The common man’s notion of prayer goes something like this: “There are Deities ‘up there’ watching over the world. If one asks for help sincerely you may get some help.” And sometimes nothing happens so then one resorts to explanations like “Man proposes and God disposes.” I guess what I am asking is, “What is the Hermetic perspective on prayer?” Does it work? What can be done to make it more effective?

Prayer-as-supplication has at its root the concept that the one praying is separate from Deity. To the magician this concept is anathema. A primary Hermetic Axiom is that Deity is immanent — The All in ALL. In [the highest levels of practice], the magician incorporates the four Divine qualities into their own self awareness. This is a process of raising the magician’s own awareness to the level of Deity, not one of drawing the Deific awareness down.

In such a merged state, there is no need for supplication — there is only willing. Thus, it is not “prayer”.

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I’m trying to find new ways to participate in the world, ways that dissolve the dishonest and amplify the Beauty. Since beginning work with Beauty, which I mentioned in my last “Great Mystery” post, I’ve been rewarded with a greater sense of connection with the world and with what I can only describe as Divine Presence.

But that remains vague when I need it to start evolving into greater specificity, sharper edges, clearer resolution. Enough with the mystical poetic terms, how ’bout something hard-nosed and practical to anchor it to?

I was actually inspired by something a bit random. I was doing a little reading about the magical practice of evocation. Invocation and evocation are both means of contacting spirits, but the difference is that invocation means to draw a spirit or force into one’s own being, whereas evocation involves attracting that spirit or force to a separate location, having no connection to yourself, in order to interact with it.

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Some friends of mine have suggested that we hike up Pike’s Peak in Colorado this summer. I haven’t decided yet, but, frighteningly, I’m actually seriously considering it. It’s a good sign because it shows how much I’ve improved in the past few years, that that’s even in the range of my thought. However, if I decided to do it I’d have to condition myself for it.

But if I do it, I’ve decided that I’m not going to train for it in a conventional way. Instead I’ll follow a qigong way of training. I’ve been inspired by these stories.

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I graduate from acupuncture school in a month and a half, after ten semesters straight with hardly a break. How has my own health fared in that time?

When I first started school, my health had been going downhill since I did my year in the woods. I slept long hours without feeling rested, I was tired during the day. I had to eat constantly to keep from getting a headache. At the end of every week of school I was pretty exhausted, and took the whole weekend to recover. On a scale of 1 to 10, my fatigue was generally at about a 7.

Today I have had only one free weekend in the past month. I’ve been going nearly seven days a week starting at the end of September when I took and passed a board exam. In addition to classes and clinic during the week, I’ve gone to seminar after seminar and have also traveled to visit a friend, and am still trying to study for my next board exam. I’ve slept an average of five and a half hours for the past four days.

Fatigue? It’s at a 3 out of 10.

I’m miles better than where I was three years ago. Still not quite where I would like to be, but instead of lying half-dead in the gully, I’m clinging to the side of the cliff climbing a rope solidly attached to the top.

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I’m thinking I need to modify my view of physical exercise that I wrote about a couple of years ago, in which I quoted a qigong master who derided jogging and weightlifting as lesser or even deleterious methods of attaining health.

Upon rereading and considering what’s taught in that school of qigong, I realize that it’s best not to take things too far out of context. Even they advocate some strengthening exercises, such as squats, although they put strong emphasis on performing those exercises as qigong.

The reason this is coming up is that I’m still having trouble standing and walking for long periods of time, even after a few years of qigong that focuses on healthy flow of qi, and even after building up my overall physical energy, and even after a few years of Alexander Technique lessons that assists in freeing blockages.

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