(Almost) everybody prays!
No, it's not just a Christian thing
A number of years ago, when my aunt was fighting cancer, I talked with her son (my cousin) and let him know that I was praying for her. When he relayed this information to her, her response was: “I thought she wasn’t Christian.”
Guess what? Christianity doesn’t own prayer. Nor does it own religion, though often these days, when people say religion, what they really mean is Christianity, and they use the word spirituality for stuff like I do (Paganism, polytheism, ancestor reverence).
People have been praying for as long as we’ve been in relationship with the divine, which is a really, really long time.
In today’s Minoan Path blog, I explore what prayer is and how it can work from a polytheist perspective (not just Minoan polytheism, but most any kind):
Pagan Prayer, Ariadne’s Tribe Style
If you can get past the word, prayer can be a valuable part of your spiritual practice; or you can just call it something else, if that’s what it takes for you to be comfortable with the activity.
As with any other aspect of spiritual practice, the important thing is to just do it.
But we Pagans often like to examine, analyze, and discuss what we do and the language we use to describe and define it. I invite you to comment here, as always, but I can also recommend Nimue Brown’s excellent book When a Pagan Prays as an exploration of the concept of prayer and how it can work in Druidry and other polytheistic paths.
Do you pray? If you do, how?
I'm glad that the notion of prayer and liturgy are more widely accepted now than 30 years ago when I started writing about the subject.
I visit a 7th century saxon chapel every day on my dog walk... to give thanks and send out healing thoughts. I sing them out too, which is my favourite way of casting a spell.