laalbieglna wrote:

Likes2Read wrote:I was listening to a Very Catholic radio program, out of curiosity to hear its new host, and when SHE mentioned putting blessed salt at windows and doors, my jaw hit the floor. And when the priest who was her guest was fine with it, *I* practically hit the floor.

Talk about the last setting in the universe where I ever expected to hear references to folk magick! :lol: On the other hand, now I know there are priests in this time zone who are fine with blessing salt, so that’s nice. I wonder what I have to do to track one down...

This is a thing! I mean Catholic priests being all magickal is totally a thing... I was at a retreat for reasons that was run by Catholics after 2 decades of Catholicism being anathema to me ... and the priest was blessing us all with oil he made from herbs in his garden, and people -- Christian people -- were openly talking about God-channeling and speaking to their deity directly and doing heavy shadow work ritual and astral journeys via guided meditations. I outright said to him that "I thought that was something only my HooDoo and witchy friends do, and I owe you an apology". He was fine with all of that. l wouldn't recommend trotting down to any ol' church and whipping out the witchcraft or anything, but there are some very witchy parishioners and men of the cloth out there, and I personally find that delightful.

I googled “blessed salt”, and it appears to be VERY MUCH a Church-approved thing. Example: https://www.catholicsacramentals.org/blessed-salt/

I am legitimately astonished. And pleased. Time to go get some salt blessed.

It doesn’t surprise me that Catholics, and the denominations that are most similar to Catholics, would be open to magick. Look at the vestments, incense, candles, bells, rituals performed daily and on Sundays, just for starters. If that process, with those tools, doesn’t spring from the same root as magick ritual, what does?

Maybe that’s why the more austere sects stripped out all that ceremony. Maybe they wanted to disconnect from those roots. So their churches are spare and plain, compared to the cathedrals of old, and their ritual is far removed from the Catholic Liturgy.

laalbieglna wrote:This is a thing! I mean Catholic priests being all magickal is totally a thing... I was at a retreat for reasons that was run by Catholics after 2 decades of Catholicism being anathema to me ... and the priest was blessing us all with oil he made from herbs in his garden, and people -- Christian people -- were openly talking about God-channeling and speaking to their deity directly and doing heavy shadow work ritual and astral journeys via guided meditations. I outright said to him that "I thought that was something only my HooDoo and witchy friends do, and I owe you an apology". He was fine with all of that. l wouldn't recommend trotting down to any ol' church and whipping out the witchcraft or anything, but there are some very witchy parishioners and men of the cloth out there, and I personally find that delightful.

Blasphemy!....

LOL but seriously...

That is absolutely fascinating. Southern Baptists would have not been happy with that. Period. At least, at the church I attended 20 years ago. Admittedly, things could be less conservative these days.

Okay, this is a complete derail, so be warned:

On the discussion of Catholicism, I actually was watching a "documentary" about Vampires and blood sacrifice in which a Christian pastor of another faith (I forget which denomination) essentially said, and I'm paraphrasing: 1) Blood sacrifice is gather increased magical power and is considered black magic associated with evil, 2) Catholicism establishes the belief that the rites performed during sacrament are actually physically changing the wine into Christ's blood and the bread into his flesh, and 3) Therefore they are not being Christian because they are practicing blood sacrifice.

I was rather disappointed when I realized after 20 minutes that this program was published from a religious source seeking to ask sinners of blood sacrifice to come to the fold and be forgiven, rather than being an actual documentary about vampires (which was implied in its title). I watched the rest anyways just because there was a witch guy who claimed to be made into a vampire by a demon and was giving testimony about his experience. It was fascinating for all kinds of reasons, and not because I found any of it "factual". LOL

Now that derail out there, carry on with the topic... such as it is...

Regholdain wrote:Okay, this is a complete derail, so be warned:

On the discussion of Catholicism, I actually was watching a "documentary" about Vampires and blood sacrifice in which a Christian pastor of another faith (I forget which denomination) essentially said, and I'm paraphrasing: 1) Blood sacrifice is gather increased magical power and is considered black magic associated with evil, 2) Catholicism establishes the belief that the rites performed during sacrament are actually physically changing the wine into Christ's blood and the bread into his flesh, and 3) Therefore they are not being Christian because they are practicing blood sacrifice.

I was rather disappointed when I realized after 20 minutes that this program was published from a religious source seeking to ask sinners of blood sacrifice to come to the fold and be forgiven, rather than being an actual documentary about vampires (which was implied in its title). I watched the rest anyways just because there was a witch guy who claimed to be made into a vampire by a demon and was giving testimony about his experience. It was fascinating for all kinds of reasons, and not because I found any of it "factual". LOL

OH WOW just ... *headdesk headdesk headdesk* !!!!!!

Likes2Read wrote:

laalbieglna wrote: I googled “blessed salt”, and it appears to be VERY MUCH a Church-approved thing. Example: https://www.catholicsacramentals.org/blessed-salt/

I am legitimately astonished. And pleased. Time to go get some salt blessed.

It doesn’t surprise me that Catholics, and the denominations that are most similar to Catholics, would be open to magick. Look at the vestments, incense, candles, bells, rituals performed daily and on Sundays, just for starters. If that process, with those tools, doesn’t spring from the same root as magick ritual, what does?

Maybe that’s why the more austere sects stripped out all that ceremony. Maybe they wanted to disconnect from those roots. So their churches are spare and plain, compared to the cathedrals of old, and their ritual is far removed from the Catholic Liturgy.

Oh, and there's St Blaise and his candles, Our Lady of the Thunder Candles, St Joseph buried upside down in the yard ... and the Orthodox have Matzlenitza. Then there's the really excellent pagan rabbit holes, too, like Sheila na Gig on Celtic churches and of course St Nicholaus and Krampus. Definitely magick all around. I love it.

Alys-RaccoonReadings wrote:I like how the pentacostals and charismatic movement have brought a whiff of mystery and energetic current back. But, yeah, the vast majority of my exposure is much closer to the pilgrims than is comfy now. As in, I went to a private school where we were once assigned a paper on whether Catholics were Christians because we finally got a Catholic student in the late nineties, lol.

Absolutely on the Pentecostals! I go to a Pentecostal church now and bar none, if you strip out the dogma and just look at the actual process of what they're doing, it is completely indistinguishable from the pagan ritual circles I participate in.

Alys-RaccoonReadings wrote:As in, I went to a private school where we were once assigned a paper on whether Catholics were Christians because we finally got a Catholic student in the late nineties, lol.

Oh man and this is one of the grossest things I've ever heard! I once took a test in 9th grade Earth Science that had as a true or false question "abortion is murder."

However any one person might answer that question, it does not have any place on an Earth Science test.

laalbieglna wrote:

Alys-RaccoonReadings wrote:As in, I went to a private school where we were once assigned a paper on whether Catholics were Christians because we finally got a Catholic student in the late nineties, lol.

Oh man and this is one of the grossest things I've ever heard! I once took a test in 9th grade Earth Science that had as a true or false question "abortion is murder."

However any one person might answer that question, it does not have any place on an Earth Science test.

I can see people throwing a fuss over a question like that being asked in school.

laalbieglna wrote:

Alys-RaccoonReadings wrote:As in, I went to a private school where we were once assigned a paper on whether Catholics were Christians because we finally got a Catholic student in the late nineties, lol.

Oh man and this is one of the grossest things I've ever heard! I once took a test in 9th grade Earth Science that had as a true or false question "abortion is murder."

However any one person might answer that question, it does not have any place on an Earth Science test.

Yeah, that’s neither Earth nor Science.