During last year’s presidential campaign, revelations allegedly exposing John Podesta’s connection to spirit cooking exploded across social media. Having previously served as President Clinton’s chief of staff, Podesta’s role as Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager made the idea that he may have been dabbling in the occult newsworthy.

Involving the drinking of a mixture containing blood, semen, and breast milk, among other ingredients, spirit cooking is reported to be a satanic ritual connected to the shock-artist Marina Abramovic. Snopes published an article dismissing the entire thing, and Abramovic has claimed that people have misunderstood spirit cooking. Christians concerned about direct demonic influence over the affairs of this country were mocked. A new Washingtonian profile of Sally Quinn provides validity to the broader concern, though.

Previewing Sally Quinn’s upcoming new book Finding Magic: A Spiritual Memoir, the Washingtonian profiles the noted writer, socialite, and all-around provocateur. Known for her connections to the D.C. elite, Quinn was married to famous Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. The Washingtonian labels Quinn a “gatekeeper of Washington society turned religion columnist and about-to-turn evangelist for mysticism, magic, and the divine.”

Sally Quinn not only represents the mainstream of the Washington D.C. elite, she also wields considerable influence.

An invitation to one of her intimate dinners or grand cocktail parties was a sign you had arrived. Certainly Quinn had: In 1978, she appeared with Henry Kissinger, Ted Kennedy, and Elizabeth Taylor on the cover of [Washingtonian] for a story entitled ‘Who’s the Biggest Star in Washington?’ … Not that she was content to be a mere socialite. From her perch atop the establishment, Quinn positioned herself as public arbiter of the town’s social mores. She began dispensing advice to incoming Presidents and other luminaries about how to get along with the natives. When someone violated establishment norms—or snubbed her invitations—she was quick to scold, often in acutely personal terms. Her flogging of President Clinton for “fouling the nest” with Monica Lewinsky remains the stuff of local legend.

This makes the revelations from her upcoming book all the more troubling:

[The book is] a spiritual memoir, called Finding Magic, that charts her path from “angry atheist” to—well, Quinn’s spiritual classification is a bit hard to define, even for her. A sort of Eat Pray Love for the This Town set, the memoir offers an intimate, at times painful look inside her exceedingly public life. There’s less glamour and cutthroat ambition, more vulnerability and personal anguish. She outs herself as a believer in the occult and as an erstwhile practitioner of voodoo, and she packs the book with moments that have made anxious friends wonder: Are you sure you want to share that?

As her husband slid into the terrible disease of dementia, Quinn discarded her longstanding atheism and embraced spiritualism and the occult. “The years right before and after Brad­lee’s death were ‘spiritually overwhelming’ for Quinn. She found herself taking comfort in spiritual retreats, prayer, and rituals, which she had long scorned as ‘shallow, mawkish, self-indulgent . . . meaningless, misused, even dishonest.'”

Since her husband’s death, “Ouija boards, astrological charts, palm reading, talismans—Quinn embraces it all. And yes, she has been in contact with her husband since his passing. Through a medium. Repeatedly.”

The article reveals that Quinn’s dabbling in the occult began years before her public renunciation of atheism. The most troubling aspect is this:

…in her less mellow days, she put hexes on three people who promptly wound up having their lives ruined, or ended. The first, cast in 1969, was spurred by old-fashioned jealousy. Some exotic beauty at a Halloween party inspired lust in Quinn’s beau at the time—and then killed herself just days after Sally cast her spell.

The embrace of the occult by the power brokers of Washington D.C. is disturbing. The fact that the Washingtonian would write a piece normalizing the behavior demonstrates how wicked and godless many of those who are tasked with shaping the future of this country truly are. Demonic influence is nothing to play around with. Having demonic influence flaunted so close to the halls of power is scary.