Mankind Has Only Two Vocations – Magician or Priest

Life is often presented to young men and women as offering a multitude of paths that may be taken – husband, wife, monk, nun, electrician, engineer, farmer, soldier, priest, etc. But ultimately all of these choices will fall into one of two vocations, the magician or the priest. The dividing line is how one chooses to approach the created world in which the All-Holy Trinity has placed him.

The magicians are those who wish to control nature for selfish purposes. They may alternatively be called scientists. Robert Kmita explains:

‘ . . . it must be plainly said that all of the mechanical ‘arts’ that led to the creation of engines and machines belong to the realm of what the Middle Ages and the Renaissance called ‘natural magic.’ Seeking to conceal their interests—which sometimes even extended to divination or demonic magic, and exceeded the lawful boundaries accepted by Christian theologians and secular leaders—some thinkers created new languages intended to disguise the magical and alchemical sources of their ‘science.’ Their identities may be a surprise: René Descartes (1596–1650), interested in achieving immortality; Robert Boyle (1627–1691), interested in communicating with the angelic world; Isaac Newton (1642–1727), interested in transmuting base metals into gold. And the list could go on.

‘At the root of such ‘occultist’ pursuits is always a thirst for power and immediacy, described by Tolkien as seeking “speed, reduction of labor, and reduction also to a minimum (or vanishing point) of the gap between the idea or desire and the result or effect.” It is precisely this thirst for power, in the form of an unrestrained desire to dominate nature, which permeates all the sciences of the modern world, something that Tolkien viewed with great concern.’

Dwight Longenecker continues this theme, writing,

‘Tolkien’s distinction elucidates the dilemmas we face as technology snowballs and threatens to blow up in our face. Put simply, the magic of Mordor is the machinery of murder. It is the pursuit of power for its own sake, and as such it constantly perceives the natural world merely as a raw material to be exploited, distorted, and destroyed. In Peter Jackson’s film version of Tolkien’s masterpiece, we see this machinery of murderous magic in full display as the twisted wizard Saruman destroys Fangorn—chewing up the forest to fuel his machines of war.’

Mr Longenecker then begins to reveal the opposite of the magician, whom J. R. R. Tolkien calls an artist,

‘He then goes on to explain the difference: “Their [the elves’] ‘magic’ is Art, delivered from many of its human limitations: more effortless, more quick, more complete (product, and vision in unflawed correspondence). And its object is Art not Power, sub-creation not domination and tyrannous re-forming of Creation.”’

And whom C. S. Lewis calls a miracle-worker,

‘In his book on miracles, C.S. Lewis made a similar distinction—not between elven magic and machines, but between magic and miracles. Magic is always a prideful attempt to distort or dominate nature for the magician’s own uses. Lewis’ thought is illustrated in the Narnia volume, The Magician’s Nephew. Digory’s uncle Andrew is the “minor magician” who uses magic to manipulate the children and to cause havoc which, Aslan warns, may lead to total annihilation. Miracles, Lewis asserts, never distort or destroy nature. Instead, they lead to a restoration, healing, or completion of the natural order. So, a healing miracle corrects what went wrong or what had become diseased. Our Lord’s nature miracles bring abundance and peace: A storm is calmed or bread and fish are multiplied. The miracles are “Elvish magic” because they are artful and creative, not manipulative and exploitative.’

But the better word is ‘priest,’ as Fr. Alexander Schmemann writes,

‘The first, the basic definition of man is that he is the priest. He stands in the center of the world and unifies it in his act of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God—and by filling the world with this eucharist [i.e., thanksgiving—W.G.], he transforms his life, the one that he receives from the world, into life in God, into communion with Him. The world was created as the “matter,” the material of one all-embracing eucharist, and man was created as the priest of this cosmic sacrament’ (For the Life of the World, SVS Press, Crestwood, NY, 1973, p. 15).

This act of uniting the matter of creation with the Grace of God can happen in any number of ways, through prayer and ascetic exercises (as with monastics) or through an art like writing icons, which changes ordinary matter – wood, paint, etc. – into objects that transmit the Grace of God through images of Himself and His saints and angels to those who look upon and venerate those represented thereon.

But the highest fulfilment of this priestly act of transformational eucharist is the offering of the bread and wine, symbolic of all of man’s labors, to God upon the holy altar during the Divine Liturgy, Who in His kindness changes them through the action of the Holy Ghost into the Body and Blood of Christ. This is the supreme miracle, the most sublime art and un-magic – this Holy Food – which is then distributed back to the people who supplied the elements that they may be woven together with God (to borrow St John Chrysostom’s words). And having received this greatest of gifts, they then go out into the world once again, leaving the church, leaving heaven, spreading the Grace of God abroad to all the creatures they meet.

We are left again with this stark choice: Either one offers everything to God as priest, or he sacrifices all the world to himself, as magician, to serve his own fallen, infernal desires.

Yet these two types do not have significance for individuals only. They are also applicable to nations. And the two nations who most closely resemble each of these types are the United States (magician) and Russia (priest). This conclusion may be supported by considering the most representative objects and people of each country.

The architecture most expressive of the US soul consists of skyscrapers, factories, and research labs, the first – per commentators as diverse as Dr Matthew Raphael Johnson, Tolkien, and St Seraphim Rose – a symbol of pride, rebellion against God (storming heaven), and domination; the latter two, symbols, as related above, of exploitation and destruction.

Russia’s most distinctive buildings are just the opposite – they are buildings that unite man and the rest of the creation with God, such as the St Sergius-Holy Trinity Lavra and Optina Monastery, places that cultivate humility, piety, and the other Christian virtues.

So also with their representative, archetypal individuals. For the US, the distillation of Americanism is found in the capitalist demigods, like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie in the past, or Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates today, who have ruthlessly sought to destroy their competitors, with some of them, not content with all that, also attempting to expand their domination into fields outside their own industries. Dr. Jerry Bergman shares some insights about these kinds of men:

‘Darwinism helped to justify not only the ruthless exploits of the communists, but also the ruthless practices of capitalist monopolists such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Kenneth Hsü (1986, p. 534) noted:

‘Darwinism was also used in a defense of competitive individualism and its economic corollary of laissezfaire capitalism in England and in America.

‘Like Stalin, Marx, Lenin, and Hitler, Carnegie also once accepted Christianity, but abandoned it for Darwinism and became a close friend of the famous social Darwinist, Herbert Spencer. Carnegie stated in his autobiography that when he and several of his friends came to doubt the teachings of Christianity,

‘. . . including the supernatural element, and indeed the whole scheme of salvation through vicarious atonement and all the fabric built upon it, I came fortunately upon Darwin's and Spencer's works. . . . I remember that light came as in a flood and all was clear. Not only had I got rid of theology and the supernatural, but I had found the truth of evolution. "All is well since all grows better" became my motto, my true source of comfort. Man was not created with an instinct for his own degradation, but from the lower he had risen to the higher forms. Nor is there any conceivable end to his march to perfection (1920, p. 327).

‘Carnegie's conclusions were best summarized when he said:

‘the law of competition, be it benign or not, is here; we cannot evade it; no substitutes for it have been found; and while the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department (quoted in Hsü, 1986, p. 10).

‘John D. Rockefeller reportedly once said that the "growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest . . . the working out of a law of nature . . ." (Ghent, 1902, p. 29). The Rockefellers, while maintaining a Christian front, fully embraced evolution and dismissed the Bible's early books as mythology (Taylor, 1991, p. 386). . . .

‘Morris and Morris also noted that both the left wing MarxistLeninism and the right wing ruthless capitalists were anticreationists and "even when they fight with each other, they remain united in opposition to creationism . . ." (p. 82). . . . Although most American businessmen were probably not consciously social Darwinists,

‘. . . they attributed such success as they had to their industry and virtue, rather than their achievement in trampling on their less successful competitors. After all, most of them saw themselves as Christians, adhering to the rules of "love thy neighbor" and "do as you would be done by." So, even though they sought to achieve the impossible by serving God and Mammon simultaneously, they found no difficulty in accommodating Christianity to the Darwinian ideas of struggle for existence and survival of the fittest, and by no means all of them consciously thought of themselves as being in a state of economic warfare with their fellow manufacturers (Oldroyd, 1980, p. 216).’

Very much in the mold of the destructive magician rather than the constructive artist. Russia’s most representative types would be her saints, such as St Sergius of Radonezh (+1392) and St Seraphim of Sarov (+1833). Unlike the capitalist mages, who have made their souls opaque with the black ash and soot that have resulted from the uncontrolled fires of their self-love, greed, and other disordered passions, Russia’s saints have purified their hearts to such a degree that the Uncreated Light of God shines out from them onto others, greatly blessing them. The famous conversation of Motovilov with St Seraphim is an excellent illustration of this:

‘"Nevertheless," I replied, "I do not understand how I can be certain that I am in the Spirit of God. How can I discern for myself His true manifestation in me?"

‘Father Seraphim replied: "I have already told you, your Godliness, that it is very simple and I have related in detail how people come to be in the Spirit of God and how we can recognize His presence in us. So what do you want, my son?"

‘"I want to understand it well," I said.

‘Then Father Seraphim took me very firmly by the shoulders and said: "We are both in the Spirit of God now, my son. Why don't you look at me?"

‘I replied: "I cannot look, Father, because your eyes are flashing like lightning. Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my eyes ache with pain."

‘Father Seraphim said: "Don't be alarmed, your Godliness! Now you yourself have become as bright as I am. You are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God yourself; otherwise you would not be able to see me as I am."’

Now, the South and other regions might dissent from some of this, claiming that these generalizations about the United States apply only to the Yankee Northeast and those other States and regions where the Yankee spirit has come to dominate. And they would be right. Dr Clark Carlton, for instance, is very emphatic that Dixie shares a sacramental (i.e., priestly) view of the world similar to the Orthodox. And the peoples of the Great Plains could likewise lay claim to an unmagical, unmechanistic view of their land, one that is full of love. Bradley Birzer quotes the novelist Willa Cather:

‘But, the quality and verve of the human will matters as well. Cather presents us with the strength of a woman—descended from those same people who had conquered the Faroes and Iceland a thousand years earlier.

‘“When the road began to climb the first long swells of the Divide, Alexandra hummed an old Swedish hymn. . . . Her face was so radiant that he felt shy about asking her. For the first time, perhaps, since that land emerged from the waters of geologic ages, a human face was set toward it with love and yearning. It seemed beautiful to her, rich and strong and glorious. Her eyes drank in the breadth of it, until her tears blinded her. . . . the great, free spirit which breathes across it, must have bent lower than it ever bent to a human will before. The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.”’

Unfortunately for those peoples of the South and Great Plains and for the rest of the world, these are very much minority views at the moment, submerged in the waves of the dominant Yankee beliefs and practices. And thus the world largely remains as the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville described it almost 200 years ago in his book Democracy in America, locked in a contest between the two major world powers of Russia and the United States (no offense is meant to China, but while she is powerful and influential economically, only Russia offers a true religious, civilizational alternative in Orthodox Christianity to the un-Christian, inhuman Yankee ideology; such a thought finds support with others):

‘There are at the present time two great nations in the world, which started from different points, but seem to tend towards the same end. I allude to the Russians and the Americans. Both of them have grown up unnoticed; and whilst the attention of mankind was directed elsewhere, they have suddenly placed themselves in the front rank among the nations, and the world learned their existence and their greatness at almost the same time.

‘All other nations seem to have nearly reached their natural limits, and they have only to maintain their power; but these are still in the act of growth. All the others have stopped, or continue to advance with extreme difficulty; these alone are proceeding with ease and celerity along a path to which no limit can be perceived. . . . Their starting-point is different, and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe.’

But as this contest is an echo of the final battle between the Last Magician (the Antichrist) and the First and High Priest of Heaven (the Lord Jesus Christ), one would be forgiven for hoping that Russia would be the victor in the struggle between the two.