We're approaching Halloween: that time of year again where there's a heightened cultural interest in witches, ghouls, stuff that go bump in the night, and generally things that scare us   - or at least things that used to scare us.  In other words, there's an elevated interest in all things occult.Reviewing the recent search engine terms that direct traffic to this site reveal this heightened interest.

Gear Up

Seers and others who are spiritually sensitive sometimes have a difficult time during this season. A seer friend of mine sent me a picture from Walmart last year while in the Halloween costume aisle, which is littered with costumes that promote skeletons, demons, devils, and witches: glorifying of death and the occult. He described the actual spirits he saw standing in the aisle, influencing customers' decisions, and the aura of darkness some of those costumes engraved on their wearers.I have heard of other more terrifying images that seers on Halloween have witnessed; but then these seers see terrifying visions year round, not just on Halloween.Still, given the uptick in interest in the occult and scary things this time of year, I thought I'd offer a list of posts or articles related the dangers of pursuing the contact of demons. In no particular order:

• Using marijuana as an aide to contact ghosts or spirits
• Using Oija boards and other things to contact spirits
• Trying to talk to ghosts or demons.
• Seeing spirits.
  • Parenting kids who see spirits.
• Dealing with an actual haunted house.
• What are spirits? 
  • What are ghosts? 
  • What are demons? 
  • When demons scratch you.
  • Dealing with night terrors, sleep paralysis or dark spirits in the night.
• The Source of true freedom from the forces of darkness.

Some thoughts for Christians on Halloween

I want to be clear: while in the past my wife and I avoided celebrating Halloween for religious reasons, these days my family enjoys the cultural fun surrounding Halloween, although we do so with a guarded attitude.We go to pumpkin patches and through hay mazes, we carve pumpkins and roast seeds, we watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and decorate the house. And the kids dress up and go Trick or Treating. We see these as wonderful community-enriching activities and feel we should engage in activities that encourage us to hang out with our neighbors, friends, and community.However, I added the caveat that we have a guarded attitude: we don't watch horror movies, go through "haunted houses" that involve occult figures scaring us - actually we don't go to any haunted houses at all, and we don't decorate with ghosts or skeletons or anything the promotes death or the like.Some of our Christian friends look at us askance, and wonder how we can engage in anything that "promotes the occult."Basically, despite the success wiccans and others have had in subverting the purpose of Halloween, when I began to understand the nature of the Kingdom Conflict around us, I began understanding that Halloween represented the defeated Domain of Darkness: things that used to reign freely and scare us unchecked. The next day, "All Saints Day" represents the Kingdom of Light, which empowers us to check the forces of darkness and submit to the rule and reign of God. See this link for more on this.  I just don't have a problem recognizing the defeat of demons and forces of darkness, but won't do so in a way that brings glory to dark forces.I also don't have a problem with Christians who share a conviction to not "celebrate" Halloween.The problem with taking a stand against the occult on just that day, however is, simply that my culture promotes the occult in most everything every day of the year.  There are idols of goddesses (demons) in our courthouses and capitol buildings, stars (which represent territorial spirits) on our nation's flag, mystical symbols on our currency; our pop culture is littered with occult references and a promotes an overt occult worldview and occult-laced songs and symbols are pumped over the airwaves 24/7.  See my article and interview about "Parenting in the Land of Moloch" and my podcast on horoscopes for more thoughts on this.In addition, I'm not impressed with the argument that that Halloween used to be some kind of evil day to celebrate demonic rituals.  The same can be said for sporting events.   In fact, many sporting competitions (like the Olympics) were "originally" occult celebrations to certain demons.  Does that mean football or basketball or baseball or, egad, tennis players are performing occult rituals by playing their sports? (Well, maybe baseball players when it comes to the Cubs and a certain goat.) Just because certain demonic practices of Ancient Rome involved running across the country feverishly doesn't mean cross country or 5k or even Marathon runners have anything to do with those rituals.In other words, the purpose of certain activities millennia ago don't matter a whit in current usage.Current usage matters! So if someone uses Halloween as a time to gather with friends and hold a seance or cast magical spells, then that's bad,  just like it'd be bad if they did that on any other day. But if Halloween has evolved into a community event set aside for neighbors to go door to door in a family-friendly activity, then that's good. I hope that makes sense.And again, I'm perfectly fine with people who disagree and don't want to participate because of their religious convictions. I just hope they don't picket the local high school track and field meet.Frankly, my wife and I enjoy that Halloween, which brings the Kingdom conflict into stark relief, can be celebrated in a redemptive way. We'll explore this clash of worldviews in coming posts.