Book burnings are in the news again, thanks to that pastor down in Florida who went and advertised his intent to light up a few Korans. To be clear, the man has a constitutional right to do this (provided the flames are well contained), but I agree with those who say it’s unwise. Like building a Mosque at the edge of Ground Zero in New York. Funny that. As much as I respect Patreus, he has no business telling civilians how to exercise their rights– as Hillbuzz notes:
He claims he’s calling for the church not to burn those Korans because he believes it will lead to more deaths of US soldiers, because Muslims can’t control their emotions and something a church does in Florida will enrage these people so much thousands of miles away that they will kill more US troops.
If that’s the case, then what was the reason for them killing troops yesterday?
Or last week?
What’s endangering our Troops are the utterly insane and ridiculous ROE that they have to follow. Not really civilians being stupid at home.
Some think it’s unwise because it’s too provocative,or insensitive, or “we’re better than that.” Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes, I think we might “be better than that” into utter ruins. But that’s neither here nor there. My unease comes from my background in the occulter side of life.
Book burnings of this sort are much like burning Guy Fawkes, George W Bush, or Osama Bin Ladin in effigy. It’s (usually, to most people) a mostly symbolic thing, a way of ritually murdering someone without actually, you know, murdering them. What it really is, intended or not, is the oldest sort of magic in the history of our species — Sympathetic Magic. Many scholars think that the cave paintings by our earliest ancestors functioned as sympathetic magic for hunting purposes.Later in history, when sacrifices of humans was deemed no longer kosher (usually due to the introduction of Christianity), the Old Ways started sacrificing “effigies” to take the place of what was once humans. In time, effigies were anything representative of the thing to be destroyed, which later lead to book burnings.
In this sense, burning a book is “destroying the thought” behind the book, the assumed mental poison held therein. Sometimes people burn Harry Potter when they should be burning Crowley, but that’s because muggles really can’t tell the difference between the too, which is a bit distressing. Anyway, burning the book is an act of attacking with intent to destroy all that is represented by that book. Whether it’s The Goblet of Fire or the Liber al vel Legis or the Koran, burning a book is done with the intent to weaken, if not destroy, the thought behind the book.
It can have positive effect– if one is burning one’s own books, with the intent of breaking free of something in the past (a torrid love affair with Progressivism, for instance), the act of burning the representative books can be liberating. All one needs is the book(s) in question, a grill, some lighter fluid and a match or two. See ya later, Wilson! Ta-ta Ayers! Burn in a hot, fiery hell, Soros!
They key then, when considering Book Burning from an occult point of view, is: What does this book symbolize to everyone taking part in this ritual? Does the book symbolize Ahmadinejad, the twisted Royal House of Saud, the thuggish Taliban or Murderous Hamas? Or does it simply symbolize all of Islam?
What is the focus of this ritual? The pastor says he wants to send a message. Yeah? Okay– what message? That we can burn things too? That we know and understand the origins of their book and will have no part of it?
That the media got wind of this at all tells me there’s a horrible lack of focus here, which can only come back in bad, bad ways. First off, a Christian Pastor has no business leading any member of his congregation into doing such a thing. While I maintain that it is possible for a Christian to be both Christian and Mage, it is rare for a reason. Any shepherd who deliberately brings any part of his assigned flock into these doings needs to know he is leading them in dangerous directions. If even one person doesn’t know exactly what they’re doing, these things can blow up in their face. If no one involved knows exactly what’s going on, from all angles, it definitely will blow up in their faces. How can it blow up?
Donald Michael Kraig, in his text Modern Magick, describes three different “types” of magick: White, Grey, and Black. White Magick is concerned solely with getting closer to the Divine, having little to no effect on the physical world. Grey Magick is anything done, intentionally or not, that causes physical or non-physical good for oneself or another. Black Magick is any magick done, intentionally or not, that causes (physical or non-physical) harm to oneself or another. (This is in Lesson One of the book, page 11 in my edition. I kinda shortened it a bit . . . )
Kraig then gives and example: Say you do a ritual to gain a thousand dollars. (I’ll even add, let’s say it’s for a “good cause”– paying your bills or helping out a worthy charity). After your ritual your uncle dies in a car crash and leaves you a thousand dollars in his will. Yes, the money you got went to help the homeless, but it was done with Black Magick– you directly or indirectly killed someone, even if that was never your intent. As they say, the Road to Hell is paved with good intentions. . . many magicians learn to think like lawyers simply to avoid such trouble.
Going back to Florida. . . if this guy and his people don’t know what they’re doing, if their focus isn’t sufficiently refined, there is almost no way they will be able to avoid harming innocents. Even if their intent is to scare away those bastards that would enslave or murder us all, the cast is too broad, especially now that the media is involved (A very, very good argument for strict secrecy for these sorts of things). Without the focus, without knowing the exact message to be sent, and the exact recipients, they might as well pour kerosene on every Muslim in the name of every American Christian. I don’t think that’ll work out well. Better if this were a small group, if this were secret, and best if they had sufficient training to maintain the proper focus.
But I’ll go back to the point, too, that as this sort of thing is, by very nature, a ritual of occult nature, no pastor should be involving his people in this sort of thing. Not if he’s Christian. I know he likely doesn’t even realize how very close to Old School Witchcraft he’s skirting (doubtless he’d be utterly scandalized!), but ignorance won’t save him. His heart and instinct have run away and left his reason panting behind.
What a pastor should do, if he wants to lead proper spiritual warfare, is lead his congregation in praying for the poor heathens consigned to the abomination called “Islam”. Pray for their conversion, for God’s Mercy, for God’s Grace to Illuminate them. . . I do this with the House of Saud on a regular basis. Offering them up to God can never go wrong. Granted, He takes His Own Sweet Time!, but Patience, luv, is a Virtue. If you claim to have Faith, then show it. Pray for your enemy– do not risk the Karmic Backlash of Black Magick. At least, don’t if you’re a Christian. If you’re a heathen, then do as you will. . .
American Slytherin 