We all love some critically un-self-aware Christians, don't we?
As Christian witches, vanilla Christians are constantly telling us that we're doing our religion all wrong. That the God we're speaking to isn't God, that His angels are actually demons, that all we do is an active abhorrence to Him and that we'll burn in hell forever and ever for thinking we can talk to God and hear anything other than the typical bigoted garbage so many Christians try to convince themselves is holy. We've all heard it once or twice or seventy-two times: the devil comes as an angel of light, telling us that the things that we think are good are actually evil, and referencing St. Paul's second letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 11:14):
And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
Usually, the entry level, sola scriptura, "the English Bible is perfectly translated" type Christians will tell you this to tell you that the things you like, the gods you follow, the practices you engage in, are all terrible and bad. That we've all been deceived by that mean old "Devil," tricked into thinking our rocks and herbs and and tarot cards are all a big ploy of Satan™, like spiritual fly paper for our buzzing little souls. How terrible, how tragic, that the souls of Christians could be so easily led astray for all of these wicked New Age things like candles and incense!
(The Catholic church would like a word, but God knows sola scriptura types don't even recognize them as Christian despite their being the reason anyone in the West even knows who Jesus is.)
But here's the thing. For many of these Christians, not only does the devil dress up as all things nice and beautiful, but he apparently is also found in everything obviously "demonic": witchcraft, occult philosophy, demonology, anything that comes out of the doors of a Hot Topic, so on and so forth. The Devil can be deceitfully dressed as an upstanding, clean-cut member of the spiritual country club by day and out there putting Marilyn Manson to shame with all of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll by night in the minds of these folks, which begs the question:
How do you actually know when and where you're encountering this "devil," then? If he's everywhere, all the time—both in the obvious places and in the not-so-obvious ones—how can you ever be sure that the man you run from for being demonic is the devil, and the man you clutch onto for spiritual guidance in your faith communities isn't?
"Discernment!" So shouts the Christian flock. "The Bible! The Holy Spirit! These tell you who's of God and who isn't!"
And you know? I'd give that to them, honestly. I'd say they're correct—if they actually understood any of these three things they act like they have, understand, or demonstrate at any point. But just having a Bible in one's hand doesn't mean they've read it, nor does it mean that all evil stays away as if the Bible is some kind of spiritual citronella candle. Just believing in God doesn't mean one knows God, especially if they never bother taking the time to learn how to hear any answers to their prayers. And asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate the truth or dwell within them certainly doesn't mean good Sophia ever even stopped by—especially with how some of these people act.
No, for all their talk of "possession" and "demons," for all their whining about the devil and his very shiny disguise, they sure do open their chests right up and ask the first thing that feels like their idea of holy to come settle in and get comfortable—which sounds like the perfect way to get possessed to me. So let's talk a little bit more about this Devil and his shiny angel costume, in hopes that we'll be less likely to make the same goofy mistakes these folks do.
Lucifer: The Famous Title That Signifies a (Fallen) Angel of Light
Yes, that is correct. Lucifer is not a name. Lucifer is a title. And at its most simple translation, it's a word that means light bringer. Lucifer is the "devil," especially in more Catholic tradition, also known as Satan. This is the thing that cements St. Paul's notion in 2 Corinthians. And we get more and more of the character of this "devil" as we go through the Gospels, where Satan attempts to get Jesus to worship him in exchange for all of the kingdoms of earth (in which, it's important to note that those kingdoms had apparently been given to Satan to rule over (Luke 4:6). Who else could give them but God?). Of course, Revelation 12:9 shows Satan to be a dragon, not necessarily a super shiny angel—one who "led the whole world astray"—so clearly, the "devil" can take quite a few forms, but it isn't the scary, scaly ones that he's using to trick people. That probably wouldn't work very well.
But let's take a moment to remember that Lucifer and Satan are not the same titles.
While most people are familiar with the term Satan, another title coming from Hebrew Ha Shatan (and meaning the Adversary), the term they often use interchangeably with it is Lucifer, as if these are the same two ideas, entities, meanings, or anything of the sort. Satan is the title given to God's own angels—the ones assigned to test us and see if they can get us to stumble. Think of the story of Job, or the angel that tries to tempt Jesus in the desert. There's a reason they know the scriptures: because they're doing God's dirty work. Of course they'd know His word and His will, and of course they'd still ultimately be beholden to Him.
Likewise, Lucifer is a Roman word, one that originally referred to the Roman personification of the planet Venus, the god of the morning star (his evening star counterpart being Nocifer). The god's name is also the word used in translation for a title that appears in the Bible—but it doesn't refer to who most Christians think it does. It appears once in Isaiah 14:12, in reference to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar who makes a big mess for the Jewish people by attacking Judah, destroying the temple of Jerusalem, and taking the Jewish people as captives:
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer [or morning star, depending on translation], son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!
As you can see, this would suggest a fallen angel by the name of Lucifer, and one that has to do with light. nd it also appears, or is at least hinted at, in Revelation 22:16:
I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.'
But wait a minute. Does Revelation say Jesus refers to Himself as the bright Morning Star—as Lucifer? Yes. Yes, it does, and you did read that right. It's a complex and nuanced title, and it's one that, if you don't actually know your Bible or its history well, makes it impossible to actually figure out who is who and what is what, which way is up and which way is down. By being so uninformed about these concepts and these titles, though—both Lucifer and Satan—Christians unfortunately stay pretty confused about who their supposed "enemy" in faith actually is.
In my practice, the title Lucifer is worn by the archangel Samael—a fallen angel, yes, but still a dangerous and important aspect of God: the Venom of God. The first time he appeared to me, he absolutely did appear as an angel of light—but there was no mistaking that he was Lucifer, because the way in which he depicted that age old "angel of light" idea was so incredibly cheesy, an obvious joke. I mean, really—floating down with shiny white wings, totally naked except for a white loincloth like some renaissance painting, all short golden curls for hair? It was so in-your-face that only an idiot could've been fooled by such a thing.
It was just too much. It was too pretty and perfect. it was too staged. And yet the same Christians who will warn you about this "angel of light" will, in the next breath, fall exactly for this kind of trick with whatever entity they claim is the Holy Spirit.
The Egregore: An Occult Concept Every Christian Should Know (But Never Get Taught) About
I've spoken on the Evangelical Egregore before on my YouTube page, and let me tell you, the thing is not pretty. It's a thing that masquerades as God, that whips people into a frenzy in churches and gets them doing those stupid, cringe "exorcisms" you see "pastors" post all over the internet; it's the thing that convinces people to only memorize a few key verses in the Bible and use them to beat innocent people (like the LGBTQ+ community, women, etc.) over the head while ignoring the entire rest of the Bible. It's the one that tells them not to look for any outside scholarship or understanding of Scripture and deludes them into thinking they can perfectly understand the Good Book with nothing other than the comprehensive skills allowed to them by grace of their 4th grade reading level.
In essence, it's a sham spirit. It pretends to be God and gets fat and happy off the energy of hundreds of thousands of worshippers across America.
Kristin Kobes du Mez's book, Jesus and John Wayne, does a lovely job tracking the creation of this egregore, but the issue still stands: any church operated by this egregore (of which there are many) isn't exactly a place you're going to find the Holy Spirit. And I know I call it the Evangelical Egregore, but unfortunately, the mindset this thing creates has bled into just about every denomination; wherever there are people steeped in prejudice, this egregore is feeding. And of course, it wouldn't get any followers or anything if it didn't make people feel a certain type of way, right? People would be able to tell right away that something was off if they weren't feeling so good and holy, naturally.
But remember what I said about Lucifer appearing in a get-up so painfully obvious? Something one could say was too good to be true?
Yeah. The same applies with this egregore. I've heard a lot of things about it—how it can create such a feeling of euphoria in its victims that it becomes addictive, how it straps people down with guilt and fear and forces it to rely on them. How people have gone to churches infested with the egregore and, while everyone was speaking in "tongues" (or gibberish) and falling all over themselves in an embarrassingly over-the-top display of "receiving the Spirit," newcomers looked at each other and knew, viscerally, that there was something wrong in the church. Something downright evil.
I've heard all these things, and I've repeatedly been baffled—because this is the type of creature one would think about when one thinks of this "devil masquerading as an angel of light." What else would so effectively lure people in who are looking for what's righteous? How else would this thing so effectively deceive "all the world," as the Revelation dragon is said to do, if they didn't manage to get inside the church walls? As I said: the dragon form of Revelation's Satan is obvious. No one would go to it because they would see it for what it is, and Christians make this obvious enough when they have a heart attack any time they see someone wearing black and sporting a cool tattoo.
In fact, it's frustrating, the way in which Christians cannot make up their mind. Is the witch wearing black, covered in tattoos, putting rusty nails and dead wasps in a spell jar, so obviously a "minion of Satan"? Or is she maybe just the average spiritual individual who understands how to work anti-social magic in her favor when she's been trespassed on time and time again by people who don't respect her? Let's take this question further: was it the Devil™ that told her to hit back at someone with that spicy little spell jar—or Was it maybe God?
Because any Christian that has really read their Bible would remember the most infamous Psalm of all, Psalm 109—and the God the Psalmist addresses. Here's just a little piece, in case a Christian coming by here has forgotten it:
6 Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
and may his prayers condemn him.
8 May his days be few;
may another take his place of leadership.
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.
10 May his children be wandering beggars;
may they be driven from their ruined homes.
11 May a creditor seize all he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
12 May no one extend kindness to him
or take pity on his fatherless children.
13 May his descendants be cut off,
their names blotted out from the next generation.
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord;
may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
15 May their sins always remain before the Lord,
that he may blot out their name from the earth.
Sounds pretty baneful to me. A solid counter curse.
"But God would never tell someone to do this!" So comes the predictable cry of the deluded, egregore-addled Christian. "God would never tell someone to do what He's said not to do!"
I raise you Ezekiel 4:12-17:
Eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.” 13 The Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.”
Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign Lord! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No impure meat has ever entered my mouth.”
“Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.”
He then said to me: “Son of man, I am about to cut off the food supply in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair, 17 for food and water will be scarce. They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of their sin.
God commanded Ezekiel to go against the laws concerning food to make a point. God also sent a "deceiving spirit" to King Ahab via all four hundred of his prophets, to trick him into dying in battle (1 Kings 22:19-23). And God has done other things, too, like allow two she-bears to maul forty-two kids for making fun of the bald prophet Elisha (2 Kings 2:23-35), as well as brought King Saul to ruin not for consulting witches—but for failing to annihilate an entire tribe of people, the Amalekites (1 Samuel 28:18). Turns out our God is a tricky and brutal one, and He doesn't always appear as the peaceable little lamb Christian pastors so desperately want Him to be, so that they can put any number of defiled and useless words in His mouth and call them good.
See, for all Christians squawk about discernment, they apparently have none. Jesus tells them not to run after money and things, and yet they invent the prosperity gospel off His name. Jesus tells them to open their homes to all types of people, and yet they insist only the ones that match their strict standards of thought, style, and behavior be accepted as people. Jesus tells them that to be first, they must be last, and yet there they are, exalting themselves for their alleged faith more than any Pharisee of Jesus's day ever did. They fall for the "upstanding" pastors, the "clean" appearances of their religious leaders, the "holiness" of their most affluent members—they decry the "sinfulness" and "demonic" appearances of those who so much as look in the direction of a metaphysical shop—all while burying the rampant abuse, hypocrisy, and wickedness deeper and deeper into the foundations of their rotting church.
But they have been deceived so thoroughly that if you point this out to them, they'll hold up their heads and laugh, so very dangerously sure of themselves. For all of God's trickiness—for all He likes to humble us time and time again, to remind us that we are but silly little creatures who will never figure out every twist and turn of Truth—these people, in their arrogance, only dig deeper in their ignorance. They shut their eyes and cover their ears and refuse to acknowledge that this spirit that makes them feel so good is perhaps not the Spirit they think it is.
I am a tired person, and my God a frustrated God. But He isn't done playing His game with the Adversary just yet. As Judge, He watches our little game of tug-of-war against this deceiving angel, knowing that His true children's voices get drowned out by the loud, the dramatic, the ecstatic, and knowing also that they never truly go mute, either. He knows that His children will find new and inventive ways to be an affront to the wrongly righteous, and that the wrongly righteous will continue to refuse to listen.
That's okay. Because the story continues on, even today. So let me leave you with a reminder from, ironically, St. Paul (1 Cor 1:27-31), the one who has been swept up to the Third Heaven and who told us in the first place that the "devil" would so cleverly hide among us, where we don't expect:
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
The weak shame the strong, the foolish shame the wise, and in this era, in this, the Year of Our Lord 2023, the Witch shames the Priest. So go wrap your tongues around hot irons, you Priests; it'll be better for you to never speak again than to say one more word from your rusted pulpits.
Where the Gods Left Off Updates:
Tunneling along through the last of the interviews and getting ready to put these into their InDesign files—that's where we are now. I'm well over halfway through the chapters, and each time I read an old one, I realize another old lesson has come to fruition in a wild and explosive way.
Such is the price to pay for spiritual knowledge, you know? Such is what we go through to get that good gnosis. But it's worth it, because the way I've grown—and the way I can see that growth—has opened up so many interesting avenues for me that I never would've had before.
If you want to grab yourself a signed copy on release date, consider visiting my shop and ordering one today!
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 s
piritual 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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