Tag: Diviniation

‘I was dead inside’: Ex-astrologer on bold mission to slay evil, demonic forces after escaping witchcraft, New Age

By Billy Hallowell, Contributor

istock/Thanumporn Thongkongkaew

Tailah Scroggins felt dead inside. After growing up in a Christian home, she somehow fell into the occult, embracing astrology, witchcraft and the New Age.

But after embarking on a dark journey and losing the will to live, she had an incredible interaction with Jesus that changed everything.

Today, Scroggins is an online evangelist, writer, and truth-teller on a mission to help others escape evil. She recently shared her story with “Billy Hallowell’s Playing With Fire Podcast,” explaining how she was raised in a Christian home and believed in God before stumbling into the occult.

She said she was first introduced to the New Age in high school when someone she trusted in her family told her about astrology.

“They had this big … textbook of everything astrology, and they were like, ‘This describes my personality so perfectly — look what it says about you,’” Scroggins said. “I was caught off-guard, and I remember … I was like, ‘But how can this be true? If God created all of us and he made our personalities, how can a planet dictate my future or dictate my personality?’”

She said this was the first “seed of deception” the devil planted in her life, and her perspective started to shift. With her family friend stating God created astrology as a system “He put in order,” she started down what she now believes was a dangerous path.

“They provided me some explanation that was totally false, but I didn’t know the word of God enough,” Scroggins said. “I knew a lot about God, but I didn’t know … what the Bible said about the occult — about the darkness, about the battle. I just knew the good things, and so I became an astrologer.”

Scroggins spent 11 years as an astrologer, describing it as her “worldview” and “life.”

Still, she attended church and clung to some Christian ideas. She said the entire experience opened her up to “so much deception and confusion” as she lived life as a “lukewarm Christian” plagued by her occultic practices.

As Scroggins entered college, she said she was disappointed in God, feeling frustrated He hadn’t answered her wants and whims on her timeline.

“It’s spiritual immaturity,” she said of her perspective at the time. We don’t trust God’s timing, and so I’m young, I’m 18 at this time, and I’m mad — I’m mad that God didn’t open the door that I wanted Him to open, and that’s just kind of part of being a baby Christian.”

Her spiritual immaturity also led her to join in on the party lifestyle. Scroggins said “the enemy lied” and she “took his bait” and began down a negative path, getting drunk every weekend.

“The more I rebelled and lived in this party lifestyle, the more I craved astrology, the witchcraft, the divination, and all of that,” Scroggins said. “It was like this hunger exploded … it was like this black hole … I needed to be consuming it.”

She said depression soon took hold and suicidal thoughts reigned. Scroggins would find herself crying for two hours every day for no reason, as she grappled with the emptiness left by the abandonment of her relationship with the Lord.

Scroggins added, “It was like I had no reason to live.”

A family friend aware of her situation ended up intervening — and the experience brought Scroggins true healing. The woman was at Scroggins’ home one day, and she candidly spoke with the then-college student.

“She just looked at me one day, and she said, ‘Today is the day of your freedom,’ and I said, ‘OK, I don’t know what that means, but I have no will to live,’” Scroggins recalled. “I hadn’t attempted to do anything or take my life, but I was dead inside. And so I was like, ‘You can pray and do whatever you want to me because there’s nowhere else for me to go. I’m already at rock bottom,’ and so she prayed for me.”

Those invocations, which Scroggins described as “deliverance prayers,” had a profound impact. Scroggins said they “cast every spirit of death and depression out,” and she immediately felt “huge weights being lifted off.”

She now believes the entire experience was “supernatural,” leading her to a fruitful and meaningful relationship with Christ.

“The depression never came back, the suicidal thoughts never came back — ever,” she said. “It’s been over six years. I was delivered.”

Scroggins continued, “God completely healed me, set me free.”

Over time, she abandoned her occultic practices and clung close to Jesus. A few years later, though, she found herself alarmed by how many others were being enraptured by the same world she had escaped.

Scroggins said she was shocked during COVID-19 to see how interest in witchcraft, Tarot cards, crystals, and the occult exploded online.

“It grieved me because that was my story,” she said. “I was into New Age. I was into the false spirituality in witchcraft.”

Realizing she had been “set free … by Jesus,” she decided to counter occultic videos getting millions of views with content of her own that would instead point people toward Jesus.

“I was like, ‘I’m gonna share my testimony, and I’m going to expose astrology. I’m going to expose the New Age, I’m going to expose all of it,’” she said. “And I just started telling people what I went through and what God saved me from. And what came into my life when I started doing those practices — and it was all evil.”

Listen to Scroggins explain her journey and why she’s openly shared her testimony.

This article was originally published by CBN’s Faithwire.

Source: Christian Post

‘God …Condemns It’: Ex-astrologer Dismantles Horoscopes, Warns of Divination’s Dangers.

Ex-astrologer Marcia Montenegro is on a mission to warn people about horoscopes, divination, and the many ways people turn to sources outside of God to try and find “truth.”

“[Divination is] when you’re seeking information supernaturally, but outside of God, outside of God’s will,” host Jenn Nizza explained at the start of the most recent “Ex-Psychic Saved Podcast.” “God absolutely condemns it.”

Montenegro agreed, noting divination is an attempt to get information “beyond the normal means,” and noting it can take the form of turning to Tarot cards, astrology, numerology and tea-leaf reading, among other practices.

She went on to speak about the fact some will try to use the Bible to validate astrology — the belief celestial bodies have an impact on human affairs — or act as though using the stars to predict the future somehow comports with the Gospel.

Listen to Montenegro warn about divination and horoscopes and share her journey:

https://player.edifi.app/embed/index.html#/episodes/’God…Condemns-It’:-Ex-Astrologer-Dismantles-Horoscopes-Warns-of-Dangers-of-Divination/5617612

“A lot of Christians … get confused over it,” Montenegro said, explaining why astrology and the Bible simply don’t mix. She specifically clarified the differences between astrology and astronomy.

“Astrology and astronomy are two different things. Astronomy is a science, and it’s based on observation of data,” she said. “They are observing the heavenly bodies … and it’s strictly concerned with facts and trying to figure things out about those heavenly bodies.”

Montenegro continued. “Astrology is focused on the idea that there’s a meaning there.”

As a former professional astrologer, she recounted being so “in” on her beliefs that she once refused to sign an apartment lease while Mercury was in retrograde, fearing what might happen if she did.

Mercury retrograde is an optical illusion that unfolds a few times each year and appears to show Mercury moving backward in its orbit. When Mercury laps Earth in its 88-day move around the sun, it causes Mercury’s appearance to be retrograde from Earth’s perspective.

Astrologists believe happenings in the sky impact life on Earth. Thus, mercury retrograde has people engaging in speculation and superstition over purported disruptions they think it can cause.

With that belief in mind, Montenegro was afraid to sign the lease. Flash-forward to today, though, and she is a Christian who pushes back against the beliefs she once held dear.

“What astrology is … it’s a form of divination, because you’re reading a meaning into the planets that isn’t there,” she said. “Astrology … looks kind of innocent to a lot of people, because it’s so common … the internet has made this information more accessible.”

But Montenegro explained precisely why it’s anything but innocent, and sounded the alarm over the prevalence of such content on the internet today.

“[Generation Z is] captivated by all this and, because of the internet, it’s so very accessible. You could go online and find an astrologer,” she said. “Because it’s more accessible, and more popular, and more mainstream, people don’t realize what it really is.”

Montenegro continued, “Behind all this kind of glitzy, kind of interesting, fun facts about ‘who you are’ is this belief system that’s set up completely opposed to God and denounced by God.”

She likened horoscopes and astrology to a pretty house that looks gorgeous on the outside but, upon looking inside, is dilapidated. While it seems innocent and fun, she said astrology is plagued by darkness.

“It looks gorgeous on the outside and it has maybe a beautiful wreath on the door and the lights are glowing in the window and you think, ‘Oh, what a beautiful home!’” she said. “And then you open up the front door and you go in and it’s dark and the floors have holes in them, and there’s pieces of wood sticking up.”

While astrology is often treated like a game that’s laughed off, Montenegro warned people to see it as far more sinister.

“God has completely forbidden it and denounced it, so that should be the end of the story for a Christian,” she said.

Listen to Montenegro’s story.

This story originally appeared on Faithwire.com.