This Week in Witchcraft (S1 E5)

Welcome to this week in witchcraft. The elements have been conquered with intense heat and witchcraft has become more cosmopolitan. Can you spot it out in the wild?

I'm andrew hudson and joining me today are michael dirham and kyle smith.

Self-Love as Idolatry and the Meaning of Love

So today we have in this week in witchcraft a note from our producer. The idea of self-love has a heightened sense of loving self as an idol. We understand you love your neighbor as yourself, but. This growing trend of extreme self-affirmation seems witchy.

What do you all think?

Yeah, so there has been a lot of talk in not just recent days months and years, but Really even in the last couple of decades about loving the self. Being comfortable with oneself approving of oneself self-help self-empowerment.

Everything from you know, be yourself everything has been centered around the self the idea that one must love themselves. Some would say would be a biblical idea after all jesus said love your neighbor as yourself.

And.

Wouldn't it be wrong? To hate oneself if you hate the self, then how are you going to treat others? Right? What kind of condition are you going to be in there? And so this has been used to try to teach self-love as a christian doctrine as something that should be used in christian discipleship.

Now what we need to recognize is that when the world when the paganism in which we live uses the term love. They're not using the same definition that we're using. That we're we're given in the scriptures.

When you take a word and you leave it the same word and then you give it a new definition. You're enchanting it with something else. You are bringing a new meaning to it. That wasn't there prior. You're twisting the meaning in some fashion.

And then we have the word self the self. How is that actually understood? When somebody says love yourself, are they are they saying love in the biblical way? Are they saying self in the biblical way and.

Well.

If somebody's going around saying, you know, the most important thing is that you love yourself. That's probably not going to be operating with biblical standards. So we have to use the text use the scriptures to define our terms.

So in first john chapter three.

We.

Read.

In verse 16 by this we know love. Because he laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. So we're giving we're given a definition of love and how helpful is that first john 3 16?

That's easy to remember. If you can remember john 3 16, you can remember first john 3 16. And here's our definition of love. He laid down his life for us by this. We know love because he laid down his life for us and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

So what is love? Scripture tells us that love is a righteous and sacrificial devotion that christ.

Did.

What was right and good? For us. Even though it cost him even though it cost him his very own life. He laid down his life for us a righteous and sacrificial devotion. I'm going to be for you For you in the right way, even if it costs me.

That's what love is and it's defined by the greatest act of love and the greatest one to love who is jesus christ. So what a great definition i'm going to be for you in the right way, even if it costs me that's love.

So is that what people mean when they use the word love today? And concerning the self who is the you know, what is the self? Very often we're talking about talking about the the person that god made in his image that he made in his likeness that we are Uniquely in relationship to god and one another in this created world.

That we are not two different parts. Flesh over here spirit over there. And we're just two different parts every once in a while co-mingling, but god made us Body and soul a psychosomatic hole. It's a foreign condition for the.

For the spirit to be absent from the body that's because of death and death is not plan a right resurrection is ultimately the Reuniting of the body with the spirit just some thoughts about how god has made us so.

What does it mean to love the self? Well, jesus says love your neighbor as yourself. Well, don't we do things that are hard, you know. Don't we know that it's good to get up when we want to sleep that we know that it's Uh good to work hard even when it hurts.

Don't we know that it's right to go through the extra effort. Uh to provide for ourselves so that we can you know. Eat sleep and be in comfort and so on and so forth. What jesus is saying is, you know, love your neighbor as you love yourself, too.

You know, it's not just about your self preservation here. It's about loving others as well. About being in right relationship with them. This isn't a i'm gonna put me first kind of thing. Which left to ourselves?

Wouldn't be very selfish and only look out for me as number one, right? But we are to love our neighbors as ourself. What jesus is talking about is very practical and applies to Many of the ten commandments right do not murder do not steal do not commit adultery.

These are all examples of how To love others that we refrain from. I mean we wouldn't uh harm ourselves, right? We we wouldn't take some of our money out of our pocket make a big chunk of change out of our you know.

Here's five hundred dollars i'm gonna go, you know, drop it down the sewer grate, you know, or or give it to the government. You know, so we wouldn't do that. So why would we steal from others? So jesus saying, you know, love your neighbor as yourself.

Now, how is the neo-paganism at work here? Where's the witchcraft here when it says, you know, love yourself. So what's your sense kyle andrew about the way that the world uses the term love?

Crowley, The Book of the Law, and "Do What Thou Wilt"

So i've done some studying on Alistair crowley who was maybe the most celebrated satanist of the 20th century early 1900s where he was most active he wrote. I say he wrote. He's credited as writing but claims it was a.

Channeled.

Book writings from the other side about the book of the law. And in the book of the law It there's a quotation that says do what thou wilt is the whole of the law law under love. So self-love is doing as you will and extending that into reality.

So I heard some conceptions of on valentine's day Love yourself.

Man don't forget to love yourself. Yeah, it sure does sound like.

My identity. Whatever I want to do to indulge it. Is what I should do and therefore that's love. So i'm going to love myself by indulging. Anything I feel like doing. Whatever I will to do.

You've heard of name it claim it in the neo-pagan conception of love it's name it approve it. So love yourself means name anything about yourself and you must approve it to celebrate it. Give it two thumbs up five stars all the way.

Which is why we have all these different isms and classes and Intersectionalities and so on and so forth. So I saw a little clip of somebody reading 45 identifiers about themselves. Right, this is their identity, you know, they're all of these little isms.

They're all these little ists. They're all these little things. All put together and so they they're loving themselves everything about themselves. They approve of. I find that sometimes I I have a sexual proclivity towards.

Towards men now. It's women now. I'm not sure um, sometimes I Scratch myself and bark like a dog. Sometimes, you know, I have these certain types of thoughts. Also. I'm overweight. I'm all these different things, you know, my ankle hurts and so all of these different things i'm going to name about myself.

All these different things i've been everything I identify. Is me and so i'm going to prove it all name it all prove it all because i'm going to love myself and celebrate myself. And anything that I can identify in the self is something I am to love and approve of and to rejoice in.

And.

I must not change. What is this? This is exactly what romans 1 says. In exchanging the truth for the lie and worshiping and serving the creature rather than the creator. They are treating the self as the absolute.

The self is the absolute and the self must be celebrated worshiped adored and revered. They do unto themselves what only god deserves. This is what god deserves. That every single thing who god is that he is righteous and loving and and pure and holy uh that he is immutable and that he is Impeccable impeccable.

That he is indivisible. That all these things about god. Every single one of those things we praise and honor and adore and revere. But this love of the self bit.

Is.

Witchcraft redefining love redefining self. So that we are adoring the ultimate of the individual person ourselves. It's idolatry, it's.

It's false worship placing the self upon the throne.

Postmodern Self-Expression and the Packaging of Self-Love

Yes, would you say it's the motto of post-modernism? In terms of I'm worth it. Yeah, and that's just another way to say, you know love yourself. It's a great tagline when you're trying to sell a product to somebody.

Well, where else do you gotta go with post-modernism?

It's only you trapped in your world with your own thoughts and nobody else can understand you and you can't understand anybody else. So it's it's just me myself and I in here and and who knows if anything is real.

Okay, so if you're reduced to the self. As the only point of meaning right so that it's all reader response. What does this art mean to me? What does this text mean to me? What does anybody's words mean to me?

Then it's the deification and the glorification of the self. And how much in our pop literature do we see that? It's only when only when? The hero or the heroine or whoever it is in crisis. Finally stops listening to everybody else.

And only listens to themself. And only and then finally gives in to really embracing. Everything there is about themself that finally they break through. And they become who they really should be and they win the day.

I mean that is the literature of that's the literature of the day. Love yourself means. Affirm worship and adore the self as the absolute Right. No, right. No wrong. No rules for me. Let it all go. So on and so forth.

Do you think i'm about to light a really short fuse. Here are particular genders. Uh susceptible to this.

The love of self. Yes. Well, which one of the 45 are you talking about? Oh, that's right.

I'm, sorry about that. If we were to biblically look at genders. Yes. Men or women are they more susceptible to fall for the lie of self-love?

I don't know equal. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I can answer that. I think that I think that uh, the way that self-love is sold Is different with men and women. The way it's packaged. Yes the way it's packaged and I think and I think that that is in itself An acknowledgement of their two genders is because these this this self-love Uh religion is sold differently.

To men and then to women, can you give an example of both?

Self-Love, Gender, and the Lie of Affirmation

Yeah, so I would say for instance the whole the whole heavyweight movement about how. You know. It's good to be overweight. Right, and you can't even say you can't see overweight or whatever. But to be a sizist is bad and so on and so forth if you're 450 pounds.

You need to own that and you're beautiful. Okay, no matter what they say, yeah, yeah, so that's that's sold to women. That doesn't play well with men. You don't see 450 pound men. You know. Stretching out in their underwear saying look how beautiful I am.

Okay, that's what the women are doing. Okay, so it's being sold to them in a certain way whereas with the man. You know self-love is more like. You know. Doing what you really enjoy and don't give a care about what everybody else says just go do it.

You know that kind of thing. So it's about you know getting in everybody's faces and just being you. I think with a man. It's going to be sold as don't listen to anybody right, and then with the women it's like only listen to those who will.

Who will say what you want them to say and you say it too. It's more of a group Think than it is for the man. Yeah, I think.

Being a man myself. I mean it always goes back for me to ephesians chapter 5. What am I called to do? As a man a husband and a father. As a father modeling this to my kids. What does it mean to love my wife?

We're talking about love. I'm laying down my life For her and just as we talked about earlier just as christ. Laid down his life for the church. It is a daily dying. We daily die to our sin just like christ, but we're dying In ourselves for the sake of our wives.

In going to work right in doing the hard things as the men. That's that's love.

Right and there's things that are going away right like if think about love in the neo-pagan conception. Love is retaining everything. And affirming everything in you. In order to love others you have to love yourself, right?

So you have to accept everything in you so that you can accept everything and everybody else. But when you you just read that definition. About how the husband is laying down his life for the wife as christ laid down his life for the church.

We have to lay things aside we have to give things up. We've got to leave them behind in order to love and then christ loves the church. And he washes her with the water of the word, which means what there's stuff in the church That needs to be left behind and loving our wives means that there's going to be some times.

We're going to be talking with them From the word of god and saying look there's some things that need to be left behind. So it's not love means I affirm everything about me. I lose nothing. I affirm everything about you and you lose nothing.

It's i'm laying down my life. Sacrificing many things about me to be for you for your good in the right way, even if it costs me. And I love you, which means there are things about you Which need to go away?

Right exactly because that's the standard of truth that we're in if I don't love you then I don't care. Right god loved jacob and he hated esau. He did not let jacob rest in his deceitful Manipulative ways he hounded jacob until he limped for the rest of his life for the recognition that god is god and he was not.

But god hated esau and god let esau just go be esau. Now this is how wicked the definition of love is today by the pagan witchcraft of the day god's hatred Is manifest by just letting people be who they are.

The world's definition of love is Letting people be who they are. That's how twisted it is.

Recommended Books on Economics, Speculation, and Christian Communities

Well.

What have you been reading listening to?

Watching.

That you'd like to share about.

Oh, I got a great book. Uh lent to me by kyle Is how an economy grows and why it crashes by peter schiff and andrew that's great. Yeah, peter schiff's a good author. All right. Well, i'm you've already read this.

I bet he's a gold monetarist. Okay, awesome. Well, i'm enjoying it. It's giving me ideas of how to teach my kids and I do fun things and um, i'm a big board game aficionado. So i'm thinking about various board games that do a good job of showing a microcosm of economy.

I'm planning on playing some of these games with my kids and then explaining things. And identifying those mechanisms when we come by them. So i'm really looking forward to it, but it's a really fun read.

It's easy to get your head around.

And.

Economics is one of those subjects that I know I could learn a lot more about and this is a great book. How an economy Grows and why it crashes. Peter schiff. It's a it's a helpful little primer.

All right, so the book that I would like to talk about is a Strangely on the economics theme. It's a book called devil take the hindmost by edward chancellor. And it's an overview of financial speculation and the consistent boom and bust cycle that's brought on by financial speculation.

It's.

Informative in many ways as to What to look for in economies that are experiencing speculative cycles but also it hints at Where true value lies and that true value will be seen. And those who As warren buffett might put it who are swimming naked when the tide goes out.

We're going to see that they have no clothes on.

Yep.

As far as what i've been reading, um. Any of you who may lurk on my social media at some point in time know that i'm have an affinity for doug wilson. Ever since his documentary came out in 2009 collision um just blew me away in terms of his ability to articulate Reasonable arguments boldly up against somebody.

I've always always loved doug wilson. And so this is a book that i'd actually just finished a couple days ago put out last year gash mu Sayeth it. The subtitle of it is how to build christian communities That save the world.

And his goal in in writing this really is a couple different reasons. The first is kind of to refute maybe some of the critics who come out and say.

Well.

Christian communities that sounds kind of like a cult. That doesn't sound very christian. That doesn't sound very new testament. That doesn't sound very you know get into the world like Yeast and and work into it and it sounds like you're separating yourself off.

And then he also wrote it really as a matter of principles for pastors and church leaders. The need for Christians today particularly within our culture to be that remnant that remains. As the culture continues to spiral out of control.

One of the quotes from the the epilogue that he puts he says. We're living in a time when all the wheels appear to be coming off. Pharaoh's chariots. But this should not distress us because we are israelites and we're already standing on the opposite shore.

I thought that was. I thought that was pretty good. But it's not really filled with practical methods necessarily. For building christian communities, but he has a lot of principles in there like the idea of the medieval city with the cathedral at the center.

And wherever you are in that city when you look up. Your view is dominated by that spire. That's going up to heaven and so that affects. The way that you do your work. It gets into ideas of the governments that god has instituted on earth the government of the family the government of the church the government of civil government.

And how they interact with one another within the context of building these christian communities. You know what the church is supposed to do in speaking truth into those other governments. And yet the church is not the father the church is not the civil magistrate dealing out punishment.

But it still has a lot to say to those spheres. It's just a really good read. I would commend it to you Gashmu sayeth it how to build christian communities that save the world.

And that wraps it up for today. We're always very thankful for our listeners tuning in every week and for supporting us by rating Reviewing and sharing the show and we hope you can join us again for another week of uncovering and rebuking witchcraft in the modern world.