From the "Are you even remotely serious?" department comes this gem, which I thought was over and done with five years ago or so. But I guess not. A Catholic school recently removed the Harry Potter series of books from their library because they contain "real spells" that "risk conjuring evil spirits." That's sure news to us actual conjurers!
I understand that the Roman Catholic Church teaches that any magical operation (besides their own operations, like the Tridentine Mass and Rite of Exorcism) is evil, and however dumb that position might be, if they are uncomfortable with a book featuring a wizard hero in their library I suppose they have every right to remove it. But believing that these fictional books contain "real spells" is a level of stupidity that I thought died out a while ago.
What that tells me is that whether or not the Roman Catholic Church once knew anything about magick, those days are long gone. It especially surprises me that exorcists, who are the closest thing the church has these days to ceremonial magicians, apparently think that you can kill someone by saying "Aveda Kedavra" (a portmanteau of "abracadabra" and "cadaver") or levitate a feather by saying "Wingardium Levio-SAH" (fake Latin that sounds like "wing" and "levitate").
Obviously neither of those things work. Go ahead. Try them. They don't even work if you're a practicing magician, because, you know, they're not real spells. Those of us who teach magick actually spend a lot of time pointing out that real magick is nothing like the (totally not real) spells in Harry Potter. And as for evil spirits, the magical system in Harry Potter doesn't even work with spirits for the most part.
Really this is just sad. There's more to a spell than waving a wand and saying some nonsense words. But clearly a lot of folks who should probably know better don't.
St. Edward Catholic School opened a new library for the 2019-2020 school year, The Tennessean reported. The books were removed when the school moved from the old library to the new library.
In an email to parents, Rev. Dan Reehill, the pastor of the church associated with the school said, “These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception. The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text.”
Reehill said in the email that he consulted with several exorcists who recommended removing the books. The process of removing them started after an inquiry from a parent, according to the Catholic Diocese of Nashville.
I understand that the Roman Catholic Church teaches that any magical operation (besides their own operations, like the Tridentine Mass and Rite of Exorcism) is evil, and however dumb that position might be, if they are uncomfortable with a book featuring a wizard hero in their library I suppose they have every right to remove it. But believing that these fictional books contain "real spells" is a level of stupidity that I thought died out a while ago.
What that tells me is that whether or not the Roman Catholic Church once knew anything about magick, those days are long gone. It especially surprises me that exorcists, who are the closest thing the church has these days to ceremonial magicians, apparently think that you can kill someone by saying "Aveda Kedavra" (a portmanteau of "abracadabra" and "cadaver") or levitate a feather by saying "Wingardium Levio-SAH" (fake Latin that sounds like "wing" and "levitate").
Obviously neither of those things work. Go ahead. Try them. They don't even work if you're a practicing magician, because, you know, they're not real spells. Those of us who teach magick actually spend a lot of time pointing out that real magick is nothing like the (totally not real) spells in Harry Potter. And as for evil spirits, the magical system in Harry Potter doesn't even work with spirits for the most part.
Really this is just sad. There's more to a spell than waving a wand and saying some nonsense words. But clearly a lot of folks who should probably know better don't.
Hi Scott, a little offtopic but where is your post about anti aging and enochian magick? I couldn't find it. Do you still have it?
ReplyDeleteThis one, maybe? It is from 2007 so it is pretty old. Today I would use a permanent external talisman for the angels of medicine, on the grounds that you don't need to cast the spell on a daily basis and it works at least as well as daily elixir-type rituals.
ReplyDeletehttps://ananael.blogspot.com/2007/01/spell-for-physical-immortality.html
Also, the idea that this could completely stop aging is unlikely based on subsequent research I've done. I have had some good success with permanent healing talismans, but even they don't stop it completely. Slow it down, maybe.
Do you think this is a kind of "fail" from magick, since science is going well with this with David Sinclair(& cia) researches ? Do you think that an enochian ritual or permanent talisman can at least mimics the results of taking Resveratrol + NMN?
ReplyDeleteI will love a post about permanent talismans like this, never saw this in your books.
Thanks again!
It sounds like you think science and magick are somehow opposed to each other. That could not be further from the truth.
ReplyDeleteMagick is just a technology that involves consciousness and shifts probability. It is as scientific as anything else, just harder to measure precisely because we need a solid model of consciousness before we can develop a tool that measures it. I expect as some point in the future we will develop such a thing, and then magick will be able to catch up to the physical sciences more quickly.
A talisman wouldn't mimic the results of taking reseveratrol or any other anti-aging compound. Or more to the point, it might be able to produce a similar effect, but since it's such a different kind of technology you would get the best results by doing both - taking your supplements and also creating a talisman to keep them working as optimally as possible.
This is just like the situation with faith healing. It is possible to heal with magick, and it's possible to heal with conventional medicine. But regardless of what some churches claim, neither excludes the operations of the other. The most effective healings in my experience involve both conventional and magical components, because they complement each other.