Photo: ru.dalailama.com
During Great Lent of 2017, I happened to come to the Cathedral of the Protection of the Mother of God in Sevastopol for the 
Holy Wednesday. The service of Holy UnctionIt is a tradition in the Orthodox Church for all the faithful to receive Holy Unction during Great Lent. In many churches, this service is celebrated specifically on Holy and Great Wednesday, after the Matins served that evening.
“>Holy Unction service. The people stood in a semicircle around the priests who were reciting the necessary prayers. At the right moment, the priests began to walk around the believers anointing each one with consecrated oil-unction, touching our forehead, nostrils, cheeks, chest, and palms on both sides.
I had a woman aged fifty or so standing next to me. When she lifted her hands for the priest to anoint her palms, I noticed a red thread on her left wrist. Father Paul also noticed it.
“What do you need this thread for?” he asked sternly. “You are in a church!”
The woman mumbled something unintelligible. Batiushka chose not to say anything else to her, and having anointed her with oil, went on his way. But I couldn’t keep it to myself:
“Excuse me, but do you know that this red thread around your wrist is from the occultists, the cabbalists?”
Not at all abashed at this, the lady replied:
“It’s against the evil eye. Should have it, just in case.”
I couldn’t keep quiet:
“But you came to participate in the sacrament, you came to God! And this thread of yours is the invention of sorcerers.”
She chuckled in response:
“How can it hurt? One won’t hinder the other.”
Trust but verify
“One won’t hinder the other!” We can only wonder at times at the spiritual illiteracy or even complete ignorance of people who get interested in mystical spiritual practices, psychic practices, “parallel worlds”, “alien intelligence” and the like. Today this subject is widely promoted like never before and the demand for it is huge. Why? Many people are bored with “easily understandable” earthly pleasures; they are tired of the natural course of things, and want something “more juicy”, more SUPERnatural than before. The other world, auras, chakras, clairvoyance, “Those who worshipped the stars”What matters most is that they traveled on behalf of those “who worshipped the stars” to adore Him, “the Sun of Righteousness” Who shone to the history of humanity “the Orient from on High.”
“>astrology—that’s what they need!
Throwing common sense and caution to the wind, people believe fortune-tellers and diviners, magicians and paranormalists
Without a shadow of a doubt, forgetting basic cautiousness and the rule “trust but verify,” people believe fortune-tellers and diviners, magicians and paranormalists. As they say, they blindly believe them, that is, without thought or testing, without asking any questions. We watch these things on television—the carefully choreographed grandstanding of fake magicians and shamans—and so, it as if means that it’s all okay, and there’s no harm in it whatsoever. And so, they place themselves in the hands of these shady people without considering the consequences.
So, can you actually have it both ways?
This problem, as they say, is actually a “tired idea.” But I am personally scared of something else: the spiritual unscrupulousness of people. In the pursuit of results, especially in a desperate situation, when all worldly means have been exhausted, people are willing to do anything and everything: to receive “treatment” from a psychic, engage in yoga practices—and go to an Orthodox church at the same time, confessing and receiving Holy Communion there. People even trust these charlatans and take their remedies.
It would seem, what could be wrong with it? Because receiving Communion is good, right? As for the red thread around your wrist—it doesn’t hurt anyone, right? Could God hurt? But He doesn’t care, for the most part! And also, I do believe in Him! As for the red thread—this is what everyone’s wearing these days; and they say that it helps a lot—it drives away dark forces, preventing them from casting a bad spell on you! But I want to ask: Why do you need God, after all? You have this thread protecting you! And the answer I get is simply amazing: One doesn’t hinder the other.
The red thread is far from being harmless. It is an “invention” of the followers of Kabbalah
How terrible! The horror! Help! Asking God for help—and then, as a backup (what if God doesn’t help!)—asking the same of the devil. That red thread of yours isn’t as harmless as you may think. It is an “invention” of the followers of Kabbalah—a mystical occult movement in Judaism, or, in simple language, it is an invention of Satan to deceive the souls of men.
Deception of the red thread
What is this deception about? It is quite simple: whoever wears the red thread has the idea that this thread has the power to block the “evil eye” and protect against “spells” (negative action of evil spirits inflicted by ill-wishers). This power is the result of a certain magic spell, a set of “magical” words spoken over the threads by the keeper of “secret knowledge”—in other words, a sorcerer who is, of course, “highly qualified.” Through this magic spell, the sorcerer transmits to threads not his own “energy,” since as a biological creature, he can’t possess them, but the “energy” of evil forces he is serving after making deal with the devil. This servant of darkness is nothing but a pawn in the clutches of demons, a conduit between the world of men and the world of dark spirits hostile to man. Thus, the red thread is “dipped” in black, satanic “energies.”
And, so? What is the catch? The catch is that the red thread, “charged” with demonic energy, is supposed to resist that same demonic energy, in popular parlance, the “evil eye” and “spells.” To put it briefly, one demon is called to fight another demon, Satan is called to fight against himself. In the Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ says this:
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? (Matt. 12, 25–26).
It’s as simple as that: the denunciation, so to speak, of a clever trick the people are fooled into when they naively seek help from the devil—the devil himself! Of course you can buy ordinary red woolen thread the local store and wear like jewelry. You never know what our women might put around their wrists… However, the craftiness of the “enchanted” red thread is that it is worn as an amulet on which its owner places certain hopes.
The magic spell “contained” in the thread can’t function on its own, and you get nothing out of it—not until the demonic power, hidden in it, is ignited by you belief in it. “I believe the red thread protects me. I believe in its power!” That’s when the direct action of evil forces commences upon the owner of the red thread, who has opened his soul to these forces by consenting. He as if says, “I want you, mighty forces, to protect me.” That’s when the person is taken captive by demons. But this does not seem to be enough for him! He comes to the church and to God wearing this thread, to acquire “additional energy!”
But it is not possible to be with both God and the devil, hoping to receive equal help “from above” and “from below.” The Scriptures say:
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? (2 Cor. 6:14–15).
Therefore, we need to make up our minds—who are we with? Who are we for? Under whose banners are we struggling for salvation from the power of the devil and death?
The answer is obvious: Salvation is only possible in God, only in agreement with God’s commandments. Allegiance to Belial, i.e. the devil, even if not openly but through sorcerers and psychics, by wearing “enchanted” amulets, or that very red thread, is the path to eternal perdition, to eternal separation from God. Let us think about this when we decide to attend church services. Let us be faithful to God alone, and God will always be with us!
Source: Orthodox Christianity
