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Sanguina Cruenta Vice Captain
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 Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:14 am
Does anyone have any favourite prayers that they'd like to share? I've been browsing some on belief.net. My favourite so far is:
The Earth shall hold me up
The Air shall give me breath
The Fire shall burn away my fear
The Water shall wash away my doubt.
Lord, may I live each day in Your honour,
Lady, may my every step be a blessing upon Your body.
~D. Sylvan
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:39 pm
I don't pray very often, but when I do, I make up the prayer as I say it. That's also the reason why I pray seldom: when I do it, I want the words to really come from my heart, so I have to wait for my heart to form the words. For me a spoken prayer has value only once. Once it is said I cannot use it again. I tend to think it like a sacrifice - you can give it only once, next time you need something else.
So I can't say I had any specific prayer I liked more than others.
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Sanguina Cruenta Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:18 pm
That's a nice way of thinking about it smile Thanks for sharing, Sindorel!
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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:32 am
I used to pray all the time, but not so much now. Mostly my prayers are silent and from the heart. I think you can use a prayer more than once, but it has to have meaning and emotion to it for it to be heard.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 5:18 am
I don't pray very often anymore, except for the serenity prayer, which I utter almost daily.
Does anyone use mantras? I have pulled my way through no small number of tribulations with repeated mutterings of "this too shall pass." It is a mantra to me, to the point where I am considering getting it tattooed.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 7:52 am
I don't think of mantras as prayer though... I think of them as words of power.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:16 am
A very minor distinction in my mind
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 11:13 am
Prayer, poetry, mantra, invocation... call it what you will. I just like this one. It's from a book called "Earth Prayers" which I picked up at one of those big warehousey book sales. Great little book. This one in particular is great for Samhain-tide or Winter Solsticey time.
To learn how to die cut down a tree,
Watch how so many years fall.
You don't need to have planted it for it to be your life.
You know countless trees have grown
and will grow where this tree falls
Everyone alive now will be underground
and will have gone from roots, branches and leaves
to roots, branches and leaves many times
You've seen how the seed of a tree
can rise from the pit of a stump.
Wherever your feet touch the earth
you know you are touching
where something has died or been born.
Count the rings and stand on the stump and stretch your arms
to the sky.
Think only because it was cut down you could do this.
You are standing where no one has stood
but the dark inside a life
that many years.
--- Antler
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Sanguina Cruenta Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 7:12 pm
Wow. I love that. Thanks for sharing, Starlock!
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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:28 am
The bookn I am readinjg:Thw Wiccan Way by Rae Beth is all about the prayers of wild wood witches. There are some really interesting ones in the book that I am going to share at a later time. I was just thinking that it would make a good book sugestion.
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Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:40 am
One reason I like the particular selection from "Earth Prayers" I put up (great collection for any Neopagan's shelf by the way) is because it reminds me of a very Sacred Tree at a Sacred site nearby. On the property there is a very, very large dead tree. The top of it has long since snapped off so there's only about maybe ten or fifteen feet of it still standing. The entire inside is hollowed out; the thickness of what's left of the heartwood and bark is only maybe five inches. This hollowed out Great Tree is more than large enough to comfortably stand in.
First time I entered the little hole to stand inside this Great Tree's dead husk, there was an immediate shift in the character of the energy. There was something amazingly awesome about it. Perhaps the awe was simply being able to stand within where something so old stood for so long. I wish I knew precisely how old it was or what species it is. It's too decayed for me to ID it by bark for sure, but I'm relatively sure it's a White Oak by the habitat. With a 100+ DBH it's in the hundreds of years old for sure. Being with such a Great Tree is witnessing a presence of greatness; it's humbling. All too often human beings think of themselves in a way that is above their true station as one of Gaia's creatures.
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Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:29 pm
How does one go about creating a pagan prayer? That would be an interesting discussion for many considering some stay away from the practice. Do you think some authors keep away from this topic due to the fact that it could represent/be close to "traditional" religions like Christianity?
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DragonicFlames Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 4:24 pm
I pray... nearly every day. Mostly because I'm like "Oh Gods -blah blah blah." Sometimes I pray to a specific Goddess or God. It kind of comes out of habit from being in a culture where saying "Oh God" or "OMG" is something that is a must.
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Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:47 pm
loona wynd How does one go about creating a pagan prayer? That would be an interesting discussion for many considering some stay away from the practice. Do you think some authors keep away from this topic due to the fact that it could represent/be close to "traditional" religions like Christianity? Not so long ago, that may have been the case, but there's a real growth of Pagan prayer out there now. Give it a couple of years and I'm willing to bet there will be websites dedicated to it. There's a growing number of devotional works on lulu.com. (Worth taking a look, by the way... many of them have their proceeds dedicated to a cause or charity as well.) There's a growing appreciation of Pagan prayer-beads, with many people making their own and even selling them online. I think the composition of formal prayer, perhaps to be used as a part of a ritual, or for beads, or just something to recite, has started to be recognized as something of a devotional practice. You don't even have to use the prayer; simply writing one can be a spiritual exercise. It's something I've only noticed recently, actually. Of course, an impromptu prayer is just as important... you don't want, for example, the prayer to just become the words and lose the feeling behind them. Always a vague danger with this sort of thing. On the other hand, a prayer you know by heart you don't need to think about. You recite the words with voice or mind, and you connect on a higher level as well without having to think about what you're saying.
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Sanguina Cruenta Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:51 am
Rae Beth said that Pagan Prayer, or more specifically witches prayers should include 3 distinct parts to them:
1: Invocation of some sort
By this she meant an address to the deity that you are praying to. Making sure that the deity knows exactly who your praying to and why. It could be a specific name or in some cases a statement like "Oh I pray to you lady of the ever green woods, wilderness and life" or anything hat address the deity you have in mind.
2: Description of the need or desire
Basically why are you praying to that deity or spirit? What makes you need their help?
3: Offering of some sort
How are you going to thank the deity/ spirit for listening to your prayer? What will you do in your own life to make sure you get what you desire?
Personally I agree with all 3 steps. The book Practical Solitary Magic had simaler components in their description of prayers to deities. How ever you go about it is going to be different for each individual, but still.. I'd say it can work this way.
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