Good Questions: The Right Way to Pray, Witchcraft, and Holy Spots While Traveling

Is There a Right Way to Pray?

Dear Dr. Tom: What’s the controversy about praying “to” God, “from” God, or “as” God?

—Confused in Connecticut

Dear C.C.: I’ll take another run at your really good question, raised by ministers and laypeople continually. Let me be clear. I’m speaking as one Unity minister and theologian, not as the official voice of Unity.

Sometime after my first Unity studies in the 1970s, Unity prayer language shifted profoundly. Quite a few teachers today seem uncomfortable with a “pray to God” orientation, preferring to affirm the Divine within (the “pray from” option or the oneness approach). The third type you mention, prayer “as” God, attempts to claim fully our identity as incarnations of the one presence, one power, which is also a oneness methodology.

As a Unity theologian, I would argue that all three prayer orientations—which author Ken Wilber has called the “Three Faces of God”—have equal value. During the lifetimes of Unity founders Charles Fillmore and Myrtle Fillmore, nobody questioned “prayer to” God, from whom all life, energy, love, and grace flows. Yet affirmative prayer from the Divine within was also central to Fillmorean thought.

Globally, prayer most often involves speaking to something outside yourself. Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Bahá’ís, and others pray to God or other divine beings. In the case of Catholicism, this includes prayer to the saints. Divine prayer energy might come from within, but it goes forth and finds communion with something greater in the cosmos, of which we are all part.

I like to think of prayer to God—whether to Vishnu, Allah, Yahweh, or the Holy Spirit—as my part of God communicating with the rest of It. I am confident we can find ways to say, “Thank you, God …” without expecting the skies to open and reveal a Santa Claus in heaven.

What Are Your Thoughts on Witchcraft?

Dear Dr. Tom: I consider myself a Christian, yet I am fascinated by witchcraft. Some people confuse the practice of witchcraft with Satanism, which it definitely is not. It’s also not the Harry Potter stories, charming as they are. As a Unity theologian, what is your take on the subject?

—Christian Witch, British Isles

Dear Witchy Christian: You said it quite well. The “witches” I have met are mostly followers of Celtic traditions, attempting to recover pre-Christian European religion. They recreate rituals based on romantic models of earlier times. Witches don’t cast evil spells or brew love potions. (One told me privately she wished they could, because her love life needed a boost!) Like the spirituality of Indigenous peoples, most witches commune with the Divine through ceremonial gatherings, ritual, and meditation.

So, if you have no problem integrating that deep well of ancient practices with the flowing river of Christian life, then I’m fairly certain Jesus wouldn’t object.

Have You Come Across Holy Spots While Traveling?

Yo, Dr. Tom: I got a serious buzz while walking along the Ganges. I’m talking the Ganges River in India, man. Not a Tokyo-Disney recreation of Spiritual Kingdoms. During your travels, have you tripped in a holy spot, for real?

—Spiritual Mile-High in Denver

Yo, Back At You, Mile-High Guy: Several places, for real. One that echoes through memory happened in the catacombs under the city of Rome. My wife Carol-Jean and I took a busload of U.S. Army soldiers on a chaplain’s jaunt through Italy that included Vatican City, the Colosseum, and the Roman Forum. Very nice, chock-full of history.

Then we descended into the tombs under the Eternal City, where groups of Christians met in secret worship. It was quiet at first, then rich, mellifluous sounds of an a cappella song echoed down the stone passageway. Another group paused to sing in a language I did not recognize. They transported me back to the early centuries. It was ethereal, the voices of angels. The distant song ended, our tour continued, and I have carried the moment with me for decades. So, yeah, dude, I’ve tripped in a holy spot thanks to angelic song across time and space.

This article appeared in Unity Magazine®.