Using Repetitious Prayer to Bless Others

"The best way to get what you want is to give that precise thing to other people."
-Emrudue

In this essay, I want to teach you a method you can use to live a more blessed, joyful, and fulfilling life. The theory behind this method is summarized in the above quote from Emrudue, who is one of the ruling genii of the Sphere of the Moon described by Bardon in PME. If you want a blessed, joyful, and fulfilling life, then help others live blessed, joyful, and fulfilling lives. This can be done using magic. There are many benefits to using magic to help others. First, if you do it out of compassion, then by acting compassionately, you are strengthening this quality within you. Also, this sort of activity can generate lots of positive karma, which will support you and aid you in all aspects of your life. While the positive karma should be seen as a bonus rather than the main reason you are trying to help others, it is definitely a nice side-effect nonetheless.

Needless to say, if you are working through the beginning steps of IIH, then you don't have many options when it comes to ways you can use magic to help others. However, regardless of how far along the magical path you are, you are always able to use prayer, which can be a very powerful form of magic indeed. The method I teach in this essay centers on using a certain form of prayer (called "repetitious prayer") to help others live more blessed, joyful, and fulfilling lives.

The Power of Prayer

Jesus Christ, one of the greatest magicians to walk this Earth, taught his students about the power of prayer. In the Sermon on the Mount, he tells his students "Ask, and it shall be given you." Later in the Gospel of Matthew, he is recorded saying "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."

Daskalos was another adept who understood the power of prayer. In The Magus of Strovolos, Kyriacos Markides records a lecture by Daskalos in which he tells his students "No prayer has ever remained unanswered and no curse has remained unpunished." In an interview transcribed in his book The Esoteric Practice, Daskalos asserts that "What is asked for in prayer should be heartfelt, not serving egoism, and dearly desired, for sincere prayer is always heard."

A Unified Mind and Heart

In his essay "The Kabbalistic Secrets of Power Prayer," the Rabbi Ariel bar Tzadok points out that while the Jewish people existed at the time of the Babalonians and Romans, the Jewish people continue to exist today while the Babalonians and Romans are no longer around. In this essay, he reveals a teaching concerning the three tools the Jewish people had at their disposal to ensure their survival through the centuries. One of these tools is the secret to effective prayer. Sometimes, people repeat prayers that aren't answered. This isn't because prayer is ineffective, but because they are not praying correctly. Correct prayer is effective prayer, and the secret to correct/effective prayer is hidden in the way we clasp our hands together while praying. The right hand symbolizes the mind. The left hand symbolizes the heart. For prayer to be effective, it must be done with a unified mind and heart.

Praying with a unified mind and heart was one of the techniques the Jewish people used in times of trouble, and it served them well because prayers spoken in this manner generate powerful results. Throughout his essay, Rabbi Tzadok discusses several specific examples of this happening. When Jacob was attacked by Esau, he used the power of correct prayer to protect himself. When Haman, the viceroy of King Ahasuerus, plotted to have the Jewish people killed, Esther and her people used the power of correct prayer to protect themselves. When Hannah found herself infertile, she was able to use the power of correct prayer to draw down the divine grace needed in order to become fertile. The Jewish people have the Kabbalah, one of the most potent systems for communing with Divinity and accessing divine power, so it should not be surprising that they understand what it takes for prayer to be effective. However, as Ariel bar Tzadok writes, "The power of prayer is not exclusive to the Kabbalist. Anyone who achieves the proper level of consciousness can achieve the same results from prayer." 

Without a doubt, the idea of praying with a unified mind and heart has many layers of meaning, some of which can be profound indeed. As a starting point when it comes to learning to pray with a unified mind and heart, let your heart be filled either with love for God or longing for God, and let your mind be focused firmly on God and know that God is present with you and hears you. 

Repetitious Prayer

Prayer is a powerful spiritual exercise/technique with many benefits. As I was studying the diverse array of spiritual and religious traditions in the world, I noticed that many of them prescribed a practice consisting of repeating a short prayer over and over again. I have come to call this practice "repetitious prayer." Often, prayer beads are used to count the prayers. For example, the repetition of the prayer "Om Namah Shivaya" is common in many branches of Hinduism, and repetitions are often counted using a rudraksha. Catholics pray the Rosary, which involves repeating the Hail Mary over and over again while using the beads of the rosary to count repetitions. According to Mouni Sadhu, St. Seraphim of Sarov would instruct his students to repeat the Trisagion several thousand times a day. Sufis have a spiritual practice called "dhikr" that has several forms, some of which involve repeating a short prayer over and over again. The reason the practice of repetitious prayer is so widespread is that it has very powerful effects on one's spiritual evolution. I know this from experience. 

A Prayer to Bless Others

Using repetitious prayer to bless others isn't difficult. Just repeat the following prayer over and over again with a unified mind and heart. 

Lord God Almighty, Creator and Maker of Heaven and Earth, please bless Melissa, and please help her find joy, love, and fulfillment. Amen

Of course, you should replace "Melissa" with the name of whoever it is you are trying to bless. St. Seraphim had his beginning students repeat the Trisagion one-thousand times every day. As they advanced in their spiritual practice, they gradually worked their way up until they were repeating the prayer seven-thousand times a day. You don't need to start off with one-thousand repetitions of the prayer. In fact, that's probably too much for most people who are new to the practice of repetitious prayer. 

Needless to say, if you don't like the wording of the prayer given above, you are free to change it so that it resonates better with you. 

The Bardonian Mala

In IIH, Bardon asks you to string together forty beads and to use this string of beads to keep track of the number of times you inhale an element when accumulating it, repeat an affirmation while practicing autosuggestion, or lose your train of thought while practicing thought-observation. In this way, instead of your mind being focused on counting, your mind can be focused on the exercise. I have come to call this string of forty beads a "Bardonian mala" because it resembles the malas used in Eastern religions to count the number of times one repeats a mantra. 

The Bardonian mala can help you with your repetitious prayer practice. Start by repeating the prayer forty times each day, using the Bardonian mala to count. Let's call this one set. When you've made a habit of this, repeat two sets of the prayer (eighty times) each day, using the Bardonian mala to count. Once this has become a habit, repeat three sets of the prayer (one-hundred and twenty times) each day. This is a good number for most people. Since we all have to go to work each day, we can't spend all day repeating the prayer thousands of times the way St. Seraphim and his fellow monks would. On weekends, however, you probably do have time to repeat the prayer more than on weekdays, so it's not a bad idea to get a few extra sets in every Saturday and Sunday.