(no subject)

[jack]

What does the renaissance mean for magic in the church today?

By Father David. At the time this was written, he was estranged from the Roman Catholic Church and taken in by the Church of England, but he still maintained many close ties and saw the Catholic Church as his home.

From the fifteenth century a renaissance swept Europe. The church attracted great thinkers who tore down the old superstitions, in Christianity, in science, and in magic, and laid foundations of deeper understanding which we build on to this day.

But at the beginning the papacy was also convulsed with politics of squabbling Italian city states, and the dying of the remnants of the old empires, and revolted against some of the most radical thoughts.

It has always been difficult to draw clear distinctions between the fields of study. Is the beginning of the universe a question for science, or religion? Is death a question for magic or theology? The Good Lord created the universe and the world in it. But how do we know this? Whatever faith we have must begin when we see the world about us.

When it was that He created the world, and in what manner, is a question that theology touches on, but that can only be fully addressed by examining the world itself, that is, by science.

This case is completely parallel to that of the afterlife, a question of theology and magic[1]. We know Yahweh exists deep in the veil celeste, and exerts benevolence backward through the veils celeste and écolumbine. Yahweh and God are both powerful and good, or so we trust. Thus far is a matter of observation.

But we cannot reach the veil celeste, except one way, and we can never know if Yahweh is God, or an aspect of God, or an emissary of God, or something else entirely -- we must have faith.

Before we learned about weather, we had faith that God would protect us, and we had faith that we could understand how the sky works, and we were rewarded. Before magicians learned to walk the veils of death, we had faith that there was life after death, and that God would collect good souls to himself, and we were rewarded.

Now we are ignorant of the veil celeste, and have faith that it is the beginnings of heaven. Our knowledge makes our faith more important as well as stronger.

But ever since those worldly popes (some of whom were wise, and some of whom were venal -- and some of whom were both) the church has been divided on the subject. By now we accept all worldly forms of magic as readily as we accept gravity, and have no tolerance for traditionalists who believe they are somehow contrary to the bible.

Church magicians are common and respected, from my humble self, to Richelieu; his magic was occasionally unsavoury, but even in the seventeenth century his enemies objections were to his politics. Cardinals in Rome confer with angels from the veil écolumbine -- who often carry direction from beings in the veil celeste, and then pass on and in their turn return to guide their followers from beyond death.

But the Church did not seek exploration back into the veils. That was left to the philosopher-magicians in France and Germany, one and two hundred years later, who first ventured out to meet departed souls on their own ground. They were mostly Christian, but their thinking also drew heavily from Humanism, and pointing to the Church's slow acceptance of Heliocentrism they boldly predicted similar harmonisation between science and magic.

They laid down ways of thinking that influenced the world for the next four hundred years. They explored death, naming the veils, and forging alliances between the European countries and areas of stability in the veils écolumbine and near morteferrous. And in their time laid down their bodies and walked bravely toward the celeste.

They did not achieve instant harmony with the church, but made great strides of progress bringing magic and the church further together. Some of us follow that proud tradition, even if the resolution is taking longer than we thought. But now, as then, many still regard magicians entering the veils as unnatural.

It is certainly dangerous, and the knowledge can be tempting to abuse, if a magician may learn how to return from death and try to make use of that fact. But if God had wanted us to hide from knowledge to be on the safe side he would not have given us eyes and brains and enjoined us to use them, he would have chosen chimpanzees or peacocks as his favoured children. Paul's eyes fell open, not closed, at the sight of Christ, it is in ignorance we are in darkness.

We should fight against evil with good, not with ignorance, and we should fight against ignorance with knowledge, not fight against knowledge with evil. I call on my church to fully embrace the veils écolumbine and celeste it holds so dear to its heart.

This was written a year ago, before beings moving back from the veil morteferrous impinged directly on David's life, when the Church turned again to him for help. When souls from the veil morteferrous began to learn enough of this world to enter it as ghosts and even vampires, church magicians quickly admitted the only way to fight back was to learn enough about the veils to enter them in turn.

Father David made no mention of this, but he had not entered the veils which he talked of for some time, partly out of deference to his church, but partly from caution. It is widely speculated that he sensed the changes coming; they had been building for two hundred years, after all.

---

[1] Of course, just as much tension is invested in similar questions about the third leg of the triangle, between science and magic. If I cause it to rain, is that my power, or provided to me out of the veil écolumbine? Is it the same power which makes it rain by itself?

Comments

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

I can see I need to add this to my Undead Jack file for reading as soon as I have time :)

P.S. Icon. Zombie. Will make.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Aw, *hugs* thank you :)

People have started offering to make you zombie icons now... (I would, but don't have time to start getting into making icons...) Perhaps a pathetic appeal on lj would produce results? :) *hugs*