In the late 2020s how can we re-conceive “Magic”?
(Responding to Mainapaul, see below) This topic remains relevant, how do we conceive of “magic” in updated modern terms?
Additionally for the UK, how do we conceive of magic in updated modern terms APART FROM DRUIDISM AND ATHEISM? (significant in the UK and Europe, insignificant in the US).
I believe the only answer makes many people uncomfortable, “The Kingdom of Heaven lies within.”
How do we voice “The Kingdom of Heaven” in modern terms? I believe the most descriptive phrase is healthy self-connection.
Back to “magic,” I say the word “grace” updates the word “magic” in many modern contexts. A closely related descriptive phrase is, “small miracles of perfect timing.”
In the late 2020s Where can the average person find “healthy self-connection,” “grace” and “small miracles of perfect timing”? Here’s what I’ve found workable for me:
The Essene Jesus, Yeshua Messiah (meh-SHE-ah). Essene Jesus is the opposite of the Roman Catholic, “Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war.” Instead of Catholic triumphalism, Essene Jesus is a model of self-honesty and humility (see Hexaco.org on this point).
If you Google “Essene Jesus books” the relevant literature shows up immediately.
Where are the people demonstrating this? I’ve found two places:
MSIA.org, the Light and Sound group founded by John-Roger. Essene Jesus is not so much demonstrated in recorded videos of John-Roger. Rather Essene Jesus is demonstrated in how MSIAers treat each other, how they attend to their own elderly, the most needy in their group; and, the most needy outside MSIA in multiple service projects.
The other place I recognize Essene Jesus as very active, is in Internal Family Systems (IFS). IFS embodies Best Practices, at all skill levels, for how to create a safe place-space wherein methods of self-connection can be experimented with (the modern magic).
I know of only these groups. If you know of additional ones, please share with me.
A gem from IFS Talks podcast: “You are not your parts; and, your parts are not their burdens.”
BEST INTRO I know of is Four-part Dick Schwartz Toronto videos introduced by Derek Scott
“Video title: “Dick Schwartz: IFS and Trauma 1 of 4” — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UfmGwENz9M
More boring but substantial main site: Main site: https://IFS-institute.com
Okay to contact me. My online writing is at Medium.com and LinkedIn
Reference
In a time of magic
https://thesanjuktablog.wordpress.com/author/mainapaul/
The BBC serial Merlin (2008–12) explores the time period before the main events of the Arthurian legend–a time when Merlin, Arthur, and Guinevere are young adults and Arthur’s father, King Uther, is king of Camelot. The major conflict of the (vaguely YA-oriented) show is provided by Uther’s long-persecution of people who practice magic, centrally the Druids, a kind of indigenous people who practice “the Old Religion.” The show posits this persecution, which sets up the conditions for eventual rebellion, as the major animating factor driving the events of the well-known story of Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere and the Knights of the Round Table.
Gaius is the court physician of Camelot, who takes in the young Merlin when he arrives from the countryside. Being in the service of King Uther, Gaius long ago made substantial compromises required by his position, helping some practitioners of magic to escape while participating in–or at least failing to oppose–the persecution of others. Previously having practiced magic himself, he modified his behavior and perhaps to some degree his own beliefs in response to Uther’s rules. Gaius is caring and basically good, but also cautious and sometimes even cowardly. His position has allowed him to help many people while also at times requiring him to help buoy up an unjust regime.
Despite the complexities that have characterized his life choices, Gaius rises to the present occasion. He mentors and cares for Merlin, encouraging him to embrace his “destiny,” which has to do with helping Arthur attain the kingship for the ultimate purpose of bringing about a “fair and just” land. The key thing about destiny, the show suggests, is that it is worth sacrificing for, even dying for. Not in an arid and self-abnegating way, but in a joyous way in which one takes the fun along with the serious stakes.
The idea of magic is of course central to the story. Magic in this world is the literal ability of an individual to channel the powers of the Earth through incantation and spellwork, an ability which Merlin possesses instinctively. But the most important magic in the story lies elsewhere–in the collective idea of Albion, prefigured in the Knights of the Round Table (notably, a table with no head), both of which are negatively mirrored in Uther’s hierarchical and unjust rule. Destiny is worth sacrificing for because it is ultimately directed toward something bigger than the individual’s immediate “interests” (and thus inherently to some degree collective) even as destiny is also unique to each person.
People often ask how it is possible critical masses of ordinary people were, at key points in history, able to create quite substantial changes in the face of seemingly unsurmountable odds. Today it often seems so difficult to organize toward the most tepid goals. I don’t know the answer. Whether as a literal glimpsing of the gates of Avalon, or simply as an instinctive commitment to something bigger than oneself, a sense of magic seems indeed to be required. For a critical mass of people to step up to their “destiny,” it paradoxically requires embracing one’s individuality to a degree needed to courageously step out of line (conformity) when needed, with the sense of acting for more than oneself.
Importantly, this is not a one-way street, where the individual continually gives to the collective. Rather, there is a powerful potential magic in coordination among people, itself. Naturally, this genius can work for good or ill–just as magic of any kind can. But the important thing is that coordination between people can, even without some other concrete or objective support, work to empower individual action. It weaves a net between people that has the capacity to receive (not infinitely, but to some greater degree) individual risk-taking and initiative. This is how networks of economic coordination create stability and the basis for productive activity in an economy. The principle would seem to apply to coordination and the capacity to take action more broadly.
And still, there are always movers for whom the net is not yet fully woven, and yet who jump anyway. Merlin (in this depiction) is one of these people. A humble servant, he has no material, political, or social capital to draw upon at first, save the kindness of Gaius. He also makes missteps, both over- and under-shooting at times. But he finds his way, and he soon earns the (grudging) respect and protection of Arthur.
As a character in a fairy tale, Merlin’s instinctive, individual access to magic is what most obviously defines him. Consider, if he had NOT stepped up to fulfill his role and purpose in a much larger story, nothing about his individual abilities would be so interesting or worth telling, again and again.
