Our Spiritual Practices

[Edward]

One of the ways Veridicanism is different than Christianity is by the spiritual gifts we endorse. We believe these are gifts given to human beings to better enable them to cope with the world, survive in difficult circumstances, and overcome those aspects of the world that seek to conquer them in their lives. Below is a list from our Articles of Faith:

IX. Spiritual Gifts

In the spirit of the Magi who first found and protected their king, Jesus Christ, the Veridican Church endorses the practice and perfection of the following spiritual gifts:

• Prophecy and divination
• Astral visions and visitation
• Astrological analysis
• Dream interpretation
• Faith healing
• Angel communication
• Exorcism
• Working of miracles

One of the techniques I personally use is tarot prophecy. Only God can order the cards while the deck is being shuffled. Only God is able to make order out of chaos in the physical universe. So, if the tarot ritual is performed according to the way God instructs it to be performed, one does get the right card and the right interpretation of that card.

What is required for me, by God, is that I do my readings according to the rituals he gave me, and I wrote down in my book, Tarot: The Dark Art. And I do them all that way.

If you are a member of the church and need a word from the Lord, just ask a single, specific question, that is important to you, that you can't determine by normal physical means. And let's see what comes up. 

[Michelle]

For clarification, why do you use the term "Dark Art"?

[Edward]

For clarification, why do you use the term "Dark Art"?

That's a good question with kind of a multiple answer.

1) Back when that book was written, and God gave me the ritual therein, I was very much into divergent witchcraft occult practices. I was a Veridican, but the church wasn't formed, and so I was all over the place, spiritually speaking. Nevertheless, the book stresses that one must believe in God and that God is the only one who can order the cards in the ritual. And to change it or take the book out of print and re-publish a "cleaner" version would seem disingenuous to me. It is what God gave me at the time, and thus it is part of the history and progress towards what is now the Veridican Church.

2) The way the word "dark" is used in the title is explained in the book. The last chapter is on the "theory of darkness" and it literally means that physical light is the barrier between the astral world and the physical world, and thus spiritually-minded people tend to gravitate toward "darkness," because that is where the spiritual realm is. That said, one shouldn't worry that the other side is dark--it is, but then you don't have to have physical light to see there.

3) The practice of tarot is sorcery. Veridicans have no problem with that because the Magi were sorcerers and they worshiped Jesus Christ. But if it's sorcery, then it would be "dark" as opposed to say faith healing which might be considered "light."

Hope that clarifies it a little bit. 

[Michelle]

Is that the short answer 

Thank you for the follow up.  All is good to know.

[Edward]

[Michelle]

Now that is one happy    banana