A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book (34 page)

Meadow Spirits, with an offering of jewelry:

• I'm told you like pretty things, Meadow Spirits.
  

Mithra:

• Great friend,
  

  Lord of contracts,
  

   
  

  Mithra of wide pastures:
  

   
  

  my offering today is like a hand stretched out to you in friendship.
  

   
  

Mother Earth:

• We return a portion of the earth's blessings.
  

  May she continue to grant them,
  

   
  

  and may we continue to deserve them.
  

   
  

Perk
^w
únos:

• Perk
  ^w
  únos, whose serpent-slaying
  

  is world-creating,
  

   
  

  is world-redeeming,
  

   
  

  be with me in this day's rituals.
  

   
  

Poseidon:

• Earthquake-bringer, destroyer of cities,
  

  whose horse's hooves shatter the shores on which they land,
  

   
  

  bring down the walls that surround me,
  

   
  

  powder to dust their supporting stones,
  

   
  

  view with the derision fit for a god their flaunted strengths:
  

   
  

  free me from even my most beloved prisons;
  

   
  

  release me to the widely extending world that awaits liberated souls.
  

   
  

Raven:

• When I hear the clacking of your beak, the rough laughter from your throat,
  

  I hope, Black-shrouded Flyer, that the joke isn't on me.
  

   
  

• Okay, Raven, it was you, wasn't it, who [kept my car from starting, tripped me, rained on my parade, etc.]?
  

  Me, I don't get the joke.
  

   
  

  Laugh if you want to, but take this salmon and don't do it again.
  

   
  

Rhiannon:

• It's quite obvious, really,
  

  but at the same time a marvel:
  

   
  

  a woman on a pale horse,
  

   
  

  a woman who cannot be reached by great exertion.
  

   
  

  Impossible to reach, she is easy to attain.
  

   
  

  We need only call and ask for her love.
  

   
  

  So I call to you, Rhiannon;
  

   
  

  out of my need, I call to you.
  

   
  

  I call to her—look, she stops.
  

   
  

  Listen to my needs, Rhiannon,
  

   
  

  fulfill them:
  

   
  

  Please listen to someone who loves you.
  

   
  

River Spirits:

• The spirit of this river is a snake winding through the land,
  

  its breath rising.
  

   
  

  I feed you with this; feed the land.
  

   
  

Rock Spirits:

• What being, what spirit, has come to me in the shape of this stone?
  

  Or is it the rock itself to which I pour this out?
  

   
  

  I pour to the numinous before me.
  

   
  

Sucellus, against limitations:

• Break the wall with your hammer, shake it to pieces, to thousands of pieces;
  

  reduce to sherds obstructing walls, Sucellus,
  

   
  

  between what I am and what I should be.
  

   
  

  Remove limitations, Mallet God,
  

   
  

  and open the possible.
  

   
  

  It only takes a tap from your irresistible force.
  

   
  

Unknown deities:

• Whatever deity or spirit or ancestor
  

  whose presence I feel in this place:
  

   
  

  take this offering as a gift in return for your blessing.
  

   
  

• These trees are the pillars,
  

  the roof the intertwining branches,
  

   
  

  with the scent of leaves and needles underfoot rising as incense.
  

   
  

  To which god or gods is this temple built?
  

   
  

  I don't know.
  

   
  

  I place this offering, then,
  

   
  

  and pour this libation,
  

   
  

  to the unknown divine present here
  

   
  

  and to the spirits of this place.
  

   
  

Varu
a, for fair play:

• Lord of Order, Varu
  a, of the
  ta,
  

  Enforcer of the Sacred Law,
  

   
  

  whose snares await those who violate your Ordinances:
  

   
  

  inspire in me devotion to the rules of the game I am about to play.
  

   
  

  If my acts are not fair, they can never be excellent,
  

   
  

  and instead of glory will bring down on me your deserved punishment.
  

   
  

Varu
a, for right action:

• From the noose that ensnares those who violate the
  ta,
  

  protect me, Varu
  a.
  

   
  

  From the noose that ensnares those who live by untruth,
  

   
  

  protect me, Varu
  a.
  

   
  

  From the noose that ensnares those to whom their Dharma is nothing,
  

   
  

  protect me, O Varu
  a.