To: alt.magick
From: amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
Subject: Christianity and magic (9409.wichrist.aw)
Date: 49940909
Quoting: |llangevi@MCS.COM (Leo John Langevin) 

|I question why xians would read alt.magick.  

Well, presumably, for the same reasons anyone else would read it.  That is to 
say, it varies from person to person.

|Isn't the idea of doing any form a magick (even magickal thought)
|contrary to basic xian belief?  

Not at all.  For example, Catholicism actively recognizes Hermeticism as a 
science (check out the Catholic Encyclopedia if you don't believe me...).  
Most western magic over the centuries has been done in Christian or Jewish 
frameworks; it is only in farly recent times that non-Judeo-Christian magical 
systems have gained any popularity in Europe and America.  And, when you get 
right down to it, most modern neopagan magic is, to paraphrase Monty Python, 
based on those same principles, with "Shekinah" scratched out and "Goddess" 
written over it in crayon.  Wicca in particular is more of an offshoot of 
Christianity than it is an authentic recreation of pre-Christian practice.

Even the pentagram itself, for example, is a Christian glyph of protection, 
and can be found in medieval monasteries and churches all over Europe 
(signifying, at least exoterically, the Five Wounds of Christ).


|I really am interested in the dichotomy that this poses.

The dichotomy, I think, is between Christian fundamentalism and mainstream 
Christianity, not between Christianity and magic.

Amanda Walker