Just a wee intro, from a Newbie…
Well how marvelous to have been introduced to the PCN. I was beginning to seriously consider ‘hanging up my cassock’ for good! I’m so delighted to be here!
Briefly, I am a C of E Priest, who served for about ten years before taking a drastic step of becoming a freelance writer-magician. I perform what I call ‘Soulful Magic’ (the use of Stage Illusions to communicate spiritual ideas) and write books that bridge the gap between the two worlds of religion and magic.
I have had a long term love-hate relationship to Churchianity, not least because of its current obsession with a success, perfection and narrow dogmatism. It seems to be being taken over by a culture of ‘we are the true believers’ and ‘my way is God’s way’ etc. This leaves almost no room for grace, and no room for the gift of being allowed to screw things up and get things wrong. I hold that we learn more about ourselves and more about God throw our failures than through our successes. I’ve always loved the original biblical stories of our faith because they’re all about folk who screw things up, fall, fail, sin, mess up etc. They seem to find light in the mess more than in the perfection. In fact they seem to find light and life and meaning BECAUSE of the mess. Those who follow the rules and do it all the ‘true way’ seem to have no room left for inner light – whereas the woman who weeps buckets over JC’s feet, or the boy who robs his dad and comes home in a pool of tears… well they meet the light head on.
Where would the prodigal son be now if his father mirrored the current church hierarchy? ‘My son you’ve returned and… well I’d really love to publically put a ring of gold on your finger, and robe you with a garment of glory, and show you the depth of my love by throwing a party for you… but… (gulp) if I do that what are THEY gonna say? After all you were a really bad boy and I need to be seen to be doing the right thing – the just thing. So you’re gonna have to work as a slave for three years and then maybe you’ll deserve the party. Ok lad?’
My own priestly story is a long tale of failure, imperfection and, what I call, ‘Falling INTO Grace’ (it will all be told in a book that is going to be published in Nov. this year).
When I walked the road of the prodigal son, and tried to clear my chest of all the garbage in my own life, I was given a gift that did not look like a gift at first… for it meant losing everything I’d worked for, lived for, and served for over ten years. But over time the inner gold of this unwanted gift began to glisten… and now I thank God for the beauty of the new life and new ministry that has immerged.
I have taken my magic to places far and wide… and have been able to visit places and peoples whom I would have never encountered, were I still inside the institution. I have performed for huge groups of Alternative Spiritual Seekers at Glastonbury. I have stayed with the Leader of the largest Order of neo-Druids in the world and performed / lectured to his guests. I have stood a circle of Glasgow Pagans and shared my story and magic with them and what I have learned from these remarkable encounters has been totally priceless. It has blown my tiny mind – the light and love and mystery and magic.
To go back to the theme of stage magic, Andy Vivian asked me to come on this forum and explain how liberal Christian magicians can, in his words, ‘retain the sense of mystery without sacrificing their intellectual integrity.’
Well for now I must say that, over the last two years, my naturally skeptical side (99% of stage magicians are huge skeptics / i.e. Derren Brown) has actually given way to a much more open-minded approach to genuine encounters of deep mystery / magic etc.
Magic tricks can do two things: they can leave folk with a puzzle to work out - thus placing them firmly inside their own rational / logical ‘left-brain’ selves, or they can evoke true wonder and enchantment - thus placing them inside their more intuitive ‘right-brain’ selves. I try to encourage the latter. This does not mean, of course, that I try to make folk gullible or un-intellectual. Far from it. Rather, I try to show people how magic is a deeply powerful tool for encouraging the very same experience we get from encountering powerful symbolism, myth and metaphor etc.
The trouble with fundamentalism is that it uses such myths and metaphors as if they were literally true, thus making ‘truth’ dependent on fact. Then, those who ‘buy into it’ are gradually convinced that this must be the ‘One True Way’ because it’s based on a fact. My work is about exploding these ‘facts’ and transforming them back into the myths from which they came, thus (ironically) giving them a much greater sense of power to speak, heal, comfort, challenge, breath grace etc. than they ever could as mere facts of history.
That’s all I can say for now as I have somewhere to fly off to. If anyone wishes to ask me any questions at all about my magic or my neo-pagan encounters I’d be very happy, and will try my best to make sense.
With blessings of the bright summer sun,
Mark Townsend