Santeria & Cursing QUESTION from John on January 30, 2003 Thank you so much for this web site. It provides a lot of very good information.
For the past six months or so I have been having difficulty sleeping at nights. Most of the times I end up waking up right before midnight and feel a presence in the bedroom and around the house. There is no visual manifestation and the situation is mostly one of noise harassment, with excessive noise coming from windows, walls and excessively loud popping noises originating in the refrigerator.
I am convinced the only reason the situation has not worsened, is because of prayer and intervention (protection). I have prayed some of your prayers but feel like the presence or harassment intensifies when I do this. My feeling is that either someone might have cursed the house or one of us might have consciously or unconsciously opened doors that allow for this activity to take place.
My wife argues the presence of evil spirits is not possible because the house was blessed by a priest some years back. As I pray, meditate and search for the reasons behind these nightly events, I often feel that a close family member is causing this problem through the occultic practice of Santeria. Even though I do not have concrete reasons for believing this, I often feel it may be my wife or mother-in-law the ones behind this cursing.
I understand and respect the dangers of dabbling with the Occult. Even though I would never practice Santeria, Witchcraft or Satanism, I have done some reading about the subject in an attempt to come into grasp with the situation; my reasoning was that by becoming more familiar with these practices I could somehow find hints that could help confirm some of my suspicions. Increasing my understanding about these practices also seemed to intensify the harassment situation, and so I have since stopped reading about it.
I am back to basic prayers, (Our Father, Hail Mary & St. Michael). Praying on my knees seems to have alleviated the situation, but the problem is still there with some nights being worse than others.
Questions
Can someone close to you practice Santeria without you knowing about it (physical clues, actions, objects, etc.)? I know that for cover up reasons this practice uses a lot of the same statues and saint names used by the Catholic Church – even though they are obviously different entities.
Is there a way to confirm certain objects or your house have been cursed? Is there a way to confirm extraordinary activities are being caused by evil spirits (rule out psychological causes)?
Is there a priest in the Dallas (TX) area you could recommend with whom I could discuss my situation in further detail?
If you happen to know of any books specific to my situation, could you please let me know.
Thank you and God bless.
ANSWER by Mr. Joe Meineke on January 31, 2003 Dear John, Thank you for your questions. We will certainly pray for you and your family. As for your first question, I am not aware of a sure way to know if someone is practicing Santeria. There are many degrees of involvement, and the lower levels may be difficult to detect. However, if someone is seriously involved in Santeria, there will be telltale signs. For example, an altar will be present, usually with a statue of at least one saint, along with what we might call knick knacks like bones, dirt, parts of plants, shells, dried or fresh fruit, ribbons, pieces of clothing and coal to name just a few. Any altar will most likely be hidden in a closet, an attic, a basement, or an outbuilding on the property, or even somewhere else, thus it may be difficult to find it. Second, you ask if there is a way to know if objects in your house are cursed. The answer is no, not really. There is no test that can distinguish a cursed object from a normal object. Sometimes, if one suspects that an item is cursed, the course of action taken is to bless the object and then destroy it. If the problem goes away, you have found your answer. If not, hopefully the item wasn't valuable. We do not recommend this approach unless one is relatively certain that an object is the cause (i.e., all the problems started when a certain picture or piece of furniture was brought into the home). The typical approach is to simply have the entire house blessed, which has the effect of blessing everything in it. Third, we are not aware of any priests in the Dallas area who might be able to help. This is not to say that there aren't any. You may want to start making some phone calls to your local parishes, explain your situation, and request that they bless your home. We can send you a House Blessing Prayer Form that you can do yourself which include the official house blessing of the Church modified for laity, and/or we can have our priest bless your house from a distance (in such event, you can sprinkle the Holy Water and Holy Salt and Blessed Medals). The priest does not have to be present to perform the blessing itself. Fourth, yes, there are some books that deal with the subject of demonic infestation and curses (which may or may not be the problem) but typically only as a small part of the material. Father Amorth is one such author (see the recommended reading list for both of his books). However, please do not try to handle things on your own. As an old saying goes, Do not try to play doctor when you barely know first aid! Finally, I would like to add some comments about what you have written. First, it is possible for a home to be blessed by a priest, and later develop demonological problems, due to a curse or involvement in the occult. Second, I would recommend that you visit the How We Can Help You section of the SPCDC website (see the link below), read the materials, and try to do the suggestions on that page. If you are still having problems after that, you may want to go ahead and fill out the online help request form to request a personal consultation. God bless you, Joe Meineke Assistant to Bro. Ignatius
For Assistance with Spiritual Warfare problems please go to our How We Can Help You page. For a direct link to sample Spiritual Warfare prayers see our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog Back to Index Page