James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake” as an Occult Inverted Prayer

James Joyce’s final work, “Finnegans Wake” (1939), has long been examined through the lenses of myth, history, and linguistic experimentation. This article proposes a complementary esoteric reading: that the “Wake” operates as an occult, inverted prayer. Drawing on Joyce’s documented engagement with theosophy, Kabbalah, and magical theory, the analysis demonstrates how the text functions as a ritual evocation of the “universal mind” or Akashic records. At the same time, it systematically inverts the structures and intentions of traditional Christian prayer, parodying liturgical forms and employing a backwards, polysemous language akin to the reversed recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in black‑magic practices. By juxtaposing the “Wake” with occult conceptions of inverted prayer, this study illuminates a crucial but under‑explored dimension of Joyce’s project: the transformation of the novel into a magical incantation that seeks not to commune with a divine authority but to summon the chaotic, pluripotent energies of the collective unconscious.