CC#33--Slaying Dragons, pt 2--The Rise of the Occult

We are in a spiritual war. The rise of the occult has captured modern man. Let's talk about it on this Catholic Corner, because we're talking about slaying dragons. Part 2, the rise of the occult.

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Catholic Corner. You know that segment and episode we offer here on the Theory to Action podcast, where we pull our Catholic and Christian faith from the corner of the room, so to speak, and we drag it, kicking and screaming, into the middle of that room to ensure that it is, part and parcel, the center of our lives. After all, our faith cannot be a decorative piece of furniture that we keep over in the corner of our lives only to notice it on Sundays and whenever it suits us. It must be the center of our lives, most especially because we are in a war, we are in a spiritual war and because our faith isn't following a thing but following a person, namely Jesus Christ. And our Lord warned us about this evil one and said that we would always be in a spiritual war. Some folks don't seem to recognize that war anymore Now. Our Lord told us he is the father of lies and that he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking to devour souls. So in our last Catholic Corner we watched ourselves of those strange rites we read about and covered in Mojo, minute number 306, and we learned that mainly the rise of the occult and the new Gnosticism of the 21st century was affecting our young people and even more and more. We read and learned about its affecting our adults. The fact that they're dabbling in the occult and in witchcraft, which we said is never, never a good way to go. People think these Ouija boards and fortune tellers and astrologists and witches and tarot card readers are just some bland holdovers from medieval, medieval times, that all that stuff's kind of totally outdated. It's largely relevant. Our society tells us. Oh, no, no, no, not true, my friends.

So today we're going to cover the book Slaying Dragons, part two, the rise of the occult. What exorcists inform our cultists want you to know? We will be covering witches and wickens, new ages and Satanist, and again our author is Charles Frown. He is going to be our guide today. But before we begin, let us invoke and say a prayer for our protection and for the intercession of Saint Michael the Archangel. Let us pray Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him. We humbly pray and do thou, o Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who are proud about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen, the name of the Father, son, holy Spirit. So with that let's open our book to our first poll quote, as divine providence would have it, in my research in the connections that were made in the process of writing and publicizing slaying dragons, that would be the first book, led me to the acquaintance of many who were converts from the occult.

Many of these were fans of slaying dragons. The book, and it was this connection that brought us together. Parish priests and exorcists introduced me to many other former occultists and vouched for their experiences. From there my research mushroomed, growing exponentially. My database, which at first boasted the testimonies of just a few former occultists, grew quickly two past 40 people, including 16 former occultists, eight exorcists, seven parish priests, six families and a host of antidotes shared by real Catholics who have had run-ins with the occult in recent years. With this impressive number of testimonies, my understanding of just how ubiquitous the occult truly is began to grow to an uncomfortable degree.

Later on we read this presenting on the reality of the cultist like reporting from the trenches of the spiritual warfare. So many people in the world are hiding in the bunkers, spiritually weak and confused, unable to lift their heads to acknowledge the truth of the war that rages around them, some for fear and some for ignorance. This, though, is not their fault. We are living in this age of confusion and error. However, there is a battle plan we can follow, but we must first acknowledge the battle as it really is, and again, that's the opening pages that comes from to us, from the opening pages of slaying dragons to the rise of the occult what exorcist and former occultist wants you to know? By Charles Fraun, and he's absolutely right.

There's so many people that are confused and Are not properly cataclyzed or Christianized. They have no working knowledge of the Bible, they don't read the Bible, they think it's a historical document. So, just like a physical battle, in a physical war, when the bullets start flying, you want to fall back on your training, and so many people, so many of our friends and our colleagues were colleagues so many of our friends at PTA meetings, at school groups, just have no working knowledge, not even an elementary level knowledge of the spiritual war and how it is being waged. So they're very fearful, they're very ignorant and, just like in a physical war, if you were in the trench next to somebody and you knew, they just had zero training. They're looking at their gun. They might not even have a gun, but to keep this metaphor going, if they did have a gun, are they looking at the gun while the bullets are flying over them and they're not sure how to use it? Do they suggest to you that they're just going to come out of the trench and walk over to their person in charge of the sergeant, whoever is in charge, and ask them all kind of questions how do I use this? What's this for? While the bullets in the war is raging overhead from trench to trench, similar to World War one.

You can see how that metaphor just explains all the confusion and the air that we are living through. And that's our first nugget of wisdom is that we have to acknowledge that there's a spiritual war going on Again. So many people think this is just medieval stuff and it really doesn't happen anymore. That is a lie from the pit of hell and from the devil himself. What a better way to conduct a war? If you convince the other side hey, we're not in a war at all, there's no fighting, we're all friends here. Meanwhile, they're tearing at your very soul to bring you to hell. So we must have the awareness that there is a spiritual war going on. In fact, throughout all of human history there's always been a spiritual war going on, not ebbs and flows.

But Since we won't be able to cover the whole book, this whole book, today, let me just share With you from the introduction some of these snippets about each of the characters and Obviously they've been given sit in pseudonyms for their protection and their privacy. But I share these because if this book interests you further, you can get the book and read more in depth on these stories and Hopefully gain some more insights to help bring your awareness on these very Important issues. But let's take a quick glance at a very high level of Some of the the folks that we're gonna be introduced to. When I first spoke to Adelaio resume, I mentioned that I was thankful that she was willing to tell her story. She said I don't want to. It's making me kind of nauseous, but it's good atonement. By the end of our conversation she was very much at peace with having shared with me and Made it a point to state that over and over.

Filomena said her husband did not know about the background in the occult when they first got married. A sense of shame kept her from telling him. Now she realized it was very important to speak up about it. Everyone needs to be taught about these issues. When they are younger, she said. Generations have been duped. They are taught that everything is happy-go-lunky, hunky-dory. They have no understanding that there is a spiritual warfare. When I spoke to John, he said it was the first time he had had a chance to talk about his experience in depth that he was doing with me here, or to have a person willing to listen to him. He said it's difficult to find a priest willing to listen. Slamen would not likely be interested and even be able to handle this information.

And then there's Therese. She thought her involvement in the occult would be a secret part of her past, but she sees it as God's will to bring this up. In the interviews with her she shares her experiences so she can help others. She was willing and saw that she has to do it. She said she has so much to atone for. She stated that she has clearly learned that anything outside of God's will will harm you and the world will cheer you on as you do it. The plan of the occult is to keep you away from God with the promise of happiness, whereas the truth is that only in God and according to his will can you be happy. You see, I think Philomena nailed it. What we're seeing today with the rise of the occult is just what she says.

Everybody needs to be taught about these issues when they are younger. Generations have been duped. They are taught that everything is happy, go lucky, hunky dory. They have no understanding that there is spiritual warfare. Could not agree more. They have no idea that spiritual warfare is taking place. That happens in my conversations over and over Now.

Perhaps you're thinking and playing devil's advocate here. No pun intended, that this notion of the occult is overblown. It's not a big thing, seriously, there was no pun intended with the devil's advocate line. But to answer that question and to look for the answer, let's go back to the book to see what reality tells us. This book seeks to present the stark reality that, without the former widespread Christian influence that once inspired this land, this new religion which has emerged is now beginning to take up a solid identity.

To this religion we can safely affix the label occult. It includes, among other things, witchcraft, satanism, wicca, astrology, the new age manifesting yoga, reiki, spiritualism and a host, a whole host of other superstitious, empeggian practices. This will be presented with the necessary details that go well beyond the initial presentation of this topic in the final chapter of slaying dragons A great primary read before diving into this book. That's the book we first covered. Now, as a refresher, to illustrate briefly how the occult is rising. Wicca is outpacing presbyterianism and membership. Wicca is proudly on the scene and spreading with social and political acceptance and manifesting in witchcraft are the new and quote, hip lifestyle choices of the young and old dominating most social media platforms. The occult is widespread, popular, growing and trending. It's also dangerous, irrational, illogical and evil.

And speaking of wicca in the new age and the terror card stuff, you see these on shelves at Barnes and Nobles bookstores, right out in the open in many gaming stores. Just saw it in the most random place in the back of a Book. Some million bookstore in a small town when I was traveling for work Just came around the corner and they had a whole wall of this stuff, tons of books about this stuff, how to practice it and the actual merchandising. You need to start it Again. Folks think this is just hunky-dory stuff. No biggie, just little trivial stuff.

Let's go to the book about how it's collapsing morality all around us. I think it's quite eye-opening. The disorder which follows from the or the disorder which flows from the eclipse of the intellect manifest quickly in a disordering of personal morals. This whole previous chapter was all about how the country is seeing a collapse of morality and they're trying to find out when that's coming from. Back to the book.

The occult is truly a religion of subjectivism and subjective morality. No practitioner of the occult follows a creed which absolutely restricts his or her behavior under a specific moral code. The closest thing is the wiccan reedy or the role of three and wicca, which are only pieces of loose guidance and not binding, authoritative moral statements. Thus, occultists are free to reject all morality, which most end up doing Now. Listen to this.

In the 1989 interview of Zena and Nicholas Shrek, we see one stark example of this in their discussion about Adolf Hitler. When Bob Larson asked them about Hitler and the murder-driven reality that Hitler lived within, shrek labeled Hitler as a masterful black magician. When asked if Hitler's reality and beliefs were evil, shrek stated I'm not. I'm telling you that I don't believe in good or evil, nor can anyone decide what is good and evil. It's all based on historical and cultural values. In my point of view, christianity is evil because it's negative. Larson. The interviewer pushed again, saying you won't call Hitler evil the response. I'm not going to bow down to your level of good and evil. That's so primitive. Shrek responded, adding no act of any human being or animal can be judged good or evil. Wow, now former yogi Alex Frank said that yoga is also an example Of this collapse of morals.

Now, as an aside, stopping from the book, as an aside, most people think yoga is very innocuous. It's merely just a physical, just an eastern physical practice. No big thing. Let's learn about this. In yoga there are very few. Going back to the book, in yoga there are very few ethical constraints, for example, the manipulation of energy through yogic practices often, for example, used by men to manipulate women and stir attraction. Attraction Sadeas are further examples of this.

These are occult powers that practitioners of yoga gain from their practice. These are obtained by individuals who might start a on the traditional yoga path With its strict moral restraints, but who, after attaining these occult powers, throw out those restraints Inclining them to use these powers for evil ends. This can be glimpsed in the modern left hand yoga, where it is common to hear someone say I satiate or indulge all my lustful desires, so they don't inhibit my consciousness. Yoga also flouts boundaries. One example he gave is the immodesty of yoga classes in which men and women can sort themselves in awkward poses in tight clothing in the same room. This is occurring in the context of a philosophy which instructs them to be quote open to everything, without discernment and believing themselves to be gods, to see the oneness that they have with everyone, with few moral constraints. As Alex added, there may be moral constraints even in the left-handed version, but they are much more pragmatic. With them, the moral constraints are usually temporary and can be discarded. Once they inhibit the practitioners growth in the power, they may impose them simply to avoid bad press.

Now here's something that was quite revealing. Alex's old yoga teacher told him a lot of people who follow this path become a sort of dark sorcerer. Through the intensely introspective work of yogic meditation, the individual discovers a lot of dark, sinful desires inside himself. Christianity seeks to temper these and guide these disordered passions through moral truths and moral constraints. Yogis do not have these moral constraints. As a result, they will collapse into these dark desires when they combine this with the belief that they are gods, they will become this dark sorcerer to which his old yoga teacher referred. The story of and I'm gonna butcher this name the story of Matt's a yandra, the founder of Hatha yoga, is a good example of this. Massahandra and his disciple Gort Shannath, using their yogic powers, became involved in an infamous scene of debauchery and immorality with the queen of Kaudhisa and the king's large harem. Let's keep going, because it gets even more interesting. It's not just Satanism or yoga, but the occult in general which has corrosive effects on morals.

Ava's efforts to get noticed in the context of drifting from the church and entering the new age led her away from the good morals of our religion. Her parents explained she was trying to find happiness in other avenues, dabbling in some drugs, but not heavily, but likely spiked with things, and she also began to embrace the new age sexuality, stating I love people, I love souls. She wanted to identify as bisexual and pansexual, mainly because it was wait for it trendy. She simply did not want what was traditional. A bisexual interest was not consistent with her previously healthy orientation, so it made no sense to her parents. She is convinced by the culture that this means, that this means it is her identity, they added. But it's you. Do you with shock value as well? They exclaimed.

Now Father Cyprian told the story of one lady with whom he worked to embrace of the soft occult eventually destroyed her sense of self-identity and sexual morals. She started messing around with the terror cards after she lost her job. She asked someone to show her how to do it, and she was then not only told how to do it but also trained. In the process of her training, she attracted to certain spirits in order for her to acquire occult knowledge of others people's lives. It was not merely reading cards, father pointed out. The demon places the knowledge of the other person into the mind of the card reader, which allows the reader to predict things to come in the future with exactitude and often with great accuracy. As soon as the woman and Father Cyprian's example started doing this, she suddenly had sexuality and gender fluid issues, he said. Prior to that, she had a healthy relationships with her family and at school. Here's the most revealing thing. Vality is the most intimate thing, he said. This is Father Cyprian. Still, when we are not guarded, we will be attacked there. She eventually gave up the cards and returned to Mass, abstaining from Holy Communion at first. Once she went back to confession as well, it was like a fog had been lifted. She then became disgusted when hanging out with her old friends in the LGBTQ community. She no longer saw why she had found them to be such a welcoming group in the first place.

Sexuality, john observed, is a powerful example of diabolical inversion in the culture. And here's a fantastic nugget of wisdom. Sexuality is the thing that connects us the body, soul and mind to another person. That creates life like a divine spark, as John put it. The sexual revolution in the sixties was a conditioning for the full perversion and diabolical degradation we are witnessing in our cultic age today. He added, this doorway of evil was fully open in dumping perversion across the earth. Members of the church, as we sadly know, were not immune to the poison that was released. The diabolic wants to degrade everything, he added. He wants to make it dirty, debased, to do everything God made, giving God the finger, so to speak and make it evil. They take delight in debasing all the good things that God has given us. So you can see, this book is just fantastic. Much too much too long to cover in just one Catholic corner, but I wanted to bring it to your guys' attention. This book is even better than the first book. I'd recommend the first book just to give you a sense of how the writer writes and see if you like his writing at all. But at 348 pages, this book part two, Slaying Dragons, the Rise of the Occult is a fantastic, fantastic read. One last quote and then we will, or two last quotes and then we'll wrap this up.

Going back to the book, the major takeaway from this book is that if individuals simply look more closely at the reality of the occult, they will see the signature of the Prince of Darkness, but most do not look. It is here that we see the great value in the testimonies of those who have been in the occult, who was sought from it is the same peace and happiness and fulfillment but did not find it. Instead, they eventually came face to face with the one whose hand signed the checks and wrapped the gifts of the occult offered, and they fled, coming soon thereafter, thankfully, into the embrace of Christ and of his holy church. Thank you. Now we know that this is nothing new. In fact, we know from the Gospel Matthew that our Lord said he said this. If anyone says to you though here is the Christ or there he is. Do not believe it, for false Christ and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold. I have told it to you beforehand Again, coming from the Gospel of Matthew, and because we love to seek the truth here at the Mojo Academy, let us close with this vinyl quote, because it wraps it all up for us and gives us some great nuggets of wisdom.

Former cultists have stated that this is a great time to be a Christian. They offer these comments when reflecting on the fact that a cultist are waking up and leaving that dark realm and that the Church has the power to truly rescue them from the grip of Satan. John said there is so much redemption and grace now and the triumph of Christ over darkness. Therese also expressed this hopeful outlook. She said with everything so in your face right now, it's a wonderful time to become saints and to be Catholic. It is very edifying and strikes against the idea that nothing positive is happening in this world.

As they were in the early church, pagans today are still drawn to the truth. The magi sought the truth and followed what they discern, interested less in their pagan practices than they were in finding the true meaning of life. Today, there are likewise pagans looking for the truth who are asking where is this great God of the Christians that we too may worship, him Echoing in the magi? Sadly, in this age, which has been called Satanic by some exorcist and oppressed by a great apostasy by prominent cardinals, the treasury of the Church's truth is very much hidden away from many, particularly from the youth. These treasures would provide them spiritual enrichment, enrichment which they crave. However, this craving is leading them, in the practical absence of this treasury, into the embrace of Satan's occultic parody. The occult seems easy and the truth takes work, but the latter is what will give them true life.

As exorcists and those who work with them have seen, the occult is seeking to fill this void of truth, since people, even after rejecting Christianity, never stop seeking spiritual experiences. And that's what we have to be the good example for is constantly telling people the truth, whether they want to hear it or not, whether they're open to it or not. We can do it with love, but we have to be firm that the truth is the truth. Our Lord, jesus Christ, is the way, the truth in the life. We must seek the truth, no matter where it leads us.

So in today's Catholic Corner, first, let us acknowledge that there is a spiritual war going on and share that with our friends and our family. The evidence is overwhelming. Second, let us pray. Let us earnestly pray for those involved in the occult and its deadly practices. We know there are humans just like us and they have been sold a bill of goods. They've been sold a lie from the pit of hell. So let us offer our prayers and our wisdom to help them and love them, as our neighbors and our Lord commanded we do.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.