Ask And You Shall Receive Options

In my discovery of magick and assistance of a spiritual nature I'm curious about the concept of "ask and you shall receive."

In magick, I'm discovering, that there are many ways that are of various degrees of effort through organized and ritualized condition of the self, often through altering one's mind. This altering of the mind seems to be through discipline, self realization, and often requires one to release preconditioned doubts. There are varying degrees of opinion on the way of magickal achievements and for many the goal is often to assist ones own life (although of course there are numerous other goals that may not fall into the category of assisting the self - unless of course one see's all of reality as the self, thus any action's reactions will affect the ultimate reality of self).

But here, I'm curious about the concept of "Ask and you shall receive." Is this a much simpler way of achieving one's goals and outcomes? Do we make our efforts too complicated, and the answer actually is within the simplicity of asking? And does this "ask and you shall receive" ability, have requirements? A requirement of a certain frame of mind, of belief, of ability to overcome the doubt that it really is that simple? And if there is a requirement, how then does one achieve that ability? Is it in fact through conditioning of the mind, of breaking down the doubts, of self realization? or is it really just as simple as - that the universe does supply what you ask for, all you need to do is ask?

In my discovery of magick and assistance of a spiritual nature I'm curious about the concept of "ask and you shall receive."

In magick, I'm discovering, that there are many ways that are of various degrees of effort through organized and ritualized condition of the self, often through altering one's mind. This altering of the mind seems to be through discipline, self realization, and often requires one to release preconditioned doubts. There are varying degrees of opinion on the way of magickal achievements and for many the goal is often to assist ones own life (although of course there are numerous other goals that may not fall into the category of assisting the self - unless of course one see's all of reality as the self, thus any action's reactions will affect the ultimate reality of self).

But here, I'm curious about the concept of "Ask and you shall receive." Is this a much simpler way of achieving one's goals and outcomes? Do we make our efforts too complicated, and the answer actually is within the simplicity of asking? And does this "ask and you shall receive" ability, have requirements? A requirement of a certain frame of mind, of belief, of ability to overcome the doubt that it really is that simple? And if there is a requirement, how then does one achieve that ability? Is it in fact through conditioning of the mind, of breaking down the doubts, of self realization? or is it really just as simple as - that the universe does supply what you ask for, all you need to do is ask?

This is an excellent question. My own experience with just that subject is one i'll be posting on a seperate thread here, because I don't think there are enough really good examples of what the cost of magick is, and how we recieve what we ask for.

peace

Is this a much simpler way of achieving one's goals and outcomes? Do we make our efforts too complicated, and the answer actually is within the simplicity of asking?

Asking is, in a sense, asserting the initial intention - asking in whatever fashion. When you do a ritual, you're asking, or in many cases demanding, for something. Magick is responsibly done when you don't know how to achieve something on your own, so you're asking for information you dont think you have. When you pray you're asking for something, unless you're just worshipping - and I'll wager most westerners at least, don't. The difference between the initiate and the adept, is that when the initiate asks, he must then work to understand the information he recieves - even if it's unconscious - and apply that to his life. The initiate, who is only beginning to expand his consicousness, doesn't always recieve this information consciously, and so figures it out slowly unconsciously. His mind works the same, however, on that level, but instead of consciously choosing how to manifest that information and apply it, he simply expresses that information behaviourally, unconsciously manifesting and applying. The Adept gets the information, and then uses his considerable will power to simply apply it, thus his magick is more immediate, and more under his control. So, yes it is simpler and more efficient. Most simply aren't capable of it initially.

And does this "ask and you shall receive" ability, have requirements? A requirement of a certain frame of mind, of belief, of ability to overcome the doubt that it really is that simple?

Yes, all of the above, except maybe beliefs, if you differentiate between 'beliefs' and 'faith'. You have to be able to ask, you have to be able to listen, and you have to be able to apply. Even when do magick to accomplish a task, all that is really happening is we are putting information that we either have or don't have - combinations of, both conscious, unconscious, and external knowledge - to achieve an effect. Those unconscious and external parts are what accounts for a work of magick's seemingly 'random' behaviour. The more knowledge one has about how to get what one wants, the easier it is to do. Fabulously simple if you think about it's application to life. And realizing that - rather, experiencing it, because just reading it won't do it justice I wager - helps you overcome the doubt, and then the doors are all opened.

And if there is a requirement, how then does one achieve that ability? Is it in fact through conditioning of the mind, of breaking down the doubts, of self realization? or is it really just as simple as - that the universe does supply what you ask for, all you need to do is ask?

Yep. We achieve the repuirements by recognizing what they are, and that normally just takes experience. You have to observe your life in order to understand what causes what. Until then, the information you get - which is, 'this is how you get what you have asked for' - is largely unconscious, having no conscious frame of reference to compare that bit of information to. It's pre-experiential. This is why the initiate is counseled to do this journey and that journey, pathwalking, study, meditation, before he is, traditionally, ever exposed to the practice of magick proper. And it is in fact through all of those things that we gain what we want. You must condition your mind to work for you - to observe and access whatever information you choose for it to. You have to beef it up, and learn to observe and interpret information that you've never experienced before, and that takes flexibility of consciousness. Self-realization is important too, because you have to know your strengths and weaknesses - so that you can purge the weakness and in the meantime utilize your strengths in the necessary ways. The universe does give you what you ask for, we just don't always know how to use it.

The cost of magick is that you have to face the lessons necessary to get what you want, immediately. You have to exchange the negative habits that you're comfortable with for positive ones that will benefit you. You have to learn to handle the consequences that change will bring to your life. That goes for magick for growth, magick for psychic abilities, magick to get back at people - all of those purposes are going to require you to learn, to handle properly, and to deal with psychologically.

The cost of power is surrender.

peace

This post has been edited by Vagrant Dreamer: Jul 18 2006, 05:53 PM

It is important to remember that the corollary to "Ask And You Shall Receive" is "Be Careful What You Wish For (You Might Just Get It)". Magick responds to the Will and the Will responds to Thought. If Thought is unfocused, so too is the Will, and thus will be the Magick. If you aren't sure you know how to apply what you are given, you may not like the form your desire takes. The Adept gets better and more immediate results than the Initiate not only because they are better at applied Magick, but also because they better know their own limits, and therefore will have a better grasp of what not to ask for.

You also have to be able to recognize the answer. For some people this is the hardest part. I've seen people get what they asked for and somehow never realize it because they didn't get it how they expected it. As time passes, and knowledge grows, it becomes easier, and yet it also becomes more complicated. It's an interesting paradox to experience. You'll find that as you walk further along the Path, you'll want different types of things. In most, it has the tendency to become more ephemeral as time goes on. It becomes easier to ask, and easier to get, but harder to recognize it.

Personally, I find that it never truly gets easier, only different...

But, then, I also feel that a true initiation never ends, and so regardless of how long we've walked the path, and no matter what others may see us as, be it Seeker, Initiate, Adept, Master, etc... Somewhere, inside, we are all Initates.

This post has been edited by Caliginos: Aug 21 2006, 11:55 AM