Ask a Christian Witch: Egregores of Countries, Slavery in the Bible, and Seeing Other POVs About Witchcraft
- Sara Raztresen
- 18 hours ago
- 15 min read
It's Q&A time again already!
One comment I got about this book that just made me giddy was this one on TikTok:
Loving the "Interior Castle" theme of Discerning [Christian Witchcraft]; the Mystic & Witch story is beautifully done & knits well into the theme. BIG thumbs up for both books.
Yes, you read that right: there is a story involved in this book. A parable, if you will, about the Mystic and the Witch, that illustrates the ways in which these two archetypes really aren't nearly so far away as people think. If you like your mystical reading told to you in story, this is a solid book to look into.
But now, while I know today is technically April, we should wrap up March with a few questions. Remember: if you have any questions, all you have to do is check out this Google Form right here and fill it out with your question!
Let's get into all this good conversation!
How Do I Know God is Talking to Me (vs. Another Spirit)?
How do I know the Christian God is talking to me through someone or if it's an egregore? I have a Christian family and at some point in 2023 I turned Christian as well, but they are very homophobic and very against other religions and stuff, and they call all those things demonic, and honestly, I don't feel safe around them.
My older sister seems to know a lot about me and calls me out on things I've never spoke to her about, and she says that when she does that, it's not her but the Holy Spirit. My Christian journey has been really messy because I'm somewhere where I don't feel accepted for who I truly am. I need guidance; I don't know what to do. —Anonymous
Hi, there!
First of all, let me say: I'm so sorry you're dealing with family that don't accept you for who you are and who say these kinds of horrible things about other people. Nobody should have to learn that the family that's supposed to be there for them can also be so cruel.
That said, there are plenty of spirits that can know things about you that you haven't told people. Just take a look at the book of Acts. In Acts 16:16-18, Paul actually casts a "spirit of divination" out of a girl because she won't stop shouting after him in the street:
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.
Notice something, though: she's telling the truth! What she's saying here is correct, even though it's coming from a spirit that has nothing to do with God. Had she not run around and caused Paul all this grief, who knows? He might not have bothered getting rid of it. But he did get rid of it, and he invoked Jesus's name to do so.
My general litmus test for whether something is of God is this: is the thing being said actually abiding by the commandments of the Son of God (love God, love one another)? Is it helping someone exhibit the fruits of the Holy Spirit that Paul outlines in Galatians 5:22-23 (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control)? If not, then it's likely a totally different spirit speaking.
Do You Do Tarot Readings?
Do you do tarot card readings for others? Can I pay you for one? —Abigail
Hi, Abigail!
Yes, I do tarot readings! You can find them (and all my books) in my shop. They come in the form of a PDF, where I show the cards I pulled, their traditional meaning, and my interpretation.
How Did You Decide to Become a Christian Witch?
Hey! I hope this isn’t weird, but I was hoping to reach out with a question. How did you come to decide on being a Christian Witch? I’ve been interested for a while, but it all seems overwhelming. —Summer
Hey, Summer!
Honestly, the decision happened when I was a kid, if only because I loved the idea that magic would be real in this world (as I was heavily in love with fantasy then, and I still am). However, when I kept learning about magic and spells and all these things (from admittedly very goofy sites that my eleven year old self found in the late 2000s), I eventually came to realize that this wasn't a choice so much as a natural evolution. Christianity has never been more beautiful, nor made more sense, since I've been on this path, and I really can't imagine engaging with this religion in any other way.
If it seems overwhelming, it may be because you're trying to do too many things at once. Like any subject, a good foundation is essential before moving onto the next steps. Any Christian looking to get into witchcraft should, in my opinion, familiarize themselves with the concept of energy first (which is known by many things in many religions): the Breath of Life God gave us is that animating, miraculous force that is to our spirit as our blood is to our body. Learning about that, and about the very basics of what Christianity asks of us (to love God and one another, enemy and neighbor alike, and to treat others as we want to be treated), is already a lot more to master than people think. From there, it's an equal balance of scholarship on and around the Bible and theology, as well as direct communion with God via prayer, meditation, etc. so you might learn how to develop thabt common language between you and God.
Is it Possible to Engage with the Egregore of Liberty, Justice, and America?
I have read that witches are starting to treat the Spirit of America as an egregore and are working with her to bring down the current regime. Alternatively, they are working with Lady Liberty, Lady Justice, and Columbia. I would love your thoughts on this and, if you feel inclined, to see you deity-interview her. —Anonymous
Hi, there!
That is a fascinating idea. I have often thought about how the personifications of countries (like Uncle Sam) might be egregores in their own right, but the idea of actively contacting them like this is so interesting. I can definitely see egregores for Lady Justice and Liberty as well, given they have statues so many can easily visualize and that are common stand-ins for America and its values. I also never knew that Lady Columbia was the female iteration of the Americas! I only knew of Uncle Sam.
Definitely something to consider for deity interviews! Though, boy, do those egregores have their work cut out for them against the egregores of Evangelical Christianity and white nationalism.
How Do You Deal with Claims that Christianity is a "Colonizer's Religion"?
Well, I have two questions: How did you start in your journey? I’m fairly new to your page and was wondering how you got out of the “Christianity was used for slavery and colonization and it’s a horrible religion” stuff, if you ever did? Or have people around you said that when you became a witch, and if so, how did you deal with that? I hope that makes sense; have a blessed day. —Anonymous
Hey!
Here's the thing: I understand these questions perfectly, and the reality is that when people say these things... you just gotta accept that there is some truth to them. Yes, Christianity started as the religion of the downtrodden and the oppressed, spawning out of a people who were colonized (Jewish folks in the time of the Roman empire). However, the reality is that the machine of empire ended up co-opting and misusing that religion, and since then. we've had a lot of trouble. Far more trouble than Jesus ever wanted to see come out of a faith like this. The only way to deal with that is to accept that it has been stolen and broken—and also to acknowledge that this, in itself, is a grave crime to the religion and its namesake, Jesus.
People have used every religion, everywhere, since time immemorial, to justify doing horrible things to other people. The real question is: are we, as Christians, going to keep allowing people to do this? Or are we going to wrest it back from them any way we can?
This is the reason for the title of Christian Witch: to boldly, loudly throw the religion back in the faces of those that would abuse it, and to break down the barriers of Worthy and Unworthy that Christian nationalists and other agents of empire keep trying to entrap people in.
Why is Jesus Suddenly Everywhere?
Q: Why is Jesus in everyone's mental psyche now and how do I deal with it?
Context: I was born and raised Catholic, but left when I was 15, then converted when I was 19 to Judaism as I truly didn't believe Jesus was the son of God. Then after all that I became a Jewish Omnist/Polytheist currently. In the last six months Jesus has been on the brain and I just can't shake him. I don't know how to feel after not only not believing his the son of God but also this childhood anger that after all this time, he wants to appear. It don't make any sense. —Anonymous
Hi!
Gee, it is weird that Jesus keeps appearing seemingly everywhere He isn't wanted, isn't it?
Here's the thing: the way Jesus works doesn't make sense to a lot of people. He's possibly one of the most controversial figures in religious history that has caused enough arguments to kill literally millions of people in wars and inquisitions and all kinds of other nasty stuff, because people just can't agree about who He is and what He really said (they'll always try to tell everyone what He said, though, even though all of them have a different idea). I mean, shit: the entire rest of the New Testament after Acts is basically just a million letters from a few dudes managing to complicate the shortest To-Do list known to man.
But what if maybe Jesus is coming back now because of the journey you've taken? What if you needed to grapple with these ideas about Jesus, and come to your own conclusions, before He was able to come back and have you see Him not for all the things the Catholic church says He is, but for all the things He's now trying to tell you directly that He is? Really, regardless of what you feel, if you think Jesus is on your mind because He's trying to tell you something, there's no harm in hearing a Guy out.
Think about it that way. Hearing Jesus out doesn't mean you have to suddenly change anything about what you believe. It just means that someone would like a word with you, and it's your prerogative to accept or deny that request, but there may be something interesting in the experience if you say yes and leave your expectations at the door. Jesus is likely on the psyche of so many people right now because, once again, so many people are using His name to justify the best and worst takes known to man, all at once, and creating a mess over it.
So maybe He wants to see where you stand, and give you some information while He's at it.
How Do We Square Slavery in the Bible?
I’ve really been struggling with slavery in the Bible. All the reliable Biblical scholars (Dan McClellan especially) are adamant that slavery in ancient Israel was really no better than the surrounding countries or in the turn of the century US. I see people say that God knew if He rules it out all at once that no one would follow Him because it was so engrained in society—but He made plenty of other radical sudden changes! Why wouldn’t He put a stop to slavery?
I also understand the idea that the Bible is compiled by humans, and beliefs and biases of the time get added, not necessarily by God. But then, how do we know which parts we should believe? Is it all picking and choosing? How do we justify this? Any insight on how you square all these things would be tremendously helpful. I know it’s a heavy question but I’ll take any insight I can get! —Anonymous
Hello!
Well, that's the thing, isn't it? God already changed so much stuff. In fact, He changed so much stuff that actually, the provisions for slavery in Exodus were already insanely progressive. Not to dunk on our boy Dan or anything, but the thing is, I don't think he actually said that the Bible was the same as any other culture around them regarding this; I think he knows very well that actually, the slave code in the Bible was already really controversial to people at the time.
And that's because the slave code written out in then Bible makes one distinction that other legal codes, like the Code of Hammurabi, did not: that slaves are people, regardless of whether or not they're enslaved. That's actually better than even the USA's slave codes, which said that slaves were property like chairs and dressers were, and that they only counted as 3/5ths of a person (for the sake of boosting the south's voting capacity, not because anyone believed they actually had any humanity). That's crazy. That means, if you can believe it, that USA slave laws actually went backwards and were regressive compared to Biblical slave laws.
The reality is that slavery was massively important to Bronze age rural households that were always in need of more hands for labor, and that people were quick to justify othering people and treating them as lesser for any arbitrary number of reasons (race, tribe, nation, gender, etc.). Even marriage was basically slavery in the ways that those marriage contracts shook out and with the very few rights and protections afforded to wives (especially given that those women, before Jesus's insistence, could basically be divorced for any reason, and therefore exposed to starvation, homelessness, and other terrible things). Slavery was a common fact of this era, and it stayed a common fact for literally thousands of years after. It doesn't mean it was ever right or good, but it does mean that for people who had always had these institutions, change was bound to happen extremely slowly—way slower than any of us want to stomach or accept.
God already changed the game massively in Exodus, but clearly He wasn't done changing it, as again: 2000 years later, Jesus is changing it again when He says that divorce was only allowed because Moses and the Israelites were "hard hearted" and that actually, no divorce was allowed except for adultery cases. That in itself is your answer: God didn't totally ban slavery, but did amend it, because people were hard hearted. How was He supposed to continue pushing people for progress if nobody was listening to Him and following Him to begin with? Like with certain building materials, things that can bend are less likely to break; it's easier to slowly bend things into the shape you want over time than try all at once to change the shape of things and break them in your hands.
The reality is very simple: you're following a God first conceived of in His current form in a religion that sprang up over 4,000 years ago in southwest Asia. How different were things 10 years ago? 50? 100? 250? 500? They were insanely different—even right here on the North American continent. 4000 years ago in a remote land, you're going to have radically different ideas about personhood, civil rights, etc.—and you're also going to see God slowly, but surely, inspiring people to take more and more little steps towards liberation. After all, 2000 years after Exodus, you'll get this iconic line from Paul (Galatians 3:28):
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
So you don't justify it. There was never any justifying the abuse of people. But you do have some grace and recognize that people have spent thousands of years pushing for the rights and truths we now find obvious and take for granted. You do appreciate that God never stopped trying to get us here, and that He's continuing to push us forward. Because we might also say now that there is neither trans nor cis, neither straight nor gay, neither legal nor illegal, for we are all one in Christ Jesus—but people are still struggling with the male and female line from 2000 years ago, even today.
People suck. They'll find any reason to justify sucking. What we gotta do is appreciate how patient God is in trying to get us to suck less. That's all.
Should Women Veil When Praying or Not?
I have read 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, and I became confused about women’s hair. What I’m wondering is should a woman wear a head covering during all times of prayer, both public and private? Since Paul said that a woman praying or prophesying uncovered disgraces her head (is “head” referring to the woman’s literal head, or her husband?), some say that it’s more about “the spirit of it” rather than needing a literal veil at all times, and others argue that women should veil at all times of prayer. What do you think? —Anonymous
Hi!
So, this is where the book What Paul Really Said About Women by John T. Bristow will come in handy. In essence, that book outlines all the ways in which people totally take Paul out of the specific sociopolitical context he was speaking in at the time, and one thing about stuff like we see here in 1 Corinthians is that Paul was kind of speaking out of both sides of his mouth here. He was trying to appease a lot of people who had a lot of different ideas about what was appropriate for women to wear on their heads at the time.
I personally take the view that one's hair is their veil, and I really don't think about it any more than that, because at the end of the day... Paul was just a guy.
He was just a guy, and he was a guy writing letters to specific churches that he never intended to have one day become what all Christians would treat as the infallible word of God in any way. So any ideas coming from Paul about what women should or shouldn't do in the first place should be taken with a hefty grain of salt, especially in light of the fact that it's all advice for a world that no longer even exists.
How Do I Silence the Noise in My Head About Christian Witchcraft?
I practiced witchcraft for years. Then I came back in the church as a Catholic because of the traditions. But I’m so drawn to the witchcraft, but for 20 years I did my best to fight the call of witchcraft because I’m told it’s a sin.
The other day God told me He wanted me to learn everything I could about Christine witchcraft. When I ask why, He just said “ you can’t fight what you don’t know.” Now when I was in witchcraft before it was God, the Holy Spirit I prayed to. I’m 65 and this is always on my mind. I guess I’m just asking how do I silence the noise in my head. —Anonymous
Hey!
I'll be honest: I'm not sure I understand your question. As someone who struggles with religious-based OCD myself, I have some concept of what it means for the head to be constantly inundated with "noise" of some kind, but I'm not sure if that's the kind of noise you're talking about. What I will say, though, is that the easiest way to get this noise and these anxieties that create the noise to calm down is to gather the courage to honestly investigate the thing that's causing all that anxiety.
God says He wants you to learn about witchcraft to, apparently, better understand why you shouldn't do witchcraft. Okay. What's the question, then? It seems like God gave you a clear directive and a clear reason. Do you trust Him? Or are you making needless worries over what God is asking you to just jump in and do?
I'm a Christian Witch, and I'm pretty sure I always will be. That doesn't mean I never engage with people (and engage in good faith) with folks who are against witchcraft. In fact, one of the most important things I can think to do is to actively seek out POVs you disagree with, so that you can see what they actually believe and think rather than making assumptions about what they think. Making assumptions only makes it so that you can easily win an argument against this fake version of them you create in your head (which is exactly why this type of argument is called a "straw man" argument: because it's really easy to beat up and defeat a "straw man," AKA a scarecrow. It can't attack back because it's not real).
Go learn. Go discover if all these people telling you witchcraft is a sin are being truthful or not. Go confront the thing that's causing you so much inner turmoil and see for yourself what it's really all about. That's how you stop the noise.
Does Disability Affect God's Response to Us?
Does being disabled affect how God responds to spellwork, meditation, or prayers? —Anonymous
Hi, there!
Absolutely not. There is not a single reason to assume God would answer the prayers or requests of a disabled person any less than an able bodied person. God is especially near to the broken hearted, the downtrodden, the suffering, and the oppressed, as well, so one would think that living in a world that is so keen on exacerbating the suffering of people who already struggle navigating a world unfortunately not built with them in mind, God would only be ever nearer.
Ask Your Questions!
Remember, all your questions can go to this Google form, so don't hesitate to reach out! I'm looking forward to seeing what questions people have in the future, and I hope this has been a helpful read! Thank you everyone who participated!
—Sara
Sara Raztresen is a Slovene-American writer, screenwriter, and Christian witch. Her fantasy works draw heavily on the wisdom she gathers from her own personal and spiritual experience, and her spiritual practice borrows much of the whimsy and wonder that modern society has relegated to fairy-and-folktale. Her goal is to help people regain their spiritual footing and discover God through a new (yet old) lens of mysticism.
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