By Dare Oduwole
“Thou shall not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shall not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shall thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgement:” (Exodus 23:1-2).
The presiding reverend of my church is a peaceable northern clergyman and I find quite thought-provoking a poignant prayer he would offer in the course of every Sunday worship service, offering this prayer with an infectious passion while the entire congregation would drop into a disconcerting silence and here is the prayer, ‘Lord, save our children from initiations into witchcraft.’
Being a father of three young children himself, I could appreciate his paternal concern for children but his ostensible neglect of adults on this subject is suggestive of an impression that adults can care for themselves in this wise.
The big question is, can adults care for themselves on a subject such as this? This question becomes necessary when you consider the number of adults who have been initiated into our native witchcraft, Hoodoo without understanding how the initiations occurred since many consider initiation into witchcraft as a children’s problem thereby warning their wards to avoid accepting foods and beverages from strangers at school. Many continue to hold this notion until they become a victim of the albatross themselves.
For instance, a customer of mine once explained to me in the course of shopping at her mercenary how one would imagine the initial realities of the astral realm as a dream, the first experience so surreal and leaving one dazed.
Also, recently in the course of chatting with a mature lady, whom I considered knowledgeable and a pure Christian, she said a prayer that flustered me when she prayed, ‘May the Lord forgive all who got initiated into witchcraft without understanding how’.
This nature of outbursts is all too common among the non-consenting members of Hoodoo in our society and unfortunately implies that Hoodoo agents initiate the simple without educating or seeking their permission before initiating the process of transition.
With this being the case, we can safely conclude that the Hoodoo world is not a world into which the sound-minded would agree to be recruited with some reasonable education or instruction thereby necessitating a crafty process of initiation.
While there are various witchcraft types around the world (including Astrology, necromancy, Wiccan, Illuminati, Freemasonry, etc), many of these witchcraft types involved their process of initiation wooing, and education of a prospective member, and the consent of the intending member making the posture of Hoodoo a poor representation of witchcraft practices around the world.
This covert initiation process underscores the need for all genuine Christians to be instructed about the common methods often employed by Hoodoo agents to initiate the innocent in society, and also appreciate that once initiated, withdrawal from the group becomes almost impossible as any attempt to withdraw would lead to premature and tragic death occasioned by Hoodoo members posing unfortunately as friends, acquaintances, colleagues and most sadly family.
Furthermore, as common to African women, I was presented with my ‘Hoodoo story’ when I was in my twenties.
What is a Hoodoo story? Well, a Hoodoo story is a phenomenal experience in the course of the lifetime of an African woman or man that serves as a precursor to initiation into a Hoodoo coven, our cultural heritage. It was time for me to be married but this was proving difficult as I continued to experience a series of broken relationships. After several failed attempts, I was advised by my closest friend at the time to seek counsel from some ‘seer pastors’ and since I knew none, my friend suggested one following my friend’s advice I visited this pastor who prayed with me, saw visions and counselled me accordingly leaving me hopeful that all would be well.
For a couple of weeks after this counselling session, I continued to experience a daily forgetfulness of dreams and found this condition worrisome since dreams were a prominent part of my spiritual life. I prayed fervently about this situation then one night I had a dream that marked the end of the problem.
In this dream, I was travelling alongside my said friend on a most beautiful and traffic-free highway when my friend suggested that we should leave the highway due to its distance to our destination and instead use a trail in the bush for quicker access to our destination.
I agreed and we both left the highway and began following this trail until farther into the bush when we came upon several dogs. These ferocious and terrifying dogs delayed us with their barking and howling such that we could neither proceed on our journey nor return to the highway. We were stuck with these dogs until I woke up.
With these singular dreams, the Lord counselled me to steer clear of ‘seer pastors’ as they would lead me to the land of witchcraft where I’ll neither receive what I was seeking nor be able to return to the highway of Christ.
I have continued to respect this counsel to date and thereby kept myself out of the way of Hoodoo witchcraft. While the journey on the highway of Christ is not always easy, remaining firmly with the Lord is laden with enviable benefits.
Considering our Bible text above which says, ‘thou shall not follow a multitude to do evil’, Be advised that Hoodoo is an evil from which we should all steer away especially because it tends to lead adherents to live wickedly and contrary to God, and for those scrupulous souls who continue to wonder how their initiation process occurred, be informed that a single bout of counselling session with a ‘Seer Pastor’ operating by familiar spirits is often the doorway to Hoodoo, presenting itself firstly through the forgetfulness of dreams and later through having Déjà vu-like dreams and finally astral projection.
It is important to quickly interrupt this process of initiation by private fasting and prayer before it becomes late. While the agent ‘Pastor’ may be a church pastor or guest minister, other Hoodoo agents are operating via social media using Facebook and WhatsApp prayer groups to initiate many.
Intriguingly, many Christians who consulted with native priests to facilitate marriage escaped initiations while those who visited with ‘Pastors’ on the same subject were wickedly initiated, and while the native priest is honest about his identity and rarely initiates anyone at first consultation (and indeed native priests initiate into Hoodoo when a client makes repeated consultations rather than accept the unfair realities of life.
For instance, a client who consulted with a native priest to be married should be ready to accept barrenness from the deities), these crafty Hoodoo-promoting ‘Pastors’ are impostors making Christians more susceptible to their wiles; using demonic fasting and prayer, the Psalms and demonic worship songs to carry out nefarious acts of initiation often in the process of counselling on marital issues.
Considering these realities in our society, it is advisable for Christians to seek counsel cautiously as counselling has led many to Hoodoo land while those who seek the face of the Lord in the privacy of their homes have remained notably uninitiated.
Dare Oduwole is a Nouthetic Christian Counsellor and founder of Godly Counsel Christian Foundation, Abuja. She can be contacted via 08027291632.
