CHAPTER VIII

ROM the very outset, then, we are to regard
prayer, with which we include the proper use of invocations, ceremonial and ritual where necessary, as not the least important part of the sacred rites, both purificatory and telestic. And the Alchemists tell us, no less than the Hierophants of the Mysteries, the Prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New, that without it nothing may be accomplished.
Norton, in the first Chapter of his Ordinal, says :
“‘ Maistryefull merveylous and Archimastrye Is the tincture of holi Alkimy : A wonderful Science, secrete Philosophie, A singular grace & gifte of th’ almightie ; Which never was founde by labour of Mann, But it by Teaching, or Revelation begann. It was never for Mony sold ne bought, By any Man which for it sought : But given to an able man by grace, Wrought with great Cost, with long laysir and space. Also no man coulde yet this Science reach, But if God send a Master him to teach : For it is soe wonderfull and soe selcouth, That it must needes be tought from mouth to mouth. For God’s Conjunctions Man maie not undoe, But if his Grace fully consent thereto, By helpe of this Science, which our Lord above Hath given to such Men as he doth love ; Wherefore old Fathers conveniently Called this Science Holy Alkimy,”
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And Hermes, in the Tractatus Aureus, declares that “This science and art I have obtained by the inspira- tion of the living God alone, who judged fit to open them to me His servant.” While Zachary, in the Opusculum, is equally definite. ‘“‘ For no one,” he says, “‘ ever acquired this art by chance, but by prayer rather than by any other means.”
Basil Valentine calls this prayer the Invocation of God, and his commentator Kirchringius gives us some analyses of it, which we may with profit scrutinise. “Every man knows,” he says, “that hath entirely devoted himself to this business, how effectual prayer is, and how often those things which he long sought - and could not find, have been imparted to him in a moment, as it were, infused from above or dictated by some good genius. That is also of use in solving riddles and enigmatical writings; for if you burn with a great desire of knowing them, that is prayer : and when you incline your mind to this or that, variously discussing and meditating many things, this is co-operation : that your prayer may not be, for want of exertion, a tempting of God; yet all endeavour is vain until you find a solution. Nevertheless, if you despair not, but instantly persist in desire, and cease not from labour, at length, in a moment, the solution will fall in; this is revelation, which you cannot receive unless you pray with great desire and labour, using your utmost endeavour ; and yet you cannot perceive 79
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how from all those things of which you thought, which were not the solution of the enigma, the solution itself arose. ‘This unfolding of the Riddle opens to you the mystery of all things, and shows how available prayer is for the obtainment of things spiritual and eternal as well as corporeal and perishing good: and when prayer is made with a heart not feigned, but sincere, you will see that there is nothing more fit for the acquiring of what you desire.”
But prayer must not be considered, in the invoca- tions of the mysteries, or in one’s private meditations, as being used with any deluded notion of influencing the Gods and changing their minds, as if they were vacillating entities like ourselves, subject to flattery and capable of being swayed by a petition adroitly addressed. Nor should anyone suppose that the pur- pose of the Rituals and Formule is to force the Gods to this or that manifestation of their powers, as if man should set himself up to be higher than they, for indeed it is far otherwise.
But there is an essential something in us that is divine, or mental essence if this term be preferred, something at least that is or can be vividly aroused in and by prayers; and this, when fully aroused, longs ardently and strenuously for its counterpart, and becomes united to the absolute perfection, though this latter consummation is not to be understood as an
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immediate result, but rather as the outcome of pro- longed and concentrated endeavour.
It may be argued that it is not necessary to pray to God or to the Gods, as pure mental or spiritual essences would require neither praise nor adulation, which could be addressed properly only to God made in man’s image, and that prayers for material needs should not be made, on the ground that what is good for us will be given, and that what we want is known before we ask it. But this is a mistaking of the whole rationale of prayer, which is, at least to a great extent, that the very act of praying benefits us in and of itself, and not because it is heard or received through any sense- faculty.
For if we judge ourselves honestly and fairly, comparing ourselves with the Gods, then the very consciousness of our own nothingness leads us to a form of supplication of, or meditation on, the Divine nature, so that, as Iamblichos puts it, ‘‘ We are led from supplication to the object of supplication, and from the familiar intercourse we acquire a similarity to it, and from imperfection we quietly receive the Divine Perfection.” And if there is any relationship, however remote, between our meditation and the reality, it will serve as a bond or link to draw us nearer to our source, “‘ For there is not anything which is in the least degree akin to the Gods with which the Gods are not immediately present and conjoined.”
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There are thus three main types of prayer, the first of which involves a collecting and concentrating of our thoughts, which of itself will lead gradually to a contact with and genuine knowledge of God. Next comes that which effects the “ binding in communion with a single mind.” Lastly, in the most perfect form of prayer, the degree of elevation is such that the mysterious union is sealed and its validity assured.
The first of these, as lamblichos says, relates to illumination, the second to a general completion of effort, and the third to complete fulfilment by means of the Fire or Supreme Deity.
These stages are parallel with those enumerated by Proklos, which are the contact, the approach and the perfect union. They are preceded by the knowledge of the different ranks of the divine beings to which they belong, and the bond of union by which we become adopted by the Gods.
It may be as well, in view of the way in which this branch of our subject is usually misunderstood, to say something about the so-called “ propitiations of anger,” for when we understand what view the Theurgists took of the anger of the Gods, the matter is plain enough. Far from regarding it from the apparently obvious standpoint, they held that, as far as it related to the Gods, it was a turning away on our part from their beneficence, much as if we were deliberately to cut ourselves off from the sunlight by shutting ourselves
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away in the dark. The object of the “ propitiation,” therefore, was to turn ourselves back to the participa- tion of the supernal natures, to lead us once more to the enjoyment of the communion we had interrupted and once more to bind harmoniously together both those participating and the essences participated.
Thus we learn that prayers are an integral and indispensable part of the Sacred Rites of the Mysteries, and that continual exercise in them nourishes the mind, as it were, and renders what has been termed the receptivity of the soul more spacious. At the same time it accustoms us to the irradiations of that Light towards which we are striving, and by degrees makes clear the arcane knowledge of the Supernal Wisdom, gradually but steadily drawing the sublimated soul to the very summit of all possible progress.
To be brief then, and at the risk of seeming to be redundant, just as prayer is not supposed to influence or change the minds of the Gods, but rather to effect a somewhat in us that brings us into contact with the Higher Powers, so also the Invocations were not assumed to have any compelling force upon the Divinities, but to turn us towards the participation of the superior nature and to create a binding link between those participating and the essences partici- pated.
On which point Proklos is clear when he says: “In the invocations and at the Autopsia, the Divine 74
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Essence seems after a manner to come down to us, when we are really extending ourselves to it instead.”
It may appear to some that we have dealt with this whole section at undue length, but in our opinion this is not so, for we hold it to be of considerable importance in the work. In conclusion, however, we should perhaps make it clear that prayer does not of necessity involve at all times the use of verbal expression, or the direction of the prayer to a personal entity. Both these types are a stumbling-block to many, and we do not find that they are as a rule insisted upon by the majority of our authorities. But there are other, wordless methods, meditation, aspiration and the like that should be practised, “ For if,” says Vaughan in his Coelum Terrae, “ thy desire leads thee on to the practice, consider well what manner of man thou art, and what it is that thou wouldst do; for it is no small matter. Thou hast resolved with thyself to be a co-operator with the living God, and to minister to Him in His work of generation. Haveacare, therefore, that thou dost not hinder His work.” ‘“‘ Settle not in the lees and puddles of the world”; he says also in his Anima Magia Abscondita, “ have thy heart in heaven and thy hands upon the earth. Ascend in piety and descend in charity. For this is the Nature of Light and the way of the children of it.”
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