The Supernatural and Women in Ministry

     What is it about the female psyche that predisposes women to white magic, whether it be New Age or charismatic manifestations?

To hazard a guess, I believe the female predisposition can be traced back to the days of Noah, when fallen angels broke through the dimensional barriers of the spirit and began to communicate and then copulate with women.  Simply put, fallen angels find it easier to contact us.  In fact, women have tremendously facilitated the enemy’s passing from the 4^thdimension into the third one. Consequently, it is not accidental that women have been prominent agents of both white magic and the charismatic movement as Satan has continued his enmity between his demonic army  and the seed of women for several centuries, up to and including the present. The snake is well-known and universally symbolic of  Satan, devils and demons. In the bible, the python snake is specifically associated with divination(Acts 16). No one can deny that the first biblically  recorded human being to converse with a fallen angel—THE SNAKE— was Eve.  In fact, in Genesis Chapter 3, God pronounced and predicted a life-long battle between the female gender and Satan where Eve’s desire to lead is constantly challenged.  Therefore, it should not be surprising that the enemy would target women in a significant way to promote his own agenda. Perhaps the main subject of a future book, I merely  highlight the role that women have played in both the New Age and the charismatic movements for the intents and purposes of this article.

First consider that the new age movement as we know it today was actually founded by two women:  Helen Blavatsky (1891) and Alice Bailey.  (1919-1949).  Having studied in Tibet and trained by various masters in Theosophy, Blavatsky spread Theosophy around the word from 1875 until her death in 1891.   Theosophy is  a mix of Hinduism, Buddhism, Spiritualism, and Gnostic Christianity, with Masonic rituals, and a systematic criticism of Christianity, Judaism and Islam… all based in the visions and revelations that Mme. Blavatsky had by the “Mahatmas” of Tibet, and the Spiritualism she practiced in the USA.[1]The “Mahatmas” are the “Great White Fraternity.” Among them are Buddha, Krishna, and the fake Jesus… The Theosophists try to get in contact with them by  all kinds of occultism, connected to the false assumption that God is mere “energy”; Notwithstanding,  this pseudo-religion acknowledges  a plethora of Hindu gods, to whom  followers worship  at make-shift altars in the  home.  In Theosophy, each man and woman is “God”… though they cannot make stars nor atoms!… but it is believed that  through many reincarnations, they will realize that they are “God.”  Theosophy teaches that Jesus Christ was divine only in the same sense that you and I are divine, and eventually, we will all be divine.[2]

 Under the influence of both Blavatsky, the nineteenth century is characterized by an  increased interest in the occult and the supernatural, particularly in regards to necromancy, the communication with the dead.  Actually, women were its main agents, perhaps due to the barriers for women in leadership roles  within the organized church.  Spiritualism, as this movement was called, carved a place for women in leadership roles.  In 1848, the Fox sisters—Margaret, Leah and Catherine—, reported hearing spirit rappings in their Arcadia NY home.  As a result, these sisters became a driving force in American spiritualism.  They organized “performances” in which they manifested their psychic abilities.[3]These performances included communication with spirits, called channeling.  Channeling occurs by the use of a planchette or a Ouija Board.  Called a talking board, its first use emerged in the 19^th century as a product of  spiritualism.  A planchette is a wooden board.  In his book, “Final Events,” the author summarizes “the talking board.”

“Methods of divination that existed at that time utilized a variety of ways to spell out messages, including swinging a pendulum over a plate that had letters carefully positioned around the edge, or by using a table to indicate letters drawn on the floor.”[4] Channeling enables spiritualists to enter into an altered state of consciousness, in which a trance is entered and the spiritualist or medium plays host— or in most cases—,hostess to a specific entity, which may be an angel, a demon, an extraterrestrial or a dead relative who speaks through the medium or channel.  Very often, the voice is extremely distorted or exaggerated, wherein the listeners are provided with words of wisdom, or spiritual comfort, yet it is nothing but vile deceit. [5] In 1915, Alice Bailey was introduced to Theosophy.  Once a Sunday School teacher in a Presbyterian church, Bailey’s studies ultimately led her to become a channel for fallen angels. In fact, Alice Bailey is renowned by New Age occultists, revered as “the Mother of the New Age Movement.”[6]

On the Christian Church side of the supernatural, beginning with Marie Woodworth Etter, faith healing and evangelist: (1844-1924), we find  one of the best known Holiness preachers of the pre-Pentecostal era. From around 1885 onwards she began to use the charismatic gifts in her meetings, and was known for healings, trances and visions. Licensed to preach in 1884, Etter was the mega preacher of her day in tent revivals. Her critics called her “the Voodoo Priestess.” She was known for speaking in tongues, along with strange and sundry manifestations that were attributed to the movement of the Holy Ghost. Etter was was also  known for preaching texts out of context, preached regularly  for the Mormons, and seemed to be the person who started the phenomena known today  as “slain in the spirit.” Most of the manifestations common in present day meetings like the Toronto Blessing  were experienced in the Woodworth-Etter meetings, so much so that some critics of the current movement trace The Toronto blessing  back to Etter.

      Etter was certainly faithful to her calling and it appears that  she was  honest and sincere.  But as I  WROTE  in “Faces of the Religious Demon”,   “we are now living in an era when the Lord will turn over those with a religious demon to a reprobate mind.  At that moment,the captive’s thoughts will be permanently darkened to the degree that he becomes incapable of receiving the truth.  Within charismatic circles, several women were as equally prominent as Blavatsky, Bailey, and the Fox Sisters.  Case in point, just prior to the Azusa Street phenomena, there was a woman who studied under Charles Parham, the father of Pentecostalism, named Agnes Ozman.(1870-1937)  She is considered to be the first person in our times to speak in tongues on 1/1/1901. According to her fellow students, it was reported that a halo surrounded Agnes Ozman’s face and head while she spoke in a language that sounded like Chinese, but the language was not verified. In fact, it is reported that she could not speak in English for 3 full days and she could only write what appeared to be Chinese characters. A student of Charles Parham, considered the founder/father of Pentecostalism, Ozman eventually changed her views on tongues as being the absolute and only evidence of the baptism in the Holy Ghost—a view still held by present day Charismatics and Pentecostals.[7]

     Four years after Agnes Ozman’s supernatural manifestation of speaking in tongues,  the Charismatic/Pentecostal movement began on Azusa Street in 1905. Yet even before Azusa, other women were historically prominent, including but not limited to: Elizabeth Mix, Carrie Judd, Elizabeth and Lotti Sisson and Marie Woodworth-Etter.  Born in Buffalo NY in 1858, Carrie Judd received a healing through the ministry of Elizabeth Mix, an African American evangelist.  Eventually, Judd herself became a worldwide evangelist, where “Mother” Emma Whittemore claimed that she received healing of a long standing spinal injury through Judd’s ministry.  Judd also worked with well known Marie Woodworth Etter.  In 1885, Etter began conducting healing meetings that were known for physical “manifestations,” where she spoke  to crowds as large as 25,000.  Many of Etter’s followers joined the Pentecostal denomination known as the Assemblies of God.[8]

     The effects of the 1905 Azusa Street manifestations unleashed a chain of reaction where several women either initiated or figured prominently within the charismatic movement at the turn of the 20^th century.  Most noteworthy are Marie Woodworth Etter, Aimee Semple McPherson and Kathryn Kuhlman.  Every mega preacher, not only female but the men as well, have been influenced by the key women mentioned briefly in this article.  What does it all mean for us today? Well any woman who has had a supernatural experience that drew her into the ministry, she  needs to learn how to try the spirits to see if it be of God.  Women are also welcome to enroll in our ministerial training program called SEW. For more information, call 518-477-5759.

 Quotations taken from the New Idolatry. (softcover)Click the book cover for the ebook

Tags: eastern religions, Religion and Spirituality, the charismatic movement, the new age movement, the occult