About Other Religions Spirit World
The religious significance of Covid, excursus: is masking magic?
4 minutes to read Understanding the religious nature of man, and the symbolic patterns he follows in worship, helps us to understand the rationale behind ancient magic—and ask some disconcerting questions about whether it is reasserting itself in the modern day.
Continued from part 2, on the symbolism of face-covering
Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers: and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. (Exodus 7:11–12)
In part 2, I ended with Scripture’s principle—or, one might say, Scripture’s recognition of the inevitable creational pattern—that you become what you worship. Before moving on to part 3, I am going to make a brief digression on this point, because there is a disturbing corollary to it.
To understand it, we need to first have a basic grasp of the rationale behind magic and idolatry—two things that are generally opaque to modern Christians. If you find the idea of worshiping an idol baffling, and simply cannot understand how anyone could imagine that a carving was a god, then you are missing a crucial understanding of the world that is instinctively obvious to a man unencumbered by Enlightenment thought-patterns.
The reason people make idols and do magic in non-Enlightenment thinking is precisely because of the connection between symbol and reality. Throughout history and cultures, they have naturally intuited the power of symbolism to help them become what they worship. By symbolically representing the reality they are interested in, they hope to enter into that reality, or even cause it to come about in some way.
A classic example of this mindset is the idolater who symbolically represents fertility by having sex in the temple—so the gods in heaven will bring about fertility in the land. Similarly, the witch-doctor symbolically represents hurting someone by driving needles into his effigy—so that person will actually be hurt. Or, the modern athlete symbolically represents his past win by wearing the same clothes that were closest to his body on that day—intuiting that he might re-present that reality, that win, in the world.
This is often called sympathetic magic.
Certainly the thinking behind sympathetic magic is mistaken—but Scripture is not actually clear in what way or by how much. From what we have seen about symbolism already, magical thinking is not nearly as mistaken as smug modern Christians would like to imagine—those people who understand so little of the connection between physical and spiritual realities that they can’t even fathom why anyone would create an idol to worship in the first place. We must acknowledge that the physical really does image the spiritual, and that there is some sense in which magic can therefore really produce these kinds of connections. The exact mechanism, causality, and reliability of magic is obscure; but the witch of Endor really did descend into the underworld by going down into her necromancy pit—and she really did call up the spirit of Samuel (1 Sam 28:11–20). By the same token, spiritual beings really do produce supernatural effects in the physical world, as the girl afflicted with the spirit of python (Acts 16:16–18), or the magicians of Pharaoh (Ex 7:11–12, 22; 8:7).
It was not because magic didn’t work that Yahweh forbade it under pain of death (Ex 22:18; Lev 20:27; 1 Sam 28:9)—but because it did.
We must take this with the utmost seriousness, because the sacraments themselves follow this same pattern and logic. In baptism, we really do descend into death with Christ, and we really are raised up a new creation (Col 2:12; Rom 6:3–4; 2 Cor 5:17)—which is why Peter can say that baptism saves us (1 Pet 3:21). In the Lord’s supper, we really do partake of the Lord’s body and blood—which is why Paul can say that whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord (1 Cor 11:27). In Christ, we really are seated in the heavenly places (Eph 1:17–23; 2:4–5, 10), so that in worship, we really do enter the heavenly court (Heb 12:18, 22–25)—which is why Scripture makes so much of our not despising this extraordinary gift (Heb 12:28–29; 10:23–27).
Am I suggesting that the sacraments are magical?
No. God forbid. I am saying, rather, that magic is a distortion and perversion of a true symbolic mechanism, built into creation and properly regulated by covenant—and that this is a mechanism which really does something.
So here is what occurs to me—a disconcerting thought for you to pursue in your own time, if you do not find it entirely too wacky:
- If mask mandates are motivated and directed by the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places…
- And if masking is symbolic and tacitly religious…
- And if symbolic actions really do something, such that we can—at least sometimes—participate in the deeper reality we are expressing…
Is it possible that masking up is meant to be a kind of magical ritual, performed unknowingly by masses and masses of people, in order to spiritually, magically facilitate the very subjugation it represents?
That is a conspiracy theory worthy of consideration, don’t you think?
3 comments
Zac Howard
This is excellent and well said. The modern church in the West is narrow minded toward the significance of sin, if not altogether indifferent. We would be wise and better equipped to mortify it if we more often considered the bigger picture and the role we play in advancing Christ’s kingdom.
Benjamin Scott
Yes I think this train of thought and conclusion is both obvious and correct, including your understanding that magic works. Good series you’re doing. Magic doesn’t just work but controls human cultures on a deep, unconscious level. Christians needed to understand this a long time ago to avoid the trap, but unfortunately they clearly didn’t and still don’t. You’re not speculating but rather just seeing how it works out politically. Good job. You are rare in your insight here as a Christian.
Hegel is a founding influence on the political left and he was a historicist, statist, Christian and alchemist (think apocalyptic totalitarian, moralist, magician). The magical tradition is expressed in the word games they play in woke politics as well. They willfully call things what they want them to be, en-masse, rather than to use words as descriptors of what they are or have been in the past. This has the effect of casting a mass incantation or spell. They use the word “science” as a tool within this overarching magical framework, making them inherently anti-scientific on the streets, but pushing the edges of magical reality in the skies. Most “woke” folk are unconscious of their underlying worldview, of course, but the leaders definitely are and move the pieces around like a game of chess. Wokism is a chaos magic interpretation of postmodernism to not just deconstruct but to move beyond that to actually redefine, traumatize and destroy. Postmodernism didn’t clearly contain these ideas or values itself other than in seed form. Postmodernism was in turn, a seed born out of Protestantism, sorry to say. Everything has been moving in dialectical fashion towards this since the Reformation and before. Regardless of that history, this is a move post-postmodern now. It’s a move into trauma and mass ritual death.
I would also note that the politician’s indulgence in apocalyptic patterns of behavior from the book of Revelation is also along this same tract and has no bearing on the “truth or falsity” of the book itself. It’s all very pragmatic. They go along with the symbols and story in that book and others on purpose in order to mock Christians and religious people, and simultaneously bring about their own rise to power which the Christian prophecy predicts. They do this by harnessing the strong psychic energy of Christian worship and belief on this point and moving it into both a passive and a frenzied state on their own behalf. Dispensationalism arose from Freemasonry and is by far the best tract for them to encourage and harness, but others work to a lesser degree as well, so the ball is in their court.
The occultists don’t believe Jesus will actually return because they believe Christianity is nothing more than an old Roman political tool which contains real working magical traditions in it. They do believe they can continue to politically harness Christians by making them hope in the beloved rapture event as their “out” and ending up in disappointment and political neutralization in the process. Taking political actions that correspond with religious texts thus creates a self fulfilling prophecy from all sides, harnessing the magical power of all. It cannot therefore be stopped. It’s a most obvious chess move from their perspective.
You grow up a meek and humble servant who struggles to accept his plight. You are about to fight a confident man who insulted your woman. He says he is “going to mop the floor” with you. As you approach him your woman screams out to him “stop!” and to you, “he is going to kill you!” Incidentally you had a dream of your death at the hands of this same monster the night before last. What’s going to happen to you and your woman? How does this contrast with the magic of David in 1 Sam 17?
Masks have clear occult ritual symbolism and archetypal significance for all humans. They dehumanize us and muzzle us. They hide our personal identities and allow us to participate in mass trance rituals and crowd formation under the lead of tremendous power authorities who paralyze us. So Christians are dehumanized, muzzled, engaged in a larger occult rituals even in their own worship and expectations for the future, and left believing in their own political defeat. Pretty convenient but that’s how it’s worked since the beginning in Rome as well.
Who stands against the occult elite? Rather than standing against them, Christianity provides a mechanism for obedience to the state, justifies the state on moral and metaphysical grounds and supports vague moral reasoning about politics, in general. Christianity is thus an easy tool of the state on virtually every level. How far back this went is for you to decide for yourself, depending on how brave you are in your quest. A passive and sheltered movement of people who welcome their own enslavement…. They turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile for their handlers. The meek inheritors. They are guided by “the Spirit” but believe the state punishes “the evil” and protects “the good”, which are terms they themselves cannot precisely define. Perfect! They submit to Caesar almost as to God, since God installed Caesar. In the name of their religion they support capitalism and socialism, life and death, peace and war, separatism and unity, slavery and freedom, liberalism and conservatism. Just like Baskin Robbin’s icecream, so is Christianity.
The only real question in all of this is whether Jesus is more than a magical egregore about to energetically die to history like the Greek gods once did, or not? It seems this process is already well underway. “The great apostasy.” another self fulfilling prophecy. It’s been underway since Paul said, “the times have been shortened.” If that’s all Jesus is, is a magical egregore, then Christians have not only lost freedom here, but they are personally responsible for that loss by not opposing it through their own wills and power, instead. Their magical egregore is powefully sympathetic to their very enslavement.
The “good” are most often the weak. Through suffering they learn empathy and also more suffering. All their psychic energy channeled into a pipe dream is the equivalent of not being able to accept reality as it is in its dualism, and thus losing it to those who control it and want it all for themselves as it is. Nietzsche touched on these points. If Jesus truly rose physically from the grave and will some day return, then Christians will win the kingdom of God and the meek will inherit the earth truly, but there are high stakes on this question for all of society and for their children, not just for themselves.
From the occultist perspective, the world is what it is because we all want it to be that way. Where one energetic force becomes weak another becomes strong to take its place. “Good” as conceived by Christians attracts “evil.” It is not just evil which attracts evil but good which attracts it, just as good also attracts more good. As Solomon, a hero among occultists said, “Do not be overly wicked, nor overly righteous. Why should you destroy yourself?” So what do Christians really want? They don’t want this world; that’s clear. As the broken sinner/saint Joni Erickson says, “Heaven, Your Real Home!”
I will grant that what I’m speaking about here are as much popular movements as Biblical ideas. I know your mountain goat feet have unique skills and haven’t fallen into all these pits. Also, does the Bible teach that heaven is the real home of Christians? No, of course it doesn’t. But then Christians, as discussed above (as a magical movement), don’t know what the Bible teaches, do they? We both know they don’t.
In reference to this discussion about Jesus as an egregore I would refer you to the episode of the original Star Trek entitled “Who Mourns for Adonais?” Gene Roddenberry was a Rosicrucian and alchemist and knew what he was saying. Even the title is telling.
Star Trek is from the political, occult left. Shatner revisited a similar theme in episode V of the movies, but with much more venom! It went farther than the point Roddenberry was making in the original.
Keep doing what you’re doing mate. You’re on the right path in my estimation. The only question is whether you and others will complete the journey rapidly enough to change your fate in competition with your enemies. I deeply hope you will “ram man.” Maybe you can lead some of that in your way. You already are here so keep at it!!
Joe
I’ve read this series three times now. I appreciate the systematic approach to the Bible. Very few people think this way anymore.
Please consider addressing Christian liberty in your next article :) I get that argument all the time. Especially with the MRNA shot.
Keep up the good work brother. And thank you.