Full Frontal Magic: Prayer 2.01 Beta (We’re All Still in Beta)

Full Frontal Magic: Prayer 2.01 Beta (We’re All Still in Beta) August 21, 2016

a woman clasping her hands before her in prayer
melonascimento0 / pixabay.com

Many people pray. Sometimes multiple times in one day. Back in Catholic grade school, I was never taught how to pray. Sure, I could memorize the words and “pray” in Latin, but I often felt that was speaking to a wall. Before I really got deep into magic, I often felt that way about petitions. I know many people have felt the same way, even if they have prayed often to deity. Certainly one can have faith in their deities, and magic should be about the ability to change the world. “Petition magic” and prayer are the oldest forms of magic.  With a few tricks, we can make our prayers change our world more often.

To prevent arguments, let me clarify that I fully believe prayers should be able to change the world we live in. We can argue this point, but I come from the practical magical point of view that spiritual practices should and must have an actual alchemical effect on the world. I truly believe that relationships with spirits are extremely worthwhile and believe they should respond to our prayers if we are serving with devotion. My purpose in writing this blog is to help those of you who care about physical results to enhance your own practice using techniques that you might not have thought about. That said, I leave the philosophical arguments to the general collective. I simply will not engage them in this forum.

One of the problems many people have with getting petition focused prayer to “work” is that the words are usually not enough by themselves. In the shape shifting course I run, I teach people how to extensively empower the words for blessings and petitions through multiple exercises and work. Much of it is secret, but I will share some of those secrets for my readers.

When a prayer does not work, a person might assume that it was not the will of the spirit or spirits. In fact, they might even assume that they need to show greater devotion, penitence or fealty to get the spirit or spirits to listen. The assumption of course is that the spirits can intimately and intuitively understand us at all times. What if that assumption was wrong, and our day to day state of mind simply makes it difficult for the spirits to hear our prayers? Working harder to get the spirits to “hear” may not be the right answer in that case. Instead, we have to work to make ourselves easier to BE heard.

Before we continue with these hints, we have to have set up the proper places, have created the relationship context, and invested the energy for them to hear and act on our requests. That topic spans altar creation, evocation, and invocation. Conveniently, I cover all of these topics in Hands On Chaos Magic. Let’s get back to how we can be heard more easily.

First, what is language and why do we use language? Language is, of course, a set of symbols to describe the world. I love language, and wish I could write more often.  Language is also something that, for most part, we take for granted. For many people, language is just something that we are constrained by and that mostly deadens and simplifies life. We meditate and pray, but something is missing from that language of prayer.

Language usually masks emotion into neat boxes. Including emotions in the prayer language would be a step in the right direction, but we can go much further. What if the words of the prayer itself had to create a “vibration”? I am not the only practical magician to suggest that spirits work off of and understand vibration. Certainly the Kybalion suggests this, and the Mambos/Houngans in Haiti were clear on this point to.

If the spirits can “get” the expression of vibration, then to be more effective in prayer, we have to translate the words into vibrations. Vibration is an interesting metaphor that does not quite cut it either. A better phrase might be “information signal”. What we mean by vibration is a pattern of information broadcast using our minds. This is a signal much like a radio signal or a bell. Ideally, a signal is clear (meaning there is little noise to confuse the signal) and powerful (stronger radio stations come in clearer).

When we pray, what creates noise in the signal?  WE do. We get distracted, we think about all sorts of different things. Our minds wander and thus our thoughts cannot really follow our intention of the prayer to create the necessary vibrations throughout the body.   That’s right, throughout the body!

We can use the words to push us further into a clear signal.

a stature of an egyptian god
Ka statue of Hor Awibra / Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Let’s take an intention such as “Great God Heka, Heal Timmy”.

In the Shape Shifting course, we use a process to enliven the words.  Here is how the basics of the technique works:

What does this phrase mean in the five senses? Do you know what sensations are present when you know the spirit is present? What does Heka translate into using each of the five senses? To know the spirit to the point you can break down how the spirit produces effects in the 5 senses, is to really know a spirit. How would this example change if we used the Archangel Raphael (also associated with healing)? Or if we appealed to Jesus? To create a vibration and to evoke these things so they can hear us, we have to first really “get” their vibration.

“Heal Timmy” seems like it should be self-explanatory, but is it? The current state of Timmy is a vibration too. Depending on what you know about Timmy, you have “normal Timmy” and “sick Timmy”. If we care about a person, tapping into the sick Timmy can cause an emotional reaction, and it should. We should be sad about it. The idea of sick Timmy is an idea that you can translate into 5 senses based on your knowledge of the situation. The idea of a well Timmy is also translatable to the 5 senses. The prayer then asks for the spirits to change Timmy from one vibe to the second vibe. Generally, the spirits “GET this”, and they should get that the sickness pains you. Remember, if you have a good relationship with a spirit, they are not going to want to see you in pain.

a three panel cartoon showing a man recovering from illness
Fanette / pixabay.com

Generally, once you are fully immersed in the 5 senses for each of these, you are cutting the noise out of the prayer and definitely letting the body amp the signal. A prayer like this could be quite effective, if you let yourself go into the activated 5 sensory vibration of the words and repeat it for 20-30 minutes.

Already the discussion has two examples of connections and two sources. First, we have the connection and vibration to the force. Second, we have the connection to Timmy.  Our words and thoughts as the bridge for the spiritual force to change Timmy from sick to well. We have defined both of the states in our five senses, so the energy will follow the intention. In general, when you use this type of technique, it shuts down the noise right away and the body itself reacts to Timmy and to the spirit. The body will react if you connect with the five senses and that body reaction is much closer to “knowing” that the prayer was heard. Often times, when you connect the words via the 5 senses in this manner, you will get a strong body reaction which tells you, that spirit is listening.

Even thinking about the words in terms of the five senses and giving yourself enough time to really feel, see, and hear the vibrations leads to great improvement in results while using prayer. To be honest, the magic number on the prayer time is probably 30 minutes, unless you have developed great spiritual connection skills. Even when a request done in this manner does not quite work, often you get a sense of why it cannot be granted. You might not like that answer, but it feels very different from the sensation of the prayer being spoken to a wall. Of course, this blog is merely skimming over one of the methods of improving prayer’s ability to connect and change reality. We can refine all the different angles of the process to make one prayer that much more effective. Many of these methods we cover in the shape shifting course.

Although we used a healing example, you could easily rework the prayer to a prosperity, protection, love drawing or job prayer. People will have difficulties for anything that does not represent a clearly defined objective. Abstract words just do not cut it with the spiritual world. You have to work out what a general “prosperity” or “protected” state means to you in terms of the five senses before using prayer and have to have established a relationship with the force you are asking help from. Sure they might hear you, but do they have reason to act?


Patheos Pagan
Click here to like
Patheos Pagan on Facebook.
The Agora
Click here to like
the Agora on Facebook

Full Frontal Magic is published on alternate Sundays here on the Agora. Subscribe via RSS or e-mail!

Please use the links to the right to keep on top of activities here on the Agora as well as across the entire Patheos Pagan channel.


Browse Our Archives