I have criticized various exorcists over the years here on Augoeides for their weird ideas about magick and especially demons. I do understand that if you have gone through years of training to expel possessing spirits, that's going to be your hammer and everything is going to look like a nail. But still, people sometimes get the idea that exorcists work with spirits so they must know what they're talking about, when that's not true at all. Exorcists are trained in one specific magical ritual that has a single specific function, and that knowledge is not very applicable to regular life - or even magick in general.
Spirit possession is weird and rare, with a sample size so small that it's hard to see why it happens when it does. But exorcists think they know - it's celebrating Halloween, or dressing in black, or doing yoga stretches or just generally not being a devout traditional Christian. Or in this particular case, it's popular music. According to exorcist Father Dan Reehil, Taylor Swift concerts should be avoided because the pop star is summoning demons on her latest tour.
Reehil says those who practice witchcraft "harness energy or they try to harness energy, and they look at the Earth with the elements of water, fire, Earth, and sky. They believe that they can harness this energy in some ways to do good and in some ways to do evil."
So far so good. Magick does use the powers of the elements, also planets and signs, as a technology to influence the world, and it can be used to help or to harm depending on the intent of the practitioner
"The problem with the concert is that whether Taylor knew she was trying to imitate witches or in fact was doing some kind of a cult ceremony during the show is sort of irrelevant to the demons," Father Reehil continues.
"She is an incredibly talented and influential artist. And so the demons will take deep note of what she's doing and how she's doing it and who she's influencing. So when they imitate these rituals with these orbs and these black capes, that looks like something you'd find in the woods.
"Even if her intent was not to practice any witchcraft or do any of the incantations, she is probably attracting a lot of demons to her concerts.
But then all this is completely nuts. Conjuring demons involves specific procedures and specific implements, and those implements usually need to be consecrated for that purpose. It also involves the intent of the magician. While it is true that some practitioners go overboard with this and insist intent is all that matters, it is nonetheless the case that a magical operation won't work without it. You can't just mechnically imitate a few pieces of a magical ritual and expect anything to happen.
Carrying around an orb or wearing a black cape is not spellcasting, and it doesn't do anything on its own. You actually have to work the magick with some sort of goal in mind to get any sort of result. As Aleister Crowley put it, every intentional act is a magical act. This is a broad definition for a reason, and Crowley explained in Book Four using a mundane example. But he also clarifies in Magick Without Tears that it does involve working - intentionally - with what we call paranormal forces today.
"That's where the problem can lie because then you have these little girls who you know literally sort of worship her who are now putting themselves in a position where they could be attacked by demonic forces.
"So not saying that's going to happen to everybody, but you're definitely putting yourself in a very dangerous situation if you're going to a concert where there's somebody who's imitating or even practicing the art of witchcraft. I would say don't do it. Skip the concert."
I have been advocating for basic magick literacy among the general population for a long time, practitioners and non-practitioners alike. One of the big reasons for that is folks like this. They have this idea that magick is some sort of mechanical thing that you can stumble into by accident just by interacting with "spooky" things. The bottom line is that a lot of these folks just want to control people - especially girls - and keep them away from things they happen to like.
This includes everything from fearing cheesy Halloween decorations to thinking "backwards Satanic messages" in music have any effect on people at all. The backwards thing has been tested numerous times with no results. Even the famous claim that flashing a "subliminal" image of Coca-Cola and popcorn during a movie increased concession sales turned out to be a complete fraud made up by marketing consultant James Vicary in 1957.
You are under no more danger from spirits at a "spooky" concert than you are walking down the street. A lot of new practitioners are surprised by this - their psychic senses start to "wake up" and they suddenly realize that spirits are everywhere all the time. They aren't generally "demons" in the Christian sense and most of them are benign. Hostile ones also exist, but they aren't especially drawn to "spooky" things and you can encounter them anywhere.
This gets even more obvious when you delve into the metaphysics of magick. Spirits - all spirits - are non-local in their native forms. So in effect, they are everywhere all at once, more like a wavelength propagating through the universe than a convention being occupying a specific time and place. They manifest locally when a magician conjures them, but to be clear, you don't conjure spirits accidentally. It has to be done with intent, and it works best if done with precision.
I am not trying to argue that spirit possession can't happen. but it's a matter of relative risk and spirit possession is very rare. You are far more likely to die in a car accident driving to a concert like this than be possessed by a spirit at the show. Understanding that is important, and it's something a lot of people don't seem to get.
Magick is not more dangerous than anything else just because it's spooky and/or weird. For the most part it's relatively safe, and practice just opens your eyes to the paranormal forces that are acting on you all the time as you go about your daily life.
