, the practice is too!
In America in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was a custom of playing pranks on Halloween.
This custom appears to have come from immigrants from Ireland and Scotland which had a practice called Mischief Night.
Favorite pranks included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates (Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things).
The pleasant fiction was that such rambunctiousness was the work of "fairies," "elves," "witches" and "goblins" (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 87). That's the "trick" part of Halloween.
Where did the "treat" part of Halloween come from?
Jill Pederson Meyer writes:
"By the turn of the century, Halloween had become an ever more destructive way to “let off steam” for crowded and poor urban dwellers.
As Stuart Schneider writes in 'Halloween in America' (1995), vandalism that had been limited to tipping outhouses; removing gates, soaping windows and switching shop signs, by the 1920’s had become nasty -- with real destruction of property and cruelty to animals and people.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the disguised nighttime terrorism and murders by the Ku Klux Klan reached their apex during this decade.
Schneider writes that neighborhood committees and local city clubs such as the Boy Scouts then mobilized to organize safe and fun alternatives to vandalism.
School posters of the time call for a “Sane Halloween.” Good children were encouraged to go door to door and receive treats from homes and shop owners, thereby keeping troublemakers away.
By the 1930’s, these “beggar’s nights” were enormously popular and being practiced nationwide, with the “trick or treat” greeting widespread from the late 1930s."
The Halloween begging activity known as trick-or-treat comes from America in the 1930s, not the British Isles (for confirmation see A Letter from a MacDonald). The custom was intended to control and displace disruptive pranks.
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Every year, right around Halloween, we are treated to an outpouring of literature making false statements about the origins of Halloween.
(In years past, I even helped distribute this type of literature to my congregation.) But my research on this subject has found that the Christian Halloween literature is vastly mistaken. Christians are guilty of spreading falsehood (perhaps out of ignorance, but falsehood none the less).
Believers do no service to God or to other Christians by creating very frightening fantasies masquerading as historical facts.
Sloppy and improper scholarship makes Christians look deceitful. It also makes God appear deceptive to unbelievers.
What I am arguing for is accurate information, rather than falsehood. No, I'm not a "closet pagan." No, I'm not "a wolf in sheep's clothing."
No, I haven't "bought into pagan propaganda." I'm a born-again, fundamentalist, Bible-believing, filled with the Spirit Christian (did I use enough labels?) trying to get at the historical truth.
At the Christian college I attended, I was taught that all truth was God's truth and that we don't need to fear truth -- whether it comes from secular, pagan, or Christian sources.
Over a period of years I have been reading and talking with folklorists, historians, Christians, pagans, and people from Scotland and Ireland.
The origins of Halloween are NOT what most Christian literature teaches. Sorry, no pumpkins with candles of human fat!
Sorry, no human sacrifices by evil druids.
Sorry, dressing up can't be historically connected to the Celts.
Sorry, treat-or-treat is not a Satanist plot to captivate our children.
Halloween and the Middle Ages
What do Christians do with a holiday when pagans refuse to stop practicing it?
This was the dilemma that faced Christians in the Middle Ages.
(It is also the dilemma facing Christians today with 40 million children going door-to-door each Halloween.)
In 601 A.D. Pope Gregory the First issued a now famous edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and customs of the peoples he hoped to convert.
Rather than try to obliterate native peoples' customs and beliefs, the pope instructed his missionaries to use them:
if a group of people worshipped a tree, rather than cut it down, he advised them to consecrate it to Christ and build a church around it.
In terms of quickly adding people to the Christian faith, this was a brilliant concept and it became a basic approach used in Catholic missionary work.
In many cases, church holy days were purposely set to coincide with native holy days. Christmas, for instance, was assigned the arbitrary date of December 25th because it corresponded with the mid-winter celebration of many peoples.
In 835 Pope Gregory IV decided to move the practice of All Saints' Day to November 1.
This was possibly done to correspond with the Celtic practice of Samhain. The Mass that was said on this day was called Allhallowmas ("the mass of all the holy ones")
. The evening before All Saints' Day became known as All Hallow e'en ("the evening of all the holy ones"). So you see the name "Halloween" is actually Christian, not pagan. It is derived from All Saints Day.
The old beliefs associated with Samhain never died out entirely. The powerful symbolism of fairies, elves, and the traveling dead had a strong tie with the people and they were not satisfied with the new Catholic feast honoring dead saints. When people continued some of the beliefs and practices associated with Samhain, the church increased the rhetoric against Samhain.
They branded the earlier religion's practices as evil, and began to associate them with the devil. As representatives of the rival religion, Druids were considered malevolent worshippers of devilish or demonic gods and spirits.
Celtic belief in supernatural creatures (like elves and fairies) persisted, while the church made attempts to define them as being no longer merely mischievous, but wicked.
People continued to celebrate All Hallows Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but the supernatural beings were now thought to be Satanic.
How did witches become connected to Halloween? Once the Druids were branded as evil by the church, their practices were looked at as "witchcraft."
Followers of the old religion were persecuted, went into hiding, and were branded as witches who worshipped Satan.
This is why European witchcraft became connected with Satan, whereas witchcraft in other areas of the world is animistic in nature. October 31 became known as a witch holiday.
It was called "The Witches' Sabbath" by witch hunters and eventually European witches began celebrating October 31 as one of their four great Sabbaths held during the year.
Of course, in some ways from a Christian standpoint the church's response makes sense.
Doesn't the Bible view the worship of other gods as deception by demons (1 Corinthians 10:18-22)?
Yes, but the Bible also says that Satan often preaches in Christian churches (2 Corinthians 11:13-14).
Pagans don't have a monopoly on evil, demonic deception, or harmful practices. As a Christian (in spite of a good, pure, and holy God) I often do evil things and fall into deception.
Christians can also do very hurtful things in the name of Christ. (Some of the worst hate mail that I get comes from Christians who don't agree with me about baptism or giving or eternal security or grace or Halloween.)
I'm not sure that anything is gained by calling pagans, Satanists or demon worshippers. It's easy to view yourself as God's agent and to brand people with strong labels. Then you can justify not relating to them in grace.
You can begin to hate and fear them. And eventually you can persuade yourself that as agents of Satan they deserve persecution (i.e. the inquisition and witch burnings).
This goes against everything that Jesus taught about reaching out to pagans (1 Corinthians 5:9-13) and loving our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48), and showing mercy to them (Luke 6:27-36).
The truth is that sometimes Christians end up acting more like Satan, than pagans
The Present Day Celebration of Halloween
Halloween celebrations (of any kind or form) did not become popular in the United States until the late 1800s.
It appears to have arrived after 1840, when large numbers of immigrants arrived from Ireland and Scotland and introduced elements like Mischief Night, beliefs about elves and fairies, and practices such as jack-o'-lanterns.
(Many of the Halloween customs that they brought to America probably did not enter Irish and Scottish culture until after 1750.) The practice does not come from ancient times, but modern.
It must be said that "Halloween" as we know it in America, with all the folk stories and urban legends attached to it, is a distinctly American phenomenon, with the "Trick or Treat" bits occurring after 1930.
Halloween is celebrated in many countries today, but this is actually a result of secular American influence:
...the trick-or-treat and masking customs on 31 October in England and Finland have been introduced from the United States and Canada (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death, p. 162).
Does anyone today celebrate the Celtic holiday of Samhain as a religious observance? Yes. During the mid-1900's, a new interest in pagan religion occurred in Europe and the United States.
As a result, paganism as an organized religion has attracted large numbers of people. Many followers of various pagan religions, such as Druids and Wiccans observe Samhain as a religious festival.
They view it as a memorial day for their dead friends, similar to the United States' national holiday of Memorial Day in May.
Modern pagans (and non-Satanic witches) would vehemently deny that their celebration has anything to do with the demonic horrors depicted in such films as Friday the 13th.
To them, Halloween is one of the four greater Sabbats (holidays) held during the year. Halloween for them is a time of "harvest celebration.
It is a time of ritual, a time for ridding oneself of personal weaknesses, a time for feasting and joyful celebration. It is also a time for communing with the spirits of the dead. It is still a night to practice various forms of divination concerning future events."
Contrary to popular belief Halloween is not the most important celebration for Satanists.
Most Satanists celebrate their own birthdays as their most important "unholi"-day, which is to be expected from adherents of a religion who believe that the highest form of religion is "worship of self" (The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey).
Some of the stories of Satanic ritual abuse that are passed around in Christian circles may have no basis in fact (like those found in Rebecca Brown's book "He Came to Set the Captives Free").
According to Christian researchers Bob and Gretchen Passantino (see their well-researched book entitled Satanism by Bob and Gretchen Passantino, Zondervan, 1995):
"The actual incidence level of satanic-associated crime is very low, and on Halloween consists mostly of petty vandalism and desecration of graveyards and churches; satanic graffiti; raucous rituals including drug and/or alcohol use and sexual promiscuity; and very rarely sexual violence or animal killing.
The most well-known documented criminal activity associated with Halloween are the "Devil's Night" fires that were rampant in the Detroit area.
These destructive bonfires were not religiously inspired, but were a convenient excuse for out-of-control juveniles to act destructively, often in their own communities.
It is not true that satanists look for "Christian virgins" to rape during Halloween rituals.
A young Christian is much more likely to be in danger of a drunk driver, or a party that gets out of hand with drug or alcohol use than of satanic abduction.
Occasional anti-social, criminally committed individuals or small groups that also practice self-styled satanism commit crimes on Halloween, but they invariably betray a pattern of sociopathy at other times as well.
It is not true that poisoning or sabotaging of Halloween treats is a significant risk if parents take sensible precautions. Most horror stories are unsubstantiated rumors that quickly cross the country, gaining embellishments, and unnecessarily frightening parents.
If parents are careful about restricting their children's treats to ones from people they know and trust, or from a formal program run by a church, community group, or merchant association, they should be fairly safe.
In many communities, local hospitals and/or police stations will screen treats free of charge."
How should Christians react to Halloween? Here are some Christian myths mixed with good old fashioned FEAR and Ignorence!
"Halloween is the most dangerous day of the year -- when Satanists and witches snatch children off the streets and sacrifice them in Satan's name!"
"We don't worship other gods or honor the dead on Halloween. Halloween is nothing but a secular time of fun and games -- an excuse for the kids to dress up and overload on sugar!"
"I love to see the children, out in the neighborhood streets with their parents, dressed in funny clothing, having a wonderful time .... and mocking the Devil with laughter."
These are three examples of very different Christian reactions to Halloween. Allow me to offer some opinions.
1. Occult and Satanic Elements:
Deuteronomy 18:11 says:
"There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, one who calls up the dead."
2. Non-Satanic elements:
Although some devil worshippers have adopted Halloween as their "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of Satanic practices.
Halloween has some weak connections to Celts celebrating a new year, but most of present day Halloween customs are neither pagan, nor Satanic. Here is a table of practices and dates as they are connected with Halloween:
practice
divination
necromancy
black cats, spiders
tricks & pranks
costuming
pumpkin carving
trick or treat
slasher movies
earliest date
ancient
?
Middle Ages
?
early 1900s(?)
after 1750s
1930s
1950s
source
pagan Celts
Celts or Medieval witchcraft
Medieval superstition
Irish Mischief Night
?
Irish
Boy Scouts & others
Hollywood
original intent
pagan religious practice
pagan religious practice
fear & easy labels
"those nasty fairies"
stop pranks(?)
ward off evil
stop pranks
make money
Biblically forbidden
yes
yes
no
if destructive
no
no
no
yes - Phil 4:8
Most holidays (even Christmasand Easter) contain evil, neutral, and good elements as part of their celebration. Christians must discern one from the other and make decisions that glorify God and cause no harm to their personal walk with Christ.
Christians seem to have no trouble making these distinctions about Christmas, but we utterly fail to do the necessary thinking when it comes to Halloween.
In my opinion, present day Halloween has some evil elements (divination rituals, communication with spirits), some neutral elements (sorry, costumes didn't come from evil Druids involved in human sacrifice), and some good elements (asking for candy was an attempt by the Boy Scouts of America to calm the abuse of the holiday!).
As W.J. Bethancourt III says:
"Each Christian must decide for themselves whether dressing up in funny clothes and asking for candy from the neighbors is 'satanic' and 'necromancing' or not. Allowing your children to dress up as mass-murderers and as villains from the Hollywood slasher movies may or may not be 'satanic,' but it certainly is stupid. Making such creatures objects of 'hero-worship' might not be giving the kind of message to a child that necessarily enables them to become sober, productive adults."
Costuming children as ballerinas or cartoon characters or Bible heroes seems far removed from Satanism or any practice of paganism.
What I have tried to show is that much of the association with witchcraft and Satanic elements has actually come from Christian misinformation attempting to "demonize" this holiday. There is no evidence that the original Celtic celebration was Satanic.
Much of the information on Halloween that Christians preach and write about is plainly based on shoddy research.
While Christians should absolutely avoid pagan practices, Christian hype tends to make us overreact to benign folk elements of Halloween.
We appear like zany buffoons to the world when there is no necessity for doing so. Furthermore, our groundless retreat from all elements of Halloween leaves a vacuum that wicked elements delight to fill.
October 31st is only a day on the calendar. Halloween, like any other day, is only as evil as one cares to make it.
3. Alternative Celebrations:
I would also suggest using the holiday to be involved in the joy and celebration of All Saints’ Day, thanksgiving for harvest, and the celebration of the Reformation of the Church. Here are two tracts which offer alternatives to the traditional American celebration of Halloween:
Tract 1:
One successful alternative used by a number of churches is a "Faith Festival" in which children dress as their favorite Bible character and gather for a special children's service with puppets, a Christian film, or something special.
This offers an ideal opportunity to explain the spiritual significance of Halloween and to encourage the children to remember Hebrews chapter 11, which features great men and women of faith who have gone before us. The "Faith Festival" can be a time to thank God for His many blessings.
Tract 2:
As believers, we can take this opportunity to provide a creative alternative to this celebration. In ancient Israel, the majority of Jewish festivals occurred at the same time as pagan festivals.
God did not simply tell his people not to engage in pagan festivals, He provided an alternative. During every major pagan festival, the Hebrew people would take part in a God-given alternative, a festival celebrating the same general subject but with a completely different focus.
There are many wholesome alternatives for our children: a church Bible costume party, Reformation Day church service, holding a harvest celebration like the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.
4. Being Positive Without Fear:
Regardless of the position you take regarding your family's response to Halloween, if you are concerned about the evil associations with Halloween, you can rejoice that you can "resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7) and that through the cross Christ has "disarmed principalities and powers," and "made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them" (Colossians 2:15).
I would certainly suggest using the holiday to teach our children about the triumph in Christ of God over evil. This should not be a night that we hide from in fear, but a night (like every night) when a Christian can stand confident in victory, because the One who lives in us is greater, than the one who lives in the world (1 John 4:4). "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them!" (1 John 4:4).
Holding oneself apart from the world is perhaps a good thing, but sometimes this is just an excuse for being afraid. We are reminded to be "in the world" and "sent to the world", as well as being "not of the world" (John 17:15-18).
There are very few times when strangers actually come to your door and ask you to give them something!
Our family has used Halloween to hand out Christian tapes to everyone that has come-a-begging!
Some Christian children use "trick or treating" by giving a tract in return for the candy they receive at each house. What a wonderful way to spread the gospel!
A smile, some candy, a tract and a "God bless you!" will save more souls than hiding in your house with the porch light off.
As a believer in Jesus Christ and thus a child of God, I personally do not give much honor to the celebration of Halloween, but our family does participate in some of the neutral elements of Halloween and we use Halloween to reach people who don't know Jesus.
We also use Halloween to celebrate the victory that I and other saints have over the wickedness of this world.
A good general principle should be to refrain from participating in anything that compromises your faith or brings dishonor to Jesus Christ.
Another good principle is to look for ways to become a positive, Christ-proclaiming voice in the midst of a secular and pagan world. Each Christian must be persuaded in his own conscience about how they approach Halloween.
Why Did I Write This Article?
What I'm arguing for is:
(1) Accurate information, rather than falsehood.
(2) A little bit of tolerance toward Christians who choose to participate in "harmless" Halloween activities that have no connection to paganism (like pumpkins, dressing up, or treat-or-treat).
(3) For the Christian community to think about how it is going to handle Halloween -- because it is not going to go away. It is more popular than ever. We can redeem it for Christ or we can use fear and scare tactics to hide our light under a basket (Matthew 5:15).
I think we find a close parallel in Christmas. Christmas wasn't celebrated by the early church until the fourth century. In that century, the church decided to try to redeem a Roman pagan winter solstice festival (the birthday of the unconquered sun).
Sometime before 336 the Church in Rome, unable to stamp out this pagan festival, spiritualized it as the "Feast of the Nativity of the Sun of Righteousness."
In some ways, I think Christians have succeeded in giving December 25 a new meaning.
I really think Pope Gregory had the right idea. Take pagan holidays and assign Christian events or practices to them and redeem them for Christ.
Christians have as much right as any other group to lay claim to a day on the calendar (Romans 14:6). What's the alternative?
The alternative is to let pagans, devil worshippers, or Hollywood producers put their stamp on October 31. At the very least, this will mean a day given over to the celebration of (what the Bible calls) superstitions, false gods and goddesses.
At its worst, Halloween becomes a Mardi gras of the grotesque, of destruction, of wickedness, and of death, because we weren't being a preservative for good (Matthew 5:13).
DEAR JESUS, I AM A SINNER BECAUSE I HAVE BROKEN YOUR LAWS,THE 10 COMMANDMENTS..
I BELIEVE YOUR LAW IS MY WARNING OF IMPENDING JUDGMENT IN HELL!
I CANNOT KEEP YOUR LAW IN AND OF MYSELF, I GIVE UP TRYING TO BE WHAT I CANNOT AND I CONFESS THAT I BELIEVE JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD AND DIED FOR MY SINS ON THE CROSS TAKING THE LAWS PUNISHMENT TO FORGIVE ALL OF MY SINS.
JESUS, I REPENT,I TURN AROUND NOW, NEVER TO LOOK BACK,I ASK YOU TO HAVE MERCY ON ME, A SINNER, AND COME INTO MY SPIRIT WITH YOUR SPIRIT AND YOUR POWER. HELP ME TO WALK IN YOU SO I CAN FOLLOW AND OBEY YOUR COMMANDMENTS, AND TO LIVE FOR YOU.
JESUS, I GIVE YOU COMPLETE CONTROL OF ALL MY LIFE AND I THANK YOU FOR HEARING MY PRAYER.
THANK YOU FOR COMING INTO MY LIFE. I ASK IT IN THE NAME OF MY LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST. AMEN.
As God is my eternal Witness, Savior, and judge, I do here by affirm that I am a child of God that has been purchased with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rms. 6:3-11):
I confess Him as my Lord and Savior and by my own volition, I specifically renounce Satan as my lord and god.
As one completely acknowledging and accepting the finished work of Christ on the cross for my redemption and my only hope of eternal life, I now renounce all ancestral and genetic ties, back as many generations on my dad's and mom's sides that God needs to go.
Because I have, through the lord Jesus Christ's own shed blood, been redeemed and delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Col. 1:13), I now cancel out and nullify all demonic power or effect that has been passed down to me from my ancestors, including the ancestral demon that carries my formal name and his network.
Also, I cancel out any other ancestral demon and their networks. Because the lord Jesus Christ became a curse for me by dying the death on the tree (Gal. 3:13), I use my authority that is found in Him to cancel every spell or curse that may have been placed on me with or without my knowledge.
As God's child, covered by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and trusting totally in the atoning power of that blood (Eph.1:7), I cancel, renounce, sever, and nullify every agreement or pact I have made with Satan or anyone else, including blood pacts.
I renounce and sever any and every way that the Devil has gotten ground in my life and all ground that I have ever given to Satan that gave him power or claim over me.
I cancel, renounce, sever, and nullify any powers, gifts, or workings in me which are not of my Heavenly Father or pleasing to Him.
I confess that I belong totally to the Lord Jesus Christ. As one who has been crucified (Gal.2:20) and raised with Christ and now sits with Him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:5), I sign myself eternally and completely over to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is my desire to pray daily that my lord Jesus will have total control of my life. All of these things I do in the precious name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and by His absolute authority over all things, rulers, authorities, principalities, and powers (Eph. 1:18-23), and with a childlike faith, I thank you that it's done. Amen.
Full Name
_____________________________
Witness:
_______________________________
If you are serious about repentance pray this prayer today...It will work with your FAITH to break the powers of darkness!!
Print this prayer out and keep for your records so you can show Satan what HE lost and you gained!
Science has many Christian roots.
Most of the early scientists were Christians such as Copernicus, Galileo, Pascal, Isaac Newton, Johannes Keppler, Robert Boyle, Louis Pasteur, Jean Henri Fabre, Michael Faraday, and John Ambrose Fleming.
These great scientists operated within a Christian framework. An interesting fact is that the vast majority of all scientific development has come out of western civilization, what are the odds of that happening?
And IT had Christianity as its basis to top that off. The idea is that the “laws of nature” came from Christianity, NOT HUMANISM; not to mention that the concepts of subduing nature and being stewards of nature are right from the first book of the Bible--Genesis and not in any way the invention of witches or their Craft.
THAT IS WHY I view God as a rational and trustworthy person, which implies automatically that His creation is rational and orderly and thus can be examined FOR EVIDENCE OF HIS FINGERPRINTS.
The Art Of Knowing Your Enemy In Order To Defeat Him!By Clarence SargentUnderstand that demons ARE what they do...demons of (rebellion,sickness,doubt,unbelief..etc.) ARE BOUND TO ACT WITHIN THEIR PARTICULAR MISSION (Murder,Lust, etc..a devil of deception is as much deceived by his nature as the person he inhabits.
Devils are filled with "Infighting among themselves" and ONLY WORK TOGETHER FOR THE COMMON GOAL OF DESTROYING YOU so they CANNOT do anything beyond what YOU allow them to do or to get away with in your life!
THEY ARE BOUND TO "Flesh/Soul existence" doomed to eternal death, UNABLE TO ATTACK US IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM (Remember they were CAST OUT of heaven and INTO the heaven lies surrounding the earth.)- In fact DEMONS MUST ASK PERMISSION TO STAND BEFORE US IN ORDER TO TEMPT US,( Unless of course they have LEGAL GROUND to attack our lives. This can come through "Bloodline"curses or simply because YOU have invited the attack by playing around with witchcraft's of ANY TYPE.) All THAT Satan can do is DECEIVE, LIE AND MANIPULATE US AND THE LAWS OF SCIENCE WHICH HE IS BOUND TOO HIMSELF.Understand this simple truth about Satan and demons, NATURE ITSELF was created to be bound by certain laws of motion and energy, God HAS TOTAL CONTROL OVER SATAN because of these laws, he cannot go beyond the natural realm of science and nature. BUT understand something important here, SCIENCE AS WE KNOW IT IS STILL A LIMITED CONCEPT (IN OTHER WORDS SATAN KNOWS THINGS ABOUT NATURE AND ALL PHYSICAL LAWS THAT HUMANS ARE ONLY BEGINNING TO LEARN ABOUT.
Thus he can APPEAR AS AN ANGEL (Messenger) OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (or Light) which he did to me as a black witch...HE'S VERY GOOD AT BEING VERY BAD..BUT HE'S EVEN BETTER AT DRESSING UP AS YOUR FRIEND UNTIL IT'S TIME TO PAY THE PRICE! Then all of a sudden he's on the inside as your conscience, condemning the actions he helped you produce.The problem is Most people think of demons in terms of Ugly, revolting, lizard like, or ghostlike creatures which are easy to detect well, they can appear as that if it suites the purpose at hand (i.e. Hunting's or Fantasy Illusions of the mind) BUT The real truth is that demons are most likely to appear in an attractive form that you relate to and even love to be with, a form that fulfills deep seated desires and practice THAT YOU ALREADY ARE COMFORTABLE WITH (i.e. Religious practices or even personal habits). Demons are deceivers.They love to masquerade, so even Christians are fooled by them (If it were possible even the elect could be fooled but it were for the spirit of God within to WARN US). They really love the deception of appearing as "PASSED ON LOVED ONES" with the end result being a misrepresentation of the spiritual laws which the bible makes very clear cannot ever happen (i.e. The fact that scripture says in the book of Hebrews that "After death is Judgment NOT HANGING AROUND IN A LIFE THAT CANNOT SUPPORT THEIR EXISTENCE)
A Demons NATURE (or How they act because of what their individual MISSIONS IN THE LIVES OF CERTAIN HUMANS are.) binds them within a certain moral framework by which they are controlled.
For instance a demon of LUST is bound to his lust just as his host is and this can be the undoing of his power over you if you learn how to counter it with scripture and DELIVERANCE.
The Bible clearly portrays them as personal beings.
They have personal intellect (Mark 5:7), knowledge (Acts 19:15), emotion (Matthew 9:31; Mark 5:7; James 2:19), self-awareness (Mark 5:9), will (Matthew 8:31), and ability to speak (Mark 1:24; 5:7-12; Acts 19:15).
They are in all ways just as PERSONAL as you are!
Demons act in conjunction with Satan's planed purpose BUT do not always obey his lead because they are inherently rebellious in their innermost being and can be TURNED UPON EACH OTHER as God has done many times in Scripture, turning whole armies upon themselves to protect Israel.
Each demon has its own "personal Agenda"aside from Satan's ultimate purpose, just as human hosts have personal agendas that drive them to success or failure aside from what family or friends might suggest.
The occult can certainly be a gateway for demonic activity and the Bible forbids us to be involved in occult activities EVEN IF IT SEEMS INNOCENT TO US THE DANGER IS THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT ABLE TO RESIST IT'S ALLURE!
(Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Leviticus 19:26b,31; Isaiah 47:8-15):
1.) Divination = fortune telling (i.e. Taro cards, Crystal balls, E.S.P.) ,
2.) clairvoyance (Physics, Ghost whisperers).
3.)Sorcery which operates by charms (This also includes RELIGIOUS ITEMS worn to protect from evil as in Voodoo),
4.) music ( that instills or inspires to NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENTS),
5.) drugs (Including anything that diminishes your ability to resist Demons from attaching to our past bloodline or current fleshly habits)
6.) Witchcraft that operates by spells, curses, hypnosis and in some cases a form of MASS HYPNOSIS IS EMPLOYED TO DECEIVE LARGE AMOUNTS OF ADHERENTS AT ONE TIME.
7.) A Medium or spiritualist is someone who acts as a channel through whom the spirit {demon} speaks. They are Consulting the dead (or necromancer's), calling up the dead (spiritual entities)
Yet think about this : most of those whom Jesus delivered from demons were religious Jews, forbidden ever to practice witchcraft or idolatry.
They were "normal" people, neither criminal, insane, nor spooky (Matthew 8:16; Mark 1:39).
Demons are active in less obvious ways than the occult.
a.) The worship of other gods or idols is in fact the worship of demons (1 Corinthians 10:19-21; Revelation 9:20; Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 106:36-37)
.
b.) Demons are involved in the teaching of false doctrines (1 Timothy 4:1-2; 1 John 2:18-22; 4:1-3).
c.) Demons preach from the pulpit of some churches (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
d.) Causing jealousy and discord among God's people is an activity of demons (1 Samuel 18:8-10).
e.) So too is lying (1 Kings 22:21-24).
REMEMBER RELIGIOUS DEMONS ARE JUST AS DANGEROUS AS if not all the more dangerous than THOSE BEHIND THE OCCULT!
But let's look at this closer, is not FALSE RELIGIOUS PRACTICE NOTHING MORE THAN "Witchcraft" anyway?
Do not false religious people curse and otherwise defile the temple of God by hurting his true purpose in the earth "To FREE MANKIND FROM THE WORK OF SATAN"?
So in effect religion is a form of the Occult because it fulfills the purpose of the occult which is to spread the words of darkness throughout the earth - Anything that disobeys the word of God is IN DARKNESS!
Remember well that "Witchcraft"has received a BUM RAP OVER THE YEARS BY HOLLYWOOD IN THAT MOST OF THE SO-CALLED witch crafts on the screens that we see are nothing more than HYPED UP WISHFUL THINKING.
The Salem witch trials were more "Religious-craft" than witchcraft, the real witches were the PHONY RELIGIOUS PEOPLE THAT SHOWED THEIR PIOUS CONTEMPT FOR ALL THAT WAS TRULY GODLY IN NATURE IN EXCHANGE FOR SELF-GRATIFICATION and PERSONAL HATRED!
At times Jesus spoke directly to demons, and they to Him (Mark 3:11-12; 5:6-13).
However, there is no New Testament pattern for holding lengthy USELESS conversations with demons and I know personally this only works to the advantage of Satan keeping him in the host longer while we reveal info that he can use to stay there.
This should be avoided since their basic nature is that of deception (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 20:3,7,8,10).
What deliverance ministries do is to be specific and to the point in their questions to demons:
1.)"What is your name (Nature)?
2.) Why are you here? revealing the root cause of infection
3.) When did you come in, pinpointing their source?
Revealing the first reason and possibly the generational binding that holds the devil to a person. But facts prove that this method is not always successful for the ground that gave the demon a place to reside cannot be cast out, only the demon. The Ground needs to be cleansed by prayer and fasting.
Deliverance from demonic influence will not be obtained by "casting out" only.
The ground which admitted the evil spirit in the first place is the ground that can keep a person in possession or oppression (Ephesians 4:27 - "foothold").
Evil spirits can be cast out in the Name of the Lord Jesus, but the ground they have gained can only be removed by the intelligent choice of our wills refusing the territory given to them, and appropriating the deliverance by death with Christ on Calvary.
This should not surprise us for Jesus Himself plainly warned that demons will seek to return and may bring others with them (Matthew 12:43-45). Once your mind is free it must be FILLED with the word of God.
Upon at least one occasion Jesus commanded the demon to come out and specifically added "and never enter him again" (Mark 9:25) this was HIS word filling the empty space.
Unless the ground of demonic influence is dealt with, no full relief can be obtained, or change seen, in the majority of deliverance's, this is akin to washing a pig, it will only go back to its nature of filth.
God had other plans for me..he and he alone had the nerve to put two Christians into my life that could not be SCARED OR MOVED by my appearance or actions and kept coming day after day,night after night inviting me to church (No GUTS No GLORY)..THEY NEVER GIVE UP ON ME!
I remember giving them the SLIP so many times I lost count.
But one fateful Wednesday night Bible Study I sat at the BACK of the this little Church of God in Cheyenne Wyoming, half Drunk and half High.
I don't remember much of the service BUT I do remember hearing that God did not hate me for what I'd done but that HIS LAWS REQUIRED HIS JUDGMENT on my soul, God's LOVE reached out and touched this Witch and suffered him NOT to live a life without hope but revived him into NEW LIFE in Christ!
I saw a literal Light of deliverance shine down into my mind and for the first time in years I could think for myself without the "VOICES OF DEMONS (My Familiars) "interfering with my thoughts, that DARKNESS became as "DAYTIME for me and now I am a new creation, OLD things HAVE PASSED AWAY and Jesus is my Lord and Savior FOREVER!
Of course there will be those who think "Well, that's you..you were special to God and he loved you more than me..I've done to many sick things for God to love me!"
THAT IS A LIE!
The Art Of Knowing Your Enemy In Order To Defeat Him!By Clarence SargentUnderstand that demons ARE what they do...demons of (rebellion,sickness,doubt,unbelief..etc.) ARE BOUND TO ACT WITHIN THEIR PARTICULAR MISSION (Murder,Lust, etc..a devil of deception is as much deceived by his nature as the person he inhabits.
Devils are filled with "Infighting among themselves" and ONLY WORK TOGETHER FOR THE COMMON GOAL OF DESTROYING YOU so they CANNOT do anything beyond what YOU allow them to do or to get away with in your life!
THEY ARE BOUND TO "Flesh/Soul existence" doomed to eternal death, UNABLE TO ATTACK US IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM (Remember they were CAST OUT of heaven and INTO the heaven lies surrounding the earth.)- In fact DEMONS MUST ASK PERMISSION TO STAND BEFORE US IN ORDER TO TEMPT US,( Unless of course they have LEGAL GROUND to attack our lives. This can come through "Bloodline"curses or simply because YOU have invited the attack by playing around with witchcraft's of ANY TYPE.) All THAT Satan can do is DECEIVE, LIE AND MANIPULATE US AND THE LAWS OF SCIENCE WHICH HE IS BOUND TOO HIMSELF.Understand this simple truth about Satan and demons, NATURE ITSELF was created to be bound by certain laws of motion and energy, God HAS TOTAL CONTROL OVER SATAN because of these laws, he cannot go beyond the natural realm of science and nature. BUT understand something important here, SCIENCE AS WE KNOW IT IS STILL A LIMITED CONCEPT (IN OTHER WORDS SATAN KNOWS THINGS ABOUT NATURE AND ALL PHYSICAL LAWS THAT HUMANS ARE ONLY BEGINNING TO LEARN ABOUT.
Thus he can APPEAR AS AN ANGEL (Messenger) OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (or Light) which he did to me as a black witch...HE'S VERY GOOD AT BEING VERY BAD..BUT HE'S EVEN BETTER AT DRESSING UP AS YOUR FRIEND UNTIL IT'S TIME TO PAY THE PRICE! Then all of a sudden he's on the inside as your conscience, condemning the actions he helped you produce.The problem is Most people think of demons in terms of Ugly, revolting, lizard like, or ghostlike creatures which are easy to detect well, they can appear as that if it suites the purpose at hand (i.e. Hunting's or Fantasy Illusions of the mind) BUT The real truth is that demons are most likely to appear in an attractive form that you relate to and even love to be with, a form that fulfills deep seated desires and practice THAT YOU ALREADY ARE COMFORTABLE WITH (i.e. Religious practices or even personal habits). Demons are deceivers.They love to masquerade, so even Christians are fooled by them (If it were possible even the elect could be fooled but it were for the spirit of God within to WARN US). They really love the deception of appearing as "PASSED ON LOVED ONES" with the end result being a misrepresentation of the spiritual laws which the bible makes very clear cannot ever happen (i.e. The fact that scripture says in the book of Hebrews that "After death is Judgment NOT HANGING AROUND IN A LIFE THAT CANNOT SUPPORT THEIR EXISTENCE)
A Demons NATURE (or How they act because of what their individual MISSIONS IN THE LIVES OF CERTAIN HUMANS are.) binds them within a certain moral framework by which they are controlled.
For instance a demon of LUST is bound to his lust just as his host is and this can be the undoing of his power over you if you learn how to counter it with scripture and DELIVERANCE.
The Bible clearly portrays them as personal beings.
They have personal intellect (Mark 5:7), knowledge (Acts 19:15), emotion (Matthew 9:31; Mark 5:7; James 2:19), self-awareness (Mark 5:9), will (Matthew 8:31), and ability to speak (Mark 1:24; 5:7-12; Acts 19:15).
They are in all ways just as PERSONAL as you are!
Demons act in conjunction with Satan's planed purpose BUT do not always obey his lead because they are inherently rebellious in their innermost being and can be TURNED UPON EACH OTHER as God has done many times in Scripture, turning whole armies upon themselves to protect Israel.
Each demon has its own "personal Agenda"aside from Satan's ultimate purpose, just as human hosts have personal agendas that drive them to success or failure aside from what family or friends might suggest.
The occult can certainly be a gateway for demonic activity and the Bible forbids us to be involved in occult activities EVEN IF IT SEEMS INNOCENT TO US THE DANGER IS THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT ABLE TO RESIST IT'S ALLURE!
(Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Leviticus 19:26b,31; Isaiah 47:8-15):
1.) Divination = fortune telling (i.e. Taro cards, Crystal balls, E.S.P.) ,
2.) clairvoyance (Physics, Ghost whisperers).
3.)Sorcery which operates by charms (This also includes RELIGIOUS ITEMS worn to protect from evil as in Voodoo),
4.) music ( that instills or inspires to NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENTS),
5.) drugs (Including anything that diminishes your ability to resist Demons from attaching to our past bloodline or current fleshly habits)
6.) Witchcraft that operates by spells, curses, hypnosis and in some cases a form of MASS HYPNOSIS IS EMPLOYED TO DECEIVE LARGE AMOUNTS OF ADHERENTS AT ONE TIME.
7.) A Medium or spiritualist is someone who acts as a channel through whom the spirit {demon} speaks. They are Consulting the dead (or necromancer's), calling up the dead (spiritual entities)
Yet think about this : most of those whom Jesus delivered from demons were religious Jews, forbidden ever to practice witchcraft or idolatry.
They were "normal" people, neither criminal, insane, nor spooky (Matthew 8:16; Mark 1:39).
Demons are active in less obvious ways than the occult.
a.) The worship of other gods or idols is in fact the worship of demons (1 Corinthians 10:19-21; Revelation 9:20; Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 106:36-37)
.
b.) Demons are involved in the teaching of false doctrines (1 Timothy 4:1-2; 1 John 2:18-22; 4:1-3).
.
b.) Demons are involved in the teaching of false doctrines (1 Timothy 4:1-2; 1 John 2:18-22; 4:1-3).
c.) Demons preach from the pulpit of some churches (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
d.) Causing jealousy and discord among God's people is an activity of demons (1 Samuel 18:8-10).
e.) So too is lying (1 Kings 22:21-24).
REMEMBER RELIGIOUS DEMONS ARE JUST AS DANGEROUS AS if not all the more dangerous than THOSE BEHIND THE OCCULT!
But let's look at this closer, is not FALSE RELIGIOUS PRACTICE NOTHING MORE THAN "Witchcraft" anyway?
Do not false religious people curse and otherwise defile the temple of God by hurting his true purpose in the earth "To FREE MANKIND FROM THE WORK OF SATAN"?
So in effect religion is a form of the Occult because it fulfills the purpose of the occult which is to spread the words of darkness throughout the earth - Anything that disobeys the word of God is IN DARKNESS!
Remember well that "Witchcraft"has received a BUM RAP OVER THE YEARS BY HOLLYWOOD IN THAT MOST OF THE SO-CALLED witch crafts on the screens that we see are nothing more than HYPED UP WISHFUL THINKING.
The Salem witch trials were more "Religious-craft" than witchcraft, the real witches were the PHONY RELIGIOUS PEOPLE THAT SHOWED THEIR PIOUS CONTEMPT FOR ALL THAT WAS TRULY GODLY IN NATURE IN EXCHANGE FOR SELF-GRATIFICATION and PERSONAL HATRED!
At times Jesus spoke directly to demons, and they to Him (Mark 3:11-12; 5:6-13).
However, there is no New Testament pattern for holding lengthy USELESS conversations with demons and I know personally this only works to the advantage of Satan keeping him in the host longer while we reveal info that he can use to stay there.
This should be avoided since their basic nature is that of deception (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 20:3,7,8,10).
This should be avoided since their basic nature is that of deception (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 20:3,7,8,10).
What deliverance ministries do is to be specific and to the point in their questions to demons:
1.)"What is your name (Nature)?
2.) Why are you here? revealing the root cause of infection
3.) When did you come in, pinpointing their source?
Revealing the first reason and possibly the generational binding that holds the devil to a person. But facts prove that this method is not always successful for the ground that gave the demon a place to reside cannot be cast out, only the demon. The Ground needs to be cleansed by prayer and fasting.
Revealing the first reason and possibly the generational binding that holds the devil to a person. But facts prove that this method is not always successful for the ground that gave the demon a place to reside cannot be cast out, only the demon. The Ground needs to be cleansed by prayer and fasting.
Deliverance from demonic influence will not be obtained by "casting out" only.
The ground which admitted the evil spirit in the first place is the ground that can keep a person in possession or oppression (Ephesians 4:27 - "foothold").
The ground which admitted the evil spirit in the first place is the ground that can keep a person in possession or oppression (Ephesians 4:27 - "foothold").
Evil spirits can be cast out in the Name of the Lord Jesus, but the ground they have gained can only be removed by the intelligent choice of our wills refusing the territory given to them, and appropriating the deliverance by death with Christ on Calvary.
This should not surprise us for Jesus Himself plainly warned that demons will seek to return and may bring others with them (Matthew 12:43-45). Once your mind is free it must be FILLED with the word of God.
Upon at least one occasion Jesus commanded the demon to come out and specifically added "and never enter him again" (Mark 9:25) this was HIS word filling the empty space.
Unless the ground of demonic influence is dealt with, no full relief can be obtained, or change seen, in the majority of deliverance's, this is akin to washing a pig, it will only go back to its nature of filth.
God loves ALL MANKIND EQUALLY AND WITHOUT BEING PARTIAL TO ANY PERSON
(Since all go to hell for the same reason, REJECTION OF JESUS AS their PERSONAL SAVIOR and NOT PERSONAL SIN!)
... the MASTER of the HALF-TRUTH tells us these things because HE LOST IT ALL TO HIS OWN PRIDE and wants YOU to suffer for his stupidity. Don't let him lie to you, God thinks as much of you as he does of his own son..just give him your heart and he'll do the rest! As a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ I extend this invitation to know him as I do now, get free and stay free it's your personal choice and no ones business but yours alone.
Accept what God has done on your behalf
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Clarence_Sargent
Nature in the Christian view (as compared to our non-Christian worldviews such as witchcraft) is that nature is no longer an object of fear and worship, because let‘s face it…we only “worship in ignorance” what we “Fear in ignorance”. God on the other hand only DEMANDS KNOWLEDGEABLE WORSHIP.
It is “False Religion” that MYSTIFIES GOD to the point that you can’t relate to him BUT must “BLINDLY FOLLOW PRECEPTS AND RULES THAT MAKE NO SENSE” to a freethinking mind.
We need to do a self-check, to make sure we get rid of all of our idols, good luck charms, crosses, medallions, and demonic symbols.
We must repent fully of trusting in fate, destiny, and luck: and put our whole trust in the Living Christ, follow Him wholeheartedly without exception to our fears from the past. Trusting in fate or luck is clearly a dependence upon evil spirits which I knew as “familiars.”
Well I'm here to tell you that JESUS CHRIST is God and HE CAN AND WILL SAVE YOU NO MATTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE...he looks past what you do and love's you deeply.
A spiritual adventure of another witch:
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
"My walk in darkness began when I was about three. I was sexually abused by my father. Unable to cope with the trauma, I developed alternate personalities to carry out the everyday demands of life. I retreated from life as much as I could, and had no real friends until Eighth grade.
Growing up in a hostile, abusive environment, I became addicted to seconals as a teenager, and I experimented with a great many drugs. My preference was always LSD. I dated and married abusive men. There was much violence in my life, a lot of death, a lot of horror. I never knew peace. Because my father read the Bible a lot, and shouted scriptures, I was confused about Jesus.
I became fascinated by the occult. I believed that my will, if strong and directed properly, could change anything. This is one of the foundations of witchcraft, which I started to embrace. I found the study appealing at the time, though difficult.
I began to be haunted in my dreams by a woman dancing in a way I had never seen before. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Supposing she must be another witch who wanted to teach me something, I began looking for her.
I was getting sick. Physically, the doctors could find nothing wrong. I was getting thinner, and increasingly, the spirits I thought I controlled were beginning to control me - taking over the body, while I was somewhere on the ceiling watching the horror they inflicted.
I called my best friend, who knew Jesus. She said, 'The Lord will bring a sword between us if you don't come out of witchcraft.' She had never known I was involved in witchcraft. I had kept her from knowing my beliefs.
Then she asked me to visit a church where she knew they weren't afraid to help abused women. She asked me to promise to just sit through one service. I promised. She knew I would do all I could to keep my word.
I'm glad of that promise, because it was the only thing that kept me in my seat. I had been in and out of all kinds of churches, but none of them affected me because they were spiritually dead. The presence of the Lord was not there. But it was very different in this place! I was ill before I reached the door.
Nauseous, and in pain - tearing pain - I rode an emotional rollercoaster. It was like some bad drug having an alien affect on me. Suddenly, I wanted to hurt people in the church.
I wanted to hit them and tear the skin off their faces. I knew I had no personal problem with these people, to cause all these feelings to erupt. Then, when the haze of pain began to clear, who should I see dancing before the altar worshipping the Lord but the woman in my dreams!
Now, beside the promise, I had another reason to fight to stay. I was beginning to realize that there must really and truly be a God, a supreme God, just like all the Bible stories. That woman in my dreams was here. I gripped the chair in front of me until my knuckles turned white, and I stayed.
The pastor was such a gifted speaker, that even the pain and nausea began to fade as I concentrated on what he was saying. He was talking about Jesus but in a real way - one that I could relate to in everyday life. He had my attention.
As he was beginning to draw to a close, he stopped, as though he could hear something that we couldn't. Then he said, 'There is someone here whose only wish is to die, because she is so tired. Rae? Rachel? Rachel, will you come to me?'
In one overwhelming second, I suddenly knew that this God loved me, called me by name, and wanted to know me. Without hesitation I stood up. I had tried committing suicide several times in my life. I was so tired; all I had really wanted was to die.
But God knew this. He had to have told this man, who was a stranger to me and yet had called me by name. I had to get to the front of the church! But the spirits took over and the battle was on. They recognized the pastor, and told him in the ugliest voice ever to come from my body, 'I know you!'
The pastor, must have somehow known by the Holy Spirit about these spirits. 'You will stop tearing the child,' he told them.
The pain stopped, but I began slithering like a snake. Then pray-ers in the church surrounded me. I couldn't breathe. I discovered later that that is an important sign.
When evil spirits quit trying to intimidate, and show off by making the person unable to breathe, they are about to exit the body. When I accepted Jesus, I immediately saw a glorious Being that I could not lift my unworthy face to look at. But the light . . . !
I can't describe it!
There was a sword in his hands. It was covered in leaping flames. 'Take my sword,' he told me. When I reached up for it I came into his world - Christ's realm. I was whole, and crying a river of tears - me who before would never allow myself to cry.
There was healing in those tears. I was also aware of the fear that the demons were in in those final moments. The Bible really is true: Every knee shall bow before Jesus. He is indeed Lord of Lords, King of Kings, and the Savior of our soul.
There is no life and no peace without Jesus. This is my birth experience into the Kingdom of the Living God.
As 2 Timothy 1:7 says:
Fear was the first spirit to enter me, but one of the first things I learned is that God is love." I was a sold-out, goddess-worshipping witch!
. . .by William Schnoebelen
"I was a witch! I was a sold-out, goddess-worshiping witch!
When my "lady" and I chipped the ice out of a stream in the middle of Iowa wilderness to bathe and then celebrate the March equinox naked under the stars, we were totally consumed with zeal for the Wicca.
We drove 170 miles one way every weekend to teach classes in Wicca in a car with a bumper sticker which said "In Goddess We Trust!"
We were kicked out of almost every apartment we tried to rent for wild circle dances and burning frankincense; and we had a firebomb thrown into one temple because we dared to publicly proclaim the goddess!
Wicca is one of the more seductive deceptions that Satan has come up with.(1) It is the contemporary name for the cult of so-called "white" witchcraft or Neo-Paganism, which has been enjoying a renaissance in the United States.
It claims to be a "back to nature" religion which worships the sky and earth, and thus has attracted many adherents among those sympathetic to environmental and ecology issues. Yet, for all its charm and nostalgic fantasy, Wicca drew me into the deepest quagmire of satanic evil imaginable.
Almost everything we did back then raised eyebrows. Regrettably, we see people today doing things openly that we had to do in secret. We see books that used to only be available in dark, musty occult bookstores now being sold openly in shopping malls.
The meditation practices we taught in secret witchcraft circles are now being taught in "respectable" churches.
Naturally, we believed we were doing good. I was a sincere devotee of the chief deity of Wicca, the Great Mother. At first I believed the rites we did were for the benefit of humanity and the earth itself. I also believed what I was told: that there was a profound difference between the Wicca and those called satanists or devil-worshipers.
I thought that the whole meaning of Wicca was beneficial rituals to nature deities like Pan, Diana or Cernunnos; and of course rites of passage and initiation. I stood, blindfolded, naked and bound at the edge of the Circle "which is placed between the worlds."
I heard the words of the Great Mother and felt the prick of the swordpoint challenging my courage. I was anointed as a "Priest of the Goddess" and learned her secret name. I gave my life to her service.
I truly believed that she was the One "who was with me from the beginning, and who was attained at the end of desire." I walked the earth and felt her a living, breathing thing; and I worshiped her as "Holy Mother Earth."
It took me sixteen years of ardent devotion to her and the Craft to find out that I was terribly wrong. I had to learn the hard way that my only hope for true spiritual fulfillment in life was Jesus Christ!
I finally learned in the most graphic fashion imaginable that the difference between witchcraft or Wicca and satanism is actually non-existent.
To be sure, an anthropologist or sociologist of religion might find them different, but such distinctions mean little when you are gambling with the eternal fate of your own immortal soul.
The actual spiritual difference between Wicca and satanism might best be illustrated this way: Practicing Wicca is like having a hand-grenade blow up in your face, in terms of the spiritual impact.
Practicing satanism is like having a neutron bomb detonate in your face. The difference is there and discernable, but it is still an utter disaster for you, either way.
In eternal perspective, the disaster of Wicca is altogether real and no less dangerous than that neutron bomb.
Why Should YOU Believe This Warning?
Before we discuss this subject, allow me to give my credentials. I was initiated into the Alexandrian Wicca on Imbolc, February 2, 1973 and made a High Priest and Magus is September of the same year.
That summer my lady and I were also promoted to the High Priestly rank in the Druidic Craft of the Wise. We also helped establish a Church of All Worlds "nest" in Milwaukee and studied under Gavin and Yvonne Frost and their Church and School of Wicca.
Wicca has many "denominations" or traditions. Some are large and well-known, like the Alexandrian, Gardnerian, Druidic, Welsh Traditionalist, Gerogian, Dianic and Church of Wicca. Others are as small as a single coven or 13, or even a family tradition.
My wife and I established covens all over the Midwest; Dubuque and Davenport, Iowa; Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Chicago. Over the years, we advanced to higher levels of witchcraft.
Up to our departure from the city of Milwaukee in 1984, we were presiding over one of the oldest and largest networks of covens in the Midwest.
About a year after becoming a High Priest (1974), I was told by our initiators that Wicca was not what it seemed.
Although much of the extant literature written by witches (and Dr. Margaret Murray's work(2)) would lead one to believe that Wicca is a survival of the ancient pagan fertility cults, especially of Northern Europe and the British Isles; there is not a shred of real historical proof for any connection between Bronze Age cults and modern witchcraft.
I learned from our initiators that it seemed that Wicca is, in fact, a manufactured religion not much older than this century. There did not seem to be evidence for any Book of Shadows (a combined "bible" and ritual book for Wiccans) much older than the 1910's!
You see, Wicca is one of Satan's "nicer" creations, tailor-made for the last half of this century.
Although it may have existed for perhaps a century at most, it "came out of the broom closet" in 1951, when the British laws against witchcraft were repealed.
It is nothing really new, but its packaging is subtly different, tailored to a world strangling on its own technology and dying for romance, idealism and meaning.
A Cult of Deception
You may say:
"So you got sucked in too deep. So what? I've been a witch for years and never got into that satanic junk. It's just a Christian myth for real losers. As long as I stay where I am, I'm cool. I'm happy!" That may be so, but do you honestly want to belong to a cult that deals in deception?
Let's look at the word, "Wicca," as an example. The OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY reveals that the word does not mean "wise one." It means twisted, bent, or warped.
Even Margot Adler admits that the word has its roots in the Indo-European roots "wic" or "weik" meaning "to bend or to turn." Of course, she tries to put the best possible face on it by saying that:
"According to this view, a Witch would be a woman ( or man) skilled in the art of shaping, bending and changing reality." (4)
Elsewhere, she asserts that:
"The lexicographical (dictionary) definitions of witch are rather confusing and bear little relation to the definitions given by Witches themselves."(5)
But this is playing games, the same sort of word games most cultists play to conceal the truth. By this standard, anyone, including Anton LaVey, could say they were a witch and be right.
Yet you should hear the howls of rage among the Neo-Pagan community when even Gavin and Yvonne Frost first claimed to be witches. They couldn't be witches, they were monotheists, fakes and gay-bashers!
So all of a sudden there WAS an objective standard of what makes one a witch. Yet like many things in occultism, it vanishes like mist when you try and pin it down.
In my own personal development as a witch, and the development of almost all our colleagues, I found that after about five or six yeaars it was necessary to begin pursuing the study of the "Higher Wisdom" of Satan in order to keep growing. Magick is like a drug. You keep needing more in order to stay at a level at which you feel fulfilled. There is no end to it!
If you've stayed a Wiccan or "white" witch for a long time, it's only because you don't have enough of the Promethean itch to grow. OR it may be that you have many Christian friends or loved ones praying for you. Did you ever think of that?"
Footnotes Introduction
1. Wicca, pronounced "Wicha," contrary to popular practice, is the term most witches prefer to use for their faith. They pronounce it "Wikka" and frequently assert that it means "Wise One."
2. Margaret Murray's books, THE WITCH CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE and THE GOD OF THE WITCHES, did much to popularize the concept that Wicca is a survival of ancient religions. In recent years, though, their scholarship has been seriously challenged.
3. See Margot Adier's DRAWING DOWN THE MOON, Beacon Press, Boston, 1986 rev. ed., p.46.4. Adler.p.11.5. lbid.p.10.
* This chapter was used by permission from William Schnoebelen's book.Wicca:Satan's Little White Lie".
Kimberly's Story - From Wicca to Christ
"When I read Candace's story I couldn't help but feel an eerie sence of familiarity. Much of what had happened to her happened to me, just not to the same harsh extent.
Growing up I had never been to church (beyond the occasional wedding) and my family never really spoke much of God or religion.
We were a happy family and maybe that's why we never talked about God or questioned his existence. We never had anything bad happen to make us ask "why?"
Then I became a teenager.
I don't know why I was attracted to the rebellious side of being a teen.
I wasn't doing it on purpose, it's just what I really wanted to be like. My "crowd" wasn't a bad one, at least we didn't think so, but we got into trouble now and then. I started smoking, ciggerattes and marijuana,drinking and staying out all night and lying to my Mother.
I was having sex at 13 and pregnancy scares at 14. I didn't care, I was having fun. Then it all went downhill.
I had broken up with my boyfriend of 5 years, and I was only 16. I started to do anything for any guy who would give me the time of day.
Then I did get pregnant, and I thought maybe I had found love again, but it wasn't so.
He never beat me but the verbal abuse I put up with threw me into a deep depresion. I tried so hard to be a good mother and house wife (even though we were not married) and nothing was ever good enough. He called me a slut and a whore.
He refused to claim his daughter when he knew I was with no one else. He called me fat and lazy while I was pregnant.
Sometimes I wished he would have beaten me. It probably would have hurt less. When I thought I could not take it anymore and was on the verge of suicide I happened upon something that would change my life.
I was watching an afternoon talk show one day. The subject was a new religion called Wicca. I heard them talk of thier love and worship of nature and all living creatures and the spiritual force of the earth and I was hooked.
I went out and found everything I could on wicca. I trained and practiced and finally I proclaimed myself a bonafide witch.
Wicca had opened up a whole new world for me. It gave me hope, it helped me with struggles, and it made me friends. It was a community where I belonged. For once I was happy.
I found the courage to take my 3 year old daughter and leave her father, and it was the best choice I had ever made. I moved into my own apartment and I was in total bliss. No more complaining if something wasn't cleaned right or put away in the right place.
I was finally on my own. But on your own can be a very lonely place.
I started to pray to my God and Goddess for someone to love me the way I needed to be loved. Someone that understood me. And it happened.
He was perfect in every way and we really got along great. We saw each other for a couple of weeks and then we slept together and I never heard from him again. I found out a while later that he was a virgin and that he had only used me to "get it over with" so to speak.
I was crushed. What self-esteem I had rebuilt was gone and I went wild. I started sneaking into bars and taking guys home I didn't even know for meaningless sex.
Sometimes these guys were 30 or 40 years old and I was only 19 going on 20. I had gone from having had slept with nine people to twenty seven people in two months. I had given up all hope of ever finding someone to love. Then I met Jeff.
I met him while I was working at one of my twelve jobs that I had had in that year. I had never seen him before but I just couldn't get him out of my head.
Well he kept coming back and it turned out that his ex-girlfriend was my co-worker and he had her ask me out. I said yes and we went to the only place I knew how to talk to guys at, the bar.
We hit it off instantly and I could tell that he wasn't like other guys. At the end of the night he asked for my phone number but I knew as I handed it to him that he would never call.
Much to my surprise the phone rang the next day and it was him asking me out on a second date. I twas the start of a long and beautiful relationship. But there was one problem. My beliefs were a conflict to his.
He was a strict christian and I was a witch. He never said anything but I could tell it bothered him. So finally one night we sat down and talked about it. I explained to him that it was what I had chosen because I knew of no other choice. He would talk to me about God and the Bible and I had no idea of anything that he said.
So he taught me. I resented it at first but then I started to see so many things falling in to place that I had given dumb luck and Wicca credit for.
He explained to me that Christianity was not a religion, it was a relationship. He never got frustrated, even when I did and was patient.
Almost a year into our relationship I accepted Jesus Christ and became a Christian. I have never been happier. I realize now that my ultimate unhappiness came from not knowing where I was going. I know now. "
Kimberly S. Pa
© Copyright 2006http://www.occultresearch.org/- occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved. Witchcraft explained
Witchcraft is said to be the use of magic through gardless of sex.
Practices which are classed as witchcraft
Throughout time, any practice which is thought to harm others by intent is said to be a form of witchcraft, some of the more common types of witchcraft are
Wishing harm on another’s person or property
This is perhaps the most well known of all witchcraft and usually involves the use of a curse or hex performed with the sole purpose of bringing harm to the intended victim or that persons property.
Spells can also be used to change a persons will and make them do something they otherwise wouldn’t, an example of this would be to make someone fall in love with you and this type of witchcraft is said to be white magic.
Spell casting
Perhaps one of the most well known aspects of witchcraft is the witches ability to cast spells, we all visualise the witch stirring the bubbling cauldron whispering an incantation over the spell.
However concocting spells in cauldrons is not the only way witches cast spells, spells can be cast through a variety of means. Some of the more popular methods involve the use of candles burning, chanting and reciting incantations, physical rituals and the preparation of herbal remedies.
Awakening the dead
Awakening or conjuring the spirits of the dead is a practice of witchcraft known as necromancy, the “witch of endor” is said to have routinely practiced this form of witchcraft for divination and prophecy, and it is also a form that the witch doctors of Jamaica performed in their voodoo ceremonies.
Witchcraft in the past
The practice of witchcraft using the methods described above was widespread in the past and was foremost in ancient Egypt and Babylonia as documentation has shown. During the Vedic, age witches were then called yoginis and the form of witchcraft was abhichara, witchcraft in this era was mainly aimed at Aryan people and took on the form of magical incantations.
The Hebrew bible constantly makes reference to witchcraft and condemns the practices as does also the New Testament in the bible, other popular forms of witchcraft which have been documented is African witchcraft and neopagan witchcraft.
The African form of witchcraft we all know is the witch doctor, the witch doctor traditionally practiced medicine as ways of healing people and also putting a curse or hex on unfortunate victims.
During the 20th century a lot of interest was taken into neopagan witchcraft with the most famous documentation being that of Margaret Murray in 1921 when she documented the theory of a pan European witch cult. Magical terms & traditions
* Alchemy – alchemy combines elements of chemistry, physics, medicine and spiritualism and was practiced in ancient Egypt, China, Persia and India. Today alchemy is mainly of interest to historians of science and philosophy for its mystic and artistic aspects.*
Astrology – there are many systems, traditions and beliefs that make up astrology and it is thought that knowledge of the positions of the stars can help us to get a better understanding and bring more knowledge of human affairs and events.
* Athame – the Athame is a ceremonial knife that witches use in ritual magic, the witch will take great care when purchasing or choosing the Athame and very often will use a family heirloom as their ceremonial knife.
* Banishing – this is the banishing of evil forces or spirits and is often performed before and after the main ritual.
* Black magic – this is a form of magic that is used to summon evil and direct evil which in turn brings bad luck and destruction to those on the receiving end.
* Ceremonial magic – this is a very elaborate and complex ritual and practitioners will use a variety of aids and accessories when performing the ceremonial ritual.
* Curse – a curse is the effect of a supernatural power aimed at someone to bring them bad luck and trouble, the gypsy curse was the more well known among curses.
* Demonology – demonology refers to a group of people that attempt to name demons and spirits which are said to be malevolent, it is the opposite of angelology which attempts to compile information from the angels for good intentions.
* Divination – this is an attempt to gain information by interpreting omens or a supernatural agency, it is a universal cultural belief which is seen in many cultures and religions up to the present day.
* Dowsing – dowsing has existed for thousands of years and has also been called water witching, those who practice it are said to be empowered with the ability to find water, precious metals, gemstones and hidden objects. Those practicing divination will use a rod, pendulum or y shaped twig over a piece of land or map.
* Geomancy – this is a form of divination which relies on interpreting markings on the ground, or how a handful of dirt will land when thrown back to the ground, it is a form of divination which was chiefly practiced in Africa.
* Hoodoo – hoodoo is an African traditional branch of folk magic which has been around for thousands of years, it is often used to describe a potion or spell and those who practice it are called hoodoo man. Some people also refer to this type of magic as hoodooism.
* Invocation – this is a spell or chant that is used to call upon the god or goddess for a favour or for protection.
* Magic circle – wicca and pagan traditions use what is known as circle casting, this is generally done with salt, crystals, candles or some other purifying substance, the circle is said to offer protection.
* Mojo – the mojo is a tiny bag which is normally worm under the clothes and holds a charm, it is used for protection and can also be used when practicing black magic with the intent to bring harm to others.
* Necromancy – this type of black magic involves conjuring the spirits of the dead in order to gain knowledge of future events.
* Obeah – those who practice magic in the west Indies call it obeah and it is similar to voodoo and hoodoo.
* Paganism – this refers to a broad range of spiritual and religious beliefs and is generally associated with someone who worships someone other than god.
* Shamanism – this is a type of magic which users are said to be able to cure suffering and illness, shamans are thought to have some control over many aspects such as the weather, interpretation of dreams and astral projection.
* Tarot – a deck of tarot cards consists of 78 cards which are used for divination, the tarot cards are thought to date back to 12th century Italy when they were used as a game.
* Voodoo – voodoo is a form of black magic that is practiced in west Africa, it is a system of religious worship and practices that is widespread in a multitude of African groups.
* Wicca – wicca is a form of neopagan religion which is found in many countries, the wiccan only practice magic for good and follow the rule of do no harm to others.
* Witchcraft – there are many forms of witchcraft and the term witchcraft is used when someone practices magic or sorcery of any kind both white and black magic. Types of witchcraft
There is a lot more to witchcraft and witches than the haggard, wart nosed old woman with the black cape, broomstick and black cat. Witchcraft comes in many shapes and forms and has been practised the world over in many different cultures.
The renaissance and gothic Satanism
During the renaissance in the middle ages, the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed that evil people, mostly women had sold their sole to the devil and worshipped him in exchange for certain supernatural powers the devil bestowed upon them.
They were said to be witches who worshipped Diana and other goddesses of this time, they were classed as pure evil and are said to have took part in the kidnapping of babies and killing and eating their victims.
They were said to posses the ability to fly through the air in the middle of the night and hold meetings where spell casting took place and evil wrong doings.
These were all beliefs that the people during this period held and thousands of people were convicted of being a witch and worshipping the devil and were executed in what has come to be known as the “burning times”.
Wicca
Wicca is a more recent form of witchcraft and is a religion-based form of witchcraft; it is based on deities, seasonal times and symbols and is a form of celebration for the Celtic people.
Some followers of Wicca call themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans and both men and women who follow this religion are called witches.
There are basically two laws that must be followed and these are the Wiccan rede and the three-fold law. The Wiccan rede says that those following the religion are free to do as they please as long as they harm no other; the three-fold law says that any evil that is done to others will return three times over.
These laws obviously encourage the Wiccan to do only good and any magic they practise is white magic and usually involves healing spells and incantations.
Religious Satanism
Modern day Satanists worship Satan and there are three main traditions to the followers of this religion, the church of Satan, the temple of set and church of satanic liberation. The church of Satan is thought to be the biggest of these and currently holds thousands of members in the United States.
Most Satanists believe that Satan is a force of nature not a particular deity and has nothing to do with the usual associations we think of when we think of Satan or the devil.
Satanists as you would expect are the total opposite of Wiccan and delight in causing harm and destruction wherever possible and only practise black magic.Witchcraft & wicca FAQs
* Can I follow the path of Wicca and witchcraft and still be a Christian?
There are many common factors of Wicca and being a Christian so the two are not worlds apart, so some say that yes the two can go hand in hand while others (Myself included) claim that there are no real connections of substance at all to Wicca and Christianity.
The two seem to compliment each other and the most important issue is doing what GOD SAYS FOR YOU TO DO NOT WHAT "FEELS GOOD" Because feelings can deceive the Heart. Having been a Wiccan I can attest to the fact that most Wiccans HAVE GOOD INTENTIONS TO HARM NO ONE ELSE, BUT ONLY TO LIVE AND ENJOY LIFE AS THEY SEE FIT, the problem is not in the intent of the witch but in the intent of the spirits that truely control the witch even if they do not see it.* Are witchcraft and Wicca the same thing?
People have different views regarding this; however, there are some main differences to the two which are worth noting, in general, Wicca’s are free to review different systems of belief and take what they want from the different beliefs and blend them together.
Pure witchcraft however relies on using magic and rituals to work with elemental and spiritual forces of nature. Some feel these differences are only slight and Wicca and witchcraft both have the same goals of working to achieve balance and harmony within nature.
* Whom does the witch worship?
Witches believe that there is a single force and this force is defined as “the one”, with the force being the universe. This divine energy is usually personified and witches will call it the goddess or god; however, this title is only put there to make it easier for the human mind to comprehend.
When some witches invoke the god or goddess, they might give those names such as Odin, pan, Dianna or Astarte, but this is only a matter of personal preference.
* Are witches anti-Christian?
Witchcraft and followers of Wicca are very tolerant towards other religions and views, Wiccan withhold the law of “harm no other” and as such allow others to speak their beliefs freely.
Wicca’s believe that there are many paths to the same destination and it doesn’t matter which one you choose to get there as long as no harm is done along the way.
* Wicca’s profess to follow the Wicca rede and this says, “harm no others and do as you will”, does this mean that the witch can do anything they want as long as they can justify it?
The whole philosophy behind Wicca is based on living in complete harmony with all other things; this includes every living thing in the world around them.
Following this rule, the witch has to make sure that no harm comes to any living thing in the world so the answer would be no, they could not please themselves if they thought that harm was going to come from something no matter how much it could be justified. The tools of witchcraft
There are many sacred tools that witches have used for thousand of years and there are numerous systems and traditions that they use, with some witches choosing to work in very elaborate settings while others use only the bare essentials and prefer a more natural approach.
Listed below are some of items and tools that witches commonly use and items which we associate with witches.Athame
The Athame is more commonly know as a knife and most witches will own several ritual knives, the Athame is a very personal and magical tool which the witch will take great care over when obtaining. The Athame should fit comfortably in the hand and feel right with many witches going to great lengths to make their own blades and hone them to perfection.
They also personalize them with great care with runes, carvings and other symbols with special meanings to them, with some witches preferring to use family heirlooms such as letter openers as their Athame.
The broom
Who doesn’t think of witches without thinking of the broom, this has been a symbol of the witch for thousands of years and indeed they do use it for the cleansing ritual. Many witches will also place a broom outside of their door with the brushy side up to ward off evil spirits and to stop unwanted outside energies from entering the home.
The bell
Perhaps not one of the most widely known tools of the witch, the bell is said to have magical properties and for centuries, it was thought to posses magical or spiritual powers. Bells are also associated with the divine and are commonly used in the opening and closing of ceremonies and the start and closing of spell casting.
The cauldron
The cauldron is another symbol that we all associate with the witch; the traditional cauldron has three legs and is thought to represent bounty and blessings.
The cauldron has also come to be known as representing the reincarnation and the cycles of birth, death and rebirth.
Witches will burn incense in them or create spells in them and the witch will have cauldrons in different sizes for the different tasks they want to perform.
The chalice
The chalice is a cup which is used on the altar and normally represents the female principle of water, chalices can be made of any material but most witches prefer silver or pewter.
The chalice is used with the Athame in the enactment of the great rite, which is the union of male and female from which life springs forth. The chalice can also be used to form a bond and will be passed around from person to person so they can all drink from it.
The Paton or altar pentacle
The pentacle for the altar is usually a disk or plate which is inscribed with a five pointed star surrounded by a circle, this will be used to consecrate the various other tools used and is also used as a concentration point for other magical spells. The laws of witchcraft
Unlike most religions and beliefs witchcraft does not have a long list of rules which have to be adhered to, there are only two basic laws which must be followed and adhered to at all times. These two rules are known as the Wiccan rede and the three-fold law; these two principles hold what the witches define as ethic and moral behaviour within the practice of witchcraft.
The three-fold law
Many people will have heard the three-fold law put a different way, some people call it cause and effect, it literally means “what we reap, we will sow” and get back three times.
This is thought to be the reasons why many witches of today are loathe to practice black magic as this would turn around and come back at them three-fold. The witches of today primarily belong to a group or coven called the Wiccan and this law and the Wiccan rede are strictly followed.
The Wiccan rede
The law of the Wiccan rede states that witches are free to do whatever they wish as long as no harm befalls themselves and others. Harm is defined as physical, mental and physic damage to themselves and others around them.
For the majority of today’s witches harming others is simply something that is unthinkable and as such only good or white magic spells are performed.
The universe plays a big part in modern witchcraft and all things are thought to be connected to all others.
All spells which are cast by the witch of today are directed towards a specific task and are only cast after a great deal of thought has been given to them and the outcome.
One question that is often asked of the modern witch is while upholding this law are they then to take mistreatment from others without retaliating, the answer of course is no, witches will place a protection spell around themselves and their loved ones.
The protection spell will then neutralize harmful energies back into the universe without doing harm, the witch then waits for justice to even out as what comes around goes around and therefore justice will take place.
Code of ethics for healers
Certain witches are pagan healers and as such, they are bound by a code of ethics which they must follow, the ethics are:
* The primary obligation of the healer is to those they are healing.
* Any knowledge gained during a consultation should be kept confidential.
* Always be self critical and acknowledge your limitations.
* Work in co-operation with other healers.
* Always take into account the customs, values and beliefs of your client.
* They must not act in any way that would bring the wicca community into disrepute.
* If you feel ethically or morally compromised you have the right to refuse treatment.
* The healer should seek help when treating with herbal treatments. © Copyright 2006 Occultresearch.org - occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved
© Copyright 2006http://www.occultresearch.org/- occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved. Black magic explained
Black magic or dark magic as it is sometimes called is a form of magic that is intended to draw malevolent spirits or entities and is usually performed for acts of evil.
During the inquisition, Christians were frightened of witches and warlocks who practised these black magic rituals but now in modern times witches will use the term black magic to offset the good magic they profess to practise, as black magic is said to be very rarely used.
In olden days, black magic was performed to gain benefit without regard to the harm that it caused others and indeed most performed black magic solely to hurt and inflict damage on others.
The difference between black magic and white magic is still debated amongst modern witches with several theories contrasting the two branches. Theories such as the “all as one”, “no connection” and “separate but equal” theories all being popular and open for debate. The most popular theories include
The all as one theory
Believers of this theory believe that all magic, black or white is evil with black magic generally being associated with the devil or Satan. Religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism all follow the belief that any type of magic is bad.
The dark doctrine theory
As black magic refers to powers of darkness, believers of this theory believe that this type of magic relates directly to Satan.
The formal differences theory
There are thought to be many forms and components to black magic and those casting the black magic have different interests and reasons for doing so, followers of this theory believe that black magic is only harmful when it involves the use of personal items such as clothing, hair or blood of those the spell is directed towards.
The no connection theory
Followers of this theory believe that black and white magic have no connection at all as both practises use totally different forms, followers to this theory see both forms as totally opposing each other.
The separate but equal theory
People who follow this theory believe black and white magic are the same thing with the only difference being the goals they accomplish and the means by which witches get there.
All spells are spells and the difference is only determined by the outcome of the particular spell cast.
Black magic is usually said to be performed more by those who worship the devil hence the term black magic, magic spells cast this way will usually involve the use of ones personal belongings such a piece of clothing, a lock of hair or blood.
The spells cast are said to usually be for the sole purpose of bringing harm to the one they are directed at.
White magic is usually thought to help people and do no harm to others; popular spells of this type are love spells and potions, with the hope of bringing the love of your life into your arms.
However, spells of this type usually involve the use of personal belongings too but for different means.Curses & hexes
The basic curse or hex is perhaps one of the oldest forms of magic dating back thousands of years with forms of hexes and curses being used in many cultures and traditions.
Hexes vary considerably in different hands and can range from the simple to the more elaborate and can be cast in a variety of ways, the most simplest of curses and hexes do nothing more than bring the person bad luck while the more elaborate can cause many problems with the victims wealth, health and even specified body parts.
The very basic hex or curse can be a spoken curse wishing bad luck and unhappiness on the intended victim; this is usually invoked by briefly describing what you want to happen to the victim followed by a sacred word or magical name.
Gypsy curses
Gypsy curses are perhaps the best known of all curses, exactly why is not known, but it probably stems from gypsy fortune telling of many years ago and one of the most famous of all gypsy curses which has been portrayed on TV many times is.
“May you wander over the face of the earth forever, never sleep twice in the same bed, never drink water twice from the same well and never cross the same river twice in a year”.
As you can see gypsy curses can be pretty elaborate and not just simply one or two words, after all if we could be cursed or hexed with just a couple of simple words the parents of almost every teenage child would drop dead on the spot.
Voodoo, curses and hexes
Voodoo has long been recognised as a form of curse or hex, this tradition involves the use of a figure crafted in the fashion of the intended victim and often has some trait of the victim such as hair or blood.
The practitioner of voodoo would then use pins to stick in the doll with the hope of causing the victim great pain and suffering; the practice of voodoo is thought to have come from the Caribbean.
Different forms of curses and hexes
People throughout the world have their own different beliefs on curses and hexes with all of them intending to bring trouble and strife to the unsuspecting victim, the Chinese believe that they can deliver a curse by leaving a few grains of rice and some pennies on the victim’s doorstep. This type of curse symbolizes a wish for the victim to have great financial difficulty.
More recently a Tanzanian member of parliament declared they would put an Islamic death curse on the board members of a Tanzanian executive branch if they didn’t clean up corruption.
The aboriginal Australians strongly believe that a curse can be put on someone by pointing a kangaroo bone at them and curses have always been associated with the Egyptians.
King Tutankhamen’s tomb is a great example of this and it has always been shrouded with mystery and anyone said to have been associated with the opening of the tomb was cursed with six of the people involved with the opening of the tomb meeting untimely and unfortunate deaths.
The curse of Rasputin
Perhaps one of the most famous of all curses was the one which Rasputin mumbled from his deathbed, Rasputin cursed Russia’s ruling monarchs due to being shot, almost drowned and castrated by the Romanov prince.
This curse was apparently very effective as the entire family were dead within one year. What is Necromancy?
Necromancy is a form of divination which is used to conjure the spirits of the dead in order to gain knowledge about the future and the outcome of events in the future, the spirits conjured this way are called spirits of divination.
The spread of necromancy
During the middle ages, illiterate members of society were either nobility or Christian clergy and it is thought that either of these groups was responsible for the propagation and practice of necromancy, even though in Christianity it is forbidden and denied.
Some people deny that necromancy has anything to do with witchcraft while others say that it is a form of black magic and witchcraft and necromancers were tried as witches and hanged, the confessions of those accused of necromancy suggest that a wide range of spell casting and magical practices were involved in necromancy.
The practice of necromancy
It is though that to be able to conjure up the dead the practitioner needs the help of powerful spirits for both the practitioners’ protection and to make the corpse or ghost of the dead submit to his will. An ancient spell is the used to call upon the powers of powerful spirits to bind the dead with two essential elements that are needed to summon the dead, a burnt sacrifice and a blood-drenched altar.
Elaborate preparations are made which includes the careful study of the planets and in particular the moon and the influence of Saturn.
The site for the ritual also has to be chosen with great care with the most favourable sites being crossroads, vaults, ruins or a deserted forest.
Once the site has been chosen and the alignment of the planets is in favour a concentric circle of power is drawn on the ground, within the circle are inscribed crosses and other symbols.
For the magic to work, the necromancer and his assistant must stand within the circles centre and the circle must be blessed or consecrated.
The summoning of the dead or spirit of the dead can then take place using the names of power, when this is successful the dead will return full of anger at being summoned against his will to return to the land of living.
The necromancer must then struggle to gain control over the dead and when control has been gained, the necromancer can then control them and questions will be asked which the dead must answer.
After the ritual has finished the necromancer must not leave the circle until the dead has been dismissed and all flowers must then be removed from the area and burned and the ashes buried deep into the earth.
The ritual is one of the darkest forms of black magic and is the most dangerous of all forms of witchcraft.
© Copyright 2006 Occultresearch.org - occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved
© Copyright 2006 http:// www.Occultresearch.org/ - occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved.
Séances and Ouija boards : are a form of black magic and witchcraft which are a method of divination involving the summoning of the dead in order to gain information about future or past events.
Séances involve the use of a medium, which is the person who will go into a trance like state and then invoke spirits of the dead and open a channel of communication with them.Séances are usually held in a darkened room with the participants being seated around a table holding hands.
During the séance, the table can tilt and move slightly and a breeze can often be felt when the presence of the spirit is said to be in the room, some say these are all tricks by the medium and associates.
When the spirit of the dead person is within the room they will then speak through the medium and questions can be asked, very often people will go to a medium and request that they speak with loved ones who have departed.
Another popular method of communication with the dead is by use of a Ouija board where people will place their fingers lightly on a planchette on a board with letters of the alphabet, once the spirit has been raised then questions are asked by the medium and the planchette will begin to form letters on the board resulting in answers.
Belief in communication with the dead stems back to the 1820`s and was widely known as a form of sorcery and witchcraft, it is a form that is still practiced today and many sceptics regard mediums and séances as nothing more than scams.
Channelling during the séance
Channelling is a very common practice to the séance and is the practice of allowing the spirit to enter the body of the medium in order for it to be able to communicate with those present. This process is thought to be entirely different from that commonly known as possession, possession is said to be the non-consensual take over of a persons body by a malevolent spirit or demon.
Channelling involves welcoming the spirit of the dead into the body for the sole purpose of gaining information and interaction between the living and the dead. The physical manifestations of the channelling is the onset of an unusual voce and uncharacteristic behaviour of the medium, due to the nature of this, this is why so many people are sceptical as to how genuine séances are.
Sceptics believe that, as the bereaved are so emotional over the loss of their loved ones they can easily be tricked into giving information before the ritual which the medium then uses to their advantage during the séance.
Very often, the bereaved will clutch at any straw and if they believe they have a chance of speaking with their loved one for one last time then they take it with open arms and wallets.
How genuine séances and Ouija boards are is something that has been debated for many years and will continue to be debated and regarded with scepticism for some time to come.Tarot cards
The exact origins of the tarot cards are unknown but they are thought to closely resemble a pack of cards which were used to play a game in 15th century Italy where the cards were known as tarocchi.
How exactly tarot cards came to be used for divination is unclear but as early as 1540 drawings show simple cards being drawn and used as methods of divination or fortune telling.
The tarot deck
The typical deck of tarot cards holds 78 cards and are in two distinct parts, the first part is called the trump cards and these consist of 21 cards without suits, with the addition of a 22nd card which is called the fool.
These cards are known as the major arcana or greater secrets; the second part consists of 56 cards which are divided into 4 suits of 14 cards in each.
In the traditional Italian card deck, they were known as swords, batons, coins and cups but decks that are more modern call the baton suit rods or staves while the coins suit is called pentacles or disks.
These cards are known as minor arcana or lesser secrets.
The use of the tarot cards
In most parts of the world, the tarot deck is widely used as a form of divination or as a tool for assessing the unconscious. The cards are shuffled as a deck and then dealt out in various formations or patterns; they are often thought to show a persons thoughts or desires.
The cards can be used to show events that have happened in the past, present or future and are able to give answers to questions regarding uncertainties and indecision.
Each card in the deck has a variety of meanings which have varied widely throughout the years and many decks are customized for a particular person’s use, the kings, queens, pages and knights signify different people in the readings of the cards and each suit can provide information about the person’s attitude, emotional state and physical characteristics.
Scepticism of tarot readings
Many religious groups oppose the use of tarot cards because of their association with divination and fortune telling and consider them a form of witchcraft, many sceptics also oppose the readings of the tarot deck and believe that readers mislead their clients and exploit vulnerable people.
These people often come to depend on the tarot reader and return on a regular basis for help with problems of course at great expense. The witches' pentacle
The pentacle has long been thought of as a symbol of witchcraft, the pentagram dates back over 8,000 years and is said to represent an ancient philosophical concept both in the east and in west and is the most misunderstood and stigmatized of all symbols.
For the modern pagans of today the five points of the pentacle symbolize the four directions with the fifth as the sanctity of the spirit, with the circle symbolising unity and wholeness.
The pentacle is used and is one of the most powerful symbols, by those involved in ceremonial magic and Wicca, in magic the shape of the pentacle is draw in the air with a sacred blade.
Altars feature a pentacle in the form of a flat disc and are widely used as a tool in rituals and are featured on many tools such as cauldrons, chalices or the handles of daggers.
Spells and invocations are often repeated 5 times to ensure the effectiveness of the spell and many pagans wear the sign of the pentacle for protection and to show others that they are involved in the practice of magic and divine wisdom.
The pentagram is used the world over and has been recognised as a sacred symbol since ancient times with almost all cultures having some form of five folds symbol which bears significance to religion.
The elements of the pentacle
When the pentacle is drawn or written, it is called a pentagram and was originally made from clay or dough but today pentacles are more often found crafted in metals such a copper, brass and silver or gold. Many witches wear the pentacle as a sign or their religion and when made out of silver it is said to represent the moon energy.
It is widely used in the practice of magic and is used to either invoke or banish energies when draw certain ways, the simplest of these magic spells will usually involve the use of a candle placed on the points.
Each of the five angles on the pentagram are said to represent the five metaphysical elements and these are:
* Earth – this is the lower left hand corner and represents stability and physical endurance.
* Fire – the lower right hand corner and which represents courage and daring.
* Water – the upper right hand corner which represents intuition and the emotions.
* Air – the upper left hand corner which represents the arts and intelligence.
* Spirit – the topmost point which represents the divine.
The circle which encloses the points is thought to represent God or Goddess which brings protection and gives the wearer universal wisdom.
The pentagram dates back to pre-Babylonian times and is used by many people in many different cultures and has slightly different meanings to each religion. Pagan cults & evil practices
The origins of witchcraft date back to times when drawings were found in caves revealing that from the beginning of time magic rituals involving animals, birth and death have been associated with evil doing and witchcraft.
Tribes and communities each had their own form of leader such as high priest or priestess, sorcerer or wizard or witch.
The sole functions of these were to assist the tribe or village with weather conditions causing poor crops, disease, wars, birth and deaths.
Many of these practices involved the use of elaborate rituals or ceremonies and included the use of certain objects and plants which had carefully been passed down over time.
It was the Romans who associated Christians with magic and witchcraft believing them to take part in rituals involving sexual orgies, worshipping a god who had the head of an ass and who were said to make sacrifices using babies.
The empress Theodora ordered the death of over one hundred thousand members of what was believed to be a sect or cult, however after the 6th and 7th centuries were past the witch hunts died down and there were only a handful of executions for practicing witchcraft until the beginning of the 12th century.
When the church became the official cult in Europe, the Christian monks and priests began trying to eradicate any religion or belief that wasn’t Christian or part of the churches beliefs. Witches and wizards became sworn enemies of the church and those who followed Christian beliefs; it was the theologians of the Middle Ages who created the appalling witch massacres that occurred in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.
The popular image of the devil or Satan as being horned with the hoofs of a goat was brought about by the early missionary church of the European horned god who was known in Greece as pan, to the Nordic people as Thor and to the ancient Gauls as cernununos.
The Jewish and Muslim religions were also considered as demons and heretics as these too opposed the church and their beliefs, as were the pre Christian cults of South America and India.
Christianity was therefore imposed upon the world and it is thought that only by sheer force on such a scale has the church maintained its dominance on religion for so many centuries.
Interesting facts
* A study into the victims of witch trials has shown that among the poor people, rich people were also condemned as witches; it was so easy to accuse and destroy reputations as tangible proof was claimed for the evidence of witchcraft.
It is thought that very often jealousy and rivalry were the prime motives for making accusations.
* Over 90% of all people accused during the witch-hunts were woman and many of these were old women, it is thought that the church believed that the devil could easily seduce women into joining him and so they were persecuted on this belief alone.
* The church itself used witchcraft in major accusations against other religions and followers of those religions, the albigensians of France were drowned in their own blood on the orders of pope innocent III.
When King Philip le bel of France tried to take over the vast knight’s templar wealth and dispose of his allies the templar’s were captured and tortured.
They subsequently confessed to worshipping an idol by the name of bapomet who was said to take on the form of a cat.
Perhaps the most famous was Joan of ark who it was thought became such a political threat to the hierarchy of power and being a woman, she was accused and burnt as a witch. What are Runes?
Runes are connected to witchcraft and they are a tool used in divination and magic which have been used throughout Europe, Scandinavia, the British Isles and Iceland from around 100 b.c.e.
They are used as an oracle for seeking advice and are said to work best on asking a specific question once having given details of the circumstances, although the outcome is sometimes questionable and unclear.
The runes at best will point you in the right direction but you will have to conclude the answer yourself from the information they give you and figure out exact details yourself, there is never a clear cut and dry answer to your problems.
However, rune casting or runic divination as it is called is not a way of fortune telling but rather a way of analyzing the particular path you are on and what the outcome is likely to be.
The word rune means mystery or secret and each rune has a special meaning and properties associated with it, each of them translates into a word or phrase that has a special meaning representing the forces of nature and the mind and each is associated with a Norse god.
The runes were also used as a method of writing and first made their appearance among German tribes in central Europe, it is thought that some of the rune symbols may have come from other languages such as Greek and early roman.
Inscriptions on the runic stones have been dated as far back as the 3rd century AD though it is thought that they existed a long time before then.
How to read runes
By far the simplest way of reading runes is to use the one rune method, after you have cleared your mind of all other thoughts ask the question in mind, concentrating on it.
When you have concentrated on your question and you feel the time is right take just one rune from your bag and from this stone, you will gather information relating to the question at hand, what you make of this information is entirely up to you.
If you think that more information is needed then you can take three runes instead of just the one from the bag, you will deduct information from the first rune regarding the circumstances of your question.
The second rune will give you an indication of the route you should take and the third is the likely outcome should you choose to go with the action.
This of course is only a very brief glimpse of casting runes and there are several books and websites you can read should you wish to delve deeper into the magic of runes. The tradition of Halloween
Obeah in the Virgin Islands
Perhaps the most famous form of obeah that we are all familiar with if we have visited the Virgin Islands is the mocko-jumbie or the stilt dancer.
Obeah tradition in the virgin islands proclaim that a jumbie is a lost or evil spirit and is thought to be related to the word nzumbi or as we more commonly know them zombies.
However as dark as the word suggests a jumbie might be they are totally opposite and wear brightly coloured clothing, they dance during the daylight hours and stilt dancing is very popular at holidays and at carnivals.
Obeah and wanga
The wanga is associated with obeah and it is a small magical charm packet which is used in the practice of black magic in Haiti, it is a form of magic that is associated with voodoo.
Wanga is also known as mojo, toby and jomo, it is usually a drawstring bag in which a charm is held and is worn under the clothing.
They are thought to hold supernatural powers and can protect the wearer from harm and evil, they are also used in the casting of evil spells with the intent to harm others, usually something relating to the person such as a lock of hair or fingernail clippings is used.
Particular attention is taken to the tying of the bag as this is thought to ensure that the particular spell works correctly and once it has been sealed then it is encouraged to work by using perfume or anointing oils on it regularly. The witches coven
When we think of a witches coven, we think of a group of old wart nosed witches standing around a simmering cauldron reciting incantations, however the true witch’s coven is nothing like this and they do exist today.
Of the covens existing today, the Wicca coven is perhaps the most notable and joining a coven or becoming the leader of one is is not a task that should be taken lightly.
There are many unqualified Wicca teachers out there who give bad advice and teachings, and it seems that just about anyone can and will set up a website claiming to be a Wicca.
Before letting you join the coven you will have to take a kind of interview and of course, you will have to decide as much as the coven if you want to be a part of the group.
The pagan belief system is very diverse and as such, practices from group to group will vary, however one thing that all groups or covens have in common is that they rely on the blending of spiritual energies within the group.
There are several questions you should ask of the group leader or high priest or priestess and also yourself before you join the group, questions to ask could be:
* What is this coven trying to accomplish?
* How many members are in the coven and how big do they expect to grow?
* What is the group’s general experience in the Wicca practice?
* What is the turnover rate of the coven, do members leave frequently? * Have the coven been forced to banish a member and if so why?
* What qualities are the groups leaders looking for and why?
* How do the covens leaders get to chosen as leaders?
* Do leaders have an excessive amount of power over the coven?
* Does the coven have a set of written rules they will let you see?
* What contributions are expected of its members?
* Who prepares and decides the rituals?
* What magical practices does the coven perform or use?
* Do the other members of the coven seem welcoming?
* Are the members committed to spiritual progress?
* Is input readily accepted from members?
Points to be wary of
* Be very wary of anyone who approaches you to ask you to join the coven, this is not normal wiccan behaviour, people aren’t asked to join.
* Beware of any covens that have young people under the age of 18 within their coven, responsible high priests and priestesses will never have anyone under the age of 18 in their coven.
* Beware of any coven that asks members to do chores or work for the high priest and priestesses, genuine high priests and priestesses never have this rule.
* Beware of any coven that abuses members for wrongdoing.
* Beware of any coven whose leader insists that a sexual ritual must take place with the high priest or priestess before being enrolled into the coven. The Salem witch trials
Perhaps the most famous of all witches and witch hunts were those accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in what was then known as Salem village in Massachusetts U.S.A.
It was the bizarre behaviour of two of the daughters of the towns minister reverend Samuel Parris who started events in the small town in 1692.
The events of the Salem witch trials
In January of 1692 Elizabeth parris age 9 and 11 year old Abigail Williams began to show signs of disturbing behaviour which ranged from seizures, trance like states, blasphemous screaming and shouting and mysterious happenings around them.
Within a very short space of time, other girls of similar age began to show these strange signs and symptoms, doctors were baffled as to the cause of these happenings and when they couldn’t find any medical cause for them they were declared to be under the influence of Satan.
By late February of that year after many prayer meetings and fastings conducted by the reverend parris in the hope of revealing their true identity and expose them as witches and under ever-increasing pressure, the girls named three women as witches.
By the end of February of that year these three women Tituba a Caribbean Indian slave of the parris family, Sarah good and Sarah osbourne were all arrested despite proclaiming their innocence.
However, the slave Tituba confessed that the devil sometimes appeared to her in the shape of part dog, part hog and said there was a conspiracy of witches at work in the village of Salem.
By march 1st after unrelenting questioning from the people of Salem Tituba finally admitted to practicing witchcraft, following this confession several of the towns people came forward and claimed they had seen or being harmed by strange apparitions of people in the community.
Accusations were made of many people in the village and among those accused were faithful churchgoers and upstanding citizens in the community along with those who had records of criminal activity.
During this period of time, several people were accused of witchcraft examined and denounced, with many of the townsfolk now starting to oppose the witchcraft trials petitions were being signed to protest people’s innocence.
By October 19th of that year over 20 people had been condemned as witches and hanged on the gallows during what was to be known as the Salem witch trials.
A letter was wrote during this time criticizing the trials and eventually the governor by the name of Phips ruled that spectral and intangible evidence no longer be admissible in the trials.
Salem today
Salem village is now known as Danvers and still standing is what was then known as the witch house on the corner of North and Essex in Salem, where guided tours with tales of the Salem witchcraft trials take place.
After all this time over 552 documents documenting the trials are still stored and preserved at the Peabody Essex museum along with several other pieces of memorabilia such as the pins used in the examination of the witches and what is said to be the finger bones of one of the victims of the Salem witch trials. What is Satanism?
Satanism is a form of witchcraft which is religion based and is more prevalent in the United States with the church of Satan being the most popular choice for followers of the devil. It is based on deep-seated philosophy and followers are bound by certain conditions and rules.The nine satanic statements
* Satan represents indulgence and abstinence is forgotten.
* Satan represents vital existence.
* Satan represents wisdom instead of self-deceit.
* Satan represents kindness to those who earn it.
* Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek.
* Satan represents responsibility to those who deserve it.
* Satan represents man as just another animal.
* Satan represents all of the so called sins.
* Satan is the church's best friend without him the church wouldn’t have lasted.
The eleven satanic rules of earth
* Do not give opinions or advice unless asked for it.
* Do not profess your troubles to others unless you’re sure they want to hear them.
* When in another lair treat them with respect.
* If a guest in your lair treats you disrespectfully treat them cruelly without showing mercy.
* Do not make advances sexually unless you are given a mating sign.
* Do not take something that doesn’t belong to you unless given it.
* Acknowledge the power of magic and use it successfully to obtain your desires.
* Do not complain about anything which doesn’t concern you.
* Do not harm small children.
* Do not kill non human animals unless they are food or for your protection.
* Bother no one but if someone bothers you ask them to stop, if they don’t destroy them.
The nine satanic sins
* Stupidity – Satanists must learn to see through the tricks that people can try.
* Solipsism – never show people your true feelings, reactions and responses.
* Self-deceit – never deceive yourself, the only time this is permissible is when self-deceit is for fun.
* Herd conformity – only conform to a person's wishes if it benefits you.
* Lack of perspective – never lose sight of who and what you are and the threat you can be to others.
* Forgetfulness of past orthodoxies – this is one of the keys to brainwashing people into accepting and trying something new.
* Counter productive pride – pride is acceptable up to a point but only if it works for you.
* Lack of aesthetics – aesthetics is important in lesser magic and should be cultivated. What is Voodoo?
Voodoo is one of the world’s oldest forms of religion which has been associated with witchcraft and has been around in Africa since the beginning of human civilisation.
Those who practice voodoo believe that nothing and no event happens on its own but that all things are connected, following this theory what you do to another, you do to yourself.
Rituals involved in voodoo ceremonies include prayers, singing, dancing and the sacrifice of animals, those following the beliefs of voodoo believe that god manifests through the spirits of dead ancestors and so must be honoured in these rituals.
Music and dance play a key role in the rituals and this has often been portrayed as the lead up to sexual frenzy and orgies, this however isn’t true. Voodoo dancing is an expression of spirituality, a way of connecting with divinity and the spiritual world.
The ancestors of those who follow the voodoo religion are thought to be part of the world of spirits and these spirits can be called on to help and give protection and guidance.
The voodoo priest or priestess can also use herbal remedies or medicines which have been passed down through families to help those who are sick, with faith healing playing a big part also in the religion.
Voodoo has always wrongly been categorised as an evil form of witchcraft with the rites and rituals being performed for evil doings however this is untrue.
The misconceptions of voodoo
Despite voodoo being one of the oldest of all religions it has been characterised as being barbaric and primitive based on superstition and fear, the Europeans seem to fear anything that comes out of Africa and especially anything they don’t fully understand.
Voodoo has however adopted several elements from Christianity but despite this when the French colonised Haiti they saw the voodoo religion as a threat and prohibited the practice of the religion severely punishing those who took part in rituals.
The struggle to banish the religion of voodoo lasted over three centuries but despite every effort it couldn’t be stopped and voodoo is still practiced today in a number of countries.
The power of voodoo
Due to the strength the Africans gained from their religion, voodoo survived the persecutions of the French and it is thought that the voodoo priests used their religion to determine how to fight the political battle in order to win it.
In 1804, the Haitians finally won the battle and independence and today the practice of voodoo reflects its history. © Copyright 2006 Occultresearch.org - occult, cults, witchcraft & black magic - All rights reserved
Below I will give links to TRUSTED web-sites that explain in small ways some of the so-called unexplained events that captivate Christian & non-Christian ALIKE!
In future blogs I will do detailed studies about all the unexplained things and HOW SATAN deceives MILLIONS into a belief system so close to the FACTS BUT OHHHH! SO FAR FROM THE TRUTH!
Remember the Occult is very real and just because "A FEW" PHONIES EXIST IN THE WHOLE DOES NOT MEAN THE THE WHOLE IS INNOCENT FUN.
Dangers of the Occult
By Richard F. Ames
Are witchcraft, astrology and spiritism just harmless hobbies, or are they deceptive sources of information and guidance?
Many do not realize that the occult now pervades modern culture, and that Christians must remain on guard against its evil influence.
Millions are pursuing astrology, witchcraft and the occult. Are they sowing seeds of doom and destruction? Are these just harmless hobbies, or can you face real dangers if you dabble in the occult?
Less than three months after its release, the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone became the second-highest-grossing film ever, selling nearly $1 billion of tickets to theatergoers eager for a tale of witchcraft, wizardry and the occult.
The first of seven installments in author J. K. Rowling’s planned series, Harry Potter is at the helm of a multi-billion-dollar media empire that has made Rowling one of the three highest-paid women in Great Britain. Her books have sold more than 60 million copies in 200 countries around the world.
Yet, for many, the occult is more than fiction. A May 2000 Zogby America poll revealed that 57.7 percent of Americans aged 18–29 believe in ghosts.
This phenomenon is not confined to the United States; Time Magazine reported recently that belief in ghosts is shared by 45 percent in Britain.
Melbourne’s Saturday Herald Sun reported that 46 percent of Australian women, and 34 percent of Australian men, believe in ghosts (January 16, 1999).
Leger Marketing reported in October 2001 that 30.2 percent of Canadians believe in ghosts.
In Rowling’s books, characters routinely interact with ghosts.
Harry communicates with his dead parents through a special mirror. Characters seek guidance from astrologers, cast occult spells and use their paranormal powers to fight their enemies.
The Bible condemns this as sorcery, yet it is a part of the ordinary world of Harry Potter.
The Harry Potter series teaches young minds a false and evil worldview in which occult powers, condemned in Scripture, can be used as tools for good.
Sadly, instead of condemning the dangerous and un-biblical world of witches and wizards, some churches and clergy have tried to exploit its appeal to youth.
Last year, a vicar in one English church held a special "Harry Potter liturgy." A serpent was hung in the church, while a clergyman wearing a wizard’s robe led the service. Other elements of the Harry Potter story were brought into the church service.
Incredibly, many other pastors expressed interest in having that liturgy for their own churches.
What have the world’s churches come to?
As one American commentator observed:
"Nobody respects a religious institution willing to compromise willy-nilly with the secular culture, on a fool’s quest for popularity. A church that will try anything stands for nothing!" (Rod Dreher, New York Post, Sept. 5, 2000).
Today’s media fascination with the occult extends far beyond Harry Potter.
Thirty-five years ago, many considered the television series Bewitched controversial. Today, it seems tame compared to such popular television fare as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Charmed, which glamorize the occult.
And the occult is not just for teenagers or couch potatoes.
Even leaders of nations pursue the occult. Former White House chief of staff Donald Regan reported, in his autobiography For the Record, that President Ronald Reagan’s travels and activities were approved by an astrologer of his wife’s choosing.
The London Daily Telegraph reported that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher consulted an astrologer "for signs of future dangers."
Most members of India’s Parliament have personal astrologers on retainer. Even in the former Soviet Union, once a bastion of materialism, the occult holds sway, as Russia is "swamped by astrologers, UFOlogists, soothsayers, parapsychologists, bogus doctors and other charlatans, whom genuine scientists make few efforts to contradict.… One of the main tasks of a senior official in the Presidential Security Service is to study astrology and prepare horoscopes" (London Daily Telegraph, July 29, 1996).
How Has Mankind Been Deceived?
Scripture reveals the source of occult deception. "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him" (Revelation 12:9).
Satan deceives the whole world, not just a part of this world. And he also has spirit helpers, called demons.
How does Satan deceive the whole world? He does it through the occult, false religion and false education—and through a social system that seeks licentious pleasure rather than God!
The prophet Isaiah wrote:
"And when they say to you, ‘Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people seek their God?
Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?" (Isaiah 8:19).
Who are people seeking today:
mediums, wizards or the true God?
Isaiah wrote:
"To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).
We need to understand that there is a real spirit world!
Notice this warning:
"When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.
There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead" (Deuteronomy 18:9–11).
God Almighty condemns sorcery and witchcraft. If you are "playing around" with such darkness, then you need to reject that underworld of evil!
Seek the true God of your Bible! God’s warning continues:
"For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.
You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you" (Deuteronomy 18:12–14).
Can anything be more clear concerning the evils of witchcraft and sorcery?
And yet millions of adults are teaching their children that there is nothing wrong with a Harry Potter actively pursuing witchcraft and wizardry.
But the prophet Samuel told King Saul that witchcraft is sin. "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king" (1 Samuel 15:23).
God says that participation in the occult is spiritual harlotry (Psalm 106:38–39)! How did God punish His people for their wickedness?
"Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His people, so that He abhorred His own inheritance. And He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles, and those who hated them ruled over them.
Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand" (Psalm 106:40–42).
The nation of Israel went into captivity because of these abominable practices. A great tribulation and captivity will also come upon our peoples, if we fail to repent of our evil practices!
Some might argue that dressing up in Halloween costumes is "innocent" fun, and rationalize that parents today are not encouraging their children to expose themselves to symbols and practices of the occult.
But parents who take this approach are risking their children’s spiritual lives by underestimating the devil’s influence (Ephesians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4).
In Luke’s gospel, we find that our Savior cured many individuals who were plagued by evil spirits:
"And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight" (Luke 7:21). Do we live contrary to our Savior’s example?
Do we teach our children to attract and cultivate evil spirits at Halloween? Certainly, dressing up like a demon or a witch invites evil rather than opposes it!
The Apostle James advises us to resist evil, not entertain it!
"Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).
That is your Creator’s instruction to you! He promises that the devil will flee from you. Yes, "Resist the devil!"
Do not join the masses in celebrating the dark world of Satan and the occult!
Do not participate in the dark traditions of Halloween or any other such practices.
Notice God’s warnings against mediums and familiar spirits:
"Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them:
I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 19:31).
The Creator God plainly states that we should avoid mediums and spiritists.
He does not want you to be defiled by evil influence. Notice His strong language:
"The person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 20:6–7).
When a person consorts with mediums and familiar spirits, God says that he is prostituting himself. Christians are to be clean and wholesome.
They should be "holy" as we just read. Remember what the Apostle Peter wrote: "But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’" (1 Peter 1:15–16).
Astrology and False Prophecy
Satan also deceives mankind through astrology. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Astrology originated in Mesopotamia, perhaps in the 3rd millennium bc, but attained its full development in the Western world much later, within the orbit of Greek civilization of the Hellenistic period.
It spread to India in its older Mesopotamian form. Islamic culture absorbed it as part of the Greek heritage; and in the Middle Ages, when Western Europe was strongly affected by Islamic science, European astrology also felt the influence of the Orient….
Although various Christian councils condemned astrology, the belief in the worldview it implies was not seriously shaken.
In the late European Middle Ages, a number of universities, among them Paris, Padua, Bologna, and Florence, had chairs of astrology."
Even though all true Christians have condemned astrology over the years, it has persisted. In our modern time, astrologers admit that the newspaper variety of horoscope advice is mainly entertainment.
But when world leaders consult astrologers for guidance, they are seeking the wrong god!
Listen to God’s warning through the prophet Jeremiah:
"Thus says the Lord: ‘Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them" (Jeremiah 10:2).
We have already seen that Jesus predicted that signs and wonders would deceive the many.
The book of Revelation reveals dramatic events leading up to the Second Coming of Christ. There will be a great false prophet and religious system that will perform miracles, signs and wonders.
The Apostle John writes this about the great false prophet. "He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men" (Revelation 13:13).
Millions, if not billions, of people will be deceived by these impressive miracles. "And he [the false prophet] deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast" (Revelation 13:14).
How can you tell whether someone is truly a minister of God, and not someone controlled by the occult world? Deuteronomy gives us a key.
"If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’; which you have not known; ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him" (Deuteronomy 13:1–4).
A false minister or prophet may even prophesy accurately concerning some sign or wonder.
But God says that if he leads you after other gods—if he leads you away from the God of the Bible and the true Jesus Christ of your Bible—then he is a false prophet. Notice also that God may be testing you, to see if you will be faithful to His Word and to His way of life!
Satan has deceived the whole world. He has many methods of deception, including witches, wizardry, channeling, sorcery, astrology, spiritism and false religion.
You need to be on guard against the dangers of the occult.
The Apostle Peter gave us this instruction in 1 Peter 5:8–9:
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world."
God promises us protection from evil. Jesus taught us to pray:
"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:13).
Paul exhorted Christians: "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:11–12).
You can overcome the wicked one by knowing the word of God—the Bible—and living by it.
You can overcome the temptations and deceptions of the occult and false religion. As the Apostle Paul encourages us in Philippians 4:13:
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." May God empower you to go forward in faith. May you live not by the dark deceptions of this world, but by the light of truth, God’s Word.
King Saul's Séance
Movies like The Sixth Sense, and television programs such as Crossing Over With John Edward, play on mankind’s wish that the dead could communicate with the living.
This is an age-old wish; nearly 3,000 years ago, a desperate King Saul sought help from a medium—and suffered greatly for doing so.
Saul had disobeyed God’s instructions regarding the Amalekites. He received God’s judgment that "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king" (1 Samuel 15:23).
Because of Saul’s disobedience, the Spirit of God was no longer guiding him (1 Samuel 16:14; 28:6).
Desperate for guidance, Saul asked a medium to perform a séance, though he knew this violated God’s law, which prescribed the death penalty for witchcraft or mediumship (Leviticus 20:27).
During the séance, a spirit identified as Samuel (1 Samuel 28:14–15) warned that the Philistines would defeat Israel’s armies, and Saul would soon die.
Saul became "dreadfully afraid" because of these words, and "fell full length on the ground" (v. 20).
Clearly, this spirit’s message terrified Saul. But was the summoned spirit really Samuel?
No, it was not.
Scripture explains that Saul never actually saw Samuel; he only perceived that the spirit was Samuel because of the medium’s descriptions (1 Samuel 28:14).
The Bible faithfully records Saul’s experience, from his terrified point of view, but does not teach that the spirit was Samuel.
Interestingly, most of today’s mediums follow a similar practice, claiming to communicate with deceased spirits even though—like Saul—their clients never actually see those spirits.
Crossing Over With John Edward is wildly popular in some circles, and has even spawned imitators like The Pet Psychic, whose host claims to communicate with families’ dearly departed pets.
Spirit communication is not only the stuff of horror movies and cable television; even "innocent family fare" like Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol stirs the hope that our loved ones can still call to us from beyond the grave. But this is a false hope.
Our dead friends and relatives are unconscious, and will remain so until the resurrection (Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalm 146:4). Their state in death is compared to a sleep from which only God can wake them (1 Corinthians 15:51). No medium can summon the dead.
The Apostle Paul warned that some in the "latter times" would give "heed to deceiving spirits" (1 Timothy 4:1). Some modern mediums may be charlatans, who infer details about the dead by "reading" their living, paying clients.
But other "genuine" mediums may be genuinely deceived, communicating with demonic spirits who impersonate the deceased.
"Genuine" or not, mediumship is dangerous business. But few today realize the serious consequences of rebelling against God’s law and seeking after spirits.
What was the result for Saul?
Scripture explains:
"So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance" (1 Chronicles 10:13).
Christians today should heed Saul’s cautionary example.
It has come to my attention through some contacts I have in Wicca and I have confirmed it to be true, that "Born Again Bible thumping Church Goers" are CONDEMNING, ACCUSING, and INSULTING PEOPLE OF OTHER FAITHS without knowing the facts about what they critisize.
{FACTS SHOULD NEVER BE USED TO CLUB PEOPLE OVER THE HEAD WITH, BUT ONLY TO CONVINCE AND LEAD us in the proper direction.}
This behavior of beating people up with "Bible Facts" IS NOT a GODLY practise, and God will not hold you ,whoever you are male or female blameless for these actions!
This behavior is "Mid evil"at best and shows a complete LACK of the love of God, for it is and ALWAYS HAS BEEN GOD THE FATHERS JOB TO LEAD THEM TO HIS SON...JESUS....NOT OURS! John 3:16-21 (GW)
" God loved the world this way:
He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world.
18 Those who believe in him won't be condemned. But those who don't believe are already condemned because they don't believe in God's only Son.
This is why people are condemned:
The light came into the world. Yet, people loved the dark rather than the light because their actions were evil. People who do what is wrong hate the light and don't come to the light.
They don't want their actions to be exposed. But people who do what is true come to the light so that the things they do for God may be clearly seen."
It is NOT the place for Christians (If you can call yourselves that)I RECENTLY READ A BUMPER STICKER ON THE CAR OF A WICCAN THAT HURT MY HEART, NOT BECAUSE IT WAS SOME MOCKING OF GOD BUT BECAUSE IT STATED WHAT I'M SAYING HERE...."GOD...SAVE ME FROM YOUR GOOD PEOPLE!"
Please understand that God HATES SIN BUT REALLY DOES LOVE THE SINNER,therefore YOU have no RIGHT to call a sinner anything that God would not call them!
I was angered (Righteously) when a friend (ON YAHOO 360) I treasure as a good,honest,and caring person was SLANDERED by a SO-CALLED CHRISTIAN for being a Wiccan...This is wicked behavior CHURCH (I know you are few,but it only takes one rotten apple to spoil the good ones) Witches, Satanists, Atheist's and Skeptic's view "God and Jesus" through OUR BEHAVIORS and if we can't truly show the love of God to them then WE NEED TO SHUT UP and go away UNTIL WE GROW UP INTO HIS LOVE.
Psalms 101:5-7 (GW)
" I will destroy anyone who secretly slanders his neighbor. I will not tolerate anyone with a conceited look or arrogant heart. My eyes will be watching the faithful people in the land so that they may live with me.
The person who lives with integrity will serve me. The one who does deceitful things will not stay in my home. The one who tells lies will not remain in my presence. "
2 Corinthians 3:2 (KJV)
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
Romans 2:24 (GW) As Scripture says, “God's name is cursed among the nations because of you.”
PRAY THIS PRAYER IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF THE DARKNESS AND I PROMISE IF YOU PRAY WITH FAITH,BELIEVING YOU WILL BECOME FEARLESS IN THE LORD'S WORK AND NO-LONGER NEED TO CONDEMN THOSE WHO ARE DIFFERENT,BECAUSE YOU'LL BE FREE!!!
Let's all learn to get along with those we don't agree with in the spirit of Christian LOVE,you will draw more bees with HONEY(LOVE) THAN WITH VINEGAR (UNWISE ZEAL).
There are many people out there that WON'T LISTEN TO US BECAUSE WE SHOW IGNORANCE OF WHAT THEY BELIEVE AND THEREFORE CAN'T REASON WITH THEM!
I know first hand how ignorant believers are for they condemned and beraded me for ever being a witch in the first place, NOT understanding that circumstances in my life led me into wiccan and black witchcraft..those were my choices at the time and I thank God that he had "a Remnant"of faithful followers that LOVED and reasoned with me for "Months"before God finally broke through my stubborn heart!
DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF PATIENCE WHEN DEALING WITH PEOPLE.The high value of a person's heart is WORTH THE WAIT,and above all don't be so naive as to believe that you can't learn from others..some of my Witch friends have good hearts that get HURT and BLEED just like yours..so be very careful with their hearts...please! to condemn and cause people to hate our God because of your misplaced ZEAL.
The Following Article is needed in the Church today because it says it all.....I have experienced both side of this issue and can confirm to you that it is true, so take back this holiday in confidence knowing the facts and tossing out the bull that religion has created!
The History of Halloween -- It's Probably Not What You Think
by Dennis Rupert, pastor New Life Community Church of Stafford
Last update: 05/30/2008
This article has been carefully researched in an attempt to separate fact from hype and exaggeration.
Sources include scholarly works by folklorists, books by Celtic experts, internet sites, and various reference works. I read and talked with pagan sources to find out how they viewed Halloween, but did not rely upon them for information on the origins of Halloween.
I am especially indebted to folklorist W.J. Bethancourt III for initially bringing this history to my attention.
I have confirmed his research by my own limited study and highly recommend his site as the first place to view for information on Halloween practices (History of Halloween : Myths, Monsters and Devils).
The Celtic Connection
Our modern celebration of Halloween is a VERY distant descendant of the ancient Celtic fire festival called Samhain. (The word is pronounced "sow-en" rhyming with cow, because "mh" in the middle of an Irish word has a "w" sound.) It was the biggest and most significant holiday of the Celtic year.
The Celts (pronounced 'Kelts") lived more than 2,000 years ago in what is now Great Britain, Ireland, and France. Their new year began on November 1.
Celtic legends tell us that on this night, all the hearth fires in Ireland were extinguished, and then re-lit from the central fire of the Druids at Tlachtga, 12 miles from the royal hill of Tara. (The Druids were the learned class among the Celts.
They were religious priests who also acted as judges, lawmakers, poets, scholars, and scientists.) Upon this sacred bonfire the Druids burned animals and crops.
The extinguishing of the hearth fires symbolized the "dark half" of the year. The re-kindling from the Druidic fire was symbolic of the returning life that was hoped for in the spring.
The feast of Samhain is described by MacCane as order suspended.
"During this interval the normal order of the universe is suspended, the barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily removed, the sidh lies open and all divine beings and the spirits of the dead move freely among men and interfere sometimes violently, in their affairs" (Celtic Mythology, p. 127).
The Celts believed that when people died, they went to a land of eternal youth and happiness called Tir nan Og. They did not have the concept of heaven and hell that the Christian church later brought into the land.
The dead were sometimes believed to be dwelling with the Fairy Folk, who lived in the numerous mounds or sidhe (pron. "shee") that dotted the Irish and Scottish countryside.
The Celts did not actually have demons and devils in their belief system. Some Christians describe Halloween as a festival in which the Celts sacrificed human beings to the devil or some evil demonic god of death.
This is not accurate. The Celts did believe in gods, giants, monsters, witches, spirits, and elves, but these were not considered evil, so much as dangerous.
The fairies, for example, were often considered hostile and menacing to humans because they were seen as being resentful of men taking over their lands.
On this night of Samhain, the fairies would sometimes trick humans into becoming lost in the fairy mounds, where they would be trapped forever.
Folk tradition tells us of some divination practices associated with Samhain. Among the most common were divinations dealing with marriage, weather, and the coming fortunes for the year.
These were performed via such methods as ducking for apples and apple peeling. Ducking for apples was a marriage divination.
The first person to bite an apple would be the first to marry in the coming year -- like the modern toss of the wedding bouquet. Apple peeling was a divination to see how long your life would be.
The longer the unbroken apple peel, the longer your life was destined to be. In Scotland, people would place stones or nuts in the ashes of the hearth before retiring for the night. Anyone whose stone had been disturbed during the night was said to be destined to die during the coming year.
Inaccurate Christian Teaching about Halloween
You will often read in the literature published by Christian organizations (such as the tracts and comic books from publisher Jack Chick) that, "Samhain was the Celtic God of the Dead, worshipped by the Druids with dreadful bloody sacrifices at Halloween."
Chick embroiders this fantasy in a tract called "The Trick" and a full-sized comic book called, "Spellbound?", shown here.
His writings describe evil Druids going from castle-door-to-door seeking virgin princesses to rape and sacrifice, leaving carved pumpkins illuminated by candles ("made from human fat!") for those who cooperated, and arranging demonic assassinations for those who refused to give them what they wanted.
This, according to Mr. Chick, is supposed to be the "true" origin of trick or treating.
Let's look at a few historical facts : Contrary to information published by many Christian organizations, there is no historical or archeological evidence of any Celtic deity of the dead named "Samhain."
We know the names of some 350 Celtic deities and Samhain isn't found among them. The Celtic gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd for the British, and Arawn for the Welsh. The Irish did not have a "lord of death" as such.
McBain's Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language says that "samhuinn" (the Scots Gaelic spelling) means "summer's end."
It's not just Christian organizations that perpetuate this fallacy -- even the World Book encyclopedia (1990) writes about "Samhain, the Celtic lord of death" (World Book is in discussion with scholars in order to change this in future editions.)
This idea is based on a fallacy that seems to have come from Col. Charles Vallency's books in the 1770s before the reliable translations of existing Celtic literary works and before archaeological excavations.
(Col. Charles Vallency also tried to prove that the Irish were descended from the inhabitants of Armenia!) Samhain is the name of the holiday.
There is no evidence of any god or demon named "Samhain," "Samain," "Sam Hane," or however you want to vary the spelling.
Contrary to Christian criticism from many sources, Halloween did not originate as a Satanic festival, but was religious in nature (of course, the religion I am referring to is the Celtic faith of the ancient Druids rather than Christianity).
This is an important distinction, for Halloween’s association with Satanic worship is a modern phenomenon. The Celts didn't worship the devil (or any god of death) on Halloween.
It is important to distinguish between paganism and Satanism. Pagans are people who believe in more than one god.
Some modern day pagans call themselves Wiccans. [For more on Wicca and modern witchcraft see What is Witchcraft?] Pagans are quick to emphasize that they do not worship Satan or the devil.
The devil is a Judeo-Christian concept, they say, because one has to believe in a single God to believe in God's opposite: "We do not accept the concept of 'absolute evil,' nor do we worship any entity known as 'Satan' or 'The Devil.'" (Drawing Down the Moon, pp. 103).
Celts were pagans, not Satanists.Of course, from a Christian standpoint both are in error. But to my mind there is a major difference between:
(1) pagans (who have not heard the gospel) practicing a holiday containing fairies and elves and
(2) Satanists (in rebellion against God) who sacrifice children to the devil. There is no original evidence to indicate that Samhain was any more Satanic than pagan harvest festivals of other religions, like the Romans or the Greeks.
We have no evidence any where (from tradition, Celtic texts, or archaeology) that virgin princesses or any one else were being offered to the lord of death on Halloween.
There is general agreement that the Celts did in fact practice some form of human sacrifice or human execution, but this seems to have been limited to criminals, prisoners-of-war, or volunteers.
(For more information on human sacrifice and the Druids see History of Halloween : Myths, Monsters and Devils.)
We have no evidence that Druids practiced human sacrifice on Halloween (let alone sacrificed "virgin princesses").
The pumpkin is a New World plant that never grew in Europe until modern times, so it couldn't have been used to make jack-o-lanterns by the Druids.
Contrary to Christian criticism from many sources, Halloween did not originate as a Satanic festival, but was religious in nature (of course, the religion I am referring to is the Celtic faith of the ancient Druids rather than Christianity).
This is an important distinction, for Halloween’s association with Satanic worship is a modern phenomenon. The Celts didn't worship the devil (or any god of death) on Halloween.
It is important to distinguish between paganism and Satanism. Pagans are people who believe in more than one god.
Some modern day pagans call themselves Wiccans. [For more on Wicca and modern witchcraft see What is Witchcraft?] Pagans are quick to emphasize that they do not worship Satan or the devil.
The devil is a Judeo-Christian concept, they say, because one has to believe in a single God to believe in God's opposite: "We do not accept the concept of 'absolute evil,' nor do we worship any entity known as 'Satan' or 'The Devil.'" (Drawing Down the Moon, pp. 103).
Celts were pagans, not Satanists.Of course, from a Christian standpoint both are in error. But to my mind there is a major difference between:
(1) pagans (who have not heard the gospel) practicing a holiday containing fairies and elves and
(2) Satanists (in rebellion against God) who sacrifice children to the devil. There is no original evidence to indicate that Samhain was any more Satanic than pagan harvest festivals of other religions, like the Romans or the Greeks.
We have no evidence any where (from tradition, Celtic texts, or archaeology) that virgin princesses or any one else were being offered to the lord of death on Halloween.
There is general agreement that the Celts did in fact practice some form of human sacrifice or human execution, but this seems to have been limited to criminals, prisoners-of-war, or volunteers.
(For more information on human sacrifice and the Druids see History of Halloween : Myths, Monsters and Devils.)
We have no evidence that Druids practiced human sacrifice on Halloween (let alone sacrificed "virgin princesses").
The pumpkin is a New World plant that never grew in Europe until modern times, so it couldn't have been used to make jack-o-lanterns by the Druids.
There's zero evidence that the ancient Druids or their congregants ever dressed in costume or engaged in ritualized begging at harvest time. One Christian tract entitled Trick or Treat says:
The Druids went from house to house asking for a contribution to their demonic worship celebration. If a person didn't give, their trick was to kill him. The people feared the phrase "Trick or Treat."
The Druids went from house to house asking for a contribution to their demonic worship celebration. If a person didn't give, their trick was to kill him. The people feared the phrase "Trick or Treat."
This charge has been laid at the door step of the Celts so often that it's hard to believe there is no evidence for it, but there is absolutely none.
Tad Tuleja (a folklore expert) writes:
An exhaustive Victorian survey of Irish calendar customs mentions divination games and apple bobbing as Halloween pastimes, but says nothing about food collection or a procession of "spirits."...On the question of masked begging at the Celtic New Year, authorities on the Druids do not say a word. (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 83).
Where did costuming at Halloween come from? There is a lot of confusion on this point.
But in spite of what you may have read in an encyclopedia or seen on the History Channel, I can find absolutely NO historical evidence of costumed begging among the Druids or as part of the Samhain festival.
We do have records of costumed processions in a much later time (Christian times), but these costumed processions were NOT limited to the Halloween holiday. They appear much more frequently at Christmas.
The earliest actual historic practice seems to have been poor folk in masks and costumes going from house to house.
They would put on a simple play or musical performance in return for food and drink. This practice is called mumming or guising and has no discernable connection to the Celts.
You may be surprised to learn that your parents or grandparents know nothing about costuming on Halloween. A reader sent me this email:
You mentioned in your article that the American custom came about in the 1930s as a reaction to vandalism.
My parents were kids in New York City in those days, and I started looking for more info because of a comment my mom made on Halloween night.
It seems that Halloween as we know it did not exist at the time--it was all pranks, as you mentioned (my mom mentioned taking gates off posts and moving outhouses, as you did, and my dad said that in the days of coal fuel there were big cans of ashes that the kids would tip over--a big mess).
The interesting part was that both of them said (Dad was born in 1924 and Mom in 1927) that each year as kids, they did go from door to door begging for food--but it was on Thanksgiving Day, not Halloween!
My mom said that rather than "Trick or Treat!" their line at each door was "Anything for the poor? Anything for the poor?"
They were given fruit, nuts, a cup of cider, or the occasional coin--that sort of thing.
This email is similar to conversations with my own father and mother (born 1928 and 1930 in western Pennsylvania), who told me that no one dressed in costumes or went door-to-door when they were children.
There were lots of pranks on Halloween (some of which make great stories for the grandchildren), but they know nothing of dressing up.
So where did costuming come from? That's a big question mark. Folklorist Tad Tuleja says that costume parties are frequently mentioned in the early decades of the 1900s (but nothing about going door-to-door in costume).
The costume parties themselves seem to be an attempt to involve children in disciplined "fun" as opposed to destructive "fun."
An exhaustive Victorian survey of Irish calendar customs mentions divination games and apple bobbing as Halloween pastimes, but says nothing about food collection or a procession of "spirits."...On the question of masked begging at the Celtic New Year, authorities on the Druids do not say a word. (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 83).
Where did costuming at Halloween come from? There is a lot of confusion on this point.
But in spite of what you may have read in an encyclopedia or seen on the History Channel, I can find absolutely NO historical evidence of costumed begging among the Druids or as part of the Samhain festival.
We do have records of costumed processions in a much later time (Christian times), but these costumed processions were NOT limited to the Halloween holiday. They appear much more frequently at Christmas.
The earliest actual historic practice seems to have been poor folk in masks and costumes going from house to house.
They would put on a simple play or musical performance in return for food and drink. This practice is called mumming or guising and has no discernable connection to the Celts.
You may be surprised to learn that your parents or grandparents know nothing about costuming on Halloween. A reader sent me this email:
You mentioned in your article that the American custom came about in the 1930s as a reaction to vandalism.
My parents were kids in New York City in those days, and I started looking for more info because of a comment my mom made on Halloween night.
It seems that Halloween as we know it did not exist at the time--it was all pranks, as you mentioned (my mom mentioned taking gates off posts and moving outhouses, as you did, and my dad said that in the days of coal fuel there were big cans of ashes that the kids would tip over--a big mess).
The interesting part was that both of them said (Dad was born in 1924 and Mom in 1927) that each year as kids, they did go from door to door begging for food--but it was on Thanksgiving Day, not Halloween!
My mom said that rather than "Trick or Treat!" their line at each door was "Anything for the poor? Anything for the poor?"
They were given fruit, nuts, a cup of cider, or the occasional coin--that sort of thing.
This email is similar to conversations with my own father and mother (born 1928 and 1930 in western Pennsylvania), who told me that no one dressed in costumes or went door-to-door when they were children.
There were lots of pranks on Halloween (some of which make great stories for the grandchildren), but they know nothing of dressing up.
So where did costuming come from? That's a big question mark. Folklorist Tad Tuleja says that costume parties are frequently mentioned in the early decades of the 1900s (but nothing about going door-to-door in costume).
The costume parties themselves seem to be an attempt to involve children in disciplined "fun" as opposed to destructive "fun."
The actual phrase trickor treat" is not Druidic! The earliest known reference in print dates only to 1938 in an article in the Los Angeles Times entitled "Halloween Pranks Plotted by Youngsters of Southland," Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California), October 30, 1938, p. A8:
"Trick or treat!" is the Halloween hijacking game hundreds of Southern California youngsters will play tomorrow night as they practice streamlined versions of traditional Allhallows Eve pranks."
The phrase is not recorded by the Merriam-Webster Company until 1941. And the term is actually American, not European (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 47,86-90)!
It's not only the phrase that is American, the practice is too!
In America in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was a custom of playing pranks on Halloween.
This custom appears to have come from immigrants from Ireland and Scotland which had a practice called Mischief Night.
Favorite pranks included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates (Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things).
The pleasant fiction was that such rambunctiousness was the work of "fairies," "elves," "witches" and "goblins" (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, p. 87). That's the "trick" part of Halloween.
Where did the "treat" part of Halloween come from?
Jill Pederson Meyer writes:
"By the turn of the century, Halloween had become an ever more destructive way to “let off steam” for crowded and poor urban dwellers.
As Stuart Schneider writes in 'Halloween in America' (1995), vandalism that had been limited to tipping outhouses; removing gates, soaping windows and switching shop signs, by the 1920’s had become nasty -- with real destruction of property and cruelty to animals and people.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the disguised nighttime terrorism and murders by the Ku Klux Klan reached their apex during this decade.
Schneider writes that neighborhood committees and local city clubs such as the Boy Scouts then mobilized to organize safe and fun alternatives to vandalism.
School posters of the time call for a “Sane Halloween.” Good children were encouraged to go door to door and receive treats from homes and shop owners, thereby keeping troublemakers away.
By the 1930’s, these “beggar’s nights” were enormously popular and being practiced nationwide, with the “trick or treat” greeting widespread from the late 1930s."
The Halloween begging activity known as trick-or-treat comes from America in the 1930s, not the British Isles (for confirmation see A Letter from a MacDonald). The custom was intended to control and displace disruptive pranks.
Where did the "treat" part of Halloween come from?
Jill Pederson Meyer writes:
"By the turn of the century, Halloween had become an ever more destructive way to “let off steam” for crowded and poor urban dwellers.
As Stuart Schneider writes in 'Halloween in America' (1995), vandalism that had been limited to tipping outhouses; removing gates, soaping windows and switching shop signs, by the 1920’s had become nasty -- with real destruction of property and cruelty to animals and people.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the disguised nighttime terrorism and murders by the Ku Klux Klan reached their apex during this decade.
Schneider writes that neighborhood committees and local city clubs such as the Boy Scouts then mobilized to organize safe and fun alternatives to vandalism.
School posters of the time call for a “Sane Halloween.” Good children were encouraged to go door to door and receive treats from homes and shop owners, thereby keeping troublemakers away.
By the 1930’s, these “beggar’s nights” were enormously popular and being practiced nationwide, with the “trick or treat” greeting widespread from the late 1930s."
The Halloween begging activity known as trick-or-treat comes from America in the 1930s, not the British Isles (for confirmation see A Letter from a MacDonald). The custom was intended to control and displace disruptive pranks.
-------
Every year, right around Halloween, we are treated to an outpouring of literature making false statements about the origins of Halloween.
(In years past, I even helped distribute this type of literature to my congregation.) But my research on this subject has found that the Christian Halloween literature is vastly mistaken. Christians are guilty of spreading falsehood (perhaps out of ignorance, but falsehood none the less).
Believers do no service to God or to other Christians by creating very frightening fantasies masquerading as historical facts.
Sloppy and improper scholarship makes Christians look deceitful. It also makes God appear deceptive to unbelievers.
What I am arguing for is accurate information, rather than falsehood. No, I'm not a "closet pagan." No, I'm not "a wolf in sheep's clothing."
No, I haven't "bought into pagan propaganda." I'm a born-again, fundamentalist, Bible-believing, filled with the Spirit Christian (did I use enough labels?) trying to get at the historical truth.
At the Christian college I attended, I was taught that all truth was God's truth and that we don't need to fear truth -- whether it comes from secular, pagan, or Christian sources.
Over a period of years I have been reading and talking with folklorists, historians, Christians, pagans, and people from Scotland and Ireland.
The origins of Halloween are NOT what most Christian literature teaches. Sorry, no pumpkins with candles of human fat!
Sorry, no human sacrifices by evil druids.
Sorry, dressing up can't be historically connected to the Celts.
Sorry, treat-or-treat is not a Satanist plot to captivate our children.
Halloween and the Middle Ages
What do Christians do with a holiday when pagans refuse to stop practicing it?
This was the dilemma that faced Christians in the Middle Ages.
(It is also the dilemma facing Christians today with 40 million children going door-to-door each Halloween.)
In 601 A.D. Pope Gregory the First issued a now famous edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and customs of the peoples he hoped to convert.
Rather than try to obliterate native peoples' customs and beliefs, the pope instructed his missionaries to use them:
if a group of people worshipped a tree, rather than cut it down, he advised them to consecrate it to Christ and build a church around it.
In terms of quickly adding people to the Christian faith, this was a brilliant concept and it became a basic approach used in Catholic missionary work.
In many cases, church holy days were purposely set to coincide with native holy days. Christmas, for instance, was assigned the arbitrary date of December 25th because it corresponded with the mid-winter celebration of many peoples.
In 835 Pope Gregory IV decided to move the practice of All Saints' Day to November 1.
This was possibly done to correspond with the Celtic practice of Samhain. The Mass that was said on this day was called Allhallowmas ("the mass of all the holy ones")
. The evening before All Saints' Day became known as All Hallow e'en ("the evening of all the holy ones"). So you see the name "Halloween" is actually Christian, not pagan. It is derived from All Saints Day.
The old beliefs associated with Samhain never died out entirely. The powerful symbolism of fairies, elves, and the traveling dead had a strong tie with the people and they were not satisfied with the new Catholic feast honoring dead saints. When people continued some of the beliefs and practices associated with Samhain, the church increased the rhetoric against Samhain.
They branded the earlier religion's practices as evil, and began to associate them with the devil. As representatives of the rival religion, Druids were considered malevolent worshippers of devilish or demonic gods and spirits.
Celtic belief in supernatural creatures (like elves and fairies) persisted, while the church made attempts to define them as being no longer merely mischievous, but wicked.
People continued to celebrate All Hallows Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but the supernatural beings were now thought to be Satanic.
How did witches become connected to Halloween? Once the Druids were branded as evil by the church, their practices were looked at as "witchcraft."
Followers of the old religion were persecuted, went into hiding, and were branded as witches who worshipped Satan.
This is why European witchcraft became connected with Satan, whereas witchcraft in other areas of the world is animistic in nature. October 31 became known as a witch holiday.
It was called "The Witches' Sabbath" by witch hunters and eventually European witches began celebrating October 31 as one of their four great Sabbaths held during the year.
Of course, in some ways from a Christian standpoint the church's response makes sense.
Doesn't the Bible view the worship of other gods as deception by demons (1 Corinthians 10:18-22)?
Yes, but the Bible also says that Satan often preaches in Christian churches (2 Corinthians 11:13-14).
Pagans don't have a monopoly on evil, demonic deception, or harmful practices. As a Christian (in spite of a good, pure, and holy God) I often do evil things and fall into deception.
Christians can also do very hurtful things in the name of Christ. (Some of the worst hate mail that I get comes from Christians who don't agree with me about baptism or giving or eternal security or grace or Halloween.)
I'm not sure that anything is gained by calling pagans, Satanists or demon worshippers. It's easy to view yourself as God's agent and to brand people with strong labels. Then you can justify not relating to them in grace.
You can begin to hate and fear them. And eventually you can persuade yourself that as agents of Satan they deserve persecution (i.e. the inquisition and witch burnings).
This goes against everything that Jesus taught about reaching out to pagans (1 Corinthians 5:9-13) and loving our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48), and showing mercy to them (Luke 6:27-36).
The truth is that sometimes Christians end up acting more like Satan, than pagans
The Present Day Celebration of Halloween
Halloween celebrations (of any kind or form) did not become popular in the United States until the late 1800s.
It appears to have arrived after 1840, when large numbers of immigrants arrived from Ireland and Scotland and introduced elements like Mischief Night, beliefs about elves and fairies, and practices such as jack-o'-lanterns.
(Many of the Halloween customs that they brought to America probably did not enter Irish and Scottish culture until after 1750.) The practice does not come from ancient times, but modern.
It must be said that "Halloween" as we know it in America, with all the folk stories and urban legends attached to it, is a distinctly American phenomenon, with the "Trick or Treat" bits occurring after 1930.
Halloween is celebrated in many countries today, but this is actually a result of secular American influence:
...the trick-or-treat and masking customs on 31 October in England and Finland have been introduced from the United States and Canada (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death, p. 162).
...the trick-or-treat and masking customs on 31 October in England and Finland have been introduced from the United States and Canada (Halloween and Other Festivals of Death, p. 162).
Does anyone today celebrate the Celtic holiday of Samhain as a religious observance? Yes. During the mid-1900's, a new interest in pagan religion occurred in Europe and the United States.
As a result, paganism as an organized religion has attracted large numbers of people. Many followers of various pagan religions, such as Druids and Wiccans observe Samhain as a religious festival.
They view it as a memorial day for their dead friends, similar to the United States' national holiday of Memorial Day in May.
Modern pagans (and non-Satanic witches) would vehemently deny that their celebration has anything to do with the demonic horrors depicted in such films as Friday the 13th.
To them, Halloween is one of the four greater Sabbats (holidays) held during the year. Halloween for them is a time of "harvest celebration.
It is a time of ritual, a time for ridding oneself of personal weaknesses, a time for feasting and joyful celebration. It is also a time for communing with the spirits of the dead. It is still a night to practice various forms of divination concerning future events."
Contrary to popular belief Halloween is not the most important celebration for Satanists.
Most Satanists celebrate their own birthdays as their most important "unholi"-day, which is to be expected from adherents of a religion who believe that the highest form of religion is "worship of self" (The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey).
Some of the stories of Satanic ritual abuse that are passed around in Christian circles may have no basis in fact (like those found in Rebecca Brown's book "He Came to Set the Captives Free").
According to Christian researchers Bob and Gretchen Passantino (see their well-researched book entitled Satanism by Bob and Gretchen Passantino, Zondervan, 1995):
"The actual incidence level of satanic-associated crime is very low, and on Halloween consists mostly of petty vandalism and desecration of graveyards and churches; satanic graffiti; raucous rituals including drug and/or alcohol use and sexual promiscuity; and very rarely sexual violence or animal killing.
The most well-known documented criminal activity associated with Halloween are the "Devil's Night" fires that were rampant in the Detroit area.
These destructive bonfires were not religiously inspired, but were a convenient excuse for out-of-control juveniles to act destructively, often in their own communities.
It is not true that satanists look for "Christian virgins" to rape during Halloween rituals.
A young Christian is much more likely to be in danger of a drunk driver, or a party that gets out of hand with drug or alcohol use than of satanic abduction.
Occasional anti-social, criminally committed individuals or small groups that also practice self-styled satanism commit crimes on Halloween, but they invariably betray a pattern of sociopathy at other times as well.
It is not true that poisoning or sabotaging of Halloween treats is a significant risk if parents take sensible precautions. Most horror stories are unsubstantiated rumors that quickly cross the country, gaining embellishments, and unnecessarily frightening parents.
If parents are careful about restricting their children's treats to ones from people they know and trust, or from a formal program run by a church, community group, or merchant association, they should be fairly safe.
In many communities, local hospitals and/or police stations will screen treats free of charge."
"The actual incidence level of satanic-associated crime is very low, and on Halloween consists mostly of petty vandalism and desecration of graveyards and churches; satanic graffiti; raucous rituals including drug and/or alcohol use and sexual promiscuity; and very rarely sexual violence or animal killing.
The most well-known documented criminal activity associated with Halloween are the "Devil's Night" fires that were rampant in the Detroit area.
These destructive bonfires were not religiously inspired, but were a convenient excuse for out-of-control juveniles to act destructively, often in their own communities.
It is not true that satanists look for "Christian virgins" to rape during Halloween rituals.
A young Christian is much more likely to be in danger of a drunk driver, or a party that gets out of hand with drug or alcohol use than of satanic abduction.
Occasional anti-social, criminally committed individuals or small groups that also practice self-styled satanism commit crimes on Halloween, but they invariably betray a pattern of sociopathy at other times as well.
It is not true that poisoning or sabotaging of Halloween treats is a significant risk if parents take sensible precautions. Most horror stories are unsubstantiated rumors that quickly cross the country, gaining embellishments, and unnecessarily frightening parents.
If parents are careful about restricting their children's treats to ones from people they know and trust, or from a formal program run by a church, community group, or merchant association, they should be fairly safe.
In many communities, local hospitals and/or police stations will screen treats free of charge."
How should Christians react to Halloween? Here are some Christian myths mixed with good old fashioned FEAR and Ignorence!
"Halloween is the most dangerous day of the year -- when Satanists and witches snatch children off the streets and sacrifice them in Satan's name!"
"We don't worship other gods or honor the dead on Halloween. Halloween is nothing but a secular time of fun and games -- an excuse for the kids to dress up and overload on sugar!"
"I love to see the children, out in the neighborhood streets with their parents, dressed in funny clothing, having a wonderful time .... and mocking the Devil with laughter."
These are three examples of very different Christian reactions to Halloween. Allow me to offer some opinions.
1. Occult and Satanic Elements:
Deuteronomy 18:11 says:
"There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, one who calls up the dead."
2. Non-Satanic elements:
Although some devil worshippers have adopted Halloween as their "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of Satanic practices.
Halloween has some weak connections to Celts celebrating a new year, but most of present day Halloween customs are neither pagan, nor Satanic. Here is a table of practices and dates as they are connected with Halloween:
practice | divination | necromancy | black cats, spiders | tricks & pranks | costuming | pumpkin carving | trick or treat | slasher movies |
earliest date | ancient | ? | Middle Ages | ? | early 1900s(?) | after 1750s | 1930s | 1950s |
source | pagan Celts | Celts or Medieval witchcraft | Medieval superstition | Irish Mischief Night | ? | Irish | Boy Scouts & others | Hollywood |
original intent | pagan religious practice | pagan religious practice | fear & easy labels | "those nasty fairies" | stop pranks(?) | ward off evil | stop pranks | make money |
Biblically forbidden | yes | yes | no | if destructive | no | no | no | yes - Phil 4:8 |
Most holidays (even Christmasand Easter) contain evil, neutral, and good elements as part of their celebration. Christians must discern one from the other and make decisions that glorify God and cause no harm to their personal walk with Christ.
Christians seem to have no trouble making these distinctions about Christmas, but we utterly fail to do the necessary thinking when it comes to Halloween.
In my opinion, present day Halloween has some evil elements (divination rituals, communication with spirits), some neutral elements (sorry, costumes didn't come from evil Druids involved in human sacrifice), and some good elements (asking for candy was an attempt by the Boy Scouts of America to calm the abuse of the holiday!).
As W.J. Bethancourt III says:
"Each Christian must decide for themselves whether dressing up in funny clothes and asking for candy from the neighbors is 'satanic' and 'necromancing' or not. Allowing your children to dress up as mass-murderers and as villains from the Hollywood slasher movies may or may not be 'satanic,' but it certainly is stupid. Making such creatures objects of 'hero-worship' might not be giving the kind of message to a child that necessarily enables them to become sober, productive adults."
Costuming children as ballerinas or cartoon characters or Bible heroes seems far removed from Satanism or any practice of paganism.
What I have tried to show is that much of the association with witchcraft and Satanic elements has actually come from Christian misinformation attempting to "demonize" this holiday. There is no evidence that the original Celtic celebration was Satanic.
Much of the information on Halloween that Christians preach and write about is plainly based on shoddy research.
While Christians should absolutely avoid pagan practices, Christian hype tends to make us overreact to benign folk elements of Halloween.
We appear like zany buffoons to the world when there is no necessity for doing so. Furthermore, our groundless retreat from all elements of Halloween leaves a vacuum that wicked elements delight to fill.
October 31st is only a day on the calendar. Halloween, like any other day, is only as evil as one cares to make it.
3. Alternative Celebrations:
I would also suggest using the holiday to be involved in the joy and celebration of All Saints’ Day, thanksgiving for harvest, and the celebration of the Reformation of the Church. Here are two tracts which offer alternatives to the traditional American celebration of Halloween:
Tract 1:
Tract 1:
One successful alternative used by a number of churches is a "Faith Festival" in which children dress as their favorite Bible character and gather for a special children's service with puppets, a Christian film, or something special.
This offers an ideal opportunity to explain the spiritual significance of Halloween and to encourage the children to remember Hebrews chapter 11, which features great men and women of faith who have gone before us. The "Faith Festival" can be a time to thank God for His many blessings.
One successful alternative used by a number of churches is a "Faith Festival" in which children dress as their favorite Bible character and gather for a special children's service with puppets, a Christian film, or something special.
This offers an ideal opportunity to explain the spiritual significance of Halloween and to encourage the children to remember Hebrews chapter 11, which features great men and women of faith who have gone before us. The "Faith Festival" can be a time to thank God for His many blessings.
Tract 2:
Tract 2:
As believers, we can take this opportunity to provide a creative alternative to this celebration. In ancient Israel, the majority of Jewish festivals occurred at the same time as pagan festivals.
God did not simply tell his people not to engage in pagan festivals, He provided an alternative. During every major pagan festival, the Hebrew people would take part in a God-given alternative, a festival celebrating the same general subject but with a completely different focus.
As believers, we can take this opportunity to provide a creative alternative to this celebration. In ancient Israel, the majority of Jewish festivals occurred at the same time as pagan festivals.
God did not simply tell his people not to engage in pagan festivals, He provided an alternative. During every major pagan festival, the Hebrew people would take part in a God-given alternative, a festival celebrating the same general subject but with a completely different focus.
There are many wholesome alternatives for our children: a church Bible costume party, Reformation Day church service, holding a harvest celebration like the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.
4. Being Positive Without Fear:
Regardless of the position you take regarding your family's response to Halloween, if you are concerned about the evil associations with Halloween, you can rejoice that you can "resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7) and that through the cross Christ has "disarmed principalities and powers," and "made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them" (Colossians 2:15).
I would certainly suggest using the holiday to teach our children about the triumph in Christ of God over evil. This should not be a night that we hide from in fear, but a night (like every night) when a Christian can stand confident in victory, because the One who lives in us is greater, than the one who lives in the world (1 John 4:4). "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them!" (1 John 4:4).
Holding oneself apart from the world is perhaps a good thing, but sometimes this is just an excuse for being afraid. We are reminded to be "in the world" and "sent to the world", as well as being "not of the world" (John 17:15-18).
There are very few times when strangers actually come to your door and ask you to give them something!
Our family has used Halloween to hand out Christian tapes to everyone that has come-a-begging!
Some Christian children use "trick or treating" by giving a tract in return for the candy they receive at each house. What a wonderful way to spread the gospel!
A smile, some candy, a tract and a "God bless you!" will save more souls than hiding in your house with the porch light off.
As a believer in Jesus Christ and thus a child of God, I personally do not give much honor to the celebration of Halloween, but our family does participate in some of the neutral elements of Halloween and we use Halloween to reach people who don't know Jesus.
We also use Halloween to celebrate the victory that I and other saints have over the wickedness of this world.
A good general principle should be to refrain from participating in anything that compromises your faith or brings dishonor to Jesus Christ.
Another good principle is to look for ways to become a positive, Christ-proclaiming voice in the midst of a secular and pagan world. Each Christian must be persuaded in his own conscience about how they approach Halloween.
Why Did I Write This Article?
What I'm arguing for is:
(1) Accurate information, rather than falsehood.
(2) A little bit of tolerance toward Christians who choose to participate in "harmless" Halloween activities that have no connection to paganism (like pumpkins, dressing up, or treat-or-treat).
(3) For the Christian community to think about how it is going to handle Halloween -- because it is not going to go away. It is more popular than ever. We can redeem it for Christ or we can use fear and scare tactics to hide our light under a basket (Matthew 5:15).
I think we find a close parallel in Christmas. Christmas wasn't celebrated by the early church until the fourth century. In that century, the church decided to try to redeem a Roman pagan winter solstice festival (the birthday of the unconquered sun).
Sometime before 336 the Church in Rome, unable to stamp out this pagan festival, spiritualized it as the "Feast of the Nativity of the Sun of Righteousness."
In some ways, I think Christians have succeeded in giving December 25 a new meaning.
I really think Pope Gregory had the right idea. Take pagan holidays and assign Christian events or practices to them and redeem them for Christ.
Christians have as much right as any other group to lay claim to a day on the calendar (Romans 14:6). What's the alternative?
The alternative is to let pagans, devil worshippers, or Hollywood producers put their stamp on October 31. At the very least, this will mean a day given over to the celebration of (what the Bible calls) superstitions, false gods and goddesses.
At its worst, Halloween becomes a Mardi gras of the grotesque, of destruction, of wickedness, and of death, because we weren't being a preservative for good (Matthew 5:13).
DEAR JESUS, I AM A SINNER BECAUSE I HAVE BROKEN YOUR LAWS,THE 10 COMMANDMENTS..
I BELIEVE YOUR LAW IS MY WARNING OF IMPENDING JUDGMENT IN HELL!
I CANNOT KEEP YOUR LAW IN AND OF MYSELF, I GIVE UP TRYING TO BE WHAT I CANNOT AND I CONFESS THAT I BELIEVE JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD AND DIED FOR MY SINS ON THE CROSS TAKING THE LAWS PUNISHMENT TO FORGIVE ALL OF MY SINS.
JESUS, I REPENT,I TURN AROUND NOW, NEVER TO LOOK BACK,I ASK YOU TO HAVE MERCY ON ME, A SINNER, AND COME INTO MY SPIRIT WITH YOUR SPIRIT AND YOUR POWER. HELP ME TO WALK IN YOU SO I CAN FOLLOW AND OBEY YOUR COMMANDMENTS, AND TO LIVE FOR YOU.
JESUS, I GIVE YOU COMPLETE CONTROL OF ALL MY LIFE AND I THANK YOU FOR HEARING MY PRAYER.
THANK YOU FOR COMING INTO MY LIFE. I ASK IT IN THE NAME OF MY LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST. AMEN.
As God is my eternal Witness, Savior, and judge, I do here by affirm that I am a child of God that has been purchased with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rms. 6:3-11):
I confess Him as my Lord and Savior and by my own volition, I specifically renounce Satan as my lord and god.
As one completely acknowledging and accepting the finished work of Christ on the cross for my redemption and my only hope of eternal life, I now renounce all ancestral and genetic ties, back as many generations on my dad's and mom's sides that God needs to go.
Because I have, through the lord Jesus Christ's own shed blood, been redeemed and delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Col. 1:13), I now cancel out and nullify all demonic power or effect that has been passed down to me from my ancestors, including the ancestral demon that carries my formal name and his network.
Also, I cancel out any other ancestral demon and their networks. Because the lord Jesus Christ became a curse for me by dying the death on the tree (Gal. 3:13), I use my authority that is found in Him to cancel every spell or curse that may have been placed on me with or without my knowledge.
As God's child, covered by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and trusting totally in the atoning power of that blood (Eph.1:7), I cancel, renounce, sever, and nullify every agreement or pact I have made with Satan or anyone else, including blood pacts.
I renounce and sever any and every way that the Devil has gotten ground in my life and all ground that I have ever given to Satan that gave him power or claim over me.
I cancel, renounce, sever, and nullify any powers, gifts, or workings in me which are not of my Heavenly Father or pleasing to Him.
I confess that I belong totally to the Lord Jesus Christ. As one who has been crucified (Gal.2:20) and raised with Christ and now sits with Him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:5), I sign myself eternally and completely over to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is my desire to pray daily that my lord Jesus will have total control of my life. All of these things I do in the precious name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and by His absolute authority over all things, rulers, authorities, principalities, and powers (Eph. 1:18-23), and with a childlike faith, I thank you that it's done. Amen.
Full Name
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Witness:
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If you are serious about repentance pray this prayer today...It will work with your FAITH to break the powers of darkness!!
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If you are serious about repentance pray this prayer today...It will work with your FAITH to break the powers of darkness!!
Print this prayer out and keep for your records so you can show Satan what HE lost and you gained!
