Magic and Miracles
A sermon about how God works by miracles
Bryn Athyn, July 22, 2007

“And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and
it became a serpent. But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.” Exodus 7.10

How did the Egyptian magicians turn their rods into serpents? Someone who believes in biblical miracles might accept that Aaron’s rod could have become a serpent. But do you believe that the Egyptians could have done the same by magic? Is magic really possible?

Yesterday, the most recent book trading on this subject by J.K. Rowling was published. It is breaking sales records all over the world. Her books have sold 325 million copies over the past ten years, and this one is expected to sell over twelve million books in the USA alone over the next few weeks and months. Is it a coincidence that these books are about saving the world through magic?

By far the best-selling book of all time is the Word, the Old and New Testaments. An estimated six-billion copies have been printed (Wikipedia.com). Worldwide it is not only far and away the cumulative leader, it has also been the best-selling book every year since printing was invented – and even before (Christianpost.com July 4, 2007). Even this year, more Bibles will be distributed among the world’s 6.6 billion people than any so-called best-seller. According to the Heavenly Doctrines, this is why, in providence, writing was invented:

“The main reason was for the sake of the Word, which was able on our planet to be set down in writing. Then, having been written, it could be disseminated to all parts of the planet, and once it had been disseminated it could be preserved for all future generations.” (Arcana Coelestia 9351)

We are told that the Lord works silently and invisibly to reform the human race (Divine Providence 186), but in this respect His means are public and quantifiably successful.
The Word is also a book about how the Lord has saved and is saving the world by miraculous means.

Our topic this morning is the reality behind the descriptions of magic and miracles in the Scriptures. The teachings of the New Church assert that these phenomena really happened, and they offer explanations of how they work, why they appear in the Word, and what they mean for people today. The real miracle is that the Lord is causing love to appear and increase in the world where there was no love before, and that He is bringing people into a heavenly state where no heavenly state existed before. He is making these things miraculously appear. This is the purpose of creation, and this is what all the biblical miracles are actually about. So how does this work?

When the Lord commanded Aaron to throw down his rod, and turned it into a serpent, there was a particular method and reason behind it. According to our lesson, miracles are “produced by an introduction of such things as are in the spiritual world into corresponding things in the natural world” (True Christian Religion addition 1.2). A miracle does not just happen. It is brought on by some action involving symbols and it acts on that symbolic thing, such as Aaron’s rod. Yet Aaron did not make the miracle happen, it was commanded by the Lord. According to our lesson:

“Miracles therefore are the effects of the Divine Omnipotence, and take place according to the influx of the spiritual into the natural world, with this difference only, that such things as actually exist in the spiritual world are actually introduced into such things in the natural world as correspond” (True
Christian Religion addition 1.2).

The idea is that everything in the physical world is maintained by an influx from the spiritual world into the natural world. This influx originates in the Lord, flows through the spiritual world, and is received by everything according to its form. If it stopped for a moment everything would disappear. The influx is also what maintains everything in its form (Heavenly Doctrine 277). So what happens in a miracle is simply that the influx is modified so that the situation is seen and behaves as it does in the light of heaven, as opposed to worldly light. Aaron’s rod could then become a serpent, a sea can be turned to blood, diseases or manna can appear, and similar things.

The concept of correspondence is central to how miracles work. The Old Testament miracles can seem random and strange - flies or frogs, fire or bread from heaven. But each one takes the form it does because the form represents a spiritual state. The rod turning to a serpent described the spiritual state represented by the Egyptians as oppressors of Israel. The only thing going on in a miracle is that an appropriate object actually takes on the form that corresponds to what is happening spiritually, by the Lord’s power. This is how healings took place as well as plagues and other miracles.

Magic operates on the same principle, except that instead of happening from the divine omnipotence, it happens through the deceptive use of symbols. Magic takes advantage of the influx from the spiritual world into the natural world by using means to channel that power in the interest of the magician.

How does magic work? The magicians used the same symbols that Aaron did, they threw down their rods. But they had to do considerably more work, because they did not act from the Lord’s commands. In order to produce serpents they needed to be in contact with spiritual forces, and to lead them to believe that the situation of the magician was different than it actually was. If the magician’s relationship with these good spirits could be made to counterfeit Aaron’s, these spirits would unknowingly bring the interior power of heaven to them, which the magicians could use (see Spiritual Experiences 4949).

The use of magic involved the manipulation of symbols, such as a rod or wand, it used various symbolic ingredients, numbers, often some kind of action using these numbers, such as tapping three times, and finally the saying of certain words or spells. But these things would not work unless the magician was also skilled in interior ways of being in contact with spirits, and through them with good spirits, whose power from heaven they then used. Magicians like this are described as being “interiorly religious but exteriorly vicious, and that thence they receive influx from the celestials, and turn it into such magic - for the things by which they act are correspondences; so that those arts come from an interior sphere, and were irresistible in a lower sphere” (Spiritual Experiences 4949).

The phrase “interiorly religious but exteriorly vicious” is a strange one, and it goes a long way to explaining both how magic works and what is wrong with it. The magician needed to be able to be deeply spiritual in order to simulate the goodness that good spirits can associate with. If they could not do this, or emulate it, they would be powerless. At the same time if the magician truly was a good or spiritual person he or she would not be trying to do magic at all, since the essence of real spirituality is to do the Lord’s will. The magician, therefore, was able to mask evil or vicious intentions in an inner way, and be in the presence of good spirits, whose power he then used. One way of understanding this is to think of the deep sincerity of fanatics who are completely committed to a false idea. They can kill and commit atrocities while seeing themselves as servants of God.

Are there good magicians? Interestingly, the very nature of the way that magic works prevents good magic from happening. In a sense all ancient worship was conducted according to the principles of magic, and so it was a kind of good magic. The wise men, or magi, who came to the Lord after His birth, were among the last of the ancients who understood and worshipped from a deep understanding of symbols and correspondences. The purpose of the use of these symbols was to represent heavenly things to the worshipper, to bring them near to the Lord and heaven, and to inspire them with love.

The magi were able to see in the stars the heavenly things that the stars stood for, and to be literally led by them to the Lord, so the Lord’s birth was announced to them by the appearance of a spiritual star. This is true magic, but it does not involve making anything external happen that would not normally happen. It is purely about spiritual things.

In order to make things happen in the external world that would not normally happen, a good magician would have to do what good people do not want to do. He would have to deceive the spiritual forces surrounding them, and alter the influx received from them, causing the desired change. In fiction the problems inherent in using magic for good purposes are not obvious, but they are very real.

The Lord’s miracles are different. They do not go against order, even though they appear to be simply the good use of magic. Miracles are always done within the context of the spiritual salvation of the human race, and for that purpose. Since the harmony of creation is centered around that purpose, and is directed by the Lord, Divine miracles never happen outside of it. That is, no deception is ever involved, because the miracles illustrate the truth and happen through the power of the truth (Arcana Coelestia 8200). The Egyptians in relation to Moses and the children of Israel really did represent the same thing as the serpent, and this truth is what made the miracle possible. The same is true of all the plagues, and of every biblical miracle.

Magic depends on the magician’s ability to deceive spirits – and this is its fatal weakness. It depends on the ability to simulate goodness to spirits who are good and yet have little clarity of thought (Arcana Coelestia 7137). Evil spirits have no power, and are used in magic only as conduits to good spirits. The incredible ignorance and superstition of the ancient world lent itself to that situation.

As the world becomes more educated, these deceptions are harder to achieve. The Lord came into the world to bring light where there was darkness, and this is more dramatically true in the spiritual world than in this world. Through His coming He made magic much more difficult to do because it made people both in this world and the next less vulnerable to deception. This effect grows as knowledge spreads, and especially as knowledge of spiritual truths combat false ideas throughout the world. This is why it is so important that the Word be widely spread and available – and so amazing and significant that it is far and away the most published book of all time.

The result of the Lord’s coming is that for all intents and purposes magic simply does not happen anymore. There is a deep truth in its existence, but as a demonstrable reality it is the stuff of children’s books and not of the real world.

For very different reasons miracles like those of the Old and New Testaments do not happen either. Miracles do not involve deception, so this isn’t the reason. But miracles need to take place in a way that is consistent with order, and their manifest appearance takes away freedom of thought except among people who are so ignorant or external that they do not have a lasting effect (Arcana Coelestia 7290, 7298). So Jesus, although He did work miracles, also criticized the desire for them.

Magic and miracles are both real things. They appear in the Bible because they represent the way that the Lord works to change the world, and how He works in your life. Obedience to the Lord does not miraculously cause the rains to come and the crops to flourish, but it does cause their spiritual equivalents to happen in your spiritual life.

The principles of magic and miracles are as active today as they ever were in ancient times, but they only work as they were originally intended. The way that they work in your life is that when you make changes in your outer life that are consistent with heaven’s influence, the result is that heaven miraculously appears. When you make changes in your life that are consistent with love, love miraculously appears. If you arrange the external so that it can receive the influx that you wish for, that influx will happen – exactly the way that magic works. But you don’t throw down a rod and produce a serpent, or wash seven times and receive a miraculous cure. Instead you refrain from an evil action and watch the desire miraculously disappear, or involve yourself in useful service and watch the love for it materialize. Miracles go on just as they always have, but as our lesson pointed out, they aren’t seen because they seem normal.

Popular fiction, like Rowling's, can remind us that miraculous power is needed if we are to overcome evil in the world. Stories like these can inspire a generation of young people with a vision and a kind of hope about that happening. But the true stories are the ones in the Word, and true magic is the way that God's truth can work in your heart if you believe it and live by it - to produce heaven in your life.

“Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever: To Him who alone does great wonders, For His mercy endures forever;
To Him who by wisdom made the heavens, for His mercy endures forever.” Psalm 136.3-5

Readings:
Exodus 7
Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 9 “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Show a miracle for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent.’” 10 So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the LORD commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. 12 For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. 13 And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the LORD had said. 14 So the LORD said to Moses: “Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the water, and you shall stand by the river’s bank to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand. 16 And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness”; but indeed, until now you would not hear! 17 Thus says the LORD: “By this you shall know that I am the LORD. Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood.

Matthew 12
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” 39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Arcana Coelestia 4013
A rod' is referred to in various places in the Word, and in every case it means power. One reason for this is because of its use by shepherds in the exercise of power over their flocks, and another is that it served to support the body, and existed so to speak for the sake of the right hand - for 'the hand' means power. Since it had that meaning a rod was also used in ancient times by a king; and the royal emblem was a short rod and also a scepter. And not only a king used a rod, but also a priest and a prophet did so, in order that he too might denote by means of his rod the power which he possessed, as Aaron and Moses did. This explains why Moses was commanded so many times to stretch out his rod, and on other occasions his hand, when miracles were performed, the reason being that 'a rod' and 'the hand' means Divine power. And it is because 'a rod' means power that the magicians of Egypt likewise used one when performing magical miracles. It is also the reason why (even) at the present day a magician is represented with a rod (or wand) in his hand.

True Christian Religion additions 1.2
All things that appear in the three kingdoms of nature are produced by an influx from the spiritual into the natural world, and, considered in themselves, are miracles. Yet, on account of their familiar aspect and their annual recurrence, they do not appear as such…. The miracles that are recorded in the Word likewise took place by an influx out of the prior into the posterior world. They were produced by an introduction of such things as are in the spiritual world into corresponding things in the natural world. For example, the manna which every morning descended upon the camp of the children of Israel, was produced by bread from heaven being introduced into the recipient vessels of nature. Similarly bread and fishes were thus introduced into the baskets of the apostles, which they distributed to so many thousands. Again, wine out of heaven was instilled into the water in the pots at the wedding where the Lord was present. Also the fig-tree withered, because there was no longer any influx into it of spiritual nutriment, by which it was fed from the roots. Such was the case with the other miracles, and they were not produced, according to the notions of some of the learned in the present day, by causes summoned from all parts of nature. Miracles therefore are the effects of the Divine Omnipotence, and take place according to the influx of the spiritual into the natural world, with this difference only, that such things as actually exist in the spiritual world are actually introduced into such things in the natural world as correspond. The cause of such things being done and being possible, is due to the Divine Omnipotence, which is meant by the finger of God, by which the Lord produced His miracles.