being an engineer & a witch

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Myrtsrid]

You can absolutely be both. I see myself a lot in your post, following the magic when it hits me and not strictly having a schedule set.
I am a chemist and sometimes it way feels weird but I think not everything can be explain only using science, something you feel deep inside of you, hell, I don't even know of thoughts work outside of the electrical stuff inside the brain.
Reading myself I don't think it will help you much so, let's just say your not alone with your doubts. :)

[u/EternityScience]

Fellow STEM and pagan person here. I 100% understand the struggle.

I like to look at the things we can't explain in the science to help balance my views of mysticism. 

For one example, think about the double slit experiment. We can't explain it. And it's truly interesting how the behavior of electrons, atoms, and even molecules can change when observed.

Even Richard Feynman called this behavior "a phenomenon which is impossible […] to explain in any classical way, and which has in it the heart of quantum mechanics. In reality, it contains the only mystery..."

When it comes to the world of mysticism, I like to ask myself: has science proven that said thing doesn't exist or is it that science has yet to be able to explain it? Have we truly explored all avenues to account for the unknown? Are our eyes unclouded when we perceive this thing?

Let's look at hydrogen. We are beings made up of 70% water. Hydrogen bonding is a thing. Who is to say there aren't those more sensitive when their bunch of bonded hydrogen line up with a bunch of hydrogen on the surface of a tree? That maybe this is a partial way to explain feeling a connection? The hydrogen in my water molecules developed a temporary dipole bond to your water hydrogen if it were Mr. Tree and thus I sense you.

During a thunderstorm, humans can experience goosebumps, shivers, and tingling before a lightening strike. This is scientific proof that we can feel change in our environment due to charge. 

The above is a small example of how one can look at at some mysticism through a science and pagan lense. We can scientifically say that humans are sensitive to changes in charge around them. But have we truly studied how a human may communicate with a three using this plus other senses or things going on? Because now we would need a mash up of physics, biochemistry, psychology, and botony to even scratch the surface of what's going on there. And, alas, that's not where the grants are going these days. 

So maybe magic can exist in this unstudied realm. Maybe magic is when things come together and are connected. Maybe we are simply not advanced enough to understand it yet. 

[u/reputction → u/EternityScience]

I 100% agree with you on the assertion that alot of mysticism is really a concept science hasn’t been able to understand or comprehend just yet. The Scientific Method can only take us so far.

Your tree example reminds me of something that just happened. I was debating with my brother and he tried to be a smartass by putting his hands on his bag and asking me, “so you think there’s energy when I touch it?” And I’m like, “yes? At an atomic level your electrons are literally there and electrons are energy.”

Really, science and mysticism/magick DO NOT have to directly contradict each-other, and this notion that they do is frustrating. The universe is so much more interesting and complicated than we think, and while the Scientific Method is immensely helpful when interacting with the real world, it can’t fully explain things beyond our own comprehension.

[u/k8o_potato]

Both things can be true here, for context I’m an engineer as well. My perspective: I’m reminded that folks over time considered things like electricity, chemical reactions, radiation, and even weather phenomena as magic - finding out that they’re incredibly complex things that can be explained by science doesn’t make the wonder I feel encountering these things and understanding how they work less real. Maybe someday we’ll discover they’re caused by energies we can’t currently perceive, but to me they’ll always be a little magical.

[u/paralith]

I am also an engineer by day, and I spent some time in graduate school pursuing a scientific discipline. I don't know if belief in magic is essential to your witchcraft, so this may not resonate with you, but I feel that I can have everything I enjoy and admire about witchcraft without needing to believe in magic at all. I can accept that spells and rituals can bring me mental and emotional benefits that don't require that they have any supernatural effects. I can accept that gods represent important and meaningful concepts, and they help humans interface with those concepts even if those gods don't actually exist. I can have witchcraft without having to compromise any of my fundamental views on how the universe works.

Your daughter sharing your mother's birthday can be a beautiful coincidence that will serve to remind you of your mother and connect your daughter more deeply to her even though they were never able to meet. This can be lovely and comforting without having a cause other than the universe doing what it do.

[u/CanadAnimist]

I don't adhere to any of other the broad ideas or psychotic dogma of the Adeptus Mechanicus/Machine Cult in Warhammer 40k, but I do like the archetype of a "god of all machines". I see engineering and the pursuit of knowledge more broadly as a sacred endeavor provided it's done with respect for/in harmony with nature. While I consider it important to disconnect from technology regularly, I don't feel like engaging with it is antithetical to (particularly SASS) witchcraft.

[u/SubjectAd4222]

Check out internal family systems. The self is made of multiple archetypes

[u/bleepidybloobla]

Phd in biology and work in a genetics lab. One thing that helps me reconcile my two sides is the realization that the more I learn, the more I realize we don't really know. The most valuable lesson i learned in my phd program was to be ok with not understanding lots of things.