It seems that the blog-go-round has got a case of Jesus fever, which is cool.
Gordon wrote an excellent piece about his own emerging interest in Christianity that mentioned not only the fact that it can be terrifying, but that the reason for at least part of that terror is the element of surrender in Christianity. As Gordon notes in the post: "A magical worldview leans more toward taking charge and doing things yourself".
This is especially true of modern magic. In fact, the focus on the self has been the overall theme of most of the Magical, New Age, Self-help, and Spiritual movements of the last 150 years. Even when people get involved in traditional eastern religions like Buddhism, they often misinterpret it as being all about self-discovery and self-actualization. We ask ourselves questions like: What do
I want to be? What are
my goals? What should
I do with my life?
In the orgy of self focus it is easy to loose sight of anything larger than our own ego. I mean, there is no self in Buddhism for crying out loud! It totally throws people for a loop when I tell them that Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche wrote "There is NO introspection in Buddhist meditation". Similarly Christianity is not meant to be largely focused on the self, but on God.
The issue is a matter of where we discover our true will or Thelema. In the Lords Prayer, we hear "Genetho Tou Thelema Sou", or "Thy Will Be Done". Theistically minded magicians have, right up unto the present, ended rituals prayers and spells with a statement along the lines of "
as long as it does not conflict with your will o lord." This clearly seems like submission to an external authority.
Though this type of submission seems like groveling, it really is not. It is simply an acknowledgement that most of what you say think and do is confused and based on mechanistic reactions, attachments, and aversions that are not healthy. If you acknowledge that there is something underneath all this, than you begin to discover Thelema. Crowleyites think of it in terms of personal true will that is in harmony with the will of the universe itself, and Christians think of it in terms of Gods will. Either way it simply makes sense to say "
this is what I want, but what the will of the universe is, is more important, so if it is counter to that, than never mind". After all, your own true innermost will, will not run counter to the universal flow. When I do work with the Sangreal Sodality we still do something like this and I do not feel like I am groveling at all.
When I think in terms of surrender to Christ, I do not see me as a separate being submitting to an external master. I think in terms of surrendering the false veneer of the ego to the true will of God that is inseparable from me.. The kingdom of God is within you, and you are within the kingdom of God.
