Mircea Eliade (1907–1986) Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer and philosopher
Source: Myths, Dreams and Mysteries (1967), p. 23
Which Level of God Do You Believe In? (2004)
Mircea Eliade (1907–1986) Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer and philosopher
Source: Myths, Dreams and Mysteries (1967), p. 23
Eliphas Levi (1810–1875) French writer
Miscellaneous Quotes On the Subjects of Magic and Magicians
Source: [Lévi, Éliphas, Blavatsky, H. P., Paradoxes of the Highest Science, 2007, Wildside Press LLC, 9781434401069, 15, https://books.google.com/books?id=oIglEl6BJFoC&q=The%20Paradoxes%20of%20the%20Highest%20Science&pg=PA5]
“Magic consists of, and is acquired by the worship of the gods.”
Plato (-427–-347 BC) Classical Greek philosopher
Quoted by H.P. Blavatsky, in The Theosophical Glossary, http://theosophy.org/Blavatsky/Theosophical%20Glossary/Thegloss.htm (1892) <br class="br">Other
Johannes Kepler book Harmonices Mundi
Book IV, Ch. 1, as quoted in "Kepler's Astrology"in Kepler, Four Hundred Years (1975) edited by Arthur and Peter Beer.
Harmonices Mundi (1618)
“Prayer is not a machine. It is not magic. It is not advice offered to God.”
Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist
The Efficacy of Prayer (1958)
Context: Prayer is not a machine. It is not magic. It is not advice offered to God. Our act, when we pray, must not, any more than all our other acts, be separated from the continuous act of God Himself, in which alone all finite causes operate. It would be even worse to think of those who get what they pray for as a sort of court favorites, people who have influence with the throne. The refused prayer of Christ in Gethsemane is answer enough to that. And I dare not leave out the hard saying which I once heard from an experienced Christian: “I have seen many striking answers to prayer and more than one that I thought miraculous. But they usually come at the beginning: before conversion, or soon after it. As the Christian life proceeds, they tend to be rarer. The refusals, too, are not only more frequent; they become more unmistakable, more emphatic.” Does God then forsake just those who serve Him best? Well, He who served Him best of all said, near His tortured death, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” When God becomes man, that Man, of all others, is least comforted by God, at His greatest need. There is a mystery here which, even if I had the power, I might not have the courage to explore. Meanwhile, little people like you and me, if our prayers are sometimes granted, beyond all hope and probability, had better not draw hasty conclusions to our own advantage. If we were stronger, we might be less tenderly treated. If we were braver, we might be sent, with far less help, to defend far more desperate posts in the great battle.
Báb (1819–1850) Iranian prophet; founder of the religion Bábism; venerated in the Bahá'í Faith
II, 16
The Persian Bayán
Sun Ra (1914–1993) American jazz composer and bandleader
As quoted in "Sun Ra : Stranger from Outer Space" by Mike Walsh at missionCreep http://missioncreep.com/mw/sunra.html