Ask a Christian Witch: Letting Go of Old Beliefs, the Danger of Spirits, and Dealing with Pushy Religious Coworkers
- Sara Raztresen
- Feb 25
- 18 min read
It's Q&A time again already!
Man, I gotta say: I keep thinking about this book because it just keeps being relevant. Every time I'm going through something that feels crazy, I can suddenly go "oh yeah, that's just like X chapter..." and suddenly, I feel better about what it is.
Never wrote a book that could do that before. But Mimi and I certainly outdid ourselves with this one, and I think all of y'all will really like it if you haven't picked it up already. This thing is foundational in a way even the first wasn't, and that's big.
But now, let's jump into February 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 Let Go of My Old Beliefs?
How do I move on and let go of what has been drilled in my head for so long, so that I can move on and do what I've always known to be true? —Kyla
Hi, Kyla!
Thank you for your previous kind words, and welcome to the exciting adventure that is Christian Witchcraft! You mentioned before that you've always felt the kinds of beliefs many of us hold in this space (like animism, etc.) are things you've believed to be true for a while, so that's already a solid start—though it's understandable that your upbringing and things you were taught might still be getting in the way.
Honestly, when it comes to growing up with opposite beliefs like this, the most important thing to keep in mind is that it's not your fault that these beliefs are still in your head. It's hard to walk away from the first set of beliefs we held about the world, and in that, the two most important things you can have when walking this path are grace for yourself and curiosity.
The first is important, because it'll help make this period not so hard. To have grace with yourself is to recognize that it's okay if you find yourself scared or wondering because of old beliefs, and that you shouldn't beat yourself up for not always being able to move past them right away. And the second is important because with curiosity, rather than trying to banish or remove your old ideas, you can simply let them pop up and wonder about them. After all, have you ever explored why the people in your life raised you to believe these things? Or where they got them from?
I find that digging deeper into those beliefs and seeing where they come from help demystify them a bit, which of course helps detach from them as well. That makes it so you can much more easily go unbothered when these kinds of ideas pop up—almost like you're getting visited by old relatives or something than haunted by things you don't want to believe.
Start there, and surely over time, they'll eventually not even be a thought on most days.
How Frugal Should a Christian Be?
I've been recently thinking about frugality and being christian, especially remembering a scene in Schindler's List where the main character cries wondering if how many people he could have saved from the genocide if he spent less money on lavish things. A lot of past Saints and monks/nuns made vows of frugality or poverty so more money could be used towards the poor, the sick and the needy. To what extent is this possible in our current world? Is it a matter of personal calling, of communal context or more? —Anonymous
Hi, there!
There's an old quote from St. Ambrose: "If you have two shirts in your closet, one belongs to you, and one belongs to the man with no shirt." In essence, in this era, a Christian should've only aspired to have what they need and not a drop more; all the rest was to go to the needy, who had nothing.
This is still possible to some extent, and maybe even to a great extent, now. In a time of rampant overconsumerism, where people turn their shopping complexes into content and have rows and rows of products and makeup they'll simply never be able to use before it even goes bad, a lot can be done. Especially in America, we're constantly being sold to and convinced that we need more junk, to the point that I do think if we took an honest look at what we have and asked ourselves if we really need each and every thing we own, we might find our material wealth suddenly shrinking to match the true outer limits of our existence rather than just existing for the sake of looking at like a dragon looks at their hoard of gems.
While I don't think it's reasonable to ask people to go full St. Francis and just skip around living off nothing but the donations of others and in whatever hospitality people afford them (as the world is crazy these days and full of danger), I do think that people might instead look at what they do have and realize that they're already a lot richer than any of these men and women that took this vow of poverty, and therefore maybe stave off the wish for more that our society keeps pushing on us. Sure, I myself could have so much more than I do (as I rent a small two bedroom apartment on the absolute edge of society and still wear clothes I did in high school over ten years ago because they haven't broken yet); I rarely go out and prefer to cook at home, and when I buy something like a car, I buy one that I expect to last me at least ten years (so I've only ever had two cars in my life lol).
Still, that is so much more than so many people have, and I am blessed to have it and can't reasonably be anything other than greedy if I sit there whining and looking into the bowls of others, in my view. I love my life, and my creaky little apartment, and my old clothes, and my home cooked meals. It would not make me feel any different to have more, so there's no need for more—and I can therefore afford to spend that kind of money on others who need it more than I do. That, I think, is a reasonable mindset to have, if not St. Francis's, in today's world.
Would Jesus Have Been Born Differently in a Less Misogynistic World?
A question right in time for Christmas I think: do you think that, if Asherah hadn't been erased from religion, and if ancient societies were much fairer towards women, Jesus would have been born a different way? Let's say that in our collective minds God would have been since the beginning Father and Mother, the conditions in which Jesus came into the World, born from an unmarried virgin, would have been different ? —Anonymous
Hello!
Honestly, who knows? I've long thought that maybe if the world were better towards women, that Jesus Himself could've been a woman, or that virginity as a concept wouldn't have mattered so much. But I think Jesus came not only in a form people would listen to at the time (a Man), but specifically in a way that would also throw off people's expectations (a virgin, a woman who wasn't married yet, living in the little backwater town of Nazareth, with no money or swords or armies or crowns or anything). It's less to do with Asherah or the view of women, and the whole collective idea of hierarchy at all, that Jesus came to spit on—but even then, Jesus had to have some space in that hierarchy to be heeded at all.
Anything could've happened, honestly—but this is as far as I think about this kind of "what if?"
Is it Normal to Not Hear/See/Experience Supernatural Things?
Hi! I'm 16 and have been into Witchcraft for a little bit and now looking into being a Christian witch, I've always heard supernatural stories from other people/practitioners about seeing or hearing otherworldly things, whether it be certain deities, spirits, angels, etc. my close friends (even my dad) have their stories, but me personally have seen or heard absolutely nothing, even from when I was a kid. It does make me doubt my beliefs sometimes, is this a normal thing? —Anonymous
Hi, there!
It's totally normal, and I never want you to let anyone tell you otherwise. Let me be so clear: a lot of times, especially online, when you hear of people tell about their encounters with angels and deities and whatnot, oftentimes they are highly dramatized accounts—almost like translations of what really happened, so it makes sense to those who hear about it. I do it, too: I say "God told me X" or "God showed me Y," and it means one of three things:
Enough clues (like flashes of words, images, ideas, etc. and outside "coincidences," like certain verses, ideas, images, opportunities, etc. all showing up in rapid succession) have appeared to make me realize I'm getting a transmission
The feeling of the room I'm in or the energy around me changes (which means a room can suddenly feel "heavy," or my skin can feel lit up as if covered in the embers that pop off a candle or a burning fire)
I had a particularly vivid meditation, which, coupled with the tarot cards I pull, do actually give me a movie-like experience (but that's because I've gotten very good at meditation and visualization after doing it basically every other week for nearly 4 years now.
However, when I started out as a witch at 14, it was very hard to grasp any of these signs. They mostly came in the form of what most people would call just coincidences: I'd ask questions seemingly into the void, and then eventually, I'd see something out in the wild, like a certain book or a snatch of a radio phrase, that would stun me into paying attention. One of the most notable ones was actually when I was 17: I was in the gym, on the treadmill, just listening to music and thinking about how stressed I was being in my senior year of high school, and this particular part of Nine Inch Nails' "The Fragile" struck me like I'd been hit with a frying pan. Never heard it so crisply again, but I know that was God "talking" to me right then.
So don't worry about not having experienced anything (yet). You're still learning to speak a whole new language, mind you, and not everyone learns the same dialect of it, or learns it at the same rate. Just keep practicing your speech with God, and you'll come to understand in time.
Can Fallen Angels Still Be Guardian Angels?
Can fallen angels still be guardian angels in your opinion, since they can still carry the mask of an aspect of God? —Anonymous
Hey!
Now, this depends. I think here's a good place to share with you what the angel Seehiah told me about the concept of guardian demons recently, in our conversation together:
"I got'cha. Thank you for that. But then—you mention Berith. I gotta say, I am curious: some people say they have guardian demons, and I wonder what you think of that? Is it possible? For a demon to be a guardian? If so, how?"
6. King of Wands Reversed, Seven of Wands Reversed
Once again, Seehiah was using imagery above all. Both of these things were reversed, suggesting a "flip side" (like the flip side of the Tree of Life, the Qliphoth instead of the Sefirot), and in that, we had a king surrounded by fire, wand in hand, looking like he was shouting orders at this poor dipshit struggling to get across an unstable field of wands.
"I wouldn't call them guardians," Seehiah said with a shrug. "More like mentors. Or proctors of great tests. They might follow you, help you, even protect you—but only because if they want to do damage, it'll be done by their own hand, for worthy causes. To teach. To punish. Not simply pain for the sake of pain.
"I would call a demon who watches over someone less a guardian and more a warden. They create the prison from which they want to see you break free."
In this case, again, this is about demons, but I imagine it might be similar with fallen angels. They aren't really in the rank and file that makes guardians anymore—but that doesn't mean they cannot guard, nor that they cannot mentor. They do have other roles at this point, though. In fairness, I also don't really understand archangels as being guardians, either, because they too have specific roles (though some claim to have certain archangels as guardians).
So I guess the short answer is... I don't know! Maybe, but I personally don't see that being a part of their role or function. I could be wrong though.
How Can We Fully Connect with God in Meditation?
Sorry if this is personal, but how do you fully sit and connect with God’s presence during meditation/contemplative prayer? It’s strange but I do feel like a relationship is continuing to grow,and I do feel a peaceful presence with me, but at the same time I feel like I should be doing more, or a longing for more? Like my spirit craves more and more of God, but my mind is all over the place. Am I over-analyzing? What is this feeling? —Anonymous
Hi!
See that "should" thing needling you? Delete that. That's how you connect with God. Delete any sense of should or wish or could, and stop judging your connections with God based on a standard you can't quite articulate just yet to begin with.
The purpose of prayer and meditation is not to magically become freed of these frenzied thoughts in one sit-down, but to learn how to let that frenzy go. This can be helped along in many ways: the mantra-esque repetitions of the rosary, the mind numbing silence of before-sleep meditation, dance, any number of things that help your mind move away from the many tasks and worries and stray thoughts that come to bother it when it isn't being silenced by a flurry of work and nonsense. What matters, though, is that you learn how to get to that point, and you can only do that by exploring.
This feeling, in my experience, is the feeling you get when you finally stop trying to numb yourself with tasks, thoughts, preoccupations, and other taxing, exhausting, draining bits of life that make us feel productive. The world makes our souls drunk and dizzy, the way alcohol makes our mind feel so. By finally stepping away, and giving ourselves time to be idle, we give our souls time to get "sober" as it were and to finally speak to us. It's important that when it does, you stop to listen, and to let it move as it's been asking to move since being strapped down and drowned out by the world's many demands.
Speak to God, and let that feeling help you catch His answer. Then you'll start making a bit more progress, I think.
How to Deal with Intrusive Thoughts as a Witch?
Hello, I suffer with OCD and when I get stressed out I have negative thoughts towards a powerful witch that I have absolutely nothing against. I think my brain goes for her so that I’ll get scared that it’s going to backfire on me. I think I’m hoping for reassurance from you that since there is no negative intentions and these thoughts just pop up in my head that I will be okay? Thanks. —Anonymous
Hello!
Ooh, boy. You're certainly asking the right person. I used to have similar issues like this, as I also suffered with OCD, or "religious scruples" as it was once called. Except instead of it being some powerful witch I was threatening or insulting or whatever... it was God. You can imagine that made for a hell of a time.
I spent hours refuting the stupid thoughts that would pop up. Whenever I accidentally called God some random name or whatever, I had to say a refutation of that insult, of how I don't actually believe that, three times in my head perfectly. If I messed up even once, even just by stumbling a bit on a word, it was back to the beginning to say it three times over again. As a result of doing that for literal years, oftentimes, I still have a certain opening of a refutation stuck in my head, one that I say so fast in my head that it isn't even intelligible anymore; I just need the "mouth feel" of the first couple words, like some kind of tick, to chew on over and over again. It sounds ridiculous, but hey—that's OCD.
The only thing that took this from something that consumed all my attention, something that required me to stop everything (literally freeze up mid-conversation with people!) and sort out was when I finally grew tired of it and couldn't keep it up anymore. I looked God dead in the face and said, "listen, you know I don't mean this; you know I am mentally ill. Please don't hold it against me; help me." And then, it was like a weight was just lifted. Between all the research about God I'd done up to that point, and learning about religion, and realizing that no, God would not smite my entire family or me or whatever for what He knew was a simple sign of mental illness, it took the anxiety that the compulsion was based around away, and that made it much easier to just let the thoughts fade. Even when some random stupid thing does pop up in my head, now it's a much simpler process to move on: "Oops, sorry God, you know I don't mean that." That's all. Because the fear driving my compulsion is basically dead, and so the reason for the compulsion is basically dead, too.
(That doesn't mean the world doesn't stress me out sometimes and put me back on that tick, like it seems you got going on with this witch, but now the compulsive thoughts are less a BREAKING NEWS story taking up the whole of my brain and more a little side-scrolling banner underneath, gently rumbling away in the background. So easy to deal with that I barely even realize it's there most days now.)
The key part was addressing my fear behind the compulsion, though; in my experience, OCD is just the outer symptom of a deeper anxiety. What is triggering your anxiety? Since this is some random witch online instead of God, I'd imagine it's something to do with magic, or being perceived or attacked by others. But honestly, I'd just let the thoughts fly, then be like "lol jk; that's stress speaking" and move about your day, or even say those words into a jar and trap them there; you can make a spell out of it, where you put the thoughts in a box, basically, so they can't get out and do anything stupid, if that visualization will help.
OCD is no joke, but you got this. You're okay. Nothing's gonna happen. Just recognize that your brain's playing tricks on you and take the stakes/stress off those thoughts, if you can.
How to Deal with a Pushy Religious Coworker?
So I made the mistake of telling a (Born Again Christian) work friend that I was a Christian Witch. When she's not just giving me the cold shoulder, she's trying to "save" me. We're both being moved to different positions in January, but as of right now, we're both in Retail Hell and my religious OCD is through the roof. If you have any advice to get me through this month, I'd appreciate it, but I really just need to get this off my chest. Thank you! —Anonymous
Hi!
Man, I wish I'd seen this earlier! I hope all is well for you now, but I still wanted to address this just regarding the pushy coworkers. Thing is, though, that my advice is probably gonna suck, because anyone who knows me knows I'm an asshole.
Seriously. I don't think I've ever argued on a topic I know a lot about and ended up without other people running away from me. I just love arguing. If I were in your position, I'd get excited to have someone to basically do mental sparring with, because the thing that disarms people like this the fastest is knowledge and fact that they don't have. When they see that they can't get to you, and that all their attempts to change your mind just bounce off you like pennies off a tank, they give up a lot faster than you'd think—because then they're afraid of you poisoning their minds, and that just adds a whole extra layer of fun for me personally. I love beating on the brains of people like this the way a sea bird beats a clam on a rock.
This route will make you the villain in their eyes, but it's worth it, in my opinion. So worth it.
If you don't want to be straight evil on the job, though, then the next best thing is to just let your coworkers be icy towards you. Don't push them if they don't want to talk—but if they do talk, and it's all this type of "saving your soul" shit, then politely, but firmly, assert that you are perfectly confident in your walk with God and that while you appreciate their concern, you're fine. Set those boundaries and leave it at that. Then just ignore it any time they try to bring it up. That's really all you can do with folks who are not open to actually learning anything about this topic.
How Do I Stick to Building a Relationship with God?
I've been 'experimenting' with religion for several years now, ever since I was about 12 or 13 ish, and I have trouble with sticking with it and finding the faith within me. I keep trying to turn back to God, but I don't know how to. I've attempted converting to Islam, regular Christianity, Catholicism, etc. All of them had aspects that called out to me but then I cant connect fully. Essentially, I don't know how to make the connection to God, stick to it, and still be true to myself. Do you have any tips? —Fenyx
Hey, Fenyx!
What if the "box" you put your faith in isn't as important as the faith itself? You say all these various Abrahamic religions had pieces that made sense to you, but each one wasn't quite right. Why do you need any specific pre-set to get close to God?
To me, it sounds like you're the type of person that likes to play a game like Dark Souls on the Depraved/Waste of Skin setting (which sounds bad, but it's not, I promise). In this game series, you can choose a pre-set that guides you towards a certain play style: some have more strength than others, like warriors, while others have higher intelligence off the bat, like sorcerers. They also give you certain starting weapons and gear. No problem, if you don't mind those pre-sets and they work for you. But if you pick the Depraved option, then you start with no equipment except a club, basically, and you start at the lowest possible level, with every single stat set equally to 10.
This is awesome, because it's the closest you'll get to a blank slate, and it sets you up for going down pretty much any kind of path you'd want. You can make a mix of things: a magic-wielding warrior, a dex barbarian, any kind of stupid (yet effective) shit you can imagine that matches not the archetypes the game gives you, but the way you, specifically, play the game.
It sounds like you might wanna do that with religion, too. Rather than start in any one pre-set religion, look at the pieces you rock with from each one and assemble that "blank slate" with them. Then go directly to God and see how He wants you to deal with Him: if He wants you to be a witch, a Christian, something else—if He even wants you to see Him as a He in the first place! You never know what you'll find with the infinite, ineffable Source of all creation.
What Should One Make of "Negative" or "Demonic" Spirits?
Hey Sara! Ive been following you a while, and I'm so thankful for your presence in this sphere. Honestly, you are the only person I could think to ask this kind of question. Which is this: what do we make of demons or negative spiritual presences outside of traditional Christian teachings? My father and brother showed me some videos they have where distinct, creepy growling sounds can be heard. And while yes it could be coincidence, if it's not, where do you turn? How powerful and dangerous could spirits be? What can you do to defend yourself from negative presences? I don't know what to think or believe about stuff like this since I've left the evangelical faith, and I feel just nervous. —Jacob
Hi, Jacob!
Listen, every other folklore or religion is going to have some concept of weird spirits. What we make of them is what we make of any animal that we might see outside: could be cute, could rip our face off. It's not a question of good or evil anymore: it's a question of is this thing hungry? and would I be tasty to it? This makes me think of the first Avatar movie, with the Na'vi, where the humans are like "everything on this planet is hostile and wants to kill you," as if... Earth isn't also like that. (We've just gotten so good at taming our surroundings that we forget that, without civilization, we'd be toast in like 5 minutes when left defenseless in the woods at night.)
But think of it this way: sure, you don't want to open your door at night and go for a mail run in the middle of the night, because any creature could be out there. (I, myself, get very nervous when I have to bring laundry in late at night, because I have absolutely woken up to weird animal tracks in the snow by my front door, and I have absolutely seen coyotes literally like 3 houses down the street from me running around out here.) But once you're inside, and the door is locked, then you don't really need to worry about animals breaking in. (Then you just gotta worry about people breaking in.)
Spirits can be as dangerous as any wild animal, but they're also not really anything more to worry about than any wild animal. Keep your spiritual protections up: work on raising energy and keeping barriers between you and other things (I like to imagine a golden bubble around myself), ask your own guardians to keep you safe and keep bad things at bay, and keep your enchanted items (necklaces, holy medals, crosses, etc.) on your person if you're feeling extra nervous. Remember that there really is no such thing as varying degrees of evil with these spirits; just varying degrees of hunger and interest. And if you don't go out of your way to make the magical equivalent of a neon Burger King sign over yourself by flashing magic around carelessly or being oblivious to your surroundings and the weird feelings you might get when something comes by, then you'll be fine. Luckily, unlike wild animals, these things generally can't take a big bloody bite out of your ass like a wolf or a bear; they can mostly just spook you and drain you mentally until you break down in my experience, which you should be able to notice before things get too bad.
It's never spirits you gotta worry about. It's always the corporeal. Even my great grandmother used to say: never fear the dead. Fear the living.
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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