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Does magic being sinful hold any water? Particularly practice white magic, theurgy, or angelic currents feel the most virtuous.
If any Christian wanna says 'just pray', they would probably know God doesn't respond to prayers half as fast as Satan (who has fulfilled many of my prayers in less than 12 hours) and all prayer aren't answered either. So what's your opinion? Is magic sinful or not? Personally it doesn't make sense to me at all
Well, 300 years ago making electric batteries would be considered sinful and you could end your life at the stake for trying to make something like that. So no, it doesn't hold any water. And official clergy want to have monopoly on magic power, which they barely have themselves. They want to monopolize "access" to God (or to Devil for that matter).
The distinction is the price which Satan demands compared to the price which God demands, in theory, assuming they exist.
The God believer's thinking is: Even if prayers aren't reliably, consistently, answered by God, if the price is very low, then there's very little to lose. On the other hand, if the price is greater than the reward by working with dark forces... it's not worth it.
Magic (and related words like sorcery) was by definition bad- this view originated with pre-Christian polytheists, for whom any kind of illicit or dangerous religious practice was magic. The early Christians were accused of magic; their response as to say, "No, you guys are the magicians!" Nobody would admit to doing magic- "No, it's theurgy!" or "It's science!" You see this in Apuleius' Apologia which is his defense against the accusation of magic. That's how it went for a while. Nowadays the meaning of magic has been given a much more neutral sense, though of course there are still Christian and other holdouts who insist that magic is what bad people do. But I think by any useful, consistent definition of the term, Christian prayer is just as much magic as anything else.
unequivocally states under "Divination and magic" (paras. 2116 and 2117):
2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.
The Catechism is a quite nifty document, no fire-and-brimstone preaching, instead very reasonable-sounding, with everything being presented in a very plausible and logical manner. The justification for all these prohibitions is "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me", and you can't argue with the Ten Commandments, can you? It all probably goes back to St. Augustine in his "City of God" where he attacks Neoplatonists like Porphyry and denounces theurgy as demonic in
What US-Protestants often have problems understanding is the stranglehold the Church has on the minds of the devout in overwhelmingly Catholic countries. For example, when I first heard about this Born-Again thing with that ludicrous "accepting Jesus as my personal Saviour", my eight-year old altar boy instincts immediately screamed "Heresy! Jesus is your Saviour anyway, if you like it or not, whether you're a Jew, Muslim, Buddhist or Martian, and PERSONAL?!? What blasphemous presumption!". Accordingly, magic is a sin, period. No discussion possible or even allowed (except for authorized personnel like theologians and the clergy - within limits, of course). What you feel or think doesn't mattter one bit. It's no use to quote Iamblichus, Marcilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola or whomever, any form of magic or diviation is strictly verboten.
It's also a question of authority. Martin Luther and other authors were right in condemning the Catholic Mass as magic because it doesn't get much more magical than Transubstantiation, after all. But: only full-bore priests are authorized to celebrate Mass, deacons, for example, are only allowed to perform the so-called Liturgy of the Word which doesn't contain Transubstantiation - which could be seen as a form of theurgy but can be solely performed by a priest. A magician, even if he was dealing exclusively with angels, would be like a self-consecrated priest, and according to the Church, you can't be a self-consecrated priest anymore than you can be a self-appointed policeman.
As far as 'low magic' is concerned, you're expected to heed God's Will (as meditated by the Church) and be content with your lot in life, and after all, it's the meek that shall inherit the earth. "… even if this were for the sake of restoring their health…", so even healing or reading your horoscope in the paper is out. Don't get uppity, sheep, and go back to your flock. Still makes me sick after all these years of
Seems a contradiction in terms to me; I confess that I'm mostly posting this book for the lulz but who knows, maybe there's something useful in it. Christians have practiced magic since the dawn of Christianity, and almost all classic magical texts since the Middle Ages have Christian...
To be fair, submission is a price, and the disappointment of unanswered prayers can take its toll. And, the all too often resulting backlash produces rebellion against "The-Most-High" ( as the aspirant imagines it ) can be the source of unanticipated hidden costs.
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion.
This contradicts written scripture. 2 Kings 4. Elisha very clearly restores health to the child using magical means. He prays AND he shares his life force ( sorcery ) with the child.
This is called Maaseh B'reishis in Jewish mysticism. The prayer is like seeding the clouds for a thunderstorm. The further actions are like making a lightning rod directing the divinity to the target, in this case a child. It is sorcery and it would have been prohibited if the Catholics were in charge at the time 2 Kings was written.
4:32
ויבא אלישע הביתה והנה הנער מת משכב על־מטתו׃
And when Elisha came into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed.
4:33
ויבא ויסגר הדלת בעד שניהם ויתפלל אל־יהוה׃
He went in therefore, and closed the door upon the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.
4:34
ויעל וישכב על־הילד וישם פיו על־פיו ועיניו על־עיניו וכפיו על־כפו ויגהר עליו ויחם בשר הילד׃
And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child became warm.
4:35
וישב וילך בבית אחת הנה ואחת הנה ויעל ויגהר עליו ויזורר הנער עד־שבע פעמים ויפקח הנער את־עיניו׃
Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him; and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
Suppose it depends on what you call "sin." There's probably a big difference between what God considers sinful and what preachers consider sinful.
The Bible speaks a few times on what constitutes sinful magic. You're not supposed to worship fictional characters, including mythological deities, demons, angels, or anything that isn't actually God. You aren't supposed to put your faith in stars, cards, visions, familiar spirits, oracles, or other divinatory tools, and you aren't supposed to rely on the advice of people using these things. You aren't supposed to harm people with poisons or give them guarantees about things you don't and can't know. You aren't supposed to subject your children to any of this.
That's about it. That does preclude a big part of the global magic scene, but it's not a full-stop for people who love both Pat Robertson and Aleister Crowley. No church anywhere is going to love it, but the Bible hasn't got a lot to say against Hermetic philosophy and other major branches of the occult. As long as you can avoid idol worship and giving too much credit to divinatory arts, the Bible doesn't forbid interest in the subject or other aspects of magical practice.
And is that such a bad restriction? I don't feel particularly compelled to pledge my soul to fictional characters from long-dead religions, and anyone can see how easy it is to get taken in by bad divination or fake psychics. Those things tend to practically ask for abuse, so it's no surprise they end up banned by Moses' community guidelines.
