;-)
Posted on 01/19/2006 6:54:16 AM PST by Sweetjustusnow
It would seem there is truth to the warnings against the Harry Potter series if the opening of an honest-to-goodness witchcraft school in Canada is any indication of increased interest in the occult that has resulted from the books.
The new school, Northern Star College of Mystical Studies, is compared to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from the Harry Potter books by a CanWest News Service report. The school offers diploma and two-year certificate programs, open to adults only. The school teaches potions, astrology, tarot, hypnotherapy, divination, magic and other occult practices, among other subjects.
“Harry Potter starts to get everybody curious about the mystic inside of them,” admitted Catherine Potter, a hypnotherapist and professional astrologer who teaches at the school. She is a fan of J.K. Rowling’s bestselling series. “I think it stirs a yearning in people to know more than just the five senses.”
Despite naysayers, Potter’s own admission that Harry Potter spurned her interest in the occult confirms warnings like those from Pope Benedict XVI, Gabriele Kuby, Catholic artist and author Michael D. O’Brien, Father Alfonso Aguilar, and even Rome’s official exorcist, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, who said, “Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil.”
In a letter dated March 7, 2003 Pope Benedict XVI – then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – thanked his friend Gabriele Kuby for her “instructive” book about Harry Potter – gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), in which Kuby says the Potter books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy.
“It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly,” the Pope wrote.
Both O’Brien and Father Alfonso Aguilar meanwhile condemn the books for their similarities with an early anti-Christian cult known as Gnosticism. “The wizard world is about the pursuit of power and esoteric knowledge, and in this sense it is a modern representation of a branch of ancient Gnosticism, the cult that came close to undermining Christianity at its birth,” O’Brien explained in his essay, Harry Potter and the Paganization of Children's Culture, available here: http://www.lifesite.net/features/harrypotter/obrienpotter.ht....
“The so-called ‘Christian Gnostics’ of the 2nd century were in no way Christian, for they attempted to neutralize the meaning of the Incarnation and to distort the concept of salvation along traditional Gnostic lines: man saves himself by obtaining secret knowledge and power,” O’Brien wrote.
Defending his criticism of Rowling’s work as compared to JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, who some argue also portrays magic, O’Brien added: “Rowling portrays Harry’s victory as the fruit of esoteric knowledge and power. This is Gnosticism. Tolkien portrays Frodo’s victory as the fruit of humility, obedience, and courage in a state of radical suffering. This is Christianity.”
View the roster of eyebrow-raising courses such as Plant Spirit Integration, Sacred Circle, Oracle Exploration, Exploring the Concept of Reincarnation, Earth Medicine, and Crystal and Stone Helpers, at the school’s web site: http://www.centercollege-wholistic.ca/home.html
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage: Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels - Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05071301.html Ten Arguments Against Harry Potter - By Woman Who Corresponded with Cardinal Ratzinger http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05071508.html Rome’s Chief Exorcist Warns Parents against Harry Potter http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/jan/02010202.html
Uhhhhhh.....guys. It's FICTION. That means it isn't true.
What next? A Jedi Academy?
Good Grief!
Silly people.
(wonder what they charge for tuition?)
1. It's fiction
2. It's Canada!!!
What is fiction is the characters in a story line.
What is not fiction is the occult.
The USA is full of occult worship as well. Such as this in Eugene OR:
http://www.efn.org/~cophnia/
Bah! The idea that someone can point a wand at me and turn me into a tea cozy is preposterous.
Potter Ping!
"She turned me into a newt.....I got better."
True. I don't know if there is anything less scary then a Canadian witch.
LOL! See what nationalizing education will get you? LOL!
Grad work at Star Fleet Command. Oh Canada.
I don't know what is going on, but I can't see any image from photobucket on this computer. It saddens me deeply. :-(
try by right clicking properties(on the x) & then copy & paste in your address bar.
Tried and failed. Getting "page not found". So strange! I can see all other graphics, but not photobucket.
Hey! That's my idea!
Must be some sort of setting on your puter. :-(
"The book is fiction. Witchcraft, evil spirits, etc. unfortunately, are very true."
I'm afraid that's just silly. A witch may wave a wand about and spout whatever nonsense he or she wishes. The effect will be nil.
"Bah! The idea that someone can point a wand at me and turn me into a tea cozy is preposterous."
But why would anyone want to turn you into a tea cozy? Why not something useful like an espresso machine? Let me see here....looking in my reference books....ah, yes, here it is:
Apparace Gaggio!
A nice bit of crema on top, please. Thanks!
There are also people who write things like The Tao of Pooh, and The Te of Piglet.
You can't blame the HP books for the fact that folks are numbskulls.
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