Superstition: “a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation;” (1998 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Ed., Definition 1a, p. 1183). “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God?" (Isaiah 8: 19 to the 1st ?). “The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich; and he addeth no sorrow with it.” (Proverbs 10: 22). “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.” (Psalm 62: 11). “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2: 17). “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1: 31, first sentence).
In America, Halloween has evolved into a fun holiday. Small children get to dress up and become their favorite characters, as they go door to door to collect treats. Experiencing the fading beauty of summer and the beginning of fall’s fruits and deliverance from the heat, we adults celebrate Halloween as another reason to party. Why? Because in modern day enlightenment, we no longer accept the ancient themes of the un-dead with other-worldly threats invisibly present to harm us; instead, in a Mardi-Gras like atmosphere, we party with joy and laughter, having no taint of the ancient, superstitious beliefs. Or so it would seem. But pause for a moment: Have you ever felt that you have a ‘dark cloud’ hanging over your head, or that you’re going through a string of bad luck? Have you wondered if something, un-named, is working in your life to keep you from being a success at your job? Have you sometimes thought that ‘bad karma’ is causing your financial losses? Are you afraid of modern day witches, voodoo, or do you think someone’s ill-will against you has somehow cursed you by causing bad things to happen to you? Well, if you’ve entertained any of these beliefs, you’re not alone. Most of us have these thoughts come to us when we seem to be living with more problems than harmony in our lives. All these mental suggestions are tied to the same, ancient beliefs that created Halloween. More precisely, these are the same beliefs that assaulted the ancient Celts, Romans, and other civilizations on the occasions when good seemed to be absent and evil seemed to prosper in their lives. When the end of summer came to the ancients (and when the time of harvest had the more negative connotation of things dying) superstitions about the dead rising on October 31st created the first theme of Halloween. Oddly, in ancient times, collective beliefs of the dead took more of a dark turn, where the dead were considered to be evil, rather than good spirits. Thus, representing the last day of summer, October 31st (or its ancient equivalent) was considered to be the last day of the year for the dark spirits and other-worldly entities to afflict the living. Masks and costumes were probably used to chase away the dark spirits; no doubt, that’s why some of them looked so fierce. But while more festive now, the masks and costumes are still present at Halloween time; and the fears of unseen forces of evil still linger within us. These subtle fears are still present with us because of our wider belief in evil as a power, having its source in a supernatural entity we call the devil. And that’s the crux of the matter: we entertain these superstitious thoughts of evil’s power, because we still believe that good has its opposite—that God has Its devil. Thus, we believe in two ultimate powers, not one. The danger of this has always been, that as children of Creative Mind, God, we are able to manifest into our human experience, whatever we deep-down believe. Thus, in the human dream of the knowledge of good and evil, we all manifest both good and evil forms, and manifestations, which have produced a world where, collectively, a mortal, material, false sense of existence has become the illusion of reality. Material existence is always an illusion of being, for our kingdom is not of this world. Our kingdom is still the spiritual kingdom of God, which is invisible to the material senses, or physical perception. Christ Jesus preached of this invisible kingdom of God during his ministry on earth. He was not only trying to reconnect every individual to his and her spiritual identity and immortality, but he was also trying to show us where we really dwell—within the everlastingly good Kingdom of God—still present all around us, but unperceived by physical sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste. To show that by relying on this spiritual kingdom, always with us, we could heal the discords of the false, material sense of things, Jesus once said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” (John 14: 12). Thus, he showed us that we can call upon our real home, the ever-present spiritual kingdom, governed forever by the love and goodness of God as the only power—the calling of which breaks through the material seeming illusion of a life and body, separated from God’s Omnipotence, and corrects this illusion with what is called healing. The material illusion doesn’t disappear, but the evils that seem to afflict us do. That’s because, evil has no existence anywhere…not even where we perceive it materially. Now, there is so much more in the Bible than the history and healings of mortal existence. But these beginnings are also wise to explore. (They answer, What is this miserable life experience we’re going through all about?) For example, in the allegory of the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 2: 17 quotation at top of article) we are advised, from the start, not to entertain the belief in two dueling powers—good and evil. This is a divine directive to mankind throughout time. It applies today, as well as the past and the future. It is a directive to our consciousness, and all the things we pick up from worldly thought and dump into our personal beliefs systems. It is telling us that there are not two powers, good and evil. It is telling us that, to believe so will bring us to a sense of mortality (death) and its experience. Good alone is real; evil is nothing but a belief in the absence of some good. God is infinite Spirit, the only Creator; God’s spiritual creation of everlasting good is the only creation. Matter and mortality exist only in the collective beliefs of humanity—and collectively, with this system or that, we attempt to fight the evils we’ve collectively created humanly, due to our own sense of personal powers. God never created a devil to trouble or destroy Its eternal creation. Our true identities have never been anything but spiritually good and immortal. But we are mental creatures. Here on this human level of belief (where both good and evil is accepted as powers) we are mentally breaking this all-important directive from divine Intelligence to avoid this erroneous ‘knowledge’. The result is that this acceptance of two powers is not knowledge at all; rather, it is a false sense of reality which produces, in our earthly dream, material conditions of lack of good (evil) including finite, mortal body forms, subject to lack of health and lack of life (death). Thus, we seem to have become finite, material rather than spiritual beings—mortal, or temporary beings, rather than immortal, spiritual creatures. To lift our heads above the illusion we’re participating in, we must individually destroy, in our own thinking, the belief in a power opposed to God, and a belief in a creation apart from God. Then the human sense of bodies, minds, and situations transform to more correctly express the divine wholeness and goodness of all creation. These body forms won’t disappear from spiritual healing, until one awakens completely, as Jesus did in the ascension; but the physical will transform to more perfectly express the innate wholeness and health of our true being. So, getting back to evil spells, curses, and bad luck, here is one time I dealt with the threat of a curse:
In dealing with dark mental influences, the principle thing to understand is the omnipresence and omnipotence of God. God is the only power. Personal power is always an illusion. There are no evil personalities in creation; each and every identity, in one’s true, spiritual selfhood, is an individual image and likeness of God. In this human, earthly experience, we’ve forgotten our immortal spiritual selves; but that becomes of no importance when we remember that our true self is still within us, and still who we are. This is the universal Christ self that Jesus presented to the world. We are always free to know the spiritual Truth of things, which is invisibly present, right where the material symbol of some thing, or some one, is making a physical appearance. All of creation shares in the power of God, to adjust the human scenario back to good whenever and wherever it declares that a kingdom and power of evil (lack of good) exists. God is not absent from any place. God’s laws of immortal good are not absent from anyone or any place. Since the power of God is the only Cause of any real effect, we all have access to this power, through the correcting of human thought in evil to the spiritual reality of good only. Then, what seems to have been absent reappears, be it health, safety, supply, or universal love. If feeling fear about some supernatural, evil power over your well-being, remember that where belief in God’s loving care and harmless creation exists, all spells, curses, and bad luck evaporate into the nothingness from which they sprang. For, the perception of God, Spirit, as all-in-all becomes the light that drives the darkness away, in the knowing that anyone can curse who they believe us to be—but no one, and no thing, can curse God’s kingdom on earth, where we really stand, safe and strong.
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