Thoughts on...

 Magic and Science.

How do I merge these polar opposites in my life? One is about mystery, the unknown but "felt certitudes" that become evident throughout nature in and beyond mankind.

The moon passing between NASA's deep-space weather satellite and the earth.

The other is about testing theories and arriving at truths, physics, astronomy, chemistry. It is my reliable source of medical knowledge that has kept me (so far) from catching COVID-19. It looks at the world around me and finds everything, every fact possible to be known, and then figures out relationships between everything.

But my relationship to everything can't be quantified by science.

Thus the "magic", the presence of another kind of force. Most astronauts believe in something beyond science...and several have written about it. They see this force, this higher power. I know this force, and call a small speck of it my Higher Self. It is that which is within me and connected to all around me, including you. I do love having goddesses as embodiments of various natural forces. You may believe in God, but I believe in Magic.

Arthur C. Clarke, author of many science-fiction books, says "Magic's just science that we don't understand yet.”

He also said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Kurt Vonnegut said "Science is magic that works."

It's funny that these were men who stretched their thought through science (fiction) to arrive at magic.

My approach is to use Magic to enhance Science.

I used to have a business where I made pottery and sculptures in clay. It was called "Alchemy of Clay." I wanted modern people to acknowledge that alchemy is the same as science...and perhaps related to art as well. It mainly speaks to creative process.

And that is where the magic occurs. It isn't formulaic, but process, which may follow different rituals, but there's an open end, a possibility that the person experiencing that process will have results beyond a physical form...will have feelings, thoughts, healing perhaps. There is a therapeutic value that most potters and artists are aware of. And if the object of creativity is palatable to the artist, there's the intangible we call beauty. But for me, that's not the goal.

It's getting there that's what life is all about. And magic. 

I'm reminded of Mindfulness in meditation. Paying attention! Science doesn't give that quality much weight. In science you measure things, mix them up, but it doesn't care about the HOW of a person's experience as the process happens. Science pays attention to methods that can be measured; in which order something occurs, or its intensity, but its HOW is not looking for inspiration, new thoughts and feelings as the ritual proceeds, a person's experience of the process.

And I admit to having fault with the typical scientific view of disdain for magic, the alchemy from which science actually evolved. But I'm not concerning myself with illusions; no smoke and mirrors.  I'm interested in looking inside, and between relationships in life and nature, and experiencing the marvels which can't be explained by science...and honoring the history and mystery they represent.

I'm just beginning this exploration of Magic and Science...how I believe in both processes...and am grateful to have access to both. And of course how I represent the marriage of the two within me.