Tag: occult

Metaphysical Shop Owner’s Lawsuit Over Pennsylvania Fortune Telling Ban Moves Ahead

Following a legal victory earlier this summer, a metaphysical shop owner’s lawsuit over Pennsylvania’s ban on fortune telling could go to trial next year. The compelling case dates back to October of 2023 when the Serpent’s Key Shoppe and Sanctuary in the community of Hanover received an unexpected visit from the borough’s police chief, Chad Martin. Rather than picking up some occult supplies, the lawman instead offered a rather worrisome warning to owner Beck Ravenswood about the possibility of legal trouble should they violate the state’s 165-year-old law against divination. “He informed me basically he is not here to arrest me or press charges,” the shop owner recounted at the time, “however, if he ever gets a report from anyone, he will be back on my doorstep.”

The incident understandably did not sit well with Ravenswood, who filed a civil rights lawsuit against Martin and the town of Hanover in August of 2024. Nearly two years later, the case is still winding its way through the legal system, with the shop owner recently securing a significant legal victory. “The DA’s office had been trying to dismiss my case,” Ravenswood explained to a local media outlet, “saying it wasn’t important enough for the court to rule on.” However, they received word in June that the request had been rejected. “Judge Wilson finally looked at the evidence and said there’s a compelling argument here, and we need to determine what is really at the heart of this lawsuit,” Ravenswood said, “is it about witchcraft, or is it about freedom of speech? That’s really what it is.”

In a conference call between the parties on Wednesday, a discovery deadline was set for November 30th, and what the shop owner has cleverly taken to calling the ‘Hanover Witch Trial’ was added to the court’s calendar for June of 2027. That said, Ravenswood’s attorney reportedly indicated that they intend to request a summary judgment on the constitutionality of the law, which could eliminate the soothsaying ban once and for all without the need for any further court proceedings. Meanwhile, regardless of how the case ultimately unfolds, the antiquated restriction may not be on the books for much longer, as a state legislator introduced a still-in-committee bill that would repeal the restriction last June.

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Cannibal killer who claimed he was possessed by occultist Aleister Crowley ate victim’s finger during savage murder

A cannibal killer who murdered a man then torched his flat is facing a life sentence.

Gabriel Brown stabbed Joseph Johnston 22 times during a ‘punishment’ attack at the 58 year-old’s home in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway in November 2024.

Sick Brown, 35, also chopped off the victim’s ring finger, cooked and ate it.

The body of Mr Johnston – known as Ernie – was later discovered in the burned out flat.

Such was the graphic nature of the details jurors had to endure, that the judge in the case excused them from ever having to take part in a jury again.

Although Brown had never met Mr Johnston until the night of the attack, the victim had previously been in a relationship with his step-mother.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that ex-bouncer Brown decided to target Mr Johnston amid claims of what he had been told about their time together.

Brown – a convicted sex offender – had denied murder and had lodged a special defence that he had been suffering from a mental disorder at the time.

The killer told the court he had been possessed by the spirit of 19th-century born occultist Aleister Crowley, who apparently told him to ‘take Ernie’s soul’.

However, jurors rejected his claims and today found him guilty of murder following the near two-week trial.

Brown will learn the minimum time he will spend behind bars when he is sentenced next month.

The trial was told how Mr Johnston and Brown’s step-mother had previously been together.

She had at one stage pointed out to the killer where Mr Johnston lived. She had also referred to Mr Johnston using a derogatory name.

Brown – who had been diagnosed with mental health issues when he was a teenager – had downed alcohol and smoked cannabis before he went to the victim’s home late at night.

Mr Johnston allowed him in and the pair appeared initially to be getting on – even opting to take a photo together.

However, later that night Brown launched what was described as a ‘savage’ attack on his defenceless victim.

As well as the multiple stab wounds and cutting off a finger, the killer also carved letters onto Mr Johnston’s face.

To try and cover up what he had done, Brown started fires in four different areas of the property including torching furniture, turning on cooker hobs and putting metal cutlery in a microwave.

He also ripped out smoke alarms to prevent them going off before fleeing the scene and returning to his step-mother’s home.

He also texted another person that night making an accusation about Mr Johnston and adding ‘he sleeps forever’.

The body of Mr Johnston was later discovered in his charred kitchen.

During the trial, Brown claimed to remember taking a knife out of the victim, but said he had ‘no recollection’ of putting the blade there.

Asked by his KC Thomas Ross how the weapon would have got there, Brown stated: ‘I attribute it to Aleister Crowley. I put it down to possession. I have previous incidents which my friends have told me about.’

Questioned whose hand the knife was in, the killer added ‘Aleister Crowley’s. We share a body. When removing the knife it was my hand.’

Brown recalled hearing a ‘death rattle’ and Mr Johnston bleeding heavily.

He went on to graphically describe what he did to the man’s left ring finger.

He told the trial: ‘Later on I did something I would describe as a favour to him.’

Mr Ross: ‘What was that?’

Brown: ‘I removed and consumed his finger.’

The sick murderer admitted he ‘cooked’ the digit, but that ‘Aleister was going to take his soul’.

The court heard Brown was arrested after being found sleeping in his step-mother’s attic.

In cross examination, Brown refuted the accusation by prosecutor Eric Robertson that he had gone to ‘square up’ to Mr Johnston that night.

After the verdict, it emerged Brown had previous been jailed for offences involving young girls.

Lord Mulholland deferred sentencing for reports, but warned Brown he may never be released.

He told him: ‘This was sustained, vicious and merciless attack on a defenceless man on his own home.

‘It was motivated, in your own words, by a desire to punish the victim for what you believed had happened to your step-mum during her relationship with him.’

‘You brutally assaulted him with a knife, stabbing him at least 22 times, inflicting blunt force injuries and severing his finger.

‘The fact that it was his ring finger is evident of your motivation that it was a punishment attack.

‘Carving initials on his face is redolent of the extent of your savage attack.’

After Brown was taken back to the cells, Lord Mulholland said he was excusing jurors from further jury service for life due to the ‘harrowing and graphic’ evidence they had heard.

Following the verdict, Police Scotland Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Graeme Robertson, said Brown will now ‘face the consequences of his despicable actions’.

He added: ‘While this verdict does not change the outcome, I hope it brings Joseph’s family some form of comfort.’

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Cardinal McElroy removes exorcist for saying demons disguise themselves as aliens

Cardinal Robert McElroy removed Monsignor Stephen Rossetti as an exorcist of the Archdiocese of Washington after the renowned priest said that he believes demons can disguise themselves as aliens or UFOs.

A press release from the archdiocese adds that McElroy, who is well-known for his heterodoxy on homosexuality and other issues, has “ended all affiliation” between the archdiocese and Monsignor Rossetti’s Saint Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal (SMC) in Washington, D.C.

“Cardinal McElroy said that statements made by Monsignor Rossetti linking UFOs to demonic presence and the Center’s recent use of social media gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism,” according to the press release.

Monsignor Rossetti responded to Cardinal McElroy’s action by apologizing for “any ways that I have not been faithful to the teachings of the Church’s Magisterium” but did not explicitly repent for anything specific that he mentioned in the video. He noted that the SMC “plans to continue its ministry elsewhere”:

I am saddened by the decision of the Archdiocese of Washington to cut its affiliation with St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal (SMC). I ask forgiveness for any ways that I have not been faithful to the teachings of the Church’s Magisterium, particularly in the cited video on “aliens and the demonic”.

I believe it is of the utmost importance to be obedient to the Church and I will continue to endeavor to subject all that I do and the Center to be thus obedient.

Also, I will continue to encourage all to do so as well. As I often say: “Stay in the Boat!”, that is, stay in the barque of Peter, it will lead you safely home.

I am grateful for 19 years of ministering in the Archdiocese of Washington as its exorcist and I thank the Archdiocese for its support and blessing all these years. We will remember the Cardinal and all in ADW in our prayers for its important ministry. SMC plans to continue its ministry elsewhere.

The video that McElroy referred to, published on YouTube on Monday, has now been deleted. It was made in response to a surge of interest in the topic after the Trump administration’s recent release of files documenting alleged observations of UFOs.

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Senator John Kennedy Reveals That California’s Medicaid System Will Pay for EXORCISMS

Apparently, the state of California cares about the health of your soul.

During a recent hearing, Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana revealed that in California, the state will reimburse a provider for exorcisms. Yes, really.

Even if you are a person of faith who believes the forces of darkness are real, you would probably have trouble buying the idea that this should be covered by a state’s Medicaid system.

Wouldn’t you love to know how many of these are covered in a year?

FOX News reports:

Taxpayer spending on ‘exorcisms’ derails Senate testimony: ‘What the hell are we doing about it?’

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., railed against California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, which is facing scrutiny from the Trump administration over fraud allegations, as Kennedy highlighted reports during a Tuesday hearing that the state covers exorcisms and other faith-based healing practices.

Medi-Cal’s spending practices have faced growing scrutiny as California’s Medicaid spending has more than doubled since 2019, rising from roughly $100.7 billion to a projected $222 billion in 2026.

Just last week, the Trump administration suspended $1.4 billion in federal funding for California home health and hospice programs after Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force identified an estimated $600 million in suspected fraud within the state’s Medicaid system.

Kennedy alleged during his line of questioning to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that taxpayer dollars were being used to cover the cost of exorcisms, a religious practice most commonly associated with the Catholic Church, and other indigenous spiritual practices.

“California’s got 12% of the population in the last 10 years,” Kennedy told Blanche. “They’re responsible for half of these new so-called health providers to provide exorcisms and other things. Now, what the hell are we doing about it? Why has this gone on for so long?”

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SPIRITUAL WAR: Top Exorcists Ask Pope Leo To Increase Number and Training of Specialized Priests To Combat Surge in Occultism and Satanic Practices

‘And [Jesus] asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.’ (Mark 5:9)

One need not be a trained exorcist to recognize all around us that today’s world is experiencing a surge in occult and Satanic practices.

But the men who actually are the top exorcists in the Catholic Church have gone up to Pope Leo XIV with a single plea: reinforce their numbers.

Leo received representatives of the International Association of Exorcists (AIE) in a private audience on Friday, March 13 – perhaps not the most auspicious day.

The AIE heads presented the Holy Father with a report on the growing number of cases related to occultism, esotericism, and Satanism.

The report also examines the spiritual consequences this has for many people.

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AI is ushering in a new era of Satanism, exorcists warn religious leaders: ‘A great power’

Is it the Tech-corcist?

With religious rifts widening around the globe, an enterprising Christian leader has potentially devised a way to unite the faiths against a common foe.

A Mexican priest named Father Luis Ramirez Almanza is inviting rabbis, imams and evangelical preachers to join a special exorcism training course that, among other evils, specializes in battling the scourge of AI-fueled Satanism, the Times Of London reported.

“Artificial intelligence is a great power — a force for both good and evil — and can therefore be used for devil worshipping,” he warned at a press conference announcing his “Course on the Ministry of Exorcism and Prayer of Deliverance.”

Held at the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum, a Vatican-affiliated university, this niche training draws over 170 participants interested in performing exorcisms.

While participants aren’t granted the authority to conduct a demon-ectomy — that license can only be bestowed by a diocesan bishop, per Catholic Canon Law — the university promises on its website to “deepen their knowledge of the ministry of exorcism and deliverance prayer in a serious and interdisciplinary way.”

This year, there will be a special emphasis on AI’s use among Lucifer enthusiasts. 

Father Fortunato Di Noto, a Sicilian priest who fights child sexual abuse and is speaking at a session in May, claims that some satanic groups are already experimenting with the tech.

“We believe these groups are using AI to generate images of children involved in satanic rites,” Di Noto told The Times Of London.

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Hundreds of cases of child abuse involving beliefs in witchcraft and evil spirits go unreported every year in UK, experts reveal

Hundreds of cases of group ritual abuse against children are going unreported every year in the UK, a leading researcher has revealed. 

Victims have been contacting support services to describe abuse at the hands of paedophile rings who use claims of witchcraft and possession to cower them into submission.

In a twisted inversion of reality, acts of rape, sexual abuse or torture are then characterised as ‘cleansing’ rituals to rid the victim of a demon or evil spirit – with perpetrators sometimes wearing costumes or masks.

While so-called ‘organised ritual abuse’ is described as a ‘rare but real phenomenon’ in Britain, police are concerned that it is heavily underreported and rarely appears in official data.

Dr Elly Hanson, a clinical psychologist and researcher, said victims often do not report ritual abuse to police because they feared their claims would appear too fantastical to be believed.

Others have become ‘disassociated’, a process that sees abuse victims adopt a different identity as a way of separating themselves from the reality of what has happened to them, or simply feel too traumatised to ‘give a coherent narrative’.

‘There are so many hurdles facing victims that nearly all of them end up falling out of the system,’ Dr Hanson told a media briefing held today by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

An analysis of police data by the NPCC found that just seven ritual abuse cases were investigated in 2024 out of 4,450 instances of child abuse, marking just 0.2 per cent of all investigations.

However, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) found that out of a sample of 36,700 calls to their helpline between July 2016 and January 2025, 1,311 (3.57 per cent) mentioned ritual abuse.

Dr Hanson said organised ritual abuse typically involves family members and starts when children are young.

Perpetrators frequently do not believe the supernatural belief systems they are espousing and simply use them as a means too gain control over their victims, the psychologist explained.

This form of abuse regularly involves torture or extreme acts of violence and may end in murder or animal sacrifice.

While beliefs about witchcraft and spirit possession are often linked to ethnic groups, such as those with links to sub-Saharan Africa, many offenders have British backgrounds.

According to Dr Hanson, ‘cultural sensitivities’ are one factor holding back police and social services, but she believes the issue works both ways.

‘You’ve potentially got a desire to be culturally sensitive with certain cultural communities, then you’ve got the other direction where someone who is British and not from a particular community they are not seen as someone who might be suffering ritual abuse,’ she said.

One recent case saw a seven-strong child sex ring in Glasgow prey on children as young as 13 in a drug den nicknamed the ‘Beastie House’.

The trial heard how the group performed ‘spells’ on the children and convinced them they had been metamorphosed into various animals.

Richard Fewkes, the director of the NPCC’s Hydrant programme targeting child sexual abuse, said the case was an example of paedophiles using claims of witchcraft as a means of control.

‘Those individuals did not necessarily believe in witchcraft, but they used the ritual of it to control the children,’ he said.

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“We Discovered Altars”: President of El Salvador Says Violent Gangs Actually Worship Satan

Many, many gang members from central and South America, and other points, have infiltrated the United States, largely under Joe Biden’s open borders policies, over the past few years.

They are known for their extreme violence, crime, aggressive agendas and demands for money.

After all, one gang, Tren de Aragua, actually took over apartment buildings in Colorado, collected the rent from tenants then kept the money instead of giving it to building owners.

The human trafficking, sex assaults and abuse, and financial ripoffs essentially are common knowledge.

But Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, from which some of the gang members come to the United States, said it’s even worse.

In an address at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington Thursday, he confirmed, “Many people don’t know that our enemy was not just the flesh and blood, but spiritual as well. The gangs didn’t just murder, rape, extort. They also worship Satan,” he revealed. “It’s straight up. Literally. When we went to their homes to arrest them, we discovered altars that were used for satanic rituals.”

He explained, “This is well documented. We put up the pictures, the videos right away. But for some reason, the global mainstream media didn’t think it was worth it to cover it. But we know gangs in El Salvador were satanic and they worshiped Satan.”

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Demonic Possession? Cops Say It Was Like ‘Third Person’ Present as They Questioned Woman Who Stabbed Toddler in Chest After Musing Over Human Sacrifices

Was it a case of demonic possession?

That’s what has many people wondering after a young woman was arrested following what police say was a case of attempted human sacrifice in New Jersey.

According to multiple reports, 20-year-old Marlene Rodriguez of Brick Township, New Jersey, brought up human sacrifice with her cousin just hours before she allegedly stabbed her brother multiple times.

She’s now charged with attempted murder, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and endangering the welfare of a child, according to Patch.com.

The New York Post reported that not only did Rodriguez tell police that voices instructed her to do it, but that she started talking as if a third person was telling her not to tell police what happened.

The attack happened on Nov. 1. According to documents filed by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, Brick Township police were called to a home at just before 2:30 p.m. that day to find a 2-year-old boy who had been stabbed in the chest.

He was conscious and alert at the time of the arrival and was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center.

He was in stable condition as of Nov. 8, with both a punctured lung and a cut wall to his heart.

“At the scene, police learned Rodriguez had stabbed the boy, and after reading her rights to her, she told police she had stabbed her brother,” Patch reported.

“During interviews at police headquarters, detectives spoke with Rodriguez’s cousin, who told them about the conversation earlier in the day. The cousin said Rodriguez asked her if she had ever sacrificed anyone, and if so, who. The cousin said she replied by asking Rodriguez if she had sacrificed anyone, and Rodriguez did not answer.”

Then, not long afterwards, Rodriguez’s sister heard the 2-year-old crying and saw the injuries, with a knife on the floor next to him.

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