An acquaintence of mine, who had been brought up as a Catholic, asked my advice about to "escape" from the influence of the Catholic Church.
I instructed him to carefully cut up a picture of the Pope into 16 pieces then place the pieces in a bowl and set fire to them. Once they were burned to ash he must fill the bowl wth water and flush the contents down a sink.
He did this ... and found that his awareness of how his Catholic associates were manipulating him was dramatically heightened .. to the point where he saw their "control tactics" as "amusing".
This also works if one is trapped in a relationship with someone and is finding it very difficult to break away from them.
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Rituals play important parts in people's lives every day, not just those with compulsive obsessive disorders. I accept that your faith floundering friend found comfort in the little act of witchcraft you suggested. The practical effort reinforced his determination and helped him overcome that last hurdle, I can follow that. It only affected him, the Catholic Church did not change as a result, but he did.
Would you count yourself a warlock Senior?
Interesting, now your using witchcraft to break the RCC's hold on people.
Its called 'visualisation', the number of parts you cut are not important, the concentration on destruction of the image is the key. You can burn the picture or image, whatever you like. Is a psychological tool for people; fuck all to do with the occult, magic, white witchery or anything superstitious. Plain old psyche...and it works.
There you go again with your reasoned cogent arguments, and your iron clad logic. It's not very fair to use it against barking mad superstition in a debate now is it.
Then again if they don't like, fuck em, kudos to you sir.
...and while I'm dishing out gratuitous vituperations, fuck the pope as well, and the RCC.
I'd be willing to bet there are many ways to make the break from any manipulative person or institution. What worked for me is finally vocally admitting to yourself and others the truth. You can't control their reaction but it sure helps with your piece of miind.
@Dan Re: "What worked for me is finally vocally admitting to yourself and others the truth."
Hey there, Dan. Long time no see. How ya been?
Yep, you are correct. Thinking about something is one thing, but to actually verbally state it out loud to yourself can make a big difference. Funny how the psyche works like that sometimes. *chuckle*
Had some issues to work out but glad to be back. I truly missed AR. Y'all are great!
I left the RCC when I was 13. I had not been to confession since I was 11. I simply no longer believed the believers. It helped that I was 13 the year Lennon's "Imagine" was released. The culture supported questioning authority figures. Youthful rebellion was still in fashion.