The Devil’s Haunts

 

 

 THE DEVIL’S HAUNTS

 

Darkness 

Death 

Dictators

Darkness

The devil loves darkness, literally. Although demons are pure spirits, they are not entirely divorced from the material world and interact with it. They have the power to attach themselves to inanimate objects and to living creatures, anywhere from the lowest plants to human beings, who are the highest form of material creation.

The ordinary means by which the demons interact with the human person is through temptation. Extraordinary afflictions include infestation, oppression, obsession, and possession.

Demons possess intelligence of a higher order than that of human beings. As creatures with spiritual intelligence they, like human beings, respond to symbols. Symbols carry meanings that the angelic intelligence readily understands.

Consequently, they are provoked by representations of God, the angels and the saints, and the holy mysteries of God, and especially by images of Jesus, his redeeming sacrifice on the cross, and the sinless Blessed Virgin Mary, because the demons are forced to contemplate incontrovertible reminders of their defeat and eternal condemnation; in the case of depictions of the saints, they are enraged when they are reminded that they were defeated by creatures who although inferior in nature overcame their assaults by cooperating with God’s grace.

Demons are attracted to darkness because of the symbolic meaning it harbors. It stands for evil and especially for evil done in secret.

“This is your hour, the time for the power of darkness.” (Luke 22:53)

Men preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. (John 3:19)

Although demons have the power to act anytime throughout the day with God’s permission, they prefer nighttime.

Another reason why demons are attracted to darkness is because it incites fear in human beings. Fear and any other strong emotion—anger, despair, distress, or anxiety, for instance—has the capacity to impede the influence of the good spirit, because the spirit of God works best in a climate of prayer, faith, trust in God, recollection, calm, and peace.

The fear that darkness induces has been hardwired into human beings because of their prehistory many millenniums long of surviving nighttime predators in the wild.

It is a fear demons take advantage of in order to turn towards idolatry and sorcery those who are spiritually weak, vulnerable, or ignorant.

Citing Father Manuel T. Piñon, O.P.’s two-volume Religion and Religions (1980), Father Jocis Syquia explains very well the dynamics of demon worship.

“What are some of the dynamics that Fr. Piñon points out with regard to the ‘cult of the spirits?’

“First, he said, ‘The polytheistic cult of spirits is largely motivated by fear, rather than by true devotion. The reason for this is given by the native polytheists themselves who claim that it is necessary or so they think, to give cult offerings to the “deific” evil spirits because they are naturally ill-disposed towards men, lest they show their displeasure or dissatisfaction, by inflicting harm in the form of calamities or sickness, on them or their household, or damage to their farms and livestock.’ [Volume 1, page 238] ‘It is a kind of “mafia”-like religious cult and “tong”-giving for the effect of obtaining “protection” from the evil spirits.’ [Ibid.]

“A second dynamic is this: Fr. Piñon said, ‘It is of the interest of the evil spirits of deception to maintain their worshippers in the two-fold error of taking the service and worship of the Creator as unprofitable, and taking the mafia-like cult of evil spirits as the one that is profitable and makes sense. Hence, it is not difficult to find reciprocation from the part of the worshiped evil spirits in the form of supernatural healing and material protection in favor of their willing worshippers, or in the form of mysterious and supernatural ill-fate for remiss individuals.’ [Volume 2, page 85] So, ‘more often than not, pagans resort to the worship of evil spirits, because they view that the Deific Creator is not sufficiently interested in men, or in granting the material benefits they have prayed for.’ [Volume 2, page 84]

“The third dynamic, according to Fr. Piñon, is that ‘the worship of creaturely spirits draws men away from the worship of the Creator. In their preoccupation to appease and gratify the ill-disposed spirits, men are led to neglect their duty to worship the Creator and to observe his laws, of which the First Commandment enjoins the worship of the Creator and proscribes the worship of any other creature as supernatural lord or god.’ [Volume 1, page 247] So the ‘cult of the spirits’ is true idolatry.

“The fourth dynamic is this: ‘The worship of spirits is motivated principally by the desire for temporal or material benefits. Hence, it fosters and confirms men in the desire and covetousness of temporal and material goods and in the undervaluation of spiritual goods.’” [Volume 1, pages 247-48]

—Father Jose Francisco C. Syquia, Exorcism: Encounters with the Paranormal and the Occult (2006), pages 171-72

Death 

The devil is attracted to death for the same reasons he is drawn toward darkness. Death is a symbol of the moral evil in which the will of the devil is eternally fixed. He is spiritually dead, forever.

Demons are wholly incapable of loving God or for that matter, any of God’s creation. They can only will moral evil, and they are trapped in this compulsion. Only God holds them back from inflicting destruction on the world, like a roaring Cerberus on a leash.

The devil is a murderer, in the words of Jesus himself.

“He was a murderer from the beginning.” (John 8:44)

The devil is attracted to places where dying persons are present because it is there that he seeks to claim his rights over their souls. The fearful reality is that demons loiter about hospitals and the killing fields of war.

Demons, who acquire eternal rights over the bodies of the damned, celebrate over their remains as if they were fresh trophies.

“At another time something else happened to me that frightened me very much. I was at a place where a certain person died who for many years had lived a wicked life, from what I knew. But he had been sick for two years, and in some things it seems he had made amends. He died without confession, but nevertheless it didn't seem to me he would be condemned. While the body was being wrapped in its shroud, I saw many devils take that body; and it seemed they were playing with it and punishing it. This terrified me, for with large hooks they were dragging it from one devil to the other. Since I saw it buried with the honor and ceremonies accorded to all, I reflected on the goodness of God, how He did not want that soul to be defamed, but wanted the fact that it was His enemy to be concealed.

“I was half stupefied from what I had seen. …Afterward when they put the body in the grave, there was such a multitude of them inside ready to take it that I was frantic at the sight of it, and there was need for no small amount of courage to conceal this. I reflected on what they would do to the soul when they had such dominion over the unfortunate body. May it please the Lord that what I have seen—a thing so frightful!—will be seen by all those who are in such an evil state; I think it would prove a powerful help toward their living a good life.”

—Saint Teresa of Avila, Autobiography, Chapter 38, 24-25

After the Last Judgment, the demons are given irrevocable rights over the bodies of the damned. They delight with unspeakable glee at the prospect of tormenting the damned in their undying bodies joined to their souls.

“With pain they await the Last Day of Judgment, because they see, following it, an increase of pain to themselves. And so will it be, because when that terrible voice shall say to them, ‘Arise, you dead, and come to judgment, the soul will return with the body, in the just to be glorified, and in the damned to be tortured eternally.’ (93)

“…Every work, good or bad, is done by means of the body. And, therefore, my daughter, glory and infinite good are justly rendered to my elect ones with their glorified body, rewarding them for the toils they bore for me, together with the soul. And to the perverse ones will be rendered eternal pains by means of their body, because their body was the instrument of evil.

“…The pain and confusion of the darkened ones, on seeing so great a dignity (of which they are deprived) will increase, and in their bodies will appear the sign of the wickedness they have committed, with pain and torture. (94)

“…The devil, dearest daughter, is the instrument of my justice to torment the souls who have miserably offended me. (95)

“…You see, then, that he is my minister to torture the damned in hell. …At the moment of death, they, having passed their life under the lordship of the devil (not that they were forced to do so, for as I told you they cannot be forced, but they voluntarily put themselves into his hands), and arriving at the extremity of their death under his perverse lordship, await no other judgment than that of their own conscience, and despairingly, they come to eternal damnation. Hell, through their own hate, surges up to them in the extremity of death, and before they get there, they take hold of it, by means of their lord the devil.” (96-97)

—Saint Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, Chapters 42-43

Clairvoyants who see demons lingering over the bodies of the dead have good reason to fear for the eternal salvation of their souls.

Politics

One of the favorite playgrounds of the devil is politics because many politicians are already compromised in their moral judgment and actions by their inordinate desire for power. They are poorly able to recognize the devil’s influence and to resist it. In addition, decisions made at the highest levels of power have dramatic ramifications, affecting the lives of millions or even billions, sometimes in a very negative way. The devil knows that he can multiply sin and the effects of sin many times over if he operates at the highest political levels. Plunder, falsehood, and murder, in particular, are multiplied many times over when they occur in politics.

Objectively speaking, Marcos Sr. should be in hell, but of course, we don’t know and won’t know. God is merciful so that the man who caused untold damage to millions of his own people might well have repented before crossing the bridge to eternity.

A private revelation reveals that Marilyn Monroe just barely made it into the bottom of purgatory and is still there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn8kx2WLSIA

—Uniquely Mary, “Purgatory Stories: Interview with Patricia Sandoval,” YouTube video, 18:13 minutes, November 20, 2022

No one wishes anyone eternal hellfire. The same for Marcos Sr.

In an interview with the magazine “Maria Mensajera,” the famous Italian exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth said, “Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan” and that “the devil loves to take over those who hold political office.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/12861/famous-exorcist-the-devil-loves-to-take-over-those-who-hold-political-office

—“Satan Loves to Take Over Politicians, Says Roman Exorcist,” Catholic News Agency, September 5, 2015