Jeff Russell

Thanks very much for your thoughtful comments!

1) Huh, I had not linked "On Earth as it is in Heaven" with that Hermetic maxim, very interesting! It seems like a it might be a fruitful meditation to think through the seven Hermetic laws presented in various places with slight variations and how the Our Father/Lord's Prayer might reflect that.

2) Also quite interesting. Personally, I find the idea of an omnibenevolent deity causing evil to be one of the better arguments against monotheism, but even without going there, the thought that you will be presented with just the right amount of temptation to develop spiritually is an interesting one.

3) That's a fair point and one made quite often by the Council (and also by Montford in The Seccret of the Rosary). I glossed over that bit to some extent since it is a prayer given by a Deity I no longer worship, so it seemed like a less-helpful point for non-Christians. That being said, to the degree that holy traditions have words purported to come straight from the divine, those are likely potent religious-magical tools (as a Heathen, I draw a lot on Havamal, for example).

4) Thanks for the addendum - this is fascinating. I'm not going to lie: I'm sometimes jealous of the straightforwardness of "here's a prayer literally straight from the mouth of God, use this and good things will follow." I'm personally at an early enough stage of development that any intimations of the Divine I'm working with are vague and subject to lots of interpretation distortion, but I'm hoping if I keep up my practices, I'll be able to work it out.

Cheers,
Jeff