Path: typhoon.sonic.net!not-for-mail Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,alt.divination,alt.tarot Subject: Gradual Religious Eradication of Divination and Magic References: <6b9rc.757$2d4.334@newssvr22.news.prodigy.com> <1jMrc.11014$JC5.942331@attbi_s54> <8d9826c7.0405261557.3c460d0@posting.google.com> <808df0f8.0406110307.5eacded6@posting.google.com> <40C99E2D.437CE905@luckymojo.com> From: nagasiva Reply-To: spam@luckymojo.com User-Agent: nn/6.6.0 Lines: 68 Message-ID: Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 05:23:01 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.201.242.18 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sonic.net X-Trace: typhoon.sonic.net 1087017781 208.201.242.18 (Fri, 11 Jun 2004 22:23:01 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 22:23:01 PDT Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick.tyagi:47503 alt.magick:375683 alt.pagan.magick:41424 alt.divination:22993 alt.tarot:124040 50040611 viii om! happy new year! nagasiva: #>#> as part of religiopolitical contention, criticism of others #>#> is a very valuable weapon not only in getting converts, but #>#> also in coming to completely eradicate divination and magic. Ayn Marx #> How is it that criticism of others completely eradicates #> divination and magic.? I'm missing something here. out of context. the criticism is about morality. as long as the proper religious sourcing isn't indicated, and remuneration for the services and materials is condemned as immoral, fewer and fewer 'proper' practical manifestations of divination and magic may run without being harried, and the institions of religion will support the harrier while, if the religion gains a good foothold, the nonreligious will be 'driven out of business' as it were. circumscribed with greater and greater qualifiers, not only is the competition required to convert or be overlooked, but emphasis on specialists (e.g. priests) establishes a wider gulf between practitioners and the arts themselves. moral qualms establish a need to be pristine in approach to the Sacred Processes, and the occult praxis disappears from the conventional arena until once more undertaken by plebes outside the ecclesiastical edifice who do not believe in the need for the carefulness contended as required. by this method do the occult arts begin to disappear and the religions gradually displace them, on the back of criticism from the standpoint of morality and being on the God's team. sri catyananda : # Perhaps he means that magic and divination are believed by many # in the religious community to be opposing or competing systems # to religion arguably, they are such competition, but some religions are more supportive of divination as a part of individual practices. # and that persistent criticism of others from a religious # perspective is a technique used to eradicate discussion # of divination and magic? very much so. where well-placed, criticism may yield refinement, of course, but when persistent, it tends to debilitate and truly erode fundamental inspiration. # I don't know about "completely" -- i think that is # an overstatement -- but in alt.magick i for one have # witnessed personal criticisms (flames) based in # religious contention that lead to drops in the # discussion of magic. I'm thinking more in terms of shifting language set up to condemn as 'bad' a changing set of parameters of practice, from "sorcery" and "sortilege" to "black magic", "Low Magic" and the like, the slippery slope of denouncement reduces and reduces until only the cult and the God condeming are left. nagasiva -- yronwode.com@nagasiva; http://www.satanservice.org/ emailed replies may be posted; cc replies if response desired; HOODOO CATALOGUE! send street addy to: catalogue@luckymojo.com