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(Updated 9/6/21)
The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 9-13 reads:
This, of course, is the Lord's Prayer. Let's take it one bit at a time-- and we'll use a modern rendition for the analysis.
Our Father
We begin with an invocation. Who or what is being invoked? The Father.
Set aside your 21st century understanding of the world for a moment. As far as the First Century knows, the male is more or less entirely responsible for the generation of life. It is he who produces the seed. The female's job is to germinate the seed provided by the male, as the grain is germinated in the soil.
By opening with an invocation of the Father, we're going straight to the top, to the Maker of the universe himself. Two things are worth noting here:
First, in the Platonic cosmos, the create act doesn't consist of bringing something into being out of nothing. It consists, rather, in the imposition of order onto formless Chaos. This is how the creation is described in Plato's Timaeus. In an orthodox Christian context, this simply means that Creation begins at Genesis 1:2-- "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
In saying the Lord's Prayer, we're connecting to the creative power that brings order to the cosmos. You can see this prayer, then, as a specific theurgical ritual designed to bring about "repentance" or metanoia, the changing of the nous.
Second, after we bring order to ourselves, we can begin the work of bringing order to the world. This prayer is an especially potent formula for invoking the Creator of the Universe, and we can use it to cause change in the world of our experience.
Who art in Heaven
As we have seen, "Heaven" refers to the Noetic level of being-- the level of the nous-- in which the eternal powers that shape the changeable, material world reside. The Father is a part of the Noetic realm, but he is also beyond it-- he is the Father there, as well.
Hallowed be Thy Name
The word "hallowed" or "holy" is agiasthētō, in Greek, from hagia. This word originally means "set apart" or "different." That which is of the gods is different from ordinary things, as the spiritual is distinct from the physical.
We have already seen that the Name of God has power. Remember יהוה, YHVH: He brings into existence everything that exists.
Cratylus is worth reading in its entirety; it consists in large part of a half-serious, half-playful analysis of the names of the various deities. The one just given for Zeus is an example." Zena" and "Dia," which mean "Life" and "Because of," are not the actually etymological roots of Zeus's name, and Plato probably knew that. But by being willing to play around with the name, he is able to derive a meaning which sheds light on the nature of the thing named. Meaning itself, as meaning, is a function of the noetic level of being, which is above the rational; it doesn't matter whether any human consciously intended Zeus's name to mean "He causes life." The meaning can be found, and it teaches us something true about Zeus and his nature.
Plato also tells us, in the same dialogue, that the gods love a good joke.
In a similar way, the English word "holy" is used to translate the Greek "hagia." "Holy" relates to the word "whole" or "wholeness," and from this we can learn that "holiness" relates to "being made whole." Now "wholeness" is a type of "Oneness" and is therefore derived from The One itself, which is God. By invoking the Holy Name of God, we do the work of becoming whole, which is the work of becoming what God has intended us to become.
Thy kingdom come
This is the Kingdom of Heaven, which is to say, continuous existence at the Noetic level of being, of which we've heard so much. Here, we unite ourselves to the Kingdom of Heaven, and ask both that the kingdom come to all who can receive it.
Thy will be done
Every thing which exists has its natural Act, or, in Greek, energeia. The natural Act of God is the creation of the Cosmos and all that is within it; the Act of every creature is derived from the primordial Act of God. Evil is the embrace of nothingness, non-being, the rejection of the Will of God. We do God's will when we live according to our own proper purpose, uniting our Act to God's. As Plotinus writes,
There is no separation in the Deity; to unite our Will with the Will of God is also to become Whole as God is Whole.
Now the word "Act" is often used to translate energeia in the works of Plotinus. As a word, it is technically correct but somewhat awkward. A more common English translation of energeia, especially in Christian writings, is Grace.
On Earth as it is in Heaven
This is, in effect, a prayer for the completion of Creation. "Let God's will be fully realized in everything. Let everything in the astral and material worlds perfectly express its archetype in the spiritual realm. Let Earth and Heaven be united."
If we are praying for a specific intention, we can imagine the Divine Energy of God pouring forth from Heaven, moving into the world, and accomplishing our goal.
And give us this day our daily bread
We pray that we may receive that which we truly need. Since we have just invoked the Lord of Heaven and prayed for His Will to be done throughout creation, we can confidently say that Jesus isn't just talking about our material needs. Our ultimate need is to be united with God, and we are asking that we receive what we need in order to move closer to that end.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Again we are reminded of that most basic of magical principles-- We will receive exactly as we give. Here we are especially enjoined to give forgiveness. Now this is being expressed literally in the form of debt and repayment, and the suggestion is that the weight of our sins keeps us from full union with the Good, which is to say, with God. Often this is because we are trapped in a pattern of sinful behavior which we are unable to break. If we release others who have sinned against us, forgiving them their debt, we will often find that our own patterns of sinful behavior begin to fall away.
Remember that "sin" means "to miss the mark"; the mark is God Himself, and sin is everything that leads us in other directions.
And lead us not into temptation
That is, let us not be impacted by the rebellions of the passions or the manipulation of our desires by our society or by harmful spirits (the world, the flesh, the devil).
But deliver us from evil.
When we fall, as we will, stretch forth thy hand, and raise us up again.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.
This is a phrase much used in Cabalistic magic. The most common interpretation is this:
"Thine is" is the sphere of Kether, pure being;
"The power" is the sphere of Geburah, Divine Wrath, and the Pillar of Form generally;
"The glory" is the sphere of Chesed, Divine Mercy, and the Pillar of Force generally
"The kingdom" is the sphere of Malkuth, the created world.
In this way, God is shown as having three aspects-- Pure Being, Power, and Activity, which three together bring the universe (the Kingdom) into being. And so we close the prayer as we begin it, with an invocation, which seals the prayer and expresses again God's power to bring about whatever we have asked him for.
Addendum 1: The Cabalistic Cross
It is common in the Golden Dawn tradition to begin magical operations with a Hebrew invocation that goes "Atah malkuth ve'geburah ve'gedulah le oh lam, Amen." These are the words said during the Cabalistic Cross, and the whole ritual goes like this:
This invocation comes from Eliphas Levi, and is said, both by Levi and the Golden Dawn adepts that followed him, to mean "Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen."
There's just one problem: It actually does not mean that. "Atah malkuth ve'geburah ve'gedulah le oh lam" means "Thou art kingdom and power and glory forever." So what's going on here?
I believe that the mistranslation is deliberate. "Thou art the kingdom" is technically a heresy, identifying creator with creation. But the Name of God associated with Kether, the First Sphere of the Tree of Life, is אֶהְיֶה, "AHIAH," which means "I am." "Thou art" is a very proper response to "I am;" by saying "Thou art," the initiate invokes the highest Name of God while still identifying God as other than himself.
So, taken literally as a sentence, the Cabalistic Cross is heretical. It's also grammatically somewhat nonsensical-- "Thou art kingdom"? If, on the other hand, it is a series of names-- or, rather, Names-- it makes much more sense. And notice, again, that in the word "Atah," the initiate is simultaneously identifying himself with God, while acknowledging the radical Otherness of God.
Addendum 2: Two Speculations Regarding the Mother
As we have seen, this prayer invokes the Father. But men do not create without women-- not today, and not 2,000 years ago. By invoking the Father, Jesus implies the existence of a Mother. Who is She?
Speculation 1: A Father still requires a mother; a seed does not sprout without soil. In the Timaeus, Plato suggests that there are three basic principles governing the creation of the universe: The Form, the Formless, and the Formed. Now the first principle is the Father, the creative impulse; the second principle is the Mother, the formless something which receives that creative impulse; and the third principle is the Child, that which is created:
Speculation 2: If human culture is shaped and determined by higher, spiritual principles, then it was the will of the gods that the First Century saw the universe in the way it did-- and it is their will that we see it in the way that we do. We have made the "discovery" that, in sexual reproduction, the female contributes as much as the male-- rather than the male providing her with a seed, in fact they each have a seed. We can say that both create, though in different ways-- the male creates by going outside of himself; the female creates by drawing into herself.
If we know this today, it is the Divine Will that we should know it, and that we should think somewhat differently about the role of male and female did than our ancestors did in earlier times. Not entirely differently, as the extract from Plato shows-- but differently enough that we can justifiably believe that it is both proper and divinely ordained that the roles of men and women ought to be different in our place and time than in earlier places and times.
Such changes happen from time to time. Women in the time of the Sumerian priestess Enheduanna, who lived about 4,300 years ago, had higher status than they did in the Greece of Plato's day, 2,000 years later; and in Enheduanna's time, the planet Venus signified War as well as Love.
The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 9-13 reads:
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
This, of course, is the Lord's Prayer. Let's take it one bit at a time-- and we'll use a modern rendition for the analysis.
Our Father
We begin with an invocation. Who or what is being invoked? The Father.
Set aside your 21st century understanding of the world for a moment. As far as the First Century knows, the male is more or less entirely responsible for the generation of life. It is he who produces the seed. The female's job is to germinate the seed provided by the male, as the grain is germinated in the soil.
By opening with an invocation of the Father, we're going straight to the top, to the Maker of the universe himself. Two things are worth noting here:
First, in the Platonic cosmos, the create act doesn't consist of bringing something into being out of nothing. It consists, rather, in the imposition of order onto formless Chaos. This is how the creation is described in Plato's Timaeus. In an orthodox Christian context, this simply means that Creation begins at Genesis 1:2-- "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
In saying the Lord's Prayer, we're connecting to the creative power that brings order to the cosmos. You can see this prayer, then, as a specific theurgical ritual designed to bring about "repentance" or metanoia, the changing of the nous.
Second, after we bring order to ourselves, we can begin the work of bringing order to the world. This prayer is an especially potent formula for invoking the Creator of the Universe, and we can use it to cause change in the world of our experience.
Who art in Heaven
As we have seen, "Heaven" refers to the Noetic level of being-- the level of the nous-- in which the eternal powers that shape the changeable, material world reside. The Father is a part of the Noetic realm, but he is also beyond it-- he is the Father there, as well.
Hallowed be Thy Name
The word "hallowed" or "holy" is agiasthētō, in Greek, from hagia. This word originally means "set apart" or "different." That which is of the gods is different from ordinary things, as the spiritual is distinct from the physical.
We have already seen that the Name of God has power. Remember יהוה, YHVH: He brings into existence everything that exists.
It's worth comparing the meaning of YHVH to Plato's analysis of the name of Zeus in the Cratylus:
The name of Zeus... has also an excellent meaning, although hard to be understood, because really like a sentence, which is divided into two parts, for some call him Zena, and use the one half, and others who use the other half call him Dia; the two together signify the nature of the God, and the business of a name, as we were saying, is to express the nature. For there is none who is more the author of life to us and to all, than the lord and king of all. Wherefore we are right in calling him Zena and Dia, which are one name, although divided, meaning the God through whom all creatures always have life (di on zen aei pasi tois zosin uparchei).
Plato also tells us, in the same dialogue, that the gods love a good joke.
In a similar way, the English word "holy" is used to translate the Greek "hagia." "Holy" relates to the word "whole" or "wholeness," and from this we can learn that "holiness" relates to "being made whole." Now "wholeness" is a type of "Oneness" and is therefore derived from The One itself, which is God. By invoking the Holy Name of God, we do the work of becoming whole, which is the work of becoming what God has intended us to become.
Thy kingdom come
This is the Kingdom of Heaven, which is to say, continuous existence at the Noetic level of being, of which we've heard so much. Here, we unite ourselves to the Kingdom of Heaven, and ask both that the kingdom come to all who can receive it.
Thy will be done
Every thing which exists has its natural Act, or, in Greek, energeia. The natural Act of God is the creation of the Cosmos and all that is within it; the Act of every creature is derived from the primordial Act of God. Evil is the embrace of nothingness, non-being, the rejection of the Will of God. We do God's will when we live according to our own proper purpose, uniting our Act to God's. As Plotinus writes,
Can we conceive that for any being the Good can be other than the natural Act expressing its life-force, or in the case of something made up of parts, the Act expressive of that in it which is best?
There is no separation in the Deity; to unite our Will with the Will of God is also to become Whole as God is Whole.
Now the word "Act" is often used to translate energeia in the works of Plotinus. As a word, it is technically correct but somewhat awkward. A more common English translation of energeia, especially in Christian writings, is Grace.
On Earth as it is in Heaven
This is, in effect, a prayer for the completion of Creation. "Let God's will be fully realized in everything. Let everything in the astral and material worlds perfectly express its archetype in the spiritual realm. Let Earth and Heaven be united."
If we are praying for a specific intention, we can imagine the Divine Energy of God pouring forth from Heaven, moving into the world, and accomplishing our goal.
And give us this day our daily bread
We pray that we may receive that which we truly need. Since we have just invoked the Lord of Heaven and prayed for His Will to be done throughout creation, we can confidently say that Jesus isn't just talking about our material needs. Our ultimate need is to be united with God, and we are asking that we receive what we need in order to move closer to that end.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Again we are reminded of that most basic of magical principles-- We will receive exactly as we give. Here we are especially enjoined to give forgiveness. Now this is being expressed literally in the form of debt and repayment, and the suggestion is that the weight of our sins keeps us from full union with the Good, which is to say, with God. Often this is because we are trapped in a pattern of sinful behavior which we are unable to break. If we release others who have sinned against us, forgiving them their debt, we will often find that our own patterns of sinful behavior begin to fall away.
Remember that "sin" means "to miss the mark"; the mark is God Himself, and sin is everything that leads us in other directions.
And lead us not into temptation
That is, let us not be impacted by the rebellions of the passions or the manipulation of our desires by our society or by harmful spirits (the world, the flesh, the devil).
But deliver us from evil.
When we fall, as we will, stretch forth thy hand, and raise us up again.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.
This is a phrase much used in Cabalistic magic. The most common interpretation is this:
"Thine is" is the sphere of Kether, pure being;
"The power" is the sphere of Geburah, Divine Wrath, and the Pillar of Form generally;
"The glory" is the sphere of Chesed, Divine Mercy, and the Pillar of Force generally
"The kingdom" is the sphere of Malkuth, the created world.
In this way, God is shown as having three aspects-- Pure Being, Power, and Activity, which three together bring the universe (the Kingdom) into being. And so we close the prayer as we begin it, with an invocation, which seals the prayer and expresses again God's power to bring about whatever we have asked him for.
Addendum 1: The Cabalistic Cross
It is common in the Golden Dawn tradition to begin magical operations with a Hebrew invocation that goes "Atah malkuth ve'geburah ve'gedulah le oh lam, Amen." These are the words said during the Cabalistic Cross, and the whole ritual goes like this:
1. Imagine yourself growing to immense size, so that the Earth is the size of a basketball beneath your feet.
2. Visualize a point of light at an infinite distance above your head. Now imagine a column of light descends downward, arriving at last at the crown of your head, where it forms a star.
3. Using the first two fingers of your right hand, reach up and draw the star down to your forehead. Chant "ATAH."
4. Now, draw your hand down to your chest, and visualize a coulmn of light descending from the star at your forehead into the heart of the Earth. Chant "MALKUTH."
5. Use your hand to send a column of light out through your right shoulder into an infinite distance. Chant "VE GEBURAH."
6. Use your hand to send a column of light out through your left shoulder into an infinite distance. Chant "VE GEDULAH."
7. Extend your arms out to your sides, forming the shape of a cross with your body. See the cross of light descending from remotest heaven, through your body, into the heart of the Earth, and out to either side. Chant "LE OH LAM."
8. Bring your hands together at your heart, in the prayer position. Chant "AMEN." Feel and know that you are standing alone and at one with God at the center of the Universe. You can stay here for as long as you like.
2. Visualize a point of light at an infinite distance above your head. Now imagine a column of light descends downward, arriving at last at the crown of your head, where it forms a star.
3. Using the first two fingers of your right hand, reach up and draw the star down to your forehead. Chant "ATAH."
4. Now, draw your hand down to your chest, and visualize a coulmn of light descending from the star at your forehead into the heart of the Earth. Chant "MALKUTH."
5. Use your hand to send a column of light out through your right shoulder into an infinite distance. Chant "VE GEBURAH."
6. Use your hand to send a column of light out through your left shoulder into an infinite distance. Chant "VE GEDULAH."
7. Extend your arms out to your sides, forming the shape of a cross with your body. See the cross of light descending from remotest heaven, through your body, into the heart of the Earth, and out to either side. Chant "LE OH LAM."
8. Bring your hands together at your heart, in the prayer position. Chant "AMEN." Feel and know that you are standing alone and at one with God at the center of the Universe. You can stay here for as long as you like.
This invocation comes from Eliphas Levi, and is said, both by Levi and the Golden Dawn adepts that followed him, to mean "Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen."
There's just one problem: It actually does not mean that. "Atah malkuth ve'geburah ve'gedulah le oh lam" means "Thou art kingdom and power and glory forever." So what's going on here?
I believe that the mistranslation is deliberate. "Thou art the kingdom" is technically a heresy, identifying creator with creation. But the Name of God associated with Kether, the First Sphere of the Tree of Life, is אֶהְיֶה, "AHIAH," which means "I am." "Thou art" is a very proper response to "I am;" by saying "Thou art," the initiate invokes the highest Name of God while still identifying God as other than himself.
So, taken literally as a sentence, the Cabalistic Cross is heretical. It's also grammatically somewhat nonsensical-- "Thou art kingdom"? If, on the other hand, it is a series of names-- or, rather, Names-- it makes much more sense. And notice, again, that in the word "Atah," the initiate is simultaneously identifying himself with God, while acknowledging the radical Otherness of God.
Addendum 2: Two Speculations Regarding the Mother
As we have seen, this prayer invokes the Father. But men do not create without women-- not today, and not 2,000 years ago. By invoking the Father, Jesus implies the existence of a Mother. Who is She?
Speculation 1: A Father still requires a mother; a seed does not sprout without soil. In the Timaeus, Plato suggests that there are three basic principles governing the creation of the universe: The Form, the Formless, and the Formed. Now the first principle is the Father, the creative impulse; the second principle is the Mother, the formless something which receives that creative impulse; and the third principle is the Child, that which is created:
For the present we have only to conceive of three natures: first, that which is in process of generation; secondly, that in which the generation takes place; and thirdly, that of which the thing generated is a resemblance. And we may liken the receiving principle to a mother, and the source or spring to a father, and the intermediate nature to a child; and may remark further, that if the model is to take every variety of form, then the matter in which the model is fashioned will not be duly prepared, unless it is formless, and free from the impress of any of these shapes which it is hereafter to receive from without. For if the matter were like any of the supervening forms, then whenever any opposite or entirely different nature was stamped upon its surface, it would take the impression badly, because it would intrude its own shape. Wherefore, that which is to receive all forms should have no form; as in making perfumes they first contrive that the liquid substance which is to receive the scent shall be as inodorous as possible; or as those who wish to impress figures on soft substances do not allow any previous impression to remain, but begin by making the surface as even and smooth as possible. In the same way that which is to receive perpetually and through its whole extent the resemblances of all eternal beings ought to be devoid of any particular form. Wherefore, the mother and receptacle of all created and visible and in any way sensible things, is not to be termed earth, or air, or fire, or water, or any of their compounds or any of the elements from which these are derived, but is an invisible and formless being which receives all things and in some mysterious way partakes of the intelligible, and is most incomprehensible. In saying this we shall not be far wrong ; as far, however, as we can attain to a knowledge of her from the previous considerations, we may truly say that fire is that part of her nature which from time to time is inflamed, and water that which is moistened, and that the mother substance becomes earth and air, in so far as she receives the impressions of them.
This, for Plato, is the primordial Triad which brings everything into existence. Who is this Divine Mother? Some have identified her with the Holy Spirit; others with the figure of Sophia, Divine Wisdom; others with the Virgin Mary. Or it may be that all three are correct. Speculation 2: If human culture is shaped and determined by higher, spiritual principles, then it was the will of the gods that the First Century saw the universe in the way it did-- and it is their will that we see it in the way that we do. We have made the "discovery" that, in sexual reproduction, the female contributes as much as the male-- rather than the male providing her with a seed, in fact they each have a seed. We can say that both create, though in different ways-- the male creates by going outside of himself; the female creates by drawing into herself.
If we know this today, it is the Divine Will that we should know it, and that we should think somewhat differently about the role of male and female did than our ancestors did in earlier times. Not entirely differently, as the extract from Plato shows-- but differently enough that we can justifiably believe that it is both proper and divinely ordained that the roles of men and women ought to be different in our place and time than in earlier places and times.
Such changes happen from time to time. Women in the time of the Sumerian priestess Enheduanna, who lived about 4,300 years ago, had higher status than they did in the Greece of Plato's day, 2,000 years later; and in Enheduanna's time, the planet Venus signified War as well as Love.
