Magic

Magic, or what we would call magic, from what I have read, predates dogma and institutionalized religion. Magic even was practiced in Rome at the zenith of it's glory. Eliphas Levi defines religion as 'magic approved by the authorities'. And certainly, magic pervades creation where Nature only imparts her secrets in parts and parcels, when we are prepared to receive her truths and understand her ways. I think the history of magic, and it's falling out of fashion is the move society has taken from the provincial to the urban. As large populaces flocked to the cities, (while saints left to the wilderness), a new organizing and rational principle was needed to 'tame' magic to the point it could be consumed by masses of people. In the city, the miraculous is heightened by the fact it is occurring in the city, while in the desert, burning bushes, visitations of Lucifer and attendance of angels are more congruous because they are occurring in the pastoral yet wild countryside. In the city, once removed from Natre's undercurrents and underpinnings, man becomes separated from the magical and philosophy and religion take over where the countryfolk have left off. In philosophy, especially the stoic philosophy, Fortune is personified as a fickle mistress and we are taught to train ourselves for the worst, and to accept the uglier side of existence with equanimity and inner grace. In religion, Thomas a' Kempis, in his Imitation of Christ, encourages us to take up the cross and bear our sufferings with all due patience and even fortitude. So in both secular philosphy and religious spirituality, we are encouraged to develop a patience that perhaps provincial magic would allow us to short-circuit and even circumvent. Certainly, one would think a better man is made who has stood the test of trials through time and with as much patience as possible, tempered by the constant stress and struggles of life, finding himself weighted down over a course of time and most important, having survived.

But if one's aim is to simply harmonize with the Natural more readily, and have a deeper understanding of Nature, a happy medium can be struck between heresy and dogma. This happy medium, both informed by magic and yet guided by dogma and philosphy is spirituality, where a deep sense of awe for Nature, and a respect for the organizing principle of religion is bound up all in one.

This, then, is the path I have chosen and clumsily follow, learning as I go.