St Anthony and unconscious Christian Magician?
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So, I was listening to my local Catholic radio broadcast yesterday, just to gain some insight into their mentality. Interesting and repulsive at the same time. The Hero's of the Faith segment came on and I listened to the story of St. Anthony. They used voice actors, the production quality was pretty good and i found it entertaining, except for the stories left me with some questions.
So, at one point St. Anthony is holed up in some castle and the Lord of the spanish castle comes to his room because he sees light emanating from St. Anthony's room. He opens the door and Tony is meditating while a child of light stands next to him with his hand on his head. The Lord falls to his knees and says, "Surely this man must be a saint." The child disappears and Tony says, "You saw the Christ child and he left me with a message for you. He says that if you and your family confess that Christ is lord and savior, your family will be blessed with riches and happiness. But, if your family falls away from the faith you will face destruction and you will lose all the things in your life." Then the radio show announcer has a few things to say then tells people in perfect radio show pitch, "So remember, whenever you lose something or something needs to be found, just say 'Tony Tony come around, somethings lost and must be found. So pray to St. Anthony today and he will intercede for you from heaven!'
So, couple things.
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What kind of being was St. Anthony conjuring if we were to categorize it in cabalistic terms? Not amused it left the lord with a warning he follow christ...or else. That type of threatening is bullshit.
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It seems a lot of these christian saints are tapping into the mindset of a magician but from a type of worldview that veils them from this reality; from recognizing their role in projecting these internal forces externally. Even suggested catholics can conjure this power through a prayer (tony tony come around...) is amusing but I'm sure it can work given some of the fundamentals of reality. They're just approaching it from a different mindset.
Their were some other funny stories like when the pagans of italy ignored his preaching at the beach so he started preaching to fish and all the fish came to the surface to hear his sermon and all the pagans were like "Holy shit the fish are listening, maybe we should too!"
You can check them out here: catholicheroesofthefaith.com/v2
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The methods of Abramelin and of Molinos are not drastically different. In fact, they're mostly the same.
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My grandmother was a big devotee of Tony so I found it odd that I'd never heard these two anecdotes before. After doing a bit of link-following on the internets, two interesting points float to the surface:
1 - In the "Christ child" story, Tony never made it to Spain. Legend says that this happened outside of Padua where he was living at the time. Also, there was no bargain with the guy to convert his family in exchange for riches and happiness. Tony simply swore him to secrecy until after his death.
It seems to me that the bargain story is very much the work of the conversion salesmen (both medieval and radio-broadcast varieties) trying to convince the simple that believing in Jesus will improve one's material life. Intriguing to me is how the original version tells more realistically how an adept in conversation with his Angel might handle an eavesdropper. The Angel has nothing to offer to another, but the individual wishes to keep it a personal secret until after his death.
2 - Apparently Tony died young of ergot poisoning. I am by no means a neuro-chemist, but this does suggest that he might have been experiencing some pseudo-LSD hallucinogenic effects for some portion of his life. In the less adept, ergot poisoning was often labeled as witchcraft. In an enlightened Franciscan monk... sainthood.
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Sorry badly phrased. The symptoms of hallucination and convulsions in the less adept were seen as the result of witchcraft. In an enlightened monk, they were seen as a sign of sainthood.
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@Mercurius said
"1. What kind of being was St. Anthony conjuring if we were to categorize it in cabalistic terms? Not amused it left the lord with a warning he follow christ...or else. That type of threatening is bullshit"
While they are often portrayed and put forth as a threat by the over eager, I view it as a simple statement of fact.
Follow your heart, have faith in the Christ at the center of your being and riches and happiness shall abound.
@Mercurius said
"2. It seems a lot of these christian saints are tapping into the mindset of a magician but from a type of worldview that veils them from this reality; from recognizing their role in projecting these internal forces externally. Even suggested catholics can conjure this power through a prayer (tony tony come around...) is amusing but I'm sure it can work given some of the fundamentals of reality. They're just approaching it from a different mindset."
There are many saintly figures who were used as a means of tying local beliefs or figures to the Catholic Church.
Christianity and Catholicism is very much about faith, unquestioning, unwavering belief in the Christ-Center.
We as Magicians should know well the power of belief.