man, if only!

"The Danger of Celebrating Halloween" by Kimberly Daniels for Charisma Magazine, via The Wild Hunt:

The word "holiday" means "holy day." But there is nothing holy about Halloween. The root word of Halloween is "hallow," which means "holy, consecrated and set apart for service." If this holiday is hallowed, whose service is it set apart for? The answer to that question is very easy—Lucifer's!

The key word in discussing Halloween is "dedicated." It is dedicated to darkness and is an accursed season. During Halloween, time-released curses are always loosed. A time-released curse is a period that has been set aside to release demonic activity and to ensnare souls in great measure. (A/N: Is that something like a time-share?)

For example, most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches.  (A/N: Witches at the Hershey factory!)

Mother earth is highly celebrated during the fall demonic harvest. Witches praise mother earth by bringing her fruits, nuts and herbs. Demons are loosed during these acts of worship. When nice church folk lay out their pumpkins on the church lawn, fill their baskets with nuts and herbs, and fire up their bonfires, the demons get busy.

Gathering around bonfires is a common practice in pagan worship. As I remember, the bonfires that I attended during homecoming week when I was in high school were always in the fall. I am amazed at how we ignorantly participate in pagan, occult rituals. 

Halloween is much more than a holiday filled with fun and tricks or treats. It is a time for the gathering of evil that masquerades behind the fictitious characters of Dracula, werewolves, mummies and witches on brooms. The truth is that these demons that have been presented as scary cartoons actually exist. I have prayed for witches who are addicted to drinking blood and howling at the moon. (A/N: Sweet, thanks!)

While the lukewarm and ignorant think of these customs as "just harmless fun," the vortexes of hell are releasing new assignments against souls. Witches take pride in laughing at the ignorance of natural men (those who ignore the spirit realm).  (A/N: Cackle cackle cackle.)

The word "occult" means "secret." The danger of Halloween is not in the scary things we see but in the secret, wicked, cruel activities that go on behind the scenes. These activities include:

• Sex with demons
• Orgies between animals and humans
• Animal and human sacrifices
• Sacrificing babies to shed innocent blood
• Rape and molestation of adults, children and babies
• Revel nights
• Conjuring of demons and casting of spells
• Release of "time-released" curses against the innocent and the ignorant.

There is no doubt in my heart that God is not calling us to replace fall festivals and Halloween activities; rather, He wants us to utterly destroy the deeds of this season.

a couple creepy recs

The Washington Post asked some horror writers for scary story recs, and I read a couple that were online (I'd already read - and agreed with - Elizabeth Hand's recommendation, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-Paper", and Charlaine Harris' recommendation, The Haunting of Hill House - oh yeah, and Dracula, of course). They were both really, really interesting, so here they are:

• "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs (1902).  Jonathan Carroll's recommendation.  Apparently this is a famous story, but I had never read it (I am freakishly uneducated in this regard), and now I'm glad I have!  
• "The Specialist's Hat" by Kelly Link (1998).  Joe Hill's recommendation.  I've never read Kelly Link either (I know, shame) but whoa.  WHOA THAR.  I'm going to have to read this one a few more times.

Anne Rice's rec, "Count Magnus" by M. R. James, is a little too traditional and borderline Rosemary's Baby-ish for my taste (much trotting out of "the occult").  China Mieville's rec, "Sredni Vashtar" by H. H. Munro, is a neat little piece but not especially scary or wow-y, in my opinion.