My Sword is Fire: Volume 1 (Notes on Prayer): Notes on Prayer, #1

By Falcon Books Publishing and Virgil

Whether you are new to prayer or a veritable pillar of prayer, this book is bound to provide you with unique insights regarding how to use prayer to accelerate your advancement along the magical path. In this book, the author discusses various ways that the infinite and divine power of prayer can be used to overcome the problems and challenges the aspirant faces as he makes his way toward adepthood. Whether you prefer to talk freely with God, repeat a pre-written prayer with a prayer rope or mala, or petition the saints and angels for help, there is something in this book for everyone eager to master the Royal and Sacerdotal Art.

The spirits of the planetary spheres are within reach. The astonishing powers of the cosmic letters are within reach. Read this book, apply its teachings, and seize the divine and angelic help available to you as you recreate yourself into the magician you've always wanted to be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Falcon Books Publishing
• Release date: May 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224653539

Falcon Books Publishing

The Franz Bardon Community we reference here represents just some of the Adepts who have worked through the three books of Franz Bardon, sharing their insights for the benefit of the community through collaboration with Falcon Books Publishing.

Book preview

My Sword is Fire

Notes on Prayer: Volume I

Virgil

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Falcon Books Publishing Ltd

Copyright © (2024) by Virgil

Cover Design and Interior Illustrations by Hermetic Muse Copyright © (2024) All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by UK copyright law.

First edition 2024 Printed in the UK Published by FALCON BOOKS PUBLISHING LTD St Neots Masonic Hall

166 School Lane, Eaton Socon, Saint Neots, England,

PE19 8EH

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Order paperback versions at: www.falconbookspublishing.com

List of Titles

The Elemental Equilibrium: Notes on the Foundation of Magical Adepthood, Falcon Books Publishing, 2017.

The Covert Side of Initiation, Falcon Books Publishing, 2018.

Equipoise: Insights Into Foundational Astral Training by the Franz Bardon Community (organized by Virgil and contributive author) Falcon Books Publishing, 2019.

The Spirit of Magic: Rediscovering the Heart of Our Sacred Art, 2nd edition, Falcon Books Publishing, 2019.

The Gift to be Simple: My Answer to a Student’s Question, Falcon Books Publishing, 2020.

The Franz Bardon Tradition: Interviews with Experienced Practitioners (contributive author), 2021.

Wisdom For My Younger Self, Falcon Books Publishing, 2022.

Rewriting Fate: Practical Hints for Bringing the Stage Exercise to Life, Falcon Books Publishing 2022.

Marian Hermetics: A Rosary-based Approach to Franz Bardon’s System of Magical Training, Falcon Books Publishing, 2024.

Built Different: A Hermetic Exposition of the Six Perfections, Falcon Books Publishing.2024.

God Lives in All, Falcon Books Publishing, 2024.

Future Titles

On Prayer: A Hermetic Anthology by The Franz Bardon Community (Organized by Virgil and contributive author).

My Spear is Lightning.

Nineteen Amaranth Beads.

The Elemental Equilibrium: Notes on the Foundation of Magical Adepthood, (2nd Ed).

The Covert Side of Initiation, (2nd Ed).

Dedication

For Yeon Yihwa

Contents

Introduction

1. Prayer is a Sword

2. Prayer is Fire

3.Autumn

4. Burning Away the Impurities within Us

5. Incinerating Problems

6. Taking Advantage of Things

7. Repetitious Prayer

8. On Strength

9. The Story of a Young Bardonist

10.Hitbodedut

11. Quality & Quantity

12. The Need of the Moment

13. Choices

14. Don’t Beat Yourself Up

15. On Attachments to Sense Objects

16.Physical or Digital Books?

17. Prayer & Mindfulness

18.Adepthood is More Important than Karma

19. Entering Your Room

20. Speaking of Video Games…

21. Speedruns

22.How to be a Bawse Bardonist

23.Avoiding a Comfortable Life

24. We Should Pray Because It is Our Nature to Pray

25. Prayer is Building

26. Forgiveness & Purity of Heart

27. Patience & Purity of Heart

28. Squeezing as Much Magical Advancement as Possible Out of Each Moment

29. Prayer & Conscious Eating

30. A Plan

31. A Life Spent Praying for Wisdom is a Life Not Wasted

32. Dealing with Problems

33. Building Your Arms Inventory

34.Mary Sees Our Knots & Doesn’t Judge

35. Knots to Give to Mary

36. Strengths & Weaknesses

37. Mandatory Military Service

38. Prayer is Lightning

39. Jeonsulsa Bardonists Have it Easier

40. Tres Cuernos

41. Prayer as a Spear

42. Awakening Your Inner Princess

43.Use Your Advantage

44. I Don’t Mind Waiting

45.We Should be Gluttons for Wisdom

46. Prayer Cocktails

47. What is Wisdom?

48. We Are Our Choices

49.Judgement Day is Coming

50. Power-ups

51. Temptation is Inevitable

52. Before the First Warning

53. Continuing the Fight

54. Preparing to Begin Training in a Future Life

55. A Prayer to Nith-Haiah

56. Finding the Prayer Again

57. Help Your Future Self with Hitbodedut

58. Searching

59. Climate Apocalypse

60. Critical Mass

61. Don’t Give Up Before You’ve Even Begun to Fight

62.The Concept of a Baseline Exercise

63. Breaking Through with Force

64. A Subject & A Teacher

65. Overcoming Choice Overload

66. The Saw of Wisdom

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Bibliography

About the Author

Introduction

This was a fun book to compile. I am one of those people who is always writing. Prayer is an important part of my life, so it's probably not surprising that many of my writings are about prayer. Over the course of my life, I have written many notes about prayer in various journals, notebooks, the notes app on my smartphone, and even napkins and paper towels if that's all I had to write on. This book is a compilation of some of those notes. It is the first book in a series of books of this nature. I hope that when the series is completed, I will have shared all the notes which I've written on this topic. 

Prayer is a very individual thing. To explore the art of prayer is to go on a journey, and every person's journey is unique. If 100 Bardonists went on this journey and each wrote their own book on prayer, the resulting 100 books might all be very different from each other. You might notice there are certain themes that pop up a lot in my writings on prayer. I talk a lot about the specific way of praying that is repetitious prayer; that is the way of praying I have found most useful. I talk a lot about using prayer to deal with health issues exacerbated by bad eating habits; those were some of the biggest issues I faced while working through IIH. I talk a lot about how prayer is like a weapon, because I view the process of working through IIH as a metaphorical battle. But other Bardonists may find other ways of praying more helpful, or deal with other types of issues, or prefer to think of the process of working through IIH using a different metaphor.

If there’s one piece of advice I have to give for engaging with this book, it’s that whenever I introduce a new prayer or way of praying in a chapter, give that prayer or way of praying a try before moving on to the next chapter. If the prayer or way of praying doesn’t resonate with you, you can certainly modify it. There are some prayers to Mary, Undoer of Knots in this book, and not everyone is Catholic. That’s fine. Just give your knots to God; he can undo those knots just as well as Mary can. If I share a prayer for God to heal you of your addiction to smoking but you don’t have an addiction to smoking, then just modify the prayer so you are asking God to heal you of some vice you do have. If I address God as Lord God Almighty and you prefer a less Abrahamic way of addressing God, then modify the prayer so that it addresses God in a way you like. If you actually try the prayers and ways of praying taught in this book, your engagement with the text will reach a deeper level than would be possible to reach merely by reading it, and as a result you will reap greater insights and attain new levels of understanding.

Prayer is a Sword

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Have you ever imagined yourself living in the world of your favorite adventure book series, show, or video game? I know I have. I grew up reading The Lord of the Rings , C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, and other similar works. Many of these books are set in a world where major problems can be solved with a sword, assuming of course that you know how to use one. These days, we also have Game of Thrones . I never got into Game of Thrones , but several of my friends are really into it. If you were living in the world of Game of Thrones , wouldn’t you go to great lengths to become skillful at wielding a sword? What if you were living in the world of your favorite Dungeons and Dragons campaign or the world of Skyrim ? You’d probably also go to great lengths to become skillful at wielding a sword. In those worlds, swordsmanship is a matter of life or death.

In the Orthodox tradition, the komboskini (prayer rope) is often referred to as the sword of the Spirit. This tool, however, is simply meant to help us pray. Prayer itself is the true sword of the Spirit. These days, the problems we deal with don’t consist of invading orcs, brotherhoods of assassins, or ruthless dragons. Those sorts of problems can be dealt with using a physical sword, but the problems we face in modern times usually require a different sword – prayer. I’ve always found it enjoyable to pray, as well as to read books about prayer. But for those who have a different temperament, perhaps you can make prayer more enjoyable by thinking of yourself as a character in an adventure novel, prayer as your sword, and reading books on prayer as learning swordsmanship. I myself sometimes do this for fun, even though I already find it enjoyable to pray and read about prayer. The truth is, the journey to adepthood really is a lot like being in an adventure novel. In his essay Teaching Methods, Initiation, and Esoteric Traditions, William Mistele discusses the secrecy of certain occult organizations and then writes the following.

For me, secrecy is like someone guarding a few feet of sand on a beach stretching out into water a foot deep and advertising, We can give you a taste and feeling for the sea. Yes, they can do that and some do it extremely well. But what I am after are sailors who are adventurers and who are prepared to sail a sea which has no shores, a sea whose winds are ecstasy, whose waves are bliss, and whose depths contain the dreams and visions of eternity. This is what I believe is the scope of Bardon's training system. It emphasizes discovery and direct, personal experience, an absence of secrets, and an endless process of transformation.

And in his essay The Shadow in Psychology and Magic, William explains that during your initiatory journey, you cannot shun any parts of yourself, and that this journey will therefore take you inward and through some of the deepest layers of your being. He then writes the following,

Therefore, on an inward journey, the individual will pass doorways which are locked and gates which are sealed. He will move past forms of life which appear dead or dying. But, like the conscious self, these personal, collective, and ancient desires and longing wish to survive. The secrets of the ancestors and the hidden pain and sorrow buried for ages has a claim on those who pass by. These things wish to be alive again, to flourish and to expand, so that nothing within them is denied. They wish to be reborn and to be transformed, to be healed or to be reunited with the whole so that they find that place where they rightfully belong.

Like the characters in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, you’re exploring uncharted seas. Like Aeneas journeying through the underworld, you’re passing through a realm of the dead. Note that the characters in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader had swords, as did Aeneas. On your journey through uncharted seas and the underworld, you’re going to need a sword, and you’re going to need to know how to use it.

One of my favorite saints is Teresa of Avila. In the Catholic tradition, she is called the Doctor of Prayer. Every Bardonist should also strive to become a Doctor of Prayer; in other words, to acquire enough knowledge about prayer that they could justly be called a Doctor of Prayer, even if they are