Naturalistic Paganism
The HPedia: Magic
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Magic is common in Contemporary Paganism, especially Wicca and Witchcraft. It may include practical effects, such as attracting wealth or love, as well as more mystical effects, such as drawing closer to a deity or spirit. Correspondingly, a distinction is often made between these as “low” and “high” magic, respectively.
The effects claimed for magic often fall well outside what can be justified in a naturalistic context, due to a severe lack of reliable evidence. However, some definitions seem to leave more room for naturalistic interpretations. Take, for example, Dion Fortune’s famous definition, reworked from an earlier definition by Aleister Crowley:
Magick is the art of causing changes in consciousness in conformity with the Will.
If “consciousness” and “Will” can be understood without any supernatural or paranormal connotations (which may or may not have been Fortune’s intent), then it easy for a naturalist to see magic as including such consciousness-altering intentional activities as meditation, ritual, visualization, and so on.
The word is often spelled “magick” to distinguish it from common stage magic, following a trend started by Aleister Crowley.
Spells are sometimes called “workings.”
Lupa has offered a critique of poor attention paid to research methodology in “proving” magic.
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World Health Day
Today is World Health Day. This celebrates the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948. It’s a global campaign inviting everyone to focus on a single health challenge of global importance, with the goal of initiating collective action.
This year, the theme is “Aging and Health: Good Health Adds Life to Years.”
How important is science to your practice?
Some feel something spiritual when gazing at the Hubble Deep Field. Do you?
– by B. T. Newberg
Last time, we asked about myth. Now let’s talk about science. Do scientific thoeries play a large part in your spiritual practice?
Surely science plays a role in virtually everything we do today, from watching TV to microwaving lunch, via the technology it has made possible. But we don’t usually need to think about science or consciously incorporate its theories into our practices unless we choose to do so. Nor do we necessarily want to have science on the brain in all our activities: it’s hardly romantic in the bedroom, for example.
So, the question is, how much do you consciously choose to integrate science and its discoveries into your spiritual practices?
By science, I mean the systematic pursuit of knowledge of the natural world by the most reliable methods of the day, including such examples as evolutionary theory, physics, biology, psychology, modern cosmology, environmental sciences, and so on.
By spiritual practice, I mean your personal pursuit of inspiration, meaning, and purpose, which may or may not include such activities as contemplation, meditation, ritual, prayer, and the like.
Please take part in the poll, then leave a comment on the issues discussed below.
Along with this issue comes that of the so-called conflict between religion and science. A recent study found most scientists (70%) believe the two only conflict sometimes, or never conflict (15%). Furthermore, the same study found nearly all lay folk (i.e. non-scientists) subscribe to some kind of reconciliation model between science and religion. Which leads me to ask a final question:
- Does science conflict with religion and/or spirituality for you? Why or why not?
Please leave a comment with your reply.
Upcoming work
This Sunday
Do you consciously bring science into your spirituality?
How important is science to your spiritual practice?, by B. T. Newberg
Appearing Sunday, April 7th, 2013
Next Sunday
Romancing the void, by Bart Everson
Appearing Sunday, April 14th, 2013
Recent Work
How important is myth to your practice? by B. T. Newberg
Magic services: Taking money out of the equation, by Drew Jacob
The HPedia: Deity
Your help is needed! Please critique this entry from the HPedia: An encyclopedia of key concepts in Naturalistic Paganism. Please leave your constructive criticism in the comments below.
In myth, a deity is typically portrayed as a figure of supernormal power and importance with some deep connection to the natural, cultural, or moral order.
Deity has been conceived in myriad ways. Naturalistic concepts are admittedly less common than other kinds, but they have been known throughout history.
A classic depiction of the variety of views of deity in Contemporary Paganism can be found in Margarian Bridger and Stephen Hergest’s Pagan Deism: Three Views. The essay presents views according to the three primary colors of red, blue, and yellow, more or less resembling hard polytheism, soft polytheism, and naturalism, respectively. Cast as the three points of a triangle, the merging of colors between them illustrates the dynamic spectrum of beliefs available in Paganism. In Bridger and Hergest’s model, Naturalistic Paganism would cluster near the yellow tip.
M. Jay Lee, in a post in the yahoo group Naturalistic Paganism, provides a different breakdown of different views of deity in Paganism:
Here is how I would categorize the major positions on theism:
1) anti-theism – No gods period, symbolic or otherwise
2) symbolic theism – uses gods as symbols, metaphors, allegories for natural phenomena/forces, abstract concepts, unconscious drives etc
3) soft theism – views gods as a manifestation of a real (external) but somewhat nebulous higher power which is usually seen as leading us into some higher state of being (the particular gods/goddesses may be human-created metaphors but behind them is a real immortal power)
4) hard theism – the view that the gods (and other such beings like faeries and angels) really exist as literal, conscious, immortal super-beings.
Category 2 is the most typical mode for HP. Categories 1 and 2 are generally compatible with Religious Naturalism.
Seemingly absent from this category scheme is a view of deity as a directly-experienced mental phenomenon, similar to a dream image. The dream image is not necessarily “symbolic” of anything, but is a real, direct mental experience. In the same fashion, deities appearing in the mind’s eye would not be symbolic either, but real as such (though without implying any kind of objective reality external to the individual mind).
See also “Day/Night Language.”
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