A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book (42 page)

Dawn:

• It matters not that the sun shines on those around me,
  

  or even if it's highest on the brightest day of the year,
  

   
  

  I am still in darkness, my soul open and aching.
  

   
  

  I cry for the light, the truest light,
  

   
  

  I cry for it to fill the hole within.
  

   
  

  Dawn, open your gates in me, and bring the dawn to my soul,
  

   
  

  unlock the gates of my heart,
  

   
  

  and create a path where people might walk through open doors.
  

   
  

The God:

• Old fierceness is what you show us,
  

  fierceness no less strong because it's old.
  

   
  

  For the age is not in your body, but in your eyes;
  

   
  

  a little tired, perhaps, from having seen so much.
  

   
  

  But like so many fathers the fierceness is love.
  

   
  

  Fierceness isn't always motivated by cruelty;
  

   
  

  a father's fierceness may be of respect,
  

   
  

  not letting us win games by throwing them,
  

   
  

  but making us beat them fairly,
  

   
  

  thereby gaining our own respect to match theirs.
  

   
  

  Sometimes it is silence, like fishing beside each other,
  

   
  

  sometimes talking on a long road trip.
  

   
  

  Men are often bad at putting things into words
  

   
  

  but express their love no less through deeds,
  

   
  

  even though that may be hard to see:
  

   
  

  The man who carries the heaviest suitcase, even though he's sick too,
  

   
  

  is speaking his love.
  

   
  

  The husband and father who goes each day to health-destroying work,
  

   
  

  is speaking his love.
  

   
  

  If we don't see this, it's
  our
  fault, not his,
  

   
  

  and although you are a god, you are purely a man, and show your love through deeds.
  

   
  

  Not a soft love, but love so hard it sometimes doesn't seem as if it's there.
  

   
  

  But the fault is
  ours
  .
  

   
  

  So when I come to you, looking for comfort,
  

   
  

  I don't expect hugs, or soothing touches,
  

   
  

  I expect comfort, sure, but the comfort comes in these words:
  

   
  

  “OK; let's get to work fixing this—
  

   
  

  we'll do it together.”
  

   
  

  And we will.
  

   
  

• In [my/our/their] darkness give light,
  

  Lord of Brilliance.
  

   
  

• Destroy all fear in me,
  

  Lord whose sharp-tined antlers carry all faults away,
  

   
  

  carry them in tatters.
  

   
  

The Goddess:

• Her love is perfect, and perfectly She expresses it.
  

  Loving all, She gives all love,
  

   
  

  with Her, all things are done with Her love for all.
  

   
  

  And yet—
  

   
  

  and yet—
  

   
  

  and yet—
  

   
  

  I'm suffering.
  

   
  

  She loves all, but She doesn't love each.
  

   
  

  So many have died so I could live,
  

   
  

  unless I die, so many will never live.
  

   
  

  And yet—
  

   
  

  and yet—
  

   
  

  and yet—
  

   
  

  and yet, Greatest of Lovers,
  

   
  

  may this be my day.
  

   
  

  May Your love for me be Your love for all.
  

   
  

  May I see Your smile
  

   
  

  and smell Your sweet breath as you say:
  

   
  

  “Peace.”
  

   
  

• Mother, can you hear me crying?
  

  Gather me in your infinitely encompassing arms,
  

   
  

  hug me to your soft breast,
  

   
  

  and whisper, “There, There;
  

   
  

  all will be well.
  

   
  

  All will be well, but for now cry.
  

   
  

  My clothes have been wet with tears before and will be again.
  

   
  

  So for now, cry,
  

   
  

  and all will be well.”
  

   
  

• Inside the tadpole, the frog.
  

  Inside the caterpillar, the butterfly.
  

   
  

  Inside my pain, happiness.
  

   
  

  I don't doubt your ways, Goddess of Nature,
  

   
  

  nor do I want to criticize you,
  

   
  

  but they're hard.
  

   
  

  Send me strength and comfort, until I see what will come of the way things are.
  

   
  

• Adrift in the unseen waves of the infinite dark I float at ease,
  

  resting trustingly in your enveloping arms.
  

   
  

• I'm crying,
  

  lonely,
  

   
  

  my tears Your ocean's waters.
  

   
  

• Not true, not true, not true, not true, not true, not true;
  

  it can't be true.
  

   
  

  All I want is for you to hold me and say, “Even if it's true, it will be OK.”
  

   
  

  Please, Mother.
  

   
  

  Please.
  

   
  

• Broken and tired and scared and scarred,
  

  I sit empty,
  

   
  

  and wait for Her to fill me,
  

   
  

  and wait for Her to dive deep into my emptiness,
  

   
  

  and return clutching my lost self tightly,
  

   
  

  and return it to me with smiling eyes,
  

   
  

  with soft hands open and soothing.
  

   
  

• The Goddess sits beside me as I wait for your night terrors to subside.
  

• Sitting here, looking at the moon, at the Lady whose changing is yet regular, assured, and reliable, I ask her to give meaning to the mess I'm in.
  

  Spinner of the Night, may the web I find myself in trap blessings.
  

   
  

• If you have any fears, bring them to Her,
  

  to the Mother of All,
  

   
  

  She whose presence is soothing,
  

   
  

  whose hands hold love.
  

   
  

Hathor:

• Our mother, Hathor:
  

  bring us children.
  

   
  

  Inexhaustible udders:
  

   
  

  give them prosperity.
  

   
  

  Ever-loving cow:
  

   
  

  may your lowing be always the loving murmur of a soothing lullaby.
  

   
  

Inanna:

• As you went in quest to rescue Dumuzi from the land of the dead,
  

  from the hand of your sister,
  

   
  

  from the hand of Erishkigal,
  

   
  

  Inanna, Rescuer of the Despondent,
  

   
  

  raise me from my depression,
  

   
  

  from the darkness with which I am beset,
  

   
  

  from the shadow which surrounds my soul.
  

   
  

Isis:

• When Osiris was slain, and divided into pieces scattered over the land,
  

  you went and found them one by one, recovering, Isis, the lost,
  

   
  

  a wife's love driving you on.
  

   
  

  Search out all I have lost to time and age and sorrow,
  

   
  

  and return it to me, each bit, one by one,
  

   
  

  with a mother's love.
  

   
  

Nuit:

• Fearful things surround me and fear rises in me:
  

  Absorb both fearing and feared into your allcontaining body, Nuit,
  

   
  

  and leave me free.
  

   
  

Odin:

• Pierced and hanged, with bleeding eye,
  

  inspire me in my suffering time
  

   
  

  with hope for wisdom at its end.
  

   
  

Peace:

• Come to me, Peace,
  

  as you would to the world.
  

   
  

  As you would calm strife,
  

   
  

  calm my mind.
  

   
  

  As you would banish weapons,
  

   
  

  banish my self-doubt.
  

   
  

  As you would bring happiness,
  

   
  

  bring it to me.
  

   
  

  Come, Peace, bring peace,
  

   
  

  to me as you would to the world.
  

   
  

Pearl Spirit:

• An irritated oyster gave birth to this pearl, which is so softly beautiful.
  

  Pearl, produce soft beauty from the hardship of my life as I wear you.
  

   
  

Perk
^w
únos:

• My voice may not be as loud as yours,
  

  but it comes from my essential being too.
  

   
  

  May it rise through the crash of clouds and into your ears, Perk
  ^w
  únos,
  

   
  

  you who obliterate all that stands in your way.
  

   
  

  May I be filled with the booming brightness you hurl and not by my fears.
  

   
  

  May my body tremble with the strength of your arms and not my weakness.
  

   
  

  May all I do be with your unfailing accuracy and your power which cannot be withstood.