10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. – Deuteronomy 18:10-11 (NIV)
There are other parallel verses, as follows:
Acts 8:9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great,
Genesis 44:5 Isn't this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.'"
Exodus 22:18 "Do not allow a sorceress to live.
Leviticus 19:26 "'Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it. "'Do not practice divination or sorcery.
Leviticus 19:31 "'Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 20:6 "'I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.
Deuteronomy 12:31 You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king."
1 Samuel 28:3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land.
1 Samuel 28:8 So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. "Consult a spirit for me," he said, "and bring up for me the one I name."
2 Kings 17:17 They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
2 Kings 21:6 He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
2 Kings 23:24 Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the LORD.
Psalm 106:38 They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood.
Jeremiah 27:9 So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your interpreters of dreams, your mediums or your sorcerers who tell you, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon.'
Jeremiah 27:10 They prophesy lies to you that will only serve to remove you far from your lands; I will banish you and you will perish.
Micah 5:12 I will destroy your witchcraft and you will no longer cast spells.
Malachi 3:5 "So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.
Consequently, we find this warning in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Divination and magic
2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.
2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future.48 Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.
Why these warnings, you may ask? Because those who engage in them are consorting with demons and therefore, endangering their own salvation, their eternal destiny.
Practitioners who think they are “in control” when they perform their magical actions deceive themselves and deceive others for they only have the illusion of control. The effectiveness of their rites derive from demonic action.
Practitioners of occultism are playing with fire, eternal fire to be precise. They open themselves to demonic possession and/or oppression. Even a casual experience with the thing may lead to very bad consequences and grave spiritual danger.
The occult is very popular nowadays, and the rebirth of paganism in the west, specially in the form of “Wicca”, poses a severe danger to our civilization, our social fiber, and to the individuals involved. Don’t be deceived by pagan practitioners when they tell you that their forms of “religion” are equal, if not superior, to Christianity. These practitioners are under severe spiritual bondage. Let us pray for them, as we pray for ourselves and for the forgiveness of our own sins.