Our culture is saturated with the supernatural and the lines are blurred between good and evil. Marcia Montenegro is a former professional astrologer who sought out New Age paranormal practices. Learn how she gave those up and found a new answer.

The Paranormal Seduction of Today’s Kids w/Marcia Montenegro

Where do you belong? Do you belong to Jesus or have you dipped into the world of paranormal New Age practices? All kinds of media, but especially TV and film, are pushing the supernatural and the lines are blurred between good and evil. Welcome to Haven Today. I’m Charles Morris telling the great story that’s all about Jesus. This is a program called “The Paranormal Seduction of Today’s Kids”. It is a true story of a former professional astrologer who broke free and now belongs to Jesus. If you missed last week’s programs on Rhonda Burns’ “The Secret” as endorsed by Oprah, we still have them on our website at haventoday.org. Too many people have thought “The Secret” is just coming from the Bible but is it really? If you’ve read what is still a bestselling book or watched the video, Arnold Schwarzenegger says he’s practiced “The Secret” and that’s what’s brought him success, I would strongly suggest you give these two programs a listen. Now, Catherine Scott opens our program with the title song from her album, “I Belong”.

Song: I Belong
Performed by: Catherine Scott

This is Haven Today and I’m Charles Morris and we have with us from Arlington, Virginia Marcia Montenegro who has a ministry that we’ll tell you about in the next few minutes as well as tomorrow. Now Marcia, first, welcome to the program.
MM: Thank you so much for having me.
CM: Let me just say before we tell what you were and now who you are, some people say it’s fun. Some people say, “Oh it won’t hurt anything. I don’t really take it seriously,” but still every day they may open a newspaper or they may grab a magazine at the grocery store. I’m talking about the horoscopes and that of course, is not the same as astrology although horoscopes are part of astrology. You of course, were an astrologer and that’s what your ministry is all about, isn’t it today?
MM: It’s about, yes astrology is definitely a part of it. It covers the New Age. The ministry addresses a lot of issues, astrology is one part of it.
CM: And I hope in our talking together that we can get to this, in fact I know we’ll get to this, you’re concerned about young people too, being attracted to New Age, being attracted to the occult.
MM: Yes, exactly. I think that a lot of things in our culture communicate to younger people that certain aspects of the occult are either harmless or they’re fun. So through entertainment in the culture and through books and media and movies you get a message that desensitizes children and teenagers to the occult. It’s not seen as something dangerous anymore.
CM: You are not an astrologer anymore.
MM: Absolutely not!
CM: Why not?
MM: The only reason I’m not an astrologer anymore is because God intervened in my life in 1990 and not right away, but over a period of time then revealed to me the truth of Jesus Christ. And actually, even prior to that moment, God led me through this process of seeing astrology as something he didn’t like. And without understanding why, I left it. But I had considered astrology my calling and it was my identity.
Cm: Calling in a religious sense or just calling in, it’s what you were good at?
MM: It was more than just what I thought I was good at. I felt that I had been an astrologer in previous lives
CM: OK
MM: I believed in reincarnation. And I really thought that astrology was like my destiny. I was in this lifetime to use my gifts in astrology that I had learned through previous lives and this was another life where I was supposed to use them to help people, not just to help them maybe with personal problems, but also as a spiritual tool. I very much saw astrology as a spiritual tool and my spiritual world view was compatible with the world view of astrology so astrology was also part of my spirituality or my spiritual path.
CM: Now we’re using terms like New Age, you just said “spiritual path”, is astrology satanic?
MM: Well, I would say astrology is definitely a system based on Satan’s kingdom. I don’t use the word “satanic” because that immediately turns people off and a lot of people, people involved in astrology don’t usually believe in Satan,
CM: right
MM: so I just try to talk about what astrology really is, what it’s based on, and it’s based on a world view totally opposed to the biblical world view. And it originates actually from seeing the planets as gods or the homes of gods.
CM: Wow. OK, let’s go back a little bit to how you got started. What attracted you? I mean, forget about, for a minute, there were prior lives that at the time you believed you’d lived and this was your destiny. In this life, what got you interested in practicing astrology and becoming an astrologer?
MM: OK, actually I was interested in astrology in high school which is before I believed in reincarnation. I had been going to church although I was definitely not a Christian, I was not a believer but I was going to church mainly because of my mother making me and my sister go. My father was an Agnostic, so I wasn’t really getting a Christian influence at home except for having to go to church. But I was very interested in a lot of religions, a lot of different religions. And for some reason, and I don’t know why, I was very fascinated by astrology. There was something about it that was very appealing to me. I liked the idea that there were little symbols. You know, there are different symbols for the different zodiac signs, Aries, Taurus, Gemini
CM: Yes,
MM: That intrigued me and I kept that interest in college. I didn’t seriously study it in college but I would read things here and there and my friends would sometimes ask me questions like, you know, they would say, “Well, I’m you know, an Aries and I like John and he’s, you know, a Capricorn, are we going to get along?” And so I would get that from time to time.
CM: This was more than just reading the newspaper or Cosmopolitan magazine,
MM: Yeah, right
CM: You were already deeper at that point
MM: I was already kind of familiarizing myself with some of the general attributes of the sun signs which are the zodiac signs. And I, well the zodiac signs are more than that but like when your birthday is, that’s your sun sign.
Cm: OK
MM: then later, actually, there were several intervening years there where I got involved in Eastern spirituality and the paranormal. And I was not actively really investigating astrology or studying it at that point. I was first involved in these other things. I was practicing Tibetan Buddhist and Zen Buddhist mediation methods. I had a spirit guide and I was reading different things about communication with the dead. I had gone to some psychics and I did go to an astrologer somewhere in there. Then it got to a point after several years of this kind of exploration and practice where I wanted to find something that I could specifically do, that I could specifically practice on my own.
CM: A gift, exercise a gift.
MM: Exercise a gift, instead of just going to people who had those gifts, I wanted to be one of those people.
CM: OK, alright.
MM: And astrology was the area that appealed to me more than any other area partly because it seemed to have this special, secret information that you could access in order to understand other people. So I felt that I could learn about – I’d always been kind of interested in psychology although I’d never studied it serious, or you know, formally – but I thought that by learning astrology I would then be able to understand people better and be able to tell them about themselves. But I signed up for a course in a place in Atlanta, I was living in Atlanta, Georgia, this was several years after college and there was a place there called “The Foundation of Truth” and I signed up for “Psychic Development” and took that one night and signed up for “Astrology” and took that another night, so I signed up for both those classes and I started learning the basics of astrology, which is pretty much all math. You learn, at least in this case, they taught us how to calculate the chart mathematically so –
CM: Based on your birthday and where –
MM: Birthday and birthplace,
CM: OK
MM: I’m sorry, birth time, birthday and birthplace.
CM: OK
MM: And it’s a little complicated and I wasn’t very good in math so what motivated me was that once I learned this, then I could go on to the good stuff
CM: OK
MM: and find out what the interpretations of Aries and Taurus and what’s Venus and what’s Mars and what’s Jupiter? And so I knew all of that was coming once I mastered this mathematical part. So I got through the mathematical part and went on to the next section where we started learning what is the meaning behind the zodiac signs and what is the meaning behind the planets .
CM: And it really is, as you said earlier, a world system opposed to the world system of the Lord God Almighty and the scriptures.
MM: Yes, and that’s not so apparent to people right away. I mean if you say, “That’s opposed to the biblical world view.” People will say, “Well, why? You know, God created the planets –
CM: Oh yes.
MM: and you know, what’s wrong with that?” The basic problem here is that you are reading a meaning into something where there’s no apparent meaning.
Cm: OK
MM: When you look up at the sky and you happen to see the moon or maybe Venus, you know, the more visible planets that you can see you don’t automatically think, “Oh yeah, there’s the moon. That’s the symbol of you know, feminine, early childhood, mother influence,” or something like that. You just see the moon.
CM: Right, the creation.
MM: You see the creation, right. So one of the hallmarks of occultic systems is that there is hidden meaning behind something whether it’s the planet, whether it’s the lines in your hand –
CM: For palm reading
MM: For palm reading, or the images on cards for Tarot cards
CM: Yes
MM: Or even in the configurations of tea leaves in the bottom of a cup where you use loose tea. And tea leaf reading is a form of divination. These are all systems of divination and they’re based on the fact that there is a belief these things can give you a message by learning – you have to learn what the messages are because they are not natural, they aren’t apparent.
CM: Something happened Marcia.
MM: It’s very interesting what happened because I was extremely involved with astrology and doing astrology and being involved with the Astrological Society and teaching astrology and I used it as a way I saw reality, as one way I saw. It fit in with other ways as well. Well, I was very hostile to Christianity. And so in 1990 I was very surprised when I began to get this compulsion to go to a church. And I didn’t understand where these thoughts were coming from because I had no desire, I was aware of no desire to go to a church. And so I decided that I would go to a church. And I went downtown to a very large church and I just decided to go there and I thought, “OK, I’ll go into the church. I’ll stay for a while and then I’ll leave.” And I went and went to the back and the end of the pew because I was going to leave early. And I decided that this was happening because this was from a previous Christian life and I thought that there was something unresolved from one of my previous Christian lives, which I was sure I had had. So I mean, I was sure I had been a monk and a nun at least, and maybe you know, a priest, but I was sure I had been a monk and a nun at least.
CM: I’m smiling right now for those listening to the radio.
MM: Yeah, but I was total convinced, I was totally convinced of that, this is very common.
CM: Wow. So what happened at the church?
MM: The service started and they were playing music and everyone was standing and there was a procession from the back of the church –
CM: Pretty formal church
MM: Yeah, a rather formal liturgy. And there was the choir and the ministers and at the head of these people was a young boy carrying a cross. And as he walked by me with the cross, I felt this love falling down on me from above. I call it a waterfall of love.
CM: OK
MM: It was falling on me and through me. I knew this was coming from a personal God. I didn’t believe in a personal God. I believed that God was a force or an energy and we were all part of the energy. I was basically a pantheist.
CM: Pantheist.
MM: I believed that Jesus was an enlightened teacher like Buddha, OK?
CM: OK
MM: Those were my basic beliefs about God and Jesus, and he was the avatar of the Age of Pisces. And so here was this personal God telling me he loved me and I couldn’t understand why this was happening. I just could not, it didn’t fit into my world view. And so I just stood there and I was crying and I was very overwhelmed by it, it was very real. I stayed for the whole service and then I decided to come back the next Sunday just to be there. And I continued coming back each Sunday to that church. Now this was a very, very open minded church. Some of the people there when they found out I was an astrologer wanted my card, my business card. So I was very comfortable because I thought, you know, it’s OK. You know I’m here in a church and I’m an astrologer and no one seems to mind. So I’m going to this church and within a few weeks – I’m skipping a lot of stuff. There’s a lot of stuff, different little things that happened I’m skipping here , but – I started getting this impression that God didn’t like astrology. And I couldn’t understand –
CM: You hadn’t even read the verses in scripture
MM: Oh no, no, no. No.
CM: that were opposed to divination and even mentioned astrology.
MM: I had a vague understanding that astrology was wrong if you believed the Bible
CM: OK
MM: literally as I thought of it but I didn’t really know why. So I couldn’t understand though. I thought I’m helping people with astrology. It’s a spiritual tool. Why would God be against it? You know, that didn’t make sense to me. Very quickly that impression became God wanting me to give it up. Now that was even harder to deal with because it’s not just that God doesn’t like it but he’s wanting me to stop.
CM: It’s like me and my coffee every morning – only worse!
MM: Well, this happened the night before Thanksgiving, when I made that decision. I had, I had 3 clients come in early December who had prepaid their charts, which is how I usually did it. And once that was done I started reading the Bible. And I started reading Matthew because, I’m still not sure but I think I just thought I should read it. So I started Matthew chapter 1 verse 1, I’m reading a little bit every night. There’s something about the Bible that’s really different to me. I mean I’ve looked at the Bible before but this time there was just something about it, I couldn’t put my finger on it. There was something very pure about it to me. And I’m reading a little bit every night and about a week or so before Christmas, I’m reading a passage in Matthew chapter 8 and as I’m reading that account – it’s Jesus on the boat with his disciples in the storm and how he rebukes the storm and it stops – and as I’m reading that over and over it’s like a mist, you know, that was over my eyes just lifted and I saw who Jesus really was. And I realized that I had been on a path going away from God, that if I had died right, you know, right at that instant, or right before that instant I would have been eternally separated from God. I realized for the first time in my life, I understood why Jesus died on the cross. And I just gave my life to him.
Cm: For you.
MM: Well, yeah,
CM: He died for you on the cross.
MM: Well and because I, you know he really died for my sin
CM: Yes
MM: which is a phrase I’d hear but I never really understood –
CM: knew what it meant.
MM: and I never applied it.
CM: Wow
MM: And so at that moment I was a new creature in Christ and I, of course my life was just radically changed, completely. And I found out 4 months later that a young man in an office where I was working part time had been praying for me with a fellowship group at his church. But I did not find that out until April and it was sort of accidental. And the reason I was in that office where he was is because a client had hired me to give him advice on the employees using astrology. And that’s why I was in the office. And when I gave astrology up I had to go tell this man, I didn’t see him until January, because he wasn’t around, that I couldn’t do astrology anymore but he kept me on anyway, you know, just, he gave me busy work, and that, so I was still in that office in April when I found out about from this young man about the prayer.
Cm: Thank you so much, in the name of Jesus, for joining us today and come back again tomorrow.
MM: OK. Thank you so much.
CM: Marcia Montenegro, thanks for being with us here on Haven Today and a program called “The Paranormal Seduction of Today’s Kids”. Well, Marcia has a book out, we’ve mentioned that. Her book is called “Spellbound” and in it she not only talks about her experience but she also talks about how today’s kids are being seduced by the paranormal and how the only answer, the only answer out there at all is Jesus Christ and that’s who she found as her Lord and Savior. Well, I’d like you to have a copy of her book. Someone perhaps in your life has maybe dabbled in the occult. Maybe you’ve dabbled in the occult; this book is for adults and not just kids. I’d like to ask you to get in touch with us and second, I’d like to ask for your financial gift to Haven Today. You can go online at haventoday.org, read more about her book “Spellbound: The paranormal seduction of today’s kids” or you can just give us a call at 1-800-654-2836. That phone number to call is 1-800-654-2836. Or go online on the internet at haventoday.org, that’s one word, h.a.v.e.n.t.o.d.a.y, haventoday.org. We’d like to hear from you. We’d like to minister to you and I know there are a lot of people that can be ministered to by Marcia’s book “Spellbound”. Now I mentioned this when we started our program today, last week, Thursday and Friday we did two programs on Rhonda Burn’s “The Secret” as endorsed by Oprah. Did you know that that book is still the number one advice book on the New York Times bestseller list? So if you think it’s gone away and it’s not a fad anymore, well I’ve got news for you. If you’ve read it and you think, “This sounds pretty good. I can get ahead. I can take the world over by following this. Or I can be healthy. Or I can just think it and it will come true.“ Well, let me tell you “The Secret” is not biblical, “The Secret” is not the secret, it’s the lie. We have those two programs and you can still listen to them, just go to our homepage haventoday.org. You can also order a CD and listen to it at your convenience by going online or by calling us at 1-800-65-HAVEN. Let me mention as well, maybe you have a burden in your life. You’ve dipped into the occult and you know deep down it’s wrong and you’re sensing God’s Spirit telling you, you need to get away from it. You need to get out of it. You need the protection of finding Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You need the power of the Spirit at work in you. May we pray for you? You can send us your request online. Just go there to the homepage, you’ll see a little button that says “Prayer”. You can call us and we’ll pray with you at 1-800-65-HAVEN. We want you to have freedom, freedom from the occult, freedom in Christ and you can find that in Jesus alone. So get in touch with us. We’d love to pray for you. And if you’d like to know what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, there on our homepage, in the lower right hand corner is an article on “How to become a Christian”. Perhaps that article is for you and it’s for you today. I’m Charles Morris. Thanks for being with me. Come back again tomorrow with Marcia Montenegro. We’re going to be talking about this serious business a little more. And we’ll do it as we share the great story that’s all about Jesus. We’ll do it together here on Haven Today.