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Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets

By Berit Kjos

April 14, 2003

NewsWithViews.com

"The magical occult practices of the ancients aren't just for the ancients. The spirits involved are eternal beings, and they are just as active today as they were a thousand years ago, as is their worship.... The toys children play with depict powerful creatures of the darkness. Now, games give explicit instruction in the rituals and methods of the occult. Indeed, gaming tournaments are prime times for occultists to find 'recruits' with exceptional ability."[1] Nathan K.

"What I learned in secret is now everywhere," said Peter, a former occultist.[2]In a recent telephone conversation, he explained how today's children and youth explore occult worlds and experience magical thrills that seem harmless. The lure of secret powers -- especially when experienced through role-playing games that immerse players in mythical worlds and virtual experiences -- stir obsessive curiosity about forbidden forces. And, as they captivate their young fans, they fast erode the traditional values that built safe boundaries and brought warnings of danger.

Peter knows this all too well, for he was active in "occult work" for about 30 years. Initiated to the level of a 10o-1o, he became a Temple Master in the "Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn"[3] best known for its most infamous member, Aleister Crowley. Peter studied and mastered a number of other systems of ritual magick. [See note on the spelling of Magick]

"I did everything God considers an abomination in Deuteronomy 18� he told me.[4] Then he described the captivating power of role-playing games -- one of today's most enticing pathways to spiritual bondage.

"Are you familiar with aviation simulators?" he asked. "They simulate the inside of a cockpit in flying a plane. You can learn how to fly a plane in a flight simulator. But in a simulator there is no risk. All personal danger has been removed. When you play these occult games, you're doing the exact same thing that you would be dong in a flight simulator. No risk."

So why not try the real thing?

Many players do. "These kids are easily drawn into occult groups through [role-playing] tournaments," said Peter. "When kids transition from simulation -- when they actually experience the POWER that is available to them through the rituals they are learning to perform under the guise of 'fantasy' -- that power becomes like an addiction and they get hooked. But they don't see that."

"I could walk up to any of these teens who showed promise," he continued, "and I could put my hand on their shoulder, look them in the eye and say, 'If you get a rush from this, how would like to do it for real?' No one has ever answered no."

"Softening up" for occult revival

Why would our nation, so richly blessed by God, embrace the occult? What caused this amazing change in values? How could it happen so fast!

Actually, our nation had already been "softened up" by the 1960s when the rising rebellion against God erupted into public view. The century-old pursuit of global oneness based on Georg Hegel's occult philosophy and dialectic [consensus] process had been an effective tool for change.

Hegel's pattern for "group thinking" denied God's absolute truths and trained people to adapt to "continual change" and group consensus. By year 2000, it had been embraced by schools, corporations, community organizations, mainline churches and political structures across America. Through the global media, people around the world have caught Hegel's vision of spiritual synthesis --an enticing blend of spiritual illusions and practices that appeal to our capricious human nature.

Hegel studied alchemy, Kabbalah (also caballa, kaballa, etc.) and theosophy. He "read widely on Mesmerism, psychic phenomena, dowsing, precognition and sorcery. He publicly associated himself with known occultists.... He believed in an Earth Spirit and corresponded with colleagues about the nature of magic.... He aligned himself, informally, with 'Hermetic' societies such as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians" and embraced their symbolic systems of sacred circles, mystical triangles and astrological signs.[5]

Considering Hegel's occult connections, it's not surprising that his teachings would undermine Biblical faith and all opposing facts. Nor is it strange that the postmodern generation has been largely immunized against genuine Christianity. After all, Hegel's revolutionary dialectic process was the center-piece of Soviet brainwashing. It effectively purged God's unchanging truths and filled the vacuum with evolving "truths" and enticing dreams.

While Communist leaders embraced Hegel's process, they ignored his occult beliefs. In contrast, the Western world began to restore those pagan roots long before revolutionary baby-boomers began shouting their demands for sensual freedom and earth-centered spirituality. In other words, the sixties didn't initiate this radical change; the turmoil of the sixties was the result of the psycho-social program of "re-learning" which had begun to transform America decades earlier.

As the old moral and spiritual boundaries were torn down, the mainstream media preached tolerance and acceptance of all kinds of forbidden thrills. Before long, occult secrets emerged from their centuries-old closets and claimed their place in mainstream entertainment.

In his 1998 article titled Popular Occultism, Alexis Dolgorukii shows how the world of fantasy complemented the rise of modern and postmodern occultism:

�During the 1960's, thanks to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien... there began a tremendous public fascination with what is called �Swords and Sorcery Fantasy� and that fascination has continued and intensified to this day.... A vast number of films and computer games and arcade games echo this same preoccupation....

�[This �popular occultism� appeared during 1870-1925]... The primary �movers and shakers�... were people like Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Eliphas Levi... Rudolph Steiner, Aleister Crowley, A.E. Waite... Alice Bailey, Annie Besant....

�Whether we speak of �Theosophy�, or The Golden Dawn, or The Orderae Templi Orientalis (O.T.O.)... or any other of the truly enormous number of tiny groups all enraptured by the same glamour, what it is with which we are truly dealing is �Popular Occultism�; and it is just as much �Swords and Sorcery Fantasy� as the works of Tolkien....�[6]

Peter was associated with OTO as well as with the Golden Dawn. Founded by Aleister Crowley, its teachings -- like those of other occult 'orders' -- beckon anyone caught in the obsessive web of occult role-playing. That's why we, who trust God, need to recognize our enemy, resist his tempting strategies and know the truths that counter these deadly deceptions. The safety of our children depends on it. So,

"...be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole Armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Eph 6:10-12

Endnotes:

Magic or Magick? Peter explained his use of the word magick rather than magic. "Magick spelled with a K is the correct spelling for any magick that is occult and ritual in nature [achieved by invoking demonic forces] and is not the magic that illusionists perform on stage."

But while magic (without the final k) often refers to the tricks of illusionists, the same word is also used -- as you saw in many quotations above -- by contemporary witches, wizards and sorcerers to mean magic performed by the ritual invocation of demonic forces.

1. This message came to us in an email from a man well acquainted with occult philosophies. For his safety, we are withholding his full name, but we can forward any questions you might have to him.

2. Not his real name. For his safety, I prefer to keep him anonymous as well, but I can forward your questions to his email address.

3. "The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was an English expression of the Nineteenth-Century occult revival in Europe. Dedicated to such practices as ceremonial magic and divination, it valued these more as gateways to true understanding of reality than for their intrinsic merit." http://www.tolkiensociety.org/1992/tcc_ab09.html

4. "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire [a ritual offering to Moloch], or practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out.... You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.... the Lord your God has not appointed such for you." Deuteronomy 18:9-14

5. Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2001, pages 1-3. See excerpts.

6. http://www.parascience.org/popular.htm

Next: 
Part 2 of 3 - Pagan fantasies join the digital explosion
Part 3 of 3 - The Global Message Behind mystical thrills

� 2003 Berit Kjos - All Rights Reserved

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Berit Kjos is a widely respected researcher, writer and conference speaker. A frequent guest on national radio and television programs, Kjos has been interviewed on Point of View (Marlin Maddoux), The 700 Club, Bible Answer Man, Beverly LaHaye Live, Crosstalk and Family Radio Network. She has also been a guest on "Talk Back Live" (CNN) and other secular radio and TV networks.  Her last two books are A Twist of Faith and Brave New Schools. Kjos Ministries Web Site: http://www.crossroad.to/index.html 

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"As the old moral and spiritual boundaries were torn down, the mainstream media preached tolerance and acceptance of all kinds of forbidden thrills. Before long, occult secrets emerged from their centuries-old closets and claimed their place in mainstream entertainment."