CASE STORY: 24 Albularyos = 24 Demons = 24 Curses

There was this case of a grandmother in her 60s who was referred to us from the south. From all external appearances the woman is healthy, normal, with comfortable life, successful children, happy marriage, devout Catholic, good neighbor. But deep within the life story of the woman was a spiritual struggle that goes back to even before she was born.

She and her ancestors, parents and grandparents all come from a very rural place where the people are baptized catholics, attend catholic religious services, consider themselves devout, but side-by-side with their catholicism is the strong belief in and fear of engkantos (elementals), aswangs (human eating witches and warlocks), anitos (deities of nature), and the observance of pamahiins (superstitions).

According to her narrative, she was offered to the anitos by her grandparents even before she was born. This was done through a ritual made by local healers or shamans (albularyos). The purpose was to prevent miscarriage and protect the mother and unborn child from the mischief of the aswangs and engkantos of the forests, streams, and rivers which surround the village. The pregnancy went well without any hardships and the grandparents and parents attributed it to the protection brought about by the ritual. When the child was born, before she was even baptized, the grandparents as a sign of thanksgiving to the anitos, offered her again to them through another ritual of offering.

Apparently, the growing up from infancy to toddler to childhood was uneventful, or ordinary. The grandparents and parents did not see anything weird or wrong when she would be seen laughing or playing with invisible or imaginary playmates. For the rural folks of her village, this was nothing to worry about, after all she has been offered to the anitos and hence she is protected from molesting spirits. How unfortunate really that their christian and catholic formation remained in a very infantile stage. Had they known that what they did is sinful and offensive to Almighty God, they would not have observed those idolatrous and superstitious activities.

Artist's conception of a Kaprehttp://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/155/9/5/kapre_and_girl_line_art_by_polidread-d3i00fu.jpg

When the girl was five years old, she was found crying and screaming in the middle of the night and reported seeing a kapre (ogre, an elemental that looked like a hairy tall-man who is believed to fancy prepubescent girls and virgins) inside her room. The experience traumatized her so much that this would become a haunting nightmare every so often. Probed further by the grandparents and mother, she reported that she was molested by the kapre. This surprised the elders because she should not have experienced this as she is supposed to be protected by the anitos. Following that experience, her grandparents brought her regularly to local shamans to be healed. When the nightmares have ceased, she was declared well, the kapre has been forbidden to return, and she grew up as a normal teenager able to go to school and get a decent education.

It would be many many years before the attacks would again commence. The first time was during Holy Week. And then every Holy Week thereafter. She did not know the meaning of why Holy Week would be the chosen time for the attacks to come. She would later be told that it was Holy Week then when she was born. And on the Good Friday of that year she was offered to the anitos. The attacks would take the form of a nightmare, followed by a scream of terror and then entering into a trance-like state, and the experience of something or someone molesting her. When asked what she dreamed of after getting out of the trance-like state, she would recount the kapre entering through the window and then come inside her room and molest her. When they moved into the city of the province, she was brought to the doctor for checkup a couple of times but there was nothing they found suspicious that would be considered medically significant. In short, she was well physically. If there was anything at all that was troubling, it would be the holy week attacks but after that she would be perfectly alright. These attacks came year-in and year-out every Holy Week even when she got married and had children.

Although she considered herself a faithful and practicing a catholic, she confessed that her faith in God and knowledge of the teachings of the Catholic Church were never developed. Like her ancestors, she would often consult albularyos for her ailments especially those related to the kapre. In one visit to the albularyo, it was revealed to her that she has an engkanto accompanying her wherever she goes. Moreover, she is also married to a kapre. The engkanto is her protector for the purpose of keeping her safe as she is the bride of the kapre. She accepted this diagnosis and just lived with it all through out her adult life. But it seemed to her that every year the attacks have become more and more intense such that she feared Holy Week. Instead of it becoming a moment for serious reflection, prayer, and penance it would be a fearful week for her. She also realized that if she begged the Lord for healing and deliverance, the more the attack intensified. She would not simply feel being molested, but feel also of insect-like creatures are entering her body through various orifices. These freaked her out and brought her to near insanity had it not been for the loving and patient support of her family especially the husband and children. All of these are invisible of course, no one can see it except for the albularyos. All in all she could count about 24 different albularyos she has consulted. All of them gave the same diagnosis of her ailment. They gave her various talismans and anting-antings in order to lessen the effect of the engkanto's presence. What was hidden was that the attacks seemed to have intensified a lot and the insect-like invisible creature crawling on her began when she had two cases of abortions early in the pregnancy. What was also clear during the attacks was the presence of a spirit of lust of which she could not explain, but it constantly bombarded her mind of lascivious thoughts and images.

Her eyes were opened to the truth when she and her husband began being active in church activities and joining church groups active in christian faith formation and biblical apostolate. She saw how wicked her life was, how far it was from God because of her superstitious ways. She saw how her grandparents and parents in their ignorance allowed themselves to be under the power of the evil one because of their occult and magic ways. Alas, she could not do anything for them for they have all passed-away. She could only beg the Lord to have mercy on their poor souls. But she could still do something for her and her family here and now. She underwent a conversion process that was very painful. It was painful because, the albularyos she went to heard from others that she has renounced them as instruments of the devil. Now they in turn, as a sign of their anger, sent her curses and blocking whatever spiritual liberation she was seeking. Indeed, it seemed that spiritual solace and healing was slow in coming. But she did not give up but intensified her prayer life. She begged the Lord for forgiveness and repented of her wicked ways. She went to confession and renounced her superstitious past and the abortions. She was grateful for the forgiveness received but it was only the beginning. She knew that in the many decades of her immersion in occult practices it has taken hold of her soul. But she did not give up, she was confident that God will never abandon her. She held on to her Catholic faith, that God is Almighty, and that there is no curse that He could not break. She also developed a deep devotion to Our Lady and her Rosary, and begged her to accept her as one of her own children, unworthy as she is because of sinful ways. She now offered and surrendered everything to the Lord. "Holy Week is approaching what will happen next?", she thought.

She brought her case to her parish priest, who recommended that they ask help from AMOE. At the Archdiocese of Manila Office of Exorcism, there were many cases lined up for pray-overs plus a process to go through. But AMOE saw her case as meriting immediate attention as Lent is already before us and in a few weeks time Holy Week. So she was scheduled for exorcism. And I was asked if I could take her in. I said yes.

During the pray-over day, I saw the grandmother weeping and begging for help. I said it is only the Lord who heals the broken-hearted and sets captives free. And if she has faith nothing is impossible. We started the prayers at 10:30 in the morning. I told her to open her heart to forgive all those who have offended her in whatever manner, to offer them all to the Lord. I gave her a set of prayers to say before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. To my wondrous surprise she named out loud the people that caused her so much pain. She told the Lord that she forgives them and asked His grace repeatedly to help her truly forgive. She asked the Lord to bless them and save them. I led her to a prayer of healing of inter-generational sickness and curses and then inner healing. With copious tears, she begged the Lord for mercy and help. And turning to the image of Our Lady of Fatima, she prayed beseeching the Blessed Mother to undo all the knots in her life. I asked her to once more renounce Satan with confidence, to renounce all unholy soul ties she had with all the witch doctors associated with her life, to renounce the unholy soul ties formed between her and her parents and grand parents because of the occult practices.

Then, I told the lady to seat and I will pray for her. I started with the anointing of her senses and minor exorcisms, including the breaking of unholy soul ties, seals, consecrations, and curses. There were minor twitches in her reactions nothing much. I prayed the eastern catholic exorcism prayers connected with the breaking of all occult powers, sorcery, and magic. We noticed some minor reactions. I continued praying and praying for her. It was about 12:30 p.m. when I asked for a brief pause so that the team can discern.

In our discernment these are the spirits that were clearly present:

• an ogre-like creature, giant, very hairy, piercing jealous eye
• a witch-like creature holding an infant and nursing it with poison
• a demon with tall standing horns
• snakes around her legs, arms, waist, neck
• a tall thin man with many sores
• a woman offering an infant
• bugs and insects crawling out of her
• and a snake around my waste and biting my private parts

These are simply images that present itself to those members of the team who were given at that moment by the Holy Spirit the gift of discernment of spirits. From these we can identify demons of the occult, the elementals (kapre and engkanto), the anito that received the child offering, the demon of lust, the curses brought about by sorcery and witchcraft, the demon of abortion, the demon of hatred and anger, and the demon of retaliation attacking the priest.

Artist's conception of a demon of Divination --Botis.
http://www.smilingdemon.com/PANDEMONIUM/80-DEMON_BOTIS.htm
Note the spikes and horns, they pierce through the soul deeply.
The power of divination is intoxicating and addicting.

Having an idea of what we were up against, we proceeded with the solemn exorcism. It was a non-stop prayer of exorcism, interspersed with praises of God, supplication to the Almighty, supplication to Our Blessed Lady and Saint Michael. We begged the Lord Jesus to glorify His Holy Name so that the old woman may come to believe in Him who died and rose for her sake. We commanded the demons to depart identifying them one by one --occult, witchcraft, sorcery, lust, hatred, anger, abortion. Again and again we exorcised them in the name of Jesus, using the prescribed prayers of the Roman Ritual. We reached until exorcism prayer five --three from the old form, and two from the new. It was 1:45 p.m. I called for another discernment period. This time around, the discernment was very positive. The demons are nowhere in sight. Have they all been sent back to hell? Is she completely liberated?

There was one thing more to do, which was the Closing of the Occult Third Eye of the Spirit of Divination. It went by very smoothly, no twitching no reaction. The old lady cried during prayer. I asked her why she was crying. She said that for the very first time in her life, she felt very light and truly loved by God. One final act was her consecration to Our Lady. With love she prayed the prayer of consecration, I then anointed her and her senses to signify the sealing of her entire person for God. We closed with an Infilling Prayer for her and Cleansing Prayer for all of us. We gave her final instructions and closed at 2:30 p.m.

Jesus heals the woman with bleeding for 12 years (Luke 8:43)

In all honesty, learning of how the old lady was entrenched in the occult, gave me an initial impression that the exorcism would be violent and difficult and that it would involve multiple sessions of exorcism. But I was wrong. The Lord has really shown mercy on the woman. He has seen her sincerity. She prepared herself spiritually. Her faith was genuine. Her surrender, complete. She did not hide anything from the Lord, she renounced every sin, every evil relationship for our hearing. The Lord has taken pity and saw her faith. He touched her and she knew it from her heart. This was like the gospel story of the woman who was suffering for 12 years with a bleeding, and lost all her fortune to the doctors who could not cure her. She surrendered her fate to Jesus in touching the helm of his garment and she was healed. Her faith has healed her.

Today Holy Week starts. May this be the start of truly a new Holy Week for her. A Holy Week of being one with Jesus in His act of supreme love for all humanity and the triumph of His Resurrection.

LESSONS LEARNED:

1. All superstition is dangerous. It weakens faith slowly. It attributes power to unclean spirits, fears them more, than fearing and loving God more.
2. Occult practitioners may claim that their power is from God, but this is simply a lie. If they can heal, they can also send terrible curses for their power is in fact from the evil one.
3. Asking for body or spiritual relief from occult practitioners deepen the enslavement to the power of the evil one. Even if one gets healed, the healing is temporary, the attack will come back with a bigger bang because of spiritual complacency.
4. Real spiritual preparation on the part of the afflicted is a big factor in the spiritual healing and liberation of the afflicted.
5. The exorcist and all those who assist in the ministry are identified enemies of the Evil One. And therefore subject to attack and retaliation. But Jesus never abandons His priests and all those who assist him.