Read A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book Online
Authors: Ceisiwr Serith
A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book (31 page)
The God and Goddess:
We leave with their blessings:
With the Goddess beside us,
even though we leave.
With the Goddess within us,
even though we leave.
With the God beside us,
even though we leave.
With the God within us,
even though we leave.
With the Divine Pair beside us,
even though we leave.
With the Divine Pair within us,
even though we leave.
We leave with their blessings.
Land Spirits (perhaps throw a handful of grain with each “Return.” May also be used as a litany):
Return to mountain and river:
you know the way.
Return to forest and field:
you know the way.
Return to desert and scrub:
you know the way.
Return to rock, to tree and bush and grass,
to animal, and insect, and bird:
you know the way.
Return, return, return to these, your homes:
you know the way.
Return, return, return to us when we call from our need:
May you know the way.
We ask from the East the gifts of the East.
We ask that they become us.
We ask from the South the gifts of the South.
We ask that they become us.
We ask from the West the gifts of the West.
We ask that they become us.
We ask from the North the gifts of the North.
We ask that they become us.
From each direction we ask the proper gift
to bring with us as we leave this place.
Spirits of Air, go on your way,
to your home, to that blesséd realm,
leaving blessings behind in the peace between us.
Spirits of Fire, go on your way,
to your home, to that blesséd realm,
leaving blessings behind in the peace between us.
Spirits of Water, go on your way,
to your home, to that blesséd realm,
leaving blessings behind in the peace between us.
Spirits of Earth, go on your way,
to your home, to that blesséd realm,
leaving blessings behind in the peace between us.
I smooth out the break between this world and the next,
zipping it up,
sewing together the halves of this seamless garment of the world we love.
Pour milk into a bowl and cast it as an offering in the directions as noted. (This prayer is complemented by an opening prayer found in
chapter 1
:
We stand, pillars, in the center of the world,
while all else turns about us.
In the Center, Cosmos gifts Chaos.
It gifts it with order and with peace.
May there be peace in the South
May there be peace in the West
May there be peace in the North
May there be peace in the East,
the place of prayer, the place of light,
the place of the Holy Ones.
And may there be peace in the Center,
where we stand, pillars,
while all else turns about us.
A home is sacred ground,
where gods dwell.
So we do not return from sacred ground,
where gods dwell.
We remain on sacred ground,
where gods dwell.
Those gods who have come to be with us in this home,
where gods dwell,
believe us when we say that you will always be welcome in this home,
where gods dwell.
Gods of this home,
believe that we are glad you dwell here.
And we show our belief, and our love as well,
with this poured-out milk and offered bread,
showing our happiness at living in a home,
where gods dwell.
The space which we have transformed from profane to sacred
we transform from sacred to profane again.
losing nothing thereby of the sacred gifts the divine beings have conveyed to us,
losing nothing of the knowledge of the mysteries we have acquired,
losing nothing of the memories of that blesséd land which lies beyond ours,
which supports and sustains.
May those gifts,
may that knowledge,
may those memories,
support and sustain us as we go about our everyday lives:
We are those who have dwelt in the sacred land
and will again.
The work part of a ritual can vary greatly. We've seen some of the major purposes a ritual can have in Part II. There are many others, however—some personal and not suited to group ritual, and some more appropriate to occasions when the rest of a ritual needs to be simplified, or even eliminated; while driving, perhaps, or waiting on the tarmac, or upon seeing an ambulance go by. Others, like divination, can be parts of rituals dedicated to other purposes. Most of the prayers in this section are written so they can stand alone or be part of a more complete ritual. I've given them their own section to make it easier to find prayers for specific occasions without cluttering up the main ritual part of the book
.
Another reason for giving these prayers their own section is that they are petitionary—that is, they ask for something specific. Some of the prayers in Part II are also petitionary, but petitioning is the main purpose of the prayers in this section; petitioning is what they are all about
.
I've organized the prayers by intent. Because of the overlap of purposes, I've combined more than one in some chapters. For instance, many travel prayers are for safety, so I put them in the chapter on safety
.
The idea of petitionary prayers may seem a selfish one. In a sense they are, but it is our personal relationships with the deities that are being relied on in them. “Selfish” is not perhaps the right term; “centered on one's own problems” is better
.
Petitionary prayers don't have to be for your own problems, of course. At their most basic, your concerns are tied in with those of others. The rain you pray for will benefit other farmers; peace will be a gift to everyone; justice is a requirement for a good society
.
Some petitionary prayers are specifically for others. Prayers for healing or prayers for comfort, for instance. These prayers can easily be adapted for the benefit of other people simply by changing “me” to “this person,” “my friend,” “my patient,” “all humanity,” or someone specified by name
.
Still, most of the prayers in this section of the book center around the well-being of the person praying. It's been like that for millennia, and self-interest is still the most common intent for spontaneous prayers
.
CHAPTER 14
GENERAL REQUESTS AND OFERINGS
We can ask the divine beings for just about anything. This chapter give prayers for some of these wide-ranging needs. It also includes prayers that can be used to prefix others. Here you will find prayers that don't fit into any of the other chapters but don't have purposes large enough to merit their own. Here you will also find prayers that are general, in the sense that more specific intentions can be attached to them.
