Unfortunately, many Catholics (sometimes even well-meaning) disregard anything supernatural to do with the occult as a “fantasy” or “made up”. They laugh it off thinking that doing so makes it any less real. It doesn’t. One philosopher was right when he said “The Truth is strange - stranger than fiction”.
In reality, the devil has many powers. This is because the devil was originally created as one of the best of God’s angels (Ezekiel 28:13), but then rebelled and became a fallen angel. As a fallen angel, the devil still retains many of the powers he was originally gifted with. The devil often times gives these powers onto those who are trying desperately to contact it. Such powers include anything from fortune-telling, turning invisible, making people ill, and so forth. As a rule of thumb, the devil can only destroy, never create. In the Bible, the devil was given the temporary authority by God to control the weather (Job 1:16). Historically, the devil beat St. Padre Pio up every night for his piety. The devil is real all right, and just because you deny his existence doesn’t make you smart. It does not turn you into an overnight neurosurgeon. Quite to the contrary, it simply means you are denying the obvious. It means you’ve been fooled. Tricked. Deceived. “Had”. Indeed, one person said the greatest trick the devil ever did was convince people he did not exist. To that end, the second greatest trick the devil ever did was convince people he was without power and was a little harmless beast holding a pitchfork.
One objection I’ve heard on several occasions is that those who realize the reality of the devil are “granting him too much power”. Not at all. We merely realize the nature of the spiritual world. The Bible regards the devil as a “prince of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4; John 12:31) for a very good reason. When you realize who exactly the devil is, you also begin to understand just how much more powerful God is. You ask yourself, “if the devil is that powerful, assuredly, God must be infinitely more times powerful”. After all, the devil answers to God, and has to (on many ocassions) request God’s permission to do anything. You begin to appreciate God’s omnipotence. You also begin to appreciate the power of invoking the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michael the Archangel. What use is St. Michael were it not for spiritual warfare? What use is it for the Blessed Virgin Mary to “crush the head of the serpent” (Genesis 3:15), were it not for the fact that the serpent had some hold on the lives of a number of people? To consider the devil as powerless, and even more so to scoff at those who have been harmed at the devil, is an inadvertent attack on the authenticity of the Bible. I’ve made the observation that those who believe the devil is a work of fiction also tend to believe God is a work of fiction as well. Either they believe God is a work of fiction, or they are fast heading in that direction.
We shouldn’t be indulging in occult practices. Open your Bible and read it. God goes into great length in the Book of Deuteronomy explaining how He despises those who go into occult practices. It is an abominable practice - period. We ought to take Jesus’ “talk to the hand” approach to the devil - “Get behind me Satan” (Matthew 16:23), not try and put ourselves in harm’s way.