A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book (22 page)

Ancestors:

• Yesterday has gone to the Ancestors.
  

  Today is a new life.
  

   
  

  From the Ancestors I ask the continuing wisdom of yesterday
  

   
  

  and from the Gods continuing guidance for today.
  

   
  

Sun:

• Maybe I'm awake after a poor night of too little
  

  sleep and disturbed dreams,
  

   
  

  but as the saying goes, “I may have risen, but I refuse to shine.”
  

   
  

  Sun, you have risen, and as always you shine:
  

   
  

  and
  such
  shining!
  

   
  

  Spare some shining for
  me
  ,
  

   
  

  your heat my blood's warmth,
  

   
  

  gently but forcefully get and keep me moving.
  

   
  

  If I can stay alert until noon, I can make it through the rest of the day,
  

   
  

  and I'll think of you when you are highest, most powerful, and shining with your greatest beauty,
  

   
  

  and pray to you with shining words.
  

   
  

• I see, Father Sun, in the skylight above,
  

  the blue you have brought.
  

   
  

  And, although I have not yet seen you yourself,
  

   
  

  I praise your necessary presence.
  

   
  

• New sun, newly seen, bring new things into my life;
  

  bring joyous things,
  

   
  

  bring love, and life, and laughter.
  

   
  

• This day is one less I have to live.
  

  May I see it instead as a gift,
  

   
  

  Goddess of morning.
  

   
  

• High noon and a short pause,
  

  and a short gaze at you,
  

   
  

  and then a return to my day
  

   
  

  as you go on with yours.
  

   
  

• They say that dawn is a goddess.
  

  They say that the coming of night is a goddess.
  

   
  

  I say that noon is a god,
  

   
  

  whose disk blesses and shields.
  

   
  

  You whose might is irresistible,
  

   
  

  unable to be overcome,
  

   
  

  look kindly on me, your worshipper.
  

   
  

Earth:

• By your slow turning you have brought me to this moment when I can feel the power of the sun,
  

  the power of a Lord at his zenith,
  

   
  

  a power which warms me and lights my way.
  

   
  

  Mother Earth, this is therefore a moment to praise not just Him—
  

   
  

  and I do, indeed, praise Him for all his splendor—
  

   
  

  but to praise you as well, for giving me this time when he might shine so brightly.
  

   
  

Sun:

• You, rising in the morning, in all that glory,
  

  seem in my memory to have been a small thing beside you,
  

   
  

  shining, have risen to your
  greatest
  glory,
  

   
  

  to your greatest height above our land,
  

   
  

  there in the South.
  

   
  

  Fill the hands that, empty cups, reach for you with some small part of that glory,
  

   
  

  small enough for a human being to handle.
  

   
  

  I bring my light-encrusted hands in toward my heart,
  

   
  

  where they overflow, filling me with those captured rays of yours,
  

   
  

  filling me with the life that your invincible searing, which none can resist,
  

   
  

  gives to living things.
  

   
  

• Glory; Glory and unimaginable power,
  

  generated by the joining together of the very building blocks of the universe,
  

   
  

  creating the very building blocks of the universe,
  

   
  

  radiating in all directions,
  

   
  

  until a fraction of it falls on my upturned eyes.
  

   
  

  And even this tiny piece of all you produce is beyond what my eyes can stand:
  

   
  

  I see you through a closed-lid curtain.
  

   
  

  May you grant me all the insight I can stand;
  

   
  

  not just in the world you so obviously light,
  

   
  

  but even in my submerged soul:
  

   
  

  illuminate my darkest secrets,
  

   
  

  Sun, Lord of Noon.
  

   
  

• As night slides in softly, softly, over the resting land,
  

  like sunset's rooster I sing the praises of the All-Gods,
  

   
  

  and of the sun whose absence will end in dawn.
  

   
  

• The young maiden Dusk is the bringer of sweet rest,
  

  deserving of praise.
  

   
  

  To you, lovely one, these words.
  

   
  

• With the darkening of the world would come a darkening of my soul,
  

  a shadow on my heart, my self,
  

   
  

  if I did not know you would be with me, Mother Moon,
  

   
  

  or if not you,
  

   
  

  then your children the stars, their unnumbered eyes keeping watch over me in the black of night.
  

   
  

• I look west and fall into the fading light that brings rest to my soul.
  

  Calm, peace, sleep: bring these,
  

   
  

  Goddess of the growing night,
  

   
  

  God of the dimming light.
  

   
  

• Good night, Sun, as you go to sleep;
  

  I will soon enough sleep myself.
  

   
  

  We will both wake in the morning and share another day together.
  

   
  

• Gods of dreams, goddesses of visions,
  

  guide me on this journey.
  

   
  

The Goddess:

• Mother of the World's children,
  

  rock me to sleep
  

   
  

  and watch my dreams.
  

   
  

• Mother, with your calming hands, smooth away the worry lines this day has etched on my face, my heart, soothing me into restoring sleep.
  

Manannán mac Lir:

• The slow lapping of soft waves on the sand lulling me,
  

  your horses carrying me into dreams
  

   
  

  where I awake within a world more real.
  

   
  

Morpheus:

• Protect me while I sleep, Morpheus,
  

  keep my body safe,
  

   
  

  bring dreams that teach,
  

   
  

  bring dreams that heal,
  

   
  

  bring dreams of comfort and peace,
  

   
  

  a peace only a god can give.
  

   
  

• It seems as if the whole world is asleep.
  

  Although I know that isn't true,
  

   
  

  Gods of the night, whose worship I keep,
  

   
  

  may I join with those who do.
  

   
  

• In the stillness of night, I free myself from the business of the day and seek the wisdom of the empty.
  

• Stars that light the night, guide me through to dawn.
  

Morpheus:

• Not yet, Morpheus; I still have so many things to do.
  

  A little while, and I will accept your beautiful gift.
  

   
  

  I'm not rejecting it insultingly:
  

   
  

  I simply can't afford to be overwhelmed by such an amazing present.
  

   
  

  Don't worry, though; when I unwrap it,
  

   
  

  it'll be that much more appreciated for the anticipating
  

   
  

  and my gratitude that much more.
  

   
  

Night:

• I sit in the night, waiting for dawn,
  

  wrapped in the night, the sister of dawn,
  

   
  

  as if I were a child, waiting to be born.
  

   
  

• Outward sight subdued,
  

  may inward sight grow,
  

   
  

  in the night, in the night,
  

   
  

  Sister of Dawn.
  

   
  

• The speckled hen comes to brood
  

  and light-filled darkness spreads over the earth.
  

   
  

  Silver feathers cover her children with warmth and softness,
  

   
  

  like a blanket she covers them.
  

   
  

  With motherly concern she cares for all under her.
  

   
  

  This is you, Night,
  

   
  

  our sweet rescue from the cares of the day.
  

   
  

• As you come, Night, with stars in your train,
  

  the crickets begin your song,
  

   
  

  the frogs join in, and the owls too,
  

   
  

  and I, with a human voice,
  

   
  

  praise your overpowering presence,
  

   
  

  all one chorus in your honor.
  

   
  

• Since even with the stars shining from your body you are still dark,
  

  how can I hope to understand you completely, Night?
  

   
  

  I have a small light compared to them, and I am only one.
  

   
  

  If you cover me like a blanket that will do.
  

   
  

  What more could you want?
  

   
  

• First star of evening, be my first guide through darkness,
  

  passing me from one to the rest,
  

   
  

  until morning comes.