A Little Magic? (Part 2)

I started to be aware of all the occult practices infiltrating my community recently (A Little Magic? -Part 1). Is a village apothecary merely dispensing healthy tinctures and remedies? Is a simple cultural field trip a portal to evil?* These are just some of the questions that I began to ask myself this week.

Am I being melodramatic or does the Word of God support such conjecture? Let's explore that. When an old business leaves town and a new one takes its' place in a small subarban community there is more than a little excitement. In fact, it is the talk of the town and everyone can't wait to take a look inside. Initial reports around town, were that a good renovation had been done giving a much needed facelift to a rundown storefront.

Many thought an holistic alternative medicine business would be a welcomed addition to the downtown area. Perhaps, I could get an all natural bug repellent or a real herbal shampoo. Seeking healthier products rather than the chemical alternatives is a good idea. Looking at the business website did indeed reinforce the well-made and healthy nature of their product line. But, it also uncovered some surprising spiritual underpinnings. Oh no, here we go again!

It is like some spiritual gauntlet has been thrown down here in Westchester County, New York! The Bible talks about spiritual battles and makes it clear that we have to choose what side of the war zone that we are on. One of the themes in the Holy Scriptures that recurs regards witchcraft, demons and evil. It tells us to watch out for that stuff and stay completely away.

It started in the Garden of Eden. It was not that long after the creation of mankind that we encounter the first story of the devil and his evil tricks. After Adam and Eve were created, God instructed them in how to stay close to Him and avoid evil. They were instructed to not eat the fruit of a certain tree. Doesn't it always come down to not partaking of something? We can't do everything that we want.

Yet, that is one of the things Satan continually puts in our head. Why not? Why not eat the fruit? Why not overcharge that customer, they'll never miss that money? The ends justify the means. Yet, looking at the Bible we see story after story of people doing just what God tells them not to do and it never brings them the happiness they are looking for and it always brings unforeseen consequences.

These unforeseen consequences will arise when you go for that medicinal Reiki treatment or when you seek to ease your mind over a troubled marriage through a tarot card reading. I say consequences which is in the plural because there are many things which get set in motion after a little dabbling in the occult. The first thing could be the loss of money to a charlatan.  Some people who pull out cards or say that healing energy will stream through their hands and flow through you are outright liars. Some of them have chosen to make their living by fleecing others of their hard-earned money. They might be good at reading people's subtle voice or body language signals. This might enable them to sense what people are thinking or what they want to hear.

As bad as this it, it does not equal the possibility that you have unwittingly been doing business with the evil one and his minions. Oh yes my friends, the occult is real.  In Deuteronomy 18:9-11 God explains that before they are to enter the Promised Land they should be aware of certain temptations. God never wants us to be ignorant. So, just like He told Adam and Eve not to eat certain fruit, He instructs His chosen people thusly: 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 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. God would never warn us not to do something if it was not real! I learned this lesson the hard way and I am not going to make the same mistake again.

In the past, I was curious about tarot cards and psychics. I wanted to have certainty about the future. I wanted help to make diffucult decisions. I already knew about God and yet chose to do exactly what I knew I shouldn't. Sometimes, we feel scared and alone even though he promised never to leave us or forsake us. Other times we are impatient even though we are told to add virtue to our faith and patience is indeed a virtue. Or sometimes, we treat God as if He is some earthly doctor and we just want a second opinion.

My first occult experience occurred when I was in high school. I had already been primed to look to the occult for guidance in my family setting. By the time I attended high school, my parents were divorced and my mother and sister had both looked to horoscopes, voodoo and the Quiji board for wisdom á la Garden of Eden.

After my dad left, my mother's more lenient approaches prevailed and there was chaos in my house. The Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and I believe that principle lay at the core of my families' dilemma at that point. So, when a trusted friend Mary asked me to do the Quiji board with her one day after school, I knew I shouldn't but I said yes anyway.

Mary was one of the smartest girls that I knew in high school. She was not drinking or doing drugs and we were both trying to work through our divorced kid issues. One day after school Mary said she had a secret about the real reason that she and her mother had left Columbia and came to the United States. She told me there was questions that she had concerning what had happened. She could not go to her mother so she wanted to go to the Quiji board instead. She begged me to help her find some answers and after arguing a little, I acquiesced.

Although I never knew what her family secret was, apparently the demons behind the Quiji board did and pretty quickly Mary was frightened and crying. This shocked me since Mary was the sensible type. We both barely sleep that night and in the morning I arranged a meeting with a Spanish Priest that I knew. Mary told the priest how she had tested the Quiji board by first asking a question that regarded her deep family secret that she already knew the answer to. She swore that she had not pushed the wooden pointer in any way. I proclaimed the same and also had the distinct impression that Mary barely was touching it before it moved in a powerful swoop. I knew what happened that day was real and there have been other instances where I can also affirm that the devil is behind these practices.

The Bible affirms this yet again in Acts 16:16-18. Here we can read the story of a fortune-teller who is not just a charlatan but is possessed by evil spirits. Paul the Apostle has the gift to be able to see what is of God and what is of the devil. In every body of Christ there are those who through the Holy Spirit have this deeper understanding. He sees the signs of demon possession on her and performs an exorcism in Jesus' name whereby she now becomes a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

So, why are so many occult practices becoming mainstream today? The answer is because the belief in Jesus is waning. This happened in the time of Noah, and during the reigns of the Kings of Israel. These monarchs either fought the occult or practiced it themselves. Jesus spent significant time relieving people of the burdens of possession that have plagued mankind since time immemorial. When ever people don't have God to look to as their guiding principle they look to other means to get through and find meaning to life. Finally, King Solomon put it succinctly when he said : in the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider:surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find nothing that will come after him.-Ecclesiastes 7:14.


* While viisiting the "Cloisters Museum and Gardens" a well- known tourist destination in the Bronx, New York my husband saw a sign in the herbal garden which stated, " Plants used in Medieval Magic and Ceremony."