Children's Prayers

Prayer During Storms

Thunder, thunder
In the sky
Thor's loud chariot
Pass us by

Meal Prayer

We give thanks
For this food
To the Gods
To the land spirits
And ancestors too

Sleep Prayers

A general version for all the pagan parents of little kids out there:
"Now I lay me down to rest
I pray that my home and kin be blessed;
ancestors guard me through the night
Gods watch over me by starlight
Guardian spirits are always near
and keep me safe, no need to fear
Loving spirits will dance and sing
Happy dreams they always bring
And when I wake to a new day
The shining sun will light my way"
  
An more Irish version:
"Now I lay me down to rest
I pray that my home and kin be blessed
ancestors guard me through the night
Gods watch over me by starlight
Guardian spirits are always near
and keep me safe, no need to fear
Goodly spirits will dance and sing
Happy dreams they always bring
And when I wake to a new day
Aine's bright sun will light my way"

And a more heathen one:
"Now I lay me down to rest
I pray that my home and kin be blessed
Disir guard me through the night
Aesir watch over me by starlight
Guardian spirits are always near
and keep me safe, no need to fear
Goodly wights will dance and sing
Happy dreams they always bring
And when I wake to a new day
 Sunna's bright sun will light my way"

Book Review: Thinking Wild

    I recently was offered the opportunity to review the book Thinking Wild, Its Gift of Insight: a way to make peace with my shadow for Red Wheel/Weiser.
   Thinking Wild is a fascinating look into the mind of the author as he explores the symbolism and metaphor of Nature as it relates to the human mind. Written in style reminiscent of the stream of consciousness writing of Sylvia Plath or Toni Morrison it tells the story of a man searching through his own life and experience to better understand the human heart and more, the human experience. In many places it reads more like poetry than prose, and like reading Dylan Thomas or James Joyce, the reader can't try to find meaning in each line, but rather has to step back and take each section as a whole and let it speak for itself.
   I found the book initially difficult to get into as the author packs a lot of deep introspection into each page and at times the sheer amount of it is overwhelming, so I finally broke it down and began reading a small section each day which worked better. The material really needs some time to be digested as it is read, rather than being rushed through. At times I found myself in full agreement with the author, at other points I could not have disagreed more, but I was always intrigued by what he was saying and how he was choosing to say it.
  The book has value, I think, in that it challenges us all to look at our own lives and values in a new context. We all live in poetry and in art, in savagery and in brutal truth, side by side and without contradiction, but rarely do we acknowledge it the way Thinking Wild does. It offers us all a chance to shift our viewpoint and open up to a new perspective.

Song Parody "24 Runes" ~ For Odin

  Inspiration is a funny thing, I can sit for hours trying to write and have nothing come to me, or I can be doing some mundane task and have a sudden burst of insight. This morning as I was putting my daughter on the bus for school a song parody went through my head as if it were writing itself. I decided to share it here. 
  
24 Runes - To the tune of Ernie Ford's "16 Tons"

 Some people say the world came from fire and ice
 and all the world's knowledge comes with a price
 Knowledge that costs and we all gotta pay
  some run towards it and some run away

Chorus:
You rist 24 runes and what do you get?
Another day wiser with every aett
Runatyr don't you call me cause I can't go
There's still too many things I don't know

Odin won the runes after nine long nights
  they rose up from the depths and into his sights
He snatched them all with a mighty yell
  for the Gods, elves, dwarves, and men as well

Chorus

Runes for healing and runes for harm
  runes for warding and runes for charm
There's runes for anything you might need
  but if you work with runes be ready to bleed

Chorus

You start learning runes and you'll be changed
   your whole world view gets rearranged
The more you learn the more you ask why
  and you keep on asking until the day that you die

Chorus

Matronae

  Many aspects of my own practices, Irish pagan and Heathen, are separate ones but there are points of cross-over. My honoring of the daoine sidhe/land vaettir is one, and my honoring of Artio is another. A third is my worship of the Matronae, a triad of Germano-Celtic goddesses.
   The Matronae, whose name simply means "Mothers" in Latin, are found in Celtic (specifically Gaulish), Roman, and Germanic sources (Lendering, 2013). These goddesses are known from over 80 inscriptions on images found from France to Germany and through northern Italy, and can be found on hundreds of votive altars (Evans, 2005). The Matronae are usually depicted as three seated women holding symbols of abundance, including fruit, animals, infants, and cornucopias, as well as items like small pieces of cloth, basins, and spindles; the women wear long skirts and have one breast bare, possibly symbolizing a nursing mother (Evans, 2005; Green, 1992). Often the figures on the sides are shown wearing wide hats and sitting next to trees while the central figure has loose hair; in one case the inscription  was accompanied by an image of a tree, a snake, and a goat (Lendering, 2013; Green, 1992). Images also depict the Matronae being worshiped by women and by soldiers and being offered fruit and bread (Green, 1992). Although its difficult to know with certainty what the Matronae were worshiped for, most scholars surmise that they were related to fertility, abundance, healing, and protection. Many Matronae had distinctive names relating to the area they were in or people who worshiped them so it is also possible that they represented communal maternal ancestors, an idea supported by inscriptions naming them "matres paternae" which may be translated as ancestral mothers (Lendering, 2013). It is also possible that the Matronae were examples of cults of genus locii expressed in a set form, although Ross suggests that they are reflexes of tribal mother goddesses (Green, 1992; Ross, 1998). In specific locations the Matronae also had specific associations: the Matres Comedovae and the Matres Griselicae were associated with healing and specific healing springs, for example (Green, 1992).

My personal shrine to the Mothers

   I tend to relate to the Matronae as the Great Mothers, the Deae Matres, the ultimate ancestral mothers of us all, the uber disir. To me they are both ancestors and deities; they are a force which ultimately connects all humanity together back at the beginnings and which connects us to the land as a source of basic life sustaining nourishment. I use three images of paleolithic female figures to represent them on my altar and pray to them for protection of my home and family as well as abundance. I also pray to them for peace within my home and for healing, particularly of my children. I offer them fruit, honey, and bread, and celebrate them especially on Mutternacht, the night before the Winter solstice.

References:
Lendering, J., (2013) Matres, Matronae, or Mothers. Retrieved from http://www.livius.org/man-md/matronae/matronae.html
Evans, D., (2005) Matronae. Retrieved from http://www.celtnet.org.uk/gods_m/matronae.html
Green, M., (1992) Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend
Ross, A., (1998) Pagan Celts

Prayer for the Year

This is one of the more interesting prayers in the Gadelica because it involves praying for calm seas at specific points throughout the year. In the original Gadelica version the dates listed are the old pagan fire festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh as well as the feast days of saints, however each of these feast days is on or within days of a solstice or equinox, so I have shifted the references to these. Taken with a larger view this prayer can be seen as one for peace and safety throughout the year. I would recommend saying it at the turning of the year, but it could be said with equal effectiveness at any point.  

Ocean Blessing 118

O gracious gods whom we honor,
Give to us your gracious blessing,
Carry us over the surface of the sea,
Carry us safely to a haven of peace,
Bless our boatmen and our boat,
Bless our anchors and our oars,
Each stay and halyard and traveler,
Our mainsails to our tall masts
May land, sea, and sky remain in their places
That we may return home in peace;
I myself will sit down at the helm,
It is Manannan who will give me guidance,
As He travels far over the waters
On the fields of waves.

On the Autumn Equinox, day of balance,
On Samhain, when the old year ends,

On the day of the Winter Solstice,
Subdue to us the crest of the waves,
On Imbolc, day of my choice,
Cast the serpent into the ocean,
So that the sea may swallow her up;
On the Spring Equinox, day of power,
Reveal to us the storm from the north,
Quell its wrath and blunt its fury,
Lessen its fierceness, kill its cold.

On Beltane Day give us the dew,
On Midsummer’s Day the gentle wind,
On Lughnasadh, the great of fame,
Ward off us the storm from the west;
Each day and night, storm and calm,
Be with us, great Gods of Life,
Be our guide in right-living,
Your  hands on the helm of our rudder,
By land, sea, and sky

  - excerpted from By Land, Sea, and Sky

Spirit of place in the home

my monthly blog for Moon books is up http://moon-books.net/blogs/moonbooks/spirits-of-place-in-the-home/ looking at how we connect to spirits of place and why I think we should start at home

Where the Hawthorn Grows

  I'm excited to announce the official release of my new book, "Where the Hawthorn Grows". It is based on this blog and includes an array of essays on my views and experiences as an Irish reconstructionist Druid. Right now it is available in paperback and will soon be out as an ebook as well.