Do You Believe In Magic?

A birthday card I got a few years ago played this song. I loved it then, and I still love it now. Interestingly enough, it sparked one of my random poetic moods (I get hijacked by them about every three months), and this resulted, with a religious and philosophical bent to it:

Do I believe in magic?

Well, I have stood still in silence

And seen the Sun at it rises,

And an eagle as it flies.

I have seen the belt of stars

Glitter on a dark sea before my eyes.

And I have seen a King lifted up,

Bleeding and bright, on the world’s heights.

 

I confess the power of the Word.

I confess the Blood that made me.

 

Do I believe in magic?

Absolutely.

Of course, that was a few years ago, so I'm not surprised, looking back upon this now, that it's a little... scattered. However, most of my poetical hijackings do result in disjointed ramblings upon religious and philosophical subjects, so this is typical.

This would also be a good point to say that it all also depends on how you define 'magic'. I generally avoid the usage of the term in my original fiction (and have correspondingly developed a bewildering array of terminology that I prefer... in English and in my original langague(s)... in order to discuss it intelligently, since I like magic systems that actually WORK in fantasy literature). However, sometimes in English conversations there is no way to avoid it.

I would like to indicate that I always use the word 'sorcery' to denote magic with infernal origins. And, yes, I do believe that can happen. The students in the Latin class I attended one lecture of may have laughed when the teacher made, jokingly or not, the comment that, "Latin is good for many things. Ah... exorcisms are one of them." But I wasn't laughing. Exorcisms may be the subject of horror flicks, but in real life they can be very Serious Business.

It is not against the powers of this world that we strive, but against principalities...

Since I'm in a bit of a nostalgic mood at the moment, here are some more songs that I like:

I prefer videos that contain the lyrics because they load much faster. Also, if I cannot understand what the singer is saying, the words are right there. Yep. Part of the reason I haven't been able to really get into the music the Civil Wars do/did is because I cannot understand what they are saying most of the time. Shame on me and all that, I know. Maybe I should swipe the CD case from my sister and read the lyrics. Maybe I should find YouTube videos that have the lyrics.

However, it's just not the type of music I prefer. I'm ashamed to say it, but I can't change the truth. I really don't have one specific genre of music that I prefer. I tend to handle it on a case-by-case basis instead. Which allows for a very wide and eclectic variety, I can tell you.

That does not mean that I consider the Civil Wars in the realm of 'bad' music, because I most certainly do not hold that opinion. I recognize that there are many types of music I do not personally like that are still good. However, there is music that I do not like that I consider inherently inferior due to its non-music-like qualities (i.e., a good deal of rap, which is more akin to noise rather than actual music).

A good deal of modern church music could be thrown into that category as well. Grr. :[ I had to play one this weekend - a hymn, mind you - that SHIFTED KEYS halfway through for the refrain! Additionally, the words did not rhyme or follow any sort of meter. The melody had no discernible pattern; it merely repeated itself occasionally.

In short, the song had no sort of internal coherence. Pure and simply, that song is a wreck, and whenever it comes up on the list I cringe. I just... Gah. Playing it is even worse than merely singing it, because it insistently gets stuck in my head. Why do all the bad songs turn out to be earworms???

I mean, even "Gather Us In" rhymes and has a catchy beat. This one, "At the Table of the World", fails in both respects. To boot, it's just another insipid song about social justice. Really, by the songs we sing, you'd think we came to Mass to sing about how we help other people, not to worship God.

Sorry. It's a pet peeve of mine.

I still believe in what is going on at the altar, after all. If anything should be labeled as magical or miraculous in this broken world, it's the Mass.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse