A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book (12 page)

• Your moving flames are my home's still center,
  

  the many tongues, your tongue, speaking silence.
  

   
  

  I will sit here and listen.
  

   
  

  Lukipoty
  [Shining Lady]
  

   
  

• Protector of the Door, be:
  

  closed against enemies
  

   
  

  open to friends
  

   
  

  welcoming to guests who approach you.
  

   
  

• Before opening you for the first time, Door,
  

  let me introduce myself with this gift.
  

   
  

  We'll be working together closely from now on,
  

   
  

  so let's get off on the right foot.
  

   
  

• I'm stepping with my right foot,
  

  over, not on you:
  

   
  

  see my respect.
  

   
  

• Rise as a wall against danger,
  

  lie still, a gentle pathway,
  

   
  

  for blessings.
  

   
  

• Upright standers,
  

  we walk between.
  

   
  

  Spirits of the doorposts,
  

   
  

  watch over us.
  

   
  

  We go out,
  

   
  

  We come in,
  

   
  

  Watch over us.
  

   
  

  Lying flat,
  

   
  

  we walk over.
  

   
  

  Spirit of the threshold,
  

   
  

  watch over us.
  

   
  

  We go out,
  

   
  

  We come in,
  

   
  

  Watch over us.
  

   
  

Domovoi:

• I place this bread for you, Domovoi, next to the stove:
  

  may this home be prosperous,
  

   
  

  this family happy,
  

   
  

  through your help.
  

   
  

Hermes:

• Closely have I read,
  

  and often,
  

   
  

  of how you stole Apollo's cattle,
  

   
  

  and by clever stratagem sought to hide the deed
  

   
  

  and avoid your guilt,
  

   
  

  becoming thereby the god of thieves.
  

   
  

  Trickster, I ask you to turn your trickery against those selfsame thieves,
  

   
  

  and defeat the aims of those who would despoil this house.
  

   
  

  Hermes, I praise your intelligence, which will ever find a way in,
  

   
  

  and ask that it be just as effective in keeping burglars out.
  

   
  

House Spirits

• Be under the protection of the Hearth,
  

  House Spirits:
  

   
  

  We will offer to you at times.
  

   
  

• May the spirits of the wood and minerals that make up this house
  

  live well, live honored lives.
  

   
  

  Aware of your presence, we place ourselves under your protection with this offering,
  

   
  

  and promise offerings in the future.
  

   
  

• May the pillars of this home stand as erect and faithful as the phallus of the God.
  

  May its floors support it as faithfully as the wideextending body of the Goddess.
  

   
  

  May we, those who dwell in this house,
  

   
  

  continually receive blessings from the presence of the God and Goddess.
  

   
  

• Ancestors,
  

  be present in our shrine.
  

   
  

  Watch over us, your children,
  

   
  

  giving wisdom and guidance when needed,
  

   
  

  and linking us together.
  

   
  

• Here in this home, the Ancestors are thick about us,
  

  the Dead are thick about us,
  

   
  

  but we who live in their midst are ourselves living,
  

   
  

  and when we think of them, remembering them with a child's fondness,
  

   
  

  they live too, and we live together happily.
  

   
  

The gods aren't omnipotent. They need to know where they are wanted. They are not omniscient. They need to know which of them we want to come.

Calling the deities is good for us as well. We become aware of just what part of divine reality we wish to manifest in our midst. We can prepare ourselves for that specific being.

• We lift our hands.
  

  We lift our voices.
  

   
  

  With words and gifts we offer to the gods,
  

   
  

  calling them here.
  

   
  

• Come share some time with me,
  

  be my companion, my guest, my welcome visitor,
  

   
  

  and I will play the gracious host to you, my friend.
  

   
  

• Scary, huh, their presence?
  

  Be brave
  

   
  

  Hold fast
  

   
  

  And face them proudly on your feet when they come
  

   
  

  And come they will
  

   
  

  when we call.
  

   
  

  Gathered here, with the gods all around, we have to ask ourselves what they want. The old stories, and the rituals handed down in old books, say clearly that they want gifts. The question is, what gifts? The gods and goddesses are individuals, so they have differing preferences. Some like libations, some things burnt in fire. What poured out, what burnt, varies as well, so to please them we will have to learn what each most desires.
  

   
  

  With all those differing desires, though, there is one thing they all want: open hands bringing gifts not begrudgingly, but willingly, even eagerly, glad to see them.
  

   
  

  May that be what we offer them today.
  

   
  

• If I have a patron deity, may I know who it is.
  

  If I do not, may one come and make themselves known to me.
  

   
  

  That is why I'm saying this prayer and making these offerings,
  

   
  

  as if scattering them for the winds to blow to the proper place,
  

   
  

  or casting them into the waves to follow the currents to where they belong,
  

   
  

  into the ears and possession of my patron.
  

   
  

  My prayer is to an unknown deity,
  

   
  

  but is no less sincere for that.
  

   
  

• With this gift, I establish hospitality with you.
  

  I am your host this day;
  

   
  

  be my host another.
  

   
  

• May we sing with beauty
  

  that they may hear beauty
  

   
  

  and hearing beauty they will come:
  

   
  

  they will come in beauty.
  

   
  

• Each one we name will hear his name,
  

  each one we name will hear hers.
  

   
  

  May each, hearing their name, come.
  

   
  

  We call them by their names:
  

   
  

  [name deities]
  

   
  

• With soundless chant send your nonvoice to those who listen well when we are silent.
  

• I sit in anticipation for those whom I have called,
  

  who come to those who sit and who wait.
  

   
  

• When the drum beats, the gods answer.
  

  When they hear its call, the goddesses come.
  

   
  

• May all the mysteries which surround me be known to me:
  

  I open myself up to them.
  

   
  

• A door is opening, there in the air above the fire that is burning our offerings.
  

  A gateway is forming, through which passes the road of life,
  

   
  

  which makes its way for our world to that other,
  

   
  

  where the gods dwell.
  

   
  

  Look, they come; the Spirits are coming,
  

   
  

  through the door, the gate, on the road.
  

   
  

  Dancing, walking, beautifully moving they come,
  

   
  

  to fill this sacred space:
  

   
  

  everywhere you look, there are Spirits,
  

   
  

  everywhere shining.
  

   
  

• The dry sound of my rattle cries out my thirst
  

  I long for the presence of the Ones Who Bless.
  

   
  

  What I cannot say with my parched soul,
  

   
  

  my rattle speaks for me.
  

   
  

  May Those Who Hear, hear this,
  

   
  

  my prayer spoken in a rattle's voice,
  

   
  

  and may they, hearing, come to quench my thirst for them.