Posts Tagged ‘prayer’

Prayer and song are elements of religious culture which anthropologists assume were some of the key early features of the world’s first religions thousands of years ago. The spoken or sung verbalization of a wish, a cry for help, a thank you and other types of prayer formalizes the supplicant’s desire ~ pushing it out from them and into the wider cosmos. It is a beautiful expression which bridges the gap between human and divine.

With the advent of writing in ancient Mesopotamia, these prayers began to be written down ~ their power deriving now as much from the vocalization of the desire as from the act of being written. Early writing was considered sacred. The knowledge of being able to read and write was a powerful skill; one which was possessed by the rare few; in fact, initially only priests, royal administrators, their scribes, and occasionally the royals themselves were capable of writing and reading. It was used as much for organizing the newly expanding Empires of the world as it was for magickal purposes. Over time, it would filter down to the merchants and beyond, sifting down through the ages until the invention of the printing press in China in the sixth century AD and the later, more prominent Western discovery of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century, and the wider spread of literacy that ensued because of these discoveries. But in ancient Mesopotamia, the power of the written prayer was myriad, and was used to call upon the gods for a vast array of purposes.

The following prayer, or hymn, to the goddess Ishtar is from approximately 1600 BCE, during the first Dynasty of Babylon. It was written in cuneiform on behalf of the King Ammiditana, and survived the ages, to be deciphered by the archaeologists of the early twentieth century and ultimately read by you, dear reader, at the beginning of the twenty-first.

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In the modern world, there are innumerable devices to help remind us of our daily to-do lists and which keep every conceivable bit of data close to our fingertips on the keyboard. Memory, therefore, becomes rather overrated. Why remember something if a handy-dandy post-it note or your Blackberry can do it for you? Why remember faces and names if a Facebook album can organize them so much more easily? And why memorize facts if Google, Wikipedia, and Encyclopedia Britannica have us covered? With all of this convenience, it is no surprise that memory loss is on the rise as we appear to be losing our capacity to retain as much direct information as we previously could.

Once upon a time, mankind had to be multilingual, they had to be able to do complicated math in their head, and they had to remember their family lineage, their local geography, and their tales of myth and religion. And they did. It was a simple matter of remembering it or losing it. Because something once forgotten, was forgotten forever. The average man or woman could not read or write, they had few maps, no cameras, and therefore had fewer ways to record all the little tidbits of information we, in contemporary society, so often take for granted. Recipes, spells, songs, family history, engineering instructions ~in the modern world, all of these can be written down and referred back to; there is no need to know them by rote. But in the societies that came before us on the grand time line of earth, lives ~ both magickal and mundane ~ were ruled by what, and whom, they could remember. And in ancient societies it was often much more a matter of who was remembered than anything else.

Rome provides us with several classical examples of the power of memory and remembrance. Its broad spectrum of opposites (rich vs. poor; literate vs. illiterate; urban vs. country, Republic vs. Empire etc) allows for a vast array of valuable viewpoints a scholar can look back on and pull positive life lessons from. The Pax Romana (27 BCE-180 AD) in particular stands on a wonderful cusp of literacy where the written word was becoming accessible to more people and thus people of more classes and more ways of life were recording what they felt it was important to remember.

Rome, overall, adored the idea of remembrance. It was always looking backwards over its shoulder, usually at ancient Greece, to use the power of the past to magnify its energy in the present. But the Roman people were also looking forward, and both the poor and the rich were striving to be remembered by the future.

Roman Ancestors: Real & Imagined

From a modern viewpoint, Rome is the past. But the Romans were aware that there was a past beyond them: that people had come before them: that these people had lived, and laughed, and built civilizations; ones which, would ultimately lead to Rome itself. And this past was alive and a part of their everyday routines.

Ancestor worship was a very strong component of both urban and rural Roman religion. The power of one’s family was honored second only to the later cults of the emperors. Roman homes, which also doubled as Roman business offices, were built around the notion of ancestor worship and incorporated an idea of public and private adoration and remembrance of the ancestors. Upon entering a Roman house, one first encountered a short hallway which featured the death masks of the house’s ancestors. Although it sounds a bit macabre, it is not so far removed from our own sphere of familiarity. Check out your own walls and mantles: have any photos of your family up there? Same thing; we just have better technology to preserve images.

But note that earlier I said, the “house’s” ancestors and not the “family’s” ancestors. Those masks would stay with the house even if the family were to die off into obscurity or the house sold to another family. The idea of “family” or “ancestry” was not just an emotional concept, or a list of past relatives and their notable deeds, it was associated with place as well. Both the spirits and there memory were given a physical location. The ancestors of the house would stay with the house, not necessarily the family, becoming remembered spirits of a place and not just of a family. It gives whole new meaning to the idea of ‘if these walls could talk.’ The orator Cicero famously bought a ‘used’ house as such.

The house would also feature at least one altar to the household gods, who are often simply referred to as the Lares Familiares (which literally translated means house guardians/spirits, however they most likely would have had individual names only members of the household would have been aware of) and the Penates. Typically after passing through the aforementioned hallway, one would enter a central square or rectangular open air atrium, which featured a public altar (a lararium) for business associates and other guests of the open areas of the house to pay respect to their associate’s Lares at. Accessible through narrower hallways or beyond storerooms, smaller, more private lararium have been found, typically displaying signs of much heavier usage than the public altar on display. It is conceivable that family secrets were passed down and hidden family rituals were performed at these smaller more personal altars. The remembrance of the ancestors was, it seems, divided into public and private spheres.

Imagine the wider scenario in the modern world. Do you know who lived in your house or apartment before you? The Romans believed that the people that lived in a house imprinted on it, leaving the Lares behind. The terms Lares and Penates may, in fact, have an older, more local meaning for the Roman region and may be a watered down remembrance of the ancient local gods, the genius loci, that were worshiped in the area prior to the Latin tribes’ emigration to it. Given that your home might have some household gods lurking round it in Roman fashion, it might be helpful to show some respect to the Lares that have been left behind, or to perhaps attempt a spiritual cleanse to encourage the household spirits to accustom themselves to your presence and over to your aid.

The Political Power of Memory

Politics and class distinctions were also ruled by the idea of a remembered family history: the longer a lineage, the more status and power, often regardless of wealth. Whole genealogies were crafted, occasionally from thin air, in an effort to connect powerful personages to the past. The Emperor Augustus and his uncle, the infamous Julius Caesar, for instance, connected their lineage back to the mysterious and mythic Aeneas, going so far as to have their court poet, Virgil, craft the eponymous Aeneid in their family’s honor. Through the figure of Aeneas, they linked their family back to the Battle of Troy, the Trojan royal family, the goddess Aphrodite/Venus herself (as she was reputedly Aeneas’ birth mother), and the founders of Rome, the twins Romulus and Remus, who were themselves purportedly the 13th generation of descendants down from Aeneas. Therefore the imperial family, in one fell swoop, used the memory of the past to link themselves to their city’s founders and to the divine.

The first was a sound political move, the second allowed them to take their power a step further. The connection with the divine was indeed, one of the Emperor Augustus’ primary talking points when he convinced the waning Senate to deify Julius Caesar as a god, starting a tradition of deifying the Emperor which would continue until the pagan Empire’s fall to Christianity. Although initially intended to be a cult revolving around the recently dead Emperor and other members of the imperial family, the cult quickly came to include the living Emperor as a god, similar to the Egyptian style of royal worship. Money took on a new significance in the cult of the Emperor. Having the Emperor’s head on the coin was not just a way to let the people all round the Empire to know what the Emperor looked liked or to indicate that the money was minted in his reign, it became a small, portable, spiritual token. The use of the past for political power is not an unfamiliar concept in politics and one still used in the modern age. The French Revolution looked back to the Roman Republic as a model, sparking off a Greco-Roman Renaissance. In 20th century Italy, Benito Mussolini summoned up the glory days of Ancient Rome by bulldozing the streets into some semblance of their ancient geography. And consider President Obama’s references back to President Lincoln. All instances of memory being used for political power.

Back in ancient Rome, it was not just the Emperor that strived to be remembered and revered in the public collective after he was gone. The funerary artifacts of the upper and middle classes indicate an interest in persevering an individual memory of themselves, leaving behind what we presume are life-like portraits of themselves on their coffins. And there were too, the aforementioned death masks. The poets of the Pax Romana indicate the philosophical state of mind of the times in their work. Ovid sums up the idea of immortality through the written word rather well numerous times, but a particular favorite of mine is in his less political and more romantic work Only the Poets are Immortal which sums it up rather nicely, albeit full of hubris for his field:

“For myself, let Apollo bestow on me cups
Overflowing with the waters of Castaly;
Let the myrtle that dreads the cold adorn my brow
And let my verses ever be scanned by the eager lover.
While we live we serve as food for Envy;
When we are dead we rest within the aureole
Of the glory we have earned.
So, when the funeral fires have consumed me,
I shall live on,
And the better part of me will have triumphed over death.”

Rome Remembered: Active Memory on Rome’s Streets and in Today’s Libraries

But the collective Roman memory of the past wasn’t just based on family and imperial legends. There were, and are still, a few remaining slightly credible written sources which would have been available to the upper classes of Rome and the academics of the later empires. Oral histories, preserved by the writer Livy, recorded the kings, legends, and hazily remembered festivals of the early Roman Republic. Secrets and prophecies were also purportedly recorded in a grouping of texts called the Sibylline Oracles, a jumble of pseudo-mythical and prophetic texts which were initially protected in a sacred cave not far from Rome by the Sibyl: a magickal dedicant and sometime prophetess; until Augustus collected them in the library of his house on the Capitoline hill in Rome. Later scholars revised, edited, and added, and the remaining texts were then preserved, resulting ultimately in a Renaissance period compendium of the Oracles. But where both of these preserved bits of memories highlight the amazing nature of the Greek traditions and the Latin tribes of central Italy, few historical mentions are made of the prehistoric Etruscans whose ruins dotted the Roman countryside. For one reason or another, the Roman people chose to almost consciously ignore many aspects of these direct cultural predecessors or else make connection with them taboo. There are in fact several sources which indicate the Romans, like the medieval denizens of the region after them, regarded the Etruscan ruins as haunted or else the ancient equivalent of Boo Radley’s house; either possessed of dark spirits or lived in by those on the fringe of society.

And beyond this, the poetry and literature, particularly of the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, has preserved snippets of the more homespun and philosophical nature of remembrance conducted on an everyday level. We know that the Roman doctors had thousands of herbal cures, passed down through generations of trial and error. We know that Roman magicians, frowned upon by Roman law but still to be found in the marketplace and on seedy street corners, hawked spells and potions they claimed to have learned in far-away lands. Priests conducted traditional ceremonies, some public and some private, supposedly handed down through the generations. And recent excavations in Roman cities indicate that certain eateries and market food stalls lasted longer in the marketplace, possibly favored above others because of their standardized food recipes, presumably also passed down through the generations. However, although these are referenced in what sources we have, these everyday activities (bar farming which we have an incredibly dense and detailed grouping of texts on, most notably Cato’s De Agricultura) are not recorded in particular detail. A few spells, a few chants, and an occasional half-recipe have crept in. And although it is very possible that this discrepancy in the historical record is due to a lack of relevant texts having been preserved; it seems then, that of all the things the Romans wanted to remember, they wanted to remember each other. Be it for personal or political reasons, they wanted to remember those people, those individuals who had come before them and whose foundations they had built their empire on.

It is, perhaps, a lesson we can learn from them. Honor your ancestors. Remember where you’ve come from. Send a prayer to your great great grandmother or favorite great uncle, ask for some guidance from the spirits of your house, be they family or be they adopted Lares. Reorganize your family photo collection, hang some updated photos on the wall. Set up a subtle altar in front of it and every time a guest comments on a picture you will know that whether they intended to or not, they’ve just paid homage to your household spirits, Roman style.

Sources:

Allison, P., 2001. Using the Material and Written Sources: Turn of the Millennium Approaches to Roman Domestic Space. American Journal of Archaeology, 105(2): 181-208.
Beard, M., North, J. & Price, S. (1998). Religions of Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bergmann, B., 2007. Housing and Households: The Roman World. In Alcock, S.E. and Osborne, R. (eds.) Classical Archaeology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 224-240.
Clarke, J.R., 1991. The Houses of Roman Italy 100 B.C.- A.D. 200: Ritual, Space, and Decoration. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Davies, P.J.E., 2007. The Personal and the Political: The Roman World. In Alcock, S.E. and Osborne, R. (eds.) Classical Archaeology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 307-328.
Ellis, S.P., 2000. Roman Housing. London: Duckworth.
Ferguson, J. (1970). The Religions of the Roman Empire. London: Thames and Hudson.
Fowler, W. (1914). Roman Ideas of Deity. London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd.
Grahame, M., 1998. Material Culture and Roman Identity: The Spatial Layout of Pompeian Houses and the Problem of Ethnicity. In Laurence, R. and Berry, J.(eds.) Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire. London: Routledge, 156-176.
Hales, S., 2003. The Roman House and Social Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Knights, C., 1994. The Spatiality of the Roman Domestic Setting: an Interpretation of Symbolic Content. In Pearson, M.P. and Richards, C. (eds.) Architecture and Order: Approaches to Social Space. London: Routledge, 113-144.
MacMullen, R. (1981). Paganism in the Roman Empire. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Turcan, R. (1992). The Cults of the Roman Empire. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Today we’re going to look at something a little different, something that I tend to classify as more of a “new age” practice within the confines of Wicca and Paganism.   As many of us who are eclectic in nature and are often evolving our practices as we find new things that seem to call to us, I hope that this craft and prayer/meditation practice will be useful for some of you, especially if you are going through a particularly difficult time in your life.

For centuries in various cultures the use of prayer boxes, often in the form of jewelry, has become an honored tradition.  The use of community prayer boxes is a well known tradition in the Catholic and Christian faith where people of a congregation are able to write out their need for prayer and add it to a box which either a few individuals or a whole prayer circle will work on for those in need.  We can create a variation of the prayer box to fit our needs, either as individuals or for covens or circles.  You can call it a prayer box, petition box, or as I’ve always called it, a Goddess box.  It depends on a few variations of how you craft it and your intentions when crafting it.  As I share this process with you, if you decide to work with this, make the changes that you feel you need to for your own beliefs and traditions.  I will be addressing this from the perspective of working specifically with the Goddess, so if you wish to work more with the God or just the Universal energy, you can make those changes.

A Goddess box is a physical box, one crafted with intent, designed to be a place to drop written prayer petitions.  Petition magick, as we’ve talked about previously, is a wonderful way to work simple spells of intention, and the Goddess box becomes an aid to petition magick, as you’ll see through the process.  So we’re going to start with talking about crafting a Goddess box.

You’ll need a few items to get your started:

• A plain wooden craft box.  These are available at arts and crafts stores all over or you can use an old cigar box, an old jewelry box, or anything of the sort.  We’re going to be completely changing it’s appearance so be sure that whatever it is you wont mind stripping it down, painting it, etc.
• Paints, markers, and related supplies.  We’ll talk about colors in a moment.
• Stickers, stamps and craft paper.
• A piece of parchment or other paper.  Pick something that you find visually appealing but something that you will be able to write on where the writing will stand out.
• A small sachet of offering herbs.  We’ll talk about this in a moment.
• An image of a Goddess.  If you’re working with a God, than an image of whatever God  you wish, or other spirit or entity that you wish to call on to work with you.  This can be an animal spirit guide that you pray and meditate with, or even an otherworld entity that you work with in this way.  The idea here is that whomever you dedicate this box to is someone that you have worked with before, either in prayer, meditation or magick, who you are completely comfortable in going to with requests for help and aid.
• A stone or crystal.  Again, we’ll talk about that in a moment.
• A small stack of slips of parchment or other paper and a pen.

First let’s talk about our intentions.  The purpose of this box is to create a place to hand over certain problems, cares and needs to either a specific Goddess, God or spirit ally that you are confident and comfortable in working with through prayer, meditation and petition work.  What you’ll be doing with your box is writing down your needs and placing the slip of paper within, along with speaking words of prayer and offering, to your chosen deity or spirit, asking them to help you find a way to resolve your problem.   What we’re doing here is asking for a door to be open, a way to be shown, and in a sense laying our problem in the lap of the Goddess and asking for her guidance in gaining a solution that may be eluding us.

Keep this in mind while crafting your box and also keep it in mind when deciding who, if anyone specific, you wish to dedicate your box to.  Consider this intention when picking out your colors and images for the box as well as when picking out the stones and herbs for the small offerings that we’ll be keeping within the box.

Creating an offering sachet – This is a simple step in the process of making the box and one you can either do first or last, it’s up to you.  Gather together either a white spell bag or a small swatch of white cloth and white string or ribbon for tying it close.  Pick two or three herbs that you can place inside that are used for offerings or that have the properties of thanksgiving.  A few suggestions include tobacco, blue corn, desert or white sage, copal, cedar, or lavender.  If you’re going to be working with a specific deity or entity that you know prefers something specific, then use that in your bag.

Fill the bag with the herbs and tie it closed.  Hold it in your hands for a few moments, directing white light and your intentions of blessings and thanksgiving into the bag.  When you feel that the bag is full with energy, you can set it aside.  It will be going into the box when it is completed so keep it in a safe place in the meantime, like your altar.

Picking stones -  Again, keeping in mind your intentions and the purpose of the box, we want to pick a stone to keep inside that is associated with something such as prayer, meditation or even directly problem solving.  The way that I personally work with the stone is that I place it on top of the petition slip when I place it inside the box.  You can do this if you feel so drawn to, or you can just leave the stone in the box as an aid to the work being done.  A few suggestions for stones to use include quartz (clear or rose), danburite, fluorite, amethyst, or lapis lazuli.  Take your time in picking a stone and really decide what energy you want the stone to add to the box.  For example with the lapis you can call on its properties of truth and awareness to aid you in seeing the truth in a situation and clearing seeing the solution, where as you can use the powers of transformation and intuition held in danburite to help your prayer needs.  

Once you have picked out a stone and acquired it, properly cleanse and charge it with your specific intention and then place it on your altar with your sachet until it is time to add it to your box.

Crafting the box – This is the part where you get to really be creative.  You do not need to be a great artist to do this; this is part of why we have stickers and printed images to help us.  If your box you’re working with is something that is going to be recycled from a previous incarnation, take the time to do any stripping of paint or finish that you may need to.  Some things you can paint right over, but if you have something that has a shiny or varnished finish, you’ll need to strip it first otherwise your paint will either not hold at all or will chip quite easily.

Take some time to pick out colors that either reflect on you or your ally you’ll be dedicating the box to.  You can use colors appropriate to specific deities, use the colors of the elements, or just use some off your personal power colors.  Paint the box in whatever way you personally desire.  There is no right or wrong way to do this, so be creative.  Paint the inside as well, either using a solid color or do something that you might find personally magickal and empowering, like painting sigils and symbols inside it to protect and empower your work.

Allow the pain to dry overnight before moving on to adding any stickers, paper or printed images.  Depending on the type of paint and the surface of the box you may wish to add extra glue to stickers since the adhesive may not hold.  Add a picture of your chosen deity or ally to the top of the box and embellish as you see fit.  A written dedication will be going on the inside of the box top, so you don’t need to add anything like that on the outside unless you wish to.

When you are done, set the box aside and again give it at least overnight to ensure all glues and adhesives have dried.

Writing your dedication – On a piece of parchment paper, in your own handwriting, you are going to create a dedication that will be placed on the inside cover of the box.  This can be a prayer, chant or blessing that you will recite each time you place something in the box.    The following is a modification of what I have inside my Goddess box.  You will want to modify this to fit your specific box.  Write out your drafts and get your wording as you want it on notebook paper first and when you have settled on what you wish to say, write it on a piece of parchment cut to fit the inside lid of your box.

I dedicate this, my Goddess box, to the Lady of love, mercy and healing.  Whatever I place inside this box I place at the feet of the Goddess.  I ask the Goddess to nurture my needs and take care of me in my time of struggle.  Within this box I place my hopes and fears, my dreams and anxieties.  When I close the lid I know that they are now in the hands of the Goddess and she will guide me and show me what to do next.  With this box I put trust in my inner knowing and in the Goddess.  With this box, I foster a connection to the Goddess within and without.

So mote it be!

Once the paper is dry, do any additional decorative steps you wish with it (e.g. aging the edges) and then firmly glue into the lid of the box.

Dedicate your box – For this next step you may wish to wait for the full moon or you can do it any time you wish.  Gather together your box, slips of parchment and pen (these items will be kept inside the box at all times for easy and quick access), your crystal and your sachet.  Bring them into sacred space and lay them out on your altar or work space.  If there is a specific deity that you will dedicate the box to, evoke them into your space letting them know you are dedicating this special magickal prayer object to them and you wish for their blessings up it.  You may wish to smudge the box with sage or cleanse it with all the elements and present it to the four directions as well to ask for their blessings as well.

Once you have presented the box to the deity/ally it may be dedicated to, or to the archetypal God/Goddess aspect, add your sachet, presenting it as well with words of intention, and then add the stone, again with words of intention.  Add in your paper slips and pen.

Where to keep your box – You can keep your box anywhere that you wish, but try for a place where it will be out of reach of children and pets and where it will also be out of reach or sight from prying hands and eyes.  This can be a great items for those of you that may need to keep your items somewhat hidden because of issues with family or roommates and it can easily blend in with other trinkets, decorations or jewelry boxes depending on how you have chosen to adorn it.  You can always just keep it on a corner of your altar if you wish.

Working with your box - If you have a specific need right now, take a slip of paper and write it out.  Hold it in your hands, sending your intentions, desires, hopes and worries into the paper.  Recite your dedication/prayer for help to your ally.  Place the paper in the box and then pick up your sachet.  Hold it for a moment and draw on some of the energy of offering and thanks from it and then direct that energy to your ally, then return the sachet to the box.  Close the box and leave it in it’s special place.

Once a solution to your need has been found, or things have worked themselves out, say a thank you to your ally and either send energy from your offering sachet again or leave another appropriate offering on your altar or at the box.  Take your slip of paper from the box and, using a fire-proof container or cauldron, again say thank you, solidifying that your ally helped you and that you are thankful, and light the paper.  Toss it into the container, allow it to burn down to ash, and then toss to the winds knowing that your problem is solved, resolved and gone from you.

Maintenance of the box – This box will become a living magickal tool for you if you use it regularly.  You will want to recleanse and recharge the crystal periodically and you’ll also want to replace the herbs from time to time as well.  When you do this, allow this to also be a time to change these items as well.  If you want to try a different stone, do it then or use different herbs in your sachet.  Listen to your intuition or even ask your God/Goddess/spirit ally what they would like.

This is a wonderful and simple tool to work with and one that you can really personalize to express your love of your specific patron deities or your closest of magickal allies.  Make it more than just a place to put your problems, but an expression of your dedication to your path and the change that you desire to see in your life when you work with it.

Here are a few pictures of my own box from when it was originally crafted several years ago.

The act of daily practice in this path is one that is woefully neglected by many practitioners.  I’ve been surprised to find people that claim they follow a Wiccan or other neo-Pagan spiritual path yet they never meditate, never work directly with the Gods, and do not fully understand the concept of devotional work or the reason that daily practice is such a benefit.  Could it be that it’s not understood or that there is an overall misunderstanding of what it involves?

Let’s start by looking at the word devotion.  It dates back to the 13^th century and is defined as

1. a) religious fervor, b) an act of prayer or private worship, c) a religious exercise or practice other than the regular corporate worship of a congregation

2. a) the act of devoting [devotion of time and energy], b) the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal [her devotion to the cause]

3. the object of one’s devotion

We can always look at the word “devote” in the way that we use it in our day to day speech.  We say things such as “I devoted a large part of the day to housework” or “I’m devoted to ending hunger in my community.”  In these cases the word “devote” shows that the thing we are devoted to has power in our lives and means something profound and special.  In a matter of a few simple words, “devote” means “to vow”.  So by doing devotional work each day in a sacred sense you are renewing your sacred vows to the Gods.

When we talk about our devotion work as Pagans we are talking about taking the time to acknowledge and work with our God and Goddess.  We might also wish to take the time to work with Spirit Guides and other entities as well, but our focus should rest in making sure our connection to the Divine is strong.  Daily devotions, even if they only last a few minutes each day, help to create that bond that can be so important in our work later on.

The way that I have always related it for those who are new to the Craft is like this.  Let’s say you find yourself in a difficult position with your rent one month.  For whatever reason times are tough and you’re short on the cash you need to meet your rent for the month and you know that if you don’t pay up your landlord will have you out on the streets regardless of the reasons for your situation.  You take a few minutes to try and think of who you know that would be in a position to spare some money for you and a specific person comes to mind.  You haven’t really spoken to this person more than a passing “hello” in the last few months, but you were once close and you know this person has always been the giving type before, so why not now?  You call up your friend and casually ask for the money you need expecting this to not be a problem.  But when you friend sheepishly says no you find yourself a bit surprised.  Why?  Why should you be surprised that this person you have no real connection with isn’t willing to go out on this limb for you?  Should the Gods be any different?

We learn early on that the Gods have personalities and digression just like we do.  They will always be there willing to hear what we have to say but they might not always be willing to help.  Sometimes it’s because we’re asking for something that they know isn’t right for us or they know we’ll miss out on an important lesson if we get what we’re asking for.  But sometimes they may decide not to work with us because they don’t know us and we haven’t connected to them.  It’s like if you told your friend that in the above example “trust me, I’ll pay you back in a week”, there is no way for this person to know if you will really pay them back because you don’t have that connection with them.  The Gods will look at you the same way.  Just because you tell them you are going to follow through with something doesn’t mean they know you will for sure, especially if they haven’t had the chance to work with you, get to know you, and learn what you’re truly like.  Are you a person of your word or are you a person “of the moment”, someone that says what they need to in order to get what they want?  This is where taking this time to spend with the Gods each day, adding energy to our work with them and creating that connection, becomes so important.

Getting started with a daily devotional practice is always the hardest part.  What should you do, how should you do it, how long should it take and when is the right time of day for this sort of work?  Everyone is going to be different and everyone’s devotional work will be different, and that is as it should be!  Remember, this is a very personal sort of work and one that should be created by the individual as an expression of love and devotion to the Gods.  It should never be something done by route and it should never be something that is a chore.  It should be approached with love and care.

First let’s look at the “what”.  What you do for your devotional practice should be rooted in the idea of showing love and respect.  For many people the physical acts taken in devotional practice as the keys to opening the spiritual gateway for this work.  So take a moment and think about what physical acts you perform in your other rituals, such as Sabbats and Esbats, which really mean something for you.  What things really bring you to a place of sacredness or that open yourself to feeling that magickal energy around you.  For me, the act of lighting a candle, lighting incense and smudging the space always makes me feel grounded and centered for spiritual work.  These are things that always are part of my personal work that I do for my devotions.  For you it may be casting a circle, chanting, or simply sitting in silence at your altar or in a sacred space in nature.  Whatever it is find your “trigger” for this sacred point of separation from the mundane to the sacred and make this part of the opening and closing of your work.

How you do your work will be based on several things.  Are you someone that likes a lot of ritualized actions and words, things that are planned out ahead of time and follow a format?  Or are you rather someone that needs to just be able to be free, doing things as they come to you?  Decide how you want your devotions to go as far as how rigid they should be or how free-form you will make them.  I am a ritual type person.  I have always been more drawn to things such as ceremonial magick, the use of lots of tools and props, ritual drama and the like.  Because of this I always including certain words with my candle and incense lighting, I cast banishing pentagrams in the four directions as well as above and below before starting to act as protection during any deep meditation work I may do, I also find that opening and closing with a specific set of words helps me to feel “plugged in” to what I’m doing.  From there I am much freer with my work.  I call to whatever God or Goddess I’m working with at the time , or the archetypal “Lord and Lady” and either give thanks for things, offer prayer or ask for assistance.

The length of daily devotions is always a big question and can be quite debatable.  I personally feel that you should always allow yourself a little more time than you may think you need.  When we get into meditation or in a ritual mindset, time becomes non-linear.  Something that you think will take you 5 minutes might have taken 45 minutes.  If you’re someone that is planning your devotions at the beginning of the day the last thing you want to do is be late for work because you didn’t time your meditation and devotion correctly.  The other thing here is that you don’t want to rush.  Rushing isn’t doing either you or the Gods any good; it will leave you feeling unsatisfied and leave the Gods feeling that they are just a pit stop along your busy day.  For this reason many people that do have busy daily lives with full time jobs, kids to care for and the like may find that doing this work at night, before going to bed when you might be able to get the most peace and quiet, will be the best time to work.

And this brings us to the issue of the time of day.  Again, everyone will be different.   I personally like to start my day off with my devotional work, but this is because the fact that I work from home under my own terms and hours, I can do this without any need to rush.  If I were still working in the corporate world, I would be doing my devotional work at night like I used to.  Back then I had experimented with both morning and evening devotions and found that doing the work in the morning never felt connected for me.  I would have to wake up earlier than normal in order to get the time in before having to rush off to work.  When I did it at night, while I might be a little tired from the day, I was at least able to relax and focus more than in the mornings.  The best way to find your right time or day is to experiment.  You might find the middle of the afternoon when the kids are at school is the best time for you!  Try some different things and do what feels right.

Here are a few simple suggestions for daily devotions:

1. Purchase a daily meditation book and read from it at your altar during your devotions.  Ask the God and Goddess to guide you in your reading and your reflection on the material.  Some books that are available for this include “Celtic Spirit” by Caitlin Matthews, “Celtic Devotionals” by Caitlin Matthews, “The Real Witch’s Year” by Kate West and “365 Goddess”  by Patricia Telesco.

2. Open your devotion by calling to the elemental spirits for their aid in your day.  Decide either on a standard format or pick a different quality each day that the elements and elementals can bring to your life.

3. Create a devotion candle.  If you have a specific deity that you are going to work within your meditations and devotions, purchase a large pillar candle that is in a color that relates to your deity; for example white for Brighid, black for The Morrighan, green for Danu, etc.  If you are able to purchase your candle in a glass jar you can decorate that jar with images of your chosen God or Goddess and other embellishments that speak to you of their power and presence.  Anoint the candle with an oil blend dedicated to your deity or a simple oil of frankincense and myrrh (if your candle cannot come out of the jar simply anoint the top of the candle).  Charge and consecrate your candle to your deity and place it on your altar for use in your devotions and meditations with your God.

4. Make an offering on your altar for the Gods.  Some people will do this daily, others once a week, and yet others will do it twice a week.  I like to do it twice a week, once on the first day of the week and again at the end of the week.  I use a different offering for each one; at the beginning of the week I might use wine or mead and at the end of the week it might be herbs.  Place your offering on your altar as part of your devotion and leave it there for whatever length of time you feel is needed for the Gods to take its essence (typically anywhere from 8-24 hours).  Return your offering to the earth when you are finished.

Always keep in mind that this is something that should be an act of joy and pleasure.  Think of it as being your personal, private moment each day to check in with either your patron deities that you work with often or a chance to get to know someone new.  When you do it, you will want to be relaxed, open and ready to receive their messages as well as give your energy to them.  This is your time every day to renew your sacred vows to the Gods, so make these special times and make them part of your everyday life.