Rod Dreher in his substack today quotes an exorcist who explains how demons get a hold of people
“So, what are some of the common ways they come to possess or otherwise attach themselves to a person? Father writes:
• Engaging in impure sexual activity: fornication, adultery, pornography, masturbation, contraception, homosexual acts, perversion, etc.
• Lying, deception, breaking promises, oaths, contracts, covenants, etc.
• Irreligiosity (refusing to practice religion as God desires it; excusing oneself from observing the precepts of religion and morality; relegating oneself to being merely “spiritual”).
• Hardness of heart (refusal to forgive others, refusal to forgive oneself, prolonged rage, prolonged sadness, entertaining suicidal thoughts, etc.).
• Use of blasphemous language.
• Enjoying profane or perverse entertainment.
• Practicing Wicca, sorcery, witchcraft, black magic, white magic, voodoo, divination, etc.
• Casting spells, sending curses, etc.
• Practicing Freemasonry, New Age, Reiki, etc.
• Using Ouija boards, horoscopes, tarot cards, etc.
• Consulting “healers,” curanderos, mediums, fortune-tellers, psychics, practicing necromancy, etc.
• Engaging in role-playing games and violent or sadistic video games.
• The effects of past trauma—e.g., excessive fear, rage, arrogance, vengefulness, etc.—which often leads the victim to make poor choices.”
That covers just about every human being.
I am reading Addison’s and Steele’s papers, The Tatler and The Spectator, the early 18th century equivalent of blogs and substacks, and they mention the persisting belief in witchcraft. Usually, old half-crazy poor women were the focus of accusations. The seventeenth century saw a strong revival of belief in witchcraft; the Salem witch trials were one of the results.
My wife thinks that Protestants were especially vulnerable to this. Medieval Catholics were surrounded by angels, saints, and holy things – relics, states, medals, holy wells. These were all abolished by the Reformers, especially by Calvinists, But the presence of evil was still felt. Catholic authorities often tried to suppress belief in witchcraft and the protect the accused: Charlemagne outlawed belief in witches, and the Spanish Inquisition also tried to discourage such belief.
I wonder whether the rationalism of the Age of Reason was a relief to people who had been haunted by the belief in evil spirits.
When the Huguenot French prophets came to London and tried to stir up anti-Catholic feelings, the government contacted the leading puppet master and he had Punch turn prophet. That ended that bout of Enthusiasm.
But both good and evil spirits are omnipresent in Scripture, including the New Testament. Billy Graham recognized that Protestants tended to neglect the spirits, and wrote a book on angels. Chesterton remarked that the Christianity of the New Testament is very close to dualism: the world is ruled by evil powers, whom Christ came to dispossess.