By Jon Furgeson
If you have listened in the last several years to Oprah Winfrey or heard interviews with Ariana Grande or dipped into the world of spiritual social media influencers, then you will have heard about “manifestation.” It is the power we have within, they say, to send out positive energies into the cosmos to manifest the positive persons and events we want in our lives. Rhonda Byrne’s bestseller, The Secret, popularized the idea and is one of many popular trends in American culture related to witchcraft.
For many of us, witchcraft conjures images of Halloween or the world of Harry Potter. At its most basic, real witchcraft can be defined as the use of sorcery or magic. Typically, it is also connected to beliefs about connection to the natural world reminiscent of pagan religions, speaking of the earth as Mother or Gaia.
Witchcraft and paganism have become some of the fastest-growing spiritual trends in Western culture today. In the last few years, well-known publications such as USA Today, Psychology Today and even The Atlantic have published articles promoting witchcraft and paganism as tools of female empowerment. A Swiss rail system celebrated its 2018 opening, in part, with dancers in white spinning around and bowing before a man dressed as a satyr. In this past year, the official Twitter account of the Ministry of the Defense of Ukraine made a post stating that the nation’s witches were sending curses upon Russia. It is all a part of the growing popularity and perceived acceptance of paganism and witchcraft in the Western world.
But why this interest in witchcraft even as mainstream Christianity and many other organized religious groups decline? What about these ideas appeals to modern people who otherwise lack a religious affiliation (the Nones)?
In brief, witchcraft is an ideal avenue for the postmodern view of life. The modern view understood life and religion through scientism. Due to its focus on the methods of natural science, scientism rejected organized religion and the existence of anything supernatural. The ideal faith of the modern view was atheism. The postmodern mind, however, both recognizes that science does not have all the answers and is skeptical of organized religion. For example, many postmodern thinkers claim to be “spiritual, but not religious.” The combined emphasis on personal subjectivity and skepticism toward organized religion is the fertile ground in which witchcraft has grown.
In witchcraft, there is little pressure to pick a particular set of teachings. Witches are free to follow whichever witch or sorcerer they choose to learn from and to leave whenever they desire. They are encouraged to find their own course, to develop their own book of spells (a personal grimoire) and to develop their own purposes for their spiritualism.
Witchcraft also taps into the desire for a connection to the natural and supernatural orders of existence. It scratches the itch for spiritual growth with a vague, supernatural feeling that complements whatever other viewpoints a person might choose to hold in daily life.
For Christians, witchcraft in general poses problems. God has some choice words to the Israelites about witchcraft, since it was common practice among their neighbors. He speaks against it in Leviticus 19 and reiterates it through Moses in Deuteronomy 18:10–12:
There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.
God speaks in this harsh manner for two main reasons. First, witchcraft relies on manipulating hidden powers for personal gain and seeing the future rather than relying on God’s care and provision. It turns a person away from Christ and turns them instead to a fascination with a supposed hidden inner power and the supernatural. Second, witchcraft typically leads to exploration of contact with the dead, such as ancestors, to harness power from them. But since one cannot see what one is engaging, one is easily fooled and manipulated by what is, most likely, demonic. Nothing good comes from any of this.
So, what do we do? First, be aware of this reality. Witchcraft is on the rise in America and shows no signs of stopping. Second, recognize the difference between fiction and reality. Harry Potter is not espousing real witchcraft and Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings is noble. Parker Brother’s Ouija “board game,” however, invites you to actual spiritism. The Magic 8 Ball is silly. But a Tarot deck is an attempt to tap into the future. Angels and fallen angels (demons) are real, but the dead have moved on, not roaming the earth to speak with us, and “supernatural forces” are not there for us to harness for our ends. Any group that encourages the use of hidden spiritual forces, energies or beings in your life to manipulate your world or to find out hidden things about the future should cause you to tread elsewhere.
Finally, pray for God to enlighten the hearts of those attracted to witchcraft. They are drawn in because they are broken in sin and looking for healing in the wrong places. Oprah, Ariana Grande and Rhonda Byrne hope to gain peace through a spiritual connection to the cosmos. The Bible is the only correct source of truth regarding the supernatural. Peace and hope come only by the Spirit of God, pointing us to Christ, who made and preserves the cosmos. Do not be afraid of those who practice witchcraft but do not participate in it with them. Rather, be sober-minded and prepared so that Christ may use you to help them know the truth of salvation and find the peace and hope they desperately seek by pointing them to the only place where it is found — Christ Jesus and Him crucified.
This article originally appeared in the March 2023 print issue of The Lutheran Witness.
Let me say, I agree with most of what you have said here, as they were keen observations and timely. Since witchcraft and pagan practices are mentioned in the Old Testament, we know this is nothing new in our generation or in generations before or after ours. But to add something of a controversial nature to the discussion of witchcraft or the conjuring up of supernatural spiritual power, I would add that the worship of the dead, prayers of intercession to dead saints, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, as well as special powers given historically by the Catholic Church to Holy Water, iconic objects, statues, and relics, seems very close to the idea of witchcraft, which transfers supernatural power to things other than God, essentially replacing Him in His deity. I say this as a former Catholic. I am not against Catholics, but these practices have long existed and continue to thrive in the Roman church, bestowed down from the Vatican by history and tradition to the clergy and lay members through generations. Perhaps we might call it “soft witchcraft” ? Soli Deo Gloria