Strangely Familiar

 

One of the purposes of this blog is to warn Traditionalists of modern evils and dangers that have arisen since the Great Apostasy. Since the end of the Robber Council in 1965, two dangers have arisen that pervade society: (1) the Occult, and ironically, (2) the denial of the supernatural. Modernism, as Pope St. Pius X warned, leads to atheism. However, humanity is incurably God-centered. The pull towards that which is greater than us is innate. The First Commandment does not read "Thou Shalt Not Be An Atheist," but rather "Thou Shalt Not Have False Gods Before Me." With the One True Church obscured by the Vatican II sect, the people begin to look to the occult for answers. Even atheists replace the True God with the false "gods" of sex, money, power, etc. These evils come to us in many ways, including TV shows and movies. 

You'd need to be living under a rock not to have heard of the Netflix series Stranger Things, which many sources claim is one of the most (if not the most) popular series of all time. The show takes place in the 1980s, in a fictitious Indiana town. After the mysterious and sudden vanishing of a young boy, the people of the town begin to uncover secrets of a government lab, portals to another world, and sinister monsters. The boy's mother desperately tries to find him, convinced he is in grave danger, while the police chief searches for answers. I was told by co-workers and neighbors that I "had to" watch it because it was such a good show.

Finally, I decided to check it out, along with some popular movies and TV series; all of which I believed before watching that they would contain occult or anti-God messages and possibly occult origins. I wasn't disappointed. It was all strangely familiar. This post will explain the occult and anti-Christ messages/origins of some of the biggest movies and shows; both current and fairly recent.

What is the Occult?

The dictionary defines the occult as "supernatural, mystical, or magical beliefs, practices, or phenomena." Based upon my years of research, I see the occult more in-depth. The word occult comes from the Latin occultus, which means “concealed” or “hidden," as in an "occult heretic." The occult involves mystic knowledge and "magic powers" received from the spirit world and dispensed for the benefit of devotees or directed destructively at enemies by those who have been initiated into its secrets. The masters of occult power are known as medicine men (or women), witch doctors, witches, psychics, pagan priests, sorcerers, astrologers, gurus, yogis, shamans, mediums, seers, or healers.

Some of those involved with occult powers attribute them to a variety of deities, others to a “Force” inherent within the universe with a “dark” and “light” side into which humans can tap. Still others claim they are simply using a normal power of the mind which can be cultivated in a special state of consciousness. There are also those who blasphemously attribute occult powers to the God of the Bible. Occult powers that produce results which cannot be explained by science are found in the practice of almost every religion, from much that calls itself Christianity, to paganism, idolatry, witchcraft, and Satanism. Occultism is present even in religions which are opposed to one another. For example, it is found in the Sufism of Islam and in the Kaballah of Judaism; in aberrant "Christian" sects as well as in satanic and UFO cults.

The acceptance and proliferation of all aspects of the occult are increasingly viewed as perfectly legitimate and desirable in today’s world. We will see how this plays out in movies and TV. First, some older movies/shows will be examined, and then contemporary ones. 

Harry Potter and Twilight

 It's important to understand the demonic forces that are behind these seemingly innocent works and alert any friends and family with children/grandchildren of the danger. The Twilight series revolves around the dark romance between Edward (a 108 yr old vampire) and Bella (a teenage girl). Edward doesn't age so he appears young, but there remains an underlying pedophile problem never addressed. Edward belongs to a good "coven" of vampires who don't kill humans, drinking animal blood instead. He protects Bella from the bad vampires, even as he fights against his own perverse urges to drink her blood. Hence, Edward is portrayed as a "noble" vampire. The series is seeped in occult themes.

Similarly, Harry Potter tells us there are "good witches" and bad ones, when all forms of witchcraft (or "Wicca"), are condemned by God. Portraying evil as good, or having good potential, has never been so rampant as today. You will not see any condemnations coming from the Vatican II cult, as this is exactly what they believe---"elements" of truth and goodness can be found in what is false and wicked. Harry Potter also promotes moral relativism; nothing is right or wrong, it depends exclusively on the circumstances.  Even more frightening, is the little known fact that both Stephanie Meyer (who wrote the Twilight series) and J.K. Rowling (who wrote the Harry Potter series) both claimed to have gotten their ideas from an "outside source" that "revealed it to them."

For Rowling, during a train ride in 1990, she claimed, "I was staring out the window and the idea of Harry Potter just came. He appeared in my mind's eye fully formed." (See Reuters, "Harry Potter Just Strolled into My Head" 7/17/00) She also claims to hear in her head the conversations she writes:  "Dialogue just comes to me as if I'm overhearing a conversation." 

(See januarymagazine.com/profiles/jkrowling.html). 

As for Stephanie Meyer, a member of the Mormon sect, she claims that the story of Twilight was revealed to her in a dream:

"I woke up (on that June 2nd) from a very vivid dream. In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire. They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately. For what is essentially a transcript of my dream, please see Chapter 13 ("Confessions") of the book." (See stepheniemeyer.com/twilight.html).

She further relates that after her dream, she began to hear voices that would not stop until she wrote what she heard:

"All this time, Bella and Edward were, quite literally, voices in my head. They simply wouldn't shut up. I'd stay up as late as I could stand trying to get all the stuff in my mind typed out, and then crawl, exhausted, into bed (my baby still wasn't sleeping through the night, yet) only to have another conversation start in my head. I hated to lose anything by forgetting, so I'd get up and head back down to the computer. Eventually, I got a pen and notebook for beside my bed to jot notes down so I could get some freakin' sleep. It was always an exciting challenge in the morning to try to decipher the stuff I'd scrawled across the page in the dark." (Ibid--Emphasis in original).

After she wrote her books, Meyers relates that "Edward" came to her in a dream to let her know he wasn't good. She told Entertainment Weekly, "(Edward told me) I had gotten it wrong, and he did drink blood like every other vampire and you couldn't live on animals the way I'd written it. We had this conversation and it was terrifying." (Emphasis mine). Could both women simply have active imaginations? When you consider both claim that the characters came to them out of the blue, both claimed they could literally hear what they had to write as from an external source, and all dealt with showing evil as good, I think a good case can be made these books and movies were demonically inspired.

Openly Satanic: Lucifer

Originally on Fox for three seasons (2016-2018), Lucifer came back at the request of over 300,000 people signing petitions. Netflix picked it up for another three seasons ending in 2021. The Fox website originally described the show this way:

“Bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell, Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) abandoned his throne and retired to Los Angeles, where he has teamed up with LAPD detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) to take down criminals.” 

Ironically, the show Lucifer portrays Satan as a somewhat reformed fallen angel who has had a change of heart and transformed himself into an angle of light. Of course, this is exactly the sort of thing that  God warns us that Satan would do, regarding his image, in an effort to get the unsuspecting to let their guard down (See 2 Corinthians 11:13-15). It worked, with 300,000 fools petitioning for it to continue. In the very first season, episode 9, entitled "A Priest Walks Into A Bar," Lucifer is seen going into a Vatican II sect confessional pretending to be a priest. A woman comes into confess lustful thoughts for another man (she's married). Lucifer encourages her to act on them and commit adultery. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the blasphemies spewed on this show.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina ("CAOS") was one of the most popular series on Netflix from 2018-2020, and got cancelled due to problems during COVID. The show is loosely connected to Sabrina the Teenage Witch, that ran as a cartoon from 1971-1974, and then as a darker live situation comedy starring Melissa Joan Hart (1996-2003). This version of Sabrina depicts explicit Satanism in a positive light. The show centers around the lives of literal, explicitly Satan-worshipping witches gathering as the "Church of Night," learning Satanic law, casting spells, performing unholy rituals, offering animal sacrifices, and chanting blasphemies such as “Hail Satan” in hopes of summoning Satan himself.

CAOS follows the exploits of the half-human, half-witch Sabrina Spellman (sixteen years old), wrestling through her prophesied fate. She’s fated to become Satan’s queen and the harbinger of hell on earth. She doesn't want to be his bride. As an orphan, Sabrina has been raised by her aunts, Zelda and Hilda Spellman, both witches in the Satanic Church. Her cousin Ambrose Spellman, living with them, is a pansexual witch with a penchant for necromancy (conjuring the dead). Those who contact the dead are called mediums.

As I've written before, mediums are condemned by both the Bible and Church teaching. "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you." (Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Emphasis mine.) According to theologian Jone, "Spiritism claims to be able to communicate with the spirit world and endeavors to establish such commerce with it. Although spiritism is for the most part fraud, still the intention alone to enter into communication with spirits is gravely sinful. Therefore, it is mortally sinful to conduct a spiritistic seance or to act as a medium." (See Moral Theology, [1961], pg. 100; Emphasis mine). 

Here is a partial listing of the evils depicted in CAOS. Sabrina:

• tortures people
• unleashes a demon
• kills a classmate
• signs the "book of the beast," promising her soul to Satan
• conducts a seance to talk with her dead mother 

This laundry list of evil deeds is just from Sabrina, the heroine of the show. Debauchery is the central theme. You name it, these characters do it — promote witchcraft, engage in school-sanctioned alcoholic sex parties, sexual assault, orgies, murder, incest, torture, sadomasochism, and even cannibalism. All of this takes place in Season One; I didn't need to go any further. By the way, one of the show's writers, Joshua Conkel, is a practicing Wiccan (witch).

Stranger Things: Strangely Anti-Supernatural

I left Stranger Things to examine last because despite appearing occult, it actually promotes a Naturalistic, anti-supernatural worldview. You read that last sentence correctly.

Naturalism is the worldview that says only material things exist. Thus, immaterial things such as the soul, angels, and God are not real. Reality is thus exhausted by physical things that are accessible to the senses and scientific investigation.

The supernatural worldview, by contrast, embraces the existence of an immaterial reality. In his letter to the church in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul writes, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

Stranger Things certainly has all the regular trappings we associate with the occult; demon-like possession, monsters, and an alternate dimension called "The Upside-down." Yet, who do the boys turn to for advice when they need to access the Upside-down? They don’t go to a spiritual advisor, consult a spiritual book, or attempt some kind of occult ritual. Rather, they consult their science teacher, Mr. Clarke, who becomes a trusted advisor throughout the series. To access the Upside-down, they tap his scientific expertise because they assume it is an alternate physical dimension. It may contain different lifeforms and plant life, but it is not an immaterial, spiritual realm. This is atheism posing as occultism to attract viewers. Occult ideals and Satanic values are fairly similar to atheistic humanism. Social justice, individual liberty, and pleasure-seeking might not sound Satanic, yet are in fact the explicit tenets of real-life Satanism.

The first of nine Satanic Statements defining the Church of Satan (founded in 1966), is “Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence.” (See churchofsatan.com/nine-satanic-statements). The Satanic Temple, another brand of Satanism, founded in 2013, lists seven core tenets, roughly summarized as (1) compassion/empathy (2) social justice (3) personal autonomy/liberty (4) respect for other people’s freedoms, (5) science, (6) fix your own mistakes, and (7) follow spirit of the law over the letter of the law. (See thesatanictemple.com/pages/tenets).

Objections Considered

To many people, I'm seen as a "fanatic," I'm "opposing anything not expressly religious," and I "see evil everywhere." The objections can basically be boiled down to this: “It’s just a movie/ TV show! What’s the harm in watching? Merely watching the show/movie isn’t the same as practicing the occult or worshiping Satan. In fact, the protagonist is fighting evil or trying to become good." Here are three reasons that these shows/movies do not belong in a Christian household:

1. The viewer cheers for evil posing as "good."

In CAOS, Sabrina tries to escape from Satan. Escaping Satan should be good, right? What the audience doesn’t realize is that underneath the sensationalized Satanism lurks an enticing occult way of life. By backing away from Satanism, Sabrina backs into Wicca (witchcraft), and a lighter shade of Satanism — and the audience is manipulated into cheering for her the whole time. By using the foot-in-the-door method, CAOS basically becomes promotional marketing for occult dabbling, all in the name of peace, harmony, and the auspices of being anti-Satan.

Likewise, Lucifer portrays Satan as a sympathetic character, seeking forgiveness and trying to do good. Jesus said,  “He (Satan) was a murderer from the beginning,” (See St. John 8:44) and comes “to steal and kill and destroy” (See St. John 10:10). It is Satan who inspires people to do all manner of evil from torture, rape, and child molestation to murder. Now, Satan is a handsome crime fighter in Los Angeles? (No doubt LA was picked over NYC because the name "Los Angeles" translates as "the City of Angels.") Angels cannot change their nature. At their test by God, those who chose God are good for eternity, and those who chose against God are forever evil.  As theologian Ott teaches, "As the blessedness of the good angels is of eternal duration...so the punishment of the bad angels is also without end." (See Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, [1955], pg. 119). Yet, people cheer for Lucifer. In Twilight, you cheer for Edward, who is in a sexual relationship with a minor aged 16, while he is over 100. 

Over the last several years, Hollywood has given us such "heroes" as a chemistry teacher turned meth dealer ("Breaking Bad"), a sociopath that kills other killers ("Dexter"), and now the "father of lies" himself; Satan. I shudder when I think of the number of people who will watch this as I recall the aphorism, "What goes into a mind comes out in a life." More than one viewer might be tempted to dabble in the occult. 

2. The viewer becomes desensitized to blasphemy and anti-Christian ideas/morals.

These shows/movies test common decency with tawdry scenes of rape, incest, graphic nudity, and explicit, bloody violence. In Stranger Things, no one prays or invokes Our Lord, unless it is to use the Most Holy Name of Jesus in vain (and done with incredible frequency). Harry Potter teaches there are no moral absolutes. 

3. The viewer is exposed to influences used to bring acceptance to the unacceptable.

So-called "social progressivism" pervades these movies/shows; especially feminism and sodomite "LGBTQIA+" perversion. To give but one example, in CAOS, Susie Putnam, a "trans-male" protagonist, uses magic to exact revenge on her bullies and to join the varsity men’s basketball team. Ambrose Spellman is a suave Satanic hero who glamorizes bisexual romance and polyamorous flings. How long before people think sodomites and transgenders "aren't so bad"? 

Conclusion

Please "learn to discern." Some of my readers got rid of their TV. Good for them, but I'm not advocating for that, as there are some good and pleasant things to watch. Nevertheless, the movies/shows discussed in this post draw a lot of its audience through a morbid focus on the occult. Occultism, sadly, has always been appealing at some level to humans. Occult knowledge and power have intrigued people ever since the serpent tempted Eve with the promise of becoming “like God, knowing good and evil” on her own terms (See Genesis 3:5). All of these movies and shows presented are full of occult symbols, practices, and ideology, with too many examples to recount, none of which are redeeming. There is no heroic escape from witchcraft, no fateful retribution reminding people that witchcraft and the occult are bad. In Stranger Things, the guise of the supernatural is used to reject God and the supernatural. In none of these movies or shows is there a single positive comment about Christianity. The only explicit references to Christianity are negative. The words of Isaiah “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20) are more applicable to our society than ever before.