Questions about Discernment and Witchcraft
February 14th, 2008 by Rose RosetreeBlog-Buddies, this question comes from AlisaK:
Hi, it’s been a while since I wrote and want to ask a couple of questions if you have the time and patience!
I am asking because of the biblical reference to “discernment”, as in a gift of (Acts, I think). And then there is the biblical direction to not practice witchcraft.
I read your blog about seeing colours/auras. I included the definition of “discernment” below for reference (it’s all encompassing).
After that introduction, I will get to the point. Actually two points or questions.
1) I have realized that certain people have a scent (to me). There are two, specifically, that smell of fever, sickness, heat, sweat. An extremely unpleasant odor.
One is my step-father and when I described the stench of him to my sister, she honestly didn’t understand and had never smelled what I smelled. It did not occur to me that the ’smell’ was, in fact, not physical. Until recently.
Last night, a co-worker and I were discussing a man that we work with. This man has developed some physical ailments - heart, blood pressure, more. Our discussion was centered on the man’s personality; the physical aspects were mentioned in passing.
This man is dishonest, controlling, and, above all, manipulative. He is a consummate strategist, patient, and is very good at it. I have been observing him for years.
Last Friday, a week ago, I had no option but to speak to him in person. Face-to-face from a distance of 4-5 feet. What struck me was the smell of him. He smelled of heat, fever, and sweat.
I mentioned his stench to my friend (she also works with him) and she said that she has never smelled him. This man is, apparently, well groomed by USA standards.
To me, he has always smelled as if he hasn’t showered or that he has a fever.
I know that the man is sexually perverse and refuse to travel with him because of the propositions that he has made toward me.
So, one of my questions is, could/would a person exude a psychic stench? If a person has an aura and/or colors, couldn’t they also have a ’smell’?
2) Then, there is the distinction between a ‘gift’ (such as discernment) as compared to ‘witchcraft’. In your opinion, what is the difference?
I have asked a question that may require an in-depth answer and that you may have already addressed. I don’t mind reading a previously posted opinion!
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.
Blog-Buddies, you’re welcome to share your thoughts about this. I’ll pop in one of these days and add my thoughts as well. These are great questions, aren’t they?
ALISAK also has supplied research to define “Discernment” (from a Google search). I edited it slightly for clarity. Thanks again, Alisa!
1 : The quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure : skill in discerning
2 : Discernment stresses accuracy (as in reading character or motives or appreciating art).
3: Discrimination stresses the power to distinguish and select what is true or appropriate or excellent.
4: Perception implies quick and often sympathetic discernment (as of shades of feeling).
5: Penetration implies a searching mind that goes beyond what is obvious or superficial.
6: Insight suggests depth of discernment coupled with understanding sympathy.
7: Acumen implies characteristic penetration combined with keen practical judgment.
Sounds like AlisaK has a strong gift of gustatory giftedness and is definitely an empath. If she hasn’t already read “Empowered by Empathy,” that would be the place to start.
What do a “gift” and “witchcraft” have to do with each other? What context is this placed in? I think some people, like psychiatrists, have a wonderful gift called intuition, but I wouldn’t say that they practice witchcraft. Was this the implication that was being made? Not sure what was meant, specifically, by the question. Asking for clarification.
Coming from Rose’s book _Empowered by Empathy_, it seems to me that you have “gustatory giftedness.”
You experience deeper, subtle perception of people via taste and smell.
Many people have such gifts and abuse them with vanity and personal agendas. In that sense, these gifts can be akin to witchcraft and manipulation.
To use this gift for greater clarity, wisdom, and compassion not only takes some training, but it leads to growth and the practice of higher consciousness.
My question about witchcraft was a concern and/or confusion about what is actually considered ‘witchcraft’ as referenced in the Bible. I think that I knew the answer and wanted validation or at least another opinion!
Anabela’s comment is exactly what I believe, too. Using such gifts for personal gain or to manipulate people is not honorable. For me, it would be in contradiction of everything that I believe in.
I know that I ‘feel’ other people’s emotions and moods; learning how to identify what is “me” has helped tremendously (instead of being influenced by others).
This ’smell’ thing took me by surprise, though!
Both of the individuals that I mentioned are, for lack of a better term, evil. I managed to distance myself from one of them years ago. The other will be removed from my life in one week (I am changing jobs/positions because of proximity to him).
I am still learning about empathy and trying to understand what it means in my life. Since realization of this ability, I have remembered so many things that have happened over the years. Some are pretty entertaining, when I think about them now.
At least I have learned to make sure that people are actually talking (out loud) to me before I answer/comment!
Thanks for the feed-back - I appreciate it.
STILL LEARNING AlisaK and all who have written so far on this thread, thanks! I would like to add a few comments and turn each one into a separate comment by theme.
Alisa, I love that you wrote, ” I am still learning about empathy and trying to understand what it means in my life.” Being an empath, one of the first things to learn about is your gift or gifts. Just because you have one doesn’t mean you have them all.
Yesterday I had an insightful conversation with someone with tremendous Physical Oneness and Physical Intuition. But much of our conversation was about emotional concerns and there it became clear that she not only doesn’t have emotional gifts as an empath. Oops! Due to accumulated STUFF in her aura, on emotional topics she can be very inaccurate in her ideas and conclusions.
If she thinks of herself as an empath, she might justifiably pride herself on those physical empath-type gifts. But she probably is equally proud of how perceptive and empathic she is emotionally. And, sad to say, at this time, she’d be wrong!
Aura readings can help to clarify where empathic gifts are, and are not. Energy fields contain secrets about where to find (and heal) STUFF, as well.
If you read “Empowered by Empathy” (buy it, get it from the library, whatever, AlisaK!), you can systematically learn about the particular gift or gifts that you have. This is an essential part of becoming empowered as an empath.
Regarding STUFF in your aura, the most important thing to know about that is that STUFF can always, always, always be healed. Some people prefer to do intuitive reading or spiritual reading in order to comment on the problems. Some prefer psychological therapy to slowly work through the problems. If you read elsewhere on this blog, you will find that I facilitate healing, cutting cords of attachment or doing other types of Aura Transformation session.
And, yes, you do have what it takes to do aura readings on your own, and do them in depth and detail.
THAT SMELL BUSINESS Yes, “Gustatory Giftedness” is the name I have given to this particular inner language where smell and taste bring information.
Empathic gifts are one kind of thing to learn about yourself, and a second kind of thing is learning about your inner languages. They are how your information comes to you.
Giving yourself credit for these language gifts, where credit is due, is part of becoming a skilled empath. It is also, as you noted, AlisaK, great entertainment.
Although one gift can be extra-strong, or a person may have extra-dramatic stories about it (as you have shared) please be aware that you probably have several gifts, not only one. Again, I refer you to “Empowered by Empathy.”
My blog is not the place to download entire chapters of the book. There you will find a full chapter about those inner languages, just as there’s another full chapter about empathic gifts.
I can promise you, these subjects are rich, satisfying and deep. You’ll find the full discussion even more entertaining than what you have done so far.
On a practical note, you can preview the book by going to http://www.rose-rosetree.com and clicking on the cover of “Empowered by Empathy.” You can also hear a five-minute excerpt of me reading from the audiobook edition, which is a start to all of us hearing each other’s voices.
And you can order the book, in either edition, securely at the website or by calling our 24/7 toll-free number, 800-345-6665.
Those in-born gifts are how you will spontaneously do intuitive reading of other people. You’ll do that your whole life, whether you are an empath or not, whether you’re skilled or not. Skill makes a huge difference about the accuracy, refinement, and helpfulness of any intuitive reading.
And now on to the next chunk prompted by that intrepid inner explorer called AlisaK….
WATCH OUT FOR EVIL By these words, I am not advising you to take even more care than usual in protecting yourself. I mean something you might not expect.
Evil people are very few and far between. And so, I’m warning you about a very different trap. It’s actually something I bring up in “Empowered by Empathy” in the chapter about being a good parent to your empathic child(ren).
But this isn’t a terribly complex topic and so I can just give you the whole idea right here in Blog-land. AlisaK, and others, sometimes a person first notices empathic gifts in life-or-death situations, or when confronted by someone who is dangerous.
Please, please, please don’t think that your empathic gifts are only for survival. Or for drama.
Think of a scale from 1 to 100 for drama in life situations. A dangerous person would be 98, 99 or 100. What’s at the other end? Not big nothings but ever-increasing subtlety, delicacy, softness, sweetness.
One reason I love teaching in Japan (the first foreign country to publish “Empowered by Empathy” incidentally) is that the whole culture embraces the 50’s, the 20’s, even the 1’s.
Those one’s are wonderful.
Speaking in religious terms for a moment, God can be found everywhere on that scale from 1 to 100. In the midst of life crisis, or when you are fighting for your very survival, yes, God is there. But God can be found in the sweetness of everyday friendships or when you are sitting alone so quietly that your whole attention is drawn inward, doing contemplation of that Bible or some other spiritual exercise.
All your empathic gifts can help you to intensify your experience of inspiration. AlisaK and others, I call these the Turn ON techniques for an empath, in contrast to the very essential Turn OFF techniques that you must learn first, if you want to be a stable, balanced, grounded person.
Turn OFF protects the energy fields of empaths. That is essential if you wish to do aura reading of others, or spiritual reading, or intuitive reading. Or if you simply wish to be able to enjoy your life.
If you’re looking for religious or spiritual inspiration, AlisaK, try the “Darshan technique” from “Empowered by Empathy.” You’ll be able to take your favorite picture of a saint, like perhaps Mother Teresa who worked in Calcutta and “died” what? 10 years ago. You can choose to experience how this person connects to God.
And, note, I wrote “experience.” Direct experience is something you can become very, very good at, and you can choose which type of experience to turn on or off.
That is part of skill for an empath.
And, I’ve got to tell you, the most exquisite experiences I have had aren’t at the 100 end of the scale. They’re at the 1 end.
If ever you have been frightened, discouraged or humiliated by experiences that you have had with people, you owe it to yourself (if you’re an empath) to turn on the sweetness of life’s softer, sweeter, sometimes hidden, and always voluntary, spiritual invitations.
MORE ABOUT SKILL. AlisaK, you wrote ” I know that I ‘feel’ other people’s emotions and moods; learning how to identify what is “me” has helped tremendously (instead of being influenced by others).”
This is a very good start at becoming a skilled empath. But, with all respect, what you have improvised here is just a start. By the time another person’s emotions and moods have become a part of you, probably a fair amount of their STUFF (globs and blobs of fear, pain, etc.) has gone guess where?
People’s energy fields become garbage pails for other people’s pain. It’s a form of service. But this type of service not elegant, and I can teach you to better.
In “Empowered by Empathy” you can learn a First Aid technique that gets all that STUFF out of energy fields. That’s important because simply making an emotional or intellectual decision isn’t going to do the job of ridding you of the STUFF.
You can learn to adjust how you hold a space, helping you to keep your gifts off unless you choose to turn them on.
Most important, you can use the Coming Home technique to “Break out of the Amusement Park” so that you stop taking on other people’s STUFF, moods, physical problems, spiritual fears, etc. in the first place.
Yes, if you do aura readings of yourself or other people’s energy fields, you will find this kind of STUFF galore. But you don’t have to do that to keep yourself clear.
In short, what you’re doing so far is in the right direction but it has been just a start.
LIVING ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE Addressing this part of what you asked, AlisaK, I should make clear at the outset where I’m coming from. I’m no biblical scholar. Although I have studied a number of religions, and been members of different ones, at this time I’m a member of “disorganized” religion, not any organized religion at all.
But that doesn’t keep me from admiring someone like you who cares about scrupulously following your religion.
If you really want to live according to the Bible, one of the very best things you can do is to study deeper perception. Reading faces can be a great way to start, because my system is based on the premise that “God don’t make no junk.” You’ll be quite amazed how faces are sacred. Faces have much to tell you.
Aura readings are also a way to enter into the realm of the sacred. If you can move inwardly into a deeper knowing about yourself and others, that matters, doesn’t it?
I happen to live in the Bible Belt, where many of my neighbors and friends are totally dedicated to living according to the Bible. I find it fascinating that they are willing to scrutinize that Bible for meaning, always looking deeper, always probing and testing and crying out to God for inspiration so that they can really hear that word. Yet many of them treat people on the surface.
If I had to choose, I would do the big search into my own heart, not the pages of any scripture. And I would read people in my life with at least much care as I read my Bible.
Of course, we don’t have to choose. Just the opposite. The deeper you go into any one of them – scripture, your own self, the loved ones in your life, anyone you choose to study – the more you open yourself to God’s hidden and sacred truths. Once you do this, you are well positioned to shed that brighter light into all the other hidden and sacred places.
If this kind of conversation is interesting to you, I would recommend that you take a look at another of my books, “Let Today Be a Holiday: 365 Ways to Co-Create with God.” You’ll find the clickable cover at my website, too, http://www.rose-rosetree.com.
I wrote this book for spiritual seekers like you and me. You do a page a day (okay, in a very few instances, two pages) to help in your spiritual life. You’ll find new ways to think about your family of blood, your family of choice, your gifts. You’ll also find techniques for doing aura readings, reading faces, other aspects of spiritual reading and intuitive reading. All of this aims to wake up your light, your ability to love, and your personal power.
I think it makes a great companion to Bible study. Only you can decide if it would be for you.
DON’T PRACTICE WITCHCRAFT AlisaK, here you wrote about a very deep concern, “And then there is the biblical direction to not practice witchcraft.”
Back on that topic of reading the Bible, I want to invite you to consider what is really in the Bible versus what some people preach, say on the radio, etc. I have read the Old and New Testaments, some parts of them many times. Never have I heard any of the following:
*Do not practice witchcraft.
*Hate and kill people whom you consider to be “witches.”
*Hate and kill people who are African-American.
*Hate and kill Jews.
Funny, though. Throughout history, you will find groups of God-fearing, Bible-quoting believers who have used scripture to justify their fears, hatreds, murders and all-around craziness. That isn’t really “the Bible’s fault” but it does serve as a stark reminder to question when people quote scripture for their own purposes. (And who doesn’t?)
Sometimes while driving I’ll spin the radio dial. Here in Northern Virginia, there are loads of Christian stations. I have heard denunciations of people who are psychics and astrologers. They make me go “Huh?”
Think back to the Christmas story. How did those three wise men find baby Jesus? They were astrologers.
Revered prophets of the Old and New Testaments, what were they if not psychics? Some were apparently channelers. Some interpreted dreams, doing what today would be called “spiritual reading” or “intuitive reading.”
When you read the Bible and try to live according to its greatest wisdom, one thing that helps is to ask “What would Jesus do?” (Oh, you’ve heard that before?) Another question might be, “Which do I choose, love or fear?”
Many Christians are afraid of being tricked by The Devil. If you want to avoid being tricked by anyone, including your own fears, I recommend doing aura readings. Human energy fields contain loads of information that can’t be faked. And very human illusions, and delusions, are unmasked best with this type of spiritual reading.
For example, I have read many auras of people who consider themselves impeccable Christians. They are politically active. Their photos appear in my newspaper, The Washington Post, and so sometimes I will do aura readings using those pictures.
For instance, there will be an anti-abortion demonstration, or a demonstration against gays and lesbians. Sometimes the demonstrators will be praying for others.
In 99 cases out of 100, these very people who are so sure, so proud, so “right with the Lord” will show something pretty unpleasant in their auras. At the third eye databank about making spiritual connection with God, there will be blackout or huge fear.
Sometimes people who are demonstrating against homosexuals will show pretty weird, unbalanced, sad stuff in databanks about their own sexuality.
And sometimes there is a lovely, pure, clear connection with God. It depends on the person. No matter how you choose to interpret the Bible, or decide who is or isn’t practicing witchcraft, AlisaK, I do encourage to find out “Who is this person really?”
Isn’t that going for the spirit of a law, rather than the literal letter of the law, the rules? When I think about the greatest teachings of Jesus, this is one of my very favorite ways that he was a wayshower.
I think it’s interesting that people get so worked up over the Bible (or the Qu’ran or the Torah, etc.) more than they do over any other religious text or seemingly any other facet of life.
I’ve never seen people argue as much, for example, about what Shakespeare meant about “exacting a pound of flesh” that he wrote about in The Merchant of Venice than I have heard lay people, ministers, and people of all different backgrounds and walks of life argue about what Jesus or one of the apostles said or meant by what they said or did.
It’s pretty incredible to me, actually.
Like all common sense goes out the window. Like loving your neighbor is a good thing and the “Christian” (or Muslim or Jewish) thing to do, except if that person is a member of an ethnicity or group that you despise - just prop up your hatred with religious conviction and righteousness instead.
I’m constantly stunned by the messages of - I have no other words than pure hatred, rage, and venom - that I have seen some religious espouse against minorities, gays, women, immigrants, the poor, the disenfranchised…
If Jesus wasn’t out there helping the poor, the beleaguered, the ill, I don’t know who he was helping.
And yet religion in this country seems to be designed to send the message that only whites, the healthy, the wealthy, the young, the males, those with high social standing, the Ivy-educated, the Protestants, etc., are designed to be loved and approved of in God’s eyes.
Anita- With what you just said about religion, I have to agree with you. It is sad what “Christians” (I’ll stick to christians since that seems to be the where AlisaK is coming from and it’s really the only religion I know enough about to say anything about) do in the name of their religion. That is not what the bible teaches. I myself am a Christian. I do my best to live according to what I believe God wants me to do, and he has NEVER told me to hate or despise anyone. He has only ever given me the impression that everyone-no matter their social standing, ethnic group, or outside apperance-should be loved and welcomed. He hasn’t told me to welcome their actions, but that the people themselves should never be despised.
Christianity in this country is at a very sad state, and I agree that the church has many, many problems.
All I can say is this; many who say they are christians aren’t really. They make it a practice, a religion, a self-righteous thing, rather than the heart actions. Jesus said that the most important thing was to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, and all your soul” and the second was to love your neighbor. God didn’t say to condemn, (there’s even a scripture verse that says “for God did not send his son into the world to condemn, but to save” -John 3:17, if you’re interested) he said to love, and I hope you have the good fortune of meeting someone who can show you through their actions that not all christians only hurt others.
MARY, how sweet of you to write.
You might be interested in receiving a copy of my May zine (It’s free) where I commented in some detail on the pope and how he changed just by becoming Pope. You’d use a link off the home page to subscribe, and can un-subscribe at your pleasure just as easily: http://www.rose-rosetree.com We never rent or sell data, of course, not liking to RECEIVE spam ourselves, either.
Meanwhile, Mary, I do hope you’ll continue to comment and interact at the blog.
Rose