With Halloween coming up, I thought it might be quite interesting to ponder about the whole “witchcraft” and “wizardry” topic. I’m not exactly sure what Halloween celebrates, having not grown up in such a culture – but from what I understand, it’s a celebration of the dead or the supernatural or something along those lines… ? And I’m not talking about Harry Potter stuff – I’m talking about hardcore witchcraft – the kind that puts curses on your enemies and charms on your favourites.
Perhaps for most of us today, it seems rather distant, surreal… maybe even complete utter nonsense. Some might say it was just a backward mentality – a way Man tried to comprehend nature before he understood it. “It’s like magnets. At first, they seem like pretty freaky stuff – but when you understand the electromagnetics to it, you realize it’s just science!”
Perhaps. I don’t know. Maybe those village bomohs (Malaysian witch-doctors) are just doing some fancy chemical reactions which produce some very exciting and amusing results. But whatever it is, they produce results.
I know for a fact that these things happen because my mother grew up in such a culture. My grandmother, you could say, was one who relied on superstitions to get through life, before she turned to Christ. And I’m not talking about trivial matters such as not walking under a ladder. I’m talking about ‘placing’ pearls into your tongue so that whatever you say sounds sweet to the listener, ‘placing’ gold leaves through your skin so that many would see you as beautiful, and having a jin (genie) look after the house to ensure no burglars dare come near. I know, as a kid, my mum didn’t entertain any such talk from me, and kept a close watch on the games I played with friends.
But can you blame her? This was the world she was raised up in. Sometimes when I talk about these stuff, people laugh – but this is how it comes accross to me… it’s like someone from a warm country saying “there’s no such thing as snow” simply because they’ve never seen it.
Although I’ve never had any personal encounters with such stuff (Thank God!), I do know individuals who have. I have a very good friend whose mum was possessed by a spirit. I have a friend who used to see the toys in a certain room move around on its own. I have an ‘uncle’ who had a curse placed on him which nearly put him to death, until some Thai priests found a doll with pins burried under his house - and of course, I have the countless stories of my mother’s childhood. That is just to name a few.
The real world of ’superstition’ or ’supernatural’, however you like to put it, is nothing like the books of Harry Potter. They’re scary and you can feel the eerie sense of evil in it. I’m pretty glad my generation has done away with it. Well, most have, anyway.
The other day at church, the sermon was on Luke 11:14-24, where Jesus heals a man with an unclean spirit. My pastor had asked a pastor from Africa why we don’t see so much of ‘this kinda thing’ in the west – and the answer was something along the lines of “people are drawn away from God by materialism, instead.”
Which made me think of Materialism in a very different way. It may not look as scary and godless as witchcraft – but perhaps that makes it scarier? Being caught up in such a materialistic hedonistic world, that you don’t even know you’re living an illusion, and going further and further from the truth, moving gradually, but definitely, away from God. Perhaps it acts as a blindfold, a lie to tell you “This is the life. This is what you’re meant to do - chase your dreams and make yourself god of your life. There is no God – you are god.”
Or perhaps the lie we’re fed is “God will understand. God wants you to be happy, doesn’t he? God wants you to chase your dreams.”
It is strange that such comments seem rather unfounded. Where do we get the evidence that “God will understand – God wants you to chase your dreams.” Isn’t it a way of consoling, or perhaps convincing ourselves that what we want is what’s important, and God is onboard with it. It seems rather a way to justify our actions so that our conscience is clear. And then it seems almost similar to witchcraft – just another means of doing things so that we get what we want, isn’t it? It’s almost the same as putting curses on your enemies and charms on your favourites, but just in a different way.
