The Only Real Magic Is The Magic Of The Mind: Prequel
Why did I embark on this series of posts? There's a lot about the inner life -and in particular my inner life- I do not understand with the clarity that I'd prefer to have. It would an easy thing to consult a few dozen of my favorite sources, like the Bible, the Dogmatic Decress of the Ecumenical Councils (all 8 of them), the writings of the Fathers, and the innumerable other books published in recent centuries which are a numerous as snowflakes. However, then I'd be like a parrot repeating something someone else said, not having actually looked within myself to see for myself.
So, rather than going about it that way, I am trying step by tiny step to build up an explanation of the usefulness of religious thought and practices (everything from the Jesus Prayer to the Mass) in the process of deification (Greek: theosis) through the grace of the Holy Spirit. The parameter I've set myself in that regard is that my reasoning as well as any conclusions I at which I may arrive must be in accord with the historic orthodox teachings of the Church.
There are many meanings attached to the word "magic," and I think I have an inkling of how you're using it. Recently I used it in a different sense, meaning something like "when people don't have a rational explanation for something, they call it magic." That was in my post, The magic of existence, http://cost-of-discipleship.blogspot.com/2009/02/magic-of-existence.html, which ended like this,
ReplyDeleteWe must listen very carefully, mimic and memorize the instructions just as we receive them, even in the limited language that we know thus far, because for us, where we are headed, where we have no choice but to be headed, is a state that now can only seem to be the magic of existence. It will only be magic until we find out and understand what lies behind it, until we find ourselves actually and even factually crossing that “event horizon” that limits our mortal, human vision, until by faith we come to immortal, divine being.
What I tried to express in that post was that until we are drawn into it, the Divine Nature, all that is self-existent, is so beyond our comprehension that it appears magical, but that as we are drawn into the Divine Nature, the sense of magic in us dissipates as we become not only endless but also beginningless, as our human nature is deified… théosis.
"Leave behind all the talk lavishing your spirit. Approach the Source of Song, more searing as you near it."