HOOKED ON ASTROLOGY! (Please read this letter we received on Astrology. Editor's Note) Dear Friends: While visiting a church in Denver, I picked up two of your tracts on The Exorcist. I am writing this with reference to your section in the tracts on Astrology, and would like to enclose the following factors regarding Astrology. I was introduced to astrology at an early age. I started with astrology, and then thru other circumstances and acquaintances which were brought into my life, I was drawn deeper into the occult...palmistry, numerology, reincarnation, and use of the pendulum for yes and no answers, and visiting psychics for palm readings. I became a professional Astrologer, specializing in Medical Astrology and writing articles for publication in national astrology magazines, which went along with my college degree in psychology. I had always considered astrology scientific, a field associated with Psychology. I considered the workings of these things based upon a combination of natural science, laws of the universe, and the workings of the subconscious mi nd, since I felt that science has never even tapped the hidden powers of the human mind. I thought that because it worked out in actual practice, it was based solely on scientific principles. In early history the stars and planets were worshipped as divine beings, that is, people actually worshipped the fallen angels which controlled the influences that came thru each stellar body. These beings worked to bring about circumstances in accordance with the occultists predictions. One was thus brought under the domination of occult powers. I found that in my teen years false religious beliefs were drummed into my mind, where they rested in the subconscious levels of mental awareness, giving me a false conception of God, of His Nature and Character, and of the way He feels toward me, and this caused certain psychological problems involving feelings of spiritual rejection, resentment, and rebellion, so that in later years I rejected organized religion just about completely. The devil lays a background such as this, and later introduces one to the occult to find the answers to their problems. When one does not find the answers in the religions he tries out, he is easily enticed into the occult, as I was. I found the strongest pulls to the occult are: a fear of the future, a fear of death and the hereafter and a need for a philosophy of life that will ease one's mind....like reincarnation, for example; a need of ill persons to find some reasonable explanation why they must be chronically ill...reincarnation gives them the reason as they had lived some previous life of sin and are in this lifetime suffering for it; intellectual curiosity about the unknown. My insecurity from feeling rejected, made me have a strong psychological need to relieve my almost at times terrifying fear of the future and the hereafter, which was intermixed with feelings of obscure guilt which I could not understand, and I used the occult to try to relieve my fear of the future by seeking to control the future through knowing it ahead of time (one of astrology's tenets is "foreknown is forearmed"), and thus I was using the occult as a crutch to lessen my fears of the future. It can be seen how when one is led to believe that the powers hidden in the subconscious mind causes the occult to work, one cannot see the real power behind the occult, which is the influence and ultimately, control of occult forces which gradually gain control of one's life. It can be seen how when one is led to believe that the powers hidden in the subconscious mind causes the occult to work, one cannot see the real power behind the occult, which is the influence and ultimately, control of occult forces which gradually gain control of one's life. It took that long for me to be made aware of why astrology works, even down to minute details. It was brought before my mind that Astrology works because Satan and fallen angels, being very powerful spiritual beings actually control the stellar influences which come thru from each planet, and this is why all the astrological keywords for each stellar body very adequately explain the situation as designed by the astrologer, and this is permitted to be so in this present age because Satan is the ruler of this age and this present world system. I learned that many laws of the universe and of nature are very mixed up into the system of Astrology, since for the past 6,000 years Satan has thoroughly studied and understood all the laws of the universe and used these laws to attempt to control everything in the universe. In both false religion and the occult, Satan works up a system of "faith", with a lot of true knowledge, which he then intermixes falsity, for his job is to deceive. There must be some truth mixed in with Satan's lies because otherwise men would not be deceived by Satan's doctrines. Satan is an imitator, and to imitate something, it has to be somewhat close to the original in order to deceive. It is as if one were to take a lake of truth and pour a cup of deadly poison into it ...it will still kill anyone who drinks of it. It is a true fact that God has set certain laws of the universe in operation, where the heavens influence the Earth in various ways, but Satan has taken these laws and applied them, and some of his deceptions, and used all this to incorporate these things into a system of belief or fortunetelling. When one gets involved in the occult, it opens up an opportunity for fallen celestial beings to gain control over one's life, since one is getting onto Satan's territory where his devices can influence one strongly, and the final result is to be brought under the control of occult forces, So that, for the scientifically oriented and intellectual individual, Satan appeals to their mind and scientific background. I found it very difficult to give up the medical astrology portion of my career, as I had found it useful in my cancer and heart disease research work. I considered it on a par with medicine, a science and an art. It took a year and a half after I surrendered my life to Jesus before I could be free from entanglement in this area of astrology. I found also that as long as I used astrology in any manner, I couldn't stop thinking about it and using it for my own purposes in seeking to know the future. Even though I had given my heart to Jesus when I was a teenager, I didn't think (know) that Astrology had anything to do with "spiritual" things. I was later made to understand that the devil was using any little hold upon me, with regard to astrology, he could to keep me involved in it. It was a gradual process until I finally gave up all my connections with astrology by the end of May, since I was made so very upset on the inside whenever I used it. Not then really understanding the reasons why, I had continued to use it till May. It gradually dawned upon my mind that the Holy Spirit had been really working upon me to give it all up, and that was why I felt so upset internally over astrology. Perhaps this letter will help you in advising others with problems similar to mine. Sincerely Yours, M.S. Have you been `Playing' with Astrology?....You Can't Serving TWO Masters? SURRENDER IT ALL TO GOD - TODAY Read: Rom. 12:1, I Chrorn. 29:5, I Thess. 5:23, Prov. 23:26