Renouncing the Occult: How to Actually Close the Door

Of the doors described in our guide on the seven doors, this is the one that involves a decision rather than a wound or a habit.

Occult practice is, at root, seeking knowledge or power from a source that is not God. That is why the Church has always treated it differently from other sins: it is not a failure of strength, it is a redirection of trust. The Catechism puts divination and magic together under the first commandment, at paragraphs 2115 to 2117, which is the commandment about who God is.

The good news, and it is genuinely good, is that a door opened by a decision can be closed by a decision. That is not true of trauma, and it is only partly true of habit.

People routinely underestimate this list, usually because the item felt trivial at the time.

Divination: tarot, ouija, séances, mediums, psychics, palm reading, scrying, pendulums, and astrology consulted as guidance rather than read in a newspaper for amusement.

Magic and spellwork: of any tradition, including the varieties currently marketed as self-care and wellness.

Energy practices that involve channelling or attuning to a force, including reiki, which the United States bishops examined and judged unsuitable for Catholic institutions.

Dedication or consecration of yourself, a child, or a home to anything that is not God. This is the heaviest item on the list and the least common.

Freemasonry, which the Church has consistently held to be incompatible with the Catholic faith.

Two things worth saying plainly. Fiction is not participation: reading a novel or watching a film with occult content is not on this list. And culpability varies enormously with knowledge and consent. A teenager at a sleepover is not in the position of an adult who consulted a medium for a decision. Renounce it anyway, because it costs nothing and settles the question.

There are four steps and none of them require a specialist.

1. Name it specifically. Out loud, alone, in your own words. Not "I renounce all evil" but the actual thing: the board, the reading, the practice, the dedication. Specificity is doing the work here. General renunciation is easy precisely because it costs nothing to say.

2. Reject it before God. Say that you renounce it, that you are sorry for it, and that you belong to Christ. Your own words are better than a formula, because you will mean them.

3. Go to confession. This is the step people skip and it is the one that matters most, because it is a sacrament and the other three are not. Tell the priest plainly what it was. He has heard it before, and if it needs anything further he will say so.

4. Get rid of the objects. Destroy or dispose of them rather than selling them on. No ceremony required.

Then stop. Once it is named and confessed, it is dealt with. Returning to it repeatedly is scrupulosity, and the remedy for scrupulosity is a confessor rather than more renouncing.

Do not pay anyone. Nobody may charge you to break a curse or close a door. Sacraments and sacramentals are never sold, and the Church has condemned the transaction since the first century. If money is being requested, walk away.

Do not command spirits. You will find material instructing lay people to address spirits directly and by name. That is reserved to the solemn rite of exorcism under Canon 1172 and belongs to a priest with his bishop's permission. Nothing you need is on the other side of that line, and our guide on Catholic exorcism explains why the boundary exists.

Do not go looking for a specialist first. Your parish priest is the correct first conversation. Almost everything ends there, and the small number of cases that do not, he will know how to escalate.

Do not assume everything since is connected. Someone who renounces the occult and then has a bad month has had a bad month. Reading every subsequent difficulty as retaliation is a habit that feeds itself and it does not lead anywhere good.

Fill the space, because the ordinary means are what keep a door shut once it is closed.

Confession regularly rather than once. Mass weekly. A short fixed prayer daily, at the same time, which beats a long one attempted when you feel moved. Holy water at the doors of your home. A blessed medal if you want something to carry.

None of that is dramatic, and that is the point. The doors are closed by decision and confession; they are kept closed by an ordinary Catholic life, which is a great deal less interesting and considerably more effective than anything else on offer.