Showing posts with label catholic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label catholic. Show all posts

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Why do people feel so confused over whether to have a Christmas tree or not?


For those who do not know me, I am Reverend Alaina Damewood, and I have been studying religions for more than eighteen years. One of my favorite areas of study is the myths around the holiday traditions.

For all who have a Christmas tree up in your house at this time of the year and have wondered how it fits into the holiday or why we use the tree to represent the birth of Christ, we must go back and look at the history and the heritage behind how our calendar was created.

The calendar we use in today’s time is based off the one created by the Catholic Church of Rome in a time period where the church was dealing with issues related to the pagans in their lifetime.
But how is that relate to our holidays? During the time period in question, the pagan traditions of the early Roman Empire had four major and four minor holidays.

The minor holidays marked the solstices for the seasonal year in celebration for being one step closer to the end of the year. The spring solstice celebrated the growth of the harvest. The summer solstice celebrated the beginning of the summer season. The fall solstice celebrated the change of summer to fall and the time of saving food for the coming winter. The winter solstice celebrated the coming of the new season. We recognize those on the calendar as the days which mark the beginning of spring, summer, fall and winter.

The major holidays were Beltine, which was celebrated for the warm weather that came from the change of spring to summer, Östra, the goddess of fertility, the time mother earth creates life from animals to people, samhine, the day of the dead or what we know as Halloween, and Yule, the end of the calendar year, also the birth and death of the oak king in winter to be reborn in the spring.

The Catholic Church of early Rome recognized the traditions of the pagans practiced in their time, and to get them to convert over to the religion of the Catholic Church, they decided to design their calendar to have the same celebrations.


The most famous example of this is Christmas, the day of Christ’s birth when Mary found out she was pregnant at the feast from the immaculate conception on December 8th. Because the Catholic church could not determine Christ’s actual birthday, they made it the same as the pagans Yule celebration and then adapt the celebration of the death and birth of the oak king for a Christian purpose. Since the burning of the log would not work for celebrating the birthday of Christ, the church stole a portion of a ceremony from the pagan faith again to represent the Norish day of the dead. 

In the same way family members would decorate their tree with ornaments to represent memories of their dead loved ones, Christmas is done the same way, except hanging the ornaments and giving presents to each other is to represent Christ’s birthday.
 

And since then, this has been the on-going tradition for the season to show respect to God’s birth and death no matter which religion you view it from. Whether you decide to put up a tree though, that is up to you. 
                                


Sunday, August 19, 2012

My first Exorcism by Rev. Alaina Damewood


Illustration in cortesy of Wikimedia Commons 
"Healing of the Demon Possessed" medieval illustration of Jesus Healing the Gerasene. 

The Following story is a true account of demonic possession and everything in it is based on what actually made me become curious and begin my studies in the occult and demonic, it made me the exorcist I am today. I am Rev. Alaina Damewood and I grew up in the small town of Princeton, West Virgina. I was in middle school at the time learning what I thought was Wicca from a friend who had been studying the occult for some time, she really was a black magic practitioner. 

We had a friend who had been studying black magic who came over for a visit to see what we where working on with meditations at a friends house in Princeton. The male friend name Derik came up and said Alaina some strange things have been happening to me I think I am possessed by something and I want it out of me and I am leaving the coven I am done with black magic and quitting. I turned and looked at Derik and asked him how can I help you Derik? He said Alaina can you remove it from me. I looked at Derik and said we can try. So I had my friends Jenn and Megan form a salt circle in the middle of the down stairs basement so we could start the ritual to try to remove the demon from Derik. 

When we all started to call the elements while standing in a circle surrounding Derik. I put holy water that I carried on me from the catholic church on his head. The girls and I began to chant louder and louder to the elements of earth, air, fire, water and spiritual beginning. Derik looked up at me and said you are not a exorcist while having a demonic sounding laugh and said you can not cast me out of him. I looked at the spirit and said in the name of god the father god the son and the holy spirit I have the rite to get rid of you, it laughed at me. I grabbed the holy oil out of my left pocket put it on my hands and continued to pray to god and the goddess to remove the spirit from within my friend. 

The spirit in him looked at me while I was praying and said oh it is you and I am in trouble. Please forgive me for what I have done to your friend. I said you know the consequences of your actions in the other plain and I am sending you back to the hell you came from. I put my hands on Derik's forehead and said in the name of all things good be gone. Just then I felt a coldness come through the air, the girls fell to the ground leaving only me and Derik in the circle of salt . He woke up out of the trance and said Alaina where am I how did I get here what is the day I said Derik it is Thursday and we are at Jenn's house do you not remember?  He looked and said no, I do not, but thanks for what ever you did, I feel much better. 

It has been over 18 years since this took place at my friends house in Princeton WV.  My friend Derik is now a Christan minster and I am now a licensed exorcist for the order of Saint Michel and the order Saint Benedict for the reformed catholic church. I am also a certified minster in the states of WV and VA and I also am a registered Wiccan clergy and believe that both the goddess and the Christian god can save peoples lives from demonic forces. I sometimes look back and remember that I saved my friend's life that day and he is now a stronger person for it. 

As for dealing with the difference between black and white magic there are several signs any one can use to tell if someone is practicing black magic . The first is that if you feel a harmful energy surrounding the person, Second is demonic spirits give off smells of unpleasant odors and some people even get sick or mad when the person walks into the room. The first tell of a good person who practices white magic is the factor you will feel completely relaxed around the person and in some cases you will feel your stresses and issues of the day go away when talking to them. 

People like my self who practiced Wicca do prayers just like Christians to help heal people Wiccans believe in the three fold law and that if we do bad it comes back to us three folds once while we are alive , once when we die and once in the next life if we are forced to come back to earth. We pray to the goddess or mother earth to help heal all who need healing. As a exorcist, I use these tools to identify if a spirit is good or bad every time I go to do a case on people who claim to be possessed by demonic forces. I believe my experiences as a child and studying other faiths has made me a strong reformed catholic exorcist. 

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Possession

Illustration of Paranoia and Despair
"And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why ye hear him?" -John 10:20

This entry was sent to the Paranormal Corner by Jose Prado, a reader of our blog and often a contributor. It details the case of an Ohio woman named  Mary, a 40 year old woman who suffered from mental disease and possession by demons. Part of this was described in the earlier entry by Jose titled, "Mary and the Quija Board". The following is his narration of the events which took place three years ago. 

In the modern century, belief in spirits of any kind much less the demonic variety has been systematically wiped out. After all, with all these fanatics around the country engaging in 'spiritual warfare' which is really nothing more than a rally cry to harm non-Christians why would anyone believe in them? Many think God/Gods have abandoned humans. For one woman, a woman old enough to have been my mother, Godforsaken had a special meaning. Mary, who was in her early 40's came from a large family and was subjected to sexual abuse in her childhood. it was around this time she began to perceive a large, dark, man-shaped shadow standing at the foot of her bed. 

Mary chalked it up to her imagination and would ignore it for most of her life.  In her College years, she began to seriously study Wicca and this way try to achieve some level of spiritual calm and peace. But one night some of her college friends and herself decided it would be fun to indulge in a Ouija Board session. This session opened up a spiritual gate and allowed spirits unlimited access to her body. From That time on her mental and emotional trauma sky rocked. Mary believed it was merely her condition worsening and sought professional help. 

Mary was so used to seeing nightmarish images hat she had learned to live with them and her fear. But now what she started seeing in her waking hours and experiencing in her sleep at night was so frightening that it made her earlier psychotic visions seem like pleasant dreams in comparison. She saw strange entities which surrounded her all the time. At first there was just one, her main tormentor who identified himself as Icobad Issac. He constantly mocked her, telling her she "was a crazy bitch whom no one would believe in much less listen to" and many other obscenities that are much to graphic to detail. 

Mary still had some measure of control and fought on for improvement. She married and converted to Catholicism to please her husband. She cut off many ties with her Wiccan friends to please him. She tried her best to adapt to her new religion and to be a good wife. Needless to say, it got worse. 

The demons began messing with her speech, making her speak in Latin, (speaking in tongues is common with demonic cases and is also known as Xenoglossy) and her paranoia grew to such an extent that no one would believe her. The demonic infestation progressed until they could fully control her body. They would make Mary take a knife and carve a cross on her wrist causing massive blood loss and then on another occasion make her carve an inverted cross on her other wrist. 

Sleep was Hell in itself. Sometimes the demons would sit on her chest at night suffocating her using psychic paralysis (phantomania) literally knocking the wind out of her. The doctors gave her stronger doses of medication and when that did not work, he suggested to place Mary in an institution many times. 

Mary's husband was skeptical to her claims of possession and attributed it to her being unbalanced. Then she started doing things that were odd even for a disturbed individual, things that to this day I have no knowledge of. But to convince someone that was sceptical that something was going on, it must have been a dozy. He realized something other than condition was at work here. so he swallowed his skepticism and went tot he Catholic church he belonged to and told them everything.

Listening to all that Mary had endured, the priests suspected she was the victim of Demonic possession. However they covered their basis first by getting in touch with Mary's doctors making sure if there was not a more scientific explanation for the phenomenon. There were still things however the doctors could not account for. I do not know how they began the Exorcisms, but eventually they were organized into tag teams of priests performing the holy rite. In one of these Exorcism, the lead Priest asked the entities in Latin what their names were. She spoke 13 names including Icobad Issac. She became so fluently in Latin that she knew how to read, write and speak it as easily as English. 

The Exorcisms would keep the spirits away for months only to resurface yet again. Mary's behavior would improve during these intervals when they were gone. Then when the demons returned it would start all over again. Making this into a routine repeated every few months. Mary questioned what little sanity she had left and then the spirits started telling her to kill herself. Mary considered this many times. One of the women in the church told Mary that she would go to Hell if she killed herself which only made her feel even worse. 

On Myspace I had a profile that I used for Role Play Games (RPG) but my RP  profile was also a profile I used to talk about and write articles on religion, politics and the occult. I became popular on there for my articles and a fellow role player talked to me about Mary, she sent me her profile link to speak to me directly. At the time I was not yet an Exorcist and it would be months later in the middle of another ghastly situation involving demons that I performed an Exorcism using what I had learned to drive away spirits harming a young girl. 

When Mary came to me I was stumped and spoke to a friend and mentor of mine, he told me of the Ouija Board's origins. That it was a spiritual tool used by Ascended Masters in Asia which worked by opening internal spirit portals in the users. Only the Masters were supposed to use and even then they always had attendants there to help them. I knew I was not prepared to handle this situation, so I gave Mary his number and he performed a Remote Exorcism over the phone, a technique he later passed on to me. (See Remote Exorcism another case with Jose Prado) He pulled the entities out of her body and into himself and then expelled them out and sent them to The Universe. 

My Mentor instructed her to light a white candle but all she had was, Sage, a powerful herb that would work even better. He told her to burn it and visualize a door closing, This was representing the portal. Then once closed he told her to seal it shut by visualizing that she barred it close with a red sword. Mary did as she was told and enjoyed a longer period of time being demon free. The Priests of the church believed she would no longer be afflicted, but the spirits returned, broke their way through the magic seal my mentor had placed there, and took possession of her body once more. 

Now they were even more angry and aggressive than ever before. Because of the distance, my mentor was not able to close the portal door all the way, only place a seal on it. She became worse over night and called me for help. At this point it was almost a year later and I had advanced in my training as a Mage and had since become an Exorcist. The catholic priests had abandoned her and tried to avoid her at every turn. Even the other Church goers abandoned her. My mentor could have tried again but he began to doubt himself and his abilities. I was his last possible resource, and I was not going to accept failure as an option.  

I defied the magical limits given me. Whenever my teachers said it can not be done I asked "Why not?" I experimented with different kinds of magicks and even combined them in mixtures till I achieved the results I wanted. As a Gnostic I am a type of Pagan that believes in all religions from Christianity and Voodoo to the Native American Religions and Wicca. I used the combined powers to get improved results. I especially learned how to cast spells across long distances and was proficient with High Magick (Ceremonial Magick that uses the powers of The Universe).  

I was originally planning to do the Exorcism with two other Witches at the time but the demons prevented them from being available for the Remote Exorcism. They began messing with my phone on a peaceful night with no storms or winds to screw up the signal. I knew I had to act fast or I would not be able to help poor Mary, so I began invoking the most ancient pronunciation of God's name. YHVH pronounced YAH-Hey-VAH-Hey Adonai (Lord in Hebrew) all together the name is Yahweh Lord or Jehovah Lord. From the moment I began to sing out his name. (Hebrew spells and chants are often sung since it believed by Catholics and Jews alike that God loves music so much a prayer will be heard from twice as fast if sung.)  

Mary's voice became deeper and she started growling like a rabid animal on the phone. I had performed a parelization spell to keep the spirits from fully controlling her body and to prevent them from hanging up the phone or hurting Mary, or her husband. I knew I could not turn back now. I said nothing to Mary in order not to alarm her but I got the feeling if I had waited to do this some other night I was going to wake up to a news report of her killing her husband and possibly herself. I called on a Heavenly water fall to flow from the sky and wash over Mary and her home, to cleanse all the darkness away. Within minutes the growling stopped and she said she had felt a calm and soothing energy upon her. When the water stopped flowing I knew it had weakened the Demons enough to render their powers ineffective.

Then I was wondering, how in the Hell was I going to proceed now? Before this, the other Exorcisms I had done were with spirits that were not attached to bodies. So it was easier in the sense that they had nothing to hold on to. But this time they had a prisoner. And Exorcisms that use force can take a toll on a person's body. Then it hit me. I would use a trap. Witches often use sacred symbols such as runes and segils to trap spirits or protect themselves from harm. 

In Western High Magick, spirits are usually bound in Magick Triangles with the Three Names of God in ancient Hebrew written outside the Three Corners (Solomon's Triangle). But instead of drawing physical symbols I drew with energy. I used a powerful visualization combined with the Invocation of Yahweh I used in the beginning, placed a powerful binding seal on her body that would only affect demons. Once this was in place I asked her to leave the spot she was standing in. This  let her move away while the demons were bound to the spot. 

Mary said she felt lighter. I asked her to call on her higher self to see if those were the only demons left. She said no. We repeated it and Four more were bound to another spot. Then we did this for a third time and the last three, including Icobad were finally out. What I saw in my mind was frightening and disgusting at the same time. Disgusting because the thought of these things having been inside of her was sickening. They each looked like huge, muscular, gargoyle-like creatures. Their upper bodies were wider and more muscular than their lower bodies and they had huge pelican like beaks. Red and black with a touch of green scales. 

When they were finally expelled the other witches called on the other line because power at both of their homes were down (one lived in Miami and the other one in a different state.) and both their cell phones were dead and refused to charge. One of them who was also a Seer later told me how she saw the demons in her mind and except for the green of their scales it coincided with what I saw. Icobad in one last act of defiance threatened one of the other Witches saying "he would tear out her tongue and shove it into her P****". We combined our powers and sent them bound in chains to the Goddess Nemesis, the Divine Goddess of wrath (Zeus' Right hand) for punishment. 

Then using a spell of Hecate the crossroads Goddess we ordered the spirit portal to be sealed shut for good. Mary said she could feel it physically close. The portal had been over her stomach. It has now been three years and Mary has never had trouble with demons and possessions ever again.  

I hear from Mary every once in a while and her husband as well. Mary started practicing Wicca again as she now sees Catholics as hypocrites because they gave up on her. I told her all faiths are one and to consider studying Catholicism with Wicca for better spiritual results. Mary still of course has her mental illness, but they now have her on less medication and no longer seek to hospitalize her. She is also looking into natural medicines and working hard to improve herself and her life. 

When I first met her I thought she was crazy. Mary openly told me that she had mental problems but one thing always stood out beyond all the incredulous things she sold me: "I know I'm crazy but I'm telling you something else is going on here too. Just tell me I'm crazy and I'll let them lock me up and throw away the key!" A crazy person who admit they are delusional and actually would rather thing they are crazy than possessed? I have never heard of such a thing. Mary was in her early 40's when this happened and had been possessed since she was 18. This poor woman had almost no one to help her much less believe in her for all those years. Friends and family included. It makes me wonder sometimes. Out of all those unbalanced individuals, how many are really possessed with no one to believe in them? I would rather not think about that. However, maybe that is the problem.  

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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Mary and The Quija Bord by Jose Prado


I performed an Exorcism for a woman named Mary who was experiencing Xenoglossy. She already had a dark entity tormenting her but it became stronger and received access to her body once she fooled around with a Quija board when she was 18. She sought me out when she was 40 asking for help because the Priests from her Church could not drive them away for long.

In Latin, they asked the Demon what its name was and in Latin she replied with 13 different names. The main entity identified itself as Icabod Issac (She said Icabod meant 'the glory is gone' and Issac meant 'laughter' I looked up the meaning of both names and it was correct.) she could also speak and write Latin without any formal knowledge of it, this ability left immediately afterwards.

She used to be a Wiccan but converted to Catholicism to please her Husband. Because modern day Christians are so fanatical, they banned her from receiving any out side help from mystics. The result being that they could not properly diagnose the problem all the way. At some point she actually said they had tag team Exorcisms for her because one Priest wasn't enough, the said Priests eventually gave up and even started avoiding her. Mary even reached out to local paranormal investigators which only spoke to her a few times and did not anything to help. Mary had suffered mental problems in the past so they shrugged her of as being insane and thus unable to help her in the first place, ignoring the fact that she was experiencing xenoglossy, making her  speak and write Latin fluently and psychic paralyzation, phantomania, which all pointed to being something more than just another insane lady.

After the exorcism her live changed totally, she lost the ability to read, write and speak Latin, her desire of self mutilation and suicidal tendencies went away, there were no more shadows at the foot of her bed and the phantomania also stopped.

Quija aka Ouija boards open spirit portals in a person's body. The original Boards called Talking Boards, Spirit Boards, or Planchette Boards, were used only by Spiritual Masters in Asia. No one outside of these Masters should attempt to use such a board.

The Quija board is a knock off version of the original board which had protections for the Master. Such as a filter so only specific or individual kinds of spirits could be summoned. Another was that the spirit portal could be sealed by the Master once their business with the spirit was concluded. The Quija board which was created by two American businessmen who based it off the Spirit Board from Asia, has no such protections. Any and all spirits both mortal and immortal alike can freely enter the person who is using it, sometimes even entering people that are just around those using it.

The possessed also often speak their native language in reverse or just speak in complete gibberish. Once I expelled all of those spirits from Mary, I sealed off the portal. I didn't believe her at first because she openly admitted to having a mental condition and trauma as a child. But when I was able to verify that she was speaking Latin and that no one who knew her had ever heard of her or had known her to speak Latin I started to suspect something was fishy. When she told me of her dealings with the Quija board I knew right away what was happening.

For full depth into the case of The Possession of Mary read the entry "Possession"

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Remember to check out our Paranormal Corner Online Store and if you have story you would like us to look into for posting in our blog contact us at waikikiblogboi@gmail.com
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