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Internet Book of Shadows, (Various Authors), [1999], at sacred-texts.com
Magick Christians
By: Alfgar Maharg
Greetings from BaphoNet. Apparently, I fall into the
"Non-Traditional Christian" box. I shall now proceed to confuse
everybody by refusing to fit into any pigeonhole.
I have been for some ten years a member of the New Church
("Swedenborgian").
The 18th century revelations found in the voluminous writings of
Emmanuel Swedenborg, renowned scientist, theologiand and visionary,
overwhelmed by MAKING SENSE. However, we have yet a considerable way
to go in conveying the news to the public at large. On announcing that
one is a Swedenborgian, approximately 62% of the population respond
with "What church is that?" 29% ask "Is that the Swedish Church?" The
rest simply stand there with mouths open.
When asked what he was teaching, Swedenborg replied "Two things:
that God is one, and that faith is inseparable from charity."
Point 1 means that the Lord Jesus Christis the SAME God who made
Heaven and Earth and no nonsense about it. Worship is always addressed
to Christ, not to any "trinity".
Point 2 represents arepudiation of salvation "by faithalone". We
hold most emphatically the truth of James: "Faith without works is
dead".
Naturally, things could not be left so simple. I look forward to
discussing the immoderately abstruse issues involved.
Just in case you are not confused enough already, I found myself
drawn into the pursuit of the so-called "high" occult. This led
directly to the formation of the Third Order of St. Michael, which
coalesced from the set of esoteric Christians collected around
Katheriine Kurtz, and who found the "Deryni Christian" archetype a
valid spiritual expression. The principal result so far has been
liturgical expression pursued wherever enough of us can be found.
Locally I amaffiliated with atemple of the SangrealSodality, a
non-sectarian, decentralized, and frighteningly eclectic organization
following the broad tradition of the Golden Dawnand its successors,
and drawing inspiration and initation from the work of William G.
Gray.
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