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Paul Gosselin (25/12/2025)
This is an interesting yet odd book. Jonathan Cahn's basic premise, that the West is drifting into paganism, is solid and one could easily add other examples of this phenomena. Cahn bases much of his thesis here on a parable found in chapter 12 of Matthew's Gospel:
But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not. Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation. (Matt. 12: 43-45)
As Cahn points out, one aspect of the casting out of demons/ancient gods that accompanied the spread of Christianity in the ancient world was the abolishing of many pagan practices such as sorcery, child sacrifice[1] and (for the most part) idol worship. After 17 centuries, the Christian West did something unique no other civilisation ever thought to do, that is abolish slavery. An additional side-effect accompanying the spread of Christianity[2] led to the birth of science[3] in the West. The American medieval historian Lynn White, better known perhaps for his research incriminating the Christian world-view regarding environmental issues, nevertheless pointed out certain aspects of Judeo-Christian cosmology that had a positive effect on the rapid development of technology in the West.(1978 : 237)
In 1956 Robert Forbes of Leyden and Samuel Sambursky of Jerusalem simultaneously pointed out that Christianity, by destroying classical animism, brought about a basic change in the attitude towards natural objects and opened up the way for their unabashed use for human ends. Saints, angels and demons were very real to the Christian, but the genius loci, the spirit inherent in a place or object, was no longer present to be placated if disturbed.
While it may be tempting to apply the lesson of the parable of a demon coming back with seven other demons worse that himself only to individuals, the last line of the parable underscores that fact that it also applies to nations and civilisations. This amply justifies Cahn's application of this parable to the West. I am less enthusiastic about his obsession with specific dates, that is recent events in the West that Cahn sees as echoing events on ancient pagan calendars. That said, one would have to be blind to the times not to see that the pagan sexual practices of the ancient world (well documented by Cahn) are on the rise in the West. I would put it more bluntly than Cahn. We are in fact living in Sodom and Gomorrah. The entitled West is ripe for God's judgement. The saddest part of this picture is that like Lot, rather than reminding this generation that the day will come when it too will be accountable to the Creator of Life and LawGiver, much of the Church[4] seems determined to excuse perversion and adjust to this reality. Pagan corruption is alive and well inside Western Christianity. I have run into accusations that Cahn has lapsed into heresy. In this particular book, I've not noticed anything to warrant that accusation.
One issue that Cahn bumps into is that the rejection of the Judeo-Christian God and LawGiver leads to cancel culture. Cahn notes (2022: 56)
Of course, any position that denies truth and the existence of absolutes must ultimately contradict itself. It will, in the end, assert its own absolute truth. But even this was a sign of Baal's spirit. It was the other side. If one can turn the absolute truth into what is subjective, then one can turn the subjective into absolute truth.
The very act of creating an idol or a god is to forge out of nothing a new absolute. And so in the absence of God, American culture forged new truths, created new laws and commandments, and molded new absolutes out of the molten metal of its apostasy. And as it was in ancient Israel when Baal came into power, those who would not bow down before the new gods and idols would be punished, canceled.
Beyond progressive cancel culture Cahn alludes to here there is a serious issue. Few notice the political repercussions entailed by the rejection of the Judeo-Christian God and his moral absolutes. When postmoderns hold "Everyone has their own truth" as an axiom for civilisation this removes any obstacle to all the selfishness, manipulation, greed, lunacy, bloodthirsty wickedness or sexual perversions of which human nature is capable. Few recognize that this also leads to “Hitler has his own truth" and “Stalin has his own truth"... Which brings us to the political repercussions of a culture based on "Everyone has their own truth". Once this becomes dogma and entrenched, then when facing abuses of power and the violation of citizen's rights by the postmodern State, a State which claims to represent the “common good”[5], the result is that the individual has no recourse to a morality above the State. There is no recognized moral authority above the State. The critical issue here is that the individual now has no basis to criticise the State or call it to account and is therefore totally at its mercy. The best case he can make is to says: “I don't like your abuses!” to which the State may well respond “Who cares?!”. And there is accumulating evidence that in the 21st century postmodern elites consider the rights of the individual and his or her privacy as entirely contingent, disposable concepts[6].
Being on the subject of political repercussions, few notice a possible political motive for the postmodern sexual djihad. For example, if you have a large percentage of a population that entertains serious doubts about a fundamental biological fact such as what is a man or what is a woman, then you have a percentage of a population that has crossed a significant threshold and will believe anything, absolutely anything... A fact that can of course be politically useful to a totalitarian elite.
Other examples of the rise of gods in the West
The West does seem to be primed for the occult and the rise of paganism in a number of ways. For many years Disney[7] has been soft-selling the occult (“white magic” and nice witches -> like Mary Poppins). More recently the Harry Potter series has sold the young generation on the idea that “The occult is cool”. And then you have UFO and SETI devotees that would sell the masses on “higher intelligences” contacting us and telling us how to live...
One point that would add to Cahn's case about the return of the gods in the West is a recent article unexpectedly linking occult influences as a source for feminism. In an interview with Virginia Allen, Carrie Gress (fellow at the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center) makes the following observations on the early feminist, English Romantic poet Percy Shelley (2023)
Ideas of the “the occult, smashing the patriarchy, and free love” played a significant role in Shelley's writing and ideology, says Gress, author of the new book The End of Woman (...)
I think very few people realize that feminism, these three pieces—the occult, smashing the patriarchy, and free love—all came together in the work of Percy Shelley. In his poetry, he was trying to create what he called the women's revolution. So he's taking ideas from Godwin, he's taking ideas from Wollstonecraft, putting them together, adding his own. I mean, this was a barbaric man, actually. He was involved in the occult. There's this whole string of suicides of women that he had seduced, including his wife, had committed suicide, his first wife. (...)
There's one book that brought a lot of the elements to light for me, and I discovered it several years ago, and it's called Satanic Feminism, and it's by a Swedish professor. It was published by Oxford University Press. It's in English. And it's one of those books that when I first read it, I thought that he was against satanic feminism. And of course, the deeper I get into the footnotes and references, I'm beginning to realize, no, he actually thinks this is a positive thing.
There is further evidence of the paganization of the West. On June 1st 2016 a bizarre inauguration ceremony was held for the official opening of a 57km long Saint-Gothard railway tunnel linking Switzerland and Italy. This was no low-key event but was attended by five European heads of state. One actor in the theatrical segment of the inauguration played the part of a black goat, dancing around and to whom other characters bowed down before. An article by Pauline Mille observes (2016)
It's hard for an unbiased mind not to see it [the black goat character] as a representation of the devil, almost trivial in its explicitness. Of course, one could split hairs and point out that the goat has a dual symbolism, recalling Amalthea in Greek mythology, her white dress that would have pleased Monsieur Seguin, and her cornucopia. But under the shelter representing the Saint Gotthard Pass, actresses didn't played the roles; it was men playing goats, and conspicuously black ones at that. Now, these animals represented the devil and diabolical creatures in medieval and post-medieval Christian iconography, and in the eyes of the ancient Greeks and Romans, they symbolized unbridled debauchery and exhausting lust. We recall that the goat was one of the metamorphoses of Dionysus, the god of dark forces and intoxication, and that the god Pan, with his human torso and goat's feet, remained the symbol of paganism. As if to emphasize the desired effect, the unfortunate workers sacrificed in one scene wear the horns of various animals above their heads as a sign of submission.*
Perhaps just a generation before, European heads of state (heirs of the rationalist Enlightenment) subjected to such a performance would have stormed out in a huff, insulted at such nonsense and superstitions. But now, they all sit through it and applaud. Times have changed...
Here's a personal note. One Anthropology professor who I had in the 1970s was a staunch atheist and Communist, zealously sermonizing students to join the struggle against Capitalism. Years later (after the Fall of the Iron Curtain) I bumped into him and realised he was giving a class on occult phenomena and Astral Voyages. He'd defrocked from his former atheism and become a shaman... I suspect that many a convinced materialist would have his worldview completely overturned if he were to witness a supernatural/occult phenomenon with his own eyes. The Apocalypse (Apoc. 13: 13) does warn us that in the End Times, the Anti-Christ's right-hand man, the False Prophet will have power to call down fire from the sky.
A few years ago I was at the local university library checking out recent acquisitions in my field of training, Social Anthropology. On the shelf I discovered a book examining the practice of fire-walkers. This is clearly an occult practice, involving contact with spirits, trances and actual walking on fierce fires. The authors studied this phenomenon in various non-Western societies, but the book ended with a chapter on an American that had apprenticed himself in this practice (in Indonesia, I think) and later came back to the States and began initiating others to fire-walking in the state of Maine!! It is not inconceivable that such individuals may be preparing practices such as those of the False-Prophet of the Anti-Christ (Rev 13: 11-17), that is actually calling down fire from heaven...
In 1945 when CS Lewis wrote about a fictional fusion between materialists/atheists and occultists, which he described in That Hideous Strength, this seemed absurd and far-fetched. In 2025 this now appears a quite plausible outcome in our postmodern world... Thus there is a definite trend towards paganism in the postmodern West. And accompanying this trend is a political trend towards totalitarianism, fed by an elitist mindset in Western elites. Maybe this may provide a subject for Cahn's next book, the return of the spirit of Babel[8]...
Here is an event that Cahn did not pick up on[9], yet occurred in New York, a city he otherwise pays a lot of attention to. This has to do with the installation (Nov. 2021) of a statue of a big winged cat (entitled Guardian for International Peace and Security) just outside U.N. headquarters in New York City. Many commentators suggested a link to an apocalyptic beast referred to in chapter 7 of the book of Daniel. Very predictably Snopes rejected this link as the New York statue is a winged jaguar, not a lion. Yet, it is still odd that this statue was set up specifically at U.N. headquarters, a Mecca for New World Order devotees. An article by Leonardo Blair notes that due to protests, the statue was removed... Blair also observes (2022)
Prior to the display of the Guardian for International Peace and Security at the U.N., it was on display along with an 11-foot dragon sculpture at the Rockefeller Center from Oct. 22 to Nov. 2 as part of the Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead celebrations.
The gods are back
One point that Cahn makes is that the ancient pagan gods have come back to haunt the postmodern West. Specifically he is thinking of the ancient gods of the pagan nations that surrounded Israel in Old Testament/Tanakh times. Here is the pagan trinity that Cahn refers to: Baal, Ishtar (Queen of Heaven) and Molech (the god to whom child sacrifices were made). Cahn provides good evidence (p. 40) of a link between Baal and Greco-Roman supreme gods such as Zeus (Greek) and Jupiter (Roman). While I had not run into proof of such a link before, this is unsurprising as it was common practice in the ancient world to repackage old gods by renaming them and adapting them to new cultural contexts.
It is odd that Cahn does not connect his pagan trinity with Freemasons who also have a pagan trinity, sharing at least 2 of the gods that appear in the pagan trinity that Cahn says now dominates the post-Christian West.
The British biochemist and Evangelical Christian, A. E. Wilder-Smith, relates in his autobiography, A Fulfilled Journey (1998), that his father was a high-ranking Freemason (32nd degree, Royal Arch). One day, he was leafing through a Masonic book that his father had carelessly left on a table (and which he knew was forbidden to read). Upon examining it, Wilder-Smith realized that Freemasons actually worship a pagan trinity, namely "Jabulon," which, when decoded, means the synthesis of Jehovah (Ja), Bul (or Baal), and On (or the female deity Osiris, pages 92-93). And when he confronted his father about it, the father adopted a common strategy among Freemasons: that is to mock the facts his son had discovered, denying their veracity and claiming they were far-fetched and ridiculous... Here is Wilder-Smith's final verdict on Freemasons (1998: 100)
Freemasonry is an absolutely anti-Christian syncretism. It is an enemy of Christianity and also of Judaism. Worship of Baal and On (Osiris) as deities is not compatible with the Old Testament! But in the beginning stages, the young Freemason or the Freemason who is not very ambitious knows practically nothing important about the Freemason's doctrine. Charles Finney, the father of the American Awakening, was a Freemason before his conversion to Christ. He tried to witness for Christ in the lodge after his conversion. Finney learned very quickly that in the lodge, one may name and admire any religious leader, as long as one does not name the name of Christ as the Son of God, who died for the sins of the world.
But one should keep in mind that Wilder-Smith is talking about Scottish Rite Freemasons. Elsewhere 33rd degree-initiated Freemasons in other branches of masonry may very well worship all three of the ancient pagan gods that Cahn focuses on. If one reads typical Freemason propaganda, they hotly deny that Masonry is a religion, but as Wilder-Smith points out one should expect this comes from “the young Freemason or the Freemason who is not very ambitious knows practically nothing important about the Freemason's doctrine”. Freemasonry is thus a hypocritical sect that hides its true beliefs, even from its lower level initiates. This derives from the simple fact that Freemasonry is a Gnostic belief system with hierarchies of initiations. As a result, Freemason core beliefs are reserved for only for the “illuminated”, that is Freemasons at the top of the pyramid, those initiated above the 33rd degree. Lower level Masons are fed the same (Masonry is not a religion) nonsense as non-initiates...
Regarding 20th century totalitarian ideologies even a progressive web site such as Wikipedia, confirms links between the occultic Thule Society (Thule-Gesellschaft in German) and the Nazi party[10]. Wiki points out that the Thule Society was heavily involved in the founding of the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP; German Workers' Party) which Hitler joined and was later renamed the NSDAP or Nazi Party. Wiki points out that many leading figures in the initial stages of the Nazi Party, such as Rudolf Hess, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Julius Lehmann, Gottfried Feder, Dietrich Eckart, and Karl Harrer, had been Thule Society members. Wiki also observes that the Thule Society was founded by Walter Nauhaus who was later joined by occultist Rudolf von Sebottendorf adopted Nauhas's Thule Society as a cover-name for his Munich (Freemason) lodge of the Germanenorden Walvater at its formal dedication on 18 August 1918. So there are links between occult/mason groups and the Nazi party. In a personal communication (2025), historian Richard Weikart makes the following observations regarding occultist influences in the Nazi Party.
As I show in my book, Hitler's Religion, Hitler himself did not pursue the occult nor paganism (I have an entire chapter on this). Nor did Goebbels or Heydrich. However, some leading Nazis, such as Hess, Himmler, and Rosenberg, did embrace occultism and/or paganism. Nazi leadership was divided on this issue
In a bizarre twist, when Hess flew to England to try to broker a deal with them in 1941, Hitler thought Hess had gone mad, and he blamed the astrologers for it. He ordered Himmer to have all the astrologers in Germany arrested and imprisoned. Himmler did so, but ironically, he allowed one prominent astrologer to go free, so he could become Himmler's personal astrologer.
In effect Hitler and other Nazi higher ups were not all occultists... A lot of rationalistic Enlightenment thinking led to what the Nazis did...
Regarding the other well-known 20th century totalitarian ideology, namely Communism, one could look into Richard Wurmbrand's book on Karl Marx and Satan (1976) or an interview with Paul Kengor and Jordan Peterson presented by Rhoda Wilson (cf. references below). Despite their overt materialism, there is no doubt that 20th century totalitarian ideologies had links with pagan/occult influences[11].
Final observations
Cahn does have a warning for the entitled Christians of the Post-Christian West[12] that is well worth taking in (2022: 234):
Even two thousand years after His [Christ] coming, even in the modern world, there was still none like Him among the gods. There was none so feared and hated by them. He had cast them out of the ancient world, and upon their return, they would wage war against Him, against His Word and people. And so the persecution against Christians would be greater in the modern world than it had been in the ancient world, greater than in the days of the Roman arenas.
Can the entitled and compromised Christians of the West conceive that this judgement applies to them?
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. (Matt 5: 13)
Even if the time is ripe for the Spirit of Deception to do his work and we do see, with our own eyes, demonic seduction and a time of judgement come down, God is still the Christian's anchor.
Jehovah sat as King at the Flood; Yea, Jehovah sitteth as King for ever. (Ps. 29: 10)
While Noah's generation came under judgement, God provided an Ark for the faithful ones... In the ancient world the Fall of the Roman empire in the 5th century was viewed by many contemporaries as the End of the World, yet Christianity survived it. Perhaps for such a time as this, we need this word:
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased their joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as in the day of Midian. For all the armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be for burning, for fuel of fire. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9: 2-7)
A prayer for this generation:
Oh Lord let your Light shine in our Darkness.
In the midst of corruption and death, let your Life take root.
Where confusion and the Lie reign, let your Truth ring in our hearts.
Where this is only dark despair, bring Hope.
Where turmoil and anguish reign, give us your Peace.
When men and human institutions fall into compromise, let us hold the hand of He who conquered Death.
When the consequences of a Fallen World touch our lives, trials and solitude, let us learn to trust He who holds the universe in place.
Allen, Virginia (2023) How Feminist Movement Drew Ideology From the Occult. (The Stream – 11/8/2023)
Arendt, Hannah (1948/1976) The Origins of Totalitarianism. Harvest Book New York xliii-576 p.
Blair, Leonardo (2022) Sculpture Christians likened to ‘End Times beast' no longer on display at UN. (Christian Post – 5/1/2022)
Cahn, Jonathan (2022) The Return of the Gods. Frontline Lake Mary FL 249 p.
Caesar, Julius (58 BC) Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars: with the Supplementary Books attributed to Hirtius. (Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library)
Gosselin, Paul (2012) Flight From the Absolute:Cynical Observations on the Postmodern West.Volume I. Samizdatix - 412 pages
Jaki, Stanley M. (1974/1986) Science and Creation: From eternal cycles to an oscillating universe. Scottish Academic Press Edinburgh, London 377 p.
Lewis, CS (1945) That Hideous Strength. (English, PDF, Canadian public domain text)
Mille, Pauline (2016) Saint-Gothard... Une cérémonie endiablée pour un tunnel d'enfer ! (Reinformation.tv) Ggl translation
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1886/2003) Beyond Good and Evil. (Project Gutenberg)
Weikart, Richard (2016) Hitler's Religion: The Twisted Beliefs That Drove the Third Reich. Regnery History, Washington, D.C. xxx-386 p.
White, Lynn (1978) Medieval Religion and Technology. U. of California Press Berkeley
Wilder-Smith, Arthur E. & Wilder-Smith, Beate (1998) Fulfilled Journey: The Wilder-Smith Memoires. The Word for Today - Costa Mesa CA 544 p.
Wilson, Rhoda (2025) Documentary: The Occult History of the Third Reich (1991). (The Exposé – 18/12/2025)
Wilson, Rhoda (2025) Karl Marx claimed he was an atheist but displayed satanic tendencies. (The Exposé – 1/8/2025) -> features interview with Paul Kengor and Jordan Peterson
Wurmbrand, Richard (1976) Marx and Satan. Crossway Books 79 p.
For my francophone readers, a French translation of Cahn's Return of the Gods book is now on the market.
[1] - Julius Cesar, in his Gallic War (58 BC), relates this observation about the Francs, the ancestors of the French.
[6.16] The nation of all the Gauls is extremely devoted to superstitious rites; and on that account they who are troubled with unusually severe diseases, and they who are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice men as victims, or vow that they will sacrifice them, and employ the Druids as the performers of those sacrifices; because they think that unless the life of a man be offered for the life of a man, the mind of the immortal gods can not be rendered propitious, and they have sacrifices of that kind ordained for national purposes. Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames. They consider that the oblation of such as have been taken in theft, or in robbery, or any other offense, is more acceptable to the immortal gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting, they have recourse to the oblation of even the innocent.
[2] - Which you are very unlikely to hear discussed in a university classroom.
[3] - A subject studied in-depth in Erreur! Signet non défini.'s Science and Creation (1974) book.
[4] - A church that never seriously discusses sin or God's judgement...
[5] - And of course the elites decide what that is...
[6] - As times goes by it has become clear that the postmodern elites now in power in the West model themselves on the Nietzschian Superman/Übermensch. In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche openly (and brutally) expressed the utter contempt with which a Nietzschian elite sees the masses. (1886: section 61)
And finally, to ordinary men, to the majority of the people, who exist for service and general utility, and are only so far entitled to exist,
[7] - One 1980s movie exposed more clearly Disney's fascination with the occult. The Watcher in the Woods (1980) directed by John Hough and Vincent McEveety begins with typical Disney themes, kids on an adventure, but features a plot with séances, invoking the dead, possession and various occult beliefs.
[8] - A reference to the Tower of Babel episode related in Genesis chapter 11.
[9] - Occurring a few months before the publication of Return of the Gods.
[10] - Yet when dealing with secret societies and Masonry spin-off organisations there is always ambiguity about who is involved which enables permanent plausible deniability...
[11] - And as the wiki article on the Thule Society points out, links exist between 20th century totalitarian ideologies and secret societies such as the Freemasons. All of which reminds me of the following anecdote. When I was in university in the late 70s and early 80s I'd heard of a comment made by Hannah Arendt, the Jewish political scientist, that totalitarian parties such as Nazism or Communism were structured along the lines of secret societies. Years later I read the book in question and the whole quote is rather interesting (1948/1976: 376-377):
(...) totalitarian movements have been called "secret societies established in broad daylight." Indeed, little as we know of the sociological structure and the more recent history of secret societies, the structure of the movements, unprecedented if compared with parties and factions, reminds one of nothing so much as of certain outstanding traits of secret societies." Secret societies also form hierarchies according to degrees of "initiation," regulate the life of their members according to a secret and fictitious assumption which makes everything look as though it were something else, adopt a strategy of consistent lying to deceive the noninitiated external masses, demand unquestioning obedience from their members who are held together by allegiance to a frequently unknown and always mysterious leader, who himself is surrounded, or supposed to be surrounded, by a small group of initiated who in turn are surrounded by the half-initiated who form a "buffer area" against the hostile profane world. With secret societies, the totalitarian movements also share the dichotomous division of the world between "sworn blood brothers" and an indistinct inarticulate mass of sworn enemies." This distinction, based on absolute hostility to the surrounding world, is very different from the ordinary parties' tendency to divide people into those who belong and those who don't. Parties and open societies in general will consider only those who expressly oppose them to be their enemies, while it has always been the principle of secret societies that "whosoever is not expressly included is excluded." This esoteric principle seems to be entirely inappropriate for mass organizations; yet the Nazis gave their members at least the psychological equivalent for the initiation ritual of secret societies when, instead of simply excluding Jews, from membership, they demanded proof of non-Jewish descent from their members and set up a complicated machine to shed light on the dark ancestry of some 80 million Germans.
To be clear, Arendt never explicitly mentions Freemasons. Other students I heard discussing this odd quote, pooh-poohed the observation by Arendt and never looked into it's (unpleasant) implications. More recently I suspect Arendt what talking about was the Freemasons... Regarding Freemason influence generally, this American Freemason site openly boasts about how many US presidents are Freemasons (along with many other notables, even clergy...) The trick is that Freemasons typically refrain from outing Freemasons presently active in circles of power and influence... That would be unwise.
[12] - Who are sure that real persecution could never come after them...