This Thing Called Magic

This Thing Called Magic

“Quiet the mind and the soul will speak.”—Buddha

My mind is never still. I mean, never. This started when I was very young and continues until now. All day long stuff is racing through my head. I’ll see something or catch a phrase in a tv show or at an open mic. Or I’ll latch onto something printed on the back of a cereal box. Or…the list goes on… a song, a smell, some passerby on the street will get snatched up by my brain and off it goes on some wild tangent. This busy-mindedness spills over into times when I’m sleeping, if some of the dreams I can remember are any indication. Maybe it’s some form of Attention Deficit Disorder? I don’t know.

There’s an upside, believe it or not. I have unlimited access to worlds of discovery and wonder exclusively my own. I rarely, if ever, have writer’s block. The many document files on my computer testify to this. This perpetual barrage of noise is a prerequisite to being a poet and a writer. For this reason, I generally let this internal droning run happily wherever it may.

I’ve gotten very used to it.

Other times, though—like when I step fifteen feet from my bedroom to the bathroom and forget what my intentions were due to the constant distraction of word pictures and mysteries churning about between my ears or when I’m trying to get to sleep after a long day—this perpetual-wordiness aggravates and exhausts me beyond, well…words.

Lately, magic has been one of those ideas circling ‘round and ‘round in my mind.

Yes, magic. So, now, I feel compelled to share my thoughts on it.

Is It Purely Make-Believe?

Magic, as you know, is something a great number of people dismiss without a second thought. Perhaps it’s hard for you to accept as true. This is understandable when nearly all “magic” nowadays has proven to be nothing more than tricks, sleight of hand, smoke and mirrors.

And yet, the Bible expressly condemns the practice of magic, divination, dabbling into occultism and such. (Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Acts 19:19, Galatians 5:20, 21))

Ever ask yourself: Does it make sense for God to prohibit the practice of something which cannot be?

With magic, the impossible happens. Things appear out of nowhere. Objects move without a touch. The dead return to life. A man traverses a stormy sea on foot.

Just how, do you think, did Jesus walk on water? Well, the biblical answer to that would be through use of the holy spirit.

This Thing—Yes, Thing—Called Holy Spirit

I was taught that Holy Spirit is not a supernatural embodiment of God entwined with two other spiritual embodiments which somehow are all the same being, each capable of functioning apart from the other at will. In other words, 1 + 1 + 1 equals 1, except when it’s doesn’t (*wink* ‘Cause that’s how math works *wink, wink*).

In the belief system I was raised in, holy spirit is defined as a force, a powerful tool of sorts comprised of unbounded energy which God uses to make things happen out of total emptiness.

If you don’t mind me saying, this sounds a lot like magic to me.

Born This Way

Furthermore, I surmise that every human being arrives upon this good earth  with some measure of holy spirit. Some are endowed with a considerable share while others are granted a very small share. The implication is that every one of us is born with the potential to affect legitimate acts of magic.

If the phrase “Use it or lose it” bears weight in any area, it does in this one.

You see, the unfortunate thing is our innate magic diminishes over time through lack of use. Influences of education, environment, relationships and what have you vastly erode our abilities. The sad result is that the majority of us are so conditioned against even recognizing the magic we carry within, it becomes dormant and we lose all connection with it.

However, certain ones among us are aware and can develop and use it to do extraordinary things. A very few reach a level (minute though it may be compared to the magic-practicing priests of ancient times) of skill in wielding this magic or power of the holy spirit which demands that people sit up and pay attention.

The Necessity of Limits

The disproportionate levels of skill are how things must be, though it seems unfair. With good reason, God—being the source of Holy Spirit–generously restricts many from regaining unhampered access to His force.

It stretches the imagination, but let’s allow, for a moment that the is holy spirit to God a powerful tool as I’ve said I was taught. Picture it as a drill, for instance. Just as we might, rightfully, refuse our neighbor the privilege of using our own drill, so God chooses to do the same with His tool.

Why, though?

Well, think on it. If we, for example, gave license to any and all who asked to use our drill there could be undesirable consequences. One guy might decide to put together a shelving unit. But, maybe, he doesn’t exactly follow the instructions while assembling the unit. Days after he’s completed the project, a small child comes along and sees something, a toy, on the top shelf of the unit. The child starts to climb up and—CRASH! Your drill that you allowed a guy to use has indirectly resulted in a broken limb for an innocent person.

Maybe you lend your drill to your friend who lends it to their friend who then uses it in some way that injures their hand. Now they can’t work their day job because it requires the use of both hands. They lose their job and the income it provided and, ultimately, his entire family ends up homeless.

Maybe you allow some other schmuck to use your drill and they turn it on its side and proceed to attempt to hammer a nail into a concrete wall. Now your drill is damaged, possibly beyond repair.

Not to say that the holy spirit is comparable to a drill, in any way. But I think the point is clear. Can you imagine all the things that would go wrong if the Holy Spirit became damaged or broken? Could such a calamity start a chain reaction that would lead to the destruction of a planet, multiple planets, or the entire universe?

Mind you, the foregoing scenarios are rather benign in and of themselves. Because it could be argued that none of them turned out as they did from a place of bad intentions. Really, how many accidents, deaths and damaged or destroyed properties result from words lost in translation, carelessness, or plain ignorance? In other words, innocent mistakes, also known as imperfection, sin.

But, Wait. It Gets Worse

As we’re all aware, humanity in general often bends towards undesirable motives. We take the fusing of atoms and, instead of harnessing this tremendous power for clean energy only, we utilize it in the production of deadly weapons. Others take digital technology—an extraordinarily useful and brilliant invention—and employ it to steal some unsuspecting person’s identity. Not to mention those who take a beautiful fleshly blessing like eroticism and debase it to lust or sadism through acts of rape and sick, pain-inducing roleplays.

Try recalling a book, movie or urban legend involving magic which doesn’t portray a character using it towards an evil end or, in the very least, towards their own utterly selfish advantage.

See what I mean? It’s no wonder that, to gain access to God’s holy spirit, we need to be someone whom he deems worthy of using it.

A Favored Few

In a previous column I mentioned the importance of asking for Jehovah’s Holy Spirit. Jesus assures his followers that He is quite willing to share it. The implication is, however, that when and how much of it someone is granted access to wield is completely left to His wise and just discretion. Keep in mind the audience whom our savior addressed—his close disciples, according to the context. It follows, then, that one would have to be a disciple of Christ to be a possible candidate for receiving the holy spirit from God.

I can say from experience it is a privilege and honor to receive any small measure of Holy Spirit. No, I haven’t succeeded in levitating people or items, speaking in tongues, causing something to appear out of nothing or anything like that. Still, there have been a couple of predictive dreams and some intriguing scriptural insights I hope to share someday. More often than not, I experienced the holy spirit as a compulsion or guide leading me towards a specific decision or direction in life. Other times, it is an intensely warm tingling sensation coming from deep within, expanding outwards to the surface of my skin. There’s exhiliration and total clarity and, at the same time, abundant peace.

Can you testify to having received Holy Spirit? How were you affected? Please share your experience or the event below.

But wait. Perhaps you’ve witnessed some who don’t acknowledge God (in the Christian sense or at all) casting spells, pulling off near-miraculous feats or foretelling the future or doing things which seem impossible except through magic. How can we reconcile a non-believers’ access to the holy spirit if God grants it only to disciples of Christ?

The following post will delve into that conundrum.

~~~

searching within and

finding a shared inferno

this thing called magic