Andrea was delivered from the darkness of the world of the occult. Her story shows why tarot cards are a dangerous deception.
Fascinated and also terrified by the spirits
As a child I experienced and was fascinated by various forms of psychic phenomena. I would sometimes dream about events that would then occur. But I became terrified by spirits as they would haunt me. At the age of 23, I was studying to be a massage therapist and the school where I was studying had very strong New Age and Occult ties. One of my teachers ran a ten week psychic development course which I joined. After that, I had no trouble performing ‘readings’. A reading is any method that attempts to find out spiritual information about yourself, someone else or a future event.
Who was giving me spiritual information?
People who try to use their psychic abilities are taught to tap into a source in order to find out information. Some of the names for this source are ‘the higher self’, ‘the goddess within’, ‘the universe’, ‘the spirits’ or the ‘great mystery’. This source was always presented as loving, benevolent and generous. At no point were we encouraged to question the source or to test the information it gave to us. It never occurred to me that the ‘source’ could be evil, deceptive or destructive.
Methods of tapping into the ‘source’
We were taught to use tools like tarot cards, meditations, visualisations, someone’s jewellery or personal items, mantras (repeating certain spiritual words as a focus on meditation to supposedly attain inner peace or strength), colour interpretations, automatic writing and communicating with spirits.
The source for psychic power was NOT Jesus Christ
I was taught that everything was love and light but at no time was this ‘love and light’ personified. What was made clear was that the ‘source’ was not the same as Jesus Christ – the Christian God. When I had been involved in Christianity at the age of 19, I had experienced a deep close relationship with the Christian God. The Christian God had been faithful and true. God had spoken into my heart and had provided a peace and assurance in my life that I had never experienced before. I spent one year going to church and throughout that year the Lord had worked many miracles and changes in my life including curing my bulimia and stopping me from self-harming.
This new ‘source’ led me into confusion not peace
However I had lost contact with the Christian God. At the time I believed that all religious paths lead to the same God, the same sense of love, peace and assurance that I had experienced with the Christian God. Instead of focusing on Him, I choose to explore every other avenue towards spiritual enlightenment. What I did not realise at the time was the more I studied other religions and occult material, the further I drifted from that original deep relationship with the Christian God. Through my readings I felt very confident in myself. I felt somehow I was very lucky to be so gifted and very ‘special’ for being able to ‘help’ people in their lives. But what I ended up in was a series of friendships with people who used me, confused me and filled me with drugs.
Blind to my own problems
What I now see as the ‘persona’ of the psychic enabled me to ‘help’ others without ever really having to look at my own dysfunctions and without really challenging others to change their ways and repent of the lifestyle they had been living. The source behind the readings does not want to push you away so it will tell you things your ears want to hear so that you will become hooked to it. I was hooked on receiving information because it made me feel special and helpful. Others were hooked on the messages I gave them because they encouraged them to pursue their own selfish desires. As time went on my drug addiction and mental instability was getting worse. When I wasn’t on drugs, I was suicidal.
Deception runs deep
I went to a rave party and came very close to overdosing on a combination of ecstasy and speed. I had planned for that night to be my last big binge and it very nearly became my last night on earth. For several days afterwards I experienced some sort of psychosis. I had demons surrounding my bed, voices in my head and an unnerving sense of unreality. At one point I felt some greater powerful being alongside me, giving me an overview of my life. The thing that stood out the most was how much time and energy I had wasted on being angry, hurting others and carrying hate inside me. I had been denying how much hatred I had carried inside me. I couldn’t argue with what I saw. I realised there was something very wrong in me but was lost on how to fix it. I had been totally deceived by the occult forces I’d immersed myself in.?
A new life changes my life
It is a long story but I had become pregnant. No reading or psychic had every predicted a baby in my life. Nor had anyone foreseen the dramatic changes that would happen to me via motherhood. No one but the Creator, who knows all my days even before I was born, could foresee what I needed to get out of the darkness that had engulfed my life and onto the path of my salvation. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the light (John 14:6). He is the true prophet – the Alpha and the Omega, the one who knows all things, who always was and always is and always shall be (Revelation 1:8). He is the Living God and He has good plans for my life. This may come as a surprise, but the truth is the Lord offers you abundantly more than any psychic, medium or set of tarot cards could ever give you.
There is hope and a future
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
God offers you the Kingdom of God here and now and eternal life through Jesus Christ. He has plans that will take you places you never dreamed were possible and give you a peace in your heart no matter your circumstances. The fortune telling industry feeds you lies and deception. Only the true Creator can guide you towards the real Promised Land.
The Bible makes it clear we are not to read tarot cards
“Let no one be found among you… who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 18:10-13)
The Lord is merciful
Being a Christian means standing in God’s light so that your sins are not hidden (See John 3:19-21). I had come out of the shadowy world of fortune telling where my psychic persona had deceived many, including myself, into thinking I was a ‘good’ person. It was painful to be shown that the motives of my behaviour were not in line with the Christian God that I now served. But even in this the Lord was merciful.
Love
Andrea
Andrea’s article on Escaping Self Harm
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