A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book
Read A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book Online
Authors: Ceisiwr Serith
First published in 2011 by
Red Wheel/Weiser,
LLC
With offices at:
500 Third Street, Suite 230
San Francisco, CA 94107
Copyright © 2011 by Ceisiwr Serith
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser,
LLC
. Reviewers may quote brief passages.
ISBN: 978-1-57863-484-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on request.
Cover design by Jim Warner.
Interior design by Jane Hagaman.
Typeset in Giovanni and Stone Sans.
Printed in the United States of America
MAL
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).
For my father, who taught me to root for the referees
.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people helped in the writing of this book. Those who have willingly suffered through various rituals I've written while I honed my skills have gone above and beyond. Of these, I especially thank the members of my proto-grove, Nemos Ognios. The critiques of my work on the Ár nDraíocht Féin Liturgists Guild email list have helped me improve my style. It was Neal Levin who, by suggesting the book's structure, gave me the idea of writing from the point of view of a ritual.
I gladly thank my wife Debbie and my daughter Elizabeth for encouraging me and for providing me with an environment in which I could allow my thoughts to turn to religious matters. My time with two women who are so good with words has increased my own skill and, from the most personal point of view, most of what I know about the concerns of real people has come from them. Most especially, my wife has worked hard through the years, allowing me to take the time to discover that I could write. I couldn't have done it without her.
I've dedicated this book to my father. I owe him not just for the ethical training he gave through his dedication to fairness in sports, but for the encouragement this athletic man gave to a child who was so obviously intended for the more intellectual world. Much of who I am was formed by him. Thank you, Dad.
Contents
Poetic Structure
, •
Meter and Rhyme
, •
Poetic Style
, •
Poetic Ideas
, •
Prayer and Music
, •
Gestures and Positions
, •
Performance
, •
Offerings and Sacrifice
The Land
, •
The Hearth
, •
The Door
, •
The Threshold
, •
Doorposts and Thresholds
, •
The House
, •
The Ancestors
False Dawn
, •
Dawn
, •
Morning
, •
Noon
, •
Sunset
, •
Before Sleep
, •
Night
Dark Moon
, •
New Moon
, •
Waxing Moon
, •
Full Moon
, •
Waning Moon
Imbolc
, •
Spring Equinox
, •
Spring
, •
Beltane
, •
Planting
, •
Summer's Beginning
, •
Father's Day
, •
Midsummers
, •
Summer
, •
American Independence Day
, •
Lughnasad
, •
Lammas
, •
Monsoon
, •
Harvest
, •
Fall Equinox
, •
Fall
, •
Apple Harvest
, •
Samhain
, •
Halloween
, •
Thanksgiving
, •
Planting Winter Wheat
, •
Beginning of Winter
, •
Yule
, •
Winter
Birth
, •
Naming
, •
First Day of School/Graduation
, •
School
, •
Coming of Age
, •
Wedding
, •
Death
, •
Funeral
Society
, •
Urban Prayers
, •
Government
, •
Justice
, •
Peace
, •
The Land
INTRODUCTION
“But Pagans don't pray!” Of course they do—some of our earliest records of Paganism are prayers. Look at the Homeric hymns, the
Rig Veda
, the Hittite cuneiform tablets. Look at the earliest ethnographic accounts of American Indians, Polynesians, African tribesmen. Prayers are everywhere in the Pagan literature.
In response to this misconception, I wrote
A Book of Pagan Prayer
, in which I gave several hundred examples of modern prayers and presented a theory of prayer to help people write their own. The success of that book has proven something: Pagans, even modern ones, do indeed pray.
Even after the publication of
A Book of Pagan Prayer, I continued to write prayers—it's what I do. That led to this book
.
A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book
is in some ways a sequel, with even more prayers than my previous book. I've arranged it differently, however, so it can serve a slightly different purpose, to be of greater use in ritual. Pagans do pray for particular reasons, of course—for healing, prosperity, protection.
A Book of Pagan Prayer
dealt mainly with that kind of prayer. These have their place in this book as well.
There are, however, other kinds of prayers, those that form parts of rituals: starting them, accomplishing their aims, and bringing them to an end. These are prayers to encounter the sacred, to praise it, or often simply to acknowledge it. These are the prayers I concentrate on in this book.
Part I provides a discussion of prayer theory and gives an overview of the relationship between prayer and ritual. Part II follows the structure of a ritual, from calling people together to saying good-bye to both deities and people. Part II centers on petitionary prayers.