Spirituality, Magic & Paganism

WHERE TO BEGIN?

To begin at the beginning . . . . with some simplistic (but, I hope, helpful) definitions:

Truth: Start with a tough one, eh? Is there a fundamental underlying reality to everything, immuteable, timeless and unchanging? Or is "Truth" a relative or subjective principle? Perhaps, in an Einsteinian way, the truth can only be perceived by indirct observation (like we only see things by viewing reflected light from them) and therefore it is fundamentally impossible to perceive the truth directly or be sure that the act of perceiving it is not distorting it . . . ?

Belief: A supposition about the truth or an aspect of it. No more, no less. A belief does not need to be either provable or unprovable, demonstrable or undemonstrable.

Faith: A belief that, at a given moment, is either (or both) objectively unprovable or undemonstrable.

Spirituality: What we choose to do in a non-physical way about our spiritual beliefs and spiritual faith

Religion: A defined set of practices designed to enable one to follow a particular spiritual path to a further understanding of one or more spiritual beliefs/faiths (ie. what we choose to do in a physical way about our spiritual beliefs/faiths)

caveat: scientifically, physical and non-physical reality is a blurred line when dealing with either very small or very fast things

Animism: The belief (faith) that ALL things are a "living" part of a natural universe and that all have a non-physical aspect to their nature

Paganism: An unbrella term for a wide variety of extended animistic beliefs, ideas, spiritual paths, religions and practices, often with roots in antiquity and typically (but not exclusively) used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions. "Modern Paganism" (or "Neo-Paganism") often refers to the survival, revival or reconstruction of antiquated traditions

Magic: "The art of causing changes in consciousness in conformity with will" (This requires some further thought about what is "will" and what is "consciousness" . . )

Witchcraft: One or more of the following:
1. A pagan religion - being the survival and/or revivial or northern european, indiginous, pre-christian spiritual beliefs and religious practices
2. The practice of magic (as defined above)
3. The practice of magic (as defined above) performed in conformity with a will other than God's
4. The practice of magic (as defined above) for harmful purposes

(1. and 2. above are generally the views of those who call themselves witches and there is a great deal of crossover, most believing that witchcraft is a combination in differing proportions, whereas 3. and 4. are generally the views of non-practitioners of witchcraft, 3. being what I call the "Church View" and 4. the "Lay View" - though the true Lay View of Witchcraft is now beginning (at last!) to encompass 1. & 2.)

Magic (as defined above) is a non-physical manipulation of reality (whatever "reality" is!) and has no inherant morality, any morality comes the intent behind the magical act - one can work magic to help or to harm, the magical act of and in itself is ambivalent to the intent.

Virtually ALL religions utilise magic as a technique - eg Transubstantiation in Catholicism IS an act of magic but ALL "church magic" is exclusively performed in conformity with God's will - or at least that particular religion's perception of God's will and thats how many churches officialy describes witchcraft - an act of magic performed in conformity with a will other than God's ... also worth noting that "Church Magic" is usually performed only by Priests who intercede with Deity on behalf of the congregation