A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book (5 page)

So we have:

• Isis, throne of kings, mother of gods and men,
  

  whose name was praised in Egypt and Rome,
  

   
  

  I, who am poor in goods, and weak in power, and in need of aid, pray to you,
  

   
  

  I, who in my weakness have violated the commands of heaven,
  

   
  

  I, who am weak from transgressing the holy way, who have become ill from my transgression, ask for healing from the disease I suffer.
  

   
  

  I, who have prayed to you will make your power well-known to those I encounter.
  

   
  

  I say this, I who have been healed by you, by Isis, queen of heaven.
  

   
  

A different structure used to address the
kami
, beings or things of sacred power, is found in Shintoism (Nelson, 1996, 108–13):

A call to those present: “You who have gathered here to pray to these kami on this day, hear me.”

A statement of purpose: “I pray that all might be made as pure as it is proper to be, as it is proper to do.”

An historical precedent, expressed as a myth: “As it was indeed pure when the land was made. It was then that Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto formed it. Then the spear was dipped in the sea, stirred it into foam; then from the foam came the land, pure and shining.”

The reason the prayer is required: “Yet we have done impure deeds. We have broken divine laws. We have violated familial obligations. We have supported the wrong.”

A description of what is to be done: “When these are done, the people pour out sake, they dance in the ancient way to please the kami. Best of all things, and before these things, they purify themselves, washing in pure water. They wash the hands which offer, they wash the mouth that prays.”

Next, the way the kami will respond: “With our purification of ourselves, the kami will be inspired to purify perfectly. With the performance of proper rites, the kami will be inspired to purify all. Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanimi no Mokito will impart the purity of the new land to each and to all, for now and for the future.”

Finally, an ending: “This is what I say today.”

And so:

• You who have gathered here to pray to these kami on this day, hear me.
  

  I pray that all might be made as pure as it is proper to be, as it is proper to do; as it was indeed pure when the land was made.
  

   
  

  It was then that Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto formed it. Then the spear was dipped in the sea, stirred it into foam; then from the foam came the land, pure and shining.
  

   
  

  Yet we have done impure deeds. We have broken divine laws. We have violated familial obligations. We have supported the wrong.
  

   
  

  When these are done, the people pour out sake, they dance in the ancient way to please the kami. Best of all things, and before these things, they purify themselves, washing in pure water. They wash the hands that offer, they wash the mouth that prays.
  

   
  

  With our purification of ourselves, the kami will be inspired to purify perfectly. With the performance of proper rites, the kami will be inspired to purify all. Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanimi no Mokito will impart the purity of the new land to each and to all, for now and for the future.
  

   
  

  This is what I say today.
  

   
  

There are other formats as well. One I often use is to go from the mundane to the sacred. First I describe the situation: the season has changed, I am sick, I lack inspiration. I then bring to mind a deity or an aspect of divine reality with which this may be linked by myth, function, or imagery. This gives the situation sacred meaning; I link the present with the eternal. In a sense, it's like a haiku.

This is enough for praise or for observance of an occasion. For petitions, however, once I have connected the situation with a deity and gained contact with someone from whom I can ask a favor, I add a line or two expressing that.

The basic idea behind all these forms is the same, however: name the deity, make the request, state why the deity should respond, state what the worshipper will give in return. The order of the elements may vary, as well as their content, but these are the core concepts found in most prayers.

It's a good thing if a prayer has an obvious end. This can be shown as simply as by a drop in your tone of voice. It can also be written into the prayer itself, as in the Shakespearian couplet.

Those who grew up in a Christian or Wiccan environment may feel that a prayer is unfinished without an “Amen” or “So mote it be.” This kind of ending can be in the language of the person praying (e.g., “So be it”) or the language associated with the deity prayed to (e.g., “Bíodh sé amhlaidh” for an Irish deity).

As we have seen, this can be especially useful in group rituals, where these words can be an affirmation by the group of what has been prayed by a particular person. It can be used as a punctuation point, separating prayers in a ritual. It can be used more than once in a prayer, as if one prayer were piled on another. If you do this, however, make sure the final ending phrase is more emphatic—by saying it more than once, for instance. A final line may be more elaborate, to put a seal on the prayer: “May it be so, may it be so, may it truly be so.”

I've spoken several times about beauty. That a prayer be beautiful is important for a number of reasons. One comes from the deities being individuals. They have free will, they have preferences. They are therefore more likely to be favorable toward those who please them, and beauty is pleasing.

Moreover, a cosmos is organized by aesthetic principles. A poorly constructed and performed prayer is like swimming against a stream, while a beautiful one has the power of the cosmos behind it; it is in accord with the way the cosmos works. It is in tune with the cosmos, and thus more in touch with the sacred. The more in tune with the cosmos you are, the easier it will be for the gods to grant your desires.

Also, when you are praying in praise of someone (e.g., a deity) or something (e.g., a season), the prayer should reflect that someone or something. It is part of Pagan theology that the sacred is beautiful (even when it is a terrible beauty), so a beautiful prayer will express in words what is actually going on. Finally, a beautiful prayer has an effect on the one praying. This is especially important in prayers praising deities or honoring seasons—the beauty of the prayer imprints the beauty of the target or occasion.

Prayer, like all forms of communication, is not just about words. The way in which prayers are presented can also be marked. Prayers are often sung or accompanied by music, even if only by a drum. You can use the musical style both to create a mood and to conform to the culture of the deity addressed—Irish music for an Irish deity, Vedic chanting for a Vedic one. Gregorian chants, even though originating in a monotheistic tradition, have become identified in our minds with praise and quiet devotion, and so can be useful. I myself would like to see fewer pseudo-Celtic songs and fewer minor keys in modern Paganism. Experiment with Country and Western, Blues, Rock, Rap. Pagans are supposed to be creative. Create.

Don't abandon minor keys completely, however. These can be great for meditations, since their droning can calm the mind. They are also appropriate for chthonic deities, or for the dead.

Major keys are brighter, lighter, happier. (They are also easier to sing.) They would be more appropriate for the brighter deities like sky gods, or happy occasions like weddings or the spring.

Time signatures are the musical equivalent of meters. In fact, it is difficult to write music for a prayer that doesn't have a meter, or at least a syllabic structure. One way to fill out the lines of a nonsyllabic prayer so it can be sung is with grace notes—a single syllable getting more than one note. This is very common in Gregorian chants, Irish
seannós
, and Arabic singing, among other forms.

Each time signature has its own effect: 4/4 is the most comfortable to sing; 2/2 drives on; 3/4 is a waltz and therefore easily associated with elegance, and so on. Unusual meters like 6/8 are difficult to sing, so they are best kept to solitary rituals, but they have their own uses.

These are Western rhythms, of course. If you are worshipping deities from non-Western cultures you may want to look at their rhythms—the pulsing beat of many American Indian songs, poly-rhythms from Africa, rhythms in seven time from the Balkans. Or you may just want to stick to rhythms that you can do easily. Better a non–culturally specific rhythm done well than a poor performance of a culturally specific one.

Your choice of instruments may also have meaning. We all connect bagpipes with Celtic music, especially Scottish music, for instance. But they're found in other regions as well, and their mournful wail is worth experimenting with. Flutes are found in both Roman and American Indian rituals, giving them a cross-cultural character. This is true of many instruments.

The simplest and most common type of instrument is percussion. Certain types of these are also associated with certain cultures—
bodhrans
with Ireland, slit drums with Polynesia. They can be used to line up with the meter of a spoken prayer.

Partway between poetry and music is chanting, which uses a small number of notes, sometimes as few as two. An effective chant requires or creates a strong rhythm. Chants are usually short and are very useful in groups, where the rhythm makes it easy to pray in unison. Chants are often repeated a number of times, which makes them great for guests, since they can pick up a chant as it goes along.

All forms of communication have characteristics that are nonverbal (and nonmusical). These include tone of voice, facial expressions, and body positions, especially of the hands. I won't go into all of them deeply here, just give an overview of body positions and encourage you to experiment with all ways to express an idea.

It's easy to think of body positions traditionally associated with praying. Standing, kneeling, prostration, and the many positions of yoga are among those that have been used by Pagans. One is so connected with prayer that it is called the
orans
(“praying”) position. In this position, the arms are held out at a 90-degree angle to the body, then bent up at the elbow in another 90-degree angle, with the palms open to the front. I don't know the meaning or origin of this position, but it is widespread. Perhaps it is like many greetings—a way of showing you are unarmed—or perhaps it is a sign of openness.

Hand and arm positions are also important. The Hindu
mudras
are fairly well-known; less familiar are those of Thai dancing, which can tell a story just as words do. It would be interesting to compose a prayer in sign language, performing it either on its own or accompanied by spoken words. Sign language has its own rules of poetry that could be played with.

These forms of gestures are mostly arbitrary. There are more natural ones, such as holding out cupped hands as a sign of giving. There are also gestures that have been absorbed so strongly from culture that they are automatic and comfortable—like shaking hands, which might be very interesting to use in a prayer of coming together.

Positions aren't always static, either. There are times when you may take a position, perhaps extending your arms, and hold it for the whole prayer. At other times, you may change positions, perhaps starting with your hands close to your body, then thrusting them forward as an act of giving as you speak your intent, then bringing them in toward your chest as if receiving what you prayed for. Gestures can serve as words, paralleling or supplementing what is spoken, with their arrangement serving like the structure of a sentence. The flow between them is just one more thing to play with to achieve maximum meaning and beauty.