To be honest, I was never a huge fan of CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. In college, I heard of the work and possibly read through it in full. Certainly, introducing conceptual scenarios of how demonic activity works in the material, tangible realm is intriguing and even needed, to prompt consideration of possibilities.

But there was something about the work (a type of biblical fiction) that was so specific and defined that the gist of it left me second-guessing myself as a young believer–in ways I’m not so sure were helpful.

What I’m trying to say is that, as I remember the work, there was the idea that demons introduced thoughts into (and perhaps could even read) one’s mind. While this is an actual possibility–the energizing and fueling of demonic thoughts, ideas and more–on a psychological level it can get dicey (and exhausting) to try to distinguish one’s own, authentic (including sinful) thoughts and emotions from something else.

I’m kind of big on owning and embracing the entirety of the human experience and doing the hard work of sorting through it all to find truth, healing and most importantly, the presence of God in our lives amidst our own conflicts and sufferings. Something about attributing seemingly negative thoughts and genuine (but difficult or less-than-faith-filled) thoughts to an external, demonic source (rather than arising from one’s own God-created mind, heart and soul) seemed off-putting to me.

To be fair, before I finish up this piece, I should listen to The Screwtape Letters again. I do have a collection of CS Lewis’ works in Audible. And to be clear, I like CS Lewis. He has contributed uniquely to modern Christianity and I respect him as a deep thinker and theologian. (After note: I did later put The Screwtape Letters on and listened enough to refresh myself on the tone and style…I just don’t think I can listen to this classic in full…but I heard enough to better articulate why I’m not particularly compelled by this work.)
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It seems to me that CS Lewis creates a scenario using names such as Wormwood and “the patient” to image-weave a kind of intellectual contemplation about the working of Satan and demons. To me, it feels like a more rationalistic, palpable (even sanitized) work that is loosely based in scripture, rather than a hard look at the brutal realities of this realm.

Recently I’ve read and come to a better understanding of why those who engage in the occult shed blood in their rituals, and its connection to paganism and child sacrifice. This look at the demonic is far beyond CS Lewis’ more intellectual contemplations of how believers might become the subject of demonic mind games, aimed to press them, essentially, toward atheism.

It’s one thing to be influenced toward atheism; it is another matter to be led astray to perform horrific acts of all sorts aimed toward effecting very real forms of harm in the material world.

Those who engage in the occult seek a counterfeit form of atonement/appeasement to demonic/Satanic entities which desire death, destruction and yes, bloodshed. Scripture says that “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.” (Hebrews 9:22)

Of course, Christians look to the atonement of Christ on the cross and the covenantal fulfilment of Jesus as Messiah–and find their salvation through the blood atonement of Christ.

To keep this piece short (but many readers may want to read more on this, or may be aware more deeply of scriptural references and symbol/typology) I will not fully delve into this topic; I will simply raise awareness that alongside increasing occult practices is the rise of various forms of current-day child sacrifice and child mutilation that is demonically-fueled and gaining momentum and implementation through ideology, political forces and legislation.

I urge readers to consider any current forms of blood, death and bodily mutilations that are being normalized as potentially being demonically-driven and potentially connected to forms of witchcraft.

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Now, on to the main thrust of this piece.

Last week, I learned that the WEF 2024 Conference in Davos invited a witch (doctor/shaman) to perform incantations amidst a panel and audience. Given my watching of many things unfolding in our world and in the Church, in recent times I have actually given deeper attention to biblical glimpses in scripture of how the demonic realm actually works.

In The Screwtape Letters, as I recall, there seemed to be more of an emphasis on the experience of confusing and dissuading the individual believer away from faith in Christ and obedience to Him. These days, I pay attention to Old Testament stories of people who involve pagan deities (demons) into human affairs, as well as New Testament passages concerning “the whole world being under the influence/power of Satan” (I John 5:19) and of course, “schemes of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:11)

Here are two articles/perspectives regarding this witch doctor and the performance of her incantations, the WEF, and a video:

Shamanic Ritual at World Economic Forum: ‘What Spirit Rules in Davos?’ Priest Asks

Explained: Why are Christians endorsing conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum?

This seems to be the best video that shows what happened; I attempted to locate one without any commentary but could not:

(It should be noted that in John 20, there is mention of breathing the Holy Spirit upon the disciples–by Jesus. I admit, I notice connections but do not know if there is reason that such seemingly-similar actions in the occult/paganism world may animate some type of demonic power through ritual. It is quite unusual to watch, especially in this context.)

At the risk of appearing theologically-attuned to ideas surrounding one’s speech (as in the “name it claim it” movement or other movements advocating for the the “positive confessionalism” of the believer), I want to put forth some things for consideration here.

For personal reasons, several years ago I believe God began taking me on a new faith-journey of opening my eyes in the discernment of spiritual things at play in our world and in my own personal realms of struggle. Witchcraft/Wicca/Paganism is now the fastest growing religion in the United States. For ease of reference, we can name this “the occult” but it is an inclusive/umbrella term for a number of practices forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments and more specifically named witchcraft, necromancy, sorcery, divination and the worship/invocation of pagan deities.

While tattoos in-and-of-themselves are now popular and many of the images innocuous, if one begins to notice more broadly the type and nature of inked images (in some ways, a symbol/sign of allegiance/ownership), we will observe many winged creatures, geometric shapes of unknown meanings and other images that might rightly be associated with either the occult (witchcraft) or ancient pagan gods. Images of a dark nature and mysticism abound on the bodies of our nation’s young people. And personally, I must ask, “Why?”

While I could also delve into this topic (demonic/pagan/occult tattoos), biblically and in terms of potential mark of ownership by demonic entities, I should leave that to some other blog piece or for the reader to do their own careful research. It is just so much.

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When my kids were young, there was a lot of hubb-bubb over whether Christians should permit their children to read Harry Potter books. I never delved too deeply into the topic, but had a general sense that to “be safe,” I was not going to encourage the reading of Harry Potter. We also generally avoided movies that contained overt themes of witchcraft and horror (such as The Exorcist), but, as my sons grew older, we did watch psychological thrillers and other imaginative-fantasy works. I don’t think that such creative, intellectual and fantasy works are categorically bad. But, as with all things, we must exercise caution and discernment.

These days, with the rise of the occult, there seems to be those who distinguish “good witches” from “bad witches.” While movies such as the Wizard of Oz and many fairy tales also have these characters in their plots, I want to distinguish here between literary/cultural figures of protagonists/antagonists in creative expressions and the idea of actual “white magic” vs. “black magic.” The term “magic” is also being used quite often these days. As with the hi-jacking of many terms that 20 to 50 to 100 years ago had other connotations, I find myself more and more walking through linguistic minefields.

Today’s cultural notion of a “good witch” in the literal sense of practitioning (using specific spells or rituals to effect/control others or to achieve some outcome, even when the person believes they are “doing good”) is unbiblical and demonic. I realize there is a fine line between the practices of folk healers that utilize amounts of herbal remedies and even cultural superstitions and that of those that intentionally invoke pagan, mystical and demonic powers to perform their “magic.”

Basically, to what purpose would a follower of Jesus need to name themselves some type of “good witch?” I can think of none. The Christian should not buy into any form of “witchcraft” by any nice-sounding name, but solely submits to Jesus and to God’s Word. The prayers and actions of Christians are guided by the indwelling Holy Spirit and are not a humanly/demonic “method” of effecting the spiritual realm or performing supernatural acts or obtaining supernatural knowledge.

In Exodus, we get a formidable account of the powers possessed by Pharoah’s “magicians.” And in the Book of Acts Chapter 16: 16-21, we have the story of Paul eventually rebuking a prophetess utilizing demonic powers (but proclaiming something “true”) that was following him and Silas around. Some commentaries say this young girl had a “spirit of divination.”

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

-Acts 16:16-21 (NIV)

The scripture is clear that there is only the Holy Spirit of God by which followers of Yahweh (Jesus) speak prophetically, discern spirits or perform miracles. Anything of similar nature done by “another spirit” or “by a human (witch)” is not of God. Scripture also says that it is only by the Holy Spirit that believers confess the Lordship of Jesus, and that there are false people even within the Church that are operating by “another spirit.”

I realize this whole realm is difficult to understand and discern (and is somewhat subjective apart from examples/descriptive patterns that scripture clearly puts forth) and we certainly don’t want to mis-ascribe the source of one’s spiritual operation. And additionally embedded in all of this is simply our fallen nature and fallible understandings of many things—errors of imperfect understandings and practices that are not in the realm of intentional malice, harm or the occult.


Again, I am trying to distinguish a certain type of intentional practice from cultural literature than includes amounts of narratives around mystical ideas. From Cinderella to Snow White to a number of creative writings and entertainment throughout the ages including folklore and moral tales such as those of The Grimm Brothers…to The Nutcracker…many famous works of art, music and literature contain these elements. I believe many of these are categorically different and, though likely influenced to a degree by human awareness of these unseen realms, they do not cross the line per se into promotion nor practices of the occult.

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In the past two years, I have been delving more into my own family/generational spiritual histories and stories, and becoming more persuaded of things I was taught–biblically–years ago, in regard to generational curses and the pronouncements that “some” word formations have, in terms of demonic power and a human crafting/intending harm to others and/or future generations.

Some name these “incantations, spells or hexes,” and I read a fascinating article on The Cursing of the Irish. And last year, I wrote this piece which addressed some of these topics BLESSING, CURSING AND THE IRISH.

It is all a difficult topic to discuss and we surely don’t want to adopt the proverbial “demon under every rock” mentality. However, there is a shocking and disturbing picture beginning to take form in my mind and observations which I believe should be brought to the attention of Christians for prayer, their protection and discernment, as well as to the attention of those who do not follow Jesus or who are currently partaking of this occult advancement. My hope is that anyone in this second category would be given the desire and ability to repent from these activities and beliefs and turn in spirit and in truth to the Jesus of the bible.

The scripture says that if we confess Jesus and call upon Him for our deliverance and salvation, and are baptized into Christ’s death on our behalf, that He is faithful and just and will cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

If we seek Him and give Him permission to take hold of our life, He promises to do so and to give us LIFE and abundant grace, love, joy, forgiveness, sanctification and that which all humans most need: salvation from our sin and freedom from the power of the evil one.

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As for the witch doctor who performed at the recent WEF assembly, I wonder to myself what the translation might be of this person’s words.

Words matter.