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1.: Magick and Science: The Veil is Thinning! Part 1 From: Lady Nightshayde

2.1.: Cool Website of the Day From: Lady Nightshayde

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1.: Magick and Science: The Veil is Thinning! Part 1

Posted by: "Lady Nightshayde" LadyNightshayde9@aol.com nightshayde99

Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:06 pm (PDT)

Magick and Science: The Veil is Thinning! Part 1

Magick and science have long been at odds, at least in the eyes of the non-magickal world. A scientist looks at Mars, sees a rocky red planet that might be colonized in the future, investigates its scientific properties, and decries any claim that mystical energies might be part of its nature. People who use magick view Mars as a fierce, masculine, passionate presence that influences via felt energies and astrological positions--a presence that influences our daily lives in ways we feel scientists have yet to appreciate or understand. Examples like this frame the argument between science and magick.

In some ways, the gap seems unbreachable. The scientific method relies on empirical study, with scientists employing objective means to study and describe natural phenomena and using the results to establish theories and recreate their findings. "Good science" is only valid if it's reproducible. In contrast, subjective experiences, such as revelation, inspiration, and reflection, help people better understand life and magick in terms of their own religion and spirituality. Further, each person's experiences with magick are unique. An old axiom says that science relies on facts and religion on faith--but the situation is much more complex than that. Most magick users view themselves as not just observing what's happening around them, but as willing to see and examine at a deeper level and practice with an open-minded, wonder-based approach to the world around them. In the magickal universe, something doesn't have to occur repetiti vely in order to be believed. Simply said, scientists tend to believe in evidence, while magick users tend to believe their eyes.

One of the simplest demonstrations of this dichotomy can be seen with energy. To scientists, energy is a physical system that allows living beings to "do work." Whether kinetic, thermal, or in one of many other forms, energy follows a simple law of conservation, which says that while it can change form, the total energy remains unchanged. Scientists are eminently concerned with managing energy and making it do what they want it to do. In contrast, magick users work cooperatively with energy, in a synergistic partnership. We cast it out into the universe via spellwork and ritual and pull it down around us when we meditate or set a shield. We manipulate energy every time we call down the moon or balance a chakra, and we understand the checks and balances involved in the laws of conservation, whether pulling strength from the universe or returning the excess back to Mother Gaia. To magick users, the relationships between scienc e, energy, and magick are obvious: the Force is, indeed, all around us. Yet, most scientists struggle with the idea that humans might manipulate and use energy on a immediate, personal level.

The world's history books document centuries of perceived disparity between science and magick, and the earliest humans may have understood magick better than any modern human ever has. To the Neoliths, magick and the supernatural were part of the fabric of everyday life, with gods to be appeased and goddesses appealed to. The Egyptians worshipped their own Pantheon, while the Romans originally embraced a rich polytheistic tradition before adopting Christianity as the official state belief. The Chinese have a long, rich history of manipulating the energy they know as Qi ("chi"), practices that continue in their modern culture today. Medieval Europeans, caught up in the great struggle between the old Pagan religions and the advent of Christianity, viewed magick and natural forces as being somewhere between necessary, frightening, and heretical. Although the Enlightenment opened up our collective unconscious and pushed us to ask questions and question assumptions, the modern trend is one of skepticism with regard to magick and the supernatural. If we consider human history to be one long continuum, it appears that twenty-first-century Western civilization has lost its childlike sense of wonder.

Despite people's cynicism, modern times are filled with wonder. Science today tells us that time travel may be possible, alternate dimensions may be real, and the universe around us may be built of mysterious dark matter that we believe is there but we can't really see. Invisibility may be real, levitation possible, and gravity flexible. Yet science continues to decry magick as an imaginary product of the New Age, an interesting irony given that science continues to push into the foggy regions of quantum mechanics, where normal physics quit working and progress is mostly theoretical or based on faith. We magick users just nod, knowing we're ahead of our time. But while we wait for the scientific world to catch up, we ponder the thinning boundaries between science and magick and consider the possibilities. Given the choice to see a physical law rewritten, which would we choose? For most of us, the answer is simple: gravity. Who hasn't dreamed of taking flight, of soaring through the sky like a bird, light and carefree? That gravity business, though...it's a touch nut to crack.
by Susan Pesznecker

The light of a hundred stars cannot equal the light of the Moon.

Love Each Day,
Lady Nightshayde

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/13Witches/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WhisperingWitches/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MagickalMeals/
http://groups.yahoo/group/NightshaydesNews

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Messages in this topic (1)

2.1.: Cool Website of the Day

Posted by: "Lady Nightshayde" LadyNightshayde9@aol.com nightshayde99

Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:47 pm (PDT)

http://museumofhoaxes.com/

To quote the introduction, "The Museum was established in 1997 in order to promote knowledge about the phenomenon of hoaxes. It plays host to a variety of humbugs and hoodwinks - from ancient deceptions all the way up to modern schemes, dupes, and dodges that circulate on the internet." The museum has a little of everything in the hoax realm, from 'the middle ages right up to the present.' Do keep this site bookmarked for the April Fool's hoaxes that will surely be circulated.

Another site to check out the veracity of e-mails and urban legends is
Vmyths.com – Truth about Computer Virus Myths & Hoaxes
"Learn about computer virus myths, hoaxes, urban legends, hysteria, and the implications if you believe in them." There's also a search facility to aid your look-up.

The light of a hundred stars cannot equal the light of the Moon.

Love Each Day,
Lady Nightshayde

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/13Witches/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WhisperingWitches/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MagickalMeals/
http://groups.yahoo/group/NightshaydesNews

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