by Dorean Malandra-Dara

Created on: November 26, 2007

Magic or Miracle? When Moses transformed his staff into a snake and the Pharaoh could not, the implicit message was that Moses' methodology was more powerful because he acted as a beacon through which the divine spirit of God could act on the material world. Modern Christian meditations on this allegory continue to reverberate the ideology that Yahweh was indeed more powerful than the Egyptian gods because Pharaoh's results were not the same. However, Christians as a whole are less likely to claim that Moses' methodology was a magical one, and attribute it to the miraculous hand of God. Methodology and language are implicit to the discourse on Magic.

Magic may be aptly expressed as a means of drawing a focus in an effort to effect change within the inner and outer spheres. It is openended enough to utilize a variety of means to bring one into focus in order to prepare for petitioning one's gods with a particular desire or goal. Bardic arts, which are popular in Celtic paganism, are attentative to the development of speech, poetry, singing and music. All of these things also help to provide the preliminary focus. Chant and prayer, are no different. Because of this, chanting and prayers are also implemented in spellwork. Ceisiwr Serith outlines the importance of prayer, in a Pagan context, in the Pagan Book of Prayer. A review of this work on ecauldron.com states that "short statements place the worshipper in an appropriate frame of mind - statements that are concise and adaptable for daily solitary or family worship. This use of prayer in Paganism does not differ all that much from the way in which it is used in a Christian context.

Language, however, is used to invoke a distinction between the two, to force the idea that one is embodied with a heavenly glow of goodness, while the other is often regarded as a path of failure, impurity, and sometimes evil. The earliest old testament scripture has supported the havoc that language has reaked over Pagan and Christian spirituality for several millennia. Relations of power are often negotiated and reproduced through language. History is rife with examples where Judaic and Christian societies have tired effortlessly to draw stigma towards the concept of magic, including its erasure from Judeo-Christian society.

It becomes apparent that prayer has been, and will continue to perform its own unique role with regard to the methodology of the magical ideology.

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