Mistletoe and Magic is an annual event that takes place in 2022. It is a festive gathering that combines the enchantment of mistletoe with the magic of the holiday season. This event aims to create a magical atmosphere where attendees can celebrate and immerse themselves in the joy of this special time of year. Mistletoe, a plant with symbolic significance during the holiday season, is prominently featured at this event. It is traditionally associated with Christmas and is said to bring good luck and love to those who stand beneath it. The mistletoe is hung in different locations throughout the event venue, offering opportunities for attendees to share a special moment with someone by exchanging a kiss beneath it.
But what exactly is so wrong about placebo effects anyways? Skeptics will often elicit the term in the pejorative, as if to minimize what is happening to the afflicted when they request for a priesthood ordinance to be administered. Now to be clear, what is not happening is some inexplicable supernatural event above man’s capacity to discern. But should man be unable to detect natural causes and effects, he will elicit the term “magic” as being synonymous with the term “mystery.”
Throughout early Mormonism and even present today, the Saints believe that through prayer and ritual they can manipulate supernatural powers to their advantage, whether it be to cast out demons, summon divine presence, or in special instances, raise their right hand to the square and recite a unique incantation that expunges the very presence of evil and witches as defined above. Now this isn t to suggest that mere belief will always cure the believer, but it also isn t to understate, or worse denigrate the remarkable power of the mind and its power to stave of sickness.
The mistletoe is hung in different locations throughout the event venue, offering opportunities for attendees to share a special moment with someone by exchanging a kiss beneath it. The magic of the holiday season is also integral to Mistletoe and Magic. This includes various forms of entertainment, such as live performances by magicians and illusionists.
Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview
I recently finished D. Michael Quinn’s seminal study on “Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview,” a book which for some Latter-day Saints may be viewed as enlightening, embarrassing, or in an ironic way— faith-promoting. I saw it as the first and the last. In summary, Quinn argues for the overlapping magisteria between magic and religion, making a case that both traditions have not been clearly demarcated by LDS apologists who seem to believe that religious belief becomes mere superstition “if we admit any relationship with magic.” This makes sense too given that twentieth-century Americans have been secularized by the scientific worldview to the point that the terms “magic” and “occult” have been given polemical definitions such as “the opposite of reality.” However, the nature and significance of ritual, both within religious and magical traditions, creates a divisive prejudice for religious cultures when they seek to validate their own peculiar set of rituals as legitimate, divine, while others as illegitimate, not divine.
Erwin R. Goodenough observes that “it is easier for people to classify a religious practice as magic when it occurs outside their own religion.” John Dominic Crossan notes: “More simply: “we” practice religion, “they” practice magic.” Quinn concludes: “[Crossan] dismisses the religion/magic divide as political validation of the approved and the official against the unapproved and the unofficial.” A problem here Quinn raises relates to how careful and specific LDS apologists have been when claiming they are convinced that magic and religion cannot be the same thing. Hence, “if prayer cannot be distinguished from incantation or [ordinance] from enchantment, sorcery or wizardry,” wrote respected Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner, “then religion cannot be set apart from magic.”
We can examine just a few of Mormonism’s rituals and ceremonies that seem to situate its religious practices still very much in the thick of the magical tradition. Put differently, magic and the occult have not yet been throughly extinguished from the modern LDS tradition, or from what many LDS apologists wish to escape, for as Quinn argues, magic in the LDS tradition has simply been “steadily renamed, consolidated, centralized, and regulated its practice.” In examining this relationship between magic and religion, Quinn plays with semantics and uses a figurative lens to showcase the cross-current parallels between both studies as porous, interlacing disciplines.
First, the study of magic and the occult include using “ceremonies or objects to summon or repel otherworldly beings.” For modern Mormonism, this can open up a large, complex discussion on how LDS lay members might draw the battle lines against folk religious ceremonies like incantation beliefs (that magic words, when uttered, summon spirits), and say more current institutional ceremonies like the sacrament—both which are attempting to summon otherworldly agents, or invite the Spirit into a person’s life. LDS priesthood blessings would be another example of enacting a ritual that Mormons believe can either summon divine spirits or repel satanic ones.
Second, the study of magic and the occult includes “the wearing of medallions or other objects for their own inherent powers to bring about protection or good luck.” In a somewhat similar context, faithful Mormons have often regarded the temple “garment” as a kind of spiritual amulet, which they believe “becomes a shield and protection to the wearer.” In Mormon folklore the temple garment sometimes functions as a classic amulet that has power in and of itself. Stories about men and women caught in hotel fires and all their clothing burnt except for where the garment covered clearly shows that the wearing of the garment cannot be simply construed as spiritual metaphor, for as Quinn argues “If [a] man’s righteousness alone were the source of this protection, [these people] would have escaped all injury.” For some Mormons the garment has power to protect only what it touches, like a spiritual talisman.
Third, the study of magic and the occult includes “the belief in witches (humans capable of summoning evil forces) and in remedies against them.” Throughout early Mormonism and even present today, the Saints believe that through prayer and ritual they can manipulate supernatural powers to their advantage, whether it be to cast out demons, summon divine presence, or in special instances, raise their right hand to the square and recite a unique incantation that expunges the very presence of evil and witches (as defined above).
Fourth, the study of magic and the occult includes “the performance of ceremonies to find treasures and be healed from disease.” Modern Mormons throughout the world still use consecrated olive oil to heal in connection with the priesthood ordinance of administering to the sick. “If asked about this now,” Quinn argues, “most Mormons would answer that applying special oil to the head during a religious ordinance is purely symbolic. That definition falters in view of nineteenth-century Mormon practice of applying the oil directly to the part of the body to be healed.” Furthermore, the use of consecrated oil in LDS priesthood blessings, in addition to Christ’s use of spittle for healings, or that charismatics would expect to be healed by touching the hem of a pure person’s clothes, illustrate powerfully what Richard Bushman taught concerning the practical function of magic in the Smith family home: “Magic had served its purpose in [Joseph’s] life. In a sense, it was a preparatory gospel.”
It is at this crossroads of magic-as-preparatory versus magic as seen by moderns as irrational and anti-religious that early Mormonism emerges. Bushman concedes this point: “Joseph Smith stood on the line dividing visionary supernaturalism from rational Christianity,” a perspective I believe that Quinn himself cannot overstate enough in his book. And in light of of modern Mormonism’s penchant for magic’s continual influence and power on its current traditions and ritual (as illustrated above), I personally believe apologists don’t really have a leg to stand on when attempting to distance the current LDS church as somehow wholly other from the magic worldview. Apologists shouldn’t feel embarrassed either by Joseph’s involvement in the treasure-quest, his wearing of an astrological Jupiter talisman, his possession of seer stones, a dagger for drawing magic circles, or use of magical parchments to ward off thieves and communicate with good spirits.
If these magical things were and are but preparatory elements awaiting to be fulfilled in deeper knowledge, deeper laws and understanding of how the cosmos operate, or how divinity communicates with us, I see then no conflict between magic and religious ritual, for both are necessary in what it means to “grow up unto the Lord.” Magic is to religion like training wheels are to a bicycle.
Take for example when the methods of science have been exacerbated and accompanying prayers to heaven have gone unnoticed. It is in these moments when we can enlist the power of ritual, the power of ordinance. An ordinance is an outward symbol expressing an inner-spiritual reality, as evidenced in the scriptural case of the laying on of hands and the associated verbal incantation for the sick to receive added strength and healing. A recent national study survey indicates that many people have “experienced or witnessed a divine healing” in these regards. The skeptic, however, dismisses these miraculous experiences as nothing more than human placebo effects.
But what exactly is so wrong about placebo effects anyways? Skeptics will often elicit the term in the pejorative, as if to minimize what is happening to the afflicted when they request for a priesthood ordinance to be administered. Now to be clear, what is not happening is some inexplicable supernatural event above man’s capacity to discern. But should man be unable to detect natural causes and effects, he will elicit the term “magic” as being synonymous with the term “mystery.”
The relationship between magic and religion, I think, can be better understood with this notion of placebo. For example, a priesthood blessing is very much tied to the power of the mind and the body’s own healing capacities to recover. A person must believe that he or she can be healed. Belief precedes the miracle, and “miracle” here is nothing more than the unstated but curious power of placebos. In other words, if a person really believed that an objective ritual, once performed, can thereby unlock the subjective and extraordinary power of the mind to heal itself, then this petition must express the power of honest placebos.
Now this isn’t to suggest that mere belief will always cure the believer, but it also isn’t to understate, or worse—denigrate—the remarkable power of the mind and its power to stave of sickness. When we are sick, there ought to be the harmony between applying the best techniques of science in addition to relying upon the miracle of the mind, the miracle of belief, to heal the soul. Again, the term “miracle” in these instances should not conjure up feelings of the supernatural but should be related to our and appreciation for how elegant we really are.
This, from my perspective, places magic and religious ritual within their proper contexts, like Yin and Yang, both necessary for our maturation into godhood.
Mormonism exploded in a very specific context that allowed for it to do so.
These magical acts aim to captivate attendees and transport them into a world of wonder and awe. In addition to the mistletoe and magical performances, Mistletoe and Magic also features a variety of holiday-themed activities. These may include gingerbread house decorating, ornament making, and cookie decorating stations. Attendees can partake in these activities to get into the festive spirit and create cherished holiday memories. Mistletoe and Magic is also an opportunity for attendees to do some holiday shopping. The event typically includes a marketplace where vendors offer a wide array of unique gifts, holiday decorations, and festive treats. This allows attendees to browse and purchase special items to make their holiday season even more memorable. Overall, Mistletoe and Magic aims to create a joyful and enchanting experience for all who attend. Whether through the tradition of mistletoe, the magic of performances, or the festive activities and shopping opportunities, this event lures attendees into a world of holiday spirit and celebration..
Reviews for "Misteltoe Magic: Spells, Rituals, and Incantations for Prosperity"
- Jane Smith - ★☆☆☆☆
This movie was a disappointment. The plot was predictable and cliché, and I found myself bored halfway through. The characters lacked depth and I couldn't connect with any of them. The acting was mediocre at best and the chemistry between the lead actors was non-existent. Overall, "Mistletoe and Magic 2022" failed to deliver the charm and holiday spirit that I was hoping for.
- John Doe - ★★☆☆☆
I was excited to watch "Mistletoe and Magic 2022" because I love holiday movies, but this one fell flat for me. The story felt rushed and the dialogue was cheesy. The acting was average, but there was no standout performance. The romantic subplot felt forced and cliché. While the movie had some festive moments, it ultimately lacked the magic and heartwarming moments that make holiday movies special.
- Sarah Thompson - ★★☆☆☆
"Mistletoe and Magic 2022" had potential, but it failed to live up to it. The plot was overly predictable and offered no surprises. The characters were one-dimensional and lacked depth. The chemistry between the lead actors was lacking, making their romantic storyline unconvincing. The movie had some nice holiday decorations and scenery, but it wasn't enough to save it from being forgettable. Overall, it was a missed opportunity to create a memorable and enjoyable holiday film.