Magic 1, Requirement 9

Discuss the relative place and methodologies of magic within your personal religious/spiritual practice. (minimum 100 words)

In my religious conception of the world, magic is unimportant, generally speaking, to my personal religious practices. I am far more concerned with modes of worship.

Magic, in a general sense, is used in two ways: primarily, I use magic to help me attain excellence in personal and public ritual and worship; secondarily, I use magic to satisfy a curiosity.

This secondary use is, generally, pursued outside my personal religious experience. I'm not alone in this: magicians are generally curious people. My work with "magic" is nearly all experimental and not often done in a religious context. I suppose most of that has to do with the fact that I dabble so widely in it that I cannot find any way to justify my practice to my religious self, and so I separate it out, much as the Indo-Europeans generally did. The priestly function and the magical function do not correlate on a high level with me.

But to some extent they do correlate. I do work magic on a devotional level, though it is always in the context of seeking a closer relationship with the Gods. I do not do magic for personal gain if it is religious, nor do I generally even think about such things. What is important to me is that connection with the deities, and if I cannot get it through the magic I'm doing, I am unlikely to do that magic.

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