Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Monday, March 28, 2016
There is no such thing as Christian magick, Christian witchcraft, Christian theurgy, etc.
This may not be very expected coming from someone who asserts that she thinks shamanism and Christianity may have more in common than meets the eye. But I say it for a very specific reason.
There are mystical techniques that are common between the two. If you've done both shamanic spirit journeying (for lack of a better term) and Lectio Divina, then you get what I mean. Shamanism is a "bed rock" religion: pretty much every religion has grown out of it and you've got elements of it in everything. This does not mean that all shamanic practices are advised or legitimate. You have to use real discernment. There is magick in shamanism, but shamanism is not magick based- it's more of an earthy mystical practice that exists as a thread that runs through Christianity. The magick is optional, and is not core to its practice. There are more than one of these kinds of beliefs.
This was probably brought into the Church through the early Church's exposure to ancient mystery cults (particularly the Greeks) and also with what they carried with them from the synagogues once they were thrown out as a Jewish cult...shamanism is everywhere. If you compare Iamblichus and St. John of the Cross, you will see some beautiful and striking similarities. And there is nothing wrong with this. I prefer to think that the Christian mystics have polished the wisdom of the ancients and taken out the unnecessary, and the riff raff. I am not ashamed to say that, yes, my religion has pagan and Jewish roots...because no religion develops in a vacuum. That doesn't change the fact that Jesus is the Lord and God and King of us all, and that there is no God beyond the Most Holy Trinity. And perhaps God allowed these things to develop as they did so that they could be of use to those who were to come. I don't doubt that Pythagoras was an amazing guy. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, here...just because the way we read music is based on his theory of planetary vibration and that so much of out mathematics is based on Pythagorean spiritual principles, doesn't mean we have to quit with our modern conception of music (except maybe Pop music, but that's just me) or abandon our advances in math or science...just as we don't have to get rid of the Easter Bunny or Christmas Trees.
Yes, I'm a Vikings fan. Shut up.
Any synchronicity with ancient pagan religions is just a matter of course, and other religions too. You can still find traces of Ancient Egypt, Babylon and Cannan in Judaism. Christianity is still a mix of many things, according to region, but especially Judaism, Greek and Roman mystery cults, Middle Eastern practices and the pagan religious traits of Western Europe and the British Isles, baptized by our use and adoption...not by appropriation, but by the natural integration that comes from new beliefs superseding the old, by a people wanting the new ways without relinquishing their cultures. Islam even bears traces of the ancient polytheistic cults, and there is an echo of those ancient cultures even today. This is natural. This is not unholy- it does not make us polytheists or heretics. The pagans likely did about the same thing, and we know that the Hindus did to the previous inhabitants of India as well...pre-Vedic religions, anyone?
This isn't to say that we should just take what we want from other beliefs and call it ours and damn the origins, or compromise our own beliefs so we can incorporate what we want, as we want, forgetting that God has ordained it the way it is for a reason. The chakras of Hinduism have no place in Christianity not only because we can't hope to understand it beyond all the New Age crap out there, but because our own religion honestly doesn't have a place to accommodate it. What use are the chakras of Hindu yoga for a Christian who is seeking something more than what they can reveal, and only God can reveal? A reason why I am not all about Christians practicing Yoga- you're taking something specifically made for Hinduism and you're using it in a way that it wasn't meant to be used. These are prayers to the Hindu gods. It's like taking the Hail Mary and saying it because you like the way it sounds.
Shamanism is everywhere, and is in the spiritual DNA of all religions. You can integrate it because it's already there. The Bon Tradition of the Buddhists is a good example. These things that were integrated (well, as I think) are integrated because there was a place prepared for them. The people would not have won in their demand for the veneration of the Mother of God if God had not willed a place for it.
It's a balancing act, at least until the tradition is truly integrated, and that usually takes 100s of years.
But guys?
Magick. And. Christianity. Do. Not. Mix. EVER.
And you know what? YES. There can be a very, very fine line between the two. I used to not think so, but after spending my time with the Eastern Rite and feeling waves of what *almost* feels like thick, golden and brightly flashing theurgy, *almost*, I have to admit that it can be deceptive. And I know that people like to look at Catholic ritual, especially the practice of lighting candles to the saints or the Blessed Mother, as magick. But it's not. And I know there are magicians that use the psalms as spells and other things...that's blasphemous.
I've known of a lot of people who have insisted that they are Christians and magicians. They're usually so stuck on themselves, they can't see the Lord at all, and certainly talk more about themselves, or the other magick they're doing, not about the Lord.
In the end, magick is all about you. It doesn't matter what your excuse is...you can say it's all about your "gods", it's all about henosis, it's all about a number of things...and in the end, all I'm hearing about is you, not God. And magick, guys, is also all about *your* efforts and *your* power and *your* desires. Doing things on YOUR terms. And if it's about God, or union with God, that just isn't the way it works.
Fr. Larry Richards (who I think is awesome, even if he wouldn't agree with this blog) said that the fastest way to Hell is the attitude, "I did it my way." And he's right. This is the lure of magick...doing it your own way, gaining knowledge and becoming as "gods", accepting the promise of the serpent and eating the fruit that is forbidden.
The serpent was more clever than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. The serpent said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But God did say, ‘You must not eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. Do not even touch it. If you do, you will die.’ ”
4 “You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “God knows that when you eat fruit from that tree, you will know things you have never known before. Like God, you will be able to tell the difference between good and evil.”
6 The woman saw that the tree’s fruit was good to eat and pleasing to look at. She also saw that it would make a person wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. And he ate it. 7 Then both of them knew things they had never known before. (Genesis, 3:1-7)
Forbidden, because no matter how much you learn, you will never know enough to protect yourself or get much of anywhere. Forbidden, because you learn to worship yourself and become your own "god". Forbidden, because I have never known any magician in all the time that I have known them (over a decade) where it wasn't really all about them in the end...myself included in that. And what an empty purpose...living only for yourself.
Christianity is Christo-centric, and the way anything is done at all is by relying on God. The mass works not just because we have the "right" rituals, but because we open ourselves to God's work. It's an act of Faith. Magick is an act of Will. And I think it'll be true but trite to say here that it's not supposed to be "...my will, but Thine be done."
For me, that's the biggest key. There are times I REALLY do a double take, as a Catholic. But then I sit and let it flow through me, and I understand the difference. This isn't my will, this isn't the will of the priest, this isn't the will of the spirits or angels (or even demons) that are present for the mass or the rites of the Catholic Church...this is the will of God, or it would not happen at all. Our efforts are the extent of our own consent to God's work, and God is the main mover...it is not that we are the movers and shakers getting God's attention and directing Him, or constraining Him, or even supplicating Him for our own sakes. This is God allowing Himself to be moved for ours.
What looks like magick in Christianity is mysticism.
The mass is not theurgy, it's a mystical rite of sacrifice in which God fills the Church and YOU with Himself.
Lighting candles to the Blessed Mother are not magick...the real magic is in the prayer and the love between you and her...the candle is just a nice gift, a symbol of your intention, a light in your dark place. Not necessary.
The psalms are not spells...they are songs of praise, supplication and penitence to the God above All.
The Lord does not need to be "fed" with our love, with our energy, to enact anything or to survive, like so many of the other pagan "gods". He simply is. He wants our love because He loves us, and the extent to which we consent to Him, the extent that He is able to intervene in our lives (according to His will.)
Magick is about power over others, even to heal. Magick is about power, period. What if you could only take what was good and non-sinful and give it to the Most High God? What if only you could serve the Lord with what you can salvage out and scrap the rest?
"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. (CCC 2117)"
Some of this is strictly my opinion, and therefore suspect. Some of this is just the flat out truth.
And if you don't like it, tough. I don't make the rules. I just obey them. As best as I can.
There are mystical techniques that are common between the two. If you've done both shamanic spirit journeying (for lack of a better term) and Lectio Divina, then you get what I mean. Shamanism is a "bed rock" religion: pretty much every religion has grown out of it and you've got elements of it in everything. This does not mean that all shamanic practices are advised or legitimate. You have to use real discernment. There is magick in shamanism, but shamanism is not magick based- it's more of an earthy mystical practice that exists as a thread that runs through Christianity. The magick is optional, and is not core to its practice. There are more than one of these kinds of beliefs.
This was probably brought into the Church through the early Church's exposure to ancient mystery cults (particularly the Greeks) and also with what they carried with them from the synagogues once they were thrown out as a Jewish cult...shamanism is everywhere. If you compare Iamblichus and St. John of the Cross, you will see some beautiful and striking similarities. And there is nothing wrong with this. I prefer to think that the Christian mystics have polished the wisdom of the ancients and taken out the unnecessary, and the riff raff. I am not ashamed to say that, yes, my religion has pagan and Jewish roots...because no religion develops in a vacuum. That doesn't change the fact that Jesus is the Lord and God and King of us all, and that there is no God beyond the Most Holy Trinity. And perhaps God allowed these things to develop as they did so that they could be of use to those who were to come. I don't doubt that Pythagoras was an amazing guy. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, here...just because the way we read music is based on his theory of planetary vibration and that so much of out mathematics is based on Pythagorean spiritual principles, doesn't mean we have to quit with our modern conception of music (except maybe Pop music, but that's just me) or abandon our advances in math or science...just as we don't have to get rid of the Easter Bunny or Christmas Trees.
Yes, I'm a Vikings fan. Shut up.
Any synchronicity with ancient pagan religions is just a matter of course, and other religions too. You can still find traces of Ancient Egypt, Babylon and Cannan in Judaism. Christianity is still a mix of many things, according to region, but especially Judaism, Greek and Roman mystery cults, Middle Eastern practices and the pagan religious traits of Western Europe and the British Isles, baptized by our use and adoption...not by appropriation, but by the natural integration that comes from new beliefs superseding the old, by a people wanting the new ways without relinquishing their cultures. Islam even bears traces of the ancient polytheistic cults, and there is an echo of those ancient cultures even today. This is natural. This is not unholy- it does not make us polytheists or heretics. The pagans likely did about the same thing, and we know that the Hindus did to the previous inhabitants of India as well...pre-Vedic religions, anyone?
This isn't to say that we should just take what we want from other beliefs and call it ours and damn the origins, or compromise our own beliefs so we can incorporate what we want, as we want, forgetting that God has ordained it the way it is for a reason. The chakras of Hinduism have no place in Christianity not only because we can't hope to understand it beyond all the New Age crap out there, but because our own religion honestly doesn't have a place to accommodate it. What use are the chakras of Hindu yoga for a Christian who is seeking something more than what they can reveal, and only God can reveal? A reason why I am not all about Christians practicing Yoga- you're taking something specifically made for Hinduism and you're using it in a way that it wasn't meant to be used. These are prayers to the Hindu gods. It's like taking the Hail Mary and saying it because you like the way it sounds.
Shamanism is everywhere, and is in the spiritual DNA of all religions. You can integrate it because it's already there. The Bon Tradition of the Buddhists is a good example. These things that were integrated (well, as I think) are integrated because there was a place prepared for them. The people would not have won in their demand for the veneration of the Mother of God if God had not willed a place for it.
It's a balancing act, at least until the tradition is truly integrated, and that usually takes 100s of years.
But guys?
Magick. And. Christianity. Do. Not. Mix. EVER.
And you know what? YES. There can be a very, very fine line between the two. I used to not think so, but after spending my time with the Eastern Rite and feeling waves of what *almost* feels like thick, golden and brightly flashing theurgy, *almost*, I have to admit that it can be deceptive. And I know that people like to look at Catholic ritual, especially the practice of lighting candles to the saints or the Blessed Mother, as magick. But it's not. And I know there are magicians that use the psalms as spells and other things...that's blasphemous.
I've known of a lot of people who have insisted that they are Christians and magicians. They're usually so stuck on themselves, they can't see the Lord at all, and certainly talk more about themselves, or the other magick they're doing, not about the Lord.
In the end, magick is all about you. It doesn't matter what your excuse is...you can say it's all about your "gods", it's all about henosis, it's all about a number of things...and in the end, all I'm hearing about is you, not God. And magick, guys, is also all about *your* efforts and *your* power and *your* desires. Doing things on YOUR terms. And if it's about God, or union with God, that just isn't the way it works.
Fr. Larry Richards (who I think is awesome, even if he wouldn't agree with this blog) said that the fastest way to Hell is the attitude, "I did it my way." And he's right. This is the lure of magick...doing it your own way, gaining knowledge and becoming as "gods", accepting the promise of the serpent and eating the fruit that is forbidden.
The serpent was more clever than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. The serpent said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But God did say, ‘You must not eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. Do not even touch it. If you do, you will die.’ ”
4 “You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “God knows that when you eat fruit from that tree, you will know things you have never known before. Like God, you will be able to tell the difference between good and evil.”
6 The woman saw that the tree’s fruit was good to eat and pleasing to look at. She also saw that it would make a person wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. And he ate it. 7 Then both of them knew things they had never known before. (Genesis, 3:1-7)
Forbidden, because no matter how much you learn, you will never know enough to protect yourself or get much of anywhere. Forbidden, because you learn to worship yourself and become your own "god". Forbidden, because I have never known any magician in all the time that I have known them (over a decade) where it wasn't really all about them in the end...myself included in that. And what an empty purpose...living only for yourself.
Christianity is Christo-centric, and the way anything is done at all is by relying on God. The mass works not just because we have the "right" rituals, but because we open ourselves to God's work. It's an act of Faith. Magick is an act of Will. And I think it'll be true but trite to say here that it's not supposed to be "...my will, but Thine be done."
For me, that's the biggest key. There are times I REALLY do a double take, as a Catholic. But then I sit and let it flow through me, and I understand the difference. This isn't my will, this isn't the will of the priest, this isn't the will of the spirits or angels (or even demons) that are present for the mass or the rites of the Catholic Church...this is the will of God, or it would not happen at all. Our efforts are the extent of our own consent to God's work, and God is the main mover...it is not that we are the movers and shakers getting God's attention and directing Him, or constraining Him, or even supplicating Him for our own sakes. This is God allowing Himself to be moved for ours.
What looks like magick in Christianity is mysticism.
The mass is not theurgy, it's a mystical rite of sacrifice in which God fills the Church and YOU with Himself.
Lighting candles to the Blessed Mother are not magick...the real magic is in the prayer and the love between you and her...the candle is just a nice gift, a symbol of your intention, a light in your dark place. Not necessary.
The psalms are not spells...they are songs of praise, supplication and penitence to the God above All.
The Lord does not need to be "fed" with our love, with our energy, to enact anything or to survive, like so many of the other pagan "gods". He simply is. He wants our love because He loves us, and the extent to which we consent to Him, the extent that He is able to intervene in our lives (according to His will.)
Magick is about power over others, even to heal. Magick is about power, period. What if you could only take what was good and non-sinful and give it to the Most High God? What if only you could serve the Lord with what you can salvage out and scrap the rest?
"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. (CCC 2117)"
Some of this is strictly my opinion, and therefore suspect. Some of this is just the flat out truth.
And if you don't like it, tough. I don't make the rules. I just obey them. As best as I can.
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