How many practice magic seperate from their religious beliefs

The Cauldron's server is expensive and requires monthly payments. Please become a Bronze, Silver or Gold Donor if you can. Donations are needed every month. Without member support, we can't afford the server.

Or donate directly via Paypal

This message board is The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's SMF Archive Board. It is closed to new memberships and to posting, but there are over 250,000 messages here that you can still search and read -- many full of interesting and useful information. (This board was open from February 2007 through June 2011).

Our new vBulletin discussion board is located at http://www.ecauldron.com/forum/ -- if you would like to participate in discussions like those you see here, please visit our new vBulletin message board, register an account and join in our discussions. We hope you will find the information in this message archive useful and will consider joining us on our new board.

[jafa]

My question is how many of us practice magic as a seperate thing from religious beliefs.  Although I may raise energy for a shielding, binding or healing according to my religious traditions, I don't practice magic within it's context.  I do however practice herbalism outside of my religion.  I consider it just an offsoot of being the "head" woman in my family (since my mother passed) to be the one doing so.  I have nothing against magic and have done spells in the past, and proably will again, but I don't see them as pertaining to any one religion.
Anyone else practice magic for it's own sake?
Jafa

[dragonfly_high]

My question is how many of us practice magic as a seperate thing from religious beliefs.  Although I may raise energy for a shielding, binding or healing according to my religious traditions, I don't practice magic within it's context.  I do however practice herbalism outside of my religion.  I consider it just an offsoot of being the "head" woman in my family (since my mother passed) to be the one doing so.  I have nothing against magic and have done spells in the past, and proably will again, but I don't see them as pertaining to any one religion.
Anyone else practice magic for it's own sake?
Jafa

I do. It's not part of ADF's rituals, other then the reading at the end of the ritual, so I don't do it.  Even in my personal practices I keep my magic practices separate.  Outside of religion I practice herbalism, aromatherapy (I'm learning how to incorporate it into my spells) and candle magic.  I am interested in adding crystals/stones to my work at sometime, lol, my problem is trying to remember which stone is which.  At the moment that is the extant of what I do.

[Star]

Anyone else practice magic for it's own sake?

I don't do much magic anymore at all, other than the occasional ground/center/shield, but when I do it's completely separate from my religion.

[alah01]

Anyone else practice magic for it's own sake?
Jafa

 I am into herbalism , aromatheropy and gemstone work aswell as candle magic. For myself it may vary time to time of whether or not I make it part of the relion end of things. Somtimes I do and Other times I dont. I would say for the most part I make it seperate.

[violentsound]

My question is how many of us practice magic as a seperate thing from religious beliefs.  Although I may raise energy for a shielding, binding or healing according to my religious traditions, I don't practice magic within it's context.  I do however practice herbalism outside of my religion.  I consider it just an offsoot of being the "head" woman in my family (since my mother passed) to be the one doing so.  I have nothing against magic and have done spells in the past, and proably will again, but I don't see them as pertaining to any one religion.
Anyone else practice magic for it's own sake?
Jafa

I do. I enjoy magic. There's overlap between my religious practices and magical practice sometimes in that I might ask a deity for a little extra oomph with a working, but overall I tend to think of religion and magic as things that can be practiced seperately.

[Carnelian]

My question is how many of us practice magic as a seperate thing from religious beliefs

I don't think I do anything that can be classified as "magic", but I agree that it doesn't have to be a religious practice. I believe that the gods are present in all aspects of life, but things like herbalism, meditation, cooking, and practicing magic don't need to involve religious ritual.

[folksymama]

Anyone else practice magic for it's own sake?
Jafa

Well, I consider myself mostly kitchen witchy, so I do a lot of herbalism, cooking spells, and things like that.  I also like candle magic and simple protection or banishing spells.  Most of that is not what I'd consider religious, though.  As a matter of fact, a lot of my "spells" I learned from my devout Catholic grandmother.  My religious practice involves my saying prayers, meditating and asking for guidance from my deity, and ritual.  There is some magic involved in my ritual, but it's not the only time I use magic.

[Balakirev]

My question is how many of us practice magic as a seperate thing from religious beliefs.  Although I may raise energy for a shielding, binding or healing according to my religious traditions, I don't practice magic within it's context.  I do however practice herbalism outside of my religion.  I consider it just an offsoot of being the "head" woman in my family (since my mother passed) to be the one doing so.  I have nothing against magic and have done spells in the past, and proably will again, but I don't see them as pertaining to any one religion.
Anyone else practice magic for it's own sake?
Jafa

First, I'd need to know what you mean by magic; then I'd need to know what you mean by "for it's own sake."  I'm not trying to be difficult (even if I am succeeding).  It's just that some of the things I've done for more than 40 years--astral traveling, for one--are considered magical, when I think of them as natural.  And I don't do these things for their own sake, but with a purpose in mind, though it isn't a religious one, because I think of witchcraft (into which I was initiated a little over 30 years ago) as a practice.  Not a religion per se.  Though it can, of course, include prayer to and/or worship of deities, or various supernatural beings.

Does that mean I'm an atheist?  But I do believe in gods, a whole lot of 'em.  Prayed to several over time, too, with some good results in terms of strengthening my understanding just a bit.  So am I an agnostic?  But I don't doubt there are gods.  Am I a worshippper?  On and off, but I wouldn't say I have a religion according to the usual definition of the word.  My use of magic consequently has nothing to do with worship or Craft practice, unless I mean it to.  At other times, it's simply me, being me.

[Perzephone]

My question is how many of us practice magic as a seperate thing from religious beliefs. 

I also don't practice much, if any, magic anymore. When I was a Wiccan, there was magic involved in the rituals. After I stopped being Wiccan & began to consider myself simply Pagan, I still practiced magic, but it wasn't really religious in nature. I didn't invoke deities or anything like that, and I've always been of the mindset that I am channeling the energy used in magic from the earth or the universe around me, or that it came from me, not from my deities.

[jafa]

First, I'd need to know what you mean by magic; then I'd need to know what you mean by "for it's own sake." 

By magic, I mean the use of energy to perform a change according to your will.  "For it's own sake" means as a seperate thing from being part of a religious practice.

  And I don't do these things for their own sake, but with a purpose in mind, though it isn't a religious one, because I think of witchcraft (into which I was initiated a little over 30 years ago) as a practice.  Not a religion per se.... My use of magic consequently has nothing to do with worship or Craft practice, unless I mean it to.  At other times, it's simply me, being me.

I think you took me too literaly there, but you did answer my question. 

 

[Balakirev]

By magic, I mean the use of energy to perform a change according to your will.  "For it's own sake" means as a seperate thing from being part of a religious practice.

I think you took me too literaly there, but you did answer my question. 

I sometimes do take things too literally, so you have my apologies for that.  I've known quite a few witches in the past (not recently, but then, I haven't been in a coven for a good while) who used magic by that definition, to perform changes according to will.  Without any religious reference.  But then, the groups I was involved in either predated or had little to do with the neo-interest in paganism as an consciously determined, agriculturally based worshiping system.  This didn't make us better, just different, I suspect, though there were small gestures towards the major Celtic festivals.

Guess what I'm saying is that by starting from a premise that didn't emphasize magic as part of religion, but religion or religious practice as magic, magic always seemed a much larger set to me, which felt easy to use.

[Satsekhem]

Anyone else practice magic for it's own sake?

I practice in correlation with one another. This mostly stems from my being so new to the faith, but I think it also stems from a strong belief in the kemetic path. They were all about the magics!

[Tags:]

Jump to: Please select a destination: ----------------------------- About The Cauldron ----------------------------- => Rules and Regulations => Cauldron Announcements ===> Volunteers Needed: Site Assistants and Projects => Introductions => Board Questions, Suggestions, and Feedback => Chat and CauldronMUX Support => Test Board ----------------------------- Religion and Philosophy ----------------------------- => Paganism For Beginners => Books and Other Resources => Pagan Religions => Pagan Spirituality => Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology => Worship and Ritual => Holidays and Festivals => History and Religion => Faith in Everyday Life => Philosophy and Metaphysics => Non-Pagan Religions and Interfaith Discussions => Miscellaneous Religious Discussions ----------------------------- Magic and the Occult ----------------------------- => Magic and the Occult for Beginners => Witchcraft, Hoodoo, and Folk Magic => The Western Magical Tradition => Chaos Magic => Lodges and Other Magic Organizations => Miscellaneous Magical Discussions ----------------------------- Special Interest Groups & Special Discussions ----------------------------- => Special Topic Discussions => Chavi Memorial Chronic Illness SIG => General SIGS ===> College Pagans SIG ===> Cooking SIG ===> Divination SIG ===> Home and Garden SIG ===> Pagan Parents SIG ===> Teen Pagans SIG => Religious SIGS ===> Asatru and Heathenry SIG ===> Cauldron Cill ===> FlameKeeping SIG ===> Hazel and Oak: A Celtic Polytheism SIG ===> Neo-Druidry SIG ===> Reformed Kemeticism SIG ===> Ta Hiera Hellenic Polytheism SIG => Book/Media Discussion Boards ===> Academic Book Discussions ===> Pagan Religion Book Discussions ===> Magick Book Discussions ===> Fiction Book Discussions ===> DVD/Video Discussions ----------------------------- Life, the Universe, and Everything Else ----------------------------- => Pagan Announcements => Prayer and Energy Requests => News and Politics ===> Religious News ===> Non-Religious News ===> Political Discussions => Social Discussion Boards ===> Art, Poetry and Writing ===> Books ===> Computers and the Internet ===> Crafts and Hobbies ===> Family Life ===> Gaming ===> Health and Medicine ===> Humor and Quizzes ===> Music, Television, and Film ===> Pets ===> Science and Technology ===> Sports and Recreation