I looked up from the tarot spread to see his face filled with shock. He jumped up, exclaiming in disbelief as he ran from the room. How did I know those things he never told anyone before? Little did I know the true danger of the tool I held in my hands . . .
I used to think I could be a Christian and read tarot cards until I learned it was a trap that drew me into spiritual bondage, resulting in demonic possession. Today I am going to tell you exactly how it happened.
Why I Strayed From Catholicism
At the impressionable age of 17, soon after entering a secular university that pushed anti-Christian and postmodernist views, I shed the faith of my upbringing and decided that the Catholic Church was a tool of control and manipulation of the masses. What my professors were telling me made sense: that I could and should pursue spirituality without an authority. Worldly systems were only there to keep the truth from us and hold us down. I ended up tossing out organized religion and going into my adult life thinking that God didn’t belong to the Church; rather, the Church was there to keep us from communing with God.
Landing into the Study of New Age Beliefs
Years later, my partner at the time introduced me to deep conspiracy media, to which I was already fairly well predisposed. It was only a matter of time before my interest turned from alternative history, quantum physics, and Nicola Tesla to new age studies like psychic phenomena and human potential. I started to read about near-death experiences, past life regression therapy, and reincarnation. I was baby steps away from the occult.
My partner then pursued a past life regression through occult channeling and had an unexplainable experience. Soon after, there was a sudden spiritual disturbance in my home. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was that day that demons entered the scene.
I started having spontaneous out-of-body experiences which I learned online could be controlled through a practice called astral projection. I started learning about channeling and how to go into altered states of consciousness. I was having visions of things with my waking eyes—things I know now are called “demonic signs and wonders.” The demons were offering me a show, attempting to intrigue me and pull my interest deeper into the occult.
It worked. My curiosity deepened as I turned my eyes to other, more obvious occult practices.
What Happened Once I Got into Tarot Cards
When I ordered my first tarot card deck online, I remember opening it up and immediately feeling a warmth pour into my palms, filling me with electricity and excitement. It was a demonic trick used to influence the emotions and feelings, capture curiosity, soften resolve against the occult, and draw toward addiction to the practice.
I ended up becoming possessed through the practice of reading tarot cards. There are many marks of demonic possession, but these are the ones I experienced:
Loss of control over one’s body. I started to become really drowsy while reading the cards. One time early on, I woke up to cards placed around me . . . I hadn’t remembered falling asleep.
Loss of conscious awareness during occult practices. I started to lose time while reading the cards. At times when I would read for others, I would go into a trance-like state and not know what I had told them during the reading. They seemed happy (generally) and impressed by my “insights” into their lives.
Aversion to sacred objects. I ended up throwing away all of the religious items in my house after realizing that their presence made me extremely angry.
Feeling like a “passenger” in one’s body. As I threw the items away, I felt like I was a passenger in my own body, observing my actions as opposed to consciously making them. I remember feeling curious about what my body was doing.
Knowledge of hidden things/accessing occult power. I would get visions and messages from “things” outside myself—not realizing those “things” were demons. I’d receive information and access to events and circumstances in other people’s lives. Once, in a reading for a man I’d never met before, I started to speak about a vision I was receiving. His face went white, and he panicked. He started to interrogate me, violated that I was talking so plainly about something he’d never spoken aloud. He leaped out of his chair and ran from the room. I never saw him again.
Demonic attacks and vexation. The worst period in my story was right before I left the occult and returned to Jesus. By this point, the demons had become hostile toward me. They would plague my thoughts, manifest physically to intimidate me, and harm my body with scratches and bruises.
The Truth: How Tarot is a Trap
I’ve since gotten completely freed of demonic influences in my life, though leaving the occult was a long, arduous journey. I had to learn how to walk with Jesus for the long haul. For me, it took years of diving deep into Scripture, attending a graduate theology program, returning humbly to the sacraments, and dismantling my occult worldview to form a Christian one. It was a long road, but the Lord is the Great Reconciler.
He has since called me to minister to those stuck in occult worldviews and practices. This ministry continues to humble me and affirm my love for Jesus. I’m reminded daily that it was through His precious Blood that I was delivered.
The truth is, the practice of tarot cards is based on one major falsity: the idea that we can use them to access some “divine insight.” The Catholic Encyclopedia defines divination as “the seeking after knowledge of future or hidden things by inadequate means.” This definition provides two key distinctions. First, “knowledge of future or hidden things” includes seeking any type of occult information, whether it is from the past, present, or future. Many Christians excuse a tarot practice by saying that they are only using it for insights about the present, and therefore it’s not the sin of divination. This mindset willingly ignores the second distinction.
Secondly, pursuing these objectives “by inadequate means” foreshadows the end right from the start: tarot cards and other occult practices cannot in themselves achieve the goals they promise. Something else must fill the gap—namely, either the human imagination or the demonic. This is why tarot breaks the first commandment. The cards are an idol, and God does not speak through idols. He doesn’t give us information through things that lead us away from Him. I now call reading tarot cards “anti-prayer” because you are leaning on your own darkened understanding for divine insights, instead of surrendering to God’s sovereignty and plan for you.
During the act of reading tarot cards, the person ends up conflating divine wisdom either with their own thoughts or with demonic knowledge. And still, the practice fails to provide valuable spiritual insights. What took me so long to accept was that the Church tells us exactly how to access such wisdom: Read scripture. Regularly practice the sacraments. Devote yourself to prayer. Engage in spiritual disciplines. These are the proper path to God, the very source of divine Wisdom.
Ironically, no amount of divination can access the divine. All my efforts to access Him according to my own methods proved futile and dangerous. Yet now I can see: He was waiting for me all along. Waiting for me to submit to Him, accept Him, and humbly follow the path He laid for me.
Editor’s Note: The author’s book Freedom From Darkness: A Roadmap to Deliverance from Spiritual Bondage and the Occult highlights personal testimonies, practical steps for deliverance, and the powerful role of the Church in combating evil. It can be ordered from Sophia Institute Press.
Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash
