Magic as Prayer

Ouch. Hitting below the belt with the Rosary meditation, a longstanding favorite of mine. Nevertheless:

As the conservative, I can't blame you for playing conservatively, but I still think you're off a bit. The driving force behind the Rosary isn't just divinity, it's effort. "Pure" intercession is about as effective as The Secret, and with a much better pedigree of not working.

Like anything else, what drives the work is Gnosis. Pure magical will. Whether it's Paul exhorting Thessalonians to "pray without ceasing" or Crowley telling all young seekers everywhere to "inflame yourself with prayer," it's the effort of the thing that drives the wheel.

The visions and miracles generated by the rosary are gifts, to be sure, but they're given in measure that they've been earned. Go around once and pray 6 Our Father's, 6 Glory Be's, and 53 Hail Mary's. All 3 traditional mysteries? Make that 16, 16, and 153. Adding the Luminous Mysteries? That'll be 21, 21, and 203, please drive up. Officially the longest ritual prayer I've taken part in.

And, if you happen to work in a tradition that features 4 additional on top of that, you could conceivably in a single working pray 41 Our Father's, 41 Glory Be's, and 403 Hail Mary's in a single formal prayer.

And let's not start on the Novena, the traditional 9 days of formal prayer.

All these add up to one point: even the users of the Rosary recognize that results come from effort, and effort is a result of training. If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go pump some beads now.