Praying To God Options

yeah so i was thinking in the shower
not about magic
yet for some reason i had some sort of idea.

Is praying to god magic?
is it magic under the paradigm that if you ask this enigmatic being for a favor that he will reply and help with good faith?

and then i thought more?

isnt ordinary magic the exact same thing, except instead of asking a being
we tell the universe...
and in some cases we do ask a being
like in a summoning of a demon?

And if that's true, then if you replace God with universe in the bible, it is more like things were guided into place by fate, and not by a bearded sociopath?
and it becomes something entirely different?

idk really
i just dont think much about Christianity because i am not a christian at all so

whatever.

praying to god is 'usually' a form of magick.
it fits under the 'spirit model' of magical practice. you're soliciting a nonphysical being for something, it's just like summoning, except for an omnipresent being.

I don't personally believe in 'god', at least not in the same sense that abrahamic monotheists do. to me, what they actually work with is just a super-egregore. I used to be a devout christian, once upon a time. And when I was, I did get fairly deep into the practice of what I would now call "christian magick". In my opinion, directly channeling the energy force of their egregore-deity is MUCH more potent than just praying to it. Thus the impressiveness of miracle-oriented "wielding the holy spirit" styled christian magick, vs. the somewhat less impressive power of prayer. But both are a magick format in my opinion. In the case of channeling styled holy spirit magick, it is similar to energy manipulation + egregore INvocation, and it can really pack a wallop. In the case of prayer it is more similar to evocation based magick.

They're also fond of other magical practices, such as candle magick (I think the catholics invented it), ritual transubstantiation, mantra magick, music as ritual, etc.

of course, not all prayer is asking for something. Some of it is worship, adoration, etc. (charging the egregore & reaffirming contact with it). And some of it is seeking guidance, which I think is really more of a psychological exercise, in that 99% of the time when a person seeks guidance, they already basically know the answer, they just need to get past their approach-avoidance conflict with the answer.

And if that's true, then if you replace God with universe in the bible, it is more like things were guided into place by fate, and not by a bearded sociopath?
and it becomes something entirely different?

I may catch flack for this, but I don't think you can "clean up" middle eastern monotheism by replacing 'god' with 'the universe'. I have no problem with the idea of 'universe as divinity', like in the indian concept of Aum. But why would the universe want the hebrews to commit genocide on the canaanites? or make women second class citizens? or want people to ritually kill animals to relieve a guilt complex? or torture nice people on a bet? The storybook really only makes sense with a bearded sociopath as protagonist.

This post has been edited by Kath: Nov 2 2009, 02:26 PM

In my opinion, directly channeling the energy force of their egregore-deity is MUCH more potent than just praying to it. Thus the impressiveness of miracle-oriented "wielding the holy spirit" styled christian magick, vs. the somewhat less impressive power of prayer. But both are a magick format in my opinion. In the case of channeling styled holy spirit magick, it is similar to energy manipulation + egregore INvocation, and it can really pack a wallop. In the case of prayer it is more similar to evocation based magick.

They're also fond of other magical practices, such as candle magick (I think the catholics invented it), ritual transubstantiation, mantra magick, music as ritual, etc.

I'm curious to know as to how you did this?