Yes, it is growing like crazy with women. The cult of Lilith is alive and well, believe me.Seems like witchcraft is either becoming much more mainstream or it is just being promoted a lot more than it used too.
Seems like the perfect time and environment for the Church to come clean about its history and origins. Perhaps we could score more converts.markharr wrote: ↑November 11th, 2019, 6:27 am While my wife and I were at Barnes and Nobel the other night we noticed they had a whole endcap dedicated to witchcraft. This book was predominately displayed.
There have been a lot of news stories since Trump was elected about Covens putting a hex on Trump or casting spells to pass their agenda.
I notice that Netflix has brought back the Sabrina the teenage witch series. I haven't watched it but from the preview it looks much darker than the old ABC series with lucifarian symbolism showing predominately on the promo page.
Seems like witchcraft is either becoming much more mainstream or it is just being promoted a lot more than it used too.
know this for Millennia. Euripedes play the Bacchae (Bacchantes) deals with this very thing. Pentheus (patriarchy) tries and saves the women as they are lead into the woods to partake in naked dancing and lesbian/ multi-species orgies. However, Pentheus realizes these women are beyond saving and need destroyed from the kingdom. Dionysus convinces Pentheus to not destroy the group of women, but to first "spy" on them. Dionysus then alerts the women to Pentheus "spying" and in their madness, the women (especially Pentheus mother Agave) tear him limb from limb. Proud of what they have done, they take Pentheus' head to the king to gloat. However, the madness wears off and they (Pentheus Mother) realize they have killed and dismembered Agave's own son. Now knowing this, they have no power to withstand the barbarian hordes from overthrowing the kingdom. The barbarians subdue the feminist baffoonery. And people wonder what was the norm for the civilization Noah came from.pho·to·syn·the·sis wrote: ↑November 11th, 2019, 8:46 am Feminized societies seem to always follow this road. Man"People"kind has know this for Millennia. Euripedes play the Bacchae (Bacchantes) deals with this very thing. Pentheus (patriarchy) tries and saves the women as they are lead into the woods to partake in naked dancing and lesbian/ multi-species orgies. However, Pentheus realizes these women are beyond saving and need destroyed from the kingdom. Dionysus convinces Pentheus to not destroy the group of women, but to first "spy" on them. Dionysus then alerts the women to Pentheus "spying" and in their madness, the women (especially Pentheus mother Agave) tear him limb from limb. Proud of what they have done, they take Pentheus' head to the king to gloat. However, the madness wears off and they (Pentheus Mother) realize they have killed and dismembered Agave's own son. Now knowing this, they have no power to withstand the barbarian hordes from overthrowing the kingdom. The barbarians subdue the feminist baffoonery.
I swear, ancient cultures understood male and female nature better than we.
It is my opinion that a lot of mythology comes from bastardized stories passed down just after the flood. Their was a lot of "diversity" in the days of Noe. That is why the scriptures tell us, Noah was "perfect" in his generation. Mythology has a lot of multi-species creatures; or an attempt at such.Fiannan wrote: ↑November 11th, 2019, 8:52 amAnd people wonder what was the norm for the civilization Noah came from.pho·to·syn·the·sis wrote: ↑November 11th, 2019, 8:46 am Feminized societies seem to always follow this road. Man"People"kind has know this for Millennia. Euripedes play the Bacchae (Bacchantes) deals with this very thing. Pentheus (patriarchy) tries and saves the women as they are lead into the woods to partake in naked dancing and lesbian/ multi-species orgies. However, Pentheus realizes these women are beyond saving and need destroyed from the kingdom. Dionysus convinces Pentheus to not destroy the group of women, but to first "spy" on them. Dionysus then alerts the women to Pentheus "spying" and in their madness, the women (especially Pentheus mother Agave) tear him limb from limb. Proud of what they have done, they take Pentheus' head to the king to gloat. However, the madness wears off and they (Pentheus Mother) realize they have killed and dismembered Agave's own son. Now knowing this, they have no power to withstand the barbarian hordes from overthrowing the kingdom. The barbarians subdue the feminist baffoonery.
I swear, ancient cultures understood male and female nature better than we.
Well, Oaks is always going on about the importance of religious freedom in this country.
I actually agree.Durzan wrote: ↑November 11th, 2019, 9:45 am Witchcraft, sorcery, wizardry, and so forth only have as much power as individuals give them via belief, desire, and faith... both as concepts and as actual "supernatural" power. Most of the time it proves to be just bogus. The keyword is MOST.
There are 3 broad primary sources of "supernatural" power we can be drawn upon on this earth, all of which are accessed and fueled by faith in something or someone, and require some form of willpower to truly use effectively.
The first is "divine" energy, AKA the power of God (of which the Priesthood is but one small organized manifestation of) which is accessed through faith in Jesus Christ (directly or indirectly) and granted through prayer, meditation, righteousness. One must have a strong will to use it, but they must submit their will to God. Its power is inherently Good in nature and is fairly straightforward in how it can be used. There are laws and rules that must be followed in order for this power to become manifest within a prophet of God. Note that these rules are what underpin the doctrine and principles of the gospel as well as Eternal Law, not necessarily the commandments themselves. It is slow to initially manifest but is incredibly powerful when it does so. Healing and commands are the most common use of Divine power. It is by this power that the world and the universe were created and are maintained. Divine power is the
The second is "profane" energy, AKA power of the Devil, which is accessed via faith in Devil or by having faith in things that are evil. I do not know how it is accessed, or the methods used to gain it, nor do I want to find out, but I can say this ... it is quick and immediate when compared to the power of God, but far less powerful long term. I suspect that it does require terrible acts for it to manifest in a significant fashion, and the user most definitely will pay a terrible price for using it. Strong willpower is required to even control it, otherwise, it will eventually end up controlling you through force.
The third power is fundamentally different from the other two and requires some amount of explanation, for you are not drawing upon the power of another being, but rather drawing upon the latent "supernatural" energy or power contained within yourself. You see, as children of Heavenly Father, and as adopted sons and daughters of God, we all have within us the same kind of power that God and Christ wield. However, this power is our own, not Theirs directly. For our own safety and protection, this latent power has been mostly restricted by the veil that was placed over our minds, as the effects of accessing one's own power before they are ready (and for the most part, you are not ready if you are still in mortality) can cause unpredictable effects and can cause more harm than good.
However, it is possible to draw upon a limited fraction of your own power, but doing so requires a lot of time, effort, and training to do so without significant risk. While the specific process and effects of accessing your own power are unique to each individual, the methods always require you to come to some understanding of who you currently are, accept that information, attain some degree of enlightenment and peace of mind, your mind and body must be in balance with your spirit, etc. To put it simply, you must have faith in yourself as an individual in order to gain access to that power, and you must have the willpower to maintain that faith and believe with absolute certainty that what you desire to have happen will happen, otherwise it won't work. How a person's individual power manifests and the rules it abides by depends on the personality and mindset of the individual in question.
Now, here's the interesting thing: The first and second sources of power are mutually exclusive; however the third power can actually directly interact with and work in conjunction alongside with the either of the other sources. While the third power is the weakest of the three by itself (due to the veil and the lack of progression on our part), it becomes ehanced and magnified and temporarily assumes similar properties to the other energy source when exposed to it. Heck, it can even be accessed in conjunction with or even through the power of one of the other two. This single property makes it the most versitile of the three powers, and a very useful tool for prophets of God.
Indeed, I would hazard a guess that learning to use our own power by accepting the power of God as training wheels is part of the purpose of coming to this life. One of the underlying mechanisms of the atonement is to help build our self-confidence and faith by assuring us that we can and will return to Heavenly Father if we put our faith in his son Jesus Christ. Thus when one becomes humble and subservient to our Father in Heaven, and exercises priesthood power in faith and righteousness, then we are recieving the training and teaching from our Father to learn how to use our own power in due time. When Heavenly Father uplifts us, He's trying to not only calm our troubled hearts, but guide us into the right state of mind to gain access to our own potential.
Have you seen either "Hereditary" or "Susperia?"Lexew1899 wrote: ↑November 11th, 2019, 9:24 am It's just Hollywood's version of witchcraft that is popular. Actual witchcraft has to do with summoning demons and having sex with them, or demonality. The dark rituals used by an actual witch are so evil, they must be an opposite to the true nature of the Priesthood of God.
Not sure, I grew up on Dark Shadows and never became a witch, vampire or got into astro-projection.
What is it with women that when they dabble into the occult this often happens in real life? I knew a woman active in the Moral Majority. She was super-conservative - compared to me I felt like a liberal. Well, anyway, I moved away from that community and later heard from a mutual friend that she had gone into witchcraft and was in a relationship with a woman. I wonder if women repress sexuality so much that when whatever represses them is caste away they go full warp-speed the other direction. Kinda reminds me of the case I noted in another thread of the female return missionary who is now a famous porn star. No idea her ideological framework today, but she sounded as if she had been far more conservative than most LDS women I have known.Pentheus (patriarchy) tries and saves the women as they are lead into the woods to partake in naked dancing and lesbian/ multi-species orgies.
hmmm... I'm not sure, But I'd hazard a guess that justme was being at least halfway sarcastic.
I suspected that, but I have heard people actually make that claim.
Guilty to half way sarcasm. I do despise the books based on the few chapters I read being just a dreadful attempt at literature. But the level of cult following they achieved, even among "adults". was inconceivable to me.
So in other words, all these things, including sorcery, will end up flourishing in the LDS church. And one of the reasons why this is possible is that most Mormons simply equate "witchcraft" with channeling the power of the Devil, and since most people these days don't really believe in the Devil, and very few try to channel his power, it doesn't seem that relevant to us.Wherefore, I, the Lord, have said that the fearful, and the unbelieving, and all liars, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, and the whoremonger, and the sorcerer, shall have their part in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Verily I say, that they shall not have part in the first resurrection.
And now behold, I, the Lord, say unto you that ye are not justified, because these things are among you.
Yeah he was talking about pharmaceuticals in my opinion. Pharmakei -magic- sorcery, enchantment.Believing Joseph wrote: ↑November 11th, 2019, 1:14 pm About the Harry Potter books: I read them as a child and enjoyed them, there's plenty that they lack in terms of great literature, but they're still superior to most of the fare that kids get these days.
But what troubles me about witchcraft in the world today is that, when people hear that word, they immediately think of Harry Potter, or the occult section in the bookstore, or devil-worship, or covens gathering to hex Donald Trump. In other words, things that are far away from their own daily life. And yet the Lord gave the modern Saints a pretty harsh warning in D&C 63:
So in other words, all these things, including sorcery, will end up flourishing in the LDS church. And one of the reasons why this is possible is that most Mormons simply equate "witchcraft" with channeling the power of the Devil, and since most people these days don't really believe in the Devil, and very few try to channel his power, it doesn't seem that relevant to us.Wherefore, I, the Lord, have said that the fearful, and the unbelieving, and all liars, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, and the whoremonger, and the sorcerer, shall have their part in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Verily I say, that they shall not have part in the first resurrection.
And now behold, I, the Lord, say unto you that ye are not justified, because these things are among you.
But in ancient and medieval times, the sorts of things that would be regarded as witchcraft, or the dark arts, were much broader. Sure, summoning the Devil or casting a spell to make your neighbor's crops fail was witchcraft. So was procuring an abortion. Or making contraceptive potions. Or holding a lesbian orgy. Or administering any mind-altering drug: that's why one of the words translated as "witchcraft" in our Bibles is, in the original Greek, pharmakeia.
These things don't all involve an attempt to call on supernatural forces, but they were all seen as attacks on the natural order of things. Our society has since stopped associating most of these things with the occult, but that doesn't make the moral problems go away.
Psychopharmacology, for instance, is morally problematic because it interferes with agency, and the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is promoting drugs as a treatment for all sorts of conditions that used to not be considered mental disorders at all doesn't mean that it's no longer witchcraft - it just means that our country now has a $300 billion/year witchcraft industry. If, for example, you respond to your child's behavioral problems by getting him diagnosed with ADHD and giving him a potion that makes him lose the desire to run around excessively, socialize with other children, climb trees, or do anything else but sit still, then you are doing something that, in the early Church, would totally have been considered sorcery.
In summary: Gathering together a coven to hex Donald Trump is witchcraft. Putting your child on Ritalin is also witchcraft. And the things that Planned Parenthood does are witchcraft.
When the Apostle John warned that sorcery would be a huge problem in the last days, he wasn't talking about Wiccans, or Harry Potter, or flying around on a damn broom.
I'm not saying there's an exact equivalence between biblical "pharmakeia" and the modern drug industry, but it isn't a coincidence that a word that originally meant "drug use" later came to mean "sorcery."John Tavner wrote: ↑November 11th, 2019, 4:11 pm Yeah he was talking about pharmaceuticals in my opinion. Pharmakei -magic- sorcery, enchantment.
Well he is definitely not one to make a claim like that.
