Busting What Myths?
Was watching the Myth Hunters series on the episode called 'The Hunt for the Book of Spells'. It dealt with the history of it and the fascination people have had with the Book of Thoth throughout the ages. You kind of get an idea that the show is either sympathetic, if not backed by the Freemasons, since in the debunk stage of the show, they pretty well busted the myths of what the hippies and new age rock culture, as well as the early, pre-reformation and enlightenment times believed the Book of Thoth to be about.
However, they claim the 'rebirth' ritual that the Masons have corresponds to what was found in the papyrii of some great modern discovery. Never mind that the Freemasons came about the Enlightenment period, that developed much the same view as the Renaissance, that every discovery they found in some hole in the ground was some great discovery that gave us clues to our past, and further progress our future. That's not to say that we can't learn something from the past, but we certainly have to be careful not to think that everything dug out of the ground and written down by our ancestors was golden.
At any rate, I don't claim to believe the authentic book of Thoth exists, and if it does, I certainly don't believe it exists in one book, nor that it has any magical powers. Rather, I would say that it's possible that the 'book' would be a collection, somewhat like a snapshot of the beliefs and way of life of a culture we have long forgotten, but might still see a small fragment of their lives among people who carry on their lives in a more agrarian manner. The sort of 'magic' they had were more like prayers, say to ask the head god or family gods to protect them, let them see a new day, and fend them from the pesky crocodile that tries to eat them. In some way, they would have essentially fragments of what some day God would reveal to us and teach us through Christ to pray in the Our Father. For the Our Father deals with, first and foremost, an acknowledgement of God's existence, where He resides, His paternal protection over us, as well as His relation to us and desire for us to commune together so that things between God and Man would be, "as in Heaven, also on Earth." Further, the daily, or supersubstantial bread is twofold, as it means God provides us in what sustains our daily lives, as well as our souls, and thus to sustain our 'supernatural' life, as it were, and provide for us the way to eternal life with God. Certainly the Our Father teaches us the way we ought to live, in forgiving debts (or trespasses), or to be merciful and forgive as God Himself is merciful and forgives. And, of course, to fend off those pesky crocodiles in our lives, we ask God to lead us not into temptation, as well as to deliver us from evil. So really, in the one prayer our Lord Jesus Christ taught us comprises much of the so-called magic, which was really prayers made to gods in a time when few, if any knew the one true God. Therefore, why look to finding some elusive, secretive mystery of ancients when we have the whole of what they truly sought for in the one prayer of the Our Father? The Church is the fullness of faith for a reason. She has the fullness of what the ancients and modernists seek after in eternal life, but in its true form found in Christ Jesus our Lord, who is the true Lord of the resurrection. Thus the only true reason that people don't follow Christ into true life is either that they are deceived, or that they don't really want to live a life in truth.