It is clearly written in Sacred Scripture as a strong command and warning from God:
"'Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God." (Leveticus 19:31)And clearly the penalty is grave:
"If anyone goes for advice to people who consult the spirits of the dead I will turn against him and will no longer consider him one of my People." (Leviticus 20:6)
"He practiced divination and magic and consulted fortune-tellers and mediums. He sinned greatly against the Lord and stirred up his anger." (2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chronicles 33:6, Samuel 28.3-25.)
To understand what exactly consulting spirits entail we need to understand what DIVINATION is all about.
The
seeking after knowledge of future or hidden things (including from past events)
by inadequate means is divination. The means being inadequate they must, therefore, be
then supplemented by some power which is represented all through history as coming from gods or evil spirits. In Catholic understanding, all forms of
divination are from the evil one. (St. Thomas
Aquinas, S.T. II IIae, q.95; CCC
2116, 2117) Hence, the word divination has a sinister signification. As
prophecy is the lawful knowledge of the future, divination, its superstitious
counterpart, is the unlawful. As magic aims to do, divination aims to know.
Divination is practically as old as the human race. It is found in every age
and country.
In the Philippines, among the commonly recognized practitioners of
divination include the mantatawas (augurers),
manghuhulas (fortune-tellers), espiritistas (mediums) and the water witch. Everywhere divination
flourished and nowhere, even today, is it completely neglected.
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