From tyagi@HouseofKaos.Abyss.com  Thu Feb 15 12:02:27 1996
Received: (tyagi@localhost) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) id MAA28366; Thu, 15 Feb 1996 12:02:27 -0800
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 12:02:27 -0800
Message-Id: <199602152002.MAA28366@jobe.shell.portal.com>
To: tyagi
>Subject: Re: Christian Magickal Working
From: nagasiva@yronwode.com (nagasiva)
Reply-To: nagasiva@yronwode.com (nagasiva)
Status: RO

From: ccartwr1@Phoenix.kent.edu (Bunny and/or Roy)
To: alt.magick.tyagi...
Date: 8 Feb 1996 16:14:47 GMT

ROBERT DEPENDAHL (D1KURTZ@sisko.sbcc.cc.ca.us) wrote:

: It occurs to me that Christ and the concept of magick are two
: mutually exclusive concepts.  You either believe in Christ (on your
: knees praying for something to happen...) or you believe in
: magick(channeling your mental energies into making something happen
: through the use of ritual practice).

I think most students of religion would not accept the sharp
distinction you make between Christianity and magic.  For example, the
priest's process of preparing the sacred host for communion in the
Roman Catholic and orthodox Christian sects has many of the elements
of high magic ritual about it.

Overt individual and group magical practice was quite common among
some groups of early Christians, and persists in some places.
Archaeologists have recovered a great many texts, amulets, talismans,
sigils and other magical implements with prayers, spells and ritual
formulas composed by and for Christians.  Most that I know of are the
result of religious syncretism, the synthesis of Christianity and some
pre-extant religion.  Some of the best known texts come from the early
Coptic church.  "Ancient Christian Magic; Coptic Texts of Ritual
Power", by Martin Meyer and Richard Smith is a good recent collection
of texts with interpretive, linguistic and historical commentary.
Harper Collins released it in paperback a couple of years ago.

Roy

--
"Papa Hegel he say that all we learn from history is that we learn nothing    
from history.  *I* know people who can't even learn from what happened this   
morning.  Hegel must have been taking the long view."                         
                                      (John Brunner, "Stand on Zanzibar")