Harry Potter books have been removed from a private Catholic school in Nashville because they include actual “ curses and spells”, according to staff at the school.

In a recent report in the US daily, the Tennessean, Rev. Dan Reehil, a pastor at St. Edward Catholic school for pre-kindergarten children through to eighth grade, told reporters that when J.K. Rowlings' bestselling works of fiction are read by humans they stand the risk of “ conjuring evil spirits ”.

After contacting several exorcists, Reehil had been recommended to remove the books from the library and proceeded to email parents to tell them they “present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception”. The pastor’s removal of ‘selected’ books finds support from Rebecca Hammel, superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, who told the Tennessean that a concerned parent had contacted Reehil about the books and “each pastor has canonical authority to make such decisions for his parish school”.

Books Are To Be Read, Not Banned Or Burned…

Not so long ago Hitler attempted an ideology which banned any book that promised to open the minds of his followers to his corruption, but Rebecca Hammel says the school library was “kind of weeding out some of the content in hopes of sprucing it up”. Let’s be fair; every library needs thinning from time to time and there is nothing wrong with good book keeping, pun intended, but Hammel added “sons and daughters should understand content through the lens of our faith ”.

Harry Potter books removed from the school library. (Halle Stoutzenberger / CC BY-SA 2.0 )

Then, maybe in a moment of confusion she is quoted in an article in the Independent saying “We really don’t get into censorship”. Isn’t that like someone texting you saying, “I never send texts”?

Anyone reading this article who is either an active member of a magical system or who has taken the time to study the real origins of the Western Mystery Tradition knows that the rituals performed by medieval Rosicrucians, and more recently in systems such as The Golden Dawn, OTO, and Thelema all require absolute absorption in the Bible, and a rich understanding of its Christian archetypes.

Spiritualists such as the Rosicrucian Order are based on Christianity. (Terraflorin / Public Domain )

Harry Potter is FICTION, for God’s sake, and I really mean for “God’s sake”. In real life, magicians, in whatever shape they take, whether they are spiritualists, tarot card specialists, or kabbalists, all love and adore the Bible and the true teachings of Christianity, they just detest Churchianity in all its forms. To the modern magician, a demon is an emotional state, a belief which finds alignment with all systems of modern psychology, but not with pop-cultural and ‘fictional' themes.

Demons Or Drugs?

The Rev. Dan Reehil has nothing to fear in a pop-cultural, mass-produced fictional paperback book, but it is understandable why he is scared. Catholicism has two rigid bookends, God and the Devil, representing Good or Bad, by which everything is gauged as being one or the other.

This somewhat restricted, medieval belief system, goes against how we experience reality while practical magic is much more dynamic and fluid allowing for varying degrees of consciousness between Good and Bad, thus, they serve as alternative systems of self-development and personal empowerment.

The Catholic school staff believe that the curses and spells included in Rowling’s bestselling books, including “avada kedavra”, or the killing curse; and “crucio”, the torture curse, can be brought into reality by children. I don’t recall an increase in global news headlines since the first of the series in 2007 about children killing each other with curses, however, I do read too many stories about children killing one and another with assault rifles and prescription drugs.

The Catholic school believes that the curses and spells included in the Harry Potter books are real. ( Natali / Adobe Stock)

Perhaps what I am struggling with here is maybe it’s Big Pharma and gun sales regulators that the Catholic priests should be exorcising, not a brilliant, once-in-a-life-time fictional author that expands our children’s creative imaginations.

Are Christians Fearing the Right Things?

The Harry Potter books have been a concern for some Christians since Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published in 1997 and the series became the American Library Association’s (ALA) most frequently challenged books of 2000-2009. The books have been accused of having “glorified magic and the occult” and coaxing children into emulating the spells and curses , said the ALA.

Those who fear the Harry Potter books think they promote magic and the occult as opposed to imagination. (Dave Catchpole / CC BY-SA 2.0 )

Meanwhile, the children get on with their math, chemistry, and coding and as the Catholic school staff attempt to shelter the children from some of the best fiction writing ever laid on paper, a local library responded to all the shenanigans with a display informing the public that “Harry is alive and well at their library”.

I have to come back to it; adults today should be all hands on deck directly facing the increasing problems with guns and drugs, the modern-day devils and evil spirits that possess vulnerable folk in society.

Top image: Harry Potter books have been banned by a Catholic school library. Source: vlakhov Valeriy / Adobe Stock .

By Ashley Cowie