The Reality of Witchcraft in Peru

"My uncle was killed by witchcraft."  This was the surprising statement made by my friend Rony as we studied the Bible.  Rony had questions about Halloween which lead to the subject of witchcraft.  Peru is filled with witches and witchcraft and there are whole towns of witches where people will go to employ their services.

 

Today, occultists from Africa, Europe and the United States attend witchcraft gatherings in Peru because they consider the country a central power center for New Age energy.  Witchcraft is growing in Peru today, and human sacrifice still occurs.  Witches come here because there was so much blood sacrifice during the Inca times.” Often in jungle areas, people sell their children to be sacrificed in rituals. 

 

There are witchcraft markets in and outside of Cusco, selling potions and spells.  Brujos, male witches, can be found anywhere in Peru, but Huacho, Piura, Puno, Chiclayo, Ica, the jungle, and outside of Cusco are highly populated. You can buy a potion or charm for almost anything, from curing stomach problems to getting wealth. Dried llama fetuses are bought to bring good luck to homes and businesses and are often walled into the corners of buildings. A drink of liquidized frog is bought to improve the memory, and dried armadillo is bought to keep thieves away.  You can even pay a sorcerer to cast a spell on someone.

As I spoke with Rony about what the Bible says about witchcraft, he seemed shocked as he read the pages of Scripture concerning this subject.  He asked about psychics, witches, fortune tellers, Ouija boards, demon possession, and the occult.  Rony, who grew up Catholic, has seen all these things, in fact, as a Catholic, he grew up in it.  He and everyone that he knows has used witches to find things that they lost, to bring fortune, or to gain protection.  Whether poor or rich, uneducated or educated, young or old, almost everyone has used witchcraft at some point. 

A few years back in Cusco, by our house, someone climbed to the top of a tower with a giant statue of a condor on top of it and sacrificed a baby and threw him down to the ground.  This was done in an occultic ritual.  August is a huge month for witches in Peru and only a few years ago, witches went into the ancient Inca temple of the moon and slaughtered another baby as a sacrifice.  Animals are sacrificed and offered on a regular basis.  Rony told me about another man that was decapitated in a ritual in Urubamba not too long ago. 

Rony told me his uncle was killed by witchcraft because one of his enemies got a hold of some of his clothes and hair, made a voodoo doll, performed a ritual, and cursed him.  The day that the ritual was performed, his uncle got very sick, the doctors could not find out what was wrong with him, he suffered for a few months and then died.  Rony told me about a famous witch in Puno, a town immersed in witchcraft, who the drug traffickers always hire.  They take truck loads of drugs from Bolivia into Cusco. This famously powerful witch supposedly makes every truck load get through without problems. 

The reality is that witchcraft and the occult is greatly manifested in Peru.  Rony, like myself, wondered why Christians celebrate Halloween and dress their kids up as witches and demons.  This is a very good question.  What kind of testimony does a Christian give to unbelievers that know the reality of witchcraft?  What fellowship has light with darkness?