While the following involves both Christianity and Paganism, it's really more about the latter than the former. Those of you who are Christians are of course welcome to read along, but since it's probably not of interest to most Christians, I'll do you a favor and put it behind a cut.
Recently, one of my fellow members over at
dot_pagan_snark posted a snark about an article that appeared in Witchvox. Now, the journal post is only available to members of that community, but the original Witchvox article is available to the public. The title of the Witchvox article is something right up my alley: Paganism and Christianity- Is It Possible?I have some real problems with this article, beyond the items critiqued in DPS (i.e. that it wanders off into fluffy history, and that it is written in the IM-laden jargon that passes for written communication nowadays). For the sake of convenience, I'll address those problems in the classical "quote and response" format:
I am no longer what you would call a practicing witch. I have given up my spells and enchantments for what I consider the larger picture. I gave them up because I got tired of doing everything alone after a while. That and I only practiced spells I was careful that I knew wouldn't effect anyone around me, only me… and the only spells I could figure wouldn't ever effect anyone else besides me were healing and protection spells.
It's a shame that the author chose to be solitary. Perhaps she felt she had no choice, which of course is in itself a shame. One reason it's such a shame is because, had she practiced with those who are more knowledgeable, she would have known that magic is a practice, moreso than the "directed will" definition proffered by many authors. (To wit, magic is directed will, but that only begins to describe it.)
When we send our newly matriculated doctors to practice, we tell them: "First, do no harm." Do you suppose that they sweat over that injunction, powerless to pick up a scalpel or anything else that might harm their patients? No. Theypractice the art that they learned. Needless to add, they were instructed in the art of medicine before they began their practice. That would be another reason it's a shame the author chose to be solitary.
One important lesson I've learned is to embrace the change that I seek. To want something to change, it's not enough to focus one's will at it in a vainglorious attempt to make it change on its own. One must examine one's own position relative to the change, and to make that change within first. That's good magical practice. (Any Christians reading this will note that this is analogous to the change within that a new Christian seeks from the Holy Spirit. Spirituality is often universal in pragmatics, even if it differs greatly in dogma.)
So now, I am just one of those people who see ties between everything -- connections and coincidences (though I don't really believe in coincidences) -- and believes that god is energy. [...] Electricity is energy. And energy is god, so all things have god within them. Or it is god that animates them. All manipulation of energy (magic) also called miracles in the Christian bible [a miracle is just anything that the common viewer does not understand how it works, how it was accomplished].
If we took a lighter back in time with us to the cave man days, cave men would see the ability to make fire with a lighter as performing a miracle. So therefore, it is the educated [versus the uneducated] manipulation of god, or use of god that is utilized to create a desired response.
I was raised Christian, and boy am I ever blaspheming here, lol.
Indeed, the author does blaspheme. Herein lies my rant.
To be a Pagan nowadays, many expect one to abandon belief in the Gods as real entities. While that belief may be what motivates some people to become Pagans in the first place (particularly belief in Goddesses, as acknowledgment of the Divine Feminine is sorely lacking in many cultures and religions in this modern age), it's a belief that they are often encouraged to abandon by those who pretend to have deeper spiritual knowledge. It's a spiritual faux pas nowadays to fail to recognize that deities are naught but archetypes.
The caveat I would offer toward such thinking is that it's blasphemy within many religious contexts. It still is; and it always has been. That's not a problem for other religious contexts, as the belief in deities as archetypes is as old as Buddhism and Gnosticism, not to mention several other religions originating in Asia.
But it is blasphemy in one particular religion originating in Asia, namely Christianity. If "God" is just an archetype of the human mind, to be manipulated at will or "utilized to create a desired response", then what is the bloody point-- excuse the pun-- of Jesus the Christ? Indeed, why bother being a Christian, and why ask if Christianity and Paganism are compatible? Clearly without the tenet of Christian faith that Christ reconciles God and man, there's no reason to be a Christian.
Every single miracle the Jesus performed in the Christian bible could be explained by cabbala magic. So then, both our theory and the Christian theory would be correct.
Our theory is that Jesus’ miracles were the result of cabbalistic magic. The Christians’ theory being that it was the power, or the hand of god that performed those miracles.
It could be Cabbala magic and still be god, since direction of energy is magic. Energy is also god, so it would still be done through the ‘power of god’.
Almost sounds confusing. But it's such a simple concept.
Nope, it only seems simple to the author because she has neatly redefined Jesus to suit her own means, and then matched that redefinition to her own definition of magic. That's the problem I have with many Neo-Pagans. Look, it's not out of an apologetic for Christian belief that I offer this rant. I just happen to believe that if you're going to claim a particular belief system, you should ensure that you're not redefining the belief system to suit your own ends.
Christianity is only one of many religions which have been exposed to this pattern of "claim it, then redefine it" by Neo-Pagans. Wicca has been so abused since the 1970's. Amerindian beliefs have been abused in this manner since the 1960's, and perhaps before that yet. What's particularly irritating about this abuse is that many of the people perpetrating it are themselves the same people who claim to respect other cultures.
Bah. Maybe that's why I call myself a Marcionite, instead of "Pagan" or "Christian".
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