 30 Aug 2003 @ 16:03, by living:stone
Through the Ages - From Birth to Eternity
Christianity and Magic - the same thing? An impossible concept to some. But only to some...... yet it is as real as the concept of a man born of divine powers sacrificing himself by dying on a cross in order to sit at the right hand side of his Father, the almighty Creator in Heaven. And it is real as the concept of a Magician through wisdom, dying on the Holy Rosy Cross in surrender to his higher self and/or God.
Through the Ages - From Birth to Eternity
Christianity and Magic - the same thing? An impossible concept to some. But only to some...... yet it is as real as the concept of a man born of divine powers sacrificing himself by dying on a cross in order to sit at the right hand side of his Father, the almighty Creator in Heaven. And it is real as the concept of a Magician through wisdom, dying on the Holy Rosy Cross in surrender to his higher self and/or God.
The opening paragraph may already have you wanting to either close this page down, or contact this site to froth outrage. That is for you to decide. You see, whether you agree with the contents of this article or not, it will not remove the possibility (I've refrained from using the word 'reality'), that Christianity and Magic are at the very core, the SAME thing.
The ultimate goal of Magic is the unification of the self with God.
The ultimate goal of Christianity is the unification of the self with God.
Christianity uses the concept of a Saviour, the only begotten Son of God, who died on the Cross in order to be raised from the dead. And through that sacrifice, you can be reborn as a new being, united with God's infinite Love.
Magic uses the concept of learning the mysteries of the only begotten Sun of God and achieving the realisation that the Self must die on the Holy Rosy Cross in order to emerge, reborn a new being, united with God's infinite Love.
The methods for achieving this state of being through Christianity may appear different from the methods employed by Magicians to unify themselves with God, but with closer scrutiny and study, they are the same ethics and practices described as different concepts. But that's okay. Isn't it? It's Unifying. It's The Divine meeting with The Divine. Or is it blasphemous to Christians and utterly ridiculous to Magicians?
Christianity acknowledges Christ as the Son of God.
Magic acknowledge illumination as the Sun of God.
Some are not caught up in the debate of whether Jesus actually walked the Earth. The real identity of the historical Jesus is not as important as the subsequent mythical development around his personage as the Christ; an amalgam of all the previous myths of the solar, dying and rising God-Men from various cultures including Egypti (Osiris) and Greece (Dionysus). It would be looked upon as a manifestation of the Christ at the dawning of the Piscean Age. We have now entered a new aeon, or age - the Age of Aquarius, or in Egyptian terminology, The aeon of Horus. The various traditions and mythos of the Sons or Suns of God are further discussed in another article from this site entitled, 'The Godmen' - [link]
The Zodiac and The Ages....
Approximately every 2,150 years, the Earth enters a new phase in it's journey around the Zodiacal belt. It will take that length of time for the spring sun to travel through the constellation from one age to another. If we were to live for 25,800 years, or one great year, we would witness twelve new ages. Pisces (the 'Fish') has now given way to the Aquarius and with that comes new thinking, new realisations. It's not that the old ways are no longer valid, it just means that there comes along new concepts about God and the Universe. They will eventually supercede the older customs and beliefs. In another 2,000 years from now, we will proceed into the next age, 'Capricorn'. In Egyptian mythology it will be known as the Aeon of Maat.
Knowledge and discovery shapes our concepts of the universe. This in turn shapes our perceptions of what God is, which then form the beliefs and religions of the world. If we go back to the age before Pisces, the age of Aries, the belief held throughout the known world was that God and the Earth was encapsulated within Woman.
Woman was seen as the source of life. We are born from her and her milk sustains us until we are old enough to be sustained from the Earth herself. Woman's menstrual cycles run in harmony with the cycles of the Moon and when the cycle of bleeding was interrupted her belly swells for nine moons. It was viewed that nothing was more powerful than Woman. From her all nourishment came and without her nothing could survive. Mother was life. Earth was Mother. God was Woman. This knowledge at that point in time gave birth to the worship of the Goddess. This was the Aeon of Isis.
The age of Aries, or the Aeon of Isis evolved into a new way of thinking formed by new knowledge of the Universe, and a shift of of focus from the Earth Goddess to the Sun.
Men and Women formed the concept of the Sun being the great nourisher of all life forms on the Earth. The fertility of the Earth was dependent directly upon the vitalising energies given from the Sun and consequently, the survival of the Human race along with all other life forms was therefore dependent upon the Sun.
Without the Sun, life would not exist. Without the semen of Man, Woman would remain barren. Woman brings forth life, but life comes from the Sun. God was now perceived as The Father of life. With this new thinking however, there was a darker aspect.....
It was viewed that the Sun was born each morning and travelled across the sky, bestowing its blessings on all life. But it was also perceived that the Sun 'died' at the end of every day, plunging the Earth and its inhabitants into cold and darkness. The next morning the Sun was reborn to sustain life. This formed a perpetual fear that maybe the Sun would not be reborn in the morning. All life would cease to exist.
Of course, now we know that the Sun does not 'die' or 'sacrifice itself'. The Sun is 'on' all the time. It is the Earth that spins and therefore causes one half of the globe to be out of sight of the Sun.
It was against this perception of a 'dying Sun' that formed the formula of the 'dying God' who is resurrected, was created. This gave way to the myths of Osiris, Dionysus, Attis, Adonis, Mithras, Hercules, Krishna and Christ.
The Sun of God was born, he died and was resurrected. People formed the belief that knowledge of this formula of Life, Death and Resurrection would give them the right to resurrection after their death. This period, the ages of Pisces, was the time when all major religions we know of today were formulated.
These principles were also embraced by Magicians. This was also the period of the 'Mystery Schools' in Greece and Egypt - the teachings which from the new knowledge acquired, formulated the inner mysteries of the Sun and how we use these concepts to achieve rebirth as a new, enlightened being. Resurrected in the light of God.
This was the period when Christianity was born. It told the story of the 'dying Sun' through the myth of Jesus, the Son of God who lived and died only to be resurrected again, therefore achieving his victory over death. And only through the Son could eternal life be attained.
We are now in the initial pangs of the next age, Aquarius. It is also known as the Aeon of Horus. It is the 'child' of Isis (the Earth Goddess} and Osiris (The sacrificed and resurrected Sun/Son of God). It is the reconciler of the previous two ages. It is the age of the intellect and self-empowerment. And with it will come another shift of thinking. No longer do we need to live in fear of the Sun dying and having to reborn to sustain us. The power of the Sun remains constant for us.
We are also seeing a re-emergence of the Goddess mythos that was so violently oppressed by the reign of religions. Christianity will tell you that this 'occult' teaching will inevitably lead you to 'Hell', but it is a logical progression to have this concept arise once again. That is because it was formed on knowledge of that period. It was how we seen the Universe. It shaped the dying sun-god viewpoint, which has now evolved into the age of the Self, or the intellect. And the intellect gathers all available information and forms a viewpoint. We are doing this now, but there will be upheavals due to the resistance from organised religions.
There were terrible upheavals during the shift from the Age of Aries to the Age of Pisces which lead to untold human suffering as the newer ways eventually stamped their authoritarian boot on the face of the older, Earth Goddess customs.
The age of Aquarius is the child of Aries and Pisces. Or the Aeon of Horus is the child produced by the Aeons of Isis and Osiris. And we are that child who is becoming aware of the possibilities we each possess. We love and respect our parents (Isis and Osiris), but we are not them. We are now individuals who will learn from the teachings and mistakes of the past attempts of our ancestors to discover eternal life.. Rather than seeing Creation as a place full of fear (of dying like the Sun/Son), we are being liberated by the realisation that the Universe is also an evolving being just like Humanity, and that existence is continuos. Death does not happen. Eternal life is here to be celebrated and witnessed. We pass from body to body, incarnation after incarnation, each time gaining wisdom and knowledge of the Universe.
The next Age of Capricorn or Aeon of Maat will bring newer knowledge and concepts as Humanity strives for the Divine Light.
With the new knowledge which is now emerging, the wisdom that the past methods of 'reaching salvation' or God are not to be scorned upon. They were products of the perceived environment. The new realisations which are now appearing to people merely supercede the older ways, rather like how technology has transformed our lives. We can build houses out of stronger and easier to work with materials, but we could also use the older method of building a house out of clay. It would still work, but the newer methods are better.
Magic and Christianity strive for the same goal. All other religions strive for that same goal also. Now in this new age of intellect, we can develop that blessed insight into what we are capable of...... Infinity.
© livingstonemusic.net 2003
This article originates from livingstonemusic.net [link]
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