Roman Catholic Worried... Options

As you can tell from the topic title, all this stuff interests me and I'd like to be able to perform some of it, but everything about the Golden Dawn, Hermeticism, and Ceremonial Magick in general tends to freak me out. I'm a Roman Catholic and I'm obscenely worried about my spiritual self getting into some trouble by doing this stuff. Are there any 'Judeo-Christian' roots to these rituals? I mean it doesn't take a lot to notice the archangels and God's names in the rituals, but seeing videos of people using sinister voices and generally acting like they want to be Lucifer's best friend during said rituals is a little worrisome.

If anyone has any advice for me I'd really appreciate it. I want to be closer with my HGA and thereby God by doing a little magick everyday, I desperately want Him to work through me, but what if unwittingly I allow myself to be worked by an entity with less than amiable goals? Etc., etc.

Thanks in advance..

Hi

I am new to this forum, having just joined today, and have been reading this post with some interest. My own religious background is High Episcopalian but over the years I have explored a number of paths ranging from Thelema to Russian Orthodoxy. As I see it, Religion and Magic are both about the search for Truth, a Truth that is too vast, and too holy, to be ever fully contained within a single vessel.

I do not see that there is any contradiction between the practise of Magic and faith in Christ Jesus. Spiritual Magic was an integral part of the Gnostic Tradition in the centuries before the Council of Nicea began the process of transforming a syncretic, libertarian religious movement into an instrument of state and social control.

My own introduction to what I would call the magical use of the imagination came through meditation techniques taught to me by a Benedictine Monk who acted as my spiritual director when I was at university & in his own way he was one of the most effective magicians I have ever met.

Many of the great Magi of the Rennaisance and of the 17th and 18th centuries were devout Christians, I think of men like Dr John Dee, Pico Della Mirandolla, Elias Ashmole & Robert Fludd off the top of my head. Anna Bonus Kingsford converted to Catholicism as did (at least according to Ithell Colquhoun) did MacGregor Mathers.

Even in more recent decades, a high percentage of the members of the Stella Matutina were Christians, and a considerable number of them were also clergymen.

There are certainly some schools of magic, mainly the Rosicrucian, Cabalistic and Hermetic, that are probably more compatible with Christianity than others and I would certainly say that if a particular technique or practise feels wrong than one should initially abstain but also spend time medititating on your reactions to determine whether they are due to adherence to a dogma or to a genuine conflict with your personal spiritual core.

It should also be said that magic is about intention and acting with knowledge, a good grounding in Cabala, Hermetic Philosophy and the works of some of the great western saints and mystics will provide a storng theoretical framework but without translation into daily life and action it remains only headstuff. My personal feeling is that working within a religious paradigm helps to ground and focus ones magical work. Putting it into the context of the daily ups and downs of growing, developing, slipping back etc.

One book I can definitely recommend is called Patterns in Magical Christianity - it takes a number of basic magical meditation and visualisation exercises and puts them into the broader framework of Christian Theosophy. I can also recommend anything by David Goddard.

Hope this is of some use to you!

Ave

The famous magickal son of Crowley, Frater Achad, raised his child catholic and was a devout catholic, because: Thelema is Christianity. When you speak of the magical tradition, it is not a pagan one, it is one within Christendom, and most of the time, the legends extend from within the Church and it's clergy, some rumors even circulating about the Cardinals, and I know I've personally heard tale of St. John Paul II performing grand theurgy. There is no line between Prayer, Gifts of the Spirit, and Magic, just on the elaboration of technique and it's complexity.

Ad Scientiam

Ave

The famous magickal son of Crowley, Frater Achad, raised his child catholic and was a devout catholic, because: Thelema is Christianity. When you speak of the magical tradition, it is not a pagan one,

Actually, Thelema is (acording to Thelemites) the Religion of the new Aeon.
Christianity belongs to the former one.

When it comes to Theurgy and even Hermetesism it is most definetly Pagan in origin.
Theurgy was practised before Christianity as was Hermetisism (original Hermetesism was Theurgy, Alchemy and Astrology. Kabbala and all the other stuff was Synchretized in to it later).

Emperor Julian of Rome practiced (Pagan) Theurgy.

As far as who in the GD was Catholic or not there´s still a Papal rule that Catholics can not join Masontype fraterneties so i´m doubtful.
I know some converted AFTER being active members though (and Alan Bennet became a Budhist monk).

However, many of the old famous Magicians, John Dee and the gang mentioned above cetainly where Christian and in many cases Catholic. Honorius was even a bishop.

There are a whole bunch of Christian Magicians out there and after all, it´s what your motivation is that matters, not if any would be Satanist uses the same Rituals (i know of a Swedish group of Satanists using a picture of Mary on their altar so...).

When it comes to Afro / Caribean Religions they generally use Catholic pictures of Saints and other paraphernalia to MASK their Religion. In other words St: Lazarus is Legba, Sta: Barbara is Chango´and so on.

Umbanda from Brazil is the only exeption that springs to mind.