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    Pagan Theology

    Magic:  Made Up Scientific Explanations My last column was titled “’systematic’ scientific explanations” (for magic).  I wasn’t talking about explanations that followed a set of rules, rather I was referring to explanations that were, or claimed to be, within the “system” of science.  I suggested that there were not any explanations that worked in the context of actual science, as they would need to follow the specific rules that science has formulated for things like energy (and quanta) as well as the rules for evidence and verification.  This month I’m moving on to the next group of explanations for magic, those that do away with having to play by the…

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    Pagan Theology

    Magic:  Systematic Scientific Explanations In my last column I divided magic up into different categories according to how you might explain it worked.  Systematic explanations appealed to some sort of system independent from the worker, or deity.  Individualistic explanations appealed to the individual, while theistic ones appealed, to, you guessed it, deity.  Magical system mix and match frequently between these various explanations, for example a magical working directed toward individual enlightenment that appeals to deity.  Despite this mixing up of things, I think these are useful categories for discussion. In the last column I also noted that systematic explanations could be divided into three sub-categories: scientific, middle ground, and just…

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    Pagan Theology

    Politics A really, really, long time ago the idea of Gods and Goddesses influencing how you ran your country was pretty popular.  Particularly amongst the Roman emperors whom had themselves declared living Gods, or at least declared that they were descended from Gods.  Then there is Aristotle’s Republic, which is another Pagan attempt at thinking through political concepts from first principles.  So why is there so little direct discussion of “political” issues amongst the Pagan literature [1]?  Is it because we all agree?  If so, why, exactly, do we agree?  Is there something we should agree on? Or is it that we simply don’t want to exclude anyone who might…

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    Pagan Theology

    Experiencing The Work:  How You Deal With the World With the past few columns I’ve been talking about some things that happen to us when we have a transformative experience with the divine.  Wiccans might refer to this transformative experience as “Drawing Down the Moon”.   I personally would say that this is our interaction with our Gods and Goddesses.  Any of these experiences should make us different either in our soul or within ourselves.   Just how different will depend on what we see, how we interact with the Gods and Goddesses, and, ultimately (and for some unfortunately) who we are, as no two people are alike or are as open…

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    Pagan Theology

    Experiencing the work:  How you treat others In the last column we talked about what happens once we have the experience of the Pagan divine.  What evidence do we have of that experience?   Does our outlook on the world change?  Does our behavior change? While laser beams don’t start shooting from our eyes and we don’t get assigned a Harry Potter wand (though often those show up anyway) we should change.  We should change because we have had a transformative experience, one that we seek to repeat, and often do repeat, over and over again. Last time we talked about what happens to our desire, a desire that changes from…

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    Pagan Theology

    Experiencing the work:  What Witches Do [1] In the last two columns we discussed various ways in which Pagans can connect with the divine.  We can use prayer, meditation, shamanistic journeys, ritual, magic, or other means to connect with the Gods and Goddesses.  But what happens once we do connect?  What evidence do we have for a connection in ourselves, and in others? This is a complex and important question that leads across psychology, philosophy, and theology.  Because its so big, and I can do it so little justice even in the column space and time that I do have, we’ll break this topic up into three installments, starting this…

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    Pagan Theology

    Getting to work:  Part 2 In the last column I discussed the relationship between various types of spiritual practices and the Pagan experience of the Gods and Goddesses.  We talked about the eastern practice of meditation, western style prayer, and the use of physical and chemical means of disorienting the senses.  In this column we’ll discuss ritual and occult magical practices as means of getting in touch with the divine. Religious Ritual Religious ritual is a common, nay universal, way of bringing deity into the world.  While not all ritual works, or isn’t readily identified as ritual in the first place; the right ritual practice, at the right time, and…

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    Pagan Theology

    Multiplicity:The Problem of Many and One In the last column we discussed the problem of existence, how Pagans could approach the ontological questions of existence in a way that includes multiplicity of beliefs.  Now I want to discuss the problem of multiplicity of Gods and Goddesses, not just existence.  Why many, instead of one? That is a fundamental question associated with Pagan belief.  First we need to define what exactly we mean by “many”.  There are several interpretations of what we mean by the word “many”.  We may mean that we have only one God or set of Gods and Goddesses, but we accept the existence of others, within the…

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    Pagan Theology: Death

    Oh, we’re already on the second column and now we’re talking about death.  Or Death.  Or DEATH.  Well, it’s a topic that comes up more in the movies than it does in regular conversation with those whose deaths we really, really care about.  Like those closest to us, or, Gods help us, US.  In this column I will try and ask a few questions that aren’t often (at least from what I can tell) in Pagan literature.   While the answers ultimately have to come from a personal understanding of the Gods and Goddesses, and our faith, I believe it is useful to discuss principles that could underlie a common understanding…

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    Pagan Theology : Proof- The Problem of the Existence of the Gods and Goddesses

    Pagan Theology : Proof-  The Problem of the Existence of the Gods and Goddesses Well I started with death just so we could get it over with.  So to speak.  And also because I’m fairly disorganized, so now we get to start from the beginning.  No, I don’t mean Genesis, rather I mean:  how do we know the Gods and Goddesses [1] exist? As with many things, there is a short answer, and a long answer.  Short answer There are no rational proofs of the existence of one, much less many, Gods, Goddesses, or god.  Can’t be done, better minds than ours have tried [2] , so best let it…