Once again this series of real life stories has the theme of Indigenous artefacts and the resultant chaos that occurs when they are brought into the homes of naïve westerners.
Last week we talked about the ‘cursed keyring’. This weeks story is about relics that had been in a family for years.
Often when someone we love dies, we cherish the things they collected in their lifetimes. It reminds us of what they did and who they were. Sometimes it’s furniture, books, antiques or other collectibles. Other times they are items from another culture they visited.
That is where our story begins..
Years ago ‘P’ lost his beloved father and grief stricken he kept his dad’s items in storage. ‘P’ was married with three beautiful kids and a senior position in aviation – life was going well - but he mourned for his dad and began to go through his old belongings.
He found an old Aboriginal midden (used to store and cook shellfish) and a glass jar full of colourful sand in layers – with distinct images of birds between the layers. He remembered this was known as magic sand and was meant to have spiritual meaning to the Aboriginals. He placed the midden at the back door of his family home, at the base of the steps. The magic sand was placed inside the house.
From that point onwards It took many months for ‘P’ to raise the subject with me, but when he did the events that were taking place at his house sounded very familiar.
“Baz, can you and the elders come and pray for my house, there are twenty pound weights being thrown around downstairs when no one is down there, wind out windows are opening and closing of their own accord and footsteps that come up the back stairs, then go onto the roof and over our room happen all the time”? I confirmed these events with his wife and noting that this sounded very unusual indeed promised to organise a team to do deliverance prayer at his house. This was at a time when CCAPSG did not have an investigative arm or equipment to check for other natural phenomenon. We treated it with what we had – faith.
The elders of the Church did go and pray, but I did not due to other things that were on. ‘P’ was upset with me for not coming and rang me to let me know. I explained my absence and as we sorted things out amicably, firstly on the phone and them over coffee more of the story came out.
The events had not subsided.
Even worse, now a dark cloud of ‘malevolence’ had crept up the stairs at night, a phenomenon that was palpable to the point that ‘P’ could trace it’s journey as it moved up the three levels of the house.
The footsteps continued as did night terrors and they always emanated from the area where the midden was. Strange behaviour by Ravens in the area around the midden only intensified the feelings that they were being watched all the time.
Then the penny dropped. All the occurrences started when the midden and magic sand was brought into the house.
We discussed it and ‘P’ decided he needed to get rid of the items.
Guess what?
As soon as they were removed the phenomenon also ceased.
When I became a Christian in 2000, I had a lot of stuff in my house that had been used ceremonially (for example animal fetishes) as my wife worked in a Native American Art Gallery.. We simply got rid of those items and kept the others that had not. We were simply more aware of what had gone on in my wife’s house as a child and realised we wanted a clean house with no unwelcome visitors. This is not a ‘fundamentalist’ mindset – it’s common sense when you have experienced horrific phenomenon before that was linked to a ceremonial item. I hope this story encourages us to be on guard and realise that at times we need to do what was done in the book of Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament.
From Acts 19:11-20 (NIV)
11God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
13Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." 14Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15(One day) the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
17When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. 19A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.[a] 20In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
Let me make this clear - by no means are we encouraging people to randomly destroy items from other cultures which can be so rich in history, art and legacy, but to be very discerning about what you buy or allow yourself to inherit and what you put in your house. It’s important to realize that when something gets in to our lives through those entry points that we can’t let the financial cost of the item dictate whether it has permission to stay in our homes – the long term cost is far greater in the toll it can take on our families.
By Pastor Baz
