Harry Potter? What Does God Have To Say?
I am writing this urgent message because I was once a witch. I lived by the stars as an astrologer and numerologist casting horoscopes and spells. I lived in the mysterious and shadowy realm of the occult. By means of spells and magic, I was able to invoke the powers of the "controlling unknown" and fly upon the night winds transcending the astral plane. Halloween was my favorite time of the year and I was intrigued and absorbed in the realm of Wiccan witchcraft. All of this was happening in the decade of the 1960's when witchcraft was just starting to come out of the broom closet.
It was during that decade of the 1960's, in the year 1966, that a woman named J.K. Rowling was born. This is the woman who has captivated the world in this year of 2000 with four books known as the "Harry Potter Series." These books are orientational and instructional manuals of witchcraft woven into the format of entertainment. These four books by J.K. Rowling teach witchcraft! I know this because I was once very much a part of that world.
Witchcraft was very different in the 1960's. There were a lot fewer witches, and the craft was far more secretive. At the end of that spiritually troubled decade, I was miraculously saved by the power of Jesus Christ and His saving blood. I was also delivered from every evil spirit that lived in me and was set free. However, as I began to attend fundamental Christian churches, I realized that even there witchcraft had left its mark. Pagan holidays and sabats were celebrated as "Christian holidays."
As time went on, I watched the so-called "Christian" churches compromising and unifying. I also watched with amazement as teachings from Eastern religions and "New Age" doctrine began to captivate congregations. It was a satanic set-up, and I saw it coming. Illuminist conspirators were bringing forth a one-world religion with a cleverly concealed element of occultism interwoven in its teachings.
In order to succeed in bringing witchcraft to the world and thus complete satanic control, an entire generation would have to be induced and taught to think like witches, talk like witches, dress like witches, and act like witches. The occult songs of the 1960's launched the Luciferian project of capturing the minds of an entire generation.
Witchcraft has always fascinated many people and been a very controversial topic in North America during the seventeenth and 17th centuries. Many people believe that witchcraft implies the ability to injure or use supernatural power to harm others. People believed that a witch represented the dark side of female presence and were more likely to embrace witchcraft than men. There are still real witches among us in the Utah who believe that witchcraft is the oldest religion dealing with the occult. However, the popular conception of a witch has not changed at least since the seventeenth century; they still caused panic, fear and a variety of other emotions in people.
In today’s times, witches are the green complexed, big nosed ladies who ride around on broomsticks at Halloween. Back in the 1600’s, witches looked like average people, but they worked alongside the devil. Salem, Massachusetts, was a religious town of Puritans. They were strong believers in God, and had believed that witches were the devils workers. Everything was usual in Salem in 1692, until, 9-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigale Williams had sudden outbursts of screaming, contortions and convulsions, the doctor came and diagnosed witchcraft (Blumberg, Jess) And from this time on, the people of Salem believed there were witches all around them.
The Wickedest Man on Earth, or as addressed to by his own mother, the Great Beast, is known for many things. He was a controversial author and a founder of mystic and magic occult philosophies, as well as his pleasure-seeking and sexual adventurism (Champion). Alister Crowley created quite a following upon the birth of his beliefs and philosophies included in “The Book of the Law”, which was his cult’s, the Thelema, own ‘bible’.
Early colonization of America led to the merging and changing in the ideas of witchcraft by the Europeans, Native Americans, Spanish, and British. These ideas took the lives of many, but they shaped the past so the present may be as it is today.
The Harry Potter series, written by J. K. Rowling, is about a young boy who finds out he is a wizard and uses his magic powers to vanquish evil. The series is currently the target of many protestors, as they scrutinize and penalize the books for their creative and imaginative topics. Ranging from education to religion, protestors' reasoning's behind theses attacks have sparked nationwide debates. Everything from censorship to book burning, protesting and pulling theses books from school shelves, have been done to outlaw the Potter series. Elizabeth D. Schafer, author of "Harry and History", summarizes how these controversies stem forth and how she disagrees with the protests against the Potter series. Censorship of the Harry Potter books is a vain attempt to maintain control and power over citizens as their rights and freedom of choice is being severely violated by forbidding the viewing of certain sources of entertainment.
Witchcraft was relentlessly thought as the work of the devil with only sinful and immoral intentions. Julio Caro Baroja explains in his book on Basque witchcraft that women who were out casted from society and unable to fulfill their womanly duties became witches as a way to compensate for her failed life. They were thought to be a threat to society as they dwindled in evil magic. This misunderstanding may have originated from the literary works of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, in their published book, “Malleus Maleficarum”. Accusations of being adulterous, liars and dealing with the devil materialized because of the...
The Salem witch trials was a very big thing back in the 1600’s. At that time Puritans believed in witchcraft and that the devil could conjure your spirit. They were scared of these things happening in their village so they would do anything to prevent it from happening,. This included killing anyone suspected to be with the devil or to be a witch. It turned out to be a big problem when a group of girls were supposedly seeing spirits sent out at them and the devil would come to them telling them to sign his book.
It is human nature to become superstitious and fearful upon witnessing something they cannot explain or when they make a seemingly flawless observation that links one thing to another. It is often for the human mind to attempt the path of least resistance and instead leap to a conclusion rather than to pursue a more complicated answer. Such uneducated thinking took lead and from it arouse the prospect of witchcraft. The simple idea that if your neighbor were acting peculiarly or children, particularly female children, were misbehaving in some way that they must be a witch allowed an easy scapegoat for the minds of continental Americans and became a widespread accusation. The acts of the “witches” often varied, though they were commonly blamed
The Salem Witch Trials began in Massachusetts around 1692 and lasted till 1693. People started to get accused of practicing witchcraft which was known as “Devil’s magic” to the point where it was thought that nearly 200 colonist might be in the practice. Many religious people, most of which stood by the Christian faith, assumed that the Devil himself could give people the power to hurt others way of life in exchange for their loyalty.
“If anyone, deceived by the Devil, shall believe, as is customary among pagans, that any man or woman is a night-witch, and eats men, and on that account burn that person to death... he shall be executed” (Charlemagne) When the words witchcraft or magic are spoken, most people think of the Salem Witch trials or the popular television characters that we have today. But do we really know what happened centuries ago that caused the creation of these ideals and these characters we have grown to adore? Witchcraft still has a tight hold on the mind of many and continues to influence the gap between the popular and elite cultures of today.
What do you think when someone calls someone a witch? What comes to mind? Do you think of the movie, ‘Hocus Pocus’ or do you think of the black pointed hats and the long black, slit ended dresses? What about witchcraft? Does the term “Devil worshiper” ever cross your mind? Do you think of potions and spells? For many, many generations, we have underestimated what the true meaning of a witch and what witchcraft really is. What is the history that hides behind it? Witches and witchcraft have been in our history since the ancient times. There is a little bit more than the ghost stories told on Halloween, the movies shown on TV and dressing up on Halloween.
J. K. Rowling constructed the magical world of Harry Potter in the 1990s, and the first film adaptation was released in 2001. Although Rowling’s primary focus was writing, she also worked as a producer and consultant on the Harry Potter films (cite). Within this enchanting world of magic, Harry Potter emerges as the hero of the story. Specifically, Harry is portrayed as a typical British schoolboy hero, in which Ramaswamy describes, “In British schoolboy fashion, Harry underplays his intelligence and is frightened of acquiring a scholarly image” (cite). In fact, it is this representation as an ordinary schoolboy that supports Harry’s role as a modern hero that defies epic characteristics.
The practices of witchcraft have been around for many centuries. It was said that men in early times used the idea of magic to pay respects to the gods that ruled and brought forth an easier life. Magic was used mostly by shamans, medicine people, and witches to call the powers of the gods to help grow crops and bring water. Magic was used more often when times were hard and grew from the craziness of bad weather and little food supplies. These people who performed witchcraft would do rituals and cast spells to help call the upon the gods. Over time the use of witches and witchcraft turned sour and people were seeing less and less of them. “Witches, who were primarily women, were originally seen as wise healers whom could both nurture and destroy; this belief in their power, however, eventually led to fear, and this often forced witches to live as outcasts” (Ashforth, 2005).
An example of this viewpoint can be explained by Charles W. Upham. In 1867, Upham wrote that Mather orchestrated to bring about the witch fad in order to "increase his own influence over an infatuated people.” He did this by convincing the people that he could "vanquish evil spirits" and "hold Satan himself in chains by his prayers and piety" (Detweiler 1975: 598). Others have even gone as far as to blame the girls for witchcraft craze in Salem stating that they were pretending and were acting unusual from how girls should normally behave to garner attention (Detweiler 1975: 600). Many anthropologists have theories as to why people believed in the witchcraft in Salem so strongly and why it caused such a frenzy. Some state that witchcraft was a way to explain misfortunes that could not be explained and somewhere to place blame, others believed that witchcraft operated as some form of social control and others had a theory that witchcraft operated as way to release social tensions (Detweiler 1975: 601). Anthropologists have also
J.K. Rowling is a very prominent and noteworthy woman. She has influenced people’s lives all around the world, by writing the Harry Potter series of seven books. Rowling has given millions of dollars to charities and she has helped people all over the world enjoy reading. With her major philanthropic efforts of giving to charity or her brilliantly crafted novels, J.K. Rowling is the Dumbledore of the muggle world.