Simple Prayers

I find little to like in most published Pagan prayers. Either they are conversational prayers anyone with half a brain could have come up with on their own - something listed as "a prayer for strength" essentially just saying "Oh deity, please give me strength" - or, perhaps as a backlash to this drivel, and desiring poetry over content, they are blatant rip-offs of Christian prayers; the Lord's Prayer and "Now I lay me down to sleep" being the most popular. Of course there are some really good prayers out there, but they're not easy to find.

I've mentioned repeated prayer before, and I think repeated prayer does have to be poetic. A lot of the stuff you find online or even in published books is not a bit poetic, and therefore to me not appropriate for repeated prayer. In fact much of it is the sort of thing anyone would simply state plainly when speaking from the heart. This can be interesting to read, but do people really need that sort of hand-holding when it comes to talking to gods? You can't say "Lady, please grant me a child" or "Lord, please strengthen my spirit" or whatever without it written down in front of you?

I have realised that much of what I simply say to my gods when I kneel before the altar, speaking plainly, is the sort of thing you get in these books. (Heh, maybe I could publish them and make a bundle.) There's nothing wrong with this sort of prayer, I just find it annoying when going out on the internet or in book previews looking for a prayer that is beautiful and poignant, and I find very basic things of a few lines with no substance. Straightforward, sure. Nice enough, too, but not something you'd bother posting in the expectation that anyone would actually recite it. Read it, appreciate it, maybe. But recite it? Can't they form their own prayers?

I do like the simple prayers for interest's sake. I like reading them when others share them for the sake simply of sharing them. I like saying my own, I like tweaking them and writing them down in my book - I may not ever use them again (in fact it would be a bit odd if I did), but because they came to me when speaking to my Gods, they are valuable, with their own insights, however tiny, that I would not want lost. I like most of all that they are rarely if ever just words... so often, they are responses to imagery and imagery returned.

Here is an example. Out of my head and on the page it holds so little of what I felt at the time, but it has its own charms. Or perhaps those charms are noticeable only to me.

Hail Lady of the Green,
Of moss on trees,
Please help lift the worries from my shoulders.
Hail Lord of the Wide Sky,
Of the brown bark,
Please walk with me, and keep me company.
Hail, Green and Brown.

Day Six: Prayer and Reciprocity

Heathenry is a religion in which there is a long and complex tradition of gift-giving and receiving. This is clear from the Havamal, and from the study of runes such as Gebo. (Gebo is one of the reasons I recommend all Heathens spend some time looking at the runes, even if they never plan to use them. They have many lessons for us.) We give, and in turn we receive. If we receive, we offer thanks. We offer gifts to the gods, be they the food from our table, the mead from our horn, time, etc. These offerings, by the nature of the gods, are not and cannot be equal. But they are appreciated. The gods are friends, and are kin, as much as we serve them. Offerings take the form of sacrifice, and as sacrifices, they should be a sacrifice. You give what you have, in the sense that they won't ask something of you that's beyond your means. But don't offer water when you have ale - the gods are your guests if you invite them to your hof or hearth. Treat them with the best of hospitality.

Offerings, in the form of sharing one's own bounty and one's own meal or drink, are not simply offerings of thanks. They are a way in which we share of ourselves with the gods. When we pour to the gods we aren't usually giving something that we aren't partaking in ourselves. Taking a drink and offering the same to a deity strengthens bonds with that deity. It is a form of communing with them - a communion, I suppose - and a holy thing. When an offering is gladly accepted, that is a wonderful thing to feel - a marvellous, moving and sacred thing. Additionally, in a sense, sharing an offering with the gods is a renewing of contracts. Contracts in which we have declared to honour them, and they to aid us, or contracts in which we have made an oath, and so on.

If I'm contacting a god I don't know well, I'll usually feel obliged to give an offering as a thanks for listening to me. With gods I know well I'll pray to them without feeling that need, because we've already formed that relationship. Gods with whom I don't have as strong a bond, or one's I'm meeting for the first time or am barely acquainted with, I'll feel I should make an offering because in a sense I feel I am intruding upon their existence, and should make an offering like a guest bringing a bottle of wine to a dinner, or something.

I very much like the concept prayer, particularly repeated prayer. I have trouble finding ones I like that are easily repeated but I have written a few nice ones of my own. Most published prayers for Pagans are very... dull, something the worshipper should have been able to come up with himself. What I look for out of a repeated prayer is a good lilt and meter (The Lord's Prayer in English has a good meter to it, as an example), and meaning, but an ease and flow to it that means once the words are internalised the prayer can be repeated whilst the mind concentrates on communion with the divine. I enjoy reading beads, and the feeling of them in my hands. In practice, though, I'm more likely to speak from the heart. I consider all verbal, and some nonverbal, interactions with deity as a form of prayer, and much of my prayers consist of conversations of a sort even if they start out with something more formal. I'm also a fan of wordless prayer, wherein communication takes place via images, sensations, feelings, emotions.

I consider prayer to be an important aspect of deepening one's relationship with deities. I know a lot of people are rather stand-offish with deities, even within Paganism which has a tendency towards wanting, or claiming to want, that personal communion with deities. I wonder sometimes whether it's a sort of internal difference between lay-people and semi-priesthood... whether striving towards deepening that bond with individual deities is some sort of consequence or symptom of that sort of mindset or desire.

A Prayer

I pray daily, at my altar, before bed. Well, I try to - sometimes I'm too tired, sometimes the altar seems so far away and I'm already snuggled down so pray in bed instead. Sometimes I forget. But I try to pray every day at my altar.

Sometimes I pray in words, but often it is an exchange of emotion, a touching of energies. These are the gods of my Hedgecraft and They have less time for words than the gods of the North. Sometimes when I am lucky They share with me in image, experience and sensation another lesson about Themselves, another snippet of what comprises Them. Tonight was such a night, and this is why I try to pray every day.

It can be difficult, and there are times it is unrewarding, it's true. Sometimes Their touch feels far off. It can be discouraging. Other times I feel Their presence strongly, and I feel blessed. These times - times like tonight - are the best, and these snippets of Mystery, or whatever they are, are what make such an un-signposted path worth the effort. They are what make it worth persevering with such a thing as a daily prayer time when it seems tiresome, or boring, or unrewarding. Harder times are followed by easier ones.

The Value of Formal Prayer

Formality is something many Pagans lack when we interact with deity. Informality can be wonderful, too - even the most staunch ceremonialist must at times, one feels, sit back with a drink and speak at leisure with their gods. Some are lucky enough to have set, specific formal rituals that are properly followed, as in Wicca. Many groups, even those that are eclectic, create rituals that are quite formal in construct. My own rituals tend to be a mix of formality and informality - one following the other as the business of the rite is dealt with and the sitting and chatting over a warm glass of mead comes to the fore. 

But outside of ritual, most of us have no written prayerbooks to depend upon (while a couple of quite good ones have been published, they cater to a specific religion, or a specific flavour of eclecticism). Hellenic Polytheists, of course, are lucky to have the Homeric and Orphic hymns at their disposal when they feel like offering formal prayer to a deity - and often have some to choose from. For others, they may have to form their own with references from lore. There are few Pagan religions with a book of hours or book of common prayer to fall back upon when words fail one, or lend some structure or formality to one's prayer.

I believe that formal prayer has value. That daily devotionals have value. There is something of a movement away from formal prayer in Paganism, possibly on the basis that we tend to have quite close, personal relationships with our deities. Why bother with formality if we can have a friendly chat? It's still respectful (at least, I hope) and it's more personal. I value informal prayer as well, as I mentioned; those informal chats are important too. Formal prayer, however, speaks to us as well as the gods and on a level we may not consciously appreciate.

I think I'll define formal prayer here as a prayer that has an element of cultus. Cultus is an observable act or element within a religion, so a prayer with cultus would be one someone else would recognise as prayer or religious action. It's not something, in other words, one can do sitting on the bus. Perhaps one chooses to light a candle, or kneel at one's bedside... to clasp his hands above one's dinner plate as one says grace or to leave an offering at a shrine, an altar, at the foot of a tree. One might read a rosary or set of prayer beads, or sing a chant. All these may be formal prayer; in this instance, I'm referring to formal prayer with an element of repetition.

The element of repetition may be the time of day, the place, the form in which the cultus takes. The prayer needn't be necessarily the same words each time. One person may write a different prayer for each day of the week, another might write an opening or a closing (or both) and speak from the heart between the two. Another person might simply speak their deity's name and pray without words. You don't have to use fancy words unless it appeals to you.

There's a monastic sort of inner stillness that repeated prayer and repeated devotion can bring. Simply lighting a candle and standing or kneeling before an altar can indicate to your mind and even your body the beginning of a sacred moment, a sacred communication. You are focused on your deity (or ancestor, or spirit, or other entity worthy of your prayer or observance). When repeated daily you can surprisingly quickly become conditioned to becoming calm and focused and of a spiritual mind, and simply standing in front of your altar may convey to you a sense of that stillness.

Concepts like "Pagan Monasticism" very much appeal to me - to a point - and I'll write up a post on it later. I've heard it mentioned by quite a few people now with a kind of yearning - a yearning for that structure, that stillness, that ability to focus solely on studying one's religion and serving one's god for even a short length of time.

Of course, while it would be nice to escape the world for a month and rush off to a monastery every time we felt the need, it's not a possible thing for us. Not at this point, anyway. Incorporating a moment of that structure and that stillness is often all we can manage. But it's worth making the effort.

The danger of repeated prayer and repeated cultus is that it may lose all meaning, and become repeated actions or words with no feeling behind them. Not every prayer will be truly satisfying and occasionally the best of us will rush through it with our minds on something else. The unsatisfying ones are more than made up for by the ones that take your breath away. But if you find yourself rushing through it more times than not, it may be time to change it. Stop. Try something else. You may keep your prayer informal for a week to give yourself a break, and return to your formal prayer to realise with a start how much you had missed it. Or you may find yourself rewriting it entirely. A Pagan's personal practices and beliefs may change over time and prayers should change to reflect those changes.

Most of all, it deepens our relationships with our deities. Formal prayer allows - and aids - us to concentrate on our deities, to offer our time and our love to them in a formal, quiet, still and sacred moment.

I've heard it mentioned by others that there's a movement within Paganism away from prayer itself. I was quite taken aback to hear this; non-theistic Pagans aside, why would you not communicate with your deity? It may be some form of backlash against unfortunate experiences with a previous religion, or perhaps misunderstanding on how the word "prayer" is used - some people associate it primarily with supplication. Nevertheless, I haven't run into anyone like this myself. Just looking at interest in prayer books and prayer beads, I think it's well-valued in Paganism, and growing more so. As it should.