Here's another round of Q&A for October!
Welcome back to our monthly advice column! We've got another ten questions to get through, so let's hop right on in.
Remember: if you have any questions, all you have to do is check out this Google Form right here and fill it out with your question!
Now for all this good conversation!
Why Can Ghosts Speak, But Not God?
"This phenomenon happened with me and my family. Short story: we lived in a newly built farm house for a short while and to me the whole place had felt off. One morning though, we were all standing in the kitchen chatting when out of nowhere we heard the clearest "hello?" It was a woman's voice, clear as could be, it wasn't from the TV or outside, it was as if whoever said it was there with us. With this in mind, here is my question:
Can gods speak this way to us? Or is it always in our head? Why can ghosts speak aloud but gods cannot?" —Anonymous
Hey, there!
So, let me explain: when I say things in either Discovering Christian Witchcraft or online like "you should never be hearing your gods/guides physically," I'm thinking of the many mental health conditions that have historically caused people to think they're hearing something or someone, when it's really all in their mind. One major drawback of a spiritual and mystical path is that you have to be really honest with yourself, and honestly almost agnostic in a sense, in that you cannot be so ready to see what you're experiencing as spiritual phenomena. That's a VIP pass for a bad time, y'know?
However, you ask a good question. Why do normal human spirits seem to interact so clearly with their voice while the very gods communicate in ways that seem so much more cryptic? Is it that they can't do it? Or is it that they don't want to? I'm obviously not 100% sure, but I'll give you my best theory.
One of the greatest and most vexing things about Divinity is that it forces you to seek. If everyone suddenly has concrete evidence of a deity existing—like hearing them, seeing them, witnessing them mess with their surroundings in a way that can't be denied—then that ruins the very purpose and context of faith. It also increases the likelihood we'll come to rely on them and outsource our decision making, agency, etc. to them. After all, if you got concrete proof God was talking to you as easily as another person, then the whole element of mystery just evaporates. The whole "what if this is true?" game ends.
They don't wan that to end. It's the seeking, and the wanting to seek, that is the main driver of our pursuant relationship with the Divine. It is also much less obtrusive and, honestly, scary when they come to us with feelings, images, and sudden draws on our attention than a clearly audible voice, like spirits might try to do. It makes us more willing to listen rather than run away or start grabbing the cleansing and banishing tools.
Again, I don't know for sure, but this is food for thought!
How Can I Get Started as a Christian Witch?
"I'm 16 and new to both Christianity and witchcraft. I feel really drawn to both, but I've been told by many people in my religion that witchcraft is forbidden and frowned upon. I want to be a Christian witch, but I often feel judged for it. Is it possible to be both Christian and a witch? If so, how do I get started?" —Anonymous
Hey, there!
Frankly, we wouldn't be talking here if Christian Witchcraft were actually impossible. I also started this whole thing around your age; I was fourteen and determined to either make it work or understand in fully concrete terms why it didn't.
Over the course of these past 13 years, I have discovered exactly why it works, and hence Discovering Christian Witchcraft was born. But there are plenty of other resources (like this blog, my YouTube, my TikTok, etc.) where I share information for free, too. And when it comes to getting started, the one thing I can say for sure is this:
Get a really good understanding of your religion first.
Read the Bible for yourself (with scholarly context added, like with the Jewish Study Bible and Jewish Annotated New Testament)
Explore the sociopolitical reasons witchcraft exists (JSTOR has a lot of articles in its database on topics like witchcraft in Europe)
Familiarize yourself with Christian mysticism and big names like St. Hildegard von Bingen, St. Theresa of Avila, etc.
Pin down what Jesus was and still is all about. Is He about division, discord, bigotry, and abandoning the poor and downtrodden? Or is He about feeding and clothing the poor, healing the sick, radical love, and defiance of injustice through putting the needs of the people first?
Then, once you have this generally under control, you can start asking yourself what witchcraft and magic look like combined with Christianity. While most of us start with the witchy part (because that's the fun part, let's be honest; that's the hands on stuff), starting with religious study is a great way to make sure you don't fall into those traps of doubt and fear or into doing witchcraft for bad reasons.
What Do You Think About Electronic Tarot / Spiritual Apps?
"Do you have an opinion on electronic tarot decks or apps? I find that I do well using them but would love to hear your take." —Anonymous
Hi!
Honestly, I think the whole concept of techno-witchcraft is pretty cool, and plenty of people use it in different ways (like shuffling songs on Spotify or sigil generating apps). I do sometimes use it myself, especially when doing dice rolls for Where the Gods Left Off! Using real dice is great, but sometimes I open the Dungeons and Dragons D100 roller to get which interview a person should start with in orders. It works all the same, because the thing actually doing the work isn't the tarot deck or dice themselves; it's whoever you've asked for help (in my case, God).
If God can direct me to the right card in a physical deck, there's no reason why He shouldn't be able to make the tarot or dice apps land on something specific, too, right?
These tools make for a really accessible magical practice, especially for folks who can't have physical items around for fear of how those they're living with will interact (parents, roommates, etc.). They're another tool in the magical toolkit, and there's no reason one would be better or worse than another.
How Do You Reconcile the Opposing Philosophies of Christianity and Witchcraft?
"I was a Christian. Then became a witch. Now a Christian again How do you reconcile, these two philosophies that are very opposite. Especially when the bible explicitly condemns magick and witchcraft. Please help me." —Anonymous
Hey, friend!
Now, this is a similarly worded question to ones I've answered many times before, but there's something special about it that's drawing my attention: that word philosophy. This thing exists in every religious path, and even the paths of people with no religion at all; I'd even argue, as I have in this video, that it's not religion that even dictates morality, but people's social philosophy.
However, before we go anywhere with this, I need to push back on you. Why do you think Christianity, a religion, has a different philosophy than witchcraft, a practice? This would be like asking me how I can reconcile the philosophies of Christianity and playing the cello. Christianity and soccer. Christianity and the culinary arts. And sure, the latter in each of these is an example of things people do, not just things people are—but even then, no one bats an eye at a Christian musician, or a Christian athlete, or a Christian chef.
What is it about witchcraft that makes you think there's so inherently different a philosophy here? Why do you assume they're automatically opposed? Because for me, there's nothing to reconcile; they line up together and make sense together, just as any of these other things I've mentioned here do. My witchcraft doesn't have its own set of rules or ideals separate of my faith; my faith dictates how I practice my witchcraft, just as it also might dictate what kind of musician, athlete, or chef I become (one only in it for the fame and money? or one out to give back to my community and shine light on important issues?).
Many people come into witchcraft with a lot of preconceived ideas of what it needs to be about. Truth is, there are as many types of witchcraft as there are witches alive on earth right now. Everyone's expression of this practice is radically different, and it has to do with their baseline beliefs. So I think you may be looking at this question with too much baggage to form your own answer, and I'd suggest you get to work tearing these ideas to their roots to figure out where the discrepancies are.
Should I Get Baptized into Catholicism if My Catholic Friend is Against It?
"So I have struggled with my faith for years and I feel so comfortable with Catholicism but I am also a slightly practicing witch, I’m in the broom closet and I’m a baby witch, and I reached out to one of my friends who is a teacher at a Catholic Church to see if she could help me start going to church again and get baptized.
I found out she was bashing me to our mutual friend, and so my question is, am I stupid for wanting to get baptized into a religion that makes me feel at home and should I just stop my efforts so she doesn’t get mad at me and making me feel like I shouldn’t?" —Abigail
Hey, there!
Man, not to sound like a total jerk, but... who gives a damn what your friend says? And how much of a friend is she if she's willing to shit on you and your faith walk like that?
I feel like you know the answer to this already: do what you want to do. If you feel at home in this religion and want to get baptized in it, do it! If she won't help you, someone will—a priest, another church entirely. But your spiritual path should have nothing to do with the opinions of other people, friends or not. Your spiritual path is between you and God alone. Lay some firm boundaries and do what you need to do.
What Do We Do When Struggling to Connect to Our Guides?
"I started working with Lucifer at the beginning of the year, but I lost touch. I'm a catholic witch but I'm surrounded by Baptists. I won't lie- I'm slowly feeling the fear and doubt again, I've communicated with Lucifer and we shared a bond. But I get confuse and defeated trying to read Tarot and failing to feel and receive messages from him, so I haven't tried again. I'm sensitive to the supernatural but it's waned. Any tips? Thanks." —Anonymous
Heya!
Honestly, there are a thousand and two reasons this may be the case. The most common, though, are that:
You're exhausted (been working too hard, stressed, not sleeping right, etc.) which messes with your ability to get a clean read on the supernatural
You're entering a Dark Night of the Soul and your guides/Lucifer/especially God are trying to teach you how to keep faith even when you can't feel them around
It's really difficult to keep strong through either of these, but it is a good sign that it may be time to take a break and reconnect with yourself especially. Spend more time reading, learning, and enjoying time with loved ones, as well as challenging your understanding and perception of both God and Lucifer throughout it all.
But whatever you do, don't give up.
How Do You View Islam?
"I understand that to understand just about anything deep diving into the things around it are important as well and I’ve just been so curious— Islam is also an Abrahamic religion so how does that tie into your understanding of God? or how do you understand these systems of belief (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) in relation to one another?" —Anonymous
Hey there!
For me, Islam is just another group's interpretation of God. It is not my understanding of or interpretation of God. While I haven't finished the Quran, I have read a few chapters of it, and it's become very clear to me that the prophet Mohammad is like any other person who has encountered God: a genuine and righteous person, but one still ultimately filtering God through his own understanding, experience, and culture (along with everyone else that followed him after and continued to contribute to the development of the religion).
This is how it goes for any religion. The entire Bible is a document that consists of human beings trying to translate something as ineffable as God into human speech, understanding and sociopolitical structure. However, for every one interpretation of God, another several billion exist, because every person understands God differently.
In short: it's just another channel for people to come to understand the Creator.
Do You Have to Finish Reading the Bible to Do Bibliomancy?
"I want to start practicing divination with the Bible, but I'm still reading it. Can I do divination with the Bible without finishing it? Do you also have tips for divination with the Bible?" —Anonymous
Hey, there!
Of course you can. In fact, doing bibliomancy without reading the whole Bible may even show you parts you've never heard of before that you may want to check out. While you can read the Bible start to finish, you don't have to read it that way; it's fine to skip around. And when you do, God has the opportunity to show you new things about this ancient text.
Is Chaos Magic Compatible with Christian Witchcraft?
"Is Chaos Magick compatible with Christian Witchcraft? It seems like it could be a good way to make sense of the reality that different experiences of the same God (i.e. across Abrahamic religions) can lead to so many different experiences." —Anonymous
Hey!
Honestly, it depends on how you define chaos magic. If you mean beating pots and pans together to cleanse a house or doing some really last minute, goofy improvising, then yeah, of course that's compatible. If you mean the more intense and "official" versions of it, which I am not well versed in enough to really talk about, then it depends!
If you think it's a good way to make sense of the different experiences of God, by all means, research it thoroughly and see if its structures and the general philosophy around it, if there is any, fits. This is a question that is really up to you to answer based on what you find when you peer into it. It's not like you're doing anything bad by investigating or learning more about it, and in fact, the more you know, the more of an informed opinion you can make. So go forth on your own and make your own judgement call!
When Did You Discover You Were a Christian Witch?
"I believe in God, but my soul speaks to everything magical and I am also a spiritual dreamer. When did you first discover you were a Christian Witch and how do you explain it to people and deal with negative comments?" —Anonymous
Hi there!
I actually have a YouTube video that goes over how I became a Christian witch. But basically, I've also always been a fantasy-minded, mystical person, and growing up in Catholicism, it made sense to me that these things would go together the more I studied it.
As for how I explain it to people: I really just call it mysticism with arts and crafts. All these herbs and stones and tools are to focus the mind; they're not objects of worship or the things doing the main work. God is the one giving the blessings; I'm the one connecting with Him to get those blessings. It's nothing that hasn't been part of the religion for centuries already; it's just the actual religion part that people forgot about doing in this modern world. We've cut ourselves off from a lot of the rituals, meditation, and deep connection that Saints and mystics would chase after, praying for hours a day and teaching others about the God they encountered; anything we call "witchcraft" today was really just what people were always doing back then. It has nothing to do with outside powers or "forces of darkness" or whatever goofy stuff people say.
Start from the point of mysticism, and if people are willing to listen, then go further.
How Do You Balance Magic, Faith, and the Mundane in Life?
"I want to know how can I balance God, witchcraft, and mundane life? Forgive me for being overly general in my question. I also wanted to know if your “Christian Witchcraft” book shipped to New Zealand? Many thanks :))" —Anonymous
Hello!
Honestly? Not well; I'm constantly busy and working on something. :') But that's a me problem. Realistically, it's not so much a question of balance as it is integration.
For instance, I don't see God and witchcraft as their own separate categories. I see witchcraft as my means of connecting with God, and this can take many forms. It can be a daily (or every other day) sit-down session with God, asking questions, talking to Him, pulling tarot cards to get His concrete responses. It can be a new moon or full moon night, where I dress up my coffee table for a ritual (which is effectively a one man sermon) to put some concrete goals down or give thanks and gratitiude for all I have and all I've accomplished. It can look like sprinkling blessings into my food, or stirring intentions and magic into my coffee, or speaking to my many cacti wards or my many herbs outside—or even throwing my kitchen scraps to my big tree guardian in front of my house. It can be reading more books on philosophy, theology, history, mysticism, etc. to get new understanding and inspiration after a long day's work. And it also looks like me putting all of it down to play video games, color, or otherwise just chill out and relax for a little while, too.
When you're in constant contact with God, and your methods of communicating with Him become habit, it's much easier to think of these things less as a chore to block time off for, and more just a part of your stabilizing routine.
As for Discovering Christian Witchcraft, it is available on Amazon for international folks! You can order it there, or you can order an e-book version from Amazon or my website. :)
Ask Your Questions!
Remember, all your questions can go to this Google form, so don't hesitate to reach out! I'm looking forward to seeing what questions people have in the future, and I hope this has been a helpful read! Thank you everyone who participated!
—Sara
Sara Raztresen is a Slovene-American writer, screenwriter, and Christian witch. Her fantasy works draw heavily on the wisdom she gathers from her own personal and spiritual experience, and her spiritual practice borrows much of the whimsy and wonder that modern society has relegated to fairy-and-folktale. Her goal is to help people regain their spiritual footing and discover God through a new (yet old) lens of mysticism.
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