Podcast appearances and mentions of Laurie Cabot

It's Friday and we fooled them again! It's a Regular Guy Witchy Wounds and Victim Con Edition of RGF—and yes, what a SCAM This week, Kev and his Holiday Specials We Love co-host Anne dive into all things regular guy: cuts that come with spiritual symbolism, voodoo flashbacks from the Carnie business, and how finger injuries may actually be your soul trying to send a message. We get into Salem lore, give a shoutout to our witchy friends (love and light!), and unpack whether Jesus would hang with Wiccans (spoiler: Kev thinks yes). There's dream analysis, ancestral healing, snakes that don't bite, and the slow rise from background player to generational cycle-breaker. Oh, and a strong pitch for cabana service in 5D. Because why ascend if there's no bottle service? RGF Bonus: An official update on Salem's OG witch Laurie Cabot, dream insights from ChatGPT (aka Kev's new bestie), and the first-ever glimpse at Victim Con's rapidly expanding multi-tiered franchise model—V2Con, anyone? Bye betches. -- HEAL SQUAD SOCIALS IG: https://www.instagram.com/healsquad/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@healsquadxmaria HEAL SQUAD RESOURCES: Heal Squad Website:https://www.healsquad.com/ Heal Squad x Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HealSquad/membership Maria Menounos Website: https://www.mariamenounos.com My Curated Macy's Page: Shop My Macy's Storefront Prenuvo: Prenuvo.com/MARIA for $300 off Delete Me: https://bit.ly/43rkHwi   code: SQUAD EMR-Tek Red Light: https://emr-tek.com/discount/Maria30 for 30% off ABOUT MARIA MENOUNOS: Emmy Award-winning journalist, TV personality, actress, 2x NYT best-selling author, former pro-wrestler and brain tumor survivor, Maria Menounos' passion is to see others heal and to get better in all areas of life. ABOUT HEAL SQUAD x MARIA MENOUNOS: A daily digital talk-show that brings you the world's leading healers, experts, and celebrities to share groundbreaking secrets and tips to getting better in all areas of life. DISCLAIMER: This Podcast and all related content (published or distributed by or on behalf of Maria Menounos or http://Mariamenounos.com and http://healsquad.com) is for informational purposes only and may include information that is general in nature and that is not specific to you. Any information or opinions provided by guest experts or hosts featured within website or on Company's Podcast are their own; not those of Maria Menounos or the Company. Accordingly, Maria Menounos and the Company cannot be responsible for any results or consequences or actions you may take based on such information or opinions. This podcast is presented for exploratory purposes only. Published content is not intended to be used for preventing, diagnosing, or treating a specific illness. If you have, or suspect you may have, a health-care emergency, please contact a qualified health care professional for treatment.

This week, Expert Ali covers the very interesting Laurie Cabot. Laurie is the Official Witch of Salem, and you won't believe some of the places her life has taken her!  www.twentyfourhourexpert.com twentyfourhourexpert@gmail.com @twentyfourhourexpert

Some of you may remember the 300th year anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials. Perhaps you watched as the memorials were dedicated. Or you followed Laurie Cabot and her fellow witches up to Gallows Hill. But surely none of you were around in 1892! Nearly a century and a half ago, Salem was commemorating the bicentenary of the Salem Witch Trials... or were they? What exactly did Salem look like and how did they treat this grim history? Join Sarah and Jeffrey, your favorite Salem tour guides, for a little 1892 adventure. Are you buying Witch Cream and cigars from the pharmacy at the Witch House? Or being taken on a carriage tour to the hanging grounds. And which house inspired Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables again?   Endless Night Salem Vampire Salon : discount code SALEMTHEPOD https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-endless-night-salem-vampire-salon-noir-blanc-tickets-1090074324649?aff=ebdshpsearchautocomplete 1892 Jan 12. "To Erect a Tablet on Witch Hill" Boston Evening Transcript. 8. 1892 Jan 2. "Origin of Souvenir Spoons" The Evening World. 4. 1892 Sept 26. "The Witch Tragedy" The Lima News. 6. 1892 Jan 16. "Witch Cream" Boston Evening Transcript. 8. Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com  Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com   Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

Some of you may remember the 300th year anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials. Perhaps you watched as the memorials were dedicated. Or you followed Laurie Cabot and her fellow witches up to Gallows Hill. But surely none of you were around in 1892! Nearly a century and a half ago, Salem was commemorating the bicentenary of the Salem Witch Trials... or were they? What exactly did Salem look like and how did they treat this grim history? Join Sarah and Jeffrey, your favorite Salem tour guides, for a little 1892 adventure. Are you buying Witch Cream and cigars from the pharmacy at the Witch House? Or being taken on a carriage tour to the hanging grounds. And which house inspired Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables again?   Endless Night Salem Vampire Salon : discount code SALEMTHEPOD https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-endless-night-salem-vampire-salon-noir-blanc-tickets-1090074324649?aff=ebdshpsearchautocomplete 1892 Jan 12. "To Erect a Tablet on Witch Hill" Boston Evening Transcript. 8. 1892 Jan 2. "Origin of Souvenir Spoons" The Evening World. 4. 1892 Sept 26. "The Witch Tragedy" The Lima News. 6. 1892 Jan 16. "Witch Cream" Boston Evening Transcript. 8. Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com  Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com   Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

Four parts! Our last and final episode on Laurie Cabot, the Official Witch of Salem. Someone who, by her very presence and actions, has changed the face of this city over the last fifty years. Join Sarah and Jeffrey, your favorite Salem tour guides, as they talk about some last-minute hidden stories about Laurie Cabot's past, and share some fun listener insights with you as well!  In Search Of... part 1 In Search Of... part 2 In Search Of... part 3 lauriecabot.com Godsmack "Voodoo" music Video "Witch City" documentary https://libguides.salemstate.edu/home/archives/blog/Laurie-Cabot https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/a-salem-legend/ https://people.com/archive/salems-official-witch-laurie-cabot-finds-grave-errors-in-eastwick-vol-27-no-26/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/09/13/a-cauldron-of-controversy/1bd6dd24-602c-4f20-b273-4a9a0acb2cb9/   Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com  Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com   Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

Four parts! Our last and final episode on Laurie Cabot, the Official Witch of Salem. Someone who, by her very presence and actions, has changed the face of this city over the last fifty years. Join Sarah and Jeffrey, your favorite Salem tour guides, as they talk about some last-minute hidden stories about Laurie Cabot's past, and share some fun listener insights with you as well!  In Search Of... part 1 In Search Of... part 2 In Search Of... part 3 lauriecabot.com Godsmack "Voodoo" music Video "Witch City" documentary https://libguides.salemstate.edu/home/archives/blog/Laurie-Cabot https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/a-salem-legend/ https://people.com/archive/salems-official-witch-laurie-cabot-finds-grave-errors-in-eastwick-vol-27-no-26/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/09/13/a-cauldron-of-controversy/1bd6dd24-602c-4f20-b273-4a9a0acb2cb9/   Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com  Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com   Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

And we're back to talk about Laurie Cabot, Salem's *unofficial* Official Witch for the last time (maybe)! We've got her sensational mayoral run to cover, the tercentenary of the Salem Witch Trials, and of course, her help with the Martha Brailsford investigation. But what other nuggets could Sarah have uncovered this week? There's only one way to find out! https://www.lauriecabot.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SSUQxGjZZ4 https://vimeo.com/store/ondemand/buy/278806   https://libguides.salemstate.edu/home/archives/blog/Laurie-Cabot https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/a-salem-legend/ https://people.com/archive/salems-official-witch-laurie-cabot-finds-grave-errors-in-eastwick-vol-27-no-26/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/09/13/a-cauldron-of-controversy/1bd6dd24-602c-4f20-b273-4a9a0acb2cb9/   Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com    Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

And we're back to talk about Laurie Cabot, Salem's *unofficial* Official Witch for the last time (maybe)! We've got her sensational mayoral run to cover, the tercentenary of the Salem Witch Trials, and of course, her help with the Martha Brailsford investigation. But what other nuggets could Sarah have uncovered this week? There's only one way to find out! https://www.lauriecabot.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SSUQxGjZZ4 https://vimeo.com/store/ondemand/buy/278806   https://libguides.salemstate.edu/home/archives/blog/Laurie-Cabot https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/a-salem-legend/ https://people.com/archive/salems-official-witch-laurie-cabot-finds-grave-errors-in-eastwick-vol-27-no-26/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/09/13/a-cauldron-of-controversy/1bd6dd24-602c-4f20-b273-4a9a0acb2cb9/   Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com    Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

During our Laurie Cabot episodes, we learned that in 1981 she worked as “Technical Consultant” on a horror movie about witches that took place in... you guessed it... Salem! The Coming, later titled Burned at the Stake is a must-see for any Salem-lover. So join Sarah and Jeffrey, your favorite Salem tour guides, for another obscure movie review! Was it historically accurate? Did it represent Salem well? How did William Good time travel? And how do we feel about gooey, alien representations of evil? Watch on Youtube! IMDb - Burned at the Stake "Movie Director Now Believes in the Occult" (Lynn Daily Item, Nov. 1979)  Wikipedia - Burt I. Gordon Movies and Mania   Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com  Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com   Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

During our Laurie Cabot episodes, we learned that in 1981 she worked as “Technical Consultant” on a horror movie about witches that took place in... you guessed it... Salem! The Coming, later titled Burned at the Stake is a must-see for any Salem-lover. So join Sarah and Jeffrey, your favorite Salem tour guides, for another obscure movie review! Was it historically accurate? Did it represent Salem well? How did William Good time travel? And how do we feel about gooey, alien representations of evil? Watch on Youtube! IMDb - Burned at the Stake "Movie Director Now Believes in the Occult" (Lynn Daily Item, Nov. 1979)  Wikipedia - Burt I. Gordon Movies and Mania   Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com  Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com   Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

Welcome to the 1980's! At least for this week's episode as we continue with the life and times of Laurie Cabot, "Official Witch of Salem.” Laurie continues to make headlines across the country and even appears in National Geographic. Magic baseball bats? Oil speculation? Mayoral controversy? And why did she protest the filming of the movie The Witches of Eastwick?  https://www.youtube.com/@LaurieCabotOfficial/featured https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY_MvfQwhxo https://libguides.salemstate.edu/home/archives/blog/Laurie-Cabot https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/a-salem-legend/ https://people.com/archive/salems-official-witch-laurie-cabot-finds-grave-errors-in-eastwick-vol-27-no-26/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/09/13/a-cauldron-of-controversy/1bd6dd24-602c-4f20-b273-4a9a0acb2cb9/ Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com    Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

Welcome to the 1980's! At least for this week's episode as we continue with the life and times of Laurie Cabot, "Official Witch of Salem.” Laurie continues to make headlines across the country and even appears in National Geographic. Magic baseball bats? Oil speculation? Mayoral controversy? And why did she protest the filming of the movie The Witches of Eastwick?  https://www.youtube.com/@LaurieCabotOfficial/featured https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY_MvfQwhxo https://libguides.salemstate.edu/home/archives/blog/Laurie-Cabot https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/a-salem-legend/ https://people.com/archive/salems-official-witch-laurie-cabot-finds-grave-errors-in-eastwick-vol-27-no-26/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/09/13/a-cauldron-of-controversy/1bd6dd24-602c-4f20-b273-4a9a0acb2cb9/ Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com    Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

No, victims of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials were not actual witches. But fast forward three centuries and you'll find the city is home to more than 5,000 practicing witches. Only one of them, however, can claim the title "Official Witch of Salem." Her name is Laurie Cabot and she helped create the Witch Mecca you see today. Join Sarah and Jeffrey, your favorite Salem tour guides, as they delve into the life of this incredible woman - which is ongoing by the way (Laurie is turning 92 this year). When did her abilities begin? How did she end up in Salem? Would you have jumped at the chance to take after-school witchcraft classes at her house in the 1970s?  https://www.youtube.com/@LaurieCabotOfficial/featured https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY_MvfQwhxo https://libguides.salemstate.edu/home/archives/blog/Laurie-Cabot https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/a-salem-legend/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/09/13/a-cauldron-of-controversy/1bd6dd24-602c-4f20-b273-4a9a0acb2cb9/ 1973. Linton Daily Citizen. June 21: 1 1973. "Witches." The Boston Globe. Aug 19: 375. 1974. "Come Set A Spell." Tucson Citizen. Oct 31: 1. 1976. "3 Bloop Hits." The Day. New London, CT. May 13: 25. Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com  Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com   Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

No, victims of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials were not actual witches. But fast forward three centuries and you'll find the city is home to more than 5,000 practicing witches. Only one of them, however, can claim the title "Official Witch of Salem." Her name is Laurie Cabot and she helped create the Witch Mecca you see today. Join Sarah and Jeffrey, your favorite Salem tour guides, as they delve into the life of this incredible woman - which is ongoing by the way (Laurie is turning 92 this year). When did her abilities begin? How did she end up in Salem? Would you have jumped at the chance to take after-school witchcraft classes at her house in the 1970s?  https://www.youtube.com/@LaurieCabotOfficial/featured https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY_MvfQwhxo https://libguides.salemstate.edu/home/archives/blog/Laurie-Cabot https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/a-salem-legend/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/09/13/a-cauldron-of-controversy/1bd6dd24-602c-4f20-b273-4a9a0acb2cb9/ 1973. Linton Daily Citizen. June 21: 1 1973. "Witches." The Boston Globe. Aug 19: 375. 1974. "Come Set A Spell." Tucson Citizen. Oct 31: 1. 1976. "3 Bloop Hits." The Day. New London, CT. May 13: 25. Interested in Salem The Podcast Merch!?  CLICK HERE! Interested in supporting the Podcast? Looking for more Salem content? CLICK HERE! www.salemthepodcast.com NEW INSTAGRAM - @salemthepod Email - hello@salemthepodcast.com   Book a tour with Jeffrey at Salem Uncovered Tours  www.salemuncoveredtours.com  Book a tour with Sarah at Bewitched Historical Tours   www.bewitchedtours.com   Intro/Outro Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/unfamiliar-faces License code: NGSBY7LA1HTVAUJE

Assista mais um episódio do Consciência Paranormal onde vamos falar sobre Bruxaria, Deuses Antigos e muita Espiritualidade, com o grande Edu Scarfon!! No podcast Consciência Paranormal no canal do Instituto Ivan Martins!!! Desde muito jovem, Edu Scarfon sempre apresentou interesse em temas relacionados ao ocultismo. Na adolescência, percebeu a manifestação daquilo que posteriormente entendeu como dons psíquicos. Entretanto, no instante em que esses dons surgiram, Edu não os considerou algo agradável e fácil de lidar. Captar pensamentos e emoções do outro ou a dor alheia com certa frequência, era algo que o incomodava bastante, principalmente por não saber lidar com o fato. Em busca de respostas, Edu passou por diversas religiosidades, encontrando-se na bruxaria. Foi nesta arte, onde ele encontrou mais respostas e até mesmo exercícios, que lhe ajudaram a lidar com a sua sensibilidade espiritual. Em 2009, Edu fundou a Tradição Eleusiana, um segmento de wicca que se dedica à prática de feitiçaria, aos estudos metafísicos e de autoconhecimento e ao culto das divindades da Grécia Antiga, em especial, de Deméter, tida como principal face da Deusa-Mãe nessa tradição. No ano seguinte, Edu Scarfon fundou o Templo de Wicca Eleusiana em São Paulo, a primeira instituição religiosa de bruxaria, devidamente organizada e com sede no Brasil. Um local, não só com treinamento wiccano, mas que também oferece aulas de tarô, astrologia e magia. Em 2012, Edu Scarfon viajou pela primeira vez a Salem, conhecida como a “Cidade das Bruxas”, no interior de Massachusetts, nos Estados Unidos, onde teve a oportunidade de conhecer a renomada sacerdotisa e escritora com livros publicados sobre bruxaria no mundo inteiro, Laurie Cabot. Esse contato possibilitou outras viagens para o local, onde Edu teve aulas e foi treinado pela bruxa oficial de Salem. Ele sempre ressalta que essa experiência lhe deu a confiança que precisava para utilizar os seus dons. Em 2014, o bruxo foi convidado a participar do reality show “Os Paranormais”, exibido pelo SBT, que tinha o objetivo de testar os dons de diversos paranormais, colocando-os em disputa. No mesmo ano, Edu Scarfon venceu o reality e adquiriu fama nacional. Começou, então, a ser convidado para participar de diversos programas de TV, tarefa que tem equilibrado em seu dia a dia com as leituras de tarô e psíquicas que realiza, além de aulas, rituais e treinamentos em bruxaria, que continua conduzindo no templo. Edu Scarfon possui três livros publicados: Magia grega – como acessar dos deuses da Grécia Antiga nos dias de hoje; a obra de autoajuda, Curando suas emoções; E a obra de autoconhecimento, Oráculo do Deus. #deusesgregos #afrodite #bruxaria #bruxas #bruxos #tarot #deusas #sagradofeminino #sagradomasculino

Meet Laurie Cabot, the official witch of Salem, and all around incredible woman. There's bonus content, ad-free episodes, and other perks on our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/witchesmagicmurdermystery   Podcast Store: https://witches-magic-murder-mystery-podcast-store.myshopify.com   Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/WitchesMagicMurderMysteryPodcast Sources:   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Cabot https://www.lauriecabot.com/about https://libguides.salemstate.edu/home/archives/blog/Laurie-Cabot https://www.salemdaughtersofdarkness.com/post/seven-baddass-women-of-salem-laurie-cabot-the-official-witch-of-salem https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/a-salem-legend/ https://ournewenglandlegends.com/new-england-legends-extra-laurie-cabot-the-official-witch-of-salem/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/09/13/a-cauldron-of-controversy/1bd6dd24-602c-4f20-b273-4a9a0acb2cb9/ https://people.com/archive/salems-official-witch-laurie-cabot-finds-grave-errors-in-eastwick-vol-27-no-26/ https://web.archive.org/web/20120212002822/http://www.boston.com/yourtown/salem/articles/2012/02/09/laurie_cabot_salems_official_witch_closes_up_shop_after_40_years/?page=2 https://www.lauriecabot.com/classes All Witches, Magic, Murder, & Mystery episodes are a mix of Kara and Megan's personal thoughts and opinions in response to the information that is publicly available at the time of recording, as well as, in some cases, personal accounts provided by listeners. In regard to these self-reported personal accounts, there can be no assurance that the information provided is 100% accurate.  If you love the Trash Witch art (see our Patreon or the Podcast store), Tiffini Scherbing of Scherbing Arts created her. Like her Scherbing Arts page on Facebook, or follow her on instagram at @scherbingarts76! She can create anything you need.  TikTok: @wmmmpodcast Instagram: @witchesmagicmurdermystery Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/465405701297488/ Email all your weird stories: witchesmagicmurdermystery@gmail.com Get to know us better:               Kara: @many_adventures_of_kara on Instagram             Megan: @meganmakesjokes on TikTok, @megan_whitmer on Instagram  WMMM Podcast P.O. Box 910674 Lexington, KY 40591 Music credit: Chloe's Lullaby (podcast theme) by Robert Austin. Available on Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Bandcamp, and Patreon! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kerri tells us the story of Kenneth Parks who killed his in-laws Denis and Barbara Woods. There was never any doubt he was who actually murdered them, the question in the courts became intent and responsibility. Donna covers the murder of Martha Brailsford from Salem, MA.  This unsolved mystery got a new spark when a psychic, Laurie Cabot, joined forces with police. NEW SPONSOR: This episode is sponsored by Cuddly. Help your dollar go even further to help pets in need. Go to www.cudly.com/creep and for every $20, one-time donation, cuddly will donate a gift to an animal in need. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. Rediscover your curiosity with Better Help. Head to www.betterhelp.com/apc for 10% off your first month. If you have any local true crime, local urban legend/lore, ghost stories.. we want them all!! We want to hear from YOU. Especially if you have any funny Ambien stories! Email us at aparanormalchicks@gmail.com Join The Creepinati @ www.patreon.com/theAPCpodcast

Kerri tells us the story of Kenneth Parks who killed his in-laws Denis and Barbara Woods. There was never any doubt he was who actually murdered them, the question in the courts became intent and responsibility. Donna covers the murder of Martha Brailsford from Salem, MA.  This unsolved mystery got a new spark when a psychic, Laurie Cabot, joined forces with police. NEW SPONSOR: This episode is sponsored by Cuddly. Help your dollar go even further to help pets in need. Go to www.cudly.com/creep and for every $20, one-time donation, cuddly will donate a gift to an animal in need. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. Rediscover your curiosity with Better Help. Head to www.betterhelp.com/apc for 10% off your first month. If you have any local true crime, local urban legend/lore, ghost stories.. we want them all!! We want to hear from YOU. Especially if you have any funny Ambien stories! Email us at aparanormalchicks@gmail.com Join The Creepinati @ www.patreon.com/theAPCpodcast

Liz Mugavero/Cate Conte is the bestselling author (authors?) of three mystery series, two with Kensington Books and one with St. Martin's Press. As Liz, she writes the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, the first of which was an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel. As Cate, she writes the Cat Cafe Mysteries and the Full Moon Mysteries, featuring newbie witch Violet Mooney. She is also a creativity coach, helping other writers fulfill their creative dreams with a touch of woo woo. She's the founder of The Creativity Lab, a membership site for writers.Bestselling Author Cate Conte

Welcome to the Solarium! Join hosts Chelle and Laylla in their enchanting herbal haven, brimming with aromatic teas, mystical smoking blends, beloved books, crystals, divination tools, and much more. In this episode, they delve into the realm of classic witchcraft literature, focusing on four influential books published before 1990. So, grab your coziest mug of tea, grab a joint or some calming incense, and step into The Solarium!First off the witches brew a mug of tea from Black Cat Curiosity Shoppe, one of Chelle's favorite places to grab hand crafted tea blends in Salem. And they both roll up a little cannabis and a soothing blend of herbs to make sure their hangout sesh has a relaxing vibe. Once the cares of the world melt away, Chelle opens up about Scott Cunningham's "Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs", and why its a publication she deems essential for every herb witch's collection. She explains why Laurie Cabot's "The Power of the Witch," is the one she always recommends to new witchlings and why she will always keep a copy in her library.Meanwhile, Laylla revisits the magical archives with Margot Adler's "Drawing Down the Moon" and Starhawk's "The Spiral Dance." The duo discusses how these pioneering works have sculpted the landscape of modern witchcraft, noting that despite some initial shortcomings in research and cultural sensitivity, the authors have attempted to fix these problems with later editions. Despite the original issues, these books still contain valuable history and information that would benefit today's witches. Laylla and Chelle are also excited to announce their participation in the upcoming Sacred Space Conference, where they'll be conducting workshops alongside esteemed figures in the witchcraft and pagan spheres. Discover the fantastic lineup of workshops and learn how to register at the Sacred Space Foundation.We can't wait to share our thoughts on these magical reads and our upcoming adventures with you! Tune in for a blend of herbal enjoyment, literary discussion, and a sprinkle of excitement for the upcoming pagan festival season!Interested in contributing to The Solarium? Whether it's a letter, some quirky trinkets, or if you're a small business eager to showcase your products, we'd love to hear from you! We feature unboxings and reviews in our Solarium episodes, giving your items a spotlight in our magical space.Send to:Back on the BroomstickLaylla & Chelle1029 Lyell Ave Box 420Rochester NY 14606Email: backonthebroomstick@gmail.com

Theodora is joined by Lady Dekana, practicing witch for over 25 year and student of Laurie Cabot talks about how witchcraft has changed over the years and what you need to know about finding a coven and practicing magick. Lady Dekana is originally from Connecticut who started as a solitary.  In her early 20s Lady Dekana was trained and initiated within the Dianic Tradition but left shortly after her initiation.  She studied Laurie Cabot's Witchcraft as a Science class in 2003 and later joined The Religious Order of Witchcraft, where she was initiated a Witch and Priestess within the Order.  Today Lady Dekana lives in Montana with her husband where she is a High Priestess of a local coven. Lady Dekana co-hosts Mystic Initiations Podcast and is the owner of Open Heart Mystic Intuitive Tarot Reading where she offers spiritual guidance and readings for people looking for clarity within their livesFind Lady Dekana https://www.openheartmystic.comhttps://www.podpage.com/mystic-initiations/https://www.instagram.com/ladydekana/https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550986807436  

Witches on broomsticks and true crime, we're smitten. Historical coastlines and testimonies rewritten. Guilty ol' verdicts all tied up in string, these are a few of our favorite things! And it just so happens they're all in this episode! It's the Sound of True Crime here, folks! We're heading to Salem, MA to uncover the murder of Martha Brailsford, a beloved local artist and interior decorator who befriended neighbor Thomas Maimoni, a man who wasn't who he seemed. Best of all, we'll meet the Official Witch of Salem, Laurie Cabot, who solves the mystery and brings justice to the town of Salem. Hold on to your sails! You just never know when a rogue wave may knock you right overboard. Happy haunting! 

July 12, 1991, Salem, Massachusetts. Local artist and interior designer, Martha Brailsford goes for a short sail on the boat, Counterpoint with her new friend, Tom Maimoni. Two would sail away that day, but only Tom would return. When Martha's husband becomes worried when his wife is missing, the people of Salem, one witch and law enforcement will join forces to locate her. What they find instead is a murderer. This is the story of Martha Brailsford. The Woman, the Witch and Tom Maimoni –The Sea Monster.Sources used for this podcastJOIN THE HITCHED 2 HOMICIDE IN-LAWS AND OUTLAWSSTART KRIS CALVERT'S BOOKS TODAY FOR FREEH2H WEBSITEH2H on TWITTERH2H on INSTA

On our very last episode of 2022, Court and Shaun are chatting Yule, the Winter Solstice, and ALL the fun witch-crafties you can do to celebrate this time of year! We're sharing Yule lore, associations, recipes, brews, blends and spells to celebrate the snow, appreciate the chill in the air, and to welcome in the return of the sun! Blessed Yuletide, Bright Solstice & Happy Holidays witches! We adore you and cannot thank you enough for ALL of your support in the past year. See you in 2023! RESOURCES: Year of the Witch by Temperance Alden; Celebrate the Earth by Laurie Cabot; A Book of Pagan Family Prayers & Rituals by Ceisiwr Serith; The Witch of the Forest's Guide to Natural Magick --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thelionthewitchandthepod/support

Welcome back Witches! In this week's episode we're going to be discussing Spirit Guides!  We'll talk about the history and background, ways to connect with your spirit guides, and why working with spirit guides might be helpful in your journey.  So get in losers, and lets discuss all things Spirit Guides!! We would be forever thankful if you leave our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast link below, or search the Supercast website for Get in Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can also find us at our Buy Me a Coffee link below.  There you can purchase a membership to our podcast and obtain exclusives like, getting episodes early, shout outs on the show, access to our “Ask me anything” forum, our monthly newsletter, a promo code for merchandise, and more. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You  can support our show through our Supercast: https://getinloserweredoingwitchcraft.supercast.com/ Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/getinwitches   Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch ----more---- References Cabot, Laurie. Laurie Cabot's Book of Shadows. 2015. Copper Cauldron Publishing, LLC. Leone, Mallory. What are Spirit Guides? And How do you Communicate with Them? (2021) Anima Mundi Herbals. Nuur (DOAM, LAc),  Daganit. How to Connect with Your Spirit Guides. Goop. https://goop.com/wellness/spirituality/how-to-connect-with-your-spirit-guides/ Hofberg, Shelley. (2021). Working with your Spirit Guides. Bellespirit. https://www.bellesprit.com/working-with-your-spirit-guides/ Sayce, Anna. (2021). Spirit Guides and How to work with them. Anna Sayce. https://annasayce.com/enlist-the-help-of-your-spirit-guides/ Sayce, Anna. (n.d). 5 Tips and insights to help you work with your spirit guides. Anna Sayce. https://annasayce.com/5-tips-insights-to-help-you-work-with-your-spirit-guides-plus-how-not-to-poison-your-budgie/ Youtube: Chaotic Witch Aunt Kloee Taylor Sup Witchez Scarlet Ravenswood

Welcome back Witches! This week's episode is going to be the first in a series where we talk about plants!  We will discuss a handful of plants in both medicinal and magical realms, with plans to expand on the plant world in future episodes.  So get in losers, and lets discuss The Magical Properties of Plants!! We would be forever thankful if you leave our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast link below, or search the Supercast website for Get in Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can also find us at our Buy Me a Coffee link below.  There you can purchase a membership to our podcast and obtain exclusives like, getting episodes early, shout outs on the show, access to our “Ask me anything” forum, our monthly newsletter, a promo code for merchandise, and more. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You  can support our show through our Supercast: https://getinloserweredoingwitchcraft.supercast.com/ Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/getinwitches   Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch ----more---- References Beyer, Rebecca. Wild Witchcraft. (2022). Simon Element.  Cabot, Laurie. Laurie Cabot's Book of Shadows. (2015) Copper Cauldron Publishing. Cunningham, Scott. Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. (2019) Llewellyn Publications. Nock, Judy Ann. The Modern Witchcraft Guide to Magickal Herbs. (2019) Adams Media (Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.) Moura, Ann. Grimoire for a Green Witch: A Complete Book of Shadows. (2020) Llewellyn Publications. Vanderbeck, Paige. Green Witchcraft. (2020). Rockridge Press Southern Hemisphere Magic. (n.d.). Luna's Grimoire.  http://www.lunasgrimoire.com/southern-hemisphere-magick/ 4 Reasons to add Kangaroo Paw Flower to your makeup routine. (May 2020). INIKA Organic. https://uk.inikaorganic.com/blogs/natural-beauty-hub/kangaroo-paw-flower Walling, Nikki. (2022). Australian Witchcraft. Grimoire de Nyx. https://grimoire.nyx.id.au/australian/ The Incredible Magickal Properties of Aloe. (n.d.). Wicca Now. https://wiccanow.com/magickal-properties-of-aloe/ Wigington, Patti. (2020, August 28). The Magic, History, and Folklore of Sandalwood. Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/using-sandalwood-in-magic-2562036

Welcome back Witches!  In this week's episode we're going to be discussing how you can manifest prosperity!  This episode is an extension of our manifestation episode, but we're going to be specifically focusing on drawing prosperity to you. We're even going to share some techniques that we know work! So get in losers, and lets discuss all the benefits of Manifesting Prosperity! We would be forever thankful if you leave our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast link below, or search the Supercast website for Get in Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can also find us at our Buy Me a Coffee link below.  There you can purchase a membership to our podcast and obtain exclusives like, getting episodes early, shout outs on the show, access to our “Ask me anything” forum, our monthly newsletter, a promo code for merchandise, and more. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You  can support our show through our Supercast: https://getinloserweredoingwitchcraft.supercast.com/ Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/getinwitches   Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch ----more---- References Cabot, Laurie. Laurie Cabot's Book of Shadows. (2015) Copper Cauldron Publishing. Prout, Sarah. The Alchemy of Abundance: 15 Ways to Manifest Prosperity Now. (2016) https://sarahprout.com/the-alchemy-of-abundance/ Silverwind, Selene. The Witch's Journal. (2009). Fall River Press.  McNeal, Vanessa. (2021) 6 Tips for Manifesting Abundance. United Way. https://www.unitedwaydm.org/powered-by-purpose-blog/6-tips-for-manifesting-abundance-vanessa-mcneal Coates, Matt. (2021). Top 8 Abundance Affirmations for Wealth and Prosperity. https://blog.mindvalley.com/abundance-affirmations/ Murphy- Hiscock, Arin. (2017). The Green Witch. Adams Media. Crystal Clear Reflections. N.d. Tarot Divinations. https://crystal-reflections.com/tarot3/pentacles/upright/king-of-pentacles/king_p/ Greenwood, Carla (2022). 10 Spiritual Benefits of Chamomile. Out Of Stress. https://www.outofstress.com/chamomile-spiritual-benefits/#:~:text=Chamomile%20is%20a%20very%20positive%20herb%20commonly%20used,to%20attract%20love%2C%20happiness%2C%20peace%2C%20and%20banish%20negativity. Illes, Judika (2004). The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells. Harper Element  Wolfe, Sarah Esmae. (2020). How to build a prosperity bowl for abundance. Green Witch Living. https://greenwitchliving.com/blogs/the-witchs-guide/how-to-build-a-prosperity-bowl Youtube: Chaotic Witch Aunt The Green Witch The Witch of Wonderlust

Welcome back Witches!  This week's episode is going to be hot because we're talking all about that Candle Magic! As always we'll give you a little background and history, talk about candles and their magical properties, as well as correspondences that will get you started! So get in losers, and lets discuss Candle Magic! We would be forever thankful if you leave our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast link below, or search the Supercast website for Get in Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can also find us at our Buy Me a Coffee link below.  There you can purchase a membership to our podcast and obtain exclusives like, getting episodes early, shout outs on the show, access to our “Ask me anything” forum, our monthly newsletter, a promo code for merchandise, and more. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You  can support our show through our Supercast: https://getinloserweredoingwitchcraft.supercast.com/ Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/getinwitches   Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch ----more---- References: Cabot, Laurie. Penny Cabot & Christopher Penczak. Laurie Cabot's Book of Shadows. (2015). Copper Cauldron Publishing, LLC.   Cunningham, Scott. Cunningham's Book of Shadows: The Path of an American Traditionalist. (2018). Llewellyn Publications. Moura, Ann. Grimoire for the Green Witch: A Complete Book of Shadows. (2020) Llewellyn Publications. Silverwind, Selene. The Witch's Journal. (2009) Fall River Press. Smith, Erika W. A Beginner's Guide to Candle Magic. (2019) Refinery 29. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/what-is-candle-magic-meaning http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/the_elements/fire.asp Murphy-Hiscock, Arin. (2017). The Green Witch. Adams Media. Illes, Judika, (2004). The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells. Harper Ellement.

Ron Kolek - Executive Director/Lead InvestigatorRon Kolek is the founder and lead investigator of The New England Ghost Project. With a degree in Environmental Science, he was the ultimate skeptic. However, a near death experience changed all that. No longer blinded by his skepticism, he now uses scientific background to seek the truth about the paranormal and has co-written two books with Maureen Wood, The Ghost Chronicles, and Ghost a DayMaureen Wood - Psychic InvestigatorMaureen Wood is a fifth generation Psychic/Trance-medium. For as far back as she can remember, she has communicated with the deceased. At the age of fifteen, she was introduced to a woman who studied with Laurie Cabot (official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts). This woman took Maureen under her wing and guided her in ways to not only understand, but also control her gifts. At the age of 15, she served as a medium for adult séances. She has practiced, studied, and instructed metaphysical studies for more than twenty-five years. Maureen has been with the New England Ghost Project since 2001 and has accompanied the group on over 100 investigations.******************************************************************To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv*** AND NOW ***The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.comThe ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

Ron Kolek - Executive Director/Lead InvestigatorRon Kolek is the founder and lead investigator of The New England Ghost Project. With a degree in Environmental Science, he was the ultimate skeptic. However, a near death experience changed all that. No longer blinded by his skepticism, he now uses scientific background to seek the truth about the paranormal and has co-written two books with Maureen Wood, The Ghost Chronicles, and Ghost a DayMaureen Wood - Psychic InvestigatorMaureen Wood is a fifth generation Psychic/Trance-medium. For as far back as she can remember, she has communicated with the deceased. At the age of fifteen, she was introduced to a woman who studied with Laurie Cabot (official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts). This woman took Maureen under her wing and guided her in ways to not only understand, but also control her gifts. At the age of 15, she served as a medium for adult séances. She has practiced, studied, and instructed metaphysical studies for more than twenty-five years. Maureen has been with the New England Ghost Project since 2001 and has accompanied the group on over 100 investigations.******************************************************************To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv*** AND NOW ***The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.comThe ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

Ron Kolek - Executive Director/Lead InvestigatorRon Kolek is the founder and lead investigator of The New England Ghost Project. With a degree in Environmental Science, he was the ultimate skeptic. However, a near death experience changed all that. No longer blinded by his skepticism, he now uses scientific background to seek the truth about the paranormal and has co-written two books with Maureen Wood, The Ghost Chronicles, and Ghost a DayMaureen Wood - Psychic InvestigatorMaureen Wood is a fifth generation Psychic/Trance-medium. For as far back as she can remember, she has communicated with the deceased. At the age of fifteen, she was introduced to a woman who studied with Laurie Cabot (official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts). This woman took Maureen under her wing and guided her in ways to not only understand, but also control her gifts. At the age of 15, she served as a medium for adult séances. She has practiced, studied, and instructed metaphysical studies for more than twenty-five years. Maureen has been with the New England Ghost Project since 2001 and has accompanied the group on over 100 investigations.******************************************************************To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv*** AND NOW ***The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.comThe ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

What's up witches and welcome to the astrological new year! For this Aries New Moon, our hosts tackle Power of the Witch, by Laurie Cabot, prolific and famous Official Witch of Salem. This book gets rave reviews and sparks some interesting conversations about gender and child-rearing, as well as our regularly scheduled segment, Gemini wants to fistfight Gerald Gardner! 

This week we talk about Salem's Witch...Laurie Cabot! Hello Horror Fanatics! Welcome to Oh...The Horror! A weekly podcast for all things horror, supernatural, scary and downright creepy. We hope you give us a listen and add us to your regular rotation of podcasts. You can learn more about our podcast, connect to your favorite podcast platform and social media presence by visiting our website. https://ohthehorrorpodcast.com/ (https://ohthehorrorpodcast.com) Please email any show ideas, comments and suggestions to oth@seriouslydecent.com Proud to be listed in the Top 80 Horror Podcasts on Feedspot. You can check out the entire list below: https://blog.feedspot.com/horror_podcasts/ (https://blog.feedspot.com/horror_podcasts/)

On this episode of the ‘cast, Shaun and Courtney are talking all about winter magick and the chilly pagan holiday of Yuletide! We're diving deep into the origins of this ancient celebration, discussing the importance of the Winter Solstice to magickal practitioners, breaking down some longstanding customs and lore, and of course, talking fun activities and rituals to ring in the solar new year. Winter marks a point of dramatic natural shift on Earth, and this is simultaneously a time of balance and change. We're welcoming that change and celebrating rebirth, taking time to slow down and draw in a new cycle. RESOURCES: Year of the Witch by Temperance Alden; The Witch of the Forest's Guide to Natural Magick by Lindsay Squire; Celebrate the Earth by Laurie Cabot; Grimoire for the Green Witch by Ann Moura; "Krampus" from Encyclopedia Britannica --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thelionthewitchandthepod/support

Ron Kolek - Executive Director/Lead InvestigatorRon Kolek is the founder and lead investigator of The New England Ghost Project. With a degree in Environmental Science, he was the ultimate skeptic. However, a near death experience changed all that. No longer blinded by his skepticism, he now uses scientific background to seek the truth about the paranormal and has co-written two books with Maureen Wood, The Ghost Chronicles, and Ghost a DayMaureen Wood - Psychic InvestigatorMaureen Wood is a fifth generation Psychic/Trance-medium. For as far back as she can remember, she has communicated with the deceased. At the age of fifteen, she was introduced to a woman who studied with Laurie Cabot (official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts). This woman took Maureen under her wing and guided her in ways to not only understand, but also control her gifts. At the age of 15, she served as a medium for adult séances. She has practiced, studied, and instructed metaphysical studies for more than twenty-five years. Maureen has been with the New England Ghost Project since 2001 and has accompanied the group on over 100 investigations.******************************************************************To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv*** AND NOW ***The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.comThe ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

Ron Kolek - Executive Director/Lead Investigator Ron Kolek is the founder and lead investigator of The New England Ghost Project. With a degree in Environmental Science, he was the ultimate skeptic. However, a near death experience changed all that. No longer blinded by his skepticism, he now uses scientific background to seek the truth about the paranormal and has co-written two books with Maureen Wood, The Ghost Chronicles, and Ghost a Day Maureen Wood - Psychic Investigator Maureen Wood is a fifth generation Psychic/Trance-medium. For as far back as she can remember, she has communicated with the deceased. At the age of fifteen, she was introduced to a woman who studied with Laurie Cabot (official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts). This woman took Maureen under her wing and guided her in ways to not only understand, but also control her gifts. At the age of 15, she served as a medium for adult séances. She has practiced, studied, and instructed metaphysical studies for more than twenty-five years. Maureen has been with the New England Ghost Project since 2001 and has accompanied the group on over 100 investigations. ****************************************************************** To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv *** AND NOW *** The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.com The ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

Ron Kolek - Executive Director/Lead Investigator Ron Kolek is the founder and lead investigator of The New England Ghost Project. With a degree in Environmental Science, he was the ultimate skeptic. However, a near death experience changed all that. No longer blinded by his skepticism, he now uses scientific background to seek the truth about the paranormal and has co-written two books with Maureen Wood, The Ghost Chronicles, and Ghost a Day Maureen Wood - Psychic Investigator Maureen Wood is a fifth generation Psychic/Trance-medium. For as far back as she can remember, she has communicated with the deceased. At the age of fifteen, she was introduced to a woman who studied with Laurie Cabot (official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts). This woman took Maureen under her wing and guided her in ways to not only understand, but also control her gifts. At the age of 15, she served as a medium for adult séances. She has practiced, studied, and instructed metaphysical studies for more than twenty-five years. Maureen has been with the New England Ghost Project since 2001 and has accompanied the group on over 100 investigations. ****************************************************************** To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv *** AND NOW *** The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.com The ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

KNIT A SPELL - Episode 17: Magic & Making Collide w/ Ana Campos (Circle of Stitches)In Episode 17of Knit A Spell, Katie and Jim welcome guest Ana Campos: a practicing witch, tarot reader and teacher, yarn dyer, knitwear designer, and owner of Circle of Stitches in Salem, MA. Ana is like the ice cream swirl of Katie's making and Jim's magical backgrounds and is a firm believer that knitting is the perfect pallet for spell work.Ana shares her inspiring story of discovering Laurie Cabot's books while growing up in Brazil and how this became the inspiration for her to eventually move to Salem and meet Laurie herself! BTW - Ana is a 3rd degree Cabot witch.Ana also spills a little 'T' on some customer interactions - how could we not? Blessings upon you! Also - did you know you need a license to practice Tarot in Salem? We didn't either! Enjoy this super inspiring episode thanks to our special guest Ana Campos from Circle of Stitches. Be sure to check out her website and full list of items and offerings, including the Fiber Witch Boxes mentioned in this episode, at CircleofStitches.com and via the links in the show notes below. SHOW NOTES• Guest Website - Circle of Stitches:https://www.circleofstitches.com/• Fiber Witch Box Collection:https://shop.circleofstitches.com/collections/fiber-witch-box-collection • Classes (In-person & Online)https://www.circleofstitches.com/classes-2 • Join Circle of Stitches Newsletter:https://mailchi.mp/circleofstitches/innercircle• Follow Circle of Stitches:Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/circlestitches/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/circleofstitchesTwitterhttps://twitter.com/circlestitches • About Laurie Cabothttps://www.lauriecabot.com/ -----ABOUT KNIT A SPELLMagical Maker Katie Rempe (@lightfromlantern) & Maker of Magic James Divine (@divinehandjim) team up to bring you Knit A Spell - a weekly podcast for magical makers, makers of magic, and curious minds! -----PREFER VIDEO PODCASTS? Find & follow Knit A Spell on the Light From Lantern YouTube Channel.-----New episodes will be uploaded every Wednesday. Subscribe and never miss an episode update! Follow Along on Instagram• Knit A Spell @KnitASpell• Follow Katie @LightFromLantern• Follow Jim @DivineHandJim    About Katie Rempe / Light From Lantern• Website: Light From LanternAbout James Divine / Divine Hand Palmistry• Website: The Divine HandKnit A Spell is produced by Light From Lantern LLCSupport the show (https://lightfromlantern.com/support-knit-a-spell)

In this bonus episode of Fictional Hangover, Amanda, Claire and Superfan Constance play Would You Rather with Laurie Stolarz, author of Blue Is for Nightmares, and talk about how peeing together brings people together, peanut butter, soy sauce and ketchup on everything!, the Great Amber Revelation that is completely incorrect, and encountering actual witchcraft high priestess Laurie Cabot in TJ Maxx, featuring music by Lyss Emerson.

We recorded this Episode on February 22nd, 2021 We have a therapy update, we talk about some foundations for spell work, We got your substitutions, Elemental, Gesture Work - just pulling out the old energy ball and forget the rest, we got the Witch that inspired Stevie Nick's Signature look - ok we don't HAVE Her - but we talk about Laurie Cabot and we will be posting some links to those books on Instagram. Then we have two full spells for you. If you are a new witch - please do not skip the chat about meditation and you may want to check out our previous Extra-Sode on Casting a Circle ( about 10 minutes), and Raising Energy episode that talks about some foundations for spell work. SPARKS  Corey Half Hippy Life Detta Bradetta Stay Woke Tarot  Land Acknowledgment Bonfire Babble Podcast recognizes that we live and record on the traditional lands of the Duwamish Tribe. We Honor Their past and present stewardship of the beautiful land and the life-giving energy they provide. To learn more about the Duwamish People and Real Rent visit their site!  How To Reach Us You can find us on Instagram Twitter  Facebook at Bonfire Babble Podcast If you like us – and you are on Apple Podcast – we would love it if you gave us a 5-star rating and if you have time – a short review! Thanks so much for listening!

Robert Dominguez, Ash Tucker, and Steven Dominguez interview Scott Perry Texas Paranormal Recon. Scott Perry grew up surrounded by the paranormal from a very early age. He is convened Seax-Wicca, and later in life, he also studied under Laurie Cabot, the Official Witch of Salem, and is a Second Degree Cabot Witch. He has practiced the Craft (Wicca) for over 40 years, and he has also practiced Golden Dawn style Ceremonial Magick since 1991.In addition to this, when other teens were out partying and doing that sort of thing, Scott spent his time crafting his abilities as a trance medium and psychic. He started doing paranormal investigations at 14, and he has been working to use his psychic and medium abilities to help people communicate to spirits that are friendly and his magickal ability to banish those that are not so friendly as well as diffuse curses and cursed objects.In addition to working with the paranormal, he has taught English and History for over 23 years at the high school level. Scott’s life has centered around helping those who need help, and he is excited to work helping clients through Texas Paranormal Recon as one of their psychicmediums and their occult and demonology expert.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Email us your Bigfoot, Paranormal, or scary stories at bigfootclub1@gmail.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Our social media, YouTube, Pay Pal and Venmo linkshttps://linktr.ee/BigfootClub 

If all you knew of Witchcraft and Wicca you learned from shows like Charmed, Sabrina, Bewitched, and Witches of Eastwick, then you are not alone! In this spooky rendition of not a Harlot, Karamia tells Emily about all things Magik; the differences between witchcraft and Wicca; and Laurie Cabot, the official Witch of Massachusetts who we seriously wish was our Grandmother. We will get deep into the origins of Wicca, find out what kind of witches we are, and discover that we are too broke to afford a love obsession spell (which might be a good thing!) Grab your favorite fall sweater, a glass of Witch’s brew, light a candle (or 30), and join us as we ask the hard hitting questions, like how would 1692 Salem have responded to a Queef?!    Music by Lloyd Rogers. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @harlotsofhistorypodcast! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Ancestral Eyes E26 welcomes Rev. Alexander Cabot, Third Degree High Priest with your hosts Teresa Sliwinski and Jean-Jerome C. Baudry! ALEXANDER CABOT was born in Havana, Cuba on an “old moon” in September's autumnal equinox, he was the first child born to his mother. She had a miscarriage of her first pregnancy, arising from a hex put on her, one filled with envy and deceit. Alexander grew up knowing that he was born to counteract that spell and save his mother's happiness and life. Living in New York, at a very tender age, he was taught the magickal traditions of a line of men in his family. Within that lineage, his great grandfather, grandfather, and father possessing initiated Masonic and the “Occult Sciences” presented a good influence for him to model himself to. Being not of English descent, he was genuinely curious and heart-fully drawn to British Traditional Witchcraft at an early age of eleven, through the writings of Gardner, Sybil Leek & Doreen Valiente. When Alexander became thirteen years of age, he was initiated in Palo Mayombe of the Congo/Afro Cuban. Then he began his spiritual studies of “El Evangelio De Alan Kardec” at El Templo; La Luz, Cristobal De Jesus and was crowned on his 19 birthday. African spirit guides carried him to be initiated into the African diaspora religions such as Santeria/Lucumi Tradition. He was the right-hand man for an Oriate, Chief High Priest. Alexander was initiated and taught Welsh & Gardnerian/NY Wicca by Lady Rhea throughout the '90s but for several years after he devoted all his time to his profession in surgery. Having mastered that purpose for the “All”, he has personally decided to return to the craft and re-energize his spiritual journey again, starting on the Great Sabbat, Samhain, 2009. Being mentored, initiated and ordained by the “Official Witch of Salem”; Rev. Laurie Cabot, HPs, his communal energies are now in Salem, Massachusetts as well in New York City where he resides being a Third Degree High Priest of The Cabot Kent Hermetic Temple and an elder in his community. If you would like to be a future guest on our show please write to us at jjbaudry@ancestraleyes.ca! Remember to tune-in every Friday @ 8 pm EST for our live show!

Ron Kolek - Executive Director/Lead InvestigatorRon Kolek is the founder and lead investigator of The New England Ghost Project. With a degree in Environmental Science, he was the ultimate skeptic. However, a near death experience changed all that. No longer blinded by his skepticism, he now uses scientific background to seek the truth about the paranormal and has co-written two books with Maureen Wood, The Ghost Chronicles, and Ghost a DayMaureen Wood - Psychic InvestigatorMaureen Wood is a fifth generation Psychic/Trance-medium. For as far back as she can remember, she has communicated with the deceased. At the age of fifteen, she was introduced to a woman who studied with Laurie Cabot (official Witch of Salem, Massachusetts). This woman took Maureen under her wing and guided her in ways to not only understand, but also control her gifts. At the age of 15, she served as a medium for adult séances. She has practiced, studied, and instructed metaphysical studies for more than twenty-five years. Maureen has been with the New England Ghost Project since 2001 and has accompanied the group on over 100 investigations.

Our first recorded episode finds its direction in learning about our host Rev. Alexander Cabot and being a city Witch in NYC, from studying under the Official Witch of Salem, Laurie Cabot to working with Lady Rhea, the Witch queen of NYC. We also discuss some possible future guests and what we are doing as “stay at home Witches”, dealing with anxiety and understanding the covid pandemic.

For a lot of us, running a yarn store seems like glamour, right? And I'm raising my hands because I'm one of those people that as soon as I started crocheting and knitting, I was ready to open a yarn store where I'd play with yarn all day... but I have a feeling that that's not the reality of owning and running a yarn store. Today, we're having a chat with Ana Campos of Circle of Stitches in Salem, MA and the dyer behind Toil of Trouble. Ana shares her behind the scene, the real tea of running a brick and mortar yarn store. Stay tuned. Real talk starts now!   Ana Campos Circle of Stitches Fiber-Retreat   BOOKS MENTIONED Macunaima by Mario de Andrade Power of the Witch by Laurie Cabot   COURSES Tian Connaughton - Courses Pattern Grading Made Easy: How to grade like a pro! (self-study) - Pattern Grading Made Easy (self-study)    One-on-one Coaching with Tian Tian Connaughton - Coaching   Website: TianConnaughton.com Instagram: @TianConnaughton

Melanie and Rachel talk famous contemporary witches! This week we dive into Laurie Cabot & Patricia Kennealy-Morrison. Who should we research next? Brought to you By: The Sonar Network

Today, we discuss COPING. Your favorite Witches share how they are each getting through the shelter-in-place orders and the uncertainty of the moment. Special guest Mat Auryn returns to lead us in a discussion on living in the times of The Tower and the Star from the Tarot, and offers tips for meditating during this trying time. Also, will Britney Spears save us all??? Are you an artist or musician? Send us the links of where people can buy your stuff! What craft projects have you done since this whole thing began? Email us and tell us about it! Audio TranscriptDownloadOur Guest TodayMat Auryn is a witch, professional psychic, and occult teacher throughout the NewEngland. He has been drawn to the occult and metaphysical since an early age, readingbooks on witchcraft at eight years old. He is an initiate of Black Rose Witchcraft, TheCabot-Kent Hermetic Temple, and the Temple of Witchcraft. He is currently a HighPriest in the Sacred Fires Tradition of Witchcraft. Mat has had the honor and privilege of studying under Christopher Penczak, Laurie Cabot, Devin Hunter, Storm Faerywolf, Chas Bogan, Jason Miller, and other prominent witchcraft teachers and elders. He runs the blog For Puck’s Sake on Patheos Pagan and writes the column “Extra Sensory Witchcraft” in Witches & Pagans Magazine. He has been featured in various magazines, radio shows, podcasts, books and other periodicals such as Witch Way Magazine, DisInfo, and The Wild Hunt. To find out more about him and his work visit, www.MatAuryn.com.Resource ListMetaphysical Stores taking online and/or phone orders:The Raven’s Wing Magical Co.Q MebThe Mystic DreamWitchkin Artists, Artisans, and Online ShopsGaia’s Workshop Drums (drums and other sacred art)Smashing Ivory Production (music and fantasy photography)Swandy (music: alt-electronic trio)Witches Resistance (candles, herbal concoctions, Witchcraft and Resistance paraphernalia) Transcendence Artes (spiritual and metaphysical artisan pieces) Other ResourcesEpisode 12: Psychic Powers in Witchcraft with Mat AurynEpisode 30 Spring Equinox and Money Magick with Queen Mother ImakhuThe Science Witch PodcastWhen God Was Queer PodcastThe Botan TarotImmunity Booster Sigil by Laura Tempest ZakroffThe Mystic Dream AcademyByron BallardOregon Community Recovery FundCenter for Disaster Philanthropy

Welcome to Weird Web Radio! This episode brings back a fan favorite guest! Mat Auryn! Mat is here to talk about his new book Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick & Manifestation. We take a long look into what it means to be Psychic and how that can improve your witchcraft.  The bonus interview for Patreon members is a lot of fun too! We decided to go in depth on Curses!  Mat's Bio: Mat Auryn is a witch, professional psychic, and occult teacher throughout New England. He has been drawn to the occult and metaphysical since an early age, reading books on witchcraft at eight years old. He is an initiate of Black Rose Witchcraft, The Cabot Tradition of Witchcraft, and the Temple of Witchcraft. He is currently a High Priest in the Sacred Fires Tradition of Witchcraft. Mat has had the honor and privilege of studying under Christopher Penczak, Laurie Cabot, Devin Hunter, Storm Faerywolf, Chas Bogan, Jason Miller, and other prominent witchcraft teachers and elders. He runs the blog For Puck’s Sake on Patheos Pagan, is a content creator for Modern Witch, writes a column in Witches & Pagans Magazine entitled 'Extra-Sensory Witchcraft', and a column in Horns Magazine entitled 'Queer As Folklore'. He has been featured in various magazines, radio shows, podcasts, books, anthologies, and other periodicals. Mat was the very first recipient of the “Most Supportive Witch Award” presented by Witch Way Magazine for helping others in the witchcraft community and going above and beyond to make other witches feel like they are not alone. Mat has had the honor of helping thousands of people gain clarity through his skills of psychic ability and tarot reading throughout the world over the last decade. Mat teaches various metaphysical and occult subjects ranging from psychic development, magickal empowerment, working with spirits, divination, energy healing, lucid dreaming, divination, astral projection throughout the world. You can find Mat haunting the Web: Facebook Instagram Blog For Puck's Sake Official Website Want to know what Mat thinks about CURSES?!? You will even hear how I - Your Host - got started in magic in this bonus interview! All that and more in the members only bonus audio extended interview! Join here! Real quick! Do you want a Tarot Reading from an international award winning professional? Look no more! I'm here! Go to my site http://tarotheathen.com to reserve your reading today! You can also come join the Facebook discussion group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/weirdwebradio/ New Instagram for Weird Web Radio! Follow for unique content and videos! https://www.instagram.com/weirdwebradio/ Is this show worth a dollar to you? How about five dollars? Help support this podcast! That gets you into the Weird Web Radio membership where the extra goodies appear! Join the membership at patreon.com/weirdwebradio or at weirdwebradio.com and click Join the Membership! SHOW NOTES: DIRECT DOWNLOAD MP3 EPISODE ARCHIVE SUBSCRIBE ON iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify! Also streaming on mobile apps for podcasts! Intro voice over by Lothar Tuppan. Outro voice over by Lonnie Scott Intro & Outro Music by Nine Inch Nails on the album ‘7’, song title ‘Ghost’, under Creative Commons License.

We're coming at you hot this week, with an episode that will really make you think ,"Could I be persecuted as a witch?" The answer is yes, but feel free to stick around and hear a little sampling of Alice Kyteler's story if you want to know how easy it is to be accused of witchcraft. Then, see what benefits embracing That Witch Life can get you with Laurie Cabot. There really are two sides to this coin, boys.

Many Witches came to the Craft because of psychic experiences. Can anyone develop psychic ability, or is it something you must be born with? What does it all mean? What do you do when the psychic moments are too much? If you call yourself a psychic, do you have to be accurate ALL of the time? Guest Mat Auryn, author of the forthcoming Psychic Witch, helps answer some of these questions and more. Your favorite Witches also discuss their own psychic experiences. We even get a little political, discussing current leaders and society’s collective shadow and how both have influenced the rise in Witchcraft, today. Plus, Courtney’s new book is available for pre-order! Also, a reminder to shop local, the worst thing you can say to an author (or singer), Courtney is psychically connected to Kanani’s birth control for whatever reason, and Hilary has better friends than everyone else.Our Guest TodayImage Credit: Michael LeFleche @chillcatstudioMat Auryn is a witch, professional psychic, and occult teacher throughout the New England. He has been drawn to the occult and metaphysical since an early age, reading books on witchcraft at eight years old. He is an initiate of Black Rose Witchcraft, The Cabot-Kent Hermetic Temple, and the Temple of Witchcraft. He is currently a High Priest in the Sacred Fires Tradition of Witchcraft. Mat has had the honor and privilege of studying under Christopher Penczak, Laurie Cabot, Devin Hunter, Storm Faerywolf, Chas Bogan, Jason Miller, and other prominent witchcraft teachers and elders. He runs the blog For Puck’s Sake on Patheos Pagan and writes the column “Extra Sensory Witchcraft” in Witches & Pagans Magazine. He has been featured in various magazines, radio shows, podcasts, books and other periodicals such as Witch Way Magazine, DisInfo, and The Wild Hunt. To find out more about him and his work visit www.MatAuryn.com.Resource ListQ Meb (Portland, OR)Red Wheel Weiser

Welcome to Awaken Your Inner Witch! In this intro episode, I'm talking about how I first got into witchcraft, what books helped me at the beginning of my path, and a bit about my spiritual journey so far. Books mentioned in the show: Secrets of Gypsy Fortunetelling by Raymond Buckland, The Truth About Witchcraft Today by Scott Cunningham, and Power of the Witch by Laurie Cabot.  

In this episode, I talk my current obsessions and discuss nine ways to channel Venus without spending a dime (unless you want to). Thank you so much for listening! Join my community of podcast supporters with a small monthly donation to help sustain future episodes: https://anchor.fm/rebirthofvenus/support Grab your free copy of my ritual guide that helps you slay your goals, amplify your authenticity and more: https://mailchi.mp/7827067a38bc/ritualguide Apply for my three-month private coaching experience: rebirthofvenus.com/private-coaching DM Caitlin of Rebirth of Venus on Instagram: instagram.com/rebirth_ofvenus/ Mentioned in this episode: Sahara Rose (Eat Feel Fresh cookbook) https://www.iamsahararose.com/ You Can Heal Your Life audiobook https://itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/you-can-heal-your-life-unabridged-adapted-for-audio/id447083733 Laurie Cabot's Twitter feed https://twitter.com/LaurieCabot?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor The Fat Feminist Witch Podcast https://thefatfeministwitch.wordpress.com/ Maybe Work-Life Balance Means You Should Work More (Jen Dziura) http://www.getbullish.com/2010/12/bullish-maybe-work-life-balance-means-you-should-work-more/ How to Draw Wildflowers (Jordan Clark) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeqL6rpfEbY A Color Story app https://acolorstory.com/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/worklikeawitch/support

Ian Allan is a psychic and intuitive Witch living in Johnson City, TN. He owns and operates Appalachian Witchery, where he teaches classes on Appalachian Folk Lore and Magic, he offers tarot and psychic readings, as well as magical consultations and spell creation. WE TALK ABOUT: unique Appalachian spiritual culture divination, water witching, dowsing, folk magic, ancestor veneration, books of shadows the definition of real magic the difference between magic and manifesting MENTIONED ON THE SHOW Rumours - Fleetwood Mac Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler The Spiral Dance by Starhawk Talking Appalachian by Amy Clark Power of the Witch by Laurie Cabot with Tom Cowan LaurieCabot.com Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham The Witches' Voice GUEST LINK - IAN ALLAN Appalachian Witchery HOST LINKS - SLADE ROBERSON Slade's Books & Courses Get an intuitive reading with Slade Automatic Intuition BECOME A PATRON https://www.patreon.com/shiftyourspirits Edit your pledge on Patreon TRANSCRIPT Ian: My name is Ian Allan. I live in Johnson City, Tennessee, was originally raised in a small coal-mining town in southwest Virginia. Not West Virginia, but Virginia, the southwest corner called Wise. Grew up in a kind of traditional Appalachian family. Became more knowledgeable, I guess would be the world I would use about dreams that I was having and feelings I would be getting about people I would meet at churches or in public atmospheres that would start becoming true. And so I became pretty obsessed with occult sort of ideas from a very young age and it just kind of started developing from there, around the age of 13, is probably when I really started working on developing certain gifts or abilities, if you want to use that word. And it just kind of went on from there. I became a public tarot reader in which I, about 11 years ago, I have been doing all of that for over 20 years at this point now, but really stepped in to the public sphere about 11 years ago and started reading for the public and offering classes on different topics relating to witchcraft as well as, specifically, Appalachian folk magic. Slade: Okay, so I'm just curious when you meet someone for the first time in real life and they ask you what you do, what do you say? Ian: Um, well, previous to March, I would pretty much say I teach Appalachian folk lore and magic. I also read tarot cards. It's not something I've ever really been shy about telling people. Slade: Okay. Ian: I... Just last October, had an interview with the local newspaper and my picture's in it and it's titled Appalacian Witchery. So if people have read the paper, they saw my face, they read an article about me. It's not something I've ever really hidden. It does, obviously, get a lot of weird looks or eye rolls sometimes, but that just kind of comes with that whole idea of being a witch. People don't want to think that we exist sometimes or that we're just crazy people. So it's something I've gotten used to. I've gotten a thicker skin over the years. Slade: One of the reasons I ask that question, and I've started asking it of a lot of the people that I interview is because so many of the people who listen to this show and the people that I work with in particular, are in some kind of process of sort of coming out of the broom closet, or coming out of the psychic closet. Coming out of some kind of closet, right? It's helpful to hear other people's stories and also hear sometimes that we don't all just walk around, you know, like carrying a sign, you know? Ian: Oh yeah! Slade: You know, there's a very, varied nuances to how we answer that question and how we go about in the public. And you've been confronted with the very real reality of having the local newspaper feature you, whereas I'm kind of anonymous locally but yet more globally visible, you know what I mean? So it must be a little bit different being like, but you're the town witch, you know! Everyone's gotta have one, right? Ian: Exactly. Exactly. Historically, yeah. Every village had a witch or shaman who could do herbalism, who would also do magic on the side. So yeah, every village, every town, usually had someone that they would go to, and I'm okay with being that. And I'm not the only one here in Johnson City. Believe me. There are plenty of witches here. I guess I am probably one of the more outspoken ones who hasn't hid himself away, or herself away. So with that does a certain lack of anonymity within the public locally. And I'm okay with that. I like taking care of my community. People who you wouldn't suspect would come to me for readings, for discussion of spell creation and that sort of thing. People who are, you know, ministers' wives, ministers themselves, but, that's days... kind of like, I always view it as a... almost like a psychologist sort of thing where, if you come to me, you come to me and it doesn't leave this room. No one's going to know your name, no one's going to know what we talked about. Slade: Right. Ian: It's definitely helped word of mouth, I guess, for my business, if you want to look at it that way, but it's more of a, I like taking care of my local community. Not that I don't care about my global community, I do care about them but, growing up in the 90s, there was that whole 'think locally'.. 'think globally, act locally', adage, so I've always kind of tried to live by that adage. If I can affect my small town in some way, then they'll start affecting the world at a larger rate than I could by myself. Slade: Yeah, well listen, there are people who listen to this show from all over the world. I mean, Australia, Singapore (I have a lot of fans in Singapore for some reason - hey guys!), Europe... You know, places where, even maybe there's people in Canada who don't really know about the Appalachian region and culture that we're talking about. You are from a city called Johnson City, which is in northeast Tennessee, kind of in the corner with North Carolina and Virginia. So if you would, just kind of explain for everybody a little bit about what Appalachian magic and folk lore is, as, you know, how you would sum it up. Ian: Okay, well, the first thing that I always do in my classes is discuss the word that you're pronouncing. You're saying, Appa-LAY-chia, I pronounce it Appa-LATCH-a. Slade: Mmhmm. Ian: And there's a reason for that. There's kind of an imaginary line, like the Mason/Dixon line, about the pronunciation of the word of the mountains that we live in. And below this imaginary line, so probably somewhere below Washington DC, northern Virginia, sort of area, you're going to hear it pronounced Appalachia. Above that they're going to say Appalachia. And part of that is, you know, it's just dialect. But it was a way for people back in the 1800s into the early 1900s to know who was an outsider and who could be trusted. Because the carpet baggers who would come down to the south, into the Appalachian mountains, or the coal miners or the coal companies who would send in people from the north, they would say Appalachia and we learned they weren't fully to be trusted because were exploiting us. They were stealing our land, they were stealing our property. Stealing our coal, taking our trees and then leaving us in poverty. And so, words, first off, have a lot of power. They have a lot of meaning, so... and it's not wrong to say Appalachia, because the people in the Appalachian mountains into Pennslyvania, Vermont and Maine, they DO pronounce it Appalachia. So their pronunciation is right for them, but when you're talking southern Appalachia, it's more proper to use that pronunciation of Appalachia. Slade: So I sound like a carpet bagger! What the hell. I'm from Tennessee! Actually, you know what would be funny is if I wasn't looking at that word written down and I was surrounded by my family (because my dialect changes depending on who I'm speaking with) I wonder which way I would say it if I wasn't thinking about it. I'm going to be listening for it now and like, how my family says it. Anyway. I didn't mean to interrupt. But go ahead. Ian: Oh no, that's perfectly fine because what you just talked about is like, if you were hanging out with your family, how would you say it? That's what we call code switching. We all have different ways of talking and different words that we use, depending on who we're talking to and what event's going on. There's a great book by a great professor of mine who I, from the University of Virginia's college at Wise. Her name's Amy Clark. She wrote, or she edited a book called Talking Appalachia, and it's a book of collected essays about, or people from around the Appalachian region who wrote about code switching, basically, how they talk and why they talked the way they did. It's a fascinating thing if you're into linguistics. Slade: I was a linguistics major originally in college, yeah! Yes I am interested in that! Ian: Yeah, so, that's a good thing and I've totally rambled off of your first question. So, your question was more about Appalachian magic and folk lore, correct? Slade: Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, a lot of people... So we've identified a little bit of the area physically, geographically, that we're talking about. Why don't you tell us where the magic part comes from, or maybe what's unique about Appalachian magic? Where did this fusion of stuff come from? Ian: Okay. So Appalachian folk magic is really kind of a conglomeration of Scot beliefs, Irish beliefs, English beliefs, German, and a little bit of Turkey, practices, as within this area because it was pretty isolated and even to this day, they consider the Appalachians isolated, from the rest of the larger United States. But, these groups of people started settling here in these mountains and they would share some of their beliefs with one another and they kind of just created a mixing pot, a nice mix in a cauldron, if you want to keep good doing the witch stuff, beliefs and culture and created something that was more unique. I think it's probably the most American of practices. Because I mean, you do have folk magic in New England, but it was very much colonial English practices that they continued because that was who settled there. In the mountains, you had more, more people who came from sort of the lower echelons of society, so to speak, come in to the mountains because they said, 'Oh! No one settled here. There's plenty of land. Let's move here and create our own wealth, not realizing how rocky and sandy the mountains were, not really fit for a lot of farming. So then their life, the hard scrabble life, created different myths, different practices, different folk lores... Things like the wampus cat are definitely Appalachian in origin. That's sort of how all this came about was. Different people from different, but similar backgrounds, coming together to live and then just having to share with one another because of how isolated the area actually was at the time. Slade: Hmm... Okay, okay. So you mentioned the wampus cat. What are some of the topics that you teach classes about when you teach Appalachian folk lore? Just kind of tell us, what are some of the topics? Ian: The first one that I always like to teach, and I usually teach it maybe twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, as just kind of an introduction to Appalachian folk lore and magic, and that just covers a broad series of topics, such as who settled the area, where do we get it, some folk remedies. I discuss some of the legends like the wampus cat or, as he's now become named, the Wood Booger, which is not the most flattering of a name for a creature in Appalachia, but, you know, whatever. Call it whatever you want. It's a big hairy man, kind of like a big foot running around in our woods. And then we talk about divination techniques and in some of the other classes I do a class just on divination techniques that are unique here to this area, which, of course, are also similar to other things that people do in the broader world, like dowsing is a big thing within the mountains, especially what they call water witching, and that's where a person has a special ability to find water would take a specific type of wood, and the wood varied, depending on the family. My grandfather used peach tree wood to dowse for water to dig a well. Whereas other families I've known, they use ash or even elder to dowse with. But then of course, water witching is, has been done all over the world and also pendulum, using things like a wedding band on the woman's... taking a piece of hair from the woman's head and dangling her wedding band over her pregnant belly would indicate male or female. I teach a class on just specifically Appalachian techniques. I also teach classes on how to read playing cards as a divination tool and tarot cards. I teach some modern witchcraft classes. Slade: Well, let me take you back into the past a little bit and come back up to where your knowledge is now, but... So for a long time I've really been wanting to talk to someone on the show about witchcraft and magic because I come to all of this new age stuff from an identification as a witch at a really young age and so my family is very much Appalachian and I've got some Appalachian witchery, you know, a few steps back, like grandparents, but I very much grew up in suburbia. So for the most part, I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, so, you know, a decent sized city suburbia, so my identification as a witch (I have to tell you this story because i haven't told it to other people), but I was probably about 8 or 9 years old because I actually looked it up to see when the Fleetwood Mac album Rumours came, because that was 1977. I loved that album. I remember, it must have been soon after that because my family was going on a car trip somewhere, like maybe to Florida or something long like that and I think my mom had told me that I could buy a magazine at the grocery store. So I got her to buy me a Rolling Stone magazine which she was kind of like, Why do you want a Rolling Stone magazine, you know, you're 8! But it was because there was a feature on Stevie Nicks, and in that magazine, I got it because it was just HER and it was cool pictures of her and I was like, Oh, Stevie! Ian: Oh yeah! Slade: So I'm in the back of the car driving through Georgia in 1970-something and I'm reading Stevie Nicks talking about white witchcraft and how, you know, she's a white witch and all this stuff. And I had this total epiphany of like, Ohmygod, I'm a white witch, that's what I am! From that point on, I was always interested in wicca as a teenager and in college, I kind of discovered... I did a Women's Studies certificate in college, just because it was like you could take these more interesting cool kind of classes that were feminists but they were within different things, like some kind of feminist history or something like that and... After you took so many of them, they actually will give you a certificate in Women's Studies and sometimes I was the only guy in these classes but I just liked the topics. I would the syllabus, or the class listed in the roster and be like, Oh that sounds amazing! So anyway, I got turned on through this Irish women's studies teacher of mine to all this really modern feminist paganism, right? So I was reading, one of my favorite books is, there was an NPR reported named Margot Adler who wrote a book called Drawing Down the Moon. It's kind of a collection of all the various different types of modern witchcraft in America, or modern neopaganism. And then probably the big one for me, a big game changer was The Spiral Dance by Starhawk. That was when I kind of connected the whole feminine principle of the goddess, you know, like the lifeforce in the Universe as being a feminine thing, which was instinctively true for me and she kind of made that intellectual connection for me, in a way. So anyway, I'm wondering, what is your version of that? What were your... How did you come to this? Were there other people in your family or did you just.. you know, were you encouraged? Discouraged? What was your story of how you discovered this part of yourself? Ian: Oh yeah! I guess the easiest way to explain it, I have to go back to the 80s, when I was first... Because I was only born in '83, so... It was a weird time, being born in '83 or the late 80s in the area of the Appalachians that I grew up in. Because I grew up, like I said, in Wise, Virginia, and that is on the very tail end of Virginia. It's about 20 minute drive to Kentucky. Coal had started to fail. It was no longer king in the area, and so people were starting to lose jobs. Mines were closing down. The world there was trying to figure out what to do next. Sadly, they still haven't figured it out. But that's a whole other podcast... Slade: Yeah, right. Ian: ...to talk about the devastation of coal companies on the people within Appalachia. That area was very stuck, trying to figure out, how do we move in to a sort of modern mindset when we don't want to? We still want to be very old-fashioned, very traditional, in our community, and I kind of got swept up in that as I was coming of age, thinking, there's nothing here for me. Watching MTV and thinking, Oh, I'm going to be on Real World or Road Rules and that's how I'm going to see the world. Trying to get away from it but very deeply still wanting to connect with where I was being born. And the word 'witch' was never used in my family as far as describing my aunts, or my great aunts, or my great uncles, or any of that. Because they were very Christian, and that's also something I try to stress in my classes is, I use the word 'witch' because I think it's the most apt word, and witchcraft is the most apt word for describing the practices people did here. But they were very staunchly Christian. And so, everything they did came through the power of prayer to Jesus or to God. They weren't real hip on the Catholics either. Slade: Right. Ian: There are many a sermon I sat through connecting Catholicism basically to Satanism. So growing up, they weren't real hip on Catholics, even though my dad is from, well, he's an army brat but his family ended up settling in the Fairfax area and they ARE Catholic, so half of my family is Catholic and the other half is very traditional southern and Free Will Baptists in the mountains. But everyone in my family still did things. They would interpret dreams, they would talk about ghost stories. The professor I mentioned earlier, Amy Clark, in her English composition class, I think it was Composition 102, she made us do an oral history report and I went and interviewed my great aunt Fern, and collected all sorts of folk lore and stories about the road I grew up on. Because growing up, it was mostly all my family that lived on this road. She shared a story about how my grandmother and her cousin Ione used to go stay with this lady out on this back road called Red Wine. And everyone thought she was a witch. Things would move in her house without her touching them, and my aunt Fern didn't really know a whole lot because she was never invited to go sleepover there, so she just got second-handed stories.. There were definitely stories growing up that I would hear and then there were also the herbal remedies that my grandmother would make, or other people in the family would make for people being sick. I started having dreams from a very young age, where I was like, Oh, this is actually real. This is happening. And they were more literal dreams. They weren't the ones I would have to go interpret like, Oh, there were three cows in my dream. What does that mean? It was like, Oh, I'm walking into a church and here's someone that hasn't been in church sitting there and they're getting ready to give a testimony about how they've been sick and then that Sunday we'd go to church and that would happen. And I was like, Oh, this is interesting. And I also just really loved stories about witches, about vampires, about the monsters... That was where my interest as a very young child was at. Like, I remember specifically in second grade, my best friend Ashley had wore her mother's winter cloak to school and we went to library. I took her cloak and put it on like a cape and was running around like I was a vampire. I very specifically remember that because I got in trouble for that. Because it was a library and I was not supposed to be running around having all this fun. While everyone else was there checking out the Hardy Boys books, I was in the weird section checking out the children's versions of Frankenstein or Dracula, those sorts of books. So I would try to watch anything on TV that my mother would allow me to watch about witchcraft or whatever and I became... obsessed is probably the best word for it. Kind of became obsessed with it, especially the Salem Witch Trials. Halloween is still my favorite holiday to this day so I always looked forward to the fall and specifically, October, because then, you know, when Discovery channel and the History channel were actually about science and history, they would show specials about the history of witchcraft, or the history of vampirism. Even if they repeated the same thing ten times that month, I would watch it every time it came on. Slade: Yeah. Ian: And then when I was 13, we took a trip to... It was a whole big family trip. We drove with the entire family, some uncles, some aunts, up to Gettysburg to see the re-enactment, probably on 4th of July, around the 4th of July because I think that's when they do all their re-enactments. So we went there and then we were following my mom's brother on up to Connecticut where him and his wife had moved to, and I realized that Connecticut was very close to Massachusetts. I convinced my family to take a day trip to Salem. So one day we all piled in the car, drove I think 5 - 6 hours to Salem. And I was... I guess awestruck is probably the best word for it. Because I was like, Wow they're talking about witchcraft like it's something that anyone can do. That it's actually real and tangible and I remember seeing this woman walking down the street in long black robes with her staff and black hair flowing. And then I discovered who that was, and it's a woman named Laurie Cabot, the official witch of Salem. I was like, Wow, witches are real! I bought my first deck of tarot cards when I was there and then we came home and I just started reading tarot cards with the little white book that came with it, for friends and family. That slowly started to develop more and more, and then I purchased a couple of books on wicca and witchcraft, one being Laurie Cabot's book, The Power of the Witch. And then a book by Scott Cunningham, I think it was Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. And then I discovered, Oh! There's a shop in Kingsport called Dilly's Curiosity Shop. And they had books and herbs and candles. It wasn't JUST a witch shop. They had tons of stuff on the New Age movement, on Hinduism. It was just kind of a hippie, new age sort of store, and once I became old enough to drive, you could usually find me there every weekend or every other weekend, spending my hard-saved allowance on books and candles and things that I needed. So it really started from there, was when I really discovered, Oh wow... So about 13. Wow, witchcraft is real and, you know, this is what my family's been doing and what I've been doing naturally for years. Starting to study it from there just kind of helped develop it more into something that wasn't just an occasional, Oh I'm having a dream, or I'm getting a sensation from meeting this person, or I feel like I need to leave some food outside for whatever gunk might be creeping around outside to protect the house. That sort of thing. It wasn't just something that I did spontaneously anymore. It became more of a honed practice. Slade: Yeah... Yeah I was going to ask you, actually, let's see, I'm going to come back to that and ask you a little bit about your personal practice but... I'm interested in, first of all, all those books were taking me back. I used to work in one of those stores, like your're talking about. It was called The New Moon. I basically was the person who chose the books for the magic section. All the people who worked there, we all kind of had our different area of expertise. There was somebody who did all the crystals and stones. There was a guy who was a Druid and he did all of that. There was a guy who was into Buddhism, so all that section of the store, he would advise the owner what to buy. My thing was goddess spirituality, wicca, this whole thing. So the books that you're naming off, I'm like, Yeah, yeah we had that book, we had that book. I'm interested, you know, when I was talking about Starhawk. Starhawk always defined magic, which she took from someone named Dion Fortune, as the art of changing consciousness at will. So I kind of wonder, what's your definition of magic? What is that, to you? How does it work? Ian: Yeah. It's a question that, you know, most people want to know a definition too. And as I said, I've studied and practiced for 20-something years, so I've read all the definitions, Dion Fortune, Starhawk, Aleister Crowley, and I think, yes, they're all pretty accurate. The art of changing consciousness at will - I like to take it a little step further and it's more than just changing your consciousness. It's also... Because changing your consciousness is one thing. But being able to change physical reality is a whole other, and I know they... As you get deeper into the magic conversations and topics, we talk about micro and macrocosms and how if you change your consciousness and you are changing physical reality but being able to literally change your physical reality is part of my definition of magic. So it would be more like the art of changing physical reality and your consciousness at will, in alignment with natural forces. Because I don't believe that there is anything really supernatural about anything that witches do. We are using natural energies and natural forces. We're just using it in a way that most people aren't aware of the ability of how to manipulate those energies to effect the change we want to see. Slade: She goes on in her definition, she talks about the art part as using sensory imagery and symbols that evoke emotions and then the will is kind of directed energy and intention, and together, those things sort of mix and shift, because we're kind of swimming around in this emotional-thought-energy soup, or whatever. You know what's interesting to me, see, is that sounds like people talking about Law of Attraction and talking about manifesting. I started blogging 12 or 13 years ago and the vocabulary that was popularized by The Secret sort of eclipsed some of what we call magic. It was like, no longer fashionable to use the word 'magic', now it's 'manifesting'. Do you have any observations about the relationship between those things? Is that something that you notice as well? Ian: Okay. So yeah. I definitely believe that there is validity in the Law of Attraction in its relation to magic. I am definitely not going to be your love and light person when it comes to this conversation because I think most of what we get with Law of Attraction is bullshit for the most part. When it comes down to - you have cancer because you wanted cancer - you wanted to be sick, I think it's especially (and I don't want to name names because I don't want to start any internet wars with anyone), but there are people who purport this Law of Attraction and about being in alignment with it, or stepping out of it, and you have to step out of it to know when you're in alignment with your Law of Attraction. It's very victim-blaming to me. Slade: Yeah. Ian: The way that they discuss it sometimes. And it's not helpful. And it's not been official, for the people who were in crisis mode, because then they think, Oh well I did this to myself. And yes, there is a part of it that I believe we do to ourselves. We make choices, whether they're conscious or subconscious choices, we make them, that create our realities. I mean, that's true. If I choose not to do something, I'm going to have the consequences of that action. But the manifestation of magic is definitely, you do certain things to attract what you're trying to get in your life. If I'm trying to get a job, I'm going to put my energy into my resume of attracting the job I want. And as a witch, I will take it a step further and anoint the edge of my resume with an oil blend I've made to attract a good job for me. Or the best job for my highest good. I'm going to do that and send the resume in and I guess now, most things are electronic. I know some witches who, electronically, they have a very faint... what's the word that I'm looking for... it's on the back of paper that you put on... a watermark! A very faint watermark of a sigil that they created. And, a sigil, you know, is just an image that you create and you imbue with a certain energy. So they would create a job sigil and put that onto the back of their resume before they emailed it out. And so, for me, that's more how the Law of Attraction works. It kind of goes back to the ideas that I grew up with. Being raised in a Christian home, but a magical Christian home. You know. God helps those who help themselves. So if you're acting in alignment with something that you want, then the Universe is going to provide that. But you have to do it in the accurate way. And so, for me, I don't like using the term Law of Attraction just because of all of that baggage that I feel comes with it. And how simplified things like The Secret made it. It's not just, Ooo I'm going to sit in my house and make a pretty dream board and hang it up and it's going to manifest. At least in my experience, it's been, You can do that, but if you don't put in the work to try to manifest it, the Universe isn't going to give it to you. I think the Law of Attraction has been simplified and that it has... Because the new age movement has a lot of money behind it, especially when you're being published by people like Harper Collins or the bigger publishing companies. They can definitely get you more exposure than Llewellyn could get you. I don't think you'll see many Llewellyn books on the best seller's list the way that you will, you know, Penguin or Harper Collins. Those sorts of publishing companies. So definitely if it's going to feed the capitalist society, then they're going to pounce on it. And so, yeah, I guess that's my answer for your question on Law of Attraction! Slade: That's cool! I'm very happy to hear your take on all that because it does... I think it always sort of... I feel the contrast in it and I'm always aware, kind of, of the intersection of that terminology, so... I'm one of those people who I use other people's vocabulary in order to reach them. Like you were saying, for instance, there are a lot of really Christian people who use Christian vocabulary to talk about magic, so if I'm going to talk about magic to them, I'm going to use their vocabulary because otherwise you shut them down if you start coming at them with, you know, like calling it the 'goddess'. If you're talking to a 90-year old woman about folk lore and she's talking about Jesus, just call it Jesus. You know what I mean? Ian: Exactly. Slade: Just keep on going. So, to me, it's always a language thing. It's interesting. Your whole thing about the word 'Appalachia', I did not know that specifically, so that was a huge epiphany for me to hear that about the idea of how it identified someone from being somewhere else. I was a linguistics major and I'm always interested in language and, to me, as a writer, magic and spell-crafting is very much, sort of rooted in a lot of language and when I do assessments of my mentoring students, I actually listen for the way in which they speak about these things. And that doesn't mean the obvious stuff like the symbolism and the archetypes and the buzzwords. I actually am listening for the actual words that they use, like, are they using passive language, are they using a lot of visual language, do they speak emotionally, those kind of things sometimes tell you a lot. It's subtext. Ian: Yes. Slade: To shorten the story. So I'm interested... you touched on a couple of things. The whole thing about the resume was interesting. What other kind of... not the things you necessarily do for your clients that you teach, but just in your own personal life, what kind of rituals do you observe? Or what kinds of magic do you do every day, kind of household magic? Ian: Okay, yeah. So household magic. That's always been kind of a big part of most folk magic. I always like calling it 'folk' magic instead of calling it 'low' magic because it makes it seem like it's something less worthy, because by definition, 'high magic' is like super occulty sort of things where you have to have a special robe and special pentograms painted on the floor. And then, I don't know who popularized the terms 'high' and 'low' magic but low magic was what the common folk did, and you know what? I'm a common folk. I like being a common folk. I don't want all the responsibility of being John Dee and deciphering things for Queen Elizabeth. That's not my interest area. I don't want to go and sit in the White House, especially this White House, and manifest messages for any political figure, especially what we have now. So my daily practice, there is, and this is something that people from almost all backgrounds, culturally, they have, if they dig deep enough, is ancestor veneration. Ancestors play a big part in my practice, and in the practice of the Appalachian people, as well as other cultures as well. I'm not forgetting them. It's big in hoodoo and voodoo as well, in African American and African traditions. But it's also big in European traditions. And so I definitely try to make sure I light a candle for my ancestor's altar every day and just kind of say hello to them. Let them know that I'm still thinking of them and, thanks for being who you were because then I can't be who I am if it wasn't for you. And that's not to say that all my ancestors were great people because they weren't. We all have those rotten branches and the rotten fruit on our family trees, and so, in classes, I do teach ways to kind of, you know, you don't want to invite all of your entire ancestry into your home because you might have a child molester or murderer or serial rapist in your family and that's definitely not what you want to invite into your home. So I teach ways to kind of try to helpfully, try to hopefully help them along on the other side to get to where they need to be. In my practice, I try to light a candle for them every day, just saying thank you, because sometimes, my magic is just me going to the alter and saying, I really need your help. This is the situation. And I'll bring them food. I'll cook them a special meal of whatever it is that they specifically like. Usually it's cornbread or something very southern. Cornbread, soup beans, pork chops, really salty country ham that I can't try to eat because it's too salty, but I will set it at their alter and light the candles and kind of say a prayer to them. It's sort of like the idea of Catholics asking saints for help. That's how a lot of witches use ancestors, and sometimes that's all you need to do to get help. You might get answers in your dreams from one of your ancestors. And it might be even someone that you don't know is your ancestor. A random person will pop up in your dream and give you the answer. Or things just start magically happening in your life, like I was really needing help to get this job and then suddenly you get 4 job offers. That sort of thing. I try to bless my food before I eat it. I do a lot of garden work. So I definitely try to take care of the plant spirits. In my belief structure, every ... I'm what you would consider an animist, so I definitely believe that every plant has its own very specific spirit, the dirt has it's own spirit, so I try to get to know that spirit, talk to it, learn about it. I am the crazy person in my condos that's seen outside mumbling to themselves and I think that's where the idea of witches, you know, muttering to themselves came from, is that we talk to everything. Things that no one else would see, we would be talking to the trees, to the plants, to the birds that were up in the trees, and also muttering spells under our breath for, usually for the good. Not all witches do things for the good of all, but I mean, that's usually my general practice. I don't a daily spell. I'm not... mostly because my life doesn't dictate that I need it. My life isn't that hectic that, I have to put it back together, always! Slade: Right. Ian: I do magically craft things. I make what's now commonly referred to as Books of Shadows, you know, spell books. I tea-stain pages with special herbs for special meanings, like keeping secrets and keeping power in the book and I'll bind them and add in special pictures and I try to sell them. Sometimes I just give them as gifts. I do magical crafts pretty much on the regular, making witches' cords, which is kind of a braided cord with special items like oak leaves or tarot cards, feathers, generally I have a very specific purpose in mind for each of them. I will make one for protection of the house, one to get a job, one to be enchanting, to have enchantments over people to make you feel... kind of like a glamour.. make yourself look more appealing and you just kind of really hang these in your home or your office for whatever purpose it is that you.. I would create it for you and, just looking at it, kind of helps imbue you with that energy because all the energy is there and kind of just drips down, like a rain cord.. And so, that's pretty much basically my daily practice. Like I said, I don't do spells every day just because my life doesn't dictate it, that I need to do a spell every day. But I do sit in communication with the spirit world almost every day. Whether that's plant spirits or my ancestor spirits or both. Slade: You are like me, you're like a like-minded soul in that you want this to be normal and part of your every day life. Like, it doesn't have to be some high ritual, like there's something almost off-putting about that, to me. Whereas something that I can incorporate into my daily existence, I'm a big sweeper. I sweep a lot. Ian: Oh yeah. Slade: You were talking about, that's where the images of witches outside, you know, crazy people muttering spells to themselves, I'm outside sweeping all the time. I'm that weird little old person who's like, I'm practicing for when I'm a little old man out there sweeping the sidewalk. So you've talked a little bit about these magical crafts. Now how does that play into, you do professional magical consultations and you create spells for people. So is there something similar in what you do for your clients? Ian: Yeah. Definitely. Just to get back to the brooms, I'm obsessed with brooms. I have... I don't know how many brooms I have hanging in the house, but I love brooms. I love the magic of sweeping. I have a specific broom for sweeping my front lawn, and then I have a specific broom that I use if I go to a client's house to clean out energy or angry ghosts or that sort of thing, that I only use for that specific purpose. Magical consultations might involve my broom, depends on what they come to me for. A client will, you know, usually contact me on my Facebook page or my number is on my Facebook page too, or they'll call me. And they will set up an appointment time. Sometimes I know beforehand because they want to share a little bit over phone about, this is why I need to come meet you. I'm having a hard time in my marriage, or I'm having a hard time finding a job. In the meeting, I take a lot of notes. I know that's off-putting for some clients. Like, why are you writing this down? And I'll write it down because, while I will remember most of things, I don't remember everything when I go back home, and start creating a spell or ritual for the person. And so, they'll bring me their issue, or their troubles, or what they're trying to magically create in their life. And, the consultation usually involves a reading of some sort. I'll get my cards out and see if there's some, if there is a block to what you're trying to do. Because sometimes we do create blocks for ourselves. Or there are people in our life that are blocks. Like if you're trying to save your marriage but your partner is not wanting to save your marriage and they're completely over that marriage, you don't want to try to force a marriage with someone who's really trying to escape it. And so, it's important for me to do these readings that I'm doing, consultations, because I don't want to trap someone into a marriage that will eventually make both people completely miserable. Or, the job that they're trying to get, we will look at that specific job and kind of look at the future and be like, Oh, you will be happy here so I'll craft something to help you be more enchanting in your interviews, or just draw the energy to you specifically for this job. Or if it's the other way, this job is going to be a terrible fit for you. You will like it for a bit but then it's going to be super draining. I would do something more like a road opener, so to speak, to make them more open to more offers of jobs, to a bigger spectrum of jobs, where they might need to take that job initially, but continuing to be open and going out and try to attract the job that's going to be most beneficial for them. So I will sit down and talk with the person, do a reading, and then I usually try to bring so many different herbs and things with me, so I can create little baths the person can take if they need a cleansing bath, or a bath to make them have more self-esteem, that sort of thing. I can create that on the spot and give it to them. But if it's something that requires more work, like if I have to go purchase certain items that I don't have on hand, then we set up another time to meet. If it's something that I need them to do, because for me, magic is most potent if the person that needs the magic is involved in it in some physical way. Whereas if I'm just at my house, doing a spell for you, I'm not going to have as much emotion in it as you are going to be able to manifest for yourself. Because it's affecting you more than it is me. I can pull up as much emotion as I possibly can, and I do, and I send it out. Not every spell is going to work. It's kind of a 70, 80% chance that it's going to manifest the way you want it to. Because... I'm a big advocate when I talk about magic is, magic is going to take the path of least resistance. So you need to be specific and general at the same time in what you're trying to manifest. I know that sounds like a contradiction, to be general and specific, but if you're just, Oh, I need money, and we do a money spell, you might get an inheritance but your mother might die. And that's not what you're trying to manifest. So you want money, but what do you want that money for? So you want that money because you want to go on vacation. So let's do a spell for that vacation instead of just money. Slade: Interesting, yes. Ian: And that's where the consultation come in handy instead of someone just sending me a message saying, hey I need a spell for this, and me sitting down, okay cool. I'll just write you the spell and do all the stuff in the instructions and you do it. Because it might manifest in a way they aren't expecting or wanting. And so, getting... And that's why I take so many notes. Getting down to the nitty gritty, exactly what the person is trying to create with their lives, dictates exactly what type of spell or magical ritual, if I feel it needs to get to that point would dictate. Slade: Is this something that you always have to do in person or can you do it over the phone and send people things? Ian: I can do it over the phone and then mail all the stuff out. Sometimes there are things that I will do on my end. And then I'll just send pictures of my work as I'm going along so they know I'm actually doing it. Slade: Okay. Ian: Instead of, you know, there are crooks out there who, I would do a spell for you, send me $400! Slade: Right. Ian: And then they sit at home and eat popcorn and watch Netflix. And then send you a message, I've done it! You should see it happening. I try to keep things on the up and up as much as possible. So I will send people pictures as much as I can. I do think sometimes taking pictures and documenting it can sometimes zap a bit of the energy out of it because... that's my own personal belief. I'm kind of going back to the idea of electronics pulling energy, but... Slade: Huh... Well, I think that, well one thing that electronics does do is it allows us to reach people that aren't here. It takes away the distance somewhat, so that you can, you know, speak to somebody that's on the other side of the country. But I would think that, the fact that there is this sort of physical object that you often create, you know, like the cords or a little grimoire or something like that, there's something, you know, the reason I can never be a Buddhist is because I like attaching energy and emotion to things. I find objects that have been imbued with power and emotion and association and intention to be extremely delicious and I want them sitting around on my shelves and stuff, you know? I think that's one of the ways in which magic really differs, but I would think that there would be something to that sort of crafted item that is uniquely special, to the way that you do readings and healings. In working with people who do different kinds of readings or healings, I usually talk to them about the idea that there's a diagnostic part of their session and there's a healing active part of the session. For me, it's all language. It's all words. It's basically, I'm an enabler and I can give you a big pep talk and that is the way that I heal. For other people, it might be something like, doing reiki, or like you said, it might be going clearing spirits or it might be crafting this item, spell, and then you use the intuitive part as a kind of diagnosis. Like, what's really going on here before I go messing with it? What's underneath the layers? I think that your practice is really kind of cool and unique and the reason why I asked about if you could do it at a distance because I know that there are a lot of people listening who are going to want you to now, and you know, gonna contact you and say, Wait a minute! Can you do this over the phone because I really want one. Let me... Before we talk about how people can get in touch with you, I just want to ask you a couple of questions. One is... Are we doing okay on time for you? Ian: Oh yeah. Slade: Okay cool. I'm loving this conversation. I could talk to you all day. You can come back once a month. So what do you most hope to contribute to the sort of greater conversation about spirituality and new age stuff? You touched on the idea that, of course, being published by a major publisher can sometimes falsely put those ideas forward. I'm very much a proud indie author, podcaster, and... If you can put your work out there into the world, what is something that you kind of hope to maybe change about everybody's perception about magic. Ian: Well, I guess it's two-fold. My main goal, when I started Appalachian Witchery, was to try to preserve Appalachian culture, at least an aspect of Appalachian culture that has kind of been pushed into the dark corners. Even people who do Appalachian studies, they don't really, or at least in my experience, because I haven't read every Appalachian studies paper or book known to man, but they don't really discuss a lot of the witch folklore, or the magic that they would do. So I was very worried that it was a part that was kind of being lost in the conversation when we were talking about Appalachia. And so, I kind of wanted to bring that to the forefront because I'm very proud of where I'm from. I'm not ashamed to say I was born in a very small town. I think we had 2000 people in it, and I think the county may have had 6000 people altogether. And then when it comes to witchcraft and magic, just that, I want to de-myst... not really demystify it, because there is power in it being kind of a sacred, hidden spooky sort of thing, but that it is something that... I can sit down and craft you this spell but you are going to be the one that... I need you to actually do part of it for me. So that everyone can kind of understand that everybody has the ability. Everyone has the ability to tap in to these natural forces and kind of take charge of their own life in the process. Because, I mean, we live in the quick-fix prescription society where, I have a problem. Give me a pill. Let's fix it. And I think that kind of correlates into the occult world, the new age world at large. People come to healers and workers and think that we can fix them in one session. And they don't have to go home and do any work on their own. And that's sadly not the case. If you go and get reiki, yeah you're going to feel better. But when you go home, you need to take some of the things that you've learned in your session and start applying them to your life. If you're not applying them, then you're not actually doing the work and you'll start making those decisions again and ending up in the same place. So it kind of goes back to that whole, idea of power of attraction. If you're not willing to make the changes, then you just keep attracting the same thing that you've been doing. And so, for me, when I do the consultations or I do the readings, I really try to embed that idea that, it's good that you're coming to me for getting an outsider's perspective. Because you're getting some advice, some knowledge that you wouldn't have had otherwise, but ultimately the work lies with you in order to make those changes. I can assist you and I can help you at that, but it is mostly personal responsibility. And I guess that's really what I try to stress most. Is preservation of a culture and personal responsibility for your life. Slade: If someone's listening to this and realizing for the first time that they might be a witch because of our conversation, which will happen. What would you advise them to do first? Like, if they feel this real flush of like, Ohmygod, this is amazing, this is the thing for me. Where would a new person go to kind of begin learning about this? Do you have any particular resources or books or things that you would recommend? Ian: The first thing I would say is, if you're kind of acknowledging, Oh wow, I might be a witch, is not to go running through the streets announcing that to everyone. Because that... And we do that sometimes when we discover something new that we're very passionate about. We're like, Oh this is what I am, this is who I am. Slade: Yeah... Ian: And it's off-putting, especially when you're, if we're talking, I might be a witch, is, you will encounter a lot of those people that are going to try to extinguish that light. Tell you you're crazy, it doesn't work, it's just nonsense, so that's my first advice is, don't run out telling everyone what you think unless they're someone you can really trust. And so, finding those people is the next step. And there are resources like The Witch's Voice online, I think it's www.WitchVox.com Slade: Okay. Ian: And they have a dropdown menu on one of the, either the right or left hand side, I haven't been to the website in awhile, and you can select your state or your country of where you're living, and then narrow it down. People post group meetups there, they post kind of personals. Years ago I had one on there myself. Trying just to meet like-minded people to talk and discuss... Facebook is a great resource. I'm a member of a lot of groups, like Pagans of the Northeast, which is all situated north-east Tennessee. There's Friends of TC, which is Friends of the Tri-City, which is what we call the area I live in. Johnson City, Bristol, Kingsport, is a Tri-City area. And then anyone who is any sort of pagan or witch, can post their events, can post meetups there. So finding those people, and you can just go into like, Facebook and type in "San Diego witchcraft" and you're going probably going to find a ton of options, groups, that sort of thing there. Books-wise, I always like to start people out with the basics. One being, I am a Cabot Witch. I've trained with Laurie Cabot and I'm actually going for my second degree in two weeks. Slade: I forgot to ask you about that - yes take a second and explain what that is. The Cabot Tradition. Ian: Okay. Yeah! So the Cabot Tradition is created by Laurie Cabot. It's known as the Cabot Kent Tradition and Laurie Cabot is just a fascinating woman. She was one of the first to be a public witch in America in the early '70s. And she had been initiated and trained by some witches in Boston, I believe, back when she was, I think, 15. They came from Kent, England. When she started teaching publicly, she titled her tradition the Cabot Kent Tradition because she had added some of her own flavour into things, which is always so important to me, when people are trying to teach witchcraft, I'm like, you need to have done it long enough, for one, to teach it, and two, to have your own, sort of ideas and structure and traditions that you've created to teach. Because witchcraft is a very personal thing, and that's something that Laurie brought to it, was that she had spent all these years crafting herself as a witch and had all these years of knowledge. So she started teaching in Salem in the mid-70s and I think by the late 70s, Dukakis, Governer Dukakis I think he was at the time, gave her the official title of Official Witch of Salem. Since then, she has been on Oprah, a bunch of other talk shows, teaching about witchcraft and her tradition. And she, to this day, she's 85 now, and she's still teaching the classes and being present at the rituals, the 8 Sabbats that they follow. The 8 high holidays for her tradition, and for kind of witchcraft at large. We have 8 holidays that we usually follow. Some traditions are a little different than others and they don't do all 8, but... About 2 years ago, I had the availability, the time and the money to go and study in her Witchcraft 1 class and got my first degree in the Cabot Kent tradition, which, when I was 13, that is who I saw walking down the streets of Salem. I was like, Oh! Slade: Ohmygosh. Ian: And so, as I studied more from the time I was 13 on, I realized who that had been who I had seen. I was like, I have to study with this woman. And then 20 years later, it manifested! Slade: Wow... Ian: I had put it out into the Universe all those years ago. And sometimes that's how magic works. I would love magic to be like Bewitched, and we could wiggle our nose and it manifests on the spot, but sometimes magic takes a long time to actually manifest into your life. So I studied with her back in 2016, and then coming up, July 15th I'm going back up to Salem for my second degree in her tradition. So yup, that's a fascinating little very rough history of her that I gave you. Slade: No, that's cool. I intended to ask you about it earlier. It was something that, because the whole tradition thing is an avenue that a lot of people explore. There are different lines of witchcraft, different types of traditions... I'm really speaking from kind of a lone practitioner, eclectic sort of person, which you also do, kind of in your every day life. But I think one of the takeaways for me for someone if they're new is to... like you said, well good on Facebook. There are some things that Facebook does really, really well, and that could be one of them. Is to connect with people locally. There is a lot about, when I go back to my interests in these subjects and where they came from, a lot of what I learned was physically in a certain location, or, you know, was a certain kind of shop, like you talked about. Most cities have that cool little store where there are people working there who are a resource, there are people putting flyers up for events. It is kind of, there is something about the power of where it takes place, you know what I mean? Like, different parts of the world, different parts of the country, have different energy, have different... Because this is so connected to nature. Even though you can use the internet as a tool to kind of find some resources, if you can ground that in people where you are, I think that would be my advice based on your advice, you know? Ian: Oh yeah, yeah. That's perfect advice because, like you said, the way that someone's going to connect to their place is going to be different depending on where they're at. Someone in Singapore is definitely going to have a different sort of, probably even different definition of witchcraft, and practice of witchcraft in Singapore, as compared to me, sitting here in Johnson City, Tennessee. We're probably going to go about it 2 different ways. So yes, if you can find a local spot, then definitely capitalize on that. Read the flyers. Talk to the store owners. Talk to the people that are working there. Because I did, as well, work at a sort of a metaphysical shop for about 8 years when I moved out here to Johnson City. And people definitely talk to the shop workers about what they're doing, what they're looking for, any sort of meet-up or ritual, gathering, that's going on. So they are a plethora of information. But you have to talk to them. You have to ask them. Slade: They're like metaphysical librarians. Ian: Yeah. Slade: But you're right. A lot of people who work in those stores are not just retail employees. They're there because they have knowledge about herbalism or knowledge about crystals or they're specifically involved in the community in something like a local circle or coven, something like that. That's where you'll find them, if you want to meet them. And, you know, they're often identified by their jewellry. Ian: Yeah, yeah. We witches love our very large pieces of jewellry. Slade: Statement necklaces. Listen, I know it always kind of puts you on the spot a little bit when somebody asks you to recommend books or something in the middle of a conversation, so I'm thinking, after we have this conversation, you're probably going to think of things like, Oh! I should have mentioned this book or this website, or whatever. So you can send those to me if they come to you and you think of something you want me to put in the show notes. Because I'll put all the stuff that we've talked about in the show notes and links to different books and sites and stuff so if you want to add to that, we'll have some time here from the time we're recording 'til it goes out. Ian: Okay. Slade: I'll be working on that and you can... It's also interesting that you'll be going on your trip to study with Laurie again probably around the same time that everyone is listening to this. Ian: Oh, wow! Okay! Slade: Yeah, that same week! So yeah, there's going to be a lot of energy behind you. A lot of people are going to be thinking about you and what you're doing up there. And then when you get back, they're probably going to want to contact you. It's been really fantastic capturing this conversation with you. I feel like I'm kind of running long on time. We'll have to have you come back at some point and go down some specific rabbit holes. Because this is a... You're the FIRST witch to be on this show and given the fact that I identify with that word as well, it's kind of like, Dang, why haven't I talked about this? So you're representing for a big canopy of topics here and I appreciate what a good job that you did in making it kind of specific, and unique to you and your practice. But also introducing the topic at large to a lot of different people. This is a big, big topic. There used to be statistics out there about neopaganism and sort of the growth of that spiritual tradition statistically, in this country. And there's a lot of people interested in this and wanting to learn more about it. Tell everyone the best place they can go to find you online. What's your Facebook page? Ian: The best place is going to be my Facebook page. It is just titled Appalachian Witchery and there is a picture of the Blue Ridge mountains, so the mountains are going to look kind of blue and it's going to say 'Appalachian Witchery' in red font. I used to have a website but that is a whole other story about that, that I'm not going to get into, because it was cancelled by the people that owned Square. Slade: Ooo interesting! Ian: Yeah. There's a whole thing about occult business and how they don't support them. And they cancelled my website... Slade: Oh, wow! Ian: That's basically the story. I made them quite a bit of money. Slade: Wow... Ian: And then they decided to delete me and a bunch of other people, based on the content of their website, which was really just me selling my crafts and my classes. You could buy a seat to my class on that website, which made it so much easier for me, because I could say, I can seat 30 people and put 30 tickets up on the website and then they would sell and I wouldn't have to worry about trying to send out emails letting people know that I'd gotten their money and the seat had been saved, which is what I've had to go back to, at this point. Slade: So everybody can definitely see what you're doing on your Facebook page, because I saw where you'd posted some stuff talking about the upcoming class that you're going to do with Laurie and so, I mean, it can do a lot of things for you, and it's good enough for people to go and check out what you're doing. Like you said, you have your number there, so they can email you and call you and set up a consultation. And of course, I'll link to it. It'll be easy to find. This was really great, Ian. I've wanted to talk to you for awhile. I've enjoyed following you on Facebook for so many reasons. I really want to thank you for coming on the show. Ian: Thank you for inviting me. I've enjoyed being able to talk about my practice and things. So definitely, I'm very much interested in coming back and talking more about things. Because I'm not JUST a solitary practitioner. I actually have a group here in the mountains and we've kind of crafted our own tradition here that I would love to talk about. Slade: Okay, cool! Ian: About what we do and how we've kind of crafted this tradition. Slade: Yeah! Maybe we can time it with one of the holidays or something, and put some intention around some of those traditional witch points in the year, you know what I mean, like... Ian: Oh yeah! Slade: That would be really cool to do some content around some of those. Or maybe we'll have you come back for Halloween, since that's your favorite. We'll do some stuff around that. Ian: The witches' busiest month. October. Slade: Yeah. Ian: Yeah! Definitely. Slade: That would be great! Ian: I very much look forward to it.

Great Rite Radio Wednesdays ~   It's Horns and Humpday here on Wednesday.   Replay fron 9-27-17 7pm Central  Jason Mankey's "Raise the Horns Radio"  is Paganism in all of her glory. It's history, practice, ritual, and more. Tonight join Jason and his guest, Mat Auryn,  a witch, writer, professional psychic, and occult teacher. He has been drawn to the occult and metaphysical since an early age, reading books on witchcraft at eight years old. He is a graduate of Black Rose Witchcraft and a priest in Sacred Fires Tradition of Witchcraft founded by Devin Hunter. He is a current student and mentee of Christopher Penczak in the Temple of Witchcraft Mystery School, Laurie Cabot in the Cabot-Kent Hermetic Tradition and Jason Miller in the Sorcery of Hekate. He is a devotee of the Covenant of Hekate founded by Sorita D’Este. He writes for Patheos Pagan in his blog For Puck’s Sake and on his personal website. He has been featured in various magazines, radio shows, books and other periodicals such as DisInfo, The Wild Hunt, Magick Magazine, Moon Books, Cutline Press, Just Julie, Pagans Tonight Radio Network, and more.    8pm Central  Replay 6/1/2016  Pamela welcomes guest Ginger Doss as we talk about last weekend's Calderafest, the release of the Green Album, and what's next for Ginger Doss. Humpday just got more interesting on Pagans Tonight!  

Hello again witches, seekers, and friends, and thanks for tuning in to episode 30 of The Fat Feminist Witch podcast! Today I'm talking about magickal fashion and dressing with intention, Laurie Cabot and the sage advice she posts daily to her twitter feed, and Magical Fashionista by Tess Whitehurst! Head to the blog and find out why I gave Magical Fashionista 

Hello and thank you once again for joining us down at the crossroads for some music, magick, and Paganism. Where witches gather for the sabbath, offerings are made, pacts are signed for musical fame and we cross paths with today’s most influential Pagans, occultists, and deep thinkers. I am your bewitching, bald headed, host Chris Orapello and tonight Tara and I - after being interviewed by him- finally got a chance to speak with Patheos blogger and teacher Mat Auryn about his work and path as a witch. We also explore his thoughts on witchcraft, the modern craft and the direction it's heading in, the devil, initiation, validation, cursing and more. We had a great time speaking with Mat and could not have predicted all the paths we wandered down during our chat with him. Mat Auryn (Massachussetts) is a witch, writer, professional psychic, and occult teacher throught New England. He has been drawn to the occult and metaphysical since an early age, reading books on witchcraft at eight years old. He is a graduate of Black Rose Witchcraft and a priest in Sacred Fires Tradition of Witchcraft founded by Devin Hunter. He is a current student and mentee of Christopher Penczak in the Temple of Witchcraft Mystery School, Laurie Cabot in the Cabot-Kent Hermetic Tradition and Jason Miller in the Sorcery of Hekate. He is a devotee of the Covenant of Hekate founded by Sorita D’Este. He writes for Patheos Pagan in his blog For Puck’s Sake and on his personal website. He has been featured in various magazines, radio shows, books and other periodicals such as DisInfo, The Wild Hunt, Magick Magazine, Moon Books, Cutline Press, Just Julie, Magical Experiments, and more. - matauryn.com Featured Songs: "Egil Saga" by Faun "The Swing" by Eivor "Raido" by Wardruna "Odal" by Wardruna "Maker of My Sorrow" by Eliza Rickman "The Devil’s Hole" by Swallows Links: Patheos: For Puck's Sake Mat Auryn: Psychic Witch Temple of Witchcraft Sacred Fires The Adoration of Pan by Johfra Bosschart Down at the Crossroads with Chris & Tara (interview article) Witch, You Do You (Article) That Time I Danced With The Devil (Article) Moth and Moon Studio Enchanted of Salem, MA ***Support the show on Patreon!*** Receive special benefits, show swag, extra content, and more!  

October Special Archetypal Mosaic Mikhail Tank interviews The incredible Laurie Cabot Author, High Priestess and 'Official Witch of Salem, MA' Available via iHeartRadio & iTunes

Great Rite Radio Wednesdays ~   It's Horns and Humpday here on Wednesday.    7pm Central  Jason Mankey's "Raise the Horns Radio"  is Paganism in all of her glory. It's history, practice, ritual, and more. Tonight join Jason and his guest, Mat Auryn,  a witch, writer, professional psychic, and occult teacher. He has been drawn to the occult and metaphysical since an early age, reading books on witchcraft at eight years old. He is a graduate of Black Rose Witchcraft and a priest in Sacred Fires Tradition of Witchcraft founded by Devin Hunter. He is a current student and mentee of Christopher Penczak in the Temple of Witchcraft Mystery School, Laurie Cabot in the Cabot-Kent Hermetic Tradition and Jason Miller in the Sorcery of Hekate. He is a devotee of the Covenant of Hekate founded by Sorita D'Este. He writes for Patheos Pagan in his blog For Puck's Sake and on his personal website. He has been featured in various magazines, radio shows, books and other periodicals such as DisInfo, The Wild Hunt, Magick Magazine, Moon Books, Cutline Press, Just Julie, Pagans Tonight Radio Network, and more.    8pm Central     "Pagan World" with Ed Correll.Tonight welcome back to the Pagans Tonight Radio Network Ed the Pagan, and the Pagan World Show!  Topic tonight is the launch of Tarot AI

Introduction Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation 2. This morning we will be looking at Christ's letter to the church in Pergamum. I will begin by asking what you think of conspiracy theories. Some of you may actually be conspiracy theorists, though I do not know. If you do not know what that means, a conspiracy theorist is someone who believes that there is a dark conspiracy of intelligent, powerful individuals seeking to take over and dominate the world. These fearful speculations became popular during the Cold War when there was a concern over Communist infiltration and takeover of our structures. There was also speculation that the industrial military complex was responsible for John F. Kennedy’s assassination rather than a lone gunman. Some have even postulated that landing on the moon is all a hoax, a vast conspiracy. Some of the darker and broader ones go back even to the Middle Ages, to the Knights Templar and to the Illuminati. Even in our midst, some people that you may think are simply upstanding members of the community could be part of this secret society, with secret handshakes and such; things may not be as they appear. You may wonder why I am starting the sermon this way. It is because I do believe there is a vast, dark conspiracy of powerful individuals that seek to dominate and rule the world for their own glory. You may know exactly who I am talking about. I am talking about Satan and his demonic forces. It is actually more vast than we can imagine. It is more powerful than we can imagine. If we were able to see the demons with our eyes —the powers and principalities, the rulers and authorities — I believe we would quail immediately and be terrified, and how much more if we saw their king Satan, who has been seeking to rule and to dominate the world since time began. The reason I mention it in light of this letter is because Jesus is speaking to a church in Pergamum about whom He says twice, “where Satan dwells” or “where Satan has his throne.” As the book of Revelation unfolds, we will see all kinds of things revealed that have been hidden from our eyes. First and foremost, we will see the glory of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 1, we have this incredible vision of Christ moving among the seven golden lampstands, which represent local churches; but as He addresses these seven local churches in Revelations 2 and 3 with these seven letters, He is not limiting His audience to those local churches only. At the end of each of the seven letters, we have these words, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Thus, these seven letters in Revelation 2 and 3 comprise a timeless message to all Christians throughout all time. We will see revealed in the book of Revelation the invisible, hidden ministry of Jesus Christ to the local churches. I pray that that will be happening even here in our midst today by the Spirit. In addition to seeing the glory of Jesus Christ, we also have unfolded for us the invisible hidden spiritual realms and the future, where we are headed and what will happen. These things are hidden from our sight; things are not as they appear. In Revelation 12 in particular, the history of Satan, this ancient dragon, the ancient serpent, the devil, will be revealed. It says there in Revelation 12 that it is he “who leads the whole world astray.” In that chapter, we learn that Satan, a created being, perhaps the most glorious and powerful of all the angels, tried to take over Heaven in some kind of insurrection. Isaiah 14 gives us a picture of his evil ambition to ascend and take over the throne from the Most High in order to supplant God and rule the universe in His place. Satan led a rebellion of other angels whom we now know as demons. The archangel Michael defeated Satan and his minions and they were cast down to the Earth. In other places in Scripture he is called “the god of this age” or “the god of this world.” Isaiah 14 shows Satan to be the puppet master behind the king of Babylon. In reading Isaiah 14, it is difficult to know whether the Lord is prophesying an oracle against the king of Babylon or against some malevolent force behind the king of Babylon. I believe it is both. The Lord is addressing the evil king of Babylon, a physical literal king who is ruling an empire, but behind him, the language goes beyond a human evil ruler to pinpoint a puppet master who is able to make the rulers of the world dance to his tune on invisible hidden strings — that is Satan. In Revelation 13, we see a dragon standing by the shore, who calls out a beast, which is the antichrist. This fits with images from Daniel chapter 7 in which we see a series of beasts coming up one after the other. The implication in Revelation 13 that Satan is the one orchestrating all of these evil human empires for his own purposes. As we begin reading the letter to this church in Pergamum we learn something else: Satan, though he has a global focus, is active in special ways in certain physical localities, certain geographical places, certain cities. I am not saying that Durham is a place where Satan has his throne, but this letter has the power to make the scales fall from our eyes to see a darker purpose behind the issues that we face today. The text tells us that there in Pergamum, Satan had his throne. All of this dark, malevolent intentionality of Satan in this world is woven together in a system of powerful evil allurements that seek to destroy the people of God and draw them into sin, called “the world.” 1 John 2:15-17 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Satan had a throne of power in Pergamum, and the world system he had crafted there was a powerful magnetic force on the souls of the Christians there, drawing them to evil and to sin. This letter to the church, then, is a timeless warning for us here in the West and in America to be mindful of what Satan is doing to lure us into sin. The letter we will look at next week conveys a similar message. In the context of Revelation 1, Jesus appeared in a white robe reaching down to His feet with a golden sash around His chest, with eyes of blazing fire and feet of burnished bronze. He held in His right hand seven stars and He is moving among seven golden lampstands. These represent His active, consistent ministry to the His universal Church, but also specifically to local churches in that area at that time. Christ’s Sword vs. Satan’s Throne This letter begins rather ominously. It has a different feel than the two letters we have already studied in Revelation. The letter to the church at Ephesus starts positively, with encouragement: “These are the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” That is comforting; it gives a sense of His power and His protection for and His active ministry to the churches. Then, to that little persecuted church in Smyrna that we looked at last week, He says this, “These are the words of Him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.” Again, comforting words. This letter, however, begins ominously, in verse 12: “These are the words of Him who has a sharp double-edged sword.” This gives a powerful sense of the looming threat if this church will not heed the warning in reference to sin. Christ’s Sharp, Double-Edged Sword What is this sharp double-edged sword that comes out of Jesus’ mouth? This can be nothing less than the powerful, active Word of God. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” This double-edged sword is the penetrating, active ministry of the Word of God that comes from His mouth. Jesus has been speaking that Word throughout all generations of redemptive history up until the New Testament was completed. He spoke through prophets in the Old Testament, and He spoke through apostles in the New Testament, and thus we have the Word of God, the Bible. Why is it called a sharp double-edged sword? Because of its penetrating ability. The double-edged sword, it seems, always has to do with Christ’s attack on sin; the expression is typically used in a negative sense. But He does it differently in His own people than He does concerning His enemies. The double-edged sword slaughters His enemies, unrepentant sinners, but toward His people, it becomes a surgical scalpel that cuts out the tumor of sin. In this letter, there is a sense of threat. In verse 16, He says, “Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.” At the end of this Book of Revelation, the Second Coming of Christ is depicted; He will come in might and power. At that point, the antichrist will be aggressively reigning on Earth, and will have gathered a vast army to wipe out whatever is left of the people of God. There we see that Jesus comes down from Heaven with the armies of Heaven. Revelation 19:15 says, “Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter.’ He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.” The double-edged sword is an instrument of wrath to destroy Christ's enemies. Revelation 19:21 says, “The rest of them, the army that was following the antichrist, were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.” This letter to the church of Pergamum carries the same ominous tone: “These are the words of Him who has the sharp double-edged sword coming out of His mouth.” Satan’s Throne: Localized Evil He talks about the localized evil in Revelation 2:13 “I know where you live — where Satan has his throne.” Satan has an invisible worldwide empire — it is hidden from our sight, but the Word of God tells us that it exists. We would not know any other way. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Satan is called the “god of this age” though he has blinded unbelievers to seeing the spiritual realm. 1 John 5:19 says powerfully, “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly realms.” There is a division of hierarchy of evil powers under Satan, hence the plural: “rulers… authorities… powers of this dark age… spiritual forces.” There are many demonic rulers under Satan’s overarching empire. Colossians 1 speaks of thrones and gives the comforting message that all of these thrones and dominions and powers were actually created by Christ, and, ultimately, for Christ. It says in Colossians 1:16, “For by him all things were created: things in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.” That is comforting to us because He is the Creator, the Ruler, and He will be the Judge of all of these dominions and thrones and powers. The book of Daniel implies territorially-focused demonic power in describing how the “king of Persia” withstood a Heavenly messenger for 21 days so that he couldn't get through to bring God’s message to the prophet Daniel. This gives a sense of the Heavenly realms and the Earthly realms mixing together. Persia is an Earthly empire, but the ruler indicated is behind the scenes, invisible but very powerful. That is the idea here concerning this “place where Satan has his throne”, where he dwells. In his temptation of Jesus, Satan claims rulership over the entire Earth. In Luke 4 he says, “All the kingdoms of the world have been given to me, and I can give them to whoever I want.” Satan and his demons have been given leave to set up thrones of power in specific areas as an evil base of operation. I want to share my personal testimony regarding this demonic base of operation. I have encountered this many times in my ministry. There is no material proof but there is a sense of a demonic presence and power, more vigorously active in certain localities than in other places. Much of it has to do with what is happening in those places. For example, I was a part of a Halloween ministry in Salem, Massachusetts near which I lived. There were 3,000 registered witches in that town, coming from all over the world to live there. They were serious about their occultic practices. It was a very dark place, especially Halloween, which was a high dark holy festival for them. They did a great deal of recruiting on Halloween. Laurie Cabot was the official witch of Salem, and ministering at her house, I always felt a Satanic presence. It was an evil place. I felt it also at the abortion clinic where I used to go on Saturday mornings in Brookline, Massachusetts. Thousands and thousands of babies were killed there. I do not know if it is still open, but it was a very dark place. We would try to persuade women not to have abortions. We would try to communicate with them, but the pro-abortion forces who were there would yell and scream at us, it was very hot, and we would see the women walking into the clinic. Many difficult battles, a very challenging ministry. We were there for three hours every Saturday. When I drove home from there, I would feel as though I was being chased, definite feelings of paranoia. (Someone once said, “Just because you are paranoid does not mean someone is not actually out to get you.” Think about that one.) But though I was feeling paranoid, I believe there may have been evil beings following me. I would go home and sleep for three or four hours every Saturday afternoon, though I do not typically nap. I was exhausted by that ministry. One time I was preaching in Pune, India. There, I experienced an overpowering feeling of demonic presence. I preached to 5,000 to 7,000 people. The city was spraying to kill mosquitoes because it was in the height of dengue fever season. The spraying machines droned with a continuous buzz and created a fog. As I was preparing to preach, this chemical cloud rose and hung about 15-20 feet over the assembly. This was also at the time of the Hindu festival of Diwali, which is the Festival of Lights, though it was anything but light — there was a very dark, demonic feel. That was one of the hardest times I have ever had preaching in my life. I felt like invisible chains were around my chest and my throat. As I said to someone on the way over to the event, I felt as though I was being driven to my own execution. All these feelings were pressing in on me, and I am sure they were all demonic. As soon as I stood up and began to preach on the Book of Philippians, the entire burden lifted, just dissipated. Sometimes Satan shows his activity more in one locality than in others, depending on what is going there, and that seems to be what was happening there in Pergamum. The Setting: Pergamum Pergamum was located about 100 miles north of Ephesus, with Smyrna located halfway between. Unlike Ephesus and Smyrna, Pergamum was not a port city right on the Aegean Sea but was located 15 miles inland. Yet it was probably the greatest, most significant city in the region. Roman writer, Pliny, called Pergamum “by far, the most distinguished city in Asia.” By the time John wrote the Book of Revelation, Pergamum had been the capital city of the province of Asia for almost 250 years. Now, you could visit the ruins of Pergamum. They are near a city in modern day Turkey called Bergama, very similar to the word “Pergamum.” It was built on a large, roughly conical-shaped hill — most ancient cities were built on high places because they were easier to defend. This one was very striking for its height at about 1,000 feet above the valley, off the plain — it was a very imposing place. Pergamum boasted a massive library — 200,000 ancient books and scrolls, which incredible if you consider that all of them were hand-copied. It was a center of learning rivaling ancient Alexandria in scope, so it was very well-known. The ruler of Alexandria, at one point, forbade the export of papyrus, the writing paper, to Pergamum, because he was jealous for Alexandria’s position as a center of learning, so the people of Pergamum developed a kind of paper called vellum, made from animal skins stretched thin; we also know it as parchment, which was used for centuries after that. Because of its library, Pergamum was a powerful center of pagan Greek and Roman culture. They were very proud of this culture. Near the summit of the acropolis, that high hill that I mentioned, stood an immense temple and altar to the Greek god Zeus, the king of the Greek gods. On it was depicted the victory of the citizens of Pergamum, together with the Roman soldiers, against the Barbarian Gauls who had invaded in 189 B.C. The people of Pergamum allied themselves with Rome to defeat the Gauls and then became fiercely loyal to Rome. Rome took notice. The imperial cult was powerful there. As a result, the loyalty of the citizens to Rome and the emperor was established. In 29 B.C., the citizens of Pergamum were granted permission to build and dedicate a temple to Augustus, the first temple built to honor a living emperor and worship him as a god —a significant indication of the mindset at the time. The people of Pergamum worshiped the Roman emperors as gods, one after the other, so civil religion in Asia Minor had its center there in Pergamum. There was also a temple to the Greek god of healing, Asclepius; sick people from all over Asia made pilgrimages to Pergamum to be healed. Standing for Truth When Satan Attacks Externally We can see, then, the battle lines of truth being drawn. Ancient classical education, paganism, worship of Greek and Roman gods, and the Emperor cult were all aligned against Christianity. Here in our passage, we have the Word of Christ, the truth, coming out of His mouth like a sharp, double-edged sword, and these Christians are being called on to stand for truth when Satan is attacking externally with false doctrines. Battle Lines Drawn Clearly… Where Satan Has His Throne The battle lines are clearly drawn where Satan has his throne. On trial before Pontius Pilate, Jesus said, “For this reason, I was born, and for this entered the world… to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”And very famously, Pilate answered with sarcasm, “What is truth?” That was a great question for Pilate to ask, if he had just stood and listened to Jesus, but he had no interest. He was basically saying, “There is no truth.” That is similar to the way many people feel in America today: “There is no absolute truth.” But the answer was standing right in front of Pilate, right there. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” [said Jesus]. “No one comes to the Father, except through me.” (John 14:6) He is the truth that God has spoken into the world, but Satan is seeking to steal, and kill, and destroy by the lies he tells. From the Garden of Eden, that is how he sought to assassinate souls and ruin lives, by the lies that he tells. And so Jesus said in John 8:44, “Satan is a liar and the father of lies… a murderer, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. And when he lies, he speaks his native language.” There at Pergamum, the battle lines are drawn between truth and lies. Christ’s Self-Description Points to the Truth In Verse 12, Jesus says, “These are the words of Him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.” Christ fights powerfully against Satan's lies by the inerrant Word of God, the Word which has poured from His mouth for centuries through His mouthpieces, the apostles and prophets. He also fights the lies in a specific locality through messengers, through witnesses that He sends. And He says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth,” including the Pergamum. Revelation 14:5 says, “Of these witnesses, no lie was found in their mouths. They are blameless.” They spoke the truth to their surrounding culture. Christ Commends the Church for their Stand for Truth In verse 13 of our text, Christ commends the church for their stand for truth, “I know where you live, where Satan has his throne, yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city where Satan lives.” Christ gives them a powerful commendation, “You stood for the truth, even in the face of persecution. You did not turn your back on me. You did not renounce your faith in me. You did not deny that you knew me” “even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city where Satan lives.” We do not know anything about Antipas except for this one verse. We know that Jesus calls him “my faithful witness.” Wouldn't you love to have Jesus say that about you, to say your name, like Antipas, and call you “my faithful witness”? We do not know anything about his martyrdom, though we can imagine the circumstances: Throughout Asia Minor, the citizens were required every year to burn a pinch of incense in worship of the emperor. Remember that Pergamum was the center of this imperial cult. It makes sense that this Antipas would have refused to burn the incense and say “Caesar is lord,” or “Caesar is god.” He would have said, “No, Jesus is Lord.” Antipas would have been baptized under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and would have made that central confession, “Jesus is Lord.” Romans 10 says, “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with the mouth that you confess and are saved… For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Antipas had made that confession with his mouth, because he believed it in his heart. The temptation to sever the heart conviction from the outward life pattern or behavior is ever-present: “Oh, just burn some incense. You know that Caesar is not god. Just say it and save your life,” all the while knowing the opposite is true. This severs the heart from the body, sever the convictions from the lifestyle. Antipas would not do it; he refused. He perhaps said, “I can never say, ‘Caesar is lord,’ even if I have to die. Jesus is Lord.” Jesus was putting Antipas up on a pedestal as a light shining in a dark place. He was put to death there in that city where Satan dwells, “where Satan has his throne.” His death put pressure on the whole church: they knew that the situation was serious, that their earthly lives were at stake and they had to decide whether they would renounce their faith in Christ or stand firm and testify that Jesus is Lord. Christ commends them: “You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas.” The pressure of Satan’s lies was powerful. The church was being threatened and they chose to stand for truth. But there were still hidden problems with this church. There was a corruption in the doctrine of the life of the church that threatened their very survival. It is not enough to begin the Christian life; we must persevere to the end. Matthew 24:13 says,“He who stands firm to the end will be saved.” We must run a race, a race of holiness, of integrity. Integrity means being the same person all the time, the same person in secret that you are in public. Integrity is similar to “integer,” indicating oneness: a oneness between mind, and heart, and lifestyle. In this church there was a tumor of false doctrine leading to worldliness and sin that had to be excised, or they would die. Standing for Holiness When Satan Attacks Internally True Christianity: Right Doctrine Must Result in Holy Living The church is called, then, to stand for holiness when Satan attacks internally — that is, in the minds and hearts of believers. True Christianity, right doctrine, must result in holy living. We cannot sever what we say we believe about Christ from how we live our physical lives in this world. Satan will try to pull the church toward the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. Personal holiness may be the greatest mark of regeneration. If you ask, “How can I know am I a Christian? How can I know if I'm born again?”, the answer lies in how you are living your life. Are you fighting for holiness by the power of the Spirit of God? First John 1:5-6 says, “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and in Him, there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Christ, and yet walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his flesh, from his flesh will reap destruction. The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says plainly, “…the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of the Lord.” In other words, Christ saves us out of darkness into light and begins transforming us from the inside out. Christ’s Criticism of Pergamum We are all fighting this battle, but it is even worse when false teachers stand up and teach false doctrine about the life of the body. In some places, they are called libertines. Here in Pergamum, they are called Nicolaitans, mystically connected to Balaam of the Old Testament. Revelation 2:14-15 says, “Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.” Christ “holds some things against” this church — He is not completely pleased with the church at Pergamum. They are tolerating, and some of them, perhaps, even delighting in the teachings of Balaam, or the Balaamites, or the Nicolaitans. It seems the majority of the church were faithful to Christ, but an influential minority were being led astray into sexual immorality and the eating of meat sacrificed to idols at pagan temples. That was the old sensual lifestyle that they had been called out of: the sexual immorality of the temple prostitutes, the orgies, the indulgent feasts, all of them done in the name of sensual pleasure and false gods and goddesses. I do not know if the teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans are two different heresies or two names for the same thing, but that is not a significant point. Most likely, they were two different but closely related heresies. Balaam was a prophet in the Old Testament, a visionary, whom we meet in Numbers 22-25. He was a mystical seer with the ability to predict the future. Perhaps the true living God had somehow used him as a mouthpiece prior to the events in the Numbers account. He was a prophet for hire — or, as I once heard, “A prophet for profit.” He was in it for the money. He had no real interest, it seems, in truth or the living God. He was hired by Balak, King of Moab, after Balak heard what Israel had done in destroying the Amorites. Balak went to Balaam to hire him to utter a prophetic curse on Israel. Almighty God severely warned Balaam again and again to say only those things God told him to say. The final warning came, very memorably, when his donkey pinned him against a rock wall and would go no further. He began to beat the donkey, and the donkey spoke to him: “Why are you beating me?” That would be quite a moment, don’t you think? “Have I been in the habit of doing this before?” “No, actually, you have not. You have been a good donkey for me.” What a conversation that must have been. In truth, this is even more a testimony on Balaam — if God can use a donkey, He can use anybody to speak for Him. “There is no honor in the fact that I am speaking through you. Do not behave like an animal.” There is a warning, because the angel of God had his sword unsheathed — like Jesus with His sword coming out of His mouth — threatening him with death. The donkey saved his life, at least temporarily. We do not know from the Old Testament account, but Jesus tells us what happens after the oracles in which he lavishly predicted glory for the future of Israel: he secretly taught Balak what to do. In essence, Balaam told Balak, “I know how to hurt Israel; we can turn the holiness of God, the wrath of God, against His own people, if we lead them to sin.” It is the very thing that Satan's trying to do: he is trying to put a sword in the hand of God to motivate God’s own holiness and His own justice against His own people. Balaam orchestrated some Moabite girls, prostitutes and others, to go down and infiltrate the Israelite camp to lead them into worshiping the Baal of Peor. The wrath of God broke out, and 24,000 of the Israelites died in that day. In Pergamum, there were false teachers having the same effect as Balaam and the Moabite women on the nation of Israel. They were luring church members into the same type of ritual sex and idolatry, in the pattern of the pagans of Pergamum. Peter spoke of the same false teachers, these libertines, these Balaamites, in 2 Peter 2:13-19, “Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures, while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning. They seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed — an a cursed brood! They have left the straight way and have wandered off to follow the way of Balaam, son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrong doing by a donkey, a beast without speech, who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity-- for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.” It seems that the Nicolaitans were doing the exact same thing, probably the same people Jesus was referring to in Revelation 2. He begins by saying “Likewise” — or in the same way, or thus — meaning the Nicolaitans were contemporary versions of Balaamites. In truth, Satan has a limited number of goals. He wants to kill your soul by a limited menu of three items — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life — but he has a variety of ways to get you there. These could be two different patterns of false teaching or just two different names for the same. This is the essence of the world attack, the license, the severing of how you are living from what you say you believe. The Church’s Responsibility to Purity Itself Again the majority of the members of the church at Pergamum did not hold to these false teachings, but they were still at fault some degree. The church is responsible for its own purity. If there is any kind of sexual immorality taking place and the church becomes aware of and those engaged in sin are not repentant, it is the church’s responsibility to expel those people from their midst. 1 Corinthians 5 makes this very plain: “Expel the evil man from among you. Do not even eat with him.” Paul says at the end of 1 Corinthians 5, “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you.” That was what the Pergamum church should have done, but they did not do it. The Warning and The Clear Command from Christ: Repent or Die And so Christ gave them a warning: Repent or die. Look at verse 16, “Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” For the Balaamites and the Nicolaitans themselves, if God would grant it to them, there is a still a way open of repentance. “If they would say, ‘I have been living an immoral life. I have not lived up to my calling as a Christian’ and they genuinely repent, then they will be forgiven.” He called on them to repent, to think differently, to make a U-turn, to live an entirely different kind of life, to come to different convictions based on the word of God, to see that the Holy Spirit is telling them to start living a holy life, one that truly honored and glorified God, and to “bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.” Christ’s Open Threat: Death to the Wicked “But if you do not,” Jesus said, “I will soon come to you and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” What a terrifying prospect, to have Jesus be your enemy as in a military encounter. Recently I have noticed local billboards and other media waging a campaign to educate the public about the danger of trains. This is necessary because some people try to get ahead of oncoming trains by running or driving across at the last minute. The message of the public service campaign is that the battle between you and train is unequal and you will lose. An average train engine weighs 150 tons; with cars, a train of average length around here would be about 4,000 tons. Even a heavier personal vehicle like pickup truck — weighing around 4 tons, depending on its load — is outweighed by about 1000:1. Now take into account the momentum of those 4,000 tons — it is almost unbelievable. (I will be geeky for a moment:) Momentum equals ½ mass x velocity squared. Big mass, velocity, and you get crushed if you try to compete with the train. The battle between Jesus Christ and any created being is an infinitely greater mismatch than that. You do not want Christ to fight against you in any way. It is a terrifying thing. Think what happened to Ananias and Sapphira when they sinned. They simply dropped dead. When Jesus says, “Die,” you die. When He fights against you with the sword of His mouth, when He takes your life from you, you die. He can take anything from you that you value. That is His discipline. He can bring judgement. As Paul says, “Should we fight against Him? Are we stronger than He?” Christ threatened this church with death. The heretics and their followers were directly threatened, but the warning was spoken to the entire church. The contagion of sin is so deadly, can spread so easily, that if we are not careful, we will get sucked into it too. The passage in 1 Corinthians 5 on church discipline tells us that “a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” It will spread if the church is not committed to holiness. Paul also says in Galatians 6:1, “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.” Jesus Cannot Tolerate Any Evil Whatsoever! Jesus will not tolerate any evil whatsoever. The whole witness of this church was threatened by sin, and if the church were enticed to evil, it would become worldly and corrupt and could no longer be Christ’s representatives in Pergamum. He would rather have fought against that church with the sword of His mouth than allow them to continue bearing His name in that community corrupted with evil and sin in their hearts. The Reward: Hidden Manna, a Secret Stone Christ’s Call to Listen Christ promises a reward to those who overcome: hidden manna and a secret stone. In every letter, to each church, as in verse 17, He said this, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word. I have said many times before that faith is the eyesight of the soul. What do we see with this eyesight? We see the holiness of Christ, but we also see ourselves in a true light. Hebrews 11:1 says “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, [but it is also] the conviction of things not seen.” The word, “conviction” in that verse gives the sense of being convicted in a court of law or seriously, deeply convicted by something in a sermon. Faith convicts us of the sin that is at work in our lives and in our hearts. We see sin in light of Christ’s holiness. Listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. We have the same dangers facing us today that the church had in Pergamum — perhaps in a different form or pattern — but it is, in truth, no different. Christ’s Promise to the Overcomers What has Christ promised? The promise is to those who overcome — to the conquerors, the ones who rise up, wage war, fight and overcome. That is the essence of holiness, the battle that Christ has given us. Paul says in Romans 8:13-14, “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” If you are a child of God, the Holy Spirit will get you up every day, call you to put on your own spiritual armor, and lead you into battle against sin, the battle for holiness. Now if you overcome: Verse 17 says, “To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.” The word “manna” hearkens back to the Exodus, referring to the bread that came down from Heaven which provided daily food and nourishment for the Israelites as they wandered in the desert. The manna in Revelation 2 is “hidden manna” — a secret, spiritual manna. Regarding this spiritual manna, we must believe what Jesus said in John Chapter 6: “I am the bread that came down from Heaven. If anyone feeds on me, he will live forever.” When we recognize that Jesus is all we need and we feed on him, feed on His death and His resurrection, we gain nourishment and strength. It is a hidden manna. We feed on Christ for the internal spiritual nature. If we will overcome, we will have a deeper, wider, more fulfilling relationship with Christ. Sin doesn't satisfy. For instance, viewing internet pornography is like drinking very salty water when one is very thirsty. As soon as the water is gone, he is immediately thirsty again, but worse than before. It does not satisfy. The beauty of our walk with Christ, the hidden manna, is that we eat and are completely satisfied. We gain a sense of joy and fulfillment. Not only that, but we also gain the sense that this is only the beginning, that Christ has so much more joy, so much feasting in Heaven, and these things are merely a foretaste. If we overcome, we will feed on the hidden manna and will be assured that we will be feasting in Heaven. He says, “I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.” Some commentators liken it to the Urim and Thummim of the Old Testament. The priests had two polished stones, one white and one black. They would ask a yes/no question and roll out one of the stones. White meant “Yes”, and black meant “No”. These commentators see this white stone as representing Jesus as the fulfillment, the yes and the “Amen,” of all our hearts’ desires. Others see it as a diamond or other precious stone. Whatever it is remains to be seen, but it points to a new identity that Christ will give us as priests in His name — priests on Earth and the new universe that is coming. The hidden manna and the white stone and the new name all point to an eternity of a deep, richly satisfying relationship with Christ, enjoyed eternally in Heaven. But even now, we can have foretastes, if we will overcome. Applications I have been giving you applications throughout this sermon, so I will sum up a few here. Come to Christ, Lest He Fight You with His Terrible Sword First, the Gospel: I am pledged week after week to preach the Gospel to any who sit in these pews before me. I do not assume that you have experienced anything I have been talking about. But perhaps you were invited here today by someone you know, and you do not know Christ as your Lord and Savior. One motivation for seriously considering what I have been saying is fear: Jesus will come fight against all His enemies with the sword of His mouth. Judgement is coming: “It is appointed for each one of us to die, and after that, to face judgement.” But God sent Jesus to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and if you trust in Christ, believe in Him for the forgiveness of your sins, you will be cleansed and made a new creature. You can live a new life, you can walk in holiness of life, as I have been talking about. So come to Christ. Trust in Him. Recognize the Terrible Danger of Worldliness To the church, I say: Recognize the terrible dangers of worldliness. We cannot see Satan’s throne. I am not saying that Durham is a place where Satan himself dwells or where he has his throne. He is not omnipresent — fast, but not omnipresent. Only God is omnipresent. But there are dangers. The idea behind the expression “where Satan has his throne” is to look at your community and the world; see what is happening, what allurements to sin are popular and widely used here in Durham. What kind of wrong-headed persuasions are going out in our community? What kinds of things are being used to lure people to commit sin; how are they drawing people to sin? That is the Satanic persuasion going on in our culture. Next week we will talk more about sexual sin, so I will not say much about it now. But begin thinking and praying. If you are addicted to pornography in any form, the advice is plain and clear. Go to James 4:4-10, which we will talk more about next week. The idea there is that friendship with the world is hatred toward God. Submit to God. Confess your sins to Him. Plead with Him for forgiveness. Ask Him to break the invisible chains of this sin that are have a hold on your heart. Be Active in Each Other’s Lives Finally, I urge you to be active in each others’ lives. I don't know whether these Balaamites, these Nicolaitans, were overtly sinning or whether there was a hidden clique in the group, but the fact is that we must be a church for one another. We must hold each other accountable. Ask good accountability questions, men with men, women with women, pairing up. Let us be people who hold each other accountable, who help each other to grow, who pray for one other and seek protection from this hidden conspiracy that is seeking to draw all of us into darkness. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for these seven churches. We thank you for their messages. We thank you for how they teach us the truth and guide us into all truth. Lord I pray that you would break the power of canceled sin and set the prisoners free. Father I pray, if there are any here struggling with hidden, secret patterns of sin, that they would find forgiveness and power to break those hidden chains through the word of God. Lord, I pray that you would give us a healthy fear of that sword that comes out of your mouth and that we would be willing to repent and walk in light of your holiness. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thank you for joining me for episode 128 of HiPPiE WiTCH : Magick For A New Age. JOiN our kickass witchy community here... http://www.psychospiritualwheeloftheyear.com And- you can pick up a FREE copy of my eBook "HiPPiE WiTCH : Peace, Love & All That Good Sh!t" here... http://www.joannadevoe.com/p/free-stuff.html MUCH LOVE -xo peace... Joanna DeVoe

Called to Magnificent Mission Amen. Well, God has called us as Christians to an astonishing work of worldwide and eternal significance in the Gospel. We are called on to be witnesses to Christ and we're called on to share the gospel and to be part of the advancing church of Jesus Christ. Satan is very skillful at wrapping invisible spiritual cords around our hearts, cords of fear that keep us from proclaiming the gospel plainly and boldly. I think every one of us in this room, we know what that feels like. You feel tied down and you feel bound up by fear of man, fear of what people will think. And so we are unable to fulfill the works, the good works that God has gone ahead of us, to prepare in advance that we should walk in them because we're bound up with these invisible cords, these chains. Now, the word of God has power, it is sharp, it is living and active, and it can cut through those bonds, it can cut through those chains, those invisible chains on our hearts and make us free and make us bold to be witnesses for Christ. Thursday, October 31, 1991, Halloween night. 1991 was a night that I will never forget. It was the night of a hurricane in Massachusetts. Halloween hurricane. There was a movie made later about it, about that storm and starring George Clooney. It was called The Perfect Storm. It's a true story of a triple storm system that came together, collided, and whipped itself into a massive frenzy. The storm lashed the east coast of the United States with high waves and coastal flooding. Waves as high as 30 feet crashed into the eastern seaboard, including Massachusetts, where Christy and I were living at the time. Now, the previous year in 1990, at Halloween time I had led an outreach, an evangelistic outreach to Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, of course, is the place of the famous Salem Witch Trials. But what many people who don't live in Massachusetts, don't know is that it's also a center of real witchcraft now and that people, registered witches from all over the country, indeed all over the world go and live there, so they can be together. It's a very spiritually dark place where Satan has a throne. And so the year before in 1990, I had led an outreach there and we brought tracts, and we went, especially this one place. Laurie Cabot's House, Laurie Cabot was named by Michael Dukakis, who was Governor at that time, as the official witch of the state of Massachusetts as though our state needed an official witch. But we had an official witch, her name was Laurie Cabot and her house was a real focal point for college students in the area on Halloween and they would go and party and she opened up her house like a little bit of an occult museum and people are interested and they'd line up outside her house. So, perfect opportunity for us to witness, so I thought. And so we went and we were sharing the gospel, we were passing out tracts until Laurie Cabot's daughter came out and came right at me, asked what I was doing and I told her, and she spun on her heel, went back in and called the police, and the Salem police came and talked to me, found out what we're doing, etcetera, and then said, "Look you're not doing anything wrong, but this is a really busy night for us, would you mind just moving on." And we were done, we passed out all of our tracts, it was time to go home. Well, I figured the next year, even better time for ministry and outreach, and so I wrote a little tract on the occult in the Bible and we printed out a bunch of those and I got a team ready and we were going to go. But as the day drew near for that outreach, I started becoming more and more fearful about it, about what had happened the week before. I mean, a year before, the persecution, the things. You know what I'm talking about, that satanic fear that starts coming over your heart, like these invisible chains. And then the storm came along, this epic storm. Unlike any I'd ever seen in my life. That Thursday was one of the longest days I can never remember. I was not a pastor, at that point. I was working as an engineer and just getting through the work day was so hard and I was talking to Christi and I was saying, "I think I'm just going to call it off. Nobody's going to be there. And storm and wind and rain and all this." And she said, "I think you need to go, alright. There's going to be college students there, you know that." And so she really convicted me. But what really convicted me was I was doing scripture memorization in Isaiah 51, the very chapter we're in today. I think in some ways I've been waiting for more than two decades to preach this sermon today. Because I was going over verses 12-16 that day. And I want you to look at it with me. You just heard Gary read it. But I felt like every word was speaking right to me. Have you ever had that happen before with scripture, where everything in this text is talking to you, this is what it says, to remind you. "I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? For where is the wrath of the oppressor? The cowering prisoners will soon be set free; they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread. For I am the LORD your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar-- the LORD Almighty is his name. I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand- - I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, 'You are my people.'" That was the text I was memorizing that day, seemed relevant to me. Look at the points of contact. I was living in terror of what people would do to me or think about me. I was forgetting about God's amazing power. I was more fearful of man than of God, so that I didn't want a witness. And here was God churning up the sea so that its waves were rowing like I'd never seen before in all my life, and God was going to rescue spiritual prisoners through us and God had put His words in my mouth and he was going to cover us with the shadow of His hand, and I must go and lead that outreach. I must go. Well, that night was one of the most incredible of my life. We witnessed to tons of college students that were, in fact, there. Christi was right about that. They were going to be there. And so, they were. And I witnessed to a Native American man, who was blind, what we would call an Indian, was blind. He had a leather vest, and all of these weird talismans hanging on his vest and he had two beautiful women, one on each arm, and he debated me for a long time, about the Bible and the occult and a huge crowd of people gathered around while this debate went back and forth, and our team members were sharing the Gospel with them, and a several of them came to faith in Christ. See that college night is a night of recruiting for witchcraft. The witches actually recruit college students, male and female into their religion. But we were recruiting them into Christ, and numbers of them came to faith in Christ. But the most amazing part of this whole story was yet to come. A day later we went on a church retreat to Cape Cod. The ocean was still heaving and churning. I remember seeing this, we drove by the ocean, it was still just amazing and we got to the retreat center, it was dark and it was a small church, we were there, and a young woman who was in our church named Heather came. She had been involved in the occult before she was converted, and she was very anxious to talk to me. We weren't particularly close, but she was asking where's Andy and she wanted to know if I was okay, in particular. I said, "Sure what's up." Well, she asked if I'd gone to Salem the night before, had we done the outreach and she was very anxious about that. I said, "Yeah, it went great. We had a great time." I said, "Did you hear anything about it?" She said, "No, I didn't even know if you went. But I had a dream about you, the night before and I just wanted to be sure you're okay." I said, "Well, what was in the dream?" She said, "Well, in my dream, I was in the town hall," that's where we met for worship, the top hill town hall second floor, it's a Victorian era building. Very creepy. Except on Sunday mornings, okay? Then it wasn't creepy. But it was night time and the moonlight was coming in through the windows, in her dream and she was there with Satan, and Satan was tormenting her. I mean, things from her past probably. And I came in, again, we weren't close and I wasn't a pastor, but I came in and I told Satan to be gone and he crashed through the window, and he was gone, and she was so filled with this fear about this dream and specifically about me and she said, "It was weird, too. I knew it was Satan, but he was dressed up like a blind American Indian." I said, "Have you heard nothing about our outreach?" She said, "No." It was like each of us had two parts of a puzzle that fit together. It was one of the most incredible moments of my life. It would never have happened if I had given into the fear that Satan was putting around my heart, and not done that outreach. It would never have happened. I am afraid for our church that we are too concerned to protect ourselves and keep ourselves safe and not risk things in evangelism that we miss some of the greatest stories that God has set up in advance, for us to live in because of our fears and Isaiah 51 has the power to set us free, has the power to set us free. Basically, the message of Isaiah 51 is, look back at what God has done to gain strength and courage and hope for what God is yet to do in the future. That's what's going on in this chapter. The basic idea is this, despite all appearances, God will most certainly finish this incredible plan of salvation in this sin-cursed world and He will bring about perfect righteousness, and He will bring about salvation for his sinful people, resulting in eternal joy and celebration and any doubts we may have about this should be, instantly, swept away when we consider God's astonishing track record. The same God who created a nation from an elderly man and his barren wife can create a righteous nation, out of nothing. The same God who made a way through the sea can make a way through vicious enemies to establish Zion for all eternity. Look to the past to know that the future is staggeringly bright. The Context of Isaiah 52 The immediate context is powerful, God is speaking a word of comfort across a century and a half through Isaiah the prophet to Jews who would be in exile in Babylon to comfort them for all the suffering they were enduring and to give them courage and strength. Keep in mind that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, had not yet even been born when these words were first written but through the prophet, God looks beyond the time of His wrath and judgment on his people. He addresses His remnant as if he were actually looking backward on the events of the exile, and the judgment of God that happened at that time, he addresses his remnant at that point, he speaks in verse 3 of the Lord comforting Zion, that's Jerusalem, restoring her waste places making them like the Garden of Eden. These words would mean nothing if God were not going to make Zion, into a desert by destruction. He speaks in verses 17-20, directly of the destruction that God is going to bring on Jerusalem as a display of His righteous wrath against the Jews for their sin., Jerusalem will be drinking to the bottom, to the bitter dregs, a cup of God's judgment because of their sins. A remnant will be all that survives. But in this chapter God addresses that remnant. They're tormented by the memories of that slaughter, of the destruction of their beloved Zion. After that, they're tormented by the taunts and threats of their captors. Verse 7, verse 12 and 13, verse 23, all mentioned mocking terrifying tormentors. God is promising that these mere mortals, He calls them in verse 12, will soon be drinking the same cup God's righteous wrath and judgment for their sins, verse 23. By contrast, God is making some amazing promises to His chosen people. He will repopulate that godly nation, He will establish again His people in their beautiful homeland but the promises of this chapter soar beyond just that. God will populate the heavenly Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, with people from all over the earth. He will destroy the entire universe. Heaven and earth will be destroyed, verse 6, wrapped up, like an old garment, and He will create a new heaven and a new earth, not mentioned in this chapter by clearly mentioned in Isaiah 65 and 66, in which His chosen people, will dwell eternally with great joy. God's going to do that. Until that happens, or as God is working out that plan to make that happen. God wants His people filled with joy, confidence, hope and power. Despite the taunts of their oppressors and the apparent impossibility of these grand promises being filled, so that they can actually do the work of evangelism and missions that's going to be essential to making all of this happen. He wants us filled with confidence, and courage and power, so He calls on them again and again to awake and listen to Him. Shaking off weariness, sadness, fear, depression, shaking those things off in order to be confident of the future, God's people must look to the past as recorded in scripture. The same God who created the first Heavens and Earth will create the new Heavens and the new Earth. The same God who first called the people out of nothing from Abraham and Sarah will again create a people for His pleasure, to dwell in righteousness for all eternity, the same God who led Israel through the Red Sea and slaughtered Rahab the sea monster, symbol of death frankly, slaughtered that will bring them through that, through death, resurrection into eternal life. The same God who built the earthly Zion through King David will build the heavenly Zion through King Jesus. Look to God's actions in the past so you can look ahead with hope to the future. Then you can look on your tormentors unafraid, you can look at your persecutors unafraid, unimpressed. I. Listen to Me! The God of Abraham Will Again Create Righteousness from Nothing (vs. 1-6) So that's an overview let's look at it carefully now, verses 1-6, listen to me, the God of Abraham will again create righteousness from nothing. Verse 1 and 2, "Are you seeking righteousness? Are you seeking the Lord? Look to Abraham and Sarah, listen to the verses. I would urge you just look along in the copy of the Bible if you would, I'm going to just be following through the words of the text or just listen to me, verse 1 and 2, "Listen to me you who pursue righteousness, and who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you are cut and to the quarry from which you are hewn, look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave you birth, when I called him he was but one and I blessed him and made him many." So God calls to the godly His people in every generation, first the exiles in Babylon, and then beyond them to every one of his people in every generation in church history. To those he says who pursue righteousness, and who seek the Lord, those are believers in Christ right? We pursue righteousness and we seek the Lord. He calls on them to listen and to look, Listen to me, He says, by hearing the words of the prophets. Look by faith to the rock from which you were cut in the quarry from which you were hewn. Look to Abraham and to God's faithfulness to His promise to Abraham. Now Abraham in the Book of Galatians is called in Romans 2 our father in faith, if you're a Christian, a believer in Christ, Abraham is your spiritual father. Galatians 3:7 says that those who believe in Christ are children of Abraham." Romans 4 says speaks of all Abraham's offspring. Not just those who are of the law but also those who are of the faith of Abraham, he is the father of us all, as the Scripture says, "I've made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, the God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Look to Abraham our father in faith. Look to the supernatural circumstances of the beginning of the Jewish nation. A barren couple, no hope of children, God made a promise to him and he believed it, there wouldn't have been a Jewish nation, if it weren't for the miracle that God did with Abraham and Sarah verse 2, "When I called him he was but one and I blessed him and made him many." So you exiles to Babylon, do you think that the Jewish nation is over, all hope is lost? Well think again, the same God who raised Isaac out of that barren womb, will raise up a nation out of this seemingly death penalty. Now beyond that, you Christians, you aliens and strangers in this world, do you think God cannot redeem the elect from every tribe and language and people and nation? He can't redeem His elect people from closed countries, Muslim countries, He can't redeem His elect in communist countries or totalitarian regimes in the 10/40 window, He can think again, the same God who raised up Isaac is able to raise up His elect and populate the eternal Zion, He can do it. Zion Will Be Transformed: From Desert of Sin to Paradise of Joy Verse 3, Zion will be transformed from a desert to a paradise of joy. Verse 3, "The Lord will surely comfort Zion and look with compassion on all her ruins, he will make her deserts like Eden, her waste lands like the garden of the Lord, joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing." So again Zion equals Jerusalem, the City of God where God dwells in fellowship with his people, generally just the physical city of Jerusalem, God at that point was not finished with the physical earthly city of Jerusalem. He would comfort Jerusalem, and he would look with compassion on all her ruins, Jerusalem would be destroyed ruined, turned to rubble by the cup of God's wrath that he was going to give them. But that's not the end of the story. The image again is of a desert that's made to bloom like a garden, like the Garden of Eden, the sounds of celebration of worship and Joy will fill the streets once again. It's going to be a populated place. It's the exact same image and vision that Zechariah has in Zechariah 8:4-8, don't turn there but I'll just summarize what it says there, there the prophet Zechariah again before the exile, saw the streets of Jerusalem will once again be filled with old men and women watching streets filled with boys and girls playing there. So you picture these old people sitting on their stools and watching the little kids play like you would at a park. It's just going to be filled, and he says there in Zechariah 8, you think it's impossible but God can do it. God will save his people from the east and the west, and gather them to live in Jerusalem, and they will be His people, and He will be faithful and righteous to them as their God, Zachariah 8:4,3. Exact same image here but better than the restoration of the physical Jews, to physical Jerusalem to rebuild the physical walls, and have a physical life there? Better than all of that is the ultimate purpose of God in building a heavenly Jerusalem, Heavenly Zion, through the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God's going to call the children of Abraham spiritually from every tribe and tongue and language and nation to the heavenly Jerusalem to live there forever, and the new Jerusalem will be far better than the Garden of Eden. God's Salvation Goes Forth and Will Outlast this Universe Now, I know that we're on the right track. If you just look at the next verses 4-6. "Listen to me my people, hear me my nation, the law will go out from me, my justice will become a light to the nations, my righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait and hope for my arm." Oh dear friends, this is missions language. Do you see it? My justice, a Light to the Nations, my righteousness, my salvation, justice to the nations, the islands will look to me and wait for me and hope. This is the language of missions, it's gospel language, the light to the nations is Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Christ. This message of the gospel is the message of God's righteousness for the whole world. And so Paul says in Romans 1, "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first, for the Jew, then for the gentile, for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, the righteousness that is from faith to faith just as it is written, 'the righteous will live by faith.'" That's the Gospel. That God, sent His son, the Lord Jesus Christ by the Virgin Mary we just celebrated his birth, his incarnation at Christmas time and that Jesus lived a sinless life, and Jesus did astonishing signs and wonders, and taught amazing things, but most especially, He died on the cross in our place as our substitute, under the wrath and judgment of God for our sins. God made Him who had no sin to be sinned for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. And that if we just believe in this Christ crucified and resurrected we'll have eternal life. That's the message, that's the good news in verses 4-6, that God's going to send to the islands, to the distant lands. God's righteousness is drawing near speedily. His salvation is coming, it's on it's way. Now, if I could just stop here and say, I don't know all of you and I don't know why you're here today, but it could be that God brought you as a lost person here just for this moment to hear this gospel. In the ancient words of Isaiah 51, to hear that Christ is a great savior flee to Christ, flee to Christ. The God of Isaiah 51 is a terrifying enemy but a great and loving Savior. So flee to Him, flee to Christ, don't leave this place unconverted. If you don't know how to trust in Christ, if you don't know what to do, come and talk to me afterwards, or any of the leaders of the Church or any church member. Church member that you get talked to, please share the Gospel with that person when they come. But this is the place where you can come to have all of your sins forgiven, you don't have to walk out under the burden of your sins, but this is the message of verses 4-6, the distant islands are going to look to the same God and trust in Him. John Paton, a Scottish missionary in the 19th century, got on board a boat and sailed a long, long distance to the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific and there he went specifically as a missionary to some cannibals that he knew had killed and eaten the last missionary that was sent there in full view of the ship that had brought that missionary. And he went there anyway, and he led them to Christ, he established a Church there. Don Richardson went to the island of Dutch New Guinea. He was from Calgary, Canada, and went to Dutch, New Guinea to the Sawi people. They also were cannibalistic head hunters, and they revered treachery. When they first heard the gospel story, they thought Judas was the hero because he had been tricky and treacherous and they loved that. How do you reach a people like that? But Don Richardson found something in their culture, something called the peace child, an analogy of the Gospel where warring kings would trade children and each of them would hold on to a child as a pledge concerning the other of peace between the two peoples, and he pounced on that as Christ as God's peace child to us. And as long as the peace child lives, there'll be peace between the entities and he used that to lead them to Christ. Now listen, all of this missionary success to the distant islands was predicted in the Old Testament. Was predicted in the Book of Isaiah, we've been seeing it in Isaiah 42, it says, "In his law, the islands will put their hope." Again, same chapter Isaiah 42:10, "Sing to the Lord a new song. His praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that is in it. You islands and all who live in them." And then Isaiah 49, remember this one? "Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations," and in the Lord, or God speaking to Christ saying, "It's too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept., I will also make you a light for the gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." So, in Isaiah 49:1,6, its islands and ends of the earth and Christ is coming there. He's the light for the world. And now, here again in Isaiah 51, look at Verse five, "My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way and my arm will bring justice to the nations, the islands will look to me and wait and hope for my arm." God is working an amazing salvation even for the distant islands to trust in Him, and the end of the story is nothing less than a new creation, a new heavens and a new earth. Look at Verse six, this is awesome. "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath. The heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like flies, but my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail." This is a clear prediction of the end of the world. Verse six, Isaiah 51:6, A clear prediction that everything you see with your eyes, all of this physical stuff will wear out like a garment and disappear some day. All of it, all of it. 2nd Peter 3 he says that the day the Lord will "bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and new earth, the home of righteousness." Revelation 21. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city a New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven like a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband." II. Listen to Me! The God of the Exodus Will Again Make a Way for His People (vs. 7-11) In verses 7-11, God calls on His people to listen to him. The God of the Exodus will again make a way for His people. Look at verses 7-8, he says, "Do not fear the taunts of men. God's salvation is going to outlast all of them." Verse 7, "Hear me you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts. Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults for The moth will eat them up like a garment, the worm will devour them like wool but my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations." God calls on His people, His godly in every generation." Again, look what he says, "You who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts... " That's regeneration language, where God takes out the heart of stone and puts in the heart of flesh, he writes his laws on our minds, in our hearts. That's the new covenant. So he's calling to you, what is he telling you to do, listen to him, "listen to me," He says, "Hear me, don't fear your enemies, don't be afraid of those who reproach you or taunt you or insult you." Now, Nehemiah faced that when he was there rebuilding the rubble filled city of Jerusalem, rebuilding the wall, remember that and they started making progress and some enemy Sanballat and Tobias. You remember those guys and they started to mock the work. They said, "Why, if even a fox jumped up on this little wall they are building it, it would tumble down." So they're just pitching insults and mocking. The same happens with evangelists and missionaries. People would go out in faith, to share the Gospel mocking starts happening, opposition, persecution, taunts. We're going to have to face reproach, we're going to face insults for the name of Christ. Jesus told us to rejoice. I had lunch recently with Jonathan who's a church member and serving the Lord in Central Asia and he told me that a Kazakh man there said to him. "I hate you." Can you imagine that being said straight out to you, right to your face. "I hate you, I hate everything about you, I hate what you're here to do, I hate that you've married a woman from our people. I hate what you're trying to do to our culture. I hate you." Jonathan filled with the Spirit said, "Well, I love you. I'm here because I love you, I want you to know Christ." But this is the kind of opposition. And they had a long conversation at the end of that. The man said, back to him. "Just the final words I want to say to you, is I hate you" and he walked away. Well, that's terrifying, intimidating, sad, hurtful. I shared with him at that moment Matthew 5:11-12 where Jesus said, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." But it still hurts. And what this text says is if these enemies don't repent, a moth is going to devour them like wool and their worm will never die, and their fire will never be quenched. It says later in Isaiah, but God's salvation will shine like the sun for all eternity. So do not fear the reproach of men, he says. Now in Verse 9-10, Isaiah speaking for us calls on God, to wake up. "Awake O Lord," he says. Look at verse 9-10, "Awake, awake, clothe yourself with strength o arm of the Lord, awake as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut to pieces, who pierced that monster through? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep? And who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over." The redeemed, in every generation, call on God to wake up, why? Because God sometimes seems like he's asleep, sometimes it seems like God isn't doing his plan. Like, where is God in all of this, where is God in all of this, and this is prayer, they're calling, we're calling on God to move with His mighty strength like he used to do. "Do in our generation what we heard you did in the past? Move O mighty arm of God." That's what we do in prayer, we ask. In intersession, we say, "Oh God, build your church. Oh God, thrust out missionaries. Oh God, make us evangelists. Oh God, lead us to people here in this community who are ready to hear the Gospel." The same God who pierced the monster Rahab through. What is this? It's like some kind of a mythological sea creature, I guess something like that, all kinds of interpretations of this, but I think it simply represents the death that the depths of the sea pose to us, the terror of the depths of the sea, the sea monster, it just kind of equals death to me and God killed it. God pierced that monster through. Now, it's interesting, the next time we're going to see that word pierce is in Isaiah 53. We'll get to that in a few chapters. But, he pierces and kills death by the piercing of his son Jesus. And He made a way through the sea. "Moved out O arm of the Lord. Oh mighty God do in our day what you did in the past." So this is a simple application. Pray like this. Pray like this. Pray for God's church to be established here in the Raleigh/Durham area. Pray like this, pray for God's church to be established in unreached people groups. Say, "Move out O arm of the Lord." Verse 11, the ransom will sing eternally. "The ransom to the Lord will return. The will enter Zion with singing, everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee away, salvation songs for all eternity, everlasting joy. Think about that, think about that phrase, everlasting joy crowning your heads, sorrow and sighing fleeing away." Can't you see this cannot be fulfilled in the mere rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, and the rebuilding of the city. There's no way. It's not everlasting joy, and sorrow and sighing never to be seen again. They're still surrounded by enemies. They're still under Gentile Domination. The Persians will give way to the Greeks, will give way to the Romans. No, no, this is about heaven. This is about the new Jerusalem, when the gates will always stand open, because there are no enemies, left and there'll be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away. Everlasting joy will crown your head and sorrow and sighing will flee away forever. III. How Dare You Fear Man More Than Me? Through You I Will Establish Eternity! (vs. 12- 16) Now, in verses 12 through 16, some of the most convicting words I've ever read on fearing people. It really just cut... It cut me to the heart that day, that Thursday. How dare... That's the tone I get here. "How dare you fear mortal men, more than you fear me. How can you do that?" God is saying to us. He's convicting us here. Look at the verses, "I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal man, the sons of men who are but grass? That you forget the Lord your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor who is bent on destruction. For where is the wrath of the oppressor?" God challenges his weak, small, feeble, frail, children in every generation, not to fear man not to fear human opposition. He reminds them that he is the one who comforts them especially by the redeeming work of Christ. By Christ's death and resurrection, oh be comforted dear people. Be comforted. And He commands them to fear God more than they fear men. It greatly dishonors God, if we fear men more than we fear God and disobey God as a result, that's just a great dishonor to God. Now, we do not minimize the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted in other places in the world. We don't minimize it. We don't minimize the fact that brothers and sisters are presently being imprisoned, tortured, beaten and killed for the faith. We're not minimizing that. We do not minimize the sufferings of those who are beheaded by ISIS or their families that fled from ISIS and grieved for their losses. We don't minimize that. We don't minimize our brothers and sisters who are being detained for questioning by the religious police in Iran. We don't minimize the suffering of house church pastors in China who are detained just for doing ministry, or ordinary ministry, in house churches and imprisoned. But all of them and us must learn to fear the Lord infinitely more than we fear anything that man can do to us. Jesus put it very plainly, He said, "I tell you my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do nothing to you. I'll tell you the one to fear; Fear the one who after the death of the body has the power to destroy both soul and body in hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him." That's Luke 12. Fear God, the God who created heaven and earth. Now, American Christians, generally, do not face that level of persecution as we try to be faithful in evangelism. We generally are going to face horizontal societal rejection. Some insults, snide comments you might be held back at work, you might not get a promotion or a raise. You might even get a bad haircut. Okay, that happened to me once, as I was witnessing to a woman at Great Clips. And the next time I witness at Great Clips took more faith than the previous time because she said my hair cut was done and that was that. So that may happen and again, I'm not making light of it, but these are things that amazingly are still effective at keeping us from sharing their faith. "I might get a bad haircut." Yes, you just might but the Lord will reward you on Judgment Day. So just ask yourself right now as an application, how does fear of man hinder you in being faithful in evangelism? What are you afraid of? Think of someone right now you would like to share your faith with. Think of someone. Thinking, thinking, thinking of someone. Ah a person, Okay. A lost person, just popped in your mind, I hope. You'd like to share with him or her, but you're afraid what will happen. Cut through the invisible bands of fear and be faithful and witness and share the Gospel with that person. Now, when we think about ISIS we think about vicious persecutors, we think about these words, Verse 13,14, "You live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor who is bent on destruction. For where is the wrath of the oppressor?" The cowering prisoners will soon be set free. They will not die in their dungeon nor will they lack bread." God's going to set all the prisoners free. He's going to set his own children free from incarceration, but even better, more significantly, he's going to set his elect unconverted children free when they hear the Gospel and they get out of Satan's kingdom by repentance and faith, he's going to set them free. Those are the cowering prisoners that were set free that night in Salem. Luke 11, Jesus said this, speaking of Satan, "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe but when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils." Jesus is stronger than Satan and he's taking Satan's stuff, that's people, and he's plundering Satan's dark kingdom through the gospel, and that's awesome. The Lord Who Rules the Sea Will Use You to Establish Eternity Verse 15-16, the Lord who rules the sea will use you to establish His eternal plans. "I am the Lord your God who churns up the sea so that it's waves roar. The Lord Almighty is His name. I put my words in your mouth, I've covered you with the shadow of My hand. I, who set the heavens in place who laid the foundations of the Earth, and who say to Zion, 'You are my people.'" This is a direct reminder of God's splitting of the Red Sea, by a powerful east wind. For me, personally, it's a reminder of the perfect storm. Perfect storm, the triple storm system and the churning and the 30-foot waves and a God who can do that can do anything. What am I afraid of? What am I afraid of? Only thing I should fear is dishonoring him. We need to please God and advance the Gospel. Satan will use intimidation, he'll try to cow us so we stop preaching the gospel. IV. Wake Up! The Time Has Come for Your Tormentors to Fall (vs. 17-23) So wake up, verses 17-23, the time has come for your tormentors to fall. God is going to hand to Jerusalem, still in the future in Isaiah's day, a cup of wrath and they're going to have to drink it. Verses 17-20 talk about that. "Awake, awake, rise up O Jerusalem, you have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of His wrath. You have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger. Of all the sons she bore there was none to guide her, of all the sons she rear there was none to take her by the hand. These double calamities have come upon you, who can comfort you. Ruin and destruction, famine and sword, who can console you. Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of every street, like an antelope caught in a net. They're filled with the wrath of the Lord and the rebuke of your God." That's a description of the judgment that's going to come on Jerusalem, the cup of wrath handed into the hands of Jerusalem and they're going to have to drink it to the bottom, to the dregs. But verse 21-22, those days are now over, those days are over. Therefore hear this, you afflicted one made drunk but not with wine. This is what your sovereign Lord says, your God who defends his people. Behold, I have taken out of your hand, the cup that made you stagger. From that cup, the goblet of my wrath you will never drink again. There's going to come a time... First of all, for us as Christians, all condemnation is gone, because Jesus died. No fear of hell, no fear of condemnation. We're done. Tribulation and suffering is not done yet, and that's the cup we're drinking now. Some day even that cup is going to be taken and we'll never drink it again, we'll be free from death, mourning, crying, and pain. But for our tormentors who never repent, who never find faith in Christ, verse 23. I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, that cup. Who said to you, fall prostrate that we may walk over you and you made your back like the ground like the street to be walked over. Some day God is going to judge them. V. Applications Alright, I've sprinkled applications throughout the sermon, I just want to give you a few final ones and we'll be done. The basic message of Isaiah 51 is look to the past to gain hope for the future. Look to what God has done in the past. So do it. Do it. Okay? So much of this book, so much of the Bible is history, so much of it is. Even ancient history. It's written so that we can learn the character of an unchanging God. God's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He'll never change. So he'll do different things in every generation, but he himself is the same, he never changes. So this book was written to give us hope and faith, we feed on it, read these stories be in the Word every day in 2015. Can I just urge you? Read through the whole Bible in this year in 2015, there's so many different programs and plans. I use every day in the word with the ESP Bible and it takes about 12 to 15 minutes per day, and you get through the whole Bible in a year. Read through the Bible in a year and then add to it. Big faith step, memorize one verse a day. You can do it. I know you can. It can be done. 365 and 1/4 verses, pastor? No, just 365 verses, we're not in a leap year. So just 365. Just memorize Scripture, hide God's word in your heart. Build your faith. Now, especially look to what God's done in your life and in the Scripture in the past and be encouraged. Say, "Look at all the faithfulness God showed me." And look back to Christ crucified and resurrected. Keep your eyes on Christ, remind yourself that you are forgiven and strengthened by Christ. By Christ crucified. So trust in him, look to him. Believe in him for future grace. Thirdly, marvel at how specifically God predicted missions in Isaiah. It's very, very clear. Isaiah 42:49-51 again and again, talking about the Islands. When Christ rose from the dead, he went to the upper room and he met with his disciples. In Luke 24 it says, "He opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures." Then he said, "This is what is written, that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem." That's what was written. Well friends, it's written in Isaiah. So what does that mean for us? Let's be more missions-minded than we've ever been before in the year 2015. That's what God is doing in the world. Let's give more money. I'm encouraged by Lottie Moon. We're not there yet, we're at 96,000, I think. But we've got money coming in. I would like to see missions giving 12 months a year, amen. Not just December, but 12 months. I would love to see more people going on short-term mission trips. I'll like to see more passionate prayer for unreached people groups. Get an app, joshuaproject.net, or something like that, and pray for an unreached people group every day in the year 2015. And especially, let's be active in evangelism. Let's seek people we can share the Gospel with. Let's risk things. Let's risk persecution. Some great stories are ready out there waiting to be told. Push through the fear and find those great stories. Find a neighbor, a co-worker, a total stranger, frequent a restaurant, go to that one place and build relationships for the sake of evangelism. I yearn to see more people converted, genuinely converted, baptized and then discipled by our church than ever before. Fourth, look forward to the new heavens and new earth and new Jerusalem. Yearn for it, delight in it, read about it. Look for the day when it's going to come and speed its coming. And ask God specifically until that time comes to fill you with hope and deliver you from fear of man. Close with me in prayer.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches on Galatians 5:19-21, and urges us to be alert to the negative impacts of the acts of the flesh in our souls. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Recently, some historians have studied the ancient world and have studied the Roman Empire in particular. Some historians have argued that lead poisoning may have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. One expert focused his work on the way that Aristocratic Romans would boil honey in lead pots to make a sweetener called defrutum and then they'd boil it down even further to something even sweeter called sapa. The Romans found that if they boil them in copper, it gave a bitter kind of taste but the lead gave a sweet kind of taste and they actually liked it. They would wait until it would all get dried and they would scrape it off and they'd sweeten things with it, this combination of lead and honey. So these sweeteners were used in many ways with meats and wines and many other foods that they ate every day. But the problem was the high temperatures that caused the lead and the honey to mix, made a poison called Lead Acetate. And this poison would accumulate slowly in their bodies and destroy them, weakening them gradually and eventually killing them. Now the scholar that was focusing on this argued that this gradual poisoning contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. Now, many have debated on whether that's true or not but, no one can debate that boiling things in lead and then drinking it is not good for us. And it got me to think about the passage that we're looking at today, "The deeds of the flesh." And I want to liken all of these sins as poison masquerading in honey, which accumulates in our souls and gradually weakens all who indulge in it. The honey taste of sin has been poisoning the human race since the garden of Eden. And it continues to spiritually poison people all over the world, and it poisons all of us who indulge in it as well. And I want to look at this list of spiritual poisons, the deeds of the flesh which the Spirit actively warns us against every moment of our lives. And I want to do so in the context of asking the question, what kind of life is it that leads to heaven? "The honey taste of sin has been poisoning the human race since the garden of Eden. And it continues to spiritually poison people all over the world, and it poisons all of us who indulge in it as well." I. What Kind of Life Leads to Heaven? Now, the context of this question and of this whole passage is, the epistle of the Galatians, which we've been studying for many months now. The apostle Paul took up his pen to write to a bunch of churches that he had planted. They had had from him the pure gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. But after he left, some false teachers had come in and had begun to preach a false gospel which Paul said was no gospel at all. These false teachers taught a gospel of faith in Jesus, plus obedience to the laws of Moses, equals ultimate salvation. Now, Paul instead preached very plainly and wrote in Galatians very plainly the correction. Justification by faith in Jesus alone for the forgiveness of sins. Now, the Galatians were in danger of legalism, and the idea of having begun by simply hearing this gospel with faith, by the power of the Spirit, having begun by the Spirit, they were trying to be perfected by the flesh, by efforts, by self focused efforts. So, Paul preaches very plainly over many chapters the beautiful, simple, clear gospel of forgiveness of sins by faith in Jesus alone, apart from works. And what a liberating, what a freeing message that is for the human race. We are justified by faith and not by works. But the problem is the most common accusation against this liberating gospel, the freedom of this gospel, is that salvation by grace alone leads to lawlessness. The accusation is that it leads to the idea that you can live however you want. Over and over in history, the true gospel has led to this accusation of this false understanding. The bad remedy is always the same, legalism. That if we get serious about the law, that the law contains within itself the power for its own obedience. And that we're on our own and that we are forgiven for past transgressions by present or future obedience to the law, that's the essence of legalism by the way. We have sin, the law accuses us, the only way to make it right in the legalistic way of thinking is, by present or future obedience to the same laws. That's what legalism is, that's the wrong answer. Legalistic approaches have filled up church history, and so Paul addresses the false definition of legalism here in Galatians 5. Here's the answer instead, is the freedom of the Spirit-filled life. The power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, that's his answer. Not by combining Jesus and Moses, but by understanding the progression of salvation, from justification by faith alone apart from works. A transition then made to sanctification by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit whereby, we obey the precepts of the moral law, not for the payment of past transgressions, but because it's the most beautiful and the most fruitful possible life we could ever live. In which the Holy Spirit leads us back now to the moral law, love God with all your heart, love your neighbors as yourself and enables us to fulfill it. Ultimately, then, a battle, a consistent battle and we'll talk about that in the immediate context here, between the flesh and the Spirit in which we struggle but we grow in godliness, becoming more and more like Jesus, ultimately ending in glorification. This glorification happens instantaneously when God, by his sovereign grace, ends the struggle forever. We are rescued from our sin and brought into heaven and there we'll live in holiness forever. That's the true salvation plan of God. Justification is the beginning of the Christian life, the total forgiveness of all of our sins is by faith alone, apart from any works of the law. But justification always leads to sanctification, and sanctification is a gradual, slow, difficult process by which the Spirit works powerfully inside us first to recognize sin, see it for what it is. Secondly, to hate it as God hates it, and thirdly to put sin to death by the power of the Spirit more and more. So that's sanctification. So the key question that comes to us "How can I know I am justified?" That's a question of assurance. The answer's found in this chapter. The Spirit's work in the life of the true believer results in fruit that can be seen and known. The lifestyle, the regular patterns of life from the heart leading to specific patterns of action proves the reality of God's saving work in a soul. Galatians 5:16-26, the section we're in right now in Galatians, is a powerful diagnostic tool for answering the question "Am I a Christian? Have I been justified? Are my sins forgiven?" And it does at first negatively, by addressing things that must not be part of the Christian life, the acts of the flesh. And then positively, the fruit of the Spirit, the traits that must characterize the Christian, negatively and positively, that's what we're looking at. So how can I know I'm a Christian? Do you see increasingly the sins that are listed that you heard Chris read? Do you see them increasingly weakening and dying in your life by the power of the Spirit? And positively, we'll see next week, do we see more and more of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives by the power of the Spirit? Do we see Christ-like character traits? That’s how you can know that you're a Christian. Key question number two then, which we've already asked, what kind of life leads to heaven? Justification is understandable doctrinally, we get it. We get the idea that sins can be instantaneously forgiven by simply believing in Jesus. It's hard to believe almost, sometimes it's that easy, but it's true. But how can I know it's actually happened to me. Paul's answer then is to look at the pattern of your life, the lifestyle. And the life characterized by the works of the flesh leads to destruction, it leads to hell. But the life characterized by the fruit of the Spirit is the only one that leads to heaven. "The life characterized by the works of the flesh leads to destruction, it leads to hell. But the life characterized by the fruit of the Spirit is the only one that leads to heaven." So in the immediate context in verse 16, Paul gives a command, "So I say walk by the Spirit," or "live by the Spirit." So it's a command to live your daily life in the power of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Spirit. Secondly, believe this promise, if you do that, if you walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify the lusts of the flesh. The promise that we have, that the Spirit, the indwelling Spirit and walking by the Spirit is powerful and effective for killing sins of the flesh. We should, thirdly, expect constant warfare. Verse 17: "For the flesh yearns or desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit yearns or desires what is contrary to the flesh. They're at odds with each other so that you do not do what you want." So we are divided beings, we're struggling, we're spiritual schizophrenics. We don't fully do anything in this life, we don't fully serve God. We don't fully serve sin ever because of this division so we expect constant warfare. We're not looking for perfectionism. We're not looking for release in this life. We know we're going to be at war, we must be at war. As a matter of fact, if we're not at war, we're dead in our transgressions and sins. We've got to be at war. We've got to be fighting by the Spirit. And so we must wage war in a new way. Verse 18 says we need to understand our new status we are not under law. We are led by the Spirit. We are in a whole new way of living now. By the power of the Spirit, led by the Spirit, we can live a holy life. So we've talked about that. Now today, we're going to be talking about the works of the flesh negatively, and then next week, God willing, the fruit of the Spirit. That's where we are in context. II. The Works of the Flesh (verses 19-21) So let's look now at the works of the flesh, verses 19-21. "Now the works of the flesh are evident: [Paul says] sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery or sensuality, idolatry, sorcery or witchcraft, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these or the like." Paul here gives one of many sin lists that there are in the Bible. The Bible gives sin lists, and this is one of the sin lists, not the only one. And the purpose of this sin list is a diagnostic tool for the heart. You can diagnose your heart. I like to sometimes talk about salvation in a therapeutic or healing sense. Jesus is the good physician. It's not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. We are sick with sin and we need a good diagnosis. We need to be told the truth. Sin is a disease of the soul, and so the heart, controlled by the flesh is powerfully diagnosed or exposed by this list. As we read this list, we see described in a powerful way what the life of the flesh looks like. Again, people ask what is the flesh? We went through all that in a previous sermon but I just simply say the flesh is that part of you that produces this list. Whatever part of you that makes you do these things, that's what the flesh is. Called sin nature, indwelling sin, etcetera. There are 15 sins listed here, comprehensive and thorough diagnostic tool. Now, not every sin that you could commit is listed here, not at all. There's a longer sin list at the end of Roman's chapter 1 which covers ground that isn't covered here. All right, there's no actual comprehensive sin list, all right? But this is meant to be suggestive and it's a comprehensive diagnostic tool and not every sinner commits every sin on this list or even commits most of them on a daily basis but these are actual heart states that characterize the unregenerate heart. These are actions of the heart state that characterize an unregenerate heart. They also are patterns of habit of habitual sins that Christians have as well that we must be putting to death by the Spirit. So it's both of that. It's both got a message of warning to the unbeliever and it's got a message of warning to the believer, as well. The key issue for us as Christians are habit patterns, not the occasional foray. All right, we'll make this point more clearly at the end but every Christian occasionally displays some aspects of this list from time to time. But no Christian is continually characterized by this list. So let's look at this sin list in general. He talks first about the works of the flesh, notice he's going to contrast it, we'll talk about this more next week, with the fruit of the Spirit. It's an intentional change from works to fruit and we'll talk about that next time but this is what the works of the flesh, these are the works that the flesh produces. The unredeemed nature, the sin nature. The works of the flesh is what the flesh desires, verse 17. What does the flesh desire? It desires to do these things. That's what it wants. It wants to do these things. The Holy Spirit hates them and wants you not do these things, so that's where the battle lines are drawn and the flesh produces these things in the lifestyle of the unredeemed person and is seeking to do them in the lifestyle of the Christian. Now Paul says, "The works of the flesh are evident" or they are obvious. You could take this in a couple of ways; one is to just say look, everyone know what they are, okay? And I think there's to some degree a truth to this where even non-Christians have somewhat of the moral law written in their created being, they have a conscience and they're aware, although not perfectly aware, that these things are wrong, okay? They're evident or obvious. Most societies have laws against many of these things or see the wickedness of them and don't argue against them, although that doesn't always stay the same. We, Christians, we have experience with these sins in daily life and we can identify them. When we see them in practice, we know they're evil, so this isn't some shocking surprise to find out that these things are evil. We're not shocked by this, we're aware, it makes sense. We know that these things are evil, even the pagans know that they're evil. They come to us in four groupings. First, sins of sexuality: The first three, sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery. The second are sins of religion: Idolatry and sorcery or witchcraft. The third division, the largest, are sins of relationship. So enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, and envy. And the fourth are sins of dissipated living or lack of self-control, such as drunkenness and orgies. Again, this list is not exhaustive but comprehensive. "Things like these," Paul says "and such like or things like these." So he's acknowledging right in the text, there are more besides. But this is a very comprehensive list and it covers many aspects of human life and it is sufficient to diagnose the human heart and the spiritual condition of any person. Now, let's look at this sin list, the list of the flesh, the acts of the flesh in detail. The first three, as I've said, are sexual in nature, the deeds of the flesh are sexual. The first one is sexual immorality, the Greek word is "porneia" which will sound familiar to us from which we get the word pornography, sexual sins of any kind. The Greco Roman world was known for its sexual openness, tolerance of all manners of sexual appetites and practices. When the gospel came to a Greek or Roman town or city and people began to be converted, massive changes in the sexual area were obvious in the lives of these Christians. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, the apostle Paul writes this to the Thessalonians, he said, "It is God's will that you should be holy or sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality. That each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God." So it's very clear. This is a consistent teachings, not just one or two verses. Again and again this issue of sexual purity. Now, we know that sex is a great weakness for the human race, it is a major breach. If you could picture your soul like a walled fortress, this is a breach in the wall to which the enemy is focusing a ton of attention. So you know if you're standing on the walls and you see all of the soldiers, the enemy soldiers running to a particular place, they think they found a weakness, they think they found a way in and they want to destroy you by that way. Well, that's what's going on in the sexual area. Tremendous amount of satanic activity in this area so we must know that it's a weakness. How much effort does Satan put toward sexual immorality, every single day from the moment that Adam and Eve ate the fruit and their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked and they began sewing clothes for themselves, sex has been corrupted and is a major weakness. In Paul's era, sexual immorality was rampant, and as I've said, and Christians were specifically set apart from their pagan neighbors by their commitment to sexual holiness. They didn't visit the temple prostitutes, male and female prostitutes, they just stopped that pattern of life. They were holy with one another. The Gospel changed the way that people live sexually. Many commandments in the New Testament point to this issue. The second word in the list, impurity, literally uncleanness. Uncleanness is just a general word seen, I think, especially in a sexual light. Impure thoughts leading to impure actions, has anything to do with anything that will make someone spiritually unclean especially in the sexual area. And then debauchery or sensuality, this would be a total lack of self-constraint resulting in behavior that violates all bounds of what's socially acceptable. In our culture, this kind of person would be called a party animal, let's say. Somebody who's just thrown off constraint, they're living for the next thrill, maybe addicted to recreational drugs and or alcohol. Also frequently has a sexual side to it, a person who moves from one sexual experience to the next, to the next with increasing addiction, increasing appetite and boldness. Well, what about in our context, what's going on in our day? Well in our day and age, we see Satan's constant assault in the world's sexual gluttony, there are movies and TV programs, and internet pornography and articles, and all kind of things that are constantly appealing to our lust in this area. Specifically in the issue of internet pornography, it's a $13 billion industry every year in the US alone, $13 billion spent on this sin every year. Since the start of 2013, there have been 2.6 billion searches for internet pornography, one in five mobile searches are for porn, one in five, 20% of them. 60% of male church-going professing believers have viewed internet pornography in the last year, similar stats for women. In general, our society is rushing head long toward a similar sexual immorality that characterized pagan Rome, in which marriage is dishonored, homosexuality is celebrated. We see it happening before our very eyes in various areas, for example fornication. Fornication is rampant; premarital sex is the norm on college campuses. Contrary to the river of sexual immorality is the biblical conception of marriage. The most powerful, complex image of Christ's relationship with the church is marriage. Jesus gives very clear teaching on marriage, in Matthew 19: "Haven't you read, He said, that the beginning, the Creator made them male and female, and said for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother, and be united to his wife. And they will become one flesh, so they are no longer two but one. What God has joined together, let man not separate." Now, one of the things on the homosexuality issue that I find interesting, is people saying that Jesus never addressed the topic. I can see the fact that he doesn't say the words homosexuality, but instead what he does, and that question comes up in the issue of divorce, he goes above the immediate question of divorce, as I would say, he goes above the immediate question of homosexuality. And Jesus talks about God's intention in very clear gender-based terms. "Haven't you read that at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female? And said, for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother, and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh, so they're no longer two but one. What God has joined together, let man not separate." So Jesus does address it very plainly. Paul says in Ephesians 5 that marriage is a profound mystery. It's a picture of Christ and the church. And so therefore, we have this spiritual consummation language at the end of the Bible. In Revelation 21, when the new Jerusalem comes down like a bride, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And there's a beautiful spiritual consummation, not physical because there's no need for procreation at that point. Jesus said at the resurrection, they neither marry nor give in marriage, they're like the angels in heaven. But there is a beautiful picture of the unity between Christ and the church. Well, that's the standard, that's what the Bible teaches on sexuality. Christians are called on therefore, to be absolutely celibate sexually, outside of covenant marriage, heterosexual marriage between one man, one woman. But they are to enjoy sexual unity within covenant marriage as a gift from God. And that's a healthy way to understand the sexual relationship. Well, these standards are clearly under open assault in our day and age, at every level. We must stand against these assaults, these are called the acts of the flesh. And we must stand, we've got to be at war by the Spirit against all the motions of the flesh. Go back to my opening illustration, this stuff is spiritual poison, it kills the soul. I guess what troubles me, is in this day and age, we're being told that to tell the truth of someone who's drinking spiritual poison every day, and say, "Would you please," with tears coming down your face, "would you please put the poison down, I don't want you to die," is unloving. It's not unloving to tell people the truth. It's not unloving to tell them that they're killing their souls. That's not unloving. Jesus said it's not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. "I've not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." And so we need to tell the truth to our generation that this stuff is poison. Put it down. We need to be at war first within ourselves, we need to be at war against fornication by the Spirit. Christians need to be sexually pure before marriage. We must avoid any hint of sexual immorality. Just because so many other college students and young people are "hooking up," as the term goes, doesn't change God's standard at all. We need to be at war against pornography by the Spirit, as we've already mentioned, Christians need to hate this sin as the spiritual poison it is, it destroy souls. We need to war against adultery by the Spirit. How many marriages are destroyed because husband or wife are led into other relationships? How much anguish? How many tears are wept because of this sin? How many pastoral ministries have been ruined because pastors have gotten into this sin? How many divorces have sprung from this adultery? How many children's lives have been ruined by it? This too is spiritual poison. And we must war against homosexuality by the Spirit in the same way. This is an obvious target for Satan's agenda in our day and age. We are being systematically trained to think differently about this sin. Resist it! We need to tell people who are poisoning themselves the truth and it is not unloving to do it. I would commend to you this therapeutic model of speech that I've given to you. I think it will stand up better than other patterns will. You say all of us are drinking poison. Jesus remedies us. You're drinking poison, I don't want you to die. I don't know how you accuse a person like that especially if they've got genuine humility and they're pointing to Christ with tears coming down their face of anything less than love, but they'll try. The warning is very clear at the end of our passage. Those who live like this, "I warned you, that they will not inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 is clear about it as well, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you." What a blessed word that word “were” is. God is able to transform every sinner on that list to make it a past tense. Praise God! We're being told that that actually can't happen in the area of homosexuality but the word stands it is absolutely possible Christ has transforming power. Listen to the rest of the verse. "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God." So that's the hope we point toward in all of these sexual sins. We must speak the truth in love. We must not be bullied into false doctrine or false ministry. The gospel is the only remedy for these sexual sins. "The gospel is the only remedy for these sexual sins." Let's tell people the truth, so they can be saved from sin and find the light in God's standards living holy and upright lives. Let's courageously resist the temptation to cave in on this. And let's courageously resist the temptation to cave in in whatever ways you are caving in sexually, and not assume it's just out there. All the deeds of the flesh are poison, all of them. The Holy Spirit hates them all because he loves us. And we must fight these sins, each of them for our spiritual lives depend on us putting them to death. Remember what John Owen said which I quoted last week, "The vigor, power, and comfort of our spiritual life depend on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh." So turn those words around. You will be, not vigorous, not powerful and not comforted in your Christian life if you don't put sins to death. You'll be weak, emaciated and have no assurance. You must mortify, said Owen. You must make it your daily work, you must be constantly at it while you live. Cease not a day from this work. Be killing sin or sin will be killing you. If we sin secretly in these areas, we are constantly testing God, challenging him to act as avenger against us. I believe it is a responsibility of each person to assess themselves sexually. And if your right eye is causing you to sin then you gouge it out and you throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. And if your right hand is causing you to sin then it's your job to cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. If the church does it for you, we have become legalistic. It's the churches job to speak these truths to you and you put them into practice. We can't go rummaging through the closets of people's lives, that's your job. Rummage through your own closets. But know this, God sees everything. He knows what you're doing, don't tempt him to act as avenger against his holy law. Be holy because he is holy. It says in Hebrews 13:4, "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral." And it says earlier in that same book "our God is a consuming fire." So flea sexual sin by the Spirit and fight sexual sin by the Spirit. The next sins listed are sins of religion, idolatry obviously associated with pagan religions, the worship of anything apart from the true and living God. It goes from false religion like Hinduism and Buddhism all the way to materialism and greed which is idolatry. Now the basic definition on idolatry is in Romans 1:25, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the creator who's forever praised. Amen." So when some created thing takes God's place in your affections, some created thing supplants God as the uppermost goal of your life, that's idolatry. Tim Keller calls idols "God's substitutes" or "rival gods." It's what your thoughts go effortlessly to when nothing else is demanding your attention. Career advancement, a dream home, a relationship with a particular person. One or two day dreams does not constitute idolatry. But ask this, what do you habitually think about to get joy and comfort in the privacy of your heart? What do you spend your money on? What gets your emotions roiling and boiling and churning? Idols tend to be at the root of all these things. Now, a formalized system of false religion is the work of the flesh. So that's false religion but so also are these things called "heart idols." He also mentioned this word "sorcery" or "witchcraft." The Greek word is "pharmakeia," from which we get pharmacy or pharmaceutical, but it goes back in that day and age to the use of poisons and chemicals for making secret brews and all that, but it extends to the secret arts, witchcraft, etcetera. I used to pastor in Topsail, Massachusetts near Salem, and Salem has something like 3,000 registered witches. As a matter of fact, there was this one witch Laurie Cabot who has designated the official witch of the state of Massachusetts. I don't know why we needed an official witch. But if we needed one, Laurie Cabot was it. And her house was a shrine of the black arts, people would go all year round to see the things in her home. We have more and more interest in the supernatural and witchcraft in our age, it's probably going to get worse. Also possible application here is recreational drug use with the word "pharmakeia." So people that are living for or addicted to recreational drugs, it's an act of the flesh. Now, the next eight sins on the list are all sins of relationship, sins of relationship. He begins with hatred, a state of hostility between people, deep seated resentments, bitterness, deep desire for revenge or retaliation. It could go as deep as racism or the kind of hatred that Nazis had for Jews, in the 1930s, or that perhaps Jews had for Germans or Nazis after World War II. Things like that. Serbs might have for Croats and Croats for Serbs, etcetera. Deep-seated things or it could go just to neighbors who, because of a bunch of things that have happened, just hate each other. He mentioned discord which is strife or quarreling, bickering, arguing, just not getting along, just not getting along. Just want you to know, praise God, they get along in heaven. Amen. They just do, they like each other and they just get along in heaven. There's no discord in heaven. I can't wait to be there but I need to get cured first. Amen. Maybe you might need to as well. So in a marriage we're talking about husbands and wives unable to get along or get through a day without arguing, spending their time bickering. It could be in the church, people arguing or bickering in the halls or at church conferences or after church conferences or before church conferences. It could be in the workplace, it could be in government, military, just wherever people get together, you have discord. By the way, isn't it interesting how in the same sin list, you can have sins that you wouldn't think of participating in, sorcery, almost side by side with those that you probably participate in every day, discord. But God hates them all, he hates them all. They're all acts of the flesh. He talks about jealousy, which is a passionate commitment to self; coveting, yearning for what someone else has. Secretly jealous if someone else is honored or promoted or praised or received some kind of earthly benefit. Fits of rage or anger, sinful anger. Obviously, somebody who can't control their temper, shouting, yelling, face getting all red, veins bulging. James calls anger "moral filth" like radioactive waste. This human anger is usually wicked and sinful. Would you say in any year, okay, let's say you get angry 100 times in a year, what percentage of those are righteous indignation because the glory of God has been impugned? Come on, be honest. I wouldn't put it at 99 out of 100, I have to go out to 1000 and then I might get a few righteous indignations in there. Usually, my anger is selfish. Somebody has crossed me in some way, somebody's inconvenienced me in some way, somebody hasn't honored me in some way, probably the same is true of you. Fits of rage are acts of the flesh. Selfish ambition is just that careerism and yearning to get to be top dog, to be in charge so that you're honored and worshipped in some kind of way. Dissensions, we just talked about pretty much it's hard to see a distinction between them. Strife, arguments, discord, people not getting along. Think of how many times you and your spouse have argued, all of them acts of the flesh. Or you and your roommate or you and your brother or sister. You and a neighbor, you and a co-worker. Think of all the dissensions that poison church life. Think of all the disagreements that make church life unpleasant. Think of how the sin of dissensions ruins joyful family life and church life all over the world. And then factions, the idea of party Spirit. "I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas." Factions like gang warfare, the crips and the bloods or the blues and the reds, things like that. Factions or party Spirit, those are acts of the flesh. And then envy, again, I don't see a lot of difference between that and jealousy except maybe you're focused on a specific privilege or possession, something, a covetous heart. All of these things come from the acts of the flesh. Envy is the opposite of contentment. Contentment, it says in Psalms 16, "the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, surely I have a delightful inheritance." I'm happy with my wife, happy with my kids, happy with my job, I'm content with my possessions, I don't need anything else, I have the Lord, he is my heavenly Father, I've forgiveness of sins I don't need anything else. And so I'm content with the boundary lines, they've fallen for me in pleasant places, Psalm 16. Envy has David up on the roof looking at another man's wife and lusting after her, and wanting her, and taking her. Or it has wicked king Ahab looking at some guy's vineyard and killing him so he can get it. All of these things are acts of the flesh. And then the last two have to do with just a loss, total loss of self-control, drunkenness and orgies. If you put them together you could picture the kind of wild parties in which people are losing all self-control getting drunk and doing wicked things. III. The Terrifying Warning (verse 21) All right, so that's the sin list. Paul then gives in verse 21 a terrifying warning. "I warn you as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God." How can we hear that? How do you hear that warning, that those who live like this? Well, to inherit the kingdom of God, that's the goal of our salvation. Right? So it means to live eternally with God in his heaven. People dominated by the flesh will not go to heaven, that's what Paul is saying, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. Same thing he said in 1 Corinthians 6:9, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God, do not be deceived." So living like this means the heart is unregenerate, this is the broad road that leads to destruction. Now, Christians can and do stray into sin from time to time, or else how could we understand Romans 7, Paul saying in verses 15 and following, "I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do I do not but what I hate I do." What could that be other than the acts of the flesh? "What I hate I do, and if I do what I do not want to do I agree that the law is good as it is, it is no longer I who do it but it is sin living in me that does it." So sin living in me, that's the flesh, produces these things. Paul, at the end of that section says, "What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord," Jesus will rescue us from this. Either at the second coming when in a flash, in a twinkling of the eye at the last trumpet we will be changed forever or at your death. And you will leave it behind and you will never sin again. But in the mean time we grievously sin in these areas. Now, unregenerate people have the mind of the flesh, they live for these things, they plan for these things, they love these things, they go after these things. Spirit-filled Christians hate them but can't seem to stop doing them. There's an intrinsic difference. Christians hunger and thirst for righteousness as the beatitudes say, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," but we just can't seem to pull it off daily. We yearn for it but we don't do it. Non-Christians just have the mind of the flesh, it does not submit to God's law nor can they do so. Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God. There's just two different ways to think and therefore two different ways to live. So grace, gospel of sovereign grace doesn't produce this kind of life, it just doesn't. It fights this kind of life. So if we're told all of your sins are forgiven through the grace of God, all of them, past, present and future, it does not lead to this life. If this is the life you're living you haven't been forgiven, you're not a Christian, that's what Paul is saying. That's the warning he's giving here. What does grace do? Grace covers all your sins, but grace also transforms the way you live. Titus chapter 2:11-12 it says, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age." So how should we hear these warnings? Well, it shouldn't threaten our understanding of justification or security, it is impossible for any truly justified person to sin their way out of the family of God, it cannot happen. But to know that you're a regenerate you must be at war and you've got to see these things gradually being weakened and assaulted in your life. You need to work out your salvation with what? Fear and trembling. You know what gives you fear and trembling? Verse 21 will do it, it does it for me. "I warn you as I did before," it's a repeated warning, "those who live like this will not go to heaven." That'll give you fear and trembling. You fear the Lord, you fear the outcome, and you put sin to death, that's what you do, it's the kind of life that leads to heaven. Why? Because it's God who is working in you probably right now to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Christians heed these kind of warnings. Nominal Christians blow them off. Genuine Christians take sermons like this and say, "I must be holy, I yearn to be holy." Nominal Christians just blow them off they don't care. And they either do it through legalism in one sense you could say oh they take it seriously and then they go by legalistic means, we covered that before. But the nominal Christians, they just say, "It doesn't matter, I pray the prayer, sign the card, once saved always saved, doesn't really matter how I live." But we must by the Spirit be putting to death the misdeeds of the body. So looking backward at your sins, run to the cross, run to Jesus. What can wash away those sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Don't run to your legalistic efforts, run to the cross looking here back, run to the cross and find forgiveness through the blood of Jesus. Here forward run to the Spirit for help in obeying God's laws. That's the Christian life, that's the Christian life. And so by the Spirit you can put to death every sin on this list. IV. Deep Humility Now, this list should make you deeply humble. I would hope it's humbled you. It should humble you deeply. Note how many sins we would never commit are side by side with sins we may commit regularly, consistently. It's not to say that dissensions and sorcery are equally evil in God's sight. I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is all sin is repugnant to God and we should never feel morally superior to anyone for any reason ever, period. That's kind of a sweeping statement, isn't it? Yes, it is. I'll say it again. You should never, you forgiven Christian should never feel morally superior to anyone who suffers with any sin ever, period, the rest of your life. Those days are gone. That's the essence of legalism, is to feel morally superior to others. Instead you have been saved by grace out of this list. You should be humble. Deeply humble. V. Applications So what application? Well, come to Christ. Come to Christ. There's no warfare possible for you if you're not a Christian. It's not possible. All you can do is amend your ways but you can't truly fight by the Spirit. The Spirit isn't given to any but the Christians. So come to Christ. Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross for sinners like you and me. Come to Christ and find forgiveness. If you're already a Christian, then understand the Spirit's role in this warfare, actively rely on Him, pray to him a lot. Say, "God send your Spirit. I need your help, I'm being tempted right now. Help me now, help me, help me, help me, help me." Pray without ceasing. That's how you fight. That's how by the Spirit you put to death, a constant dependence on the Spirit. Thirdly, never ever surrender in any areas. You never wave the white flag in any area, ever. You're like Winston Churchill in 1940 looking at Nazi Germany. It's like at what point will you surrender? Never. We'll be down to the last British boy or girl in some alley somewhere, we'll still be fighting the Nazis. We're never going to give in. We don't want to be enslaved by them. So no, we will go down to the last one. Well, that's even more so should be our attitude against sin. I'm never going to give up on any of these things. I may stumble many ways. James says we all stumble in many ways. But I'm never going to give up on any of these areas. So the Spirit won't let me. Why? Because it's poison. Is the Spirit ever going to tell you, "You go ahead and drink as much poison as you want, I'll bring you to Heaven one day"? He's not going to tell you that, ever. He is going to fight every way that you're drinking poison. Analyze your own patterns and confess your sins. Look at characteristic patterns, seek forgiveness. Everyone struggles in some ways sexually. Seek God's holiness and purity. If you're involved in some sexual sin perhaps internet pornography, perhaps same sex attraction resulting in thoughts or actions that are sinful, perhaps a sinful relationship? Repent immediately. If you're in a dating relationship and you've sinned together sexually, do not lower the standards to suit your lust or the prevailing culture. Read the scripture and know that God hates fornication. Seek God's forgiveness and receive it by the blood of Christ. Seek his forgiveness. Don't try to do good works to prove yourself to God. Seek just humble yourself and ask forgiveness and He'll forgive you. Look at the relational sins. Married people. Is your marriage characterized by conflict? By sinful anger and discord? Then I'm asking you to repent. The two of you, get down on your knees and hold hands and say, "We have argued too much. Let's make a pact, you and I, to fight the arguing. To love one another as we loved each other when we first got married." Kneel together and pray for that. Church members, is there anyone here that you need to forgive? Anyone here you're feeling morally superior to because they've sinned against you? Give it up. Forgive. Love. No hatred, no discord. What about pride? What about jealousy? Is this happening to you? Are you jealous of anyone? Are you proud of your position? Anything? Fight against these things. These are the works of the flesh. Flee to the cross of Christ. You don't have to be perfect, you can't be perfect. But if you walk in the light, you confess the ways you have been dark, God will cleanse you. And so he says in 1 John 1:8-10, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives."

In this episode Storm Faerywolf stops by to discuss the Iron Pentacle, we discuss the Bloodroot Honey Priestess tribe, Modern Witch Magazine, and Rowan gives us in site into studying with Laurie Cabot. Devin’s Full Moon Play-list In the Circle- Hungry Lucy Rhiannon- Faun Space Child- Kan’nal Is this real?- Lisa Hall The Maid and the Dragon- Kellianna Desire Space (Remix)- Eat Your Guru Chant of the Paladin- Dead Can Dance Culture Clash- Indigo Spirit Everyday Goddess- Celia Everywhere- Bram Van 3000 Edge of the Ocean- Ivy Bell, Book, and Candle- From The Motion Picture Gypsy- Ronin Hardiman We Go On- Monica Richards Desire- Os Ovni Witchcraft- Frank Sinatra www.TheModernWitchPodcast.com

In this episode Storm Faerywolf stops by to discuss the Iron Pentacle, we discuss the Bloodroot Honey Priestess tribe, Modern Witch Magazine, and Rowan gives us in site into studying with Laurie Cabot.Devin's Full Moon Play-listIn the Circle- Hungry LucyRhiannon- FaunSpace Child- Kan'nalIs this real?- Lisa HallThe Maid and the Dragon- KelliannaDesire Space (Remix)- Eat Your GuruChant of the Paladin- Dead Can DanceCulture Clash- Indigo SpiritEveryday Goddess- CeliaEverywhere- Bram Van 3000Edge of the Ocean- IvyBell, Book, and Candle- From The Motion PictureGypsy- Ronin HardimanWe Go On- Monica RichardsDesire- Os OvniWitchcraft- Frank Sinatrawww.TheModernWitchPodcast.com

This week on the G&D Show, Shaun and Nathan talk about what kind of signs to look out for to predict good or bad luck. Then the Ghostman & Demon Hunter are joined by Laurie Cabot: The Official Witch of Salem. Is witchcraft a belief system, a science, or both? Listen in to find out.Download G&D 01-23-11

Dickie Shannon interviews Alex Hearn, Director of the Arizona Cryptozoological Research Organization. AZCRO associate Mitch Wade joins Alex Hearn in the discussion about the research, exploration and encounters they and their team has had with ghosts and various creatures such as the Mogollon Monster, giant birds, big cats, and other historically mythical wildlife living in Arizona. They also talk about Laurie Cabot, famous witch from Salem, Massachusetts.