| Resources
to aid your Understanding |
| |
Halloween comes and goes, but the Ga'Hoole owls --
with their legends, divination, ghosts, and "hagsfiends" -- call for an all-year
warning. These guardians fit right into the world's history of pagan myths
and mystical "seers," and their adventures make their occult suggestions all
the more alluring to young readers.
Like our world's mythical tales,
the owls' treasured 'legends' involve spiritism, magic, murder, and
hope-filled illusions. And like today's 'New
Spirituality,' their beliefs are twisted into enticing heresies that match
'human' cravings and mock God's truths.
Since this book series is full of references to "Glaux"
(the name of their god), some readers may even equate these "noble" tales with
Christian parables. Without faith in God's Word and knowledge of His warnings,
few are prepared to discern the deceptions. Enticed by the dark, scary
thrills, many will gladly accept the lies.
A glimpse of the
storyline
Soren, a newly hatched Barn Owl, would soon face
plenty of challenges to his faith, life, and liberty. Even before he could
fly, he was pushed from his nest by his older brother, Kludd, who planned to
kill him as part of a ritual requirement for initiation into the league of the
"Pure Ones." Soren survived the fall, but was quickly abducted by cruel
strangers skilled in mind-dulling brainwashing ("moon blinking") of fledgling
owls.
Soren and his best friend escaped and eventually
found their way to the great Ga'Hoole tree and its enlightened community of
owls. But foes like Kludd and his mate, Nyra, continue to shatter their peace.
Kludd's gifted son Nyroc (who changes his name to Coryn) escapes his parents
and the murderous Pure Ones. His exceptional psychic powers lead to amazing
victories for the Ga'Hoole community.
Meanwhile, the captivated reader becomes more and
more familiar with the dark forces behind those mystical triumphs. Evil
seems increasingly normal, while God's timeless warnings are dismissed as
old-fashioned and intolerant:
"Woe to those who call evil good, and good
evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness.... Woe to those
who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!" Isaiah
5:20-21
It's easy for readers to identify with these
fictional owls. Their values, rituals and relationships fit right into the
multicultural training in American schools today. In today's
post-Christian world, God's unchanging Truth has been twisted into enticing
deviations that reflect both our changing times and our human inclinations. No
doubt Scholastic,
the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter
books as well as The Guardians of Ga'Hoole, had something to do with
the "timely" message of the books.
The quotes below show the spiritual alternatives to
our God-given guidelines:
Glaux (god)
- “Why. for Glaux’s sake?!" [8,113]
- "By Glaux, I do swear...” [6-Prologue]
- "...all of us are descended from the Great
Glaux." [3,17]
Scrooms (Ghosts and
spirits)
-
“A
scroom, my dear, is a spirit that cannot rest until its work on
Earth is finished.”[7,54. The first number refers to Book 7 in the series. The
page number follows]
-
"Eglantine knew she was dreaming, but it seemed so real.... Would
her mum and da [sic] be there? ... Soren said they were dead. He had seen
their scrooms, the spirits of dead owls." [5, Prologue]
-
"'They’ve come, Eglantine.'...Their parents’ scrooms
had come back to them. Two pale misty shapes.... Then it was Soren’s
voice she heard. 'Is it the unfinished business that you first told me
about in the Spirit Woods?' 'Yes.... Glaux bless, it
is finished.'"[6-204]
-
"[Nyroc] had flown from those flames as hard and as fast as he
could and soon found himself being guided by a good scroom toward a
strange ghostly forest. He hadn’t known that there were such things as
good scrooms."[8,1-2]
Hagsfiend (devilish spirits
of the dead)
Psychic Power
-
“I
willed myself not to read what you were thinking. It was hard but
I just exited your mind.”
[8,31]
-
"It
began to swirl in vague shape. 'It’s a mask! A metal mask.’ ...Nyroc had
stepped out of his own body and was hovering over the lake, and yet when
he looked down, his talons were dug firmly into the pebbles of the beach.
Could he be in two places at once? Impossible! But inside his
head he could hear a voice, a voice he did not recognize, calling to
him. 'Come here, lad. Come here.'... He saw something like his own
shadow moving out from him. It was going toward the swirling
shape."[7-145]
Starsight (Visions and
Divination)
- "Soren possessed a rare ability: starsight which
was a kind of dream vision in which he could see the future, or
things that were happening in some distant place."[14,88-89]
Mystical Trance
-
"There was something spooky about his mum [Nyra].... She seemed
to have gone into some sort of a trance. She began to speak in a
scratchy singsong voice."[7-54]
-
"...the rabbit broke out of his trance and turned to look
at Nyroc....'I’m a mystic of sorts,' the rabbit said. “I see certain things
where others don’t....I read spiderwebs.” [7-172]
Flame Reading, a form of
divination.
Note: The popular Disney movie, Pocahontas,
illustrated this "fire sight" well. Its natives
cared for the land and communed with its spirits. Kekata, the tribal
shaman, provided spiritual protection as well as guidance. The ghostly
visions and images shown in his magic fire warned the tribe to shun
the "white" newcomers who "prowl the earth like ravenous wolves."
-
“Why do I see these things?” [Nyroc] asked. "...why would the
Pure Ones do what I see in these flames?”
[7-71]
-
“He
remembered his first vision in the flames of the fire.... Beneath the hisses
and snapping noises of the fire, he had heard low growling sounds and he had
seen strange shapes rising in an unknown landscape with weird
creatures loping across it."[7-177]
-
"...the coals... seemed to breathe like living creatures. Coryn’s
fire sight was so powerful now that he did not need flames. The coals
offered shapes and images as clear as the ones he read in fire. And
what he saw first in these coals was the face of his mother, Nyra....There
was a wolf figure near her. He wore a headdress of bones."[8,146]
Ritual sacrifice
-
"...he must not under any circumstances be allowed to go through
with the murderous initiation ceremony of the Pure Ones. That a
natural flame reader would be trained to murder was unthinkable. Such a
power turned to evil would endanger the future of the owl
universe."[7-50]
-
"There was the charred skeleton of an owl, still lashed to the
stump of a burnt stake. 'This is hagscraft!' Soren said in a hoarse
whisper."[14,104]
Ritual book
burning
- "Within that gloom they could see a circle of
owls standing around a small fire. The owls’ faces were bathed in the
glow of the fire and their shadows danced across the pools of light behind
them." [14,56]
Glaumora (Heaven),
hagsmire (hell) spirit trails, and reincarnation
-
“...the scroom of Strix Struma dissolved in the night to
find her spirit trail to glaumora."[8,203]
-
“...after following the
spirit trail of stars and resting for a while in the soul
cave, a gnaw wolf’s spirit could come back as anything it wanted to
be."[8,112-113]
Belief and Redemption
(Faith, and Positive Thinking)
-
"They did not hear Grimble, as he lay dying, chant... an ancient
owl prayer: 'I have redeemed myself by giving belief to the wings of
the young. Blessed are those who believe, for indeed they shall
fly.'" [1,162]
-
"...believe in your
dream.... Hear the voices in the distance. And believe — they
will not lie.”[6,153-154]
-
"...all the owls
of the great tree that night believed....They believed that there
were many kinds of truths, those of science that could be proven
through the brain, and those of legends that could come true in the hearts
and gizzards of all owls if they only believed.... Glaux bless
you for your belief in legends.”[8,203]
Owl science versus occult
manifestations
-
"Hardly scientific," Otulissa sniffed. “It ain’t science,
ma’am. It be more like magic from the old times, the ancient
times.” Otulissa was about to say that she didn’t believe in
magic, but a short time ago she hadn’t believed in scrooms, either. And
now here she was in this Glaux-forsaken place....” [8,137]
-
"Since the haunting by Strix Struma, Otulissa, who had not
believed in scrooms before this, was driven by her inimitable scholarly
curiosity to make a study of ghostly manifestations. She took from the
library shelves a book she had never previously deigned to even look at:
Paranormal Activity in the World of Owls Since the Time of Hoole....
But as she read it, things began to make sense, especially when she
compared it to her own experiences with Strix Struma’s
scroom."
The
world of the occult is no playground for our children -- not even in their
imagination. From the beginning of recorded history, human minds have been
drawn to the thrills and powers of dark forces and mystical manifestations.
Though God warned His people to shun such evil, few seemed to heed His
Word:
"...the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil continually." Genesis 6:5
"...they obeyed not, nor
inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their
evil heart..." Jeremiah 11:8
"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked;
for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his
flesh [human nature] will of the flesh reap corruption, but he
who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting
life." Galatians 6:7-8
"...the time will come when
they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desire...
they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to
fables. But you be watchful in all things..." 2 Timothy 4:2-5
"For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down
strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the
obedience of Christ..." 2 Corinthians 10:4-6
Those
who do take a stand for Truth in the years ahead will probably face hostility.
The following chart may help your child give wise
answers:
