The creepy thing about the occult.

You touch pitch and it clings to you...

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My friends Larry, Bob, Mary Kay, Mary Ann, Donna, Linda and me were playing with the Ouija board one September night in Larry's basement back when we were in 9th grade. We so freaked ourselves out with a story Larry told about his cousins who sought information on Anne Frank - only to be terrorized with sighs, shrieks and screams from the Nazi gas chambers.

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As my turn came round to ask the board a question, I inquired with all sincerity, "When will I die?" To my astonishment the planchette moved rapidly to the numbers 6 and 7. All of us concluded it meant I would die either in 1967 - 4 long years in the future - or when I reached the chronological age of 67.

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New Years eve 1967 I sat up reading Rosemary's Baby, and at the stroke of midnight I realized I wasn't dead, hence I concluded that I would live until the age of 67. I know! Compare that conclusion with my born again idea that the end of the world would happen before I was 30.

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Yeah. So much for that.

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But every June 7...

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So Sunday was June 7 - 6/7 - and I'm not dead yet. Once again it occurred to me that occult crap clings to us and haunts us no matter how many deliverance prayers have been prayed over us, or how many confessions we've made, or how much exorcism salt we eat - it is always there to haunt our lack of faith - or at least the devil is there to tempt us and accuse us of our lack of faith. (And don't over-react here, I do not really believe the Ouija board knew anything - but the diabolic residue of the experience may still cling to me, or follow me, as it were.)

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In reality - and the sad thing is - someplace within our superstitious mind, we can let ourselves be deluded by the father of lies - the devil - in actually thinking he knows anything at all concerning our salvation. He doesn't. And neither do we. And neither do Ouija boards or Tarot cards or anything else. The devil lies - and he suits his lies to our concupiscence and fears and superstitions and weakness.

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So "snap out of it" - as Cher said in Moonstruck - we need to "lay aside every encumbrance of sin which clings to us and persevere in the race which lies ahead; let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus who inspires and perfects our faith..." - Hebrews 12: 1-4