Blog: LGBTQ+ and Its Ties to the Occult and Paganism.

A little bit ago, I was asked to help edit a book for Christian apologist Marcia Montenegro. The book was called Spellbound and was an update of the original. It talks about how the occult is reaching our kids, why that’s so dangerous, what the occult is, and how Christian parents can talk about it with their kids. It’s a good book that I do suggest parents and pastors read, but while I was helping edit the book, one of the problems I had with it was that though it was updated and used references that the target audience would understand, it was still outdated for the problems that Gen X and Millennial parents are facing raising Gen Z and Gen Alpha children. One of the edits I suggested was that a chapter or two be dedicated to LGBTQ+, it’s ties to the occult, and how that’s affecting kids, as well as another one about the occult on social media. However, the book was less about social commentary and more about educating parents about the occult and what it is, which is fair enough. But as someone who is Gen Z and is watching this all happen real time, I do think that there is a big connection between LGBTQ+ and the occult that should and needs to be talked about, especially.

Going back to ancient times, sex, paganism, and occultic practices have just gone hand in hand, a match made in hell. Even the Bible mentions this in books like Leviticus and Numbers in reference to the Canaanites who would often use prostitution of both males and females to worship their gods, particularly Ashtoreth, a practice God strictly forbade. In the myths about the gods, it’s not uncommon to see stories about all sorts of debauchery and sexual deviancy, with the gods often having multiple partners, with some being of the same sex. One example of this is Zeus, who in the Greek myths, famously couldn’t keep it in his pants, and even kidnapped a little boy just because he wanted him to join the divine Diddy party forever.

Fast forward from antiquity to the modern day and we see a similar trend happening. Though there is a good chunk of Gen Z that identifies as Christian or is interested in Christianity, only 4% of Gen Z holds a Biblical worldview. As for the rest of Gen Z that’s neither interested in Christianity or identified as Christians, atheism has also fallen out of vogue and has been replaced with trendy new spiritualities floating around on TikTok and other social media platforms. You can now make your own belief system that takes from everything from Islam to Christianity to Wicca. We’re less religious per say and more spiritual than ever. Combine this with the fact that 28% of Gen Z identifies as LGBTQ+ and the floodgates are open to combine sexuality with spirituality once more, making it not only acceptable, but a sacrament.

One example of this that I’ve found comes from my time in the Riordanverse, or the fandom that author Rick Riordan created with the Percy Jackson series. I’ve talked a lot about this series on my blog before, as well as its spinoff series, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and one of my problems with it was how much Riordan emphasized LGBTQ+ in his later books to the point where it’s become a defining feature of his writing career, with him winning the Stonewall Book Award in 2016 for his book, The Hammer of Thor, and recently publishing yet another book focusing on the fandom’s favorite gay couple, Nico di Angelo and Will Solace. And how does Rick Riordan justify putting this in his books?

Well, this is where the pagan/occult aspect really comes in. In 2016, when the second Magnus Chase book, The Hammer of Thor, came out, Rick Riordan gave us a moment of transparency when he defends the character Alex Fierro as being genderqueer/trans because Alex’s father, Loki, once turned into a mare who was then impregnated by a stallion and gave birth to Odin’s horse, Sleipnir. In the later Trials of Apollo series, the myths about Apollo’s most notable lovers, Daphne and Hyacinthus are brought up constantly as a way to normalize gay/bisexual behavior amongst the other characters.

Things get worse because this didn’t stop with being a flimsy justification for LGBTQ+ characters in the books. This spread over the fandom, partially due to the already growing LGBTQ+ movement, and partially due to the influence of Rick Riordan’s work. Even when I was still in the fandom, I can remember most of the prominent members of the fandom would usually have some sort of pride flag in their bio somewhere. I’ve also heard horror stories from a commentor here on this blog who told me that they were getting death threats from people for not writing the character Nico di Angelo as gay in their fanfiction. Fast forward a few years later, and I’ve seen a disturbing trend of Percy Jackson fans who usually identify as LGBTQ+ becoming practicing polytheists (particularly Hellenists) or showing an interest in practicing it themselves, especially on Reddit. Apollo and Aphrodite (the sun god (light) and the goddess of love) seem to be the most popular gods being worshipped interestingly enough.

Now, while I’m not necessarily saying that correlation equals causation, there is an interesting tie between these two, and even if it’s not outright paganism, it seems a lot of the LGBTQ+ clique is into things like the New Age. One example of this comes from Pew Research Center, which shows that 33% of LGBTQ+ Americans consult tarot cards and 54% of them consult astrology or horoscope yearly. Could it be that the reason they turn to these things is because they want some sort of religion or spirituality but don’t want their actions to be condemned? It seems so. After all, we were all created to worship something, and if you don’t have a biblical worldview, it becomes very easy to turn to anything that justifies your actions.

Another example of the occult and LGBTQ+ is the furry/therian/otherkin community, which does fall under the LGBTQ+ flag. While furries seem to be a bit less spiritual and more sexual, therians and otherkin do take it to a spiritual level as they believe that they’re actually an animal or multiple animals trapped in a human’s body. This is a theme that we see very often in myths with tales of shapeshifters like gods, fairies, spirits, etc. While there are certainly people who do this for fun and don’t take it seriously (mostly in the furry community), for the people who do take it seriously and believe that they actually are a critter or other creature, it can open the door to some behavior that is not good. The vampire subculture is a good example of this, as some people have taken their personas so far as to actually drink blood from other people and add actual witchcraft into their LARP sessions.

Now, this is in no way a deep dive into this topic. I think a lot more time would be needed to explore all of the connections between these two things. However, what this ultimately all boils down to, whether we’re talking about LGB, trans, furries, etc. is that man wants to play God and to do that, will deny the existence of God so they can continue living how they want without feeling condemned. They want to be the ones who determine reality, even if it means undergoing things like irreversible surgeries, coercing people into accepting their identity, etc. This is a sad truth and as Christians, we should confront it with compassion while not compromising on the truth of the Bible and what it says about this behavior.

Until next time,

M.J.