I recently came across the story of Catherine Sanders, author of the book Wicca’s Charm. Cathy was raised in the church but rejected its teaching in her teens. She lived in Salem, Mass., a place with a history of witchcraft and many practicing Wiccans. “I was always kind of artsy, different and non-conformist,” she says, “Wicca attracted my interest because it appealed to those facets of my personality. It was certainly non-conformist, and I liked the mystery surrounding it.” So Cathy found a Wiccan high priestess who took her under her wing and taught her how to be a witch. “She told me it was all white magic, and that’s all I was interested in.”
But after a few years, things turned sour. “The more I learned, the more things started to spiral downward, deeper and deeper into darkness and black magic. I became very good at what I was being taught. My teacher never acknowledged Satan but did say there was something called ‘the abyss’ that we should avoid.”
However, Cathy drifted too far into the darkness. “One hot summer night I was lying awake in my bedroom when all of a sudden the room became very cold. I started to shiver and broke out into a cold sweat, although it was the height of summer. A cold wind blew in through my windows, startling me. Now I was terrified. I hugged my knees to my chest and gasped as a legion of what can only be described as black demons encircled my head, all laughing at me. I started screaming out my Wiccan spells to rebuke them, hoping they would disappear. That only made things worse. The laughter escalated with each spell I tried.”[i]
We will hear more about what happened to Cathy a little later. Her skin-crawling nightmare sounds like something for a Hollywood B-horror flick, but it may be happening more often than you might think these days. The reason is because all the metrics indicate that interest in the occult has taken a steep uptick in recent years. For example, just consider some of these headlines.
· In 2019, New York Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), revealed that she regularly consulted with a psychic / astrologer. She also shared her birth chart on Twitter. (A birth chart is map used by an astrologer that shows the positions of the planets at the moment of someone’s birth.)[ii]
According to a 2018 Pew poll, roughly six-in-ten American adults accept at least one of the following New Age beliefs – spiritual energy, reincarnation and astrology. Specifically, 40% believe in psychics and that spiritual energy can be found in physical objects, while somewhat smaller shares express belief in reincarnation (33%) and astrology (29%).[iii]
· In 2018 A coven of Brooklyn witches publicly hexed Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh.[iv] Don’t forget the headline from left-leaning media outlet VOX a few years ago which announced, “Each month, thousands of witches cast a spell against Donald Trump.”[v]
· CNN reported in Aug. 2021 on the phenomenon of astrologers garnering massive followings on TikTok, YouTube and other social media platforms. Videos of rituals, spells, healing crystals, Tarot card readings and astrology predictions rack up millions of likes, while drawing in untold numbers of curious viewers. The TikTok community in which such rituals thrive goes by many names: "WitchTok.” Jade Sykes, an astrological reader for R&B singers SZA and Kehlani, told CNN her subscriber count on Patreon grew by 5,000 since the pandemic began. Meredith Grubb, a psychic with multiple viral videos on TikTok, told CNN she's done thousands of readings and business has been so good she’s gone pro with her horoscopes. Moreover, the astrology app Co-Star has been downloaded over 20 million times, nearly every 3 to 4 seconds in the United States.[vi]
What does all this mean? Bottom line: there’s a renewed interest in the occult and paganism in the West. According to the Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics the term occultism is applied to “attempts to gain secret or forbidden information or achieve spiritual powers and control through supernatural means such as astrology, fortune telling, psychics, spiritism, Kabbalah, seances, witchcraft, magic, paganism and Satanism. From a Christian perspective, occult describes any attempt to gain supernatural knowledge or power apart from the God of the Bible.”[vii]
It’s not difficult to understand why the occult has gained traction in the US and Britain, because both nations have grown increasingly secular, unchurched and biblically illiterate. There are more than 72 million Millennials in the US – almost 25% of the population. In 2008, researchers noted that 31% of Millennials described themselves as “religiously un-affiliated” or “nones” when it came to God. By 2018, that number had jumped to 42%.[viii] “Nature abhors a vacuum” the saying goes, and the spiritual vacuum created by the decline of Christianity has been replaced by neo-paganism.
According to the Bible, the growing interest in the dark arts is predicted as a sign of the last days. Paul wrote 1 Tim. 4:1, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” Jesus also spoke in His prophetic sermon about spiritual counterfeits of all sorts memorizing the naïve, “For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray” (Matt. 24:5). Granted, there have always been witches and paganism on the earth, but when you see many other prophetic signs emerging along this one, it does raise an eyebrow of concern.
Of course, Christians understand that dabbling in the occult is forbidden (Lev. 20:6; Deut. 18:9-14). Jesus cast out throngs of demons during His ministry (Mark 5:1-20). Paul encountered Satanic strongholds of witchcraft on the island of Cyprus (Acts 13) and in Ephesus (Acts 19). Today is no different, we must stand firm against the Enemy and be dressed for battle in the spiritual armor (Eph. 6:10-18). If you are fooling around with horoscopes, Ouija boards, crystals, and spells then stop immediately – you are opening the door to demonic oppression or possession. If you know someone who is enslaved to these practices, then you must dutifully share Christ and faithfully pray for their deliverance. Only Jesus can break the chains forged by Lucifer.
In fact, that’s exactly what Cathy Sanders learned. Recall her night of demonic torment. She said, “All of a sudden I remembered my days in Sunday school as a child and the teachings of Jesus. I hadn’t thought about that in a long time. In a loud voice I called upon Jesus Christ to rid the room of this dark presence. Instantly they were gone, and my bedroom was once again calm and warm. My life was never the same after that.”
Cathy was led to the Lord,
repented of her sins and today attempts to rescue the perishing who are trapped
in the occult. She warned, “A lot of women think that by practicing Wicca,
worshiping this so-called goddess, that they are celebrating their womanhood. I
am here to tell them there is a lot more to it than that. Lots of them haven’t
had the experiences I have. But they can and will if they stick with it. It’s
like the warning on a pack of cigarettes: ‘Wicca is dangerous and could be
hazardous to your health.'” -DM
[i] CATHERINE
SANDERS, “The Hidden Traps of Wicca,” Focus on the Family, 31 August
2019 <https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/the-hidden-traps-of-wicca/>
[ii] TARA
ISABELLA BURTON, “The Rise of Progressive Occultism,” The American Interest,
7 June 2019 <https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/06/07/the-rise-of-progressive-occultism/>
[iii] CLAIRE
GECEWICZ, “‘New Age’ beliefs common among both religious and nonreligious
Americans,” Pew Research Center, 1 October 2018 <https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/01/new-age-beliefs-common-among-both-religious-and-nonreligious-americans/>
[iv]
Erica Y. King, “Witches to 'hex' Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh;
exorcists pray in response,” ABC News, 18 October 2018 <https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/witches-hex-supreme-court-justice-brett-kavanaugh-exorcists/story?id=58585740>
[v] Tara Isabella Burton, “Each month, thousands
of witches cast a spell against Donald Trump,” VOX, 30 October 2017 <https://www.vox.com/2017/6/20/15830312/magicresistance-restance-witches-magic-spell-to-bind-donald-trump-mememagic>
[vi] Neelam
Bohra and AJ Willingham, “'WitchTok': Amid uncertainty, a new fascination with
astrology and the occult bubbles up,” CNN, 21 August 2021 <https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/us/witchtok-astrology-covid-19-pandemic-trnd/index.html>
[vii]
Ed Hinson & Ergun Caner, The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics (Eugene,
OR: Harvest House, 2008), 367.
[viii]
David Jeremiah, Where Do We Go from Here? (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson,
2021), 97.
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