The recourse to magic and esoteric spiritualities is the symptom of a void that the soul seeks to fill at all costs. Conversely, notes the philosopher Jeanne Larghero, the faith which brings one into a relationship with God is accompanied by inner peace.
“The misfortune of our contemporaries is not to believe in anything: their misfortune is to believe in everything and anything, in anyone,” said the English writer Gilbert Keith Chesterton. This remark has not aged a bit. Esotericism, spiritualism, magic, witches and marabouts of all kinds have invaded the shelves of bookstores and social networks. France now has more marabouts than priests, and more than six thousand “fire cutters” (Jean-Luc Caradeau, Cutters of fire and healers of secrets ).
Substitution powers
Apprentice sorcerers are flourishing on the Internet: for a few dozen euros, you can obtain kits including plants, potions, magic formulas, dolls and needles, all accompanied by the explanatory rite. A simple massage reserved at the local beauty salon will earn you many explanations on the opening of your chakras, the rebalancing of your energies, pendulum to boot.
When faith in the God who loves us and can do all things disappears, the heart and soul turn to substitute powers.
Moments of religious crisis are conducive to the development of credulity. When faith in the God who loves us and can do all things disappears, the heart and soul turn to substitute powers. The recourse to magic and esoteric spiritualities is the symptom of a void that the soul seeks to fill at all costs. So what ? Is it that dangerous?
Inner Peace
Yes. There is a financial cost: we know, for example, that the victims of psychics are legion. There is a psychological cost: followers of these practices make the search for bodily and mental well-being the very center of their existence, even if it means psychologically depending on a coach or a rite. But above all there is a spiritual cost: these caricatures of religion divert the spiritual impulse of the soul towards God. Spirituality is instrumentalized, with the aim of obtaining physical (healing) or mental (inner peace) benefit from it, as explained by Father Jean-Christophe Thibeau ( The New Faces of Esotericism , Artège 2022). However, the faith that brings us into a relationship with God is not credulity, it is not an adherence to promises of a better life, it does not guarantee us success in love or in business.
Faith is the path that leads us to the love of Christ, it offers us to live in the company of God, which most often, but not always because the devil is never far away, is accompanied by inner peace. As long as there are Christians who believe in the love of God victorious over evil, and who believe in the reality of the power of angels and the tactics of the devil, as long as there are Christians happy to know Jesus and love it, our children will find real reasons to live and hope.
