There is No Such Thing as Magic

I am a very practical, down-to-earth person. I have degrees in science subjects. I have always pooh-poohed ideas about magic and wicca and paganism and all that sort of stuff. But just recently I have found myself very drawn to ideas about magic, and I am starting to think about if differently.

One of my science degrees is in psychology and at first I was interested in magic from an anthropological perspective - it seemed to provide an interesting insight into the way ancient, primitive people used to think about the world. But as I continued to read I began thinking with a more sociological perspective - I could see similarities between these weird, superstitious occult practices and perfectly logical sensible modern practices, like bringing flowers to sick people, exchanging rings at weddings, or drinking coffee in the morning.

And then I began to think about my own everday behaviour in a different light. My morning coffee suddenly seemed like part of what you could call a "ritual", in other words the list of things I do every morning. They're normal, sensible, boring things such as going to the lavatory, washing my hands and face and brushing my teeth, drinking coffee, eating breakfast, getting dressed, etc. But if I am unable to do them all (e.g. if we have run out of coffee, or I sleep late and have to dash out of the house very quickly) for the rest of the day I feel discombobulated. I could easily think of a dozen other things which would be described in the same way: you can either think of them as mundane everyday things or you can use words from magic and the occult to describe them. Is it just a locket my husband gave me when we were first dating or is it a talisman? Is it just E45 cream or is it healing ointment? Is it just a cup of tea or is it a herbal infusion with the power to calm and soothe?

Little by little I came to the conclusion that it is all the same thing. There is no such thing as magic. Or in other words, everything is magic. It all comes to the same thing. We all live in the same universe. We are all governed by the same laws. The ancient Egyptians were not wrong to believe that the god Ra sailed the sun around the world in a boat. We are not better because we believe that the earth orbits the huge ball of incandescent gas we call the sun. It is just two different ways of looking at the same thing. The sun is the sun is the sun. It has been since long before the ancient Egyptians and it will be long after us. It doesn't care what we call it or how we think of it. The "incandescent gas" idea is more helpful for some purposes (e.g. understanding how solar flares can interfere with communications satellites", but maybe the "Ra and his sun-boat" idea is more helpful for other purposes.

So, if magic is real (or reality is magic) then maybe I could use some magic in my life. What do you think?