Witches and wizards

Hallowe’en always raises questions for people about the supernatural. The following true story is worth knowing about.

Take your pick. The early autumn morning sunlight dancing with the mist of a forest of falling leaves, or a glorious rainbow arching over a mountain peak, or a golden sunset reflected in a glassy lake? From earliest childhood such scenes evoked in my heart a yearning for the magic of life — a merging of ‘God and nature’ that would fill my soul with wholeness and liberty.

Among a host of childhood memories, certain pivotal events stand out as having a distinct bearing on the dramatic course of my later life. At the age of six, kitted out in a pointed hat, cape and broomstick, I attended a Halloween party. The mystery and magic of that occasion remained with me ever after, igniting within me a desire to know more of the fascinating world of ghosts and witches. Curiously, a few years later, in my school’s end of term play, I starred as the witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I relished the role and played it well enough that ever after my classmates called me ‘witch’. Peer-labelling affected me to the point where I began to act out that role on a daily basis, unconsciously taking on that identity in my mind.

Deja-vu

I began noticing deja-vu experiences and eventually during my teenage years dabbled in the occult with friends using a homemade ouija board. In 1973, at the age of 15, I chose to do a school topic on ‘the supernatural’. Inspired by a series of articles in a Sunday newspaper, I searched my local library, returning with piles of books on ghosts, witchcraft and the occult. I was impressed. A new world opened before my eyes. It gripped me and drew me in, eager to know and experience more. Around that time I bought a book on astrology at W.H. Smith’s and reading the stars quickly became an obsession with me.

White witch

At 17 I met a woman who called herself a white witch. She befriended me at a time of vulnerability due to my father’s severe illness. She found work for me and her kindness impressed me. As we became better acquainted, she began to use her psychic ability on me, telling me things about my life I felt she could not have known by natural means. On one particular visit to her house, she asked if I’d like to stay overnight. ‘Have you seen “the light” when you’ve been meditating?’ she enquired. When I replied in the negative she offered assistance. Hungry to learn anything new, I agreed to give it a try. She spoke softly as we began: ‘Imagine sunlight is rising slowly through your body slowly reaching to the top of your head’ Using ‘creative visualisation’ I felt the light spiralling around me and a warm glow filling my being. I soon became visually aware of a radiant brightness. Such experiences thrilled me, uplifting my soul and giving purpose and meaning to my life.

Further instruction

My friend taught me all about chakras — energy points apparently located at seven points in the body, beginning at the base of the spine and ending with the crown of the head. The sixth chakra (ajna), located in the forehead, is known commonly as the ‘Third Eye’. Through further meditation techniques, I was encouraged to release kundaline energy into my body to bring about oneness with the Divine. My friend told me that the ‘light’ I saw — call it spirit, chi, or just plain energy — flowed through the seven chakras, forming a bridge to God. She used a pack of tarot cards to divine my past, present and future, while training me in the arts of divination, crystal healing and various areas of psychic gifting.

A Jewish girl joined us and for four years, almost on a nightly basis, we studied the occult arts. We began drawing up astrological charts for friends. ‘Helping’ people made me feel good about myself. I had esoteric knowledge and clients trusted me implicitly. I felt loved and accepted, receiving pleasing attention from admiring friends. The way also opened up for some media work, which, in turn, brought pop stars and celebrities to our door in search of their futures.

Becoming a medium

I attended classes on ‘spirit guides’ and was introduced to entities claiming to be from North America and Medo-Persia. I developed as a medium and was convinced that I could see the deceased relatives of my clients. One day I asked my spirit guide to take me to heaven, which led to a vivid spiritual experience in which I saw a beautiful city in the distance, and two beautiful human-like angels standing looking at me. After this encounter I decided to switch from spirit guides to angels, I read all the ‘angel books’ I could find. Their purity attracted me as I searched for heavenly love and cleansing.

Behind the scenes

All continued serenely for more than a decade. But at the age of 33, my life fell apart. My partner to whom I was engaged, left me for another woman. My fashion, music and advertising agency collapsed. Overwhelmed, I sought relief from my anguish and pain through my angels, crystals, self-help books and yoga. Nothing seemed to work. One day, lying on my bed in deep emotional pain, I called out to God: ‘Father God in heaven, I know that you’re there and that you can take me to heaven right now. I’m in so much pain and I know it’s not your will for me to take my own life. So either take me to heaven or save me’.

Why I prayed that prayer I cannot say. Perhaps the low point in my life brought back memories of my parents and the Bible class I had attended as a child. I did not become a Christian at that point, but God was at work behind the scenes.

As I lay there thinking, my mother telephoned to say that I should read Psalm 40. She had never suggested anything like this in my entire life. I dug out my childhood Bible — from among the shelves of books on the occult — and this (in part) is what I found:

I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust,
Who does not look to the proud, those who turn aside to false gods . . .
Do not withhold your mercy from me, O Lord;
May your love and truth always protect me.
For troubles without number surround me;
My sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs on my head,
And my heart fails within me.
Be pleased, O Lord, to save me;
O Lord, come quickly to help me.

How those verses touched me! For days I earnestly read the Bible, praying and crying to God. I knew I needed to attend a church meeting and hear the Word of God preached, but I could not face it. Then I saw some meetings advertised in London near where I lived, and, plucking up my courage, I went. The preacher spoke about a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn’t what I expected. ‘Church’ to me was ‘religion’ — a system of rules and regulations — but how could a sinner like me ever keep it up?

God’s mercy

Listening further, I quickly realised that I did not deserve God’s mercy. My sins deserved the punishment of God in hell. My heart was broken and repentant; I was desperate for forgiveness and cleansing. I wanted to be saved from my sinful life and ungodly habits. When I heard that my Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, had loved me so much that he had died for my sins on the cross, taking all the punishment I deserved on himself, his love melted my heart. That day I repented of all my occult involvement, sin and rebellion against God, and put my trust in Christ alone as Lord and Saviour. Later I gathered together all my occult paraphernalia and burnt it (much to the amazement of my neighbours!).

The Lord saved me from the penalty, power and love of sin. He set me free from Satan’s grip and gave me a whole new life with which to serve him. Through the Lord Jesus I have experienced true joy, real peace and unfailing unselfish love. My guilty conscience has been cleared and my future is secure through the once-for-all perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead three days later.

The lamp of the body

As I look back, I see the frightening ease with which I was caught in a web of deception. Evil powers posing as ‘positive energies’ or highly evolved and beneficial beings, had lured me into the forbidden world of the occult. What I thought was light, actually turned out to be darkness. I found the Bible addressed this issue: ‘See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness‘ (Luke 11.35), ‘… for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve’ (1 Corinthians 11.14-15), ‘Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter’ (Isaiah 5.20).

It took me two years of walking with the Lord to free my mind of the false ideas and influences of my 17-year involvement in witchcraft. Today I rejoice in my wonderful Saviour, Jesus Christ, who has blessed me in so many ways and who has become ‘my light and my salvation’ (Psalm 27.10).

This is a chapter from Witches and Wizards — Five witches find eternal wisdom, a booklet published by Penfold Books (PO Box 26, Bicester, OX26 4GL, 01869 249574, http://www.penfoldbooks.com), at £1.99, ISBN 1 900742 13 6. It is reprinted with permission.

Web of light - Rachel Williams, once a witch, tells how she came to Christ