The Gods Return
Naomi Wolf published a substack recently that has gained a fair amount of attention. Drawing on the ideas of Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic Jewish minister, Wolf asks this provocative question:
Here’s what’s behnd this question. The idea that there was only one actual God, YHWH, was a relatively late development is Israelite religion. YHWH was the tutelary deity of Israel, his chosen nation, but other gods existed, too. Typically, events in the world were construed as a reflection of warfare among the gods. When Moses led Israel through the Red Sea, while the Egyptians were drowned, that was an earthly reflection of YHWH kicking the butts of the gods of the Egyptians. Likewise, when a plague killed off the Assyrian army, that was YHWH defeating the gods of the Assyrians. This notion survived into Christian times, under different forms. For example, readers of the early Christian writings may be puzzled by references to “thrones and dominations, powers and principalities, elements” and so forth. These are the “ancient gods”, now seen as demonic forces.
The exile to Babylon caused a crisis in this belief—could it be that other gods were more powerful than YHWH, or that he had abandoned his people. From this arose the Deuteronomic ideology, according to which earthly misfortunes—of all sorts—was to be explained as punishment for sin. We can see this idea also in the Christian gospels—although it is rejected in Christian theology—when Peter asks whose sin caused the man to be born blind: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9). This ideology was never entirely satisfactory and has been widely rejected in the face of events such as the Holocaust. On the other hand, that still leaves the “problem of evil”—how does a good God tolerate evil—to be explained.
That’s the background to Wolf’s question. Cahn’s argument is that, while it may seem that those gods have disappeared from our world, in fact they have survived under various guises. This is a theme that is readily apparent in the novels of Charles Williams and CSLewis, among other modern Christian writers. Wolf frames the issue in terms of the gospel parable of the demon possessed man who is like a house—freed of the demons, swept and cleaned—to which the demons return:
Cahn correctly points out that these spirits, powers or principalities were worshiped in the pagan world in many guises — from the fertility god Baal to the goddess of sexuality Ashera or Ashtaroth; to the destructive idol, Moloch. He rightly points out that the ancient world was everywhere consecrated to these dark or lower entities, and that worshippers went to the point of sacrificing their own children to propitiate these forces.
Nota bene. Wolf doesn’t bring that up by coincidence.
He argues that these negative but potentially powerful forces have been dormant for two millennia, by the Western Judeo-Christian covenant. And that they have now taken this opportunity, of our turning away from God, and they have returned.
We, thus, are the house that has been cleaned — by the covenant with the Judeo-Christian commitment. But we subsequently abandoned the house, he maintains, and left it vulnerable; open, for negative energies to reenter.
I would point out that the phenomenon of the occult and of outright satanism experienced a tremendous revival beginning in the Renaissance and has gradually gained strength in the West over the centuries. It has been a major influence in the thought that led up to the Conciliar Church. That’s a vast topic, but for those who wish to dip their toes in … (A Dubious Influence: De Lubac & Von Balthasar’s Effect on Catholic Thought, Observations on the Influence of the Occult in Traditional Catholic Discourse).
Wolf continues:
Though it is unfashionable now to talk about our Judeo-Christian founding and heritage in the West, it should not be. This legacy is simply a historical fact. … the West’s civilization for the past two millennia has been a Judeo-Christian one, and that our Founders in this nation, though rightly establishing religious freedom, believed that they were consecrating a nation in alignment with the will of God as they understood him.
That brings us up to the present. For Wolf to say that her expressed view on the American founding is “unfashionable” is, of course, a vast understatement. It is execrated and banned from public discourse—not only on the Left but also among many conservatives, especially Libertarians. Meanwhile, the influence of demonic, even openly satanic, strains of thought grows throughout our culture, as Wolf also documents. Use your imagination—it won’t take much effort to come up with your own examples.
Now, a quick pivot. CTH put up a very sensible post last night:
What Sundance is saying is that Garland is an empty suit.
Anyone who has watched Obama will be aware that he is largely controlled and directed by women—preeminently, Valerie Jarrett.
Sundance simply points out that this setup has continued in the Zhou regime. Since he’s discussing especially the regime’s targeting of pro-lifers, Latin Massers, and J6ers—the kind of people most deeply loathed by the Woke Left—he naturally focuses on Lisa Monaco, who is the person who actually runs DoJ. Anyone who thinks Garland could fire Monaco is sadly deluded—and the same goes for other Departments. If you think Blinken could ever fire Nuland … please. Follow the link for a lot of interesting discussion and detail, but Sundance finishes:
The overarching Lawfare framework, the issues which are being cited by the Senate today, was created by President Obama’s former White House Legal Counsel and current U.S. Asst Attorney General Lisa Monaco. DAG Lisa Monaco is also the connection between the DOJ targeting efforts of the J6 members, and the bridge to Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Just as Andrew Weissmann was really the control operative behind Robert Mueller, so too is Lisa Monaco the control operative behind AG Merrick Garland.
Lisa Monaco is running the Dept of Justice.
Victoria Nuland is running the State Dept (Ukraine)
Avril Haines is running the Intelligence Community.
Samantha Power is running USAID.
Mary McCord is running the Jack Smith Special Counsel operation….
… and the great pretending continues.
And I don’t doubt that Hillary and Valerie Jarrett are in regular contact.
Here’s my point. In line with Wolf’s thinking, why not consider these women—among others (I use them as examples, because Sundance caught my attention)—to be “priestesses” of the “ancient gods”? If that seems a bit “out there”, consider all the deeply sick stuff that is current among our ruling class. Start with the Podesta “artwork”. Consider the determined use of all the pressure the US can exert to spread the most demonic perversions around the world. These people dress nicely and went to the “best” schools, but they’re possessed by the “ancient gods”—demonic ideas and ideologies.
With that in mind, let’s turn to Rod Dreher’s commentary on Wolfs essay, because Dreher gets to some fundamental issues involved with the return of the “ancient gods”. Here’s a key excerpt toward the end of Naomi Wolf & The Ancient Gods:
She says that once you see this stuff, you can’t unsee it — and she’s right. By the way, six years ago, Alex Ross of the New Yorker wrote a really interesting piece about the occult roots of artistic, literary, and cultural Modernism. And, as I wrote in Live Not By Lies, the elites of pre-revolutionary Russia were deeply into the occult. This guy I call “Jonah” in my next book, an ex-occultist who was involved at a very high and intense level, has been telling me how this stuff suffuses pop culture, and how he and his occult friends used to delight in the confidence that they were going to win, because they owned pop culture, and Christians were no match.
One of the weirdest things about our current moment is the creeping realization that the fundamentalists, at whom I often sneered myself, were right about most things.
Dreher then gets into a discussion of how Satanists are using the Constitution to push their way into the mainstream. One of the Satanists points out how that works—it’s a bit like judo:
“They need to still respect pluralism and still respect people’s religious liberty and recognize that no government agency has the right to limit the civic capacities of any one viewpoint over another.”
Yes, there’s an emptiness at the core of our constitutional order, when pushed to its limits. And nobody knows how to deal with it while remaining acceptable to our fellow citizens. No written constitution can possibly envision all eventualities that may arise. That’s why we need guiding principles that are not optional, are favored to the exclusion of others, but that’s an idea that few can grasp in America. Now here’s where Dreher gets into the implications for our entire constitutional order.
He’s right, isn’t he? Isn’t this what “religious liberty” means in a neutral public square? The Constitution doesn’t say “but not Satanists,” does it? That’s because it never would have occurred to the Founding Fathers that this would be an issue. It probably wouldn’t have occurred to anybody prior to the last few decades that it would be an issue. Now, the usual liberal suspects will tut-tut that Greaves is only trolling, and that this doesn’t really mean that the most evil spirit of all is being honored and worshiped. I think this is nothing but liberal cope, the sort of thing right-thinking secularists tell themselves to calm themselves down when dark and freaky stuff is irrupting.
Right. As Wolf says, we’ve turned away from God, but when that happens we simply end up worshipping the worst of the “ancient gods”—our own demonic will to power. And we lack the spiritual and intellectual tools to put a stop to it.
We are doing to see more and more of this, and coming at us fast. Why? Because we have turned away from God. We are opening doors that were closed and sealed many centuries ago, but that we are now prying open like fools. A liberalism that is not founded in and bounded by Biblical religion has no defense against the enemy. Wolf writes:
And that this — the absence of the protection of our God – the ascendancy of a realm on Earth of us doing it all ourselves; regarding ourselves; worshiping ourselves, whoring after only human works; releasing ourselves from all lawful constraints, embracing all lusts and all obedience to non-divine authorities; rejecting mercy; celebrating all narcissisms; treating children like animals whom we own, treating the family like a battlefield; treating the Churches and Synagogues as marketing platforms — this is, indeed what the realms of pagan darkness; or of Principalities and Powers – look like.
The coming years are going to be something else. People are going to make fun of you for seeing what’s right in front of your nose, but you have to persist. It’s important.
This is definitely NOT politics as usual. We’re playing for keeps, whether we know it or not.
So, Iran naming the USA as 'The Great Satan' isn't that much of a stretch?
We, here in the USA, mistakenly look outward rather than inward when it comes to identifying enemies.
The demons are dancing in our streets, in front of our children. But our God is greater. We must remain vigilant, especially those of us who work with His precious children.