Labels

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

The Rise of the Occult - By Yvonne Lorenzo

While in my own novels, I deal with pagan gods, both Norse and Greek, the protagonist who is of course flawed, is moving from the pagan world and in the end to the Christian one–and so are many other principal characters who had been pagans and sinners.
Award–winning journalist Richard Abanes clears away the confusion many readers experience over fantasy books and films. He delves into the differences between various forms of fantasy and digs out answers needed by every parent, youth worker, teacher, and student.
The stories of Tolkien, Lewis, and Rowling—and films based on them—have touched millions of lives. How are these authors similar…and different? Where do they fit into today’s ever–growing desire for the mystery and magic fantasy provides? Abanes—himself a fantasy and science–fiction fan—helps shed light on this form of entertainment and its effects on today’s youth.
Readers will come away thoroughly equipped to differentiate between stories and films that are harmless, even inspiring—and those containing spiritual dangers. See this.
Abanes, in an interview with Tim Challies, tells why he is worried about the Harry Potter series:
My concern about the Harry Potter books is two-fold: 1) by J.K. Rowling’s own admission, the books contain references to real-world occult symbolism, lore, subjects, practices, and beliefs that she has gleaned from her hobby-like study of things like occultism, witchcraft, and magick (this is verified and documented); 2) the ethics and morality in the series exalt relativism—i.e., there seems to be no objective standard of right and wrong. If the good characters in the book feel like something is just fine (or fun), then they simply do it, even though it may be bad/wrong (e.g., the good characters habitually lie, steal, cheat, use foul language, break laws, deceive each other, behave hypocritically, and have no problem pursuing revenge). The books do not strive to show kids a better way, they instead, appeal to their most basic/naturalistic instincts: e.g., crass/gross humor, the desire for revenge, the want for power over adults.
Some people say, “So what?” But my worry is that children—who we all know tend to copy what they think is cool, or fun, or exciting—will begin emulating some of the poor ethical/moral behaviors exalted in Harry Potter as well as some of the occult aspects of the books. This is not a far-fetched concern. Kids are already copying various aspects of the series: e.g., registrations for boarding schools in England have sky-rocketed; a surge in buying owls for pets has taken place; and one group of kids had to be rushed to the hospital after mixing a poisonous “potion” and drinking—all in direct response to Harry Potter. We also have a 2002 Barna survey that found 12% of kids who saw the Harry Potter movies were more interested in witchcraft. And, most alarming, is how REAL wiccans/occultists/neopagans are writing their own pro-occult and pro-witchcraft books (both fiction and non-fiction) and using the popularity of Harry Potter books to lure young readers to their materials. Clearly, concerns about Harry Potter are not misplaced.
My book also debunks the absurd view of Harry Potter offered by the likes of John Granger, Connie Neal, and Francis Bridger, and John Killinger—i.e., the claim that Harry Potter is actually a Christian series in the tradition of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. In a nutshell, their assertions are plagued by a myriad of flaws that can be distilled down to two main issues: 1. The plainest reading of Harry Potter reveals that it is not a depiction of anything Christian, but instead, is a depiction of the magick worldview. (This has been confirmed by Witches, occultists, and neopagans.) 2. Rowling herself has explained both her work and her faith in ways that clearly contradict the assertions being made by the “Harry-Potter-is-really-Christian” group of supporters.
Should Christian children and/or adults read them? Well, what adults do is between them and God. I could no more tell an adult Christian to not read the books than tell them to not go see an R-rated movie, or not have a glass of wine with spaghetti. Reading Harry Potter as an adult, I think, would fall into the category of a freedom not explicitly discussed in scripture. Children, on the other hand, need guidance. But guiding someone else’s child is not my job. My job is to get good, solid, documented information about Harry Potter to parents, then, it is their decision. Personally, however, I do think it is a very poor idea to have some kids, particularly younger ones (e.g., ages 6-10), reading the books—especially the latter volumes (4, 5, 6, 7), which become progressively darker and more violent.
In addition, in Albanes’s book Harry Potter, Narnia, and The Lord of the Rings: What You Need to Know About Fantasy Books and Movies, he observes that in numerous book stores, books on witchcraft are right on the shelf next to Harry Potter books, enticing the young into the occult.
In fact, the Occult is having ever greater influence; in a “Post Christian” America, bizarre beliefs are taking its place. As Tara Isabella Burton states in her piece The Rise of Progressive Occultism:
More importantly, however, AOC’s gambit taps into the way in which progressive millennials have appropriated the rhetoric, imagery, and rituals of what was once called the “New Age”—from astrology to witchcraft—as both a political and spiritual statement of identity.
For an increasing number of left-leaning millennials—more and more of whom do not belong to any organized religion—occult spirituality isn’t just a form of personal practice, self-care with more sage. Rather, it’s a metaphysical canvas for the American culture wars in the post-Trump era: pitting the self-identified Davids of seemingly secular progressivism against the Goliath of nationalist evangelical Christianity.
There’s the coven of Brooklyn witches who publicly hexed then-Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh to the acclamation of the thousands-strong “Magic Resistance”—anti-Trump witches (among them: pop singer Lana del Rey) who used at-home folk magic to “bind” the president in the months following his inauguration. There are organizations like The Satanic Temple —newly featured in Penny Lane’s 2019 documentary Hail Satan—a “nontheistic religion” and activist group that uses its religious status to demand for its black-robe-clad members the same protections afforded to Christians in the hopes of highlighting the ridiculousness of faith-based exceptions (Satanic prayer in schools, say). There are dozens of Trump-era how-to spellbooks that blend folk magic with activist practice: the 2018 anthology The New Arcadia: A Witch’s Handbook to Magical Resistance; Michael Hughes’s 2018 Magic for the Resistance: Rituals and Spells for Change; David Salisbury’s 2019 Witchcraft Activism: A Toolkit for Magical Resistance (Includes Spells for Social Justice, Civil Rights, the Environment, and More); and Sarah Lyons’s forthcoming Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism. There are hundreds of thousands of users of witch-popular blogging platforms like Tumblr and Instagram, which at the moment boasts 8.5 million photographs hashtagged “#witch.”
People’s lack of traditional faith as demonstrated in the examples cited tend to support that lacking a belief in God leaves one open to believing in monstrosity.
See herehere and here.
Excerpt:
Tourists that visit the Colosseum in Rome these days are getting quite a shock.  A gigantic statue of a pagan Canaanite deity known as “Molech” has been erected right at the entrance.  In ancient times, those that served Molech would literally sacrifice their children to him, and apparently this involved burning them to death.  And now a massive statue of this pagan idol is the centerpiece of a new “archaeological exhibition” at the world famous Roman Colosseum.  Yes, the exact same Colosseum where countless numbers of Christians were martyred for their faith is now the home for one of the most monstrous pagan deities that the world has ever seen.
I know that this sounds almost too strange to be true, but this is actually happening.  The following comes from the official press release for this “exhibition”…
A reconstruction of the terrible deity Moloch, linked to Phoenician and Carthaginian religions and featured in the 1914 film Cabiria (directed by Giovanni Pastore and written by Gabriele D’Annunzio) will be stationed at the entrance to the Colosseum to welcome visitors to the exhibition.
They are referring to this enormous statue as “Moloch”, but according to Wikipedia this ancient pagan god was also known as “Molech, Milcom, or Malcam”…
Moloch[a] is the biblical name of a Canaanite god associated with child sacrifice, through fire or war. The name of this deity is also sometimes spelled MolechMilcom, or Malcam.
For purposes of this article, I will use the name “Molech”, because that is the name that will be most familiar to the majority of my readers.
The organizers of this “exhibition” could have chosen to put Molech in a dark corner where nobody would have really noticed him, but instead they purposely decided to feature him in a place where 100 percent of the visitors to the Colosseum would immediately see him.
One woman that recently visited the Colosseum told LifeSiteNews what she witnessed…
“We were so excited the day we decided to go to the Colosseum,” Alexandra Clark told LifeSiteNews via email. She and her sister Tiffany were looking forward to visiting the site of Christian martyrdom.
“But the moment we got there the sight that greeted us was horrifying! Standing guard over the entrance was the colossal pagan statue of Moloch. It was placed in that prime spot so that everyone that entered into the Colosseum had to pass it,” she continued.
How in the world could something like this possibly be allowed?
And what makes this even more shocking is that the Colosseum is actually controlled by the Vatican.  The following comes from Breaking Israel News
A source close to the matter told Breaking Israel News that: “There is no way that such a thing could be done without direct permission from the highest levels of the Vatican. The Colloseum of Rome is owned by the Vatican, and specifically the Diocese of Rome, also called the Holy See. If anyone wants to do anything there, they must get permissions from the office of the Diocese of Rome. This exhibition, called “Cathargo: the immortal myth” could not be held there at all unless permissions were granted at high levels.”
Yvonne Lorenzo [send her mail] makes her home in New England in a house full to bursting with books, including works on classical Greece and Russian history and literature, and has contributed to LewRockwell.com, Unz.com and to TheSaker.is. Her interests include gardening, mythology, ancient history, The Electric Universe, and classical music, especially the compositions of Handel, Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Wagner and the Bel Canto repertoire. She is the author of The Spear of Odin Trilogy: Son of ThunderThe Cloak of Freya and the recently published conclusion, The Well of Mimir.