So this weekend my wife had what I can only describe as severe muscle cramps in the legs and back plus other issues. It was so bad that she didn't the room all weekend.
Anyways, she claimed it must be someone who hates her and used Santeria against her. Obviously she knows I'm a nonbeliever so I was at a bit odd a loss in responding. Ended up suggesting Holy Water (she has a bottle) and casting doubt on the idea that someone would put their soul at risk to go through all the effort of casting a curse on her out of some odd jealousy that would drive the plot of a soap opera.
If you're the nonbeliever how do you deal with your S.O. fears that others are actively employing evil spiritual forces?
As side note, even if I had maintained my faith (SDA) I don't think I would believe I such things. I was raised understanding that such magic isn't real.
My wife is from Indonesia. Some people believe in this stuff because they've seen some weird things. I had an expat friend in Indonesia who suffered horribly from kidney stones. After passing a stone, he noticed a bottle of urine over his door. That's a local black magic way of casting some kind of spell. The thing is, he had the kidney stones. It turns out, he's a really friendly guy and he'd been tipping the maid they hired for their apartment. She misinterpreted it as him hitting on her somehow and decided to do witchcraft against him. I trust him to tell the truth about the bottle of urine.
Other people have stories about the various amulets they use in black magic there. I haven't seen it. I was surprised to learn my office of Indonesian co-workers all believed in kuyung, a witchdoctor whose head flies around at night, esophagus in tow, flying around seeking babies blood to drink. The Filippina there said she wouldn't have believed it if her husband hadn't have had an experience with the ghost, she believed, of a relative who died after being severed at the waist in a similar supernatural experience. I think the family sprinkled salt on the remaining part, she said, to prevent it.
Anyway, I think some of this stuff is myth, but also think there are some dark demonic forces out there.
Someone put black sand in a bag in the outdoor area around our home, maybe over a door one time. My wife freaked out. She said it was magic. I don't think she was as afraid of the magic as shocked by the fact that someone would do it. She thought the maid across the street liked me and was jealous of her, maybe, and maybe she did it. Basically, she prayed and rebuked it, and that was that.
When I started dating my wife, I was staying with this other expat who was house sitting for a relative. He stayed there free and let me stay there free. I'd take him out to dinner as payment. He thought the maid liked me. He'd taught her to make hash browns. One day, my hash browns were full of hair. I'd heard that was a form of witchcraft, if intentional, to make someone like you. They eat your hair and they are supposed to fall in love with you.
I also heard a story about a noodle cart vendor who put his underpants in the soup he was serving noodles in as magic to make everyone like the soup. I thought, in my country, that works like magic. Put hair or underpants in the food, and like magic, you lose all your customers.
Anyway, I told the maid the hashbrowns were gross. They had hair in them and that was gross.
I didn't fall in love with her, and I married my wife.
I don't think we should be scared of magic. I don't think Christians should be afraid of it either.
