What's up Peeps!
Does Hive need an Exorcism? Lets find out from the experts. I know my blog goes from strange to stranger, back to normal-ish? Ah...wait...NOPE...NOT A CHANCE. This is where religion meets pop culture. The circumstances around me are weird, I associate fire set by arsonist the work of satan...Go ahead, prove me wrong. Not sure about the last fire to the big building but the 2 smaller fires were ruled arson and is under investigation. Given the number of fires and the magpie vs blue jay and whatever other screaming creature and kids in the neighborhood experienced a few days leading up to the fires, including my own kitties, does the whole neighborhood need one? Who knows. Is that what Father Amorth calls environmental demonic disturbances?
Jasper, my beloved playground is on fire, 10 000 people were forced to evacuate in the middle of the night with less than an hour's notice and even emergency personel is forced to relocate closer to Hinton, residents and tourists had to be evacuated by one road towards the small village of Valemount BC, since the other two roads were on fire. New updates says it's in serious trouble with an exploded gas station and Maligne Lodge on fire, the province is requesting Military assistance with firefighting efforts. Additional risks from the pine beetle infestation and the dry tinder it created with all the dead trees along with being in a typical dry heat wave. Sparked by lightning. I'm thankful that I have taken so many pictures including the historical Lodge and the history displayed around it. Everything as you know it can change in an instant. Does All of Alberta need an exorcism?
These days looks like the whole world probably needs one. I know I'm stretching it, but never know, no such thing as too many liberation prayers. Having lived in a basement apartment that I would equate as a portal to hell, I Believe in these paranormal superstitions more then the average. When in doubt, pick up scriptures, solve bible mysteries and pray until the weirdness goes away. Some obvious form of taking ownership of our own lives and living action based is also important...Just FYI. I'm not the sort to leave entirely everything up to God.
Does bible mysteries have to come from THE official book? Also no. Many mysteries exist outside of it too, both in our material reality in life experiences and in additional books that may have been written in...the lets say...last 2000 years along with many apocryphal texts that really don't appear as rigid and with additional background information. Obviously, you have figured out by now, if you are sensitive with your beliefs and attached either pro or against religion well you already know what to do, I don't want to offend anyone, this is where I explore religions and sacred text and anything that may associate to it my way and integrate some of it with my own life experiences and observations as I grow MY perspective on life in general.
I was born and raised into the Catholic faith via my Grand-Parents, some practices proved to be useful, some not so much. With many harmful beliefs and judgements along with many atrocious acts done to Indigenous population along with my own negative experiences, I started to see the Catholic Church as a source of demonic acts themselves. Since the age of 15 when the family circumstances went from bad to worse, the lack of help from any church but get laughed at when seeking help and advice on what to do as a 15 or 16 year old living in that messed up apartment, that was probably the straw the broke the camel's back on that one. These guys don't even believe the words that come out of their own mouths on Sunday.
I stopped practicing as in "adhering to their standards" and learned to establish my own. Although many of the practices that originated from my upbringing I still do, the ones that make sense to me but I was so young when I learned them, I didn't know what they were called officially. The fact that I originated French and have lived in English for the past 20 years pose a few barriers in religious remembrance of traditions learned in childhood or why we did them. Growing up, my Grandma had several sisters dispersed across New-Brunswick and Quebec in convents as Nuns and at least one brother that lived as a Monk in a Monastery, I have a memento that was passed down to my Uncle then passed down to me that came from him. Additional prayer protection juju. To put it into context, she had 13 siblings and most of them were officially dedicated to religious services. Poverty of the area encouraged some of these decisions as their dedications came with the necessities of life and various end of life services for comfort in the final days in exchange for their spiritual self sacrifice.
A close up of a Rosary devoted to Mother Mary, hand crafted in sterling silver and polished garnet beads. Does #silvergoldstackers need an exorcism? They now come equipped to handle stackitis too, just in case.
There is no way I would of understood what any of it all meant back then but I did go from convent to convent visiting Aunties and prayer groups until I went to foster care... consecrating objects and such. I did get a more Catholic upbringing then most, that's for sure. My experience went way beyond Sunday sermons. I mention this because a few months back, I wrote about a Magical Mary recipe that my Grandma showed me but I didn't know what it was called just how it was practiced and I was before 5 when I learned it. I asked God for a book. Then I waited and waited, played the jeopardy song a few times...(just hang tight, you will get the reference later especially if you read a few months back with apparition I used to call Bloody Mary outside my bedroom window that would give me severe nosebleeds as a child)
Naturally, with my environment feeling demon-y, perhaps it was time I revisit my Catholic roots, surely someone must have gathered demon knowledge from their own kind by now...A spy! Back to the Amazon. Turns out there was! The black swan of them all, the one that would go and turn their beliefs upside down and shake em, see what kind of demons fell out of their pockets and wrote about them. Before anyone gets offended or think I'm insensitive, Father Amorth admits, many of his exorcism were done on various high ranking officials of the church along with the public at large and that his practice was frowned upon by others making his service to humanity surrounded by controversy all thru out his career as an exorcist. HHHMMM...turns out demons don't like to be exorcised. OMG, ok I'll stop myself with the bad jokes now, I had to throw in a few tho...I have demons too. I suppose I landed on the right invisible doorstep after all.
How does one know what the rosary is devoted to? Is it a one size fits all? No. Normally, women would be devoted to Mary as their Patron and men would refer to the male Patron St-Benedict or St-Michael. Although for a male to do Mary devotionals and vice versa wouldn't be considered inappropriate either, just a matter of what type of protection and virtues one wishes to be blessed with/praying for. All have a crucifix at the end but the middle medallion is what changes depending on wich Patron assistance requested.
Who was Father Amorth to pop culture? I'm sure many of you are familiar with the Hollywood movie, THE EXORCIST with it's graphic possessions and exorcism and the violent nature of the experience including levitation, most of us would have associated as just a scary movie, meanwhile it's based on a true story and one of his most severe cases ever encountered, one where he claims, the patient actually did vomit 3 nails that materialized out of nowhere and he kept them as a reminder. He didn't want to have a movie to be famous but to educate. He thought he had some potentialy valuable information to share that the Catholic Church may have never shared on their own. Outside of the famous case that turned into a movie, he fulfilled over 60,000 exorcism appointments on thousands of patients spanning over decades of practice until his death at the graceful age of 91 in 2016 and vowed to willingly stay in purgatory and continue his practice from the grave if allowed to do so by God. He himself was recruited and trained with one of the top exorcist of his time, Father Candido, known to have a natural Charism (being able to detect & repel demonic presences to keep it simple for now).
1- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_Amorth
2- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candido_Amantini
His practice varied from mild disturbances and teaching liberation prayers in an appointment lasting just a few minutes all the way to some of the most severe exorcisms where the rites lasted for several hours of consistent prayer. He kept notes and made observations with each, no matter how big or small, they all had secrets to learn. How to detect demonic activity and to what degree efficiently. Working on different classification systems so the knowledge base can be easily understood and built upon long after he is gone.
Is the Patron devotion the only variation? Also no. The Garnet rosary is called a "5 decade" observing well, as the name suggest 50 prayers, one per bead. The blue one, is a "one decade" with a quick 10 prayer version. The initial intent to prayer bead devotion is as a prayer counter that was later fashioned into a necklace to be worn or carried for ease of access by Monks and Monasteries. The traditions was quickly adapted in Convents. St- Benedict is the Patron founder of Western monasteries and the un-official patron of exorcist where the ancient Solomonic practice was revived. Displayed on my Bison leather bound Bible in the light.
Having started the first official society related to the topic, the goal was to gather as much information as possible for the sake of such a little researched subject despite an entire religion based on it and recruit more open minded priests to grow the sect because of a shortage of services based on requests leaving some countries without any active exorcist priest to assist the requests having to perform phone exorcism in lieu. Things sounded hypocritical on the church's part to ignore the existence of supernatural dark forces with the only goal to sabotage and cause human suffering meanwhile using it's biblical references to subdue the public at large into accepting the teachings out of fear for repercussions and to restrict those seeking help from getting it legitimately. His reasoning? Refusing to observe the presence of demonic forces pretty much cancels out Jesus and his sacrifice along with his teachings as he went around crowds performing public exorcisms both against demons or diseases during his various appearances.
All of his books were originally written in Italian but later got translated because of heavy demand. His writings are not so much about the movie The Exorcist but his genuine experience as an exorcist priest while dealing with the various classifications and many personal anecdotes, simple but impactful moments shared with his mentor, Father Candido, along with his many observations as his practice progressed and his cases became many. He recognized the need to share his practice, not only with the Catholic Church vast library of knowledge but with the public at large informing about the different degrees of infestations and liberation techniques that anybody can do that can be as effective or greater than an actual exorcism and does not require special priesthood or anything but faith to perform. The "magical Maries"! Yes it's a thing for real, I'm juvenile about it because I learned it and experienced it's potential protection properties as a little kid.
#silver looks good in Jesus form too! That's the other side to the Mary medallion, both pendants in sterling silver along with the chain. The "one decade" above is from a baptism favor that I keep pinned to my bedroom door since I'm still freaked out by the crucifixes from the basement apartment from hell. Old tradition I guess.
What is the difference between an Exorcism and a Liberation? Aren't those the same thing? Nope. Different concepts that achieve the same goal. Growing up around many convents, yes we prayed to the Lord but the main deity observed is actually the Great Lady, his mother Mary, his biggest devotee...Mary the Liberator, Mary the Intercessor. Many Christians will refute her deification and functions or importance to many Christian based faith to be degraded as a simple mother of the Great One but it's actually in there if you look, done by your Lord Jesus himself, she has a divine job too. Go ahead and prove me wrong on that one too. Fun fact, totally coincidental and independent with my naming as I was named after an ancestor but in the French language, a Mary devotee is called a Marielle. More on Mary's functions in a different posts because that's a lot too. Impressive really. Much analyzed and written by Christian college graduates that dedicated their lives to preserving the history that's may have been held back, manipulated or miss-translated by accident often using the help of archeology and science if applicable.
To many, the worship of Mary is even seen as a controversial cult practice. Why? Do you think the Lord will judge you at Heaven's gate for worshiping his mother as an equal to him? I think he's got bigger sins to judge. The Black Swan Controversial Catholic he knew about the Magical Maries and observed them for the power they really had...In true faith. He explores how he employed various groups both on site and off site for his rituals along with reciting his own dedications to Mary as part of his spiritual cleanliness for his exorcism rituals. The last book he was compelled to write just before his death was hi Mary dedications and going thru the mysteries and a prayer break down associated with Rosary prayer practices and Mary Devotions.
My Rosary, the last book ever written by Father Amorth in the weeks/days leading to his death revealing his Mary devotionals and how he observes her Mysteries. At first glance, his rosary looks to be made of olivewood? Another significant material with sacred origins along with garnets. I picked garnet for my "5 decade" because of it's significance with multiple stories, Noah and the Ark, King Solomon and the supposed foreign mines, one of the gems worn in the breastplate by ancient Priests along with being worn during the religious crusades as a battle protection omen during their services dedicated to pilgrimage that my ancestors were part of. Somehow down the line it resulted into crystal worship and idolatry by more modern post King James Christianity? I have more to say on new vs old religion of the same teachings and the gradual changes over time but that's for another post.
Here is the key, "exorcisms" are generally only for priest(s) with a sacred preparation ritual and tools including consecrated salts and water, frequent confessionals, some rituals may include a burned offering in the form of purification incense (often Myrrh and Frankincense as per birth mysteries and other ancient practices) to cleanse the body and spirit of impurities accumulated during the day and invite the presence of the Lord to assist in compelling the demon out of the patient engaging it in a sort of battle with a crucifix launching scripture bullets forcefully at it over and over and why it can become violent during the worst cases. When you attack something, it might attack back. Also the reason why only trained priest should perform the rite, not just it's religious aspect but they are also trained in dealing with the potential violent outburst a possessed patient and know what to expect. Doesn't mean all are that way but until you start, you really don't know how it will react or even what's there until it reveals itself to the priest in mockery and insults often including frequent spitting. Also why in the worst of cases, the liberation prayer group is generally kept safe from harm or disgraceful behaviors.
A liberation can be done by male or female, the only requirement is faith and prayer to Mother Mary. The justification on it's purpose, Mary is the negotiator, the intercessor. At the end of the Story, Satan has to ask Mary for her Grace and Mercy as she is the Patron Saint of these virtues and one cannot obtain what he does not display along with the patron that creates saints and distributes the various anointings aka charisms known to surround the various saints and their dedications. Also she is both respected and frightening to demons as Satan's biggest and most clever adversary in he quest to protect her son from him. She can make them feel genuine things they don't want to feel, that alone can also repulse a demon enough to make them leave peacefully, without a battle, without an attack, just a request for Mercy and Grace for the possessed patient. Convents pray over sickness and other everyday non-supernatural things in the same fashion, observing the appropriate Mysteries to go along the proper prayers. Those who cannot seek exorcisms but think it might help or need one, this is THE practice to compensate with. Obviously being mindful of lifestyle and choices matter too in accessing results. Self-sacrifice for Self sacrifice.
In his books, Father Amorth elaborates on some of his impactful discourses on the subject with the possessed patients where some demons may have become a little more talkative and nicer then usual or expected with a few noteworthy admissions and opinions about the Great Lady that sparked him to look further into Mary's Motherly mysteries and implementing them as equal value to his practice as a protector and Jesus' most important witness that followed him and tried her hardest to protect for his entire life. An equal value feminine within the Catholic sects? Well now I have seen everything! I'm kind of beginning to like this controversial Priest. More on the actual techniques employed in the different liberation rituals and the origins of the Rosary later in this post.
In his first book, An Exorcist tells his story, he walks down memory lane on his life, why and how he became an exorcist and how that definition was constantly changing and evolving with each passing year as he collected valuable information and dedicating himself to growing the number of exorcism practicing priests. He speaks of the exorcism that motivated the movie and some of his after thoughts on the experience and how it's impacted him and his practice. Originally written in Italian, it's popularity soon requested translations in multiple languages and was eventually translated into 28 languages and counting highlighting the need for his observations and expertise where it wasn't possible for potential patients to consult a professional were turning to other more occultist practices that may not be as upfront as advertised delivering services that offered temporary relief but making things much worse after the effects wore off.
After recognizing the need, he wrote over 30 books on the topic until his death. I'm not sure how many are publicly accessible or translated in English but I did find a few more beyond the collection presented here but I didn't buy or read them yet, just the ones in this post, perhaps you can go on a quest and find more hidden gems for yourself. I only encountered a couple more but I didn't look overly hard either. The Devil is afraid of me and My Battle against Satan continue on that trend, some redundancies between the books but only to bring context to the specific he's trying to explain as multiple stories can have reference points in common. Some of it is offered as a discourse with an interviewer asking questions and Father Amorth delivering is acquired knowledge or perspective.
In An Exorcist explains the demonic, Father Amorth gives us a description of what he considers demonic influences and breaking down his classification system in easy to understand terms with multiple examples and occurrences. The different types of influences outside of possession like oppressions and environmental disturbances and how unsuspecting living creatures may intuitively react in the presence of these disturbances. Early in his Career, he was labeled as the Priest who sees Satan everywhere, well that's not a lie but he will proudly wear that badge as he elaborates on why he holds his beliefs based on his experiences and acquired knowledge while doing the pre-exorcism interview to see if he would help them or not, coming to his conclusions with re-occurring themes on where or how the infestation could have been encountered to eliminate the root cause.
He refers to needing the assistance of psychologist to pre determine if it's a health factor before proceeding with the potential paranormal ones. Even with the paranormal ones, a trained psychologist to deal with the mental trauma of the patient during their experiences is also an asset. Each in their own lane he says. Although we may have many slight differences of opinions on some of the topics explores and who should practice what and where along with what is harmful, given my more self reliant nature rather then adhering to strict Catholic Priest protocols I also understand why he adhered to his strict standards. I'll try to be nice with no bad jokes on de disagreements, I legitimately do respect his work and dedication, he did go against the grain to bring us a wealth of knowledge from his practice and had much to learn along with finding validation on some of my own experiences and observations following similar patterns, maybe not so extreme, hehe.
My first counter argument, he poo-poos on necromancers aka spiritism. Oh yeah? What do you think you are doing when you do your rituals against the devil? You offer your body to conjure up the spirit of the Christ and his mother to help assist you in your practice to fight demons. That's still necromancy... when you observe Bible Mysteries with intent and get intuitively led to the answers you seek...What are you doing?... Just sayin. Ouch that one must sting a little but you highly emphasize on humility so I know you can take that burn with a grain of salt.
Dislike well intentioned witcharoos like myself that dibble and dabble into occultism knowledge for learning purposes, some pre-dating your religion where some of your practices originated from. Most I agree are probably harmful yes and many use it incorrectly but the lack of appropriate help from the proper establishments as you stated is what pushed me into my weird studies. Also, to point out the obvious, practicing exorcism is occultic in nature itself, consorting with demons nonetheless, but used for the benefit of mankind. The lack of answers where there should be some but kept a secret does pose a major problem when it comes to getting appropriately vetted information, maybe you can request from the grave that other living Priest share a little more, the secrecy and denial is contributing to the problem.
Does build strong discernment skills tho. If I conjure up different spirits within the God spirit library to help explain a few things further and make the appropriate books cross my path...Is that offensive and harmful? But, they are already in the bible, isn't that a pre-vetted list of invisible Aunties and Uncles to visit? Maybe God was right, I have a funny way of interpreting the Bible and it's accidental instructions. Notice how I said, Aunties? Not all that had a significant role were Patriarchs. When did religion become a Patriarchy only anyway?
I do have to agree with his opinion on different sects involved surrounding secret societies within the Catholic Church and it's repercussions on faith and today's number of followers on the decline along with many other observations more geared towards the general public's usage and the repercussions both anticipated or not towards the unsuspecting receivers of these darker practices with ill intentions and satanic churches or set of values along with unintended consequences incurred for irresponsible/ill-informed practitioners. I wish that section would have been longer but it was a good base with some valuable insight and some of his perspectives comparable to things I already knew.
Watching the various tv shows surrounding various "ghost hunters" highlights some of these irresponsible practices with their instigations for a response to record, often their own responses to the interaction is offensive and juvenile in itself. Another point I would like to bring up, not everything that is dead wants to be disturbed. Some do want to peacefully rest and that should be respected and it's foul practice to disturb them unwarranted without their permission with seances and whatever else while even if they are ancestors does not give the right to unjustly disturb the dead for entertainment.
Others gladly work from the beyond much like Father Amorth. God is good at figuring this stuff out and who's who and sending the right resources for the request. No weird tools, drugs or devices needed, just curiosity and an open mind to receive. Humility. In his book, he mentions the reason why he personally does frequent confessionals, not to obey the Lord but to self reflect, because it's embarrassing to confess the same sin 4 nights in a row out loud, makes him change his behavior and not repeat the pattern he deems harmful. I never understood the real purpose for confessionals until now, so simply put but it makes too much sense.
The pictures don't do it justice, it wasn't easy to highlight it's true color beauty/vibrancy and craftsmanship on the beads.
Obviously this is just a mix of my own observations based on what I read in his series of books, the purpose of this post is to reflect on my reads, what I have learned, how I feel about it, what it stirs up or relate. To learn it's contents officially and more thoroughly, GET THE BOOKS. I very much enjoyed the wisdom shared within these pages and well worth the read and good reference material for a greater understanding of the paranormal controversies from an equally controversial Priest. I thought that was mission Impossible but God actually found me a Catholic Priest I like! For the curious, this was an interesting set of reads on the behind the scenes, I may not be able to watch the movie the same again, although, it's been so long I hardly remember the movie in the first place.
According to Father Amorths observations...what went wrong in that basement apartment from hell and my attempts to exorcise it? Well it did get a bit violent as far as the spare bottle of Holy Water went flying to the wall and excessively argumentative with moments of peace. Apparently, I just had to rinse repeat as the occurrences flared up. It's not always a one time done deal. his official solution if one isn't a Priest? The same road I took, just move out. It's probably attached to the place not necessarily the people. The repeat long list of short lived tenancies was a clear sign that it's def the apartment. With that being said, is leaving the problem for the next unsuspecting tenants irresponsible and kinda mean? Then what's the right thing to do as a person?
What brought this little rabbithole? Soon after I shared about my cyanide coffee experience officially, a psychopath was highlighted on the news just days after. some details peaked my interest. Is that him? some didn't seem like his M/O or habits at all while some of it did way too much. They showed a few curious details that I also haven't shared that are oddly coincidental...Could it be him? Probably not, circumstantial of course. But what if? If not, why did God draw my attention to him? Well at first glance his eyes and nonchalance, I would say outright possession. What tipped it off? He let one lady live, because she had a Rosary. Made him rethink his actions at that precise moment and act out of character and he supposedly agreed to just come clean. Are demons more afraid of the rosary then the crucifix? Why? Did the rosary have something paranormal that allowed that one woman to live? Is there theory behind the notion that Mary is a negotiator of souls? Does Satan indeed fear Mary more than Jesus?