A Pagan Lectio Divina

We currently have a thread on Pagan Forum about the use of devotionals as a personal practice, which is how/why I was inspired to write this thread on my own devotional practice, which is loosely based on the Catholic Lectio Divina.

If you aren’t familiar with the term devotional, it describes a short, often daily, religious practice that is used to help an individual grow in their relationship with the Divine, which generally involves some sort of reading and/or prayer.  If you are familiar with the term from a Christian standpoint, you may have seen or read a book or magazine which often takes a Bible verse, illustrates it with someone’s story or lesson, and ends with a prayer, which is called a devotional.  Often Christian devotionals are oriented to a particular subset of Christians–either by denomination, or gender, or age, etc.  (despite these books widely being referred to as a devotional, the use of them is only one type of devotional practice).

From a Pagan perspective, the purpose of devotional practice isn’t much different, though I think we have a lot more diversity when it comes to what we consider Divine.  A polytheistic devotional practice, for example, might focus on particular individual deities or a particular pantheon, while a pantheist or even a naturalist might choose to focus something like the elements, the natural world or the universe-at-large.  Since our views of Divinity are so varied, our individual devotionals are bound to be equally diverse.  If you haven’t established a personal devotional practice, but are interested in the idea, a good Pagan introduction to the idea can be found here, and a good conversation on devotional prayers can be found here.

My devotional work follows the structure of the Lectio Divina (which means Divine Reading in Latin), though its (obviously) not about Jesus and its quite a bit less structured/more free form.  The Catholic Lectio Divina dates back to the 6th century and was developed as a monastic practice by St. Benedict, while the format that exists today was established later (more info on its history).  The Lectio Divina has four parts–Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio, and Contemplatio (which translates to  reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation)…and really, the devotional structure found in contemporary (and generally non-denominational) devotionals is based in part on this form.  A good walk through of the Lectio Divina from a Catholic perspective can be found here–its an excellent description of the process in general, if you can overlook the Christian bits.*

My version of the Lectio Divina goes something like this:

• Lectio–Read/watch/listen.  Using some piece of material that speaks from the Divine to you, intake the material from a non-judgemental perspective.  Try not to assign meaning to the material, just soak in the message.  The message might come from a reading, but it could also come form a song or a clip of video or a picture.  The key here is to absorb every scrap of meaning you can wring from it, without judging it or formulating your own response to it (yet).
• Meditato–Meditation on the message (or messages).  How does it fit as an expression of Divinity, Humanity or the cosmos (or not)?  How is Divinity speaking through this message? What does it mean in terms of a message from or about your gods?  What does it mean in terms of how you go about your day, or how you live your life?
• Oratio–Conventionally, this would be where one enters into a conversation with the Divine–otherwise known as prayer.  Sometimes for this part I pray…but its more about a personal active expression of the message (it could be getting off your rear and dancing, singing, painting, writing, etc, or it could be the more conventional prayers) that is based on the message you received (which may or may not be true to the text itself).
• Contemplatio–Resting with the gods in silence (however you see them), open meditation, etc, opening your mind and heart to their wonder (or the wonder of nature/the universe/etc), and re-centering yourself in the present.

The material I use for the Lectio portion is pretty varied.  It includes everything from Bible verses (I’m a fan of Ecclesiastes 3 1-8), to the Homeric hymn to Gaia, to poetry the poem Mending Wall (by Robert Frost) to the excerpt of Mary Oliver I posted recently, to this song by Sara Thomsen, to each of the Unitarian Universalist 7 principles, to the picture at the top of the post, which is a picture of the Rose Window at Chartres Cathedral next to a cross section image of DNA often called the Rose Window.  Anything that speaks to one’s inner self or offers divine inspiration is, at least in my opinion, fair game.

What about you?  Do you have a daily practice (or at least a regularly occurring one)? What do you find inspiring on a soul level?

UPDATE: I just opened up another blog, which I *oh-so-creatively* titled Pagan Devotionals, specifically to post inspiring bits of this and that for anyone that is interested in starting their own devotional practice, whether it be reciting prayers or adorations or undertaking the Lectio Divina.

*Normally I wouldn’t have felt it necessary to point out that beneficial spiritual practices and beliefs can exist in other religions…even Christianity, and that we should keep an open mind to both the origins and intent of specific ideas as well as their modern interpretations.  But then I read (mostly via Facebook and other blogs–so if you missed the debate, count yourself lucky) some recent debate over this particular blog post (which I thought was spot on), purely over what commenters thought the specific terminology meant (and I’m pretty sure most of them only read the title anyhow).

Tending the Garden Within

There are times in our lives when we allow our inner selves to get bogged down (as Chickadee would say) with all of the “mad things, bad things and sad things” that stick to us on a daily basis.  Our worries and fears, anger and sadness, frustrations and pain–all of that builds up until we can find ourselves on the edge of a precipice, ready to fall into a funk (or sometimes standing knee deep already).  An almost (or mild) funk can actually be healthy from time to time as a wake-up call to change, if we hone in on its causes and face them directly.  We can tend the garden within–from pulling the weeds of our discontent, to planting new seeds for change.

This is my meditation for the times when dealing with life gets in the way of living–when the anxiety builds up over the little things (or the bigger things outside of our control) and when I get too caught up in the external conditions of momhood or school or work or whatever and forget about my inner self, and need to deal with the crud that has built up.

The meditation:

Center yourself and imagine yourself in an overgrown garden where weeds choke out the plants trying to grow.
Each weed is different, and each weed has a name–for some, the roots go deep into hard earth and on others, they spread in a shallow smothering mat. This garden is your psyche, and you are its gardener. Perhaps you have a trowel or rake to help, or maybe you are just using your hands.

Grasp the weed and name it–the bill you haven’t been able to pay on time, the 15 pounds you obsess over, the bad habit you just can’t let go of, the fight with your mother or your boss, the fear of losing a job, etc. Pull it out and look at it, look at your problem with honesty and own it. Is it something you have control over and can change? Or is it something you need to just let go of? Toss the weed into a bucket or wheelbarrow and move on to the next one. Repeat.

Once you have identified your most pressing problems (I usually stop at 3-5 depending on how in depth or emotionally draining they might be), take your wheelbarrow of weeds to compost.

Reclaim the energy that all of those things have been draining from you and focus it instead on turning those weeds into fertilizer. Does your problem have a solution? If not, are you prepared to let it go? If so, can you identify what realistic steps you can take to minimizing or eliminating the problem?

Work the weeds into the compost pile and see them turn into something useful.  Fill up your wheelbarrow with compost and return to your (now cleared) garden. If there are plants there already, care for them. If there are not, plant ones representative of the things that you would like to foster in your life, particularly if they are tied into some of the potential solutions to your problems.

Work your garden until you are satisfied with the results. Then sit in its center and regroup, ground your left over emotions into your garden and let them be transformed.  Come back from your work feeling lighter and more positive.

Let Freedom Ring

In the United States, let no god be master, and let all be free.

from the Charm for Religious Liberty by IanC

I am guessing that by now, many of us within the Pagan community in the US have at least heard of DC40 and the New Apostolic Reformation and their goal of praying and politicking this nation into their brand of Christian.  Their latest puts out a letter to those of us that think their idea stinks (I love this response to their letter).

There are several ideas bouncing around on how these groups should be handled, ranging from ignoring it in the hopes that it will go away to fighting fire with fire.  I’m generally a middle ground sort of person, and here is no different–I’m neither in favor of totally ignoring it nor going on the direct attack.  In general, I think that we need to be educating ourselves about the ongoing struggle for religious liberty in this country that we have all benefited from, and we need to be sharing that knowledge and openly celebrating religious pluralism (including our own) and embracing religious literacy.  Specifically though, I think we need to foster awareness of this group and their proposed actions and taking action (both magically and mundanely) to block their objectives from success without attacking their organization or supporters directly.

I ultimately reject the idea of lowering my standards of belief or behavior by addressing any group that would act as this one does (an example), as it only serves to offer validation to their agenda.  This sort of group feeds off of the controversy they incite, and I refuse to give them the satisfaction of dining upon paranoia and bigotry reinforced from my hand.

“Labels do not define our morality. They do not evaluate our character. It is not calling yourself a Pagan, Christian, Witch, Evangelical, Thelemite, Catholic or Wiccan that identifies you as a good person, it’s what you do. If what you do is declare spiritual warfare against others, if you devote your time and energy to harm, destroy and confound others, then you are not a good person. Your soul is blackened and corrupt.”

Star Foster (source)

I believe instead that it is within our best interests (as Americans and as Pagans) to take a stand on the issue itself–their goal to revoke the very liberties that define what it means to be a citizen of this nation.  Intellectually and spiritually I deny the existence of their interpretation of deity, and think that their threats from this regard are completely and utterly baseless (quite frankly, their vision of god is so far off the mark for even most Christians I know that I don’t think it bears serious contemplation). However, I do think that we should be concerned with the maleficent intent of their proposal of spiritual warfare–if we actually believe in magic, we should be concerned with the attempts of others to cause “change to occur with the conformity of will” that lie in direct opposition to not only our own self interest, but the interests of this nation and its future.  I agree with those that promote the idea of responding to their activism on our own terms, by using both magical and mundane means to support and promote ideal of religious freedom that this nation was founded upon.

There have been a  few ritual ideas created recently to promote religious liberty, from the above quoted Charm for Religious Liberty (be sure to go and read it, it is excellent) to my suggestion of inviting the spirits of our nation’s founders to help preserve the freedoms they helped secure in my homage to my favorite Founding Father.  The Hail Columbia blog recently featured this ritual, for the Spirit of Aloha (Hawaii is the first state on DC40′s list) and they have also mirrored a 4-part series, Conversations With Columbia by blogger Hecate Demeter.

Further Reading:
Evangelicals Engaged in Spiritual Warfare (NPR)
DC40′s Dates of Prayer
A Reading List for Religious Liberty
7 Simple Ways to be Politically Involved
Pagan Political Spells from Isaac Bonewits
Framing and giving energy: How we work against DC40 Matters
Counteracting DC40
The AntiChrist in the Mirror

And please, if you are reading this and you haven’t done so already, consider writing your own prayer or ritual to celebrate and promote religious freedom.  Feel free to link it to your own blog in my comments here, to post it to the Musings FB site, or to submit it to Hail Columbia’s blog to share with the wider community.

Of Blessing and Thanks, Prayers for the Day

No matter the religion, the daily devotional prayer is an important reminder of your connection to the divine and the gifts you receive from the divine…You are building a rope, one strand at a time. Each time you pray and give thanks to your Gods you are adding one more strand to the rope. (source)

Sunrise from Space on the Apollo 11 (image from NASA via Universe Today)

 

Blessing for the Day to Come

Thanks be for the waters that support and surround us
for the land that extends about us
and for the sky that stretches above us
And our center which burns as a living flame
Let us move in the world today
With a heart reflecting a love that is pure
Our mind making decisions that are just
And our spirit exalted in a worship that is true.
Let every action of our bodies be a prayer of our soul.
As I will, so mote it be.

Thanksgiving for the End of Day

I have thrived* today
Through the blessing of the universe–
The light of sun, and radiance of moon,
With the splendour of fire, and the speed of lightning,
Embraced by the swiftness of the wind,
Cradled with the depth of seas,
Supported by the stability of earth and the firmness of rock.
I give thanks to this day,
That its successes be met with joy
and its failures be counted as blessings from which to grow.

*Alternate wording (for those not-so-good days): survived

(both of these are taken from my BoS (Book of Stuff), and I am fairly sure they are modified from prayers I have collected and had long enough that no longer have the original source information)

Hair, Mythology and Magic

Biology of Hair in Brief

Hair is mostly a protein called keratin, which is also the foundation protein of nails, hooves, horns, the baleen of whales, and the feathers of birds.  A strand of hair is composed of three layers–the medulla (inner most), cortex (middle) and cuticle (outermost) and has two main structures–the follicle (the “living” part, embedded in the skin where hair grows from) and the shaft (the “dead” part that has grown out of the skin).  The composition of hair is determined by the cortex, whose structure is determined by the shape of the follicle (resulting in straight, wavy or curly locks) and the deposition of melanin in the cortex is the source of hair color (the amount (less=light, more=dark) and type of melanin determines hair color–pheomelanin for blondes and redheads and eumelanin for everyone else).

A developing fetus has all of it’s hair follicles formed by week 22. At this time there are 5 million follicles on the body. One million of those are on the head, and 100,000 are on the scalp. This is the largest number of follicles we will ever have – follicles are never added during life. As the size of the body increases as we grow older, the density of the hair follicles on the skin decreases.

from about.com

In Mythology and History

And Taphios had a son Pterelaos, whom Poseidon made immortal by implanting a golden hair in his head.

(snip)

Now, so long as Pterelaos lived, he could not take Taphos; but when Komaitho, daughter of Pterelaos, falling in love with Amphitryon, pulled out the golden hair from her father’s head, Pterelaos died, and Amphitryon subjugated all the islands. He slew Komaitho, and sailed with the booty to Thebes, and gave the islands to Heleios and Kephalos; and they founded cities named after themselves and dwelt in them.

from the Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 4. 5 – 6 (trans. Frazer) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) source @ theoi.com

From Sif to Sampson,  Medusa to the King of Megara (Nisos), and Berenice to Rapunzel, the role of hair in myth and folklore has paralleled its importance as a cultural symbol and in determining social roles.  Hairstyles have been a reflection of ethnicity (and status-by-statute) of men in the Manchurian dynasty, a sign of one’s piety among medieval monks, a demonstration of femininity, and the source of stereotypes.

Often the length of a hero’s hair has been linked to their strength or mortality (Sampson and Nisos), or as a sign of their purity, devotion (Berenice) or fertility (Sif), though it can play other roles (in Medusa’s punative transformation, or Rapunzel’s imprisonment and freedom).  In the many myths of Sedna, an Inuit goddess, she is depicted as a vain girl, combing her hair and/or as a tragic figure with her fingers cut off, unable to comb her hair (and journeying involving Sedna often includes the ritual of combing her hair) .

Modern Magic and Ritual

The style of one’s hair can be a tool during ritual work as well. Bound styles such as buns and especially braids are symbolic of controlled and focused power. The same idea would be true of disheveled, wild hair that expresses raw, independent power. During any ritual, spell or exercise focusing on release, freedom, celebration, or even mourning might involve the act of disheveling the hair or wearing it this way. Braiding the hair can be used during rituals involving gaining control, intensifying any spellwork (through focus at a particular goal) or any organizational goals.

from an older article by my good friend Rafe @ under a bluegrass moon

Prayers and spells are often woven, beaded, or stitched into a cloth based medium.  Hair is another option for a place to weave, braid, bead, twist, or otherwise anchors personal magics.  For the past several years I have often used small braids in my hair as a place to anchor prayers of healing and blessing for family and friends, for prayers towards goals for our family and other spells and rituals.  Many hair styles and rituals centered around one’s hair care can be used as a part of one’s religious and spiritual practice (Pagan or not).  Opportunities for hair magic can come from the use of color correspondences (either in ribbons, barrettes or other fasteners or the hair itself—permanently, or removable via colored “extentions” or clips), herbal hot oils and rinses (which can often be quite beneficial to the hair—just do some research first!), the use of gemstones in beads or clips, or even the use of one’s hair tools (see Mrs. B’s hair dryer spell below).

The key to using hair (as with any tool) is of course, intent, mindfulness and visualization.

Thalassa’s Prayer “Braids” (and other ‘Dos):

Braids (English, French and Dutch)—Great basic style to anchor any prayer or spell.  Super easy if you already know how to braid, a bit more difficult to learn if you are like my husband.  Can be combined or modified with beads, ribbons, etc to add color or crystal symbolism.

Two-Strand Twists—As with the braid, it can be used as a general purpose anchor, though I find it works best to bring or keep two things together.  It is reasonably easy to do and to learn and can be modified as well.

Net (see pic, or check out a fancy vriation)—Good for protection to “catch” negative energy..  Difficult to do to one’s own hair, “intermediate” difficulty if doing for the first time to another (but fairly easy after that).  I usually do this to my daughter’s hair, particularly when we are going somewhere potentially unsafe, or where I am concerned about her comfort level (plus it looks really cute when she *hasn’t* slept on it). 

Gathered Ponytail (check out the 2nd pic in this how-to of another style)—Also utilizable as for any prayer or spell, but ideal for protection or to bring or keep many separate pieces of something together.  Probably the easiest to do and learn, easily customizable and easy to do to one’s own hair. 

Wrap—Highly customizable and utilizable for any prayer or spell, but excellent for protection and shielding, hiding and binding.  Fairly easy to do to one’s own hair, but can be difficult to take out, and may need to be cut out or off—often more permanent than the other styles.

Ideas and Inspiration

The Story of the Coma Berenices (the constellation Berenice’s Hair)
Working with the Element of Air via the Hair Drier from Mrs. B @ Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom
Hair Loss in Mythology & Legend, an article from Hairloss.com
A retelling of the story of Sif and Loki’s theft of her hair
Medusa in Myth and Literary History
Henna for Hair (part of *IMO* the best online resource on henna)
a bit about loving what’s on your head…probably the greatest bit of magic there is, lol