Magic: Don\u2019t Believe, Do<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The primacy of belief is a modern, Western, Protestant concept. As Pagans, our emphasis is on action. The secret to magic isn\u2019t believing, it\u2019s doing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/04\/magic-dont-believe-do.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Magic: Don\u2019t Believe, Do\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The primacy of belief is a modern, Western, Protestant concept. As Pagans, our emphasis is on action. 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{"id":884,"date":"2013-04-10T17:45:37","date_gmt":"2013-04-10T23:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=884"},"modified":"2013-04-10T17:45:37","modified_gmt":"2013-04-10T23:45:37","slug":"magic-dont-believe-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2013\/04\/magic-dont-believe-do.html","title":{"rendered":"Magic: Don\u2019t Believe, Do"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>When asked \u201cwhat is magic?\u201d I generally respond with a three-part answer: part psychological programming, part manipulation of unseen forces, and part intercessory prayer. Last week Yvonne Aburrow had a very good post on this <\/a>on the Sermons on the Mound blog. She touched on the psychological and energy manipulation aspects of magic, and she also raised an important point: \u201cthe more people try to use science to justify their belief in faeries and energies and the like, the more ridiculous it sounds.\u201d I\u2019ve written on this before \u2013 bad science makes bad religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This post isn\u2019t so much about the \u201cwhat\u201d of magic as the \u201chow\u201d \u2013 how do we go about working it. And it springs from one of those picture+quote posts on Facebook. It said<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you would work magic, you must first believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

If you would work magic, you must first DO.<\/p>\n

As Thorn Coyle presented in her recent book Make Magic of Your Life<\/em><\/a> and as originally articulated by 19th century ceremonial magician Eliphas Levi, there are four steps to magic: to know, to will, to dare, and to keep silence. Belief is not on this list.<\/p>\n

The primacy of belief is a modern, Western, Protestant concept originating with Martin Luther\u2019s doctrine of sola fide<\/em> \u2013 \u201cby faith alone.\u201d It has no roots with our pagan ancestors who emphasized virtues and doing what was right regardless of your fate. Interestingly, I have liberal Christian friends who say faith is not about affirming a set of supernatural propositions but rather the process of faithfully living how their religious tradition teaches them to live.<\/p>\n

Belief is not irrelevant<\/a>. We form beliefs from our experiences and we interpret new experiences through the lens of those beliefs. As Yvonne pointed out, if you don\u2019t believe magic exists, you\u2019ll always assume the results of magic came from non-magical sources. \u201cMagical\u201d doesn\u2019t necessarily mean \u201csupernatural\u201d \u2013 but in the end, does it really matter?<\/p>\n

Successful magic doesn\u2019t involve believing the right things, it involves doing the right things. You can believe in wingardium leviosa<\/em> with all your heart and you still won\u2019t be able to levitate heavier than air objects. But if you know what you truly desire, if you exercise your will, if you dare to take risks, and if you allow time and space for the magic to work, you will see results.<\/p>\n

This really is good news. It\u2019s hard to make yourself try to believe something you really don\u2019t believe. No matter how much I tried, no matter how much I thought my soul depended on it, I couldn\u2019t believe in the God of Christian Fundamentalism. As a Pagan, I don\u2019t have to believe. I just have to act. I remember how skeptical I was when I first started practicing. But I did the right things and the results came.<\/p>\n

Most unsuccessful magic does not fail from a lack of belief. It fails from a lack of effort. Magic is hard work \u2013 it is far easier and far more effective to use mundane action to obtain mundane things. But for those goals that are not mundane or where mundane effort is not enough, magic is a useful tool.<\/p>\n

If you would work magic, you must first do.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"