Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: I got the feed FINALLY !
From: adams@mari.acc-admin.stolaf.edu (Brynach ap Adda)
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 02:11:36 GMT
Organization: St. Olaf College; Northfield, MN

In article <ZaL8TB1w165w@brewich.hou.tx.us> donal@brewich.hou.tx.us (Donal) writes:
>kuritzky@purina.berkeley.edu (Eric Kuritzky) writes:
>
>> In article <D3imTB1w164w@gatecom.UUCP> 
>>  falcore@gatecom.UUCP (Carolyn C. Doss L.V.T.) writes:
>> >Blessings ,
>> >        I finally got the news feed so I know that I can post my question 
>> >now........My question is ...... Has anyone had a very ill friend who is 
>> >Christian that doesn't know you are Wiccan, that you want to do some majic 
>> >for ......I would like to do a healing right for my friend but am unable to 
>> >tell her anything about it .......I desperately need a suggestion .         
>>       (stuff deleted)
>>    Please do not, under any circumstances, force magic on anyone without
>> their knowledge and consent.  I have a friend who was seriously harmed by
>> someone who was trying to "help" hir this way.
>
>Some persons have mistakenly gotten the impression that doing no harm 
>somehow means not acting without consent. If you saw someone about to 
>be run over by a car they did not see coming and you had the ability 
>to remove them from harms way but not the time to ask them if it was 
>ok first, would you let them be run over? This simple question 
>demonstrates room for action. 

Unfortunately, I have seen much the same scenario used by evangelical
Christians to justify hard-sell proselytizing of those of other
religions. Not that I'm suggesting there's much parallel between a
fundy's praying "for" me and anything a modern pagan would do for
a sick friend.

.If you feel you must ask your friends 
>permission, ask if you may pray for her. There is very little real 
>difference between spells and prayers,right? So just do it, if you 
>know it is right and if your only motive is love, it cannot be wrong.

Again, that's troublesome language. Most evangelicals, too, "know"
they are "right" and feel they are only acting through "love", though
the uninformed and mostly impersonal sentiment they call "love" is
in my opinion a corruption of the term. 

In my opinion, it's okay to send healing energy with or without 
permission, but you had better do a bit of soul-searching first.
If a friend of mine has pneumonia, I'd have no problem sending a
bit of strength along to help them through it. What one really 
needs to beware is sending an agenda, conscious or unconscious,
along with the magic. Thus I won't pray for my annoying friends
to get over their personality defects, or my drunk friends to stop
drinking, unless I am invited to help with the solution. I don't
want to force my agenda for "recovery" on another person; that's
violence, which I don't like to be a part of.

I ought to note that I have undertaken manipulative magic, in
particular against corporate entities that demonstrate disregard
for our rivers, wildlife and Native communities. However, like
Malcolm X, I wouldn't call that violence; I'd call it intelligence. 

>Donal, SysAdmin of The Brewers' Witch BBS -- +1 713 272 7350

Brynach Brawdfran ap Adda       (Sam Adams)   adams@mari.acc-admin.stolaf.edu

"I am the Wheel, I am the Turning..."    - Brian Eno and John Cale
Newsgroups: alt.pagan