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As the public’s attention turns increasingly toward the world of the paranormal and “spirits,” one SES graduate (class of 2011), a former astrologer, uses what she learned at SES to help Christians defend against New Age beliefs and to educate those flirting with the paranormal.
“I had no interest in being a Christian at all, and no one witnessed to me,” Marcia said, thinking back a few decades to the height of her spiritual quest.
Marcia studied Eastern religion in college where she began researching the life of Gandhi. Hinduism intrigued her, and with no firm faith foundation—her dad was agnostic, her mother a nominal Christian—she found herself wanting to practice something. She was also developing an interest in the paranormal.
After college, Marcia got involved in a couple of Buddhist groups that taught her meditation, marking her entrance into the New Age. It wasn’t long before she enrolled in classes on psychic development and astrology.
“Those courses really pulled me into it, big time,” she said.
Marcia became a certified astrologer and served as president of the Metropolitan Atlanta Astrological Society. Marcia would collect birth data and plug it into a chart calculating the position of the sun, moon and planets relative to a person’s birth place and time. Marcia then interpreted the chart, advising the client on job goals, relationship issues, strengths and past influences.
After a while, Marcia started feeling compelled to go to church again, but ignored it—for months.
“I wanted to get rid of it,” she said, and even wondered if the feeling had to do with unfinished business from a past life. Eventually, she visited a church, but with plans to leave early. When the service began, everyone stood as a boy carried a cross down the aisle.
“As he passed me, I felt this love falling down on me,” Marcia said. “It was like there was a personal God who was telling me He loved me.”
Moved to tears, she stayed through the whole service, then went back the next Sunday, and the next. She joined a Sunday school class, but didn’t see any conflict with retaining her Buddhist beliefs. Just a few weeks after stepping foot in church, “I started getting this impression that God did not like astrology.” A few weeks after that, Marcia felt God was telling her to give it up. But two more events reinforced her discomfort.
Marcia visited her chiropractor, who was into witchcraft. As Marcia lay on the table, the woman said she was starting a coven and wanted Marcia to be the astrologer. Marcia suddenly felt a weight on her and graciously declined.
Shortly after, at an Astrological Society open house, Marsha was lecturing on zodiac signs. “While I was talking, I felt this very strong urge to say, ‘We shouldn’t be here.’ … I had to stifle it.”
Finally, the night before Thanksgiving, Marcia told her rector what was happening. He took out a Bible and shared God’s warnings against practicing divination.
But without astrology, Marcia thought, “What was my life about?”
Next week we will continue Marcia’s story of how God opened her eyes to the truth.
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