1071 Pope Francis blesses Pachamama

Pope Francis blesses Pachamama

Newsletter published on October 27, 2019

(1) Economist: Pope Francis blesses a statue of Pachamama, Inca goddess
(2) Pope Francis apologizes that Pachamama was thrown into Tiber River
(3) Pope Francis blesses Pachamama - a slide into paganism?

(1) Economist: Pope Francis blesses a statue of Pachamama, Inca goddess

https://www.economist.com/international/2019/10/24/power-in-the-catholic-church-is-shifting-south-and-exposing-divisions

The beautiful south

Power in the Catholic church is shifting south and exposing divisions

The church is pondering whether to ordain women and married men

Print edition | International

Oct 24th 2019 | ATALAIA DO NORTE, BRAZIL; NAZARETH, COLOMBIA; AND
VATICAN CITY

As the sun sets over Nazareth, a village on the banks of the Amazon
river in the Colombian rainforest, a Jesuit priest peers out at a small
congregation, made up of members of the indigenous Tikuna people. They
are sitting on rickety benches around the edges of a cement church. "Why
is everyone so far away?" asks Father Valério Paulo Sartor, stepping
down from the altar to say mass from the aisle. "If you won’t come to
me, I’ll come to you."

Some 6,000 miles away in Rome, bishops, indigenous leaders and ngo
representatives from the Amazon basin, together with Vatican prelates,
are discussing how the Catholic church can do just that. In a three-week
synod that ends on October 27th, they hope to find new ways for the
church to work with local communities to tackle the crises facing the
region—and Catholicism—in a part of the world where the church is
overstretched, understaffed, yet still remarkably influential.

The synod represents the biggest step yet towards recognising something
many Catholics in the West, especially church leaders, have been
reluctant to acknowledge: just as economic and diplomatic power in the
secular world is slipping away from the North Atlantic region, a similar
process is taking place in Catholicism. In the secular world, the shift
is to Asia. Within the Catholic church it is towards not only Asia, but
Africa and Latin America, too. That is forcing the church to consider
how far it is willing to adapt to the practices and beliefs of cultures
with their own spiritual traditions. The synod has added to fears of a
new schism within the church.

Catholicism’s three biggest national churches are those of Brazil,
Mexico and the Philippines. It has become a religion largely of the poor
world, but with a leadership that is still predominantly rooted in the
rich one. Around 40% of baptised Catholics are from North America,
Europe, Australasia and Japan, yet those regions provide the church with
57% of its cardinals. Italy, with 4% of the world’s Catholic population,
is the birthplace of almost one in five of the "princes of the church".

Pope Francis, who is the first Latin American pontiff, has tried to
rebalance things. He joked on the night of his election in 2013 that his
fellow cardinals had gone "almost to the ends of the Earth" to find him.
He has continued their quest. More than half the cardinals he has
created come from the developing world. His long-awaited reform of the
administration of the Catholic church may take the process further by
reducing the scope of the Vatican and transferring some of its
departments—and power—to other parts of the world.

That shift has been exacerbated by the growing threat posed by climate
change. The pope has long argued that care for the environment is
inseparable from the fight against global inequality. He called the
synod, the first to be dedicated to a single region, partly because of
the Amazon’s crucial role as a buffer against climate change. Its basin
contains 40% of Earth’s rainforests and serves as a carbon sink,
mitigating warming. But rising deforestation, on the pretext of
development, threatens the sustainability of the ecosystem. The
insouciance of regional governments, especially Brazil’s, puts them on a
collision course with the church.

Leaders from half a dozen ethnic groups gathered recently in Atalaia do
Norte, a town outside an indigenous territory the size of Austria, to
discuss a rise in invasions by illegal miners and loggers emboldened by
Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. His government has
shrugged off deforestation, vowed to legalise mining on indigenous
lands, and hollowed out the environment ministry and the indigenous
agency, funai. The murder in September of a contractor from funai who
worked in that territory, Vale do Javari—and the subsequent exodus of
other workers after they were threatened—left the tribes feeling even
more vulnerable.

Despite the church’s chequered history in the region (it is credited
with educating millions of poor children but blamed for its complicity
with colonialism and the economic exploitation that followed), many
indigenous people see the institution as their most promising ally. "In
the past, the church made us lose our culture, but there’s a new spirit
in the head of the pope," says Absalon, a middle-aged curaca (chief)
from a Uitoto village near Nazareth.

The Indigenist Missionary Council (cimi), a human-rights organisation
established by the Catholic church in Brazil in 1972 and run mostly by
lay-workers, helps indigenous tribes secure land rights and put pressure
on governments to uphold them. In a vast region where the state’s
presence is limited, cimi also tells the authorities about abuses
against indigenous people. "The church is often the bridge between the
tribes and the government," says Felício Pontes, a public prosecutor who
worked for two decades in the Amazon. "It saves us time and money."

But the Catholic church is not an ngo; it wants to save souls as well as
trees. Its efforts to do so raise an issue that resonates far beyond
Latin America and the Catholic church. "The indigenous representatives
[in the synod] are saying: ‘If you don’t recognise some part of
indigenous spirituality, you will lose us’," says Josianne Gauthier, a
guest at the synod and the secretary-general of cidse, an international
alliance of Catholic charities.

How far, though, can a religion based on dogma go in respecting other
belief systems before it irreparably compromises its own? The dilemma
posed by inculturation—the adaptation of a religion to alien
cultures—has been central to the synod’s deliberations. It parallels the
secular debate in countries that have experienced mass immigration over
the relative merits of multiculturalism and assimilation.

Christians have been borrowing from other religions since the days when
the pagan feast of Saturnalia transmogrified into Christmas and the
Gaelic festival of Samhain became All Saints’ Day. In the sermons he
delivers in Nazareth, Father Valério adapts a few of the details. The
figs become local acai berries and Mary and Joseph travel, not by
donkey, but in a canoe.

Few Catholics dispute the need for compromise if their faith is to
prevail in a part of the world where it is increasingly being challenged
by other brands of Christianity, particularly the evangelical kind. But
many would be shocked to hear Adolfo Zon Pereira, the bishop of the Alto
Solimões region of the Brazilian Amazon, say: "We don’t talk about
conversion any more." Dialogue with locals, he argues, should be
"intercultural and inter-religious" in order to protect "our shared house".

To the retired pastor of Marajó, another Amazonian diocese, this verges
on sacrilege. Bishop José Luís Azcona Hermoso believes that the synod
has been irretrievably corrupted by an "obsession to understand the
Amazon from the [perspective of] indigenous people", who make up only a
small fraction of its residents.

On October 4th, two days before the synod opened, Pope Francis and other
Vatican dignitaries attended a ceremony in the Vatican gardens that gave
substance to the worst fears of those who believe that the pope’s
tolerant liberalism risks carrying him to the brink of heresy, or even
beyond. "A group of people, including Amazonians in ritual dress, as
well as people in lay clothes and a Franciscan brother, knelt and bowed
in a circle around images of two pregnant women who appeared to be
semi-clothed," according to the Catholic News Agency. A woman later
presented one of the statues, apparently representing the Andean
fertility goddess, Pachamama, to Pope Francis, who blessed it.

The event, with its suggestion of pagan worship, set off a social-media
firestorm of indignation. A "blasphemous abomination" is how one
conservative website described it. On October 21st a video was uploaded
to YouTube showing the removal of wooden figures similar to those used
in the Vatican ceremony from a Rome church. They were then cast into the
Tiber.

Lead, kindly light

Exasperation with the reforming pope has been gathering momentum among a
minority of traditional Catholics. Even some of his cardinals believe he
is distorting the church’s teaching. Talk of a schism within the church
is growing. Last month Pope Francis said he was not afraid of such a
rift, but prayed that it would not happen.

The discussion at the synod of whether to recommend in the Amazon region
the ordination of women as deacons or that of married men as priests
will do little to heal such divisions. Both questions have arisen as a
result of local issues, in particular, a scarcity of manpower. Most
missionaries in the Amazon are lay-workers or women. Father Valério
makes it to Nazareth, less than an hour up the Amazon from where he
lives, only every couple of months. Some isolated places see a priest
just once a year.

Where do they go from here?

The pope is not bound to respect the synod’s advice. But a strong
consensus against either measure would make it harder for him to
steamroll them through. As a first step towards drawing up the synod’s
final report, 12 working groups were formed. Six have endorsed the
ordination of viri probati (a church phrase meaning "men of proven
virtue"), who in many cases would be tribal elders, and four that of
women as deacons. But the others either appealed for further debate or
made no mention of the issue.

Approving either measure would prove divisive. The ordination of women
as deacons would enable them to carry out a wide range of ecclesiastical
activities, from delivering sermons to officiating at some baptisms and
funerals. Supporters argue that women played a prominent role in the
early church. Conservatives remain energetically resistant to the idea.

Traditionalists fear that ordaining married men as priests in the Amazon
could gradually lead to wider, if not complete, acceptance of the
practice. On October 18th Archbishop Rino Fisichella, a senior church
bureaucrat, disclosed that his working group had recommended the
creation of a new, Amazonian rite. Such a move should ensure that the
practice of ordaining married priests was "quarantined" within the
region, making sure that it could not easily be spread to the rest of
the church. But opponents still fret that this could be the thin end of
the wedge.

Such debates echo only faintly in the Amazon basin, where the concerns
of most missionaries are largely practical. Father Valério spends far
more time on boats criss-crossing the region to check up on the
well-being of residents—only some of whom are Catholic—than he does
baptising babies or giving communion. His work will continue whatever
Rome decides. But the current in the synod appears to be flowing in the
direction of change. ?

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition
under the headline "The beautiful south"

(2) Pope Francis apologizes that Pachamama was thrown into Tiber River
https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2019/10/25/pope-francis-apologises-that-amazon-synod-Pachamama-was-thrown-into-tiber-river/

Pope Francis apologizes that Amazon synod 'Pachamama' was thrown into
Tiber River

Catholic News Agency  25 October, 2019

'As bishop of this diocese, I ask forgiveness from those who have been
offended by this gesture'

After controversial statues were thrown into Rome’s Tiber River, Pope
Francis has issued an apology during Friday’s afternoon session of the
Vatican’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

"As bishop of this diocese," Pope Francis, who is Bishop of Rome, said,
"I ask forgiveness from those who have been offended by this gesture."

Pope Francis also reported that the statues had been recovered from the
river, are not damaged, and are being kept in the offices of the head of
Italy’s national police.

The statues, which were identical carved images of a naked pregnant
Amazonian woman, had been displayed in the Carmelite church of Santa
Maria in Traspontina, close to the Vatican, and used in several events,
rituals, and expression of spirituality taking place during the October
6-27 Amazonian synod.

The pope said they had been displayed in the church "without idolatrous
intentions," according to a transcript provided by the Vatican press office.

The statues were thrown into the river on October 21; a video released
on YouTube showed two men entering the Church, leaving with the statues,
and then throwing them off a nearby bridge.

The figures have become symbols of controversy during the synod of
bishops, which is a meeting held to discuss the Church’s life and
pastoral ministry in the Amazonian region of South America. They first
appeared at an October 4 tree-planting ceremony in the Vatican gardens,
attended by Pope Francis, at which they were in the center of a
collection of figurines around which attendees processed.

According to the transcript provided by the Vatican, the pope referred
to the statues as "Pachamama," the name traditionally given to an Andean
fertility goddess, which can be roughly translated as "Mother Earth."

While it is unclear whether he was using it colloquially, the pope’s use
of the term "Pachamama" will likely further ongoing debate regarding the
exact nature of the statutes, and what they represent.

They had been described as representing "Our Lady of the Amazon," and
some journalists initially suggested they represented the Blessed Virgin
Mary.

Vatican spokesmen have said that they represent "life," and are not
religious symbols, but some journalists and commentators have raised
questions about the origins of the symbols, and whether they were
religious symbols of Amazonian indigenous groups.

Paolo Ruffini, head of the Vatican’s communications office, said last
week that "fundamentally, it represents life. And enough. I believe to
try and see pagan symbols or to see… evil, it is not," he said, adding
that "it represents life through a woman."

He equated the image to that of a tree, saying "a tree is a sacred symbol."

The pope said that the statues might be displayed during the closing
Mass of the synod on October 27, saying that would be a matter for the
Vatican’s Secretary of State to decide.

Transcript of Pope Francis’ October 25 remarks, as provided by the Holy
See Press Office:

"Buon pomeriggio, vi vorrei dire una parola sulle statue della Pachamama
che sono state tolte dalla chiesa nella Traspontina, che erano lì senza
intenzioni idolatriche e sono state buttate al Tevere.

Prima di tutto questo è successo a Roma e come vescovo della diocesi io
chiedo perdono alle persone che sono state offese da questo gesto.

Poi comunico che le statue, che hanno creato tanto clamore mediatico,
sono state ritrovate nel Tevere. Le statue non sono danneggiate.

Il Comandante dei Carabinieri desidera che si informi di questo
ritrovamento prima che la notizia diventi pubblica. Al momento la
notizia è riservata e le statue sono custodite nell’ufficio del
Comandante dei Carabinieri italiani.

Il Comando dei Carabinieri sarà ben lieto di dare seguito a qualsiasi
indicazione che si vorrà dare circa la modalità di pubblicazione della
notizia e per le altre iniziative che si vogliono prendere a riguardo,
ad esempio, riferisce il comandante,’l’esposizione delle statue durante
la Santa Messa di chiusura del Sinodo’, si vedrà. Io delego il
Segretario di Stato che risponda a questo.

Questa è una bella notizia, grazie."

(3) Pope Francis blesses Pachamama - a slide into paganism?
- by Peter Myers, Oct 27, 2019

Pope Francis has blessed Pachamama, an Inca goddess.

Orthodox Jews and Evangelical Christians would see it as a slide into
paganism, but the Catholic Church has practised religious syncretism for
two thousand years.

It has copied or borrowed themes from Ancient Egypt (the Madonna and
Child), Babylon (the Queen of Heaven), and Persia (Dec 25 was the
birthday of Mithra). The Monstrance features symbolism appropriated from
the sun-god (the rays of the sun radiate out).

I have many books on that topic. Most are by atheists who see such
borrowing as proof of fakery. I don't, and will explain why, below.

Even the Jewish religion borrowed copiously. Before the exile, it was
polytheistic, featuring a Council of Gods headed by a Great God, El.
Later, Yahweh appropriated El; but like El, he had the goddess Asherah
as his wife. The original Temple of Solomon was built during the
polytheistic period.

Judaism as we know it was born in Babylon during the Exile, partly under
the influence of the Babylonian religion - the Jewish Calendar even to
this day is the Babylonian Calendar - but mainly under Zoroastrian
influence.

Zoroastrianism was the religion of the Persian Empire, the first
'multicultural' empire. The Zoroastrian religion was the first
'revealed' religion based upon its scripture (the Avesta), commentary
(Zend), and psalms (Gathas). Zoroaster preached the first Monotheism; he
was the first to distinguish between a totally good God (named Mazda),
and a totally evil Devil (named Ahriman, or The Lie). Friedrich
Nietzsche assessed Zoroaster as the first Moralist - something Nietzsche
disapproved of.

Zoroastrianism featured angels and devils, a cosmic battle between Good
and Evil, a Messiah, judgment after death, resurrection of the body, and
the final triumph of Good with the defeat of the Evil forces.

Judaism copied all these features, and the Essenes, who evolved to
became the first Christians, took them very seriously. In effect,
Christianity is a continuation of the Zoroastrian religion.

Sadducees preserved the original Judaism; Pharisees were the leaders of
Zoroastrianised Judaism. The word 'Pharisee' is a rendition of the word
'Parsee', which means 'Zoroastrian'. After the Fall of Jerusalem in
70AD, the Council of Javneh developed a new form of Judaism based on
Phariseeism; The Sadducees were no more.

Leading Jewish author Norman Cohn acknowledged the Jewish debt to
Zoroastrianism in his last book, Cosmos, Chaos and the WorId to Come.

The Zoroastrian religion, as outlined above, was somewhat intolerant, as
all monotheistic religions are. But the Persian Emperors, ruling a huge
empire with many different religions, could not afford to let
fundamentalists take charge. They tolerated the local religions
throughout the empire, except when they became the nuclei of rebellions.
In that spirit, the Old Testament says, Cyrus let the Exiles return to
Palestine. In fact, Cyrus had such a policy throughout the Empire. Even
in the Persian religion itself, the goddess Anahita reappeared after a
while.

In fact, most Exiles stayed in Babylon. There was no mass Return;
archaeology has proved that.

But Ezra, in Babylon, formulated Judaism as we know it, including the
story of Moses and the Exodus - this was a motivator for Jews to Return,
a precedent - but in fact, there never had been an Exodus. Archaeology,
once again, has shown so.

The only comparable event was the expulsion of the Hyksos shepherd-kings
from northern Egypt (the Delta) about 1530 BC. They had ruled from their
capital Avaris; the Biblical towns Pi-Ramesse and Raamses are associated
with this period. Pharaoh Ramesses II was long alleged to be the Pharaoh
of the Exodus, and to have drowned in the Red Sea when the waves, parted
by Moses to let the Israelites cross, closed back in.

The Bible says that the returning sea swamped the Egyptian Army; but the
mummy of Pharaoh Ramesses II is in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo; I saw
it last year.

After the expulsion, the Hyksos returned to Syria/Palestine, chased by
the Egyptians, who incorporated the whole region into their empire, up
to the border of the Hittite Empire. There was no independent state of
Israel as the Old Testament alleges. Those books were written by Ezra
and other scribes centuries later in Babylon.

Ezra has God commanding the Returnees from Babylon to separate from the
People of the Land and seize Palestine from them. Many genocidal
passages from the Old Testament originate in his fanaticism, inspired by
Zoroastrian fundamentalism.

These passages are based on the distinction between Israel and "the
Nations" (Gentiles, Pagans, Goyim, Non-Jews). Israel is commanded to
overcome and destroy them:

1. "Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you" (Genesis 27:29)

2. "I will send my terror in front of you, and throw into confusion all
the people against whom you shall come ... Little by little I will drive
them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land"
(Exodus 23:27-9)

"For I will cast out nations before you, and enlarge your borders; no
one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the LORD your
God three times in the year." (Exodus 34:24)

3. "Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for by all these
practices the nations I am casting out before you have defiled
themselves" (Leviticus 18:24)

4. "As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the
nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. You may
also acquire them from the aliens residing with you ..." (Leviticus
25:44-5)

5. "When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are about
to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you ... and
the LORD your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you
must utterly destroy them" (Deuteronomy 7:1)

The Europeans who conquered the New World were Christians, but their
religion also incorporated the Jewish Bible, and sometimes values like
the above took hold.

The Spanish conquerors in America recited the "Requiremento" to the Indians:

"On the part of the King, (and)...Queen...we their humble servitors
hereby...make known to you that the lord our God, living and eternal,
created the Heavens and the Earth, and also one man and one woman, of
whom you and we, and all mankind...are descendants...in the 5,000 year
since the world was created...

"Of all these nations God gave the charge to one man - St Peter...that
he should be the head of all the human race...This office of St. Peter
was called Pontifex Maximus, or the Pope. One of these Pontiffs who
succeeded St. Peter as lord of the world...made donation of these
Isles...and all contained therein to the atorementioned King Ferdinand
and Queen Juana as is shown in certain writings upon the subject, which
writings you may examine if you wish...

"We ask and require you that you do consider what we have said to you
and that you take the time that shall be necessary to...deliberate upon
and that you do acknowledge the Church as the Mistress and superior of
the whole World, and the high priest called the Pope, and in his name
and stead the King Don Fernando and Queen Donna Juana, as superiors and
lords and Kings of these Isles and terra firma...

"If you do so, you will do well...But if you do not do this...I certify
to you that with the help of God we shall forcibly enter into your
country and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we
can ..and shall take you and your wives and children and shall make
slaves of them ..."

The Requiremento was normally read in Spanish to the trees. In one case
it was actually translated to an Indian ruler, Atahualpa of Peru, in 1532:

"Pizarro's Priest Vicente De Valverdo read the 'requiremento' to
Atahualpa. After hearing it he said 'Your Pope must surely be a most
extraordinary man to give so liberally of what does not belong to him.'
He asked Vicente where he got his title to command of the Earth. 'In
this book' replied the monk, presenting his breviary to the Emperor.
Atahualpa took the book, examined it on all sides, fell a laughing and
throwing it away added 'Neither this nor any other writing conveys a
title to the Earth.'"

- from The Lost Science of Money, by Stephen Zarlenga, p. 212.

Given the false pretenses under which the Spanish Conquest was enacted,
it may be only fair that Pope Francis has blessed Pachamama.

If I were an atheist and materialist, as you are probably assuming, this
would be a good place to stop.

But I'm not; and I will now proceed to tell the other side of the story.
It begins in the Soviet Union, in the 1980s.

Tikkon Shevkunov, who grew up in the days of Scientific Atheism, relates
that one of his teachers introduced the class to divination and seances.

They found, to their surprise, that spiritualism was not all fakery as
they had expected. Seances led to revelations from 'spirits' of private
facts that no-one else knew but the recipient.

Tikkon and his friends were so disturbed that they returned to the
Orthodox Church. Tikkon became a monk, then the abbott of his monastery,
and is now Metropolitan (Bishop) of Moscow, and the 'Spiritual Father'
of Vladimir Putin. He wrote up the story in his best-selling book
Everyday Saints and Other Stories.

I'm going to quote a bit of it:

{p. 7} Our teacher for foreign art history was Paola Dmitrivena Volkova.
Her lectures were always interesting. And for some reason, perhaps
because she was herself a person striving for answers to the big
questions in life, she used to share her spiritual and mystical
experiments with us. For example, she devoted a whole lecture or two to
the ancient Chinese book of divination, the I Ching. Paola even brought
sandalwood incense and yarrow stalks into the classroom and taught us
how to use them to peer into the future.

One of her lectures concerned investigations conducted over many years
(though unknown to all but the smallest group of specialists) by the
famous Russian scientists Dmitri Mendeleyev and Vladimir Vernadsky. And
although Paola gave us fair warning that dabbling in such things risked
all kinds of unpredictable and unpleasant consequences, we, her
students, with all our youthful enthusiasm, plunged ourselves into these
tempting new mysterious worlds.

I will not get into the technical description of spiritualist techniques
described in Mendeleyev's scientific papers, which we further discovered
from researchers at the Vernadsky Museum in Moscow. But having
experimented ourselves with several of the techniques, we found that we
could indeed establish some sort of connection with ...  certain
completely incomprehensible (for us) but nonetheless absolutely real
entities. And these new mysterious acquaintances of ours with whom we
began to conduct long nocturnal conversations during seances, introduced
themselves by various names: sometimes Napoleon, sometimes Socrates, and
sometimes the recently dead grandmother of one of our acquaintances.

These entities would sometimes relate incredibly interesting things to
us. Furthermore, to our utter astonishment, they somehow knew intimate
details about each of our personal lives. For example, we might be
curious about our classmate Alexander Rogozhkin (who would become a
renowned film director). With whom was he secretly going out until late
at night? And we would immediately receive the answer: "With Katya, a
second-year student." Rogozhkin was indignant, huffing and puffing - and
by his fury it was quite obvious that this answer had been spot on.

{p. 8} But there were other "revelations" that were even more amazing.
Once during a break between lectures, one of my friends, who was
particularly engrossed by these seances, started almost throwing himself
at us, his classmates, urgently asking around in a conspiratorial
whisper, with eyes red from sleeplessness: "Who is Mikhail Gorbachev?"
Neither I nor any of my classmates had ever heard of anyone by this name
(it was 1982). But my friend explained: "Last night we asked 'Stalin'
who was going to be running this country and he answered: 'Some guy
named Mikhail Gorbachev. But I've never heard of him myself. Find out
who he is!"

Three months later we were all shocked to hear the news that the young
former First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the Stravropol
Provincial Communist Party had been elected a Candidate Member of the
Politburo.
{endquote}

Well, the same has happened to be. I have encountered ESP, Telepathy and
Witchcraft - the bad kind.

The latter happened through my attending a Tarot Reading. The Reader, a
Filipino woman, told me that she had called up the spirit of Hose Rizal.
She wrote down the message in a book. The spirit proceeded to warn me of
something very personal (which I cannot disclose), but in effect he was
warning me about something the Reader would do in coming months.

She engaged in witchcraft, and attempted to take over my mind and life,
promising to give me half her power. "You can have sex with anyone you
like," she said. "I don't want your power," I said, "Take it back."

I can't prove that the witchcraft was spiritual; it could have been a
form of hypnosis. But she could even do it over the phone.

So, like Tikhon, I conclude that there is another dimension, a spiritual
dimension, what clairvoyants call "The Other Side".

I don't claim to know much about it. But I am sure that all religions
try to engage it. That is why religions are important to people. And
yet, in their theology and teachings, all religions are wrong. We are
not given to "see through the glass".

Even though all religions are wrong, many of them have some good features.

The Catholic Church, on account of its long experience of syncretism
with other faiths, is well-placed to 'discern the spirits' and draw
features of merit from traditional religions, even while rejecting other
features.

This is a strength that the Catholic Church has, that Evangelical
Churches and Orthodox Judaism do not.

Recently, Pope Francis was in the news for saying "I don’t go to the
Doctor, I go to the Witch!".

By 'witch' he meant 'shaman'.

The stories mentioned two 'witches': Dr. Liu Ming, an Acupuncturist from
China, and a woman from South America who visited Francis at the Vatican
and gave him Healing.

For conventional Catholics, the story was shocking. But one of my
readers, David West, commented, "The stuff the Shrmans do is not magic.
It's the same basic principles that Jesus Christ used when healing people."

I think so too.

The Talmud disparages Jesus of Nazareth, calling him a  'Magician' or
'Sorceror':

{quote}
10 ... On (Sabbath eve and)10 the eve of Passover Jesus the Nazarene11
was hanged (telduhu).12 And a herald went forth before him 40 days
(heralding): Jesus the Nazarene13 is going forth to be stoned because he
practiced sorcery (kishshef) and instigated (hissit) and seduced
(hiddiah) Israel (to idolatry). Whoever knows anything in his defense,
may come and state it. But since they did not find anything in his
defense, they hanged him on (Sabbath eve and) 14 the eve of Passover.

Ulla said: Do you suppose that Jesus the Nazarenell was one for whom a
defense could be made? He was a mesit (someone who instigated Israel to
idolatry), concerning whom the Merciful [God] says: Show him no
compassion and do not shield him (Deut. 13:9).
{endquote}
- Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud), Sanhedrin 43a.
 From Jesus in the Talmud, by Peter Schafer, Princeton University Press,
2007, p. 64.

Another translation uses the word 'magician' instead of 'sorceror':

{quote}
It was taught: On the day before the Passover they hanged Jesus. A
herald went before him for forty days [proclaiming], "He will be stoned,
because he practiced magic and enticed Israel to go astray. Let anyone
who knows anything in his favor come forward and pleads for him." But
nothing was found in his favor, and they hanged him on the day before
the Passover. (b. Sanhedrin 43a)
{endquote}

- from The Rabbinic Tradition: Jesus the Magician and Deceiver
https://www.newhartfordpresbyterian.org/content.cfm?page_content=blogs_include.cfm&blog_id=82

In 1987, when in the Philippines, I visited a Psychic Surgeon and saw
him perform bloodless operations on patients without using instruments.

My contacts in the Philippines were sceptical, and tried to dissuade me,
but in the end I was able to find out this healer's address, and called
on him.

He had patients queued up as in a doctor's surgery. In the operating
room, there was a statue of Jesus of Nazareth, recumbent on a sofa. I
have never seen such a recumbent statue before or since.

People call them "Faith Healers", but that is a misnomer. They do
perform surgery; it is not just a matter of faith.

He opened his patient's stomach with his bare hands, removed something,
then closed the wound with his fingers. There was no blood. He sprinkled
a disinfectant over the wound.

Anthropologists used to encounter 'Sorcerors' and 'Medicine Men', some
seemingly doing evil, and others good. Professor A.P. Elkin wrote about
"Aboriginal Men of High Degree".

Perhaps some of them were like the Psychic Surgeon I saw; I don't know
if this is uniquely Christian. Such healers are found in Catholic
countries, and are (I believe) frequented more by poorer people than by
urban professionals. Perhaps they're more gullible; or perhaps less
inhibited by scepticism.

If there is another Dimension, a spiritual dimension, then it is not
subject to the physical evolution that occurs in the Physical Dimension.

The Theosophists say so; that Evolution is compatible with spirit,
because they operate in discrete domains.

I must say a final word about Theosophy.

I have studied their literature; bought books at Theosophical bookshops;
and was a member of the Theosophical Society in Canberra for a while.

On the one hand, they spread knowledge and tolerance about other
religions (including witchcraft); on the other hand, the founders of
Theosophy were devotees of Lucifer - called Ahriman in Zoroastrianism,
and Satan in Christianity.

These Theosophical feminists portrayed Satan as an Enlightener. They put
out a magazine called "Lucifer".

The word "Lucifer" DOES mean "Light"; but so does the word "Mazda", name
of the Good God in Zoroastrianism. If you want Light, why not go to the
Good God instead of the Bad one?

Alice Bailey was associated with the Lucis Trust - once again the
"Light" theme.

And Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy is also pro-Ahriman.

Here is a review of the book Satanic feminism, by Per Faxneld:

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2019/10/women-under-the-spell/

Women Under the Spell

Augusto Zimmermann

20th October 2019

Satanic feminism is based on Faxneld’s doctoral dissertation, which was
awarded the Donner Institute Prize for Eminent Research on Religion. It
discusses how prominent feminists—primarily between 1880 and 1930—used
Satan as a symbol of their rejection of the so-called "patriarchal
traits of Christianity". It shows that these women were inspired by the
period’s most influential new religion, Theosophy, and how the
anti-Christian discourses of radical secularism affected feminism.

Satanic feminism sheds a new light on the early feminist movement. It
discusses neglected or unknown aspects of the intellectual connections
of early feminism with Satanism in a way that nobody before Faxneld has
dared to do. In doing so, he richly illustrates how leading figures of
the early feminist movement, such as the suffragette Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, the actress Sarah Bernhardt and the poet Renée Vivien, viewed
God as the precursor of patriarchy and Satan as an ally in the fight
against it.

This feminist view of Satan as the liberator of women, according to
Faxneld, was "intertwined with prominent anticlerical, left-wing, and
esoteric currents of its time". Examples in his book include feminists
employing Lucifer as a symbol of revolution and eulogising him as an
anti-patriarchal figure. As Faxneld points out, Satanism and feminist
politics were interwoven from the first appearance of the theme of Satan
as a benevolent revolutionary figure and the liberator of womankind. [...]

The founder of the spiritualistic movement called Theosophy, Helena
Blavatsky, is notorious for promoting Satanic inversions of Genesis 3,
arguing that "Satan, the enemy of God, is in reality, the highest divine
Spirit". Blavatsky’s books Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine
(1888) were hugely successful, the first book selling roughly half a
million copies up until 1980. These books depict the Fall positively, as
a significant event that implies an up-valuation of women: "She is no
longer responsible for mankind’s fall into sin but is instead actively
involved in the gaining of spiritual wisdom from the benevolent snake."

According to Blavatsky, Satan—or Lucifer, or the Devil, as she often
uses the names interchangeably—brought mankind spiritual wisdom and is
"the spirit of Intellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought".
Beginning in September 1887 she published a journal in England called
Lucifer, which infamously spread the notion of a connection between the
use of pro-Satan symbolism and the struggle for women’s rights.

There was another feminist periodical in the United States also called
Lucifer. Through its choice of name, in combination with a heavy
emphasis on women’s rights, it disseminated the image of Satan and
female emancipation as related. As Dr Faxneld notes, Lucifer was an
influential American feminist organ for more than twenty-five years. By
1879 it reached readers in at least thirty-seven American states and at
least eight other countries.
{end}

You can buy Satanic feminism at Amazon:

Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in
Nineteenth-Century Culture
https://www.amazon.com/Satanic-Feminism-Liberator-Nineteenth-Century-Esotericism/dp/0190664479

or at Abebooks.com:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Per%20Faxneld&tn=satanic%20feminism

You can buy Everyday Saints and Other Stories at Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Saints-Stories-Archimandrite-Tikhon/dp/0984284834

or at Abebooks:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=tikhon&tn=everyday%20saints

Peter