Pagan Prayer

Even though we're Pagan, we don't have to think that 'prayer' is a dirty word. However, there are some essentials to Pagan prayer that might be different from what we learned in other religions:

Pagan prayer is not subservient - we are not groveling for favors from someone above us, we are asking for guidance from those who have more experience in wisdom.

Pagan prayer starts first of all internally - linking Talking Self and Deep Self through Younger Self to reach the part of us that is God/dess. From that centered, creative state we can reach out with the internal God/dess to have communication and communion with the 'external' God/dess.

Pagan prayer is truly conversational - we both talk and listen; and She's likely to talk to us in actual words, as well as in 'coincidental' circumstances, the words of a friend, what we read.

Pagan prayer is never required. You don't need to pray X number of times to get what you want. Pagan prayer flows naturally out of who we are, our connectedness with the universe, and the love we give to and receive from the Goddess, the God, and each other.

Pagan prayer does not require a specific time, a specific place, or a specific posture. It is just as easy to meditate on the interconnectedness of all while you knead a loaf of bread or put the ingredients for a rich stew together as it is to talk in Circle. It is just as easy to have a chat with the Goddess during your commute to work as it is to call to Her with athame and robe. Paganism is rooted in the here-and-now, the earth as it is around us. So too can Pagan prayer be rooted in our everyday lives.

Pagan prayer is always based on love. We often forget the basics - we get so involved in invoking just the right Goddess for our needs that we forget that all of the Gods are personified love. Our emotions can and should be involved in our relationships with the Gods. Mommy and Daddy love us! Our Beloved embraces us with unimaginable passion! Our Child looks up at us with awe.

Pagan prayer should be part of our daily lives. We should hear Her voice easily and see Him dance the spiral with us. However, as I said earlier, we haven't been taught to expect this. So to get started we need to make a special effort, to delight Younger Self so that we quiet Talking Self long enough to listen to Deep Self which allows us to link with Goddess. That is why an altered state of consciousness can facilitate this, specifically a state of ecstasy. The feeling of talking with the Gods should remind us of the feelings of falling in love.

- Cecylyna

And remember Thalia's favorite line...

Life is too important to be taken seriously!

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