Magic and Religion

For me, the Golden Bough is one of those books that I start and give up on repeatedly. At the moment, I'm about 100 pages in and still going - progress!

It's a study of beliefs and magic and religion and is really interesting, although the lists sometimes seem to go on and on. So far, I've read about different things people do (or used to do) to make it rain, make it not rain, make it windy, sunny etc. We really are an imaginative race!

One idea keeps occuring and I find it really potent, is the differences between the concepts of magic and religion. James Frazer suggests (I think) that people practice magic when they believe that they (or other humans) can control their environment. Religion is practiced when people believe that they (as humans) cannot control their environment, but that there are beings (or gods), similar to a human, but bigger or more powerful, who can control the environment for us. He suggests that as humanity evolves, it moves from magic to religion.

Like I said, I'm only a little way into the book thus far, so it may develop more. I'm interested to see where we go after religion. But this idea has been on my mind a lot. A lot of Catholics seem to have this idea of religion, of a God who will change something, cure someone, provides something, do something that we want done, but cannot do.

I think that there is something missing from the ideas of magic and religion as suggested (so far) in the Golden Bough - but I can't put my finger on it. In modern magical stories (I'm thinking Harry Potter, LOTRs, books by David Eddings and Dianne Wynne Jones), the practice of magic is not so much about controlling your environment, but doing something that could almost be done normally, in a different way. In reality, you wouldn't normally fly on a broomstick, but in stories, to get from one place to another you could walk, ride a bike, drive a car, teleport, go on a spaceship or fly on a broomstick. Some of these methods are 'normal', magical or scientific.

For me too, religion is not really about controlling the environment I'm in. I don't generally pray for good things to happen to me or for God to make bad things go away. I don't think that God interfers in our day to day lives as a general rule. It's more about me opening my eyes to see what is actually going on around me.

But then, lots of us now live sheltered from the worst of nature or we try to hide from it. We can control our environments, not through magic or religion, but science. We can control the heat and light in our buildings. the water and food we consume, the people we interact (or not) with. We are removed from nature - nature is something that happens to other people, something we see on the news or an adventure we see in a film.

This does not seem like a good thing, but again, I can't really explain why. Maybe I've been reading and watching too much about the end of the world as we know it.

OCT 06

It's a year ago this week we were celebrating World Youth Day in Germany. It's two years 'til the next one in Sydney. But, in the meantime, we have

OCT06
14th & 15th October 2006, Birmingham

24 hours, 4000 young adults, workshops, speakers, gigs, discussion, mass, vigil, networking, fun, time out and even Catholic speed dating. Oct.06 - quite simply the biggest gathering of 18-30’s Catholics from England and Wales in a quarter of a century.

Should be fun.

Boldly going...

Star Trek Inspirational Posters, found via Happy Catholic

Beta Blogger

I've switched over to the new version. I'm very excited by the new functionality - especially the categories. I have been reading all the hacks, but all have seemed to be too much work.

So, I'll be playing around with my layout, and indulging in some retrospective cataloguing over the next few days. What fun!

Quiz

What kind of Catholic are you?

I got 66 out of 100 which makes me...

You Are a Divine Office (Moderately Traditional) Catholic

The Second Vatican Council was much needed, as far as you're concerned, but you see no reason to push the church further in the direction of change, as many progressives urge. You like the dynamic combination of the traditional approach toward doctrine with the opening of the church to the world that Pope John Paul II (your favorite pope) represented. As far as liturgy is concerned, a reverent Mass in the vernacular is your favorite, as is a vernacular hymn with a feeling for the transcendent such as "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence." When Nicole Kidman returned to her childhood Catholicism and regular Mass attendance, you were thrilled.

Hello!

So I'm kind of back to normal - whatever that may be. I've been sort of taking a break from "formal" Church/Parish stuff to get over all the politics of the past few months. I've spent lots of time talking about the 'good old days' and death (as you do) with the family.

Is it just me, or is talking about death a really Catholic thing to do? My colleagues at work are almost afraid to refer to death or old age.

I'm getting ready to leave my current job (9 working days to go) and begin my new one. I'm going to be taking a sort of gap year and work (volunteer, with expenses) with young people full time. The one thing I have learned over this past year is that I am not a 9-5 person. I need to do something a little different and I need to work out what that could be.

And onto some things I've been catching up on.

From my inbox...

We are now looking forward to the next Youth 2000 festival - Godsgift@Walsingham

It is taking place from 24th-28th August at the National Shrine of Our Lady in Walsingham, Norfolk. It is the highlight of the Youth 2000 year! All the details are available on the website: http://www.youth2000.org/events/Godsgift.html

From my RSS feeds...

Bishop Alan Hopes has set the date for the next Young Adults in the West meeting as the first Sunday in Advent, 3rd December at St Margarets RC Church in Twickenham.
The event is organised and hosted entirely by Young Adults from the deaneries of the West of London. Musicians, singers and artists all contributed to making the Mass an inspirational celebration.

St Albans Deanery Catholic Young Adults (16-30)
If you’re a young adult, or know of young adults in your parish, come and meet other young Catholics in the St. Albans Deanery area for Mass followed by a social at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Harpenden, on Sunday 20th August at 6pm.

And this - Changes to Holy Days of Obligation
Okay, so I haven't really read up on this other than what was in the Catholic Herald a couple of weeks ago. But I'm really disappointed. I'm just getting into holy days and feast days and such, and I like that we 'have to' go to Mass to celebrate different things AND not just on a Sunday. It mixes things up and keeps us from getting (too) bored and compartmentalising our Christianity.

But what really takes the biscuit for me, is that it's three of the most interesting days - Epiphany, Ascension and Corpus Christi. For a start, the music for those days is good. And they're markers for other events like the end of phase 1 Christmastime, Pentecost and easing into Ordinary Time. Plus, we're going to reduce the occurance of the the Second-Sunday-after-Christmas-Day-that's-before-Epiphany, which is always fun (and thus remove another chance to sing Christmas music at Mass, during Christmastime phase 1).

Epiphany and Ascension are proper events (i.e. these events are in the Bible. The readings of the day are stories of what happened - unlike some other holy days). Corpus Christi I find a little problematic as a holy day (not quite seeing the point). However, since the whole push toward BS processions to mark the day out, I really don't see the logic in moving it to a 'routine' Sunday Mass.

I actually think that we should have more Holy Days of Obligation. What about the feast of St Benedict (patron of Europe)?

Randomness

And here I thought things were going to settle down, I'd get back into a routine and post on a more regular basis.

Wrong!

I've handed in my notice at work - I have 18, no, 17, working days left.

I've left the choir - last Sunday was our final sung Mass before the summer break, but I won't be returning. Very mixed feelings - I've sung in that choir for 16 years (so some sadness) and led it for 3 months (such relief, I cannot even begin to vocalise).

A first cousin, who has had cancer for a while and been frail for a number of years, has passed away today. She was in her early thirties, so the extended family are taking it quite badly. I wasn't that close to her, and I tend to take news of a death (especially after illness and suffering) calmly - trusting in God, that sort of thing. It takes a lot to make me cry. I won't be able to make her funeral, which is bothersome.

So, my head is kind of full at the moment. I'll post when I can, but please bear with me.

On the plus side...

You Are 30% Normal

You sure do march to your own beat... But you're so weird, people wonder if it's a beat at all You think on a totally different wavelength And it's often a chore to get people to understand you

How Normal Are You?