Magical Properties

I have been thinking a great deal recently about how and why so many of us invest inanimate articles or geographical locations with magical properties; usually because of their associations with a spiritually gifted person, an ancient race or a specific and remarkable event that occurred there.

For example the legends associated with the Holy Grail, the chalice or goblet that Jesus is reputed to have used at the last supper. Generations of people have sought unsuccessfully for this artefact, believing it to be imbued with special powers of healing and eternal life because of its association with the Nazarene. There are also, countless examples of the relics of Saints possessing healing properties, and millions have over the centuries flocked to the sites of these relics. Today, thousands travel for healing to Lourdes in France each year because a young girl is reputed to have seen the Virgin Mary at a grotto there. In India millions bathe annually in the river Ganges, despite it being seriously polluted, because they see it as a religious purification rite that the Buddha himself initiated. Nazareth and Jerusalem are revered so greatly by both Christians and Muslims alike, that conflict between the two sides is never far away. Glastonbury in England is a hallowed place to Christians because Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea are reputed to have visited the ancient Celtic Priests there, and to the New Age Movement because of the Arthurian legend and other things. People will go out of their way to steal or otherwise acquire pieces of buildings or artefacts associated with famous people, from Kings, through Prophets, to Pop Stars. Presumably this is because such people feel they will somehow gain something of the qualities or charisma of these people if they possess something associated with them. The latest thing to be associated with this human compulsion to revere ancient knowledge is the Mayan calendar, which some say comes to an end on 21st December 2012, heralding either the destruction of the planet or the sudden and dramatic increase in spiritual awareness of all humanity.

Is there any justification for these apparently illogical actions and beliefs by people? It is true to say that people have been healed at Lourdes and at the various medieval sites of saintly relics. I know from people who have visited the building housing the Turin Shroud, that there is a very special power there, that one feels stronger and stronger the closer one approaches to the shroud. Other people have had transcendental or psychic experiences at several of the sites mentioned. All this seems to suggest that there is every justification to associate magical properties with these things and places. I think not. What I do believe is that buildings and artefacts have a faculty for holding in the energy field surrounding them, a record of major events that have happened in their presence. This is particularly so in connection with events with strong emotional overtones, like violence or acts of great self-sacrifice and also with individuals of strong character and charisma.

Am I saying that it is the psychic record of what took place there that produced the dramatic healings and other things that have happened at many such places? No, this is not what I mean. Let me take two of the specific examples above; the eternal life associate with the Grail and the healings at Lourdes. Jesus preached all the time about eternal life because he knew that each individual is an eternal spirit. Unfortunately, many people are dominated by the influence of the ego, which tends to always focus on the material side of life. Because their Higher or Spiritual self knows the truth about the eternal life of the spirit, conflict ensues between these two parts of the individual. This results in the mistaken belief it is possible to obtain eternal physical life and is why they have pursued the Grail so assiduously. At Lourdes, I believe the healing that has taken place is due to the absolute conviction that some people have they will be healed there. Such conviction does two things: First, because of the power of the individual human mind, which is so little understood or studied, it calls into action our own internal healing resources. Secondly, because those in the spiritual world who are dedicated to healing, are always aware when a cry for healing goes out, the presence of so many pilgrims draws numerous healing spirits to the place.

It is important to understand in relation to all these ‘mysteries’ that mind and spirit are part of all creation. Even apparently lifeless creation, such as stones have mind and spirit as part of them, which use the aura through which to link with the physical world. It is in the ‘aura’ or energy field of the building or artefact that the ‘imprint’ of emotional and other events are recorded and the sensitive person (whether consciously aware of their sensitivity or not) detects them. In Turin, the centuries of visitors filled with awe and expectation at the chance to see the shroud that covered the face of Jesus after he died, created a huge emotional imprint, which is what my friends became aware of and that became stronger the closer they approached to the shroud.

Since time immemorial, humanity has ‘worshipped’ many different physical things in an attempt to comprehend the incomprehensible; that is the Source of all creation. Because the finite can never understand the infinite, idols etc., have been a simplistic but understandable attempt to bring the infinite within range of our finite minds. I believe we should now, in this more intellectual age, have moved beyond that but old habits die hard. I am firmly with the Reverend Theodore Parker when he states in “The Aim of Spiritualism”:


“The Aim of Spiritualism is to effect a complete at-one-ment and unison of man with God, till every action and thought of man is in perfect harmony with the Divine Will.
It makes absolute religion the point where man’s will and God’s will are one and the same.
It lays down no creed, asks no symbol, and reverences no time or place exclusively.”