A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book (38 page)

• Patient as your ponderous feet,
  

  make me, Ga
  e
  a.
  

   
  

The God:

• God of transformation, reach into me for a piece of treasure I am best without.
  

  Accept this beloved fault as an appropriate offering,
  

   
  

  presenting me in return with the perfect gift of your gift's removal:
  

   
  

  precious gain from precious loss,
  

   
  

  Transforming God.
  

   
  

The Goddess:

• “Listen,” she says, “just listen:
  

  Still the rambling thoughts,
  

   
  

  quiet the restless mind,
  

   
  

  stem the stream of words,
  

   
  

  and listen for a moment.
  

   
  

  Just a moment is all I ask,
  

   
  

  is all I need, for you to hear me,
  

   
  

  just one.
  

   
  

  “Listen,” she says.
  

   
  

  Speak, and I will listen.
  

   
  

The Goddess, for advice:

• As Maiden of the waxing moon, enliven my mind.
  

  As Mother of the full, give maternal guidance.
  

   
  

  As Crone who brings the dwindling light, bring final wisdom.
  

   
  

  Under whatever phase, in whatever guise,
  

   
  

  you who are the constant moon,
  

   
  

  teach this child of yours this moment's is and ought.
  

   
  

Hekate, for wisdom:

• Your torch has brought me here.
  

  Your knife bars the path.
  

   
  

  Burn, cut away,
  

   
  

  Wisdom-bringer.
  

   
  

Helios, for self-transformation:

• You, Helios, see everything through your light that shines on us.
  

  I open myself to that light;
  

   
  

  I welcome you to my most inner places,
  

   
  

  to shine in my darkness.
  

   
  

  Each hidden secret,
  

   
  

  each unknown shame,
  

   
  

  each unrecognized flaw,
  

   
  

  all that is in me that I have pushed deep away,
  

   
  

  and denied the existence of my responsibility for:
  

   
  

  fill these with your unrelenting scrutinizing fire,
  

   
  

  show them to me with irresistible clarity.
  

   
  

  And when I run from these terrors, leave me no place to hide.
  

   
  

  When I seem to rationalize, leave me no explanation,
  

   
  

  and when I seek to excuse them, leave me nothing on which to base my excuses.
  

   
  

  And when I submit myself at last to the truth you display,
  

   
  

  may it be a purifying river of molten gold into which I am thrown.
  

   
  

  I will burn:
  

   
  

  but oh, how I'll shine!
  

   
  

Indra, for inspiration:

• Indra having stolen, as an eagle,
  

  the sacred drink, the soma,
  

   
  

  from the Asuras,
  

   
  

  the snakes who raise themselves against the gods,
  

   
  

  became strong.
  

   
  

  I, in drinking these Waters of Life,
  

   
  

  derive for myself not only strength,
  

   
  

  but inspired sight.
  

   
  

Jupiter, for decision:

• Sceptered, enthroned,
  

  with eagle crowned,
  

   
  

  you rule, greatest Jupiter, over the cosmos.
  

   
  

  May my actions be such as will win your approval.
  

   
  

  Guide me, Father, in my decisions.
  

   
  

Lugh, for confidence:

• Fear is cut through
  

  by the spear of Lugh.
  

   
  

Manannán mac Lir, against regret:

• With a swift shake of your cloak, Manannán,
  

  separate my thoughts from regretted memories,
  

   
  

  leaving only a not-understood gratitude.
  

   
  

Manannán mac Lir, for clear thought:

• Fog-ridden is my bedeviled mind,
  

  mist-filled my thoughts.
  

   
  

  If it be the shaking of your cloak, son of the sea,
  

   
  

  shake it again, banishing the mist,
  

   
  

  clearing the cloud-covered sky to show me the guiding star
  

   
  

  that shines from your divine brow.
  

   
  

Mars, for social courage:

• May fear and shyness that blocks the bridges I try to build to others
  

  be themselves blocked from entering my mind, Mars,
  

   
  

  you who bind people to others and protect the peace of society.
  

   
  

Menot, for clear thought:

• Measuring is true.
  

  If measuring is true, it must fit.
  

   
  

  Does this fit?
  

   
  

  It doesn't.
  

   
  

  Menot, may my mind fit.
  

   
  

Menot, for memory:

• Menot, make me remember the unremembered.
  

Menot, for knowledge:

• Measuring time,
  

  Measuring space,
  

   
  

  Measuring well,
  

   
  

  you always find the right answer.
  

   
  

  No surprise that, since the answer only exists because of the measuring,
  

   
  

  as that made by your ever-turning wheel
  

   
  

  that rolls through the night sky.
  

   
  

  True measurement brings light to the darkness.
  

   
  

  True worship of you, Menot,
  

   
  

  opens our minds and dispels ignorance.
  

   
  

Menot, for clear thought:

• Though ecstatic utterances gush freely from the well that burns,
  

  unless cooled by your ordering they are mad jabberings.
  

   
  

  No matter where I find my words, I turn to Menot to help me shape them,
  

   
  

  to form a song of beauty from them,
  

   
  

  inspired, but well put,
  

   
  

  measured out to fit.
  

   
  

Moon, for true thought:

• Moon, who measures out time and space,
  

  who puts this here, and that there,
  

   
  

  this then, the other in its own time,
  

   
  

  who orders that which is as it should be:
  

   
  

  teach me to divide properly all I experience;
  

   
  

  teach me to divine all I need to know,
  

   
  

  that my life may be true,
  

   
  

  that I may live in the Truth.
  

   
  

Moon, against bad thoughts:

• The confusion in my mind,
  

  Measurer of the Sky, of Time:
  

   
  

  bring order to it.
  

   
  

  You divide the unmeasured,
  

   
  

  and put each thing in its proper place:
  

   
  

  do that as well with my suffering-causing thoughts:
  

   
  

  Heal my soul.
  

   
  

Nature Spirits, for understanding nature:

• When nature speaks to me, may I hear.
  

  May I know the language of birds and animals.
  

   
  

  May I understand the sounds of swaying grass and the creaking of tree limbs.
  

   
  

  May I perceive the tiny sounds of stones as well as the roarings, the murmurings of water.
  

   
  

  May I come to know the music of the spheres sung in the empty space between the celestial bodies.
  

   
  

  May I hear in them the epics they have been telling each other since the beginning of time.