Are You Open To Receive?

Frater Lucis · 15 December 2025

The universe speaks to us in different ways. In the classic sense, we think that when it does, it will come in the form of a burning bush, a booming voice from the sky, or some moment that is clear and obvious to us. But the universe has its own language, and works in its own time. It’s speaking to us every day. If you are thinking "the universe"/God/Higher Power never speaks to me, that’s the moment you need to realise, you haven’t spent the time to learn its language.

From a Kabbalist standpoint, life is set up in two ways: the Universe bestows, and we receive. The very first thing you need to look at is, am I built to receive? How am I preventing myself from receiving?

You might ask at this point, receive what? Information, understanding, emotion, opportunity? These things are rarely handed to us whole. They arrive subtly — through discomfort, repetition, confusion, and quiet moments we are tempted to ignore. And when they do appear, many people are simply too busy, too certain, or too defended to notice.

To receive requires self-inquiry. Am I actually understanding what is being shown to me? And if not, can I admit that honestly — without shame — and continue to seek? Sometimes that seeking is inward. Sometimes it means reaching out to those we respect. Either way, reception is not passive. It is a discipline. The key to manifesting anything is being open to receive - and you need to spend your time in the discipline of reception.

But reception is only half of the design.

In the Tarot, this discipline of reception is embodied by the High Priestess. She does not force answers, demand signs, or impose meaning. She listens. She waits. She becomes still enough that what is subtle can arrive intact. The High Priestess teaches us that being open to receive is not weakness or passivity — it is intelligence. It is the ability to hold uncertainty without filling it prematurely, to allow insight to form rather than grabbing at conclusions. Without this capacity, the universe can bestow endlessly and nothing is truly taken in. Yet what is received is not meant to remain hidden or hoarded.

What is genuinely received must eventually move. This is where the Empress enters the circuit. Where the High Priestess receives inwardly, the Empress gives outwardly. She does not give because she is instructed to, nor because she feels lacking. She gives because she is full. What has been understood, integrated, and made fertile within must naturally express itself — as care, creativity, generosity, action, or creation in the world.

From a Kabbalistic perspective, this is the completion of flow. The universe bestows. We receive. And then, crucially, we become channels through which that bestowal continues. When the circuit breaks — when we refuse to receive, or receive but never give — stagnation sets in. Confusion increases. Its often not the universe that stops speaking, but rather our ability to receive the flowing in of its energy, or the giving away of that same energy to others on the physical plane.

Manifestation, then, is not about forcing outcomes or willing reality into shape. It is about learning when to be the High Priestess — attentive, quiet, receptive — and when to be the Empress — expressive, nourishing, generative. When reception and giving are in balance, life moves. Insight turns into action. Understanding becomes embodiment.

The universe speaks. We listen. And then we respond — not by shouting back, but by allowing what we have received to take form through us.