{"id":386,"date":"2011-10-31T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-31T09:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/10\/witches-are-real\/"},"modified":"2015-10-30T16:03:56","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T21:03:56","slug":"witches-are-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/10\/witches-are-real.html","title":{"rendered":"Witches are Real"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2011\/10\/witches.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-20490 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2011\/10\/witches-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"witches\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\"><\/a>They don\u2019t huddle around the cauldron cackling, \u201cBubble, bubble, boil and trouble\u201d and they don\u2019t fly on broomsticks or have green skin, ( although come to think of it one witch I knew did have a sick green-ness about the gills, but I think that\u2019s because he was a drunk) but they do cast spells and put curses on people and they do worship Satan, and don\u2019t be deceived by the \u201cwhite witch\u201d lark. There\u2019s no such thing. All magic is black magic because of the philosophy behind it: those involved in witchcraft seek power, and anybody who seeks power for it\u2019s own sake is bad.<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Think of all the wicked people who justify their quest for power by saying it is for a good cause. Almost all evil in the world is caused by people who think they\u2019re doing it for a good cause. Not just Darth Vader. Think of the Nazis who really believed the concentration camps were necessary in order to bring about a master race\u2026see what I mean?<\/p>\n<p>So witches, wicca, witchcraft\u2013all that stuff. Yes, it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, if you invite diabolical powers into your life. Don\u2019t be surprised if they show up, and don\u2019t be surprised if, once you\u2019ve opened Pandora\u2019s box you can\u2019t get the lid back on. Remember in all the fun that the purpose of Hallowe\u2019en is to scare the spooks away\u2013not invite them in. Dressing up as monsters has the same purpose as putting gargoyles on cathedrals\u2013you\u2019re supposed to be scarier than the devil in order to give him the creeps and send him running. So when you carve a jack o\u2019lantern make him scary as you can, but say a prayer as you put him out that he might keep away the real monsters of the night, and if you dress as a ghoul or a ghost or a witch or a warlock remember that you are doing so to creep them out and say a prayer of deliverance from all the dark forces of the world.<\/p>\n<p>And if you come across anyone who takes witchcraft seriously tell them politely that if they summon the devil he will probably come, and that messing with the occult is the spiritual equivalent of an eight year old kid taking a five gallon can of gas into a fireworks warehouse then playing with matches.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/mcknight-period2.wikispaces.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Image<\/a> via Bing<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They don\u2019t huddle around the cauldron cackling, \u201cBubble, bubble, boil and trouble\u201d and they don\u2019t fly on broomsticks or have green skin, ( although come to think of it one witch I knew did have a sick green-ness about the gills, but I think that\u2019s because he was a drunk) but they do cast spells [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":20490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Witches are Real<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"They don&#039;t huddle around the cauldron cackling, &quot;Bubble, bubble, boil and trouble&quot; and they don&#039;t fly on broomsticks or have green skin, ( although come\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/10\/witches-are-real.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Witches are Real\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"They don&#039;t huddle around the cauldron cackling, &quot;Bubble, bubble, boil and trouble&quot; and they don&#039;t fly on broomsticks or have green skin, ( although come\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/10\/witches-are-real.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. 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