Magick Christians 
                                    By: Alfgar Maharg 

              Greetings   from   BaphoNet.   Apparently,   I   fall   into   the
          "Non-Traditional  Christian"  box.  I  shall now  proceed  to  confuse
          everybody by refusing to fit into any pigeonhole. 

            I have been for some ten years a member of the New Church 
          ("Swedenborgian").  

          The 18th  century  revelations found  in  the voluminous  writings  of
          Emmanuel  Swedenborg, renowned  scientist, theologiand  and visionary,
          overwhelmed by MAKING SENSE.  However, we have yet a  considerable way
          to go in conveying the news to the public at large. On announcing that
          one is a  Swedenborgian, approximately 62%  of the population  respond
          with "What church is that?" 29% ask  "Is that the Swedish Church?" The
          rest simply stand there with mouths open. 

                When asked what he was teaching, Swedenborg replied "Two things:
          that God is one, and that faith is inseparable from charity." 

                Point 1 means that the Lord Jesus Christis the SAME God who made
          Heaven and Earth and no nonsense about it. Worship is always addressed
          to Christ, not to any "trinity". 

                Point 2 represents arepudiation of salvation "by faithalone". We
          hold most emphatically  the truth  of James: "Faith  without works  is
          dead". 

             Naturally, things could not be left so simple. I look forward to 
          discussing the immoderately abstruse issues involved. 

                Just in case you are not confused enough already, I found myself
          drawn  into the  pursuit  of the  so-called  "high" occult.  This  led
          directly to  the formation of  the Third Order  of St.  Michael, which
          coalesced  from  the  set  of  esoteric  Christians  collected  around
          Katheriine Kurtz,  and who  found the  "Deryni Christian"  archetype a
          valid spiritual  expression.  The principal  result  so far  has  been
          liturgical expression pursued wherever enough of us can be found. 

                  Locally I amaffiliated with atemple of the SangrealSodality, a
          non-sectarian, decentralized, and frighteningly  eclectic organization
          following the  broad tradition of  the Golden Dawnand  its successors,
          and  drawing inspiration  and initation  from the  work of  William G.
          Gray. 


                                                                             945