Alchemical Prayer. An article by Miranda Holden

Alchemical Prayer - Miranda Holden

Prayer is the bridge over troubled water that can ease your mind. Through prayer you gain access to a grace beyond this world that can deliver you out of painful bondage and into deep peace. Prayer is the most underrated, under-tried method of transforming obstacles, yet one of the most effective.

In my early twenties I began to work with an adapted form of ‘treatment prayer' as taught in Science of Mind metaphysics. It showed me how to identify problems and their hidden payoffs in my mind, and hand them over to the Divine for healing. I was stunned at how directly and powerfully such prayers released me back into a more truthful awareness. Neuroses, limiting beliefs and fears evaporated more effortlessly.

Whenever I was aware of feeling afraid, inadequate or caught up in old patterns I would stop and pray in this way. My prayers were always answered by a feeling of greater peace. Prayer seemed to back my willingness to move forward with the might of Heaven. With such a potent tool I began to know that nothing was beyond my reach.

I have seen prayer turn around deep depressions, lift intense pain and transform many kinds of seemingly hopeless situations. Just as an aeroplane pilot continues to travel forward but seeks a higher altitude when encountering turbulence, so prayer helps you to find higher ground for the way forward when challenges arise.

The ladder back to peace

All difficult, painful feelings come from having unknowingly taken a detour into a state of separation, where fear, guilt and lack reign. In this state, resources are limited and you lie victim to others' behaviours in the external world. The beginning of any resolution is the rising out of your Ego Self into your Boundless Self. Here, the wisdom, love and vision needed are available to you. Whether or not you remember having wandered into a fearful state, prayer acts as a re-set button, helping you to find your feet in love and trust again.

Even if you believe in a transcendent Divine presence, or Buddha nature within rather than a personal God, prayer calls that Presence into the forefront of your awareness. As you pray, your true nature becomes dynamic in your being. Rising into Love's boundless vision instead of your ego's limitations, your state shifts. Flow returns, and you feel lighter and more refined.

It is never God's will that you suffer, but the Boundless cannot help you with things you keep to yourself. That is why you must bring your darkness to the light to allow grace to release you. A loving God will never force or demand anything of you and will never violate your free will. Whenever you try to handle your difficulties alone, you perpetuate your own suffering and remove yourself from Divine help. Yet, should you change your mind and ask, Boundless Love will respond fully.

God's grace is a corrective force that is entirely free of judgement, therefore it is safe to give over even your darkest thoughts. Whenever you surrender your mistaken perceptions, beliefs, fear and doubts to the Boundless, grace clears the way for you. Common anxieties such as believing you are not good enough, feeling unworthy to receive abundant happiness, feeling unlovable, believing you need to prove yourself or thinking something terrible would happen if you failed to meet someone's expectations, are mistakes that call for correction. They contradict the reality of your wholeness and obstruct your true unlimited nature.

Muster as much honesty as possible about the true causes of your pain or block. The more specific you are, the better. Then raise your willingness to come back to peace, and yield yourself to God. Whenever you genuinely offer up your mistaken beliefs and fears they are untied like Divine nimble fingers untying a knotted ball of wool. In the light of Boundless Love, your illusions dissolve. You are released back into a truer awareness of your Self and what is. In undoing mistaken perceptions, flow, clarity and wisdom re-emerge.

Nothing is too great or small to ask for Divine help. This is the message that has been repeated by countless sages across the globe. The Koran invites us to, ‘Call upon God for untying the lace upon your sandal.’ Jesus directs his disciples to ‘be as little children'. Children are not afraid to ask for insight when they do not understand. Do not content yourself with just a little less fear, God wants you to have complete peace of mind, a deeply sweet life and to know, give and receive Boundless Love.

The more you call upon God, the more substantially you will feel the power and the presence with you. Your capacity to receive will increase, and you will come into a deeper realisation of just how profoundly abundant life really is. This will support every area of your life.

Just speak to God

Prayer need not be a particularly pious act, just a natural speaking to God of our intentions and yearnings. Many of us have become so accustomed to thinking we need to do everything ourselves that we forget to pray. The only way to remedy this is to weave prayer regularly into your life. Too often, we use prayer as a last resort – something to do when all else fails. If you want life to be less of a struggle, pray first! The minute you experience fear in any form, a problem, a feeling of being disconnected from love, stop then and there, and pray. Turn you mind and any problems within it over to God.

It does not matter how often you become unstuck. At any moment prayer offers you a rope back to shore. Do not be proud. Do not struggle – pray.

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