Some Help on Prayer

I understand ADF's core order of ritual, but one thing I've been unclear on is whether ADF's Druidry, or other polytheistic religions, allow for simple prayer. One thing I'm used to from my Christian days is the ability to simply think thoughts directed to God and believe they are heard and taken as prayer.

But can one do this in a polytheistic context? ADF's COR includes the step of asking a gatekeeper deity to open the gate between the worlds, so that the gods may hear us and interact with us. If I think or say a prayer without doing that, is it likely to be heard?

So I e-mailed Ceisiwr Serith, author of A Book of Pagan Prayerwith that question. Fortunately ADF's wise old elders are eminently accessible and helpful, and he responded just a few hours later:

Sure. I do all the time. In fact, my morning and evening prayers aren't in the Core Order of Ritual style at all. (The morning prayers are here: http://ceisiwrserith.com/ritual/practice/morning.htm). I often pray to the Vedic goddess Vac ("Word") before writing, to Cernunnos when I need calming, to Ganesha and Isis when flying, and so on. Whether made up on the spot or previously-memorized,, the sand-alone prayer is a powerful thing.

That said, in groups more elaborate rituals are good things. There are a number of reasons for this. It's good for a group to be on the same page; it increases the power of the ritual. A set pattern is good for this -- it allows everyone to know what comes next, so they can stay together, it allows the prayers to be additive, rather than muddled, and thereby increases the order, and thus the beauty, of the ritual (and beauty is at the center of the IE cosmos). In order to be more elaborate, there needs to be a structure, and the COoR provides that. The COoR is devised to fill in the necessary holes, and to be IE in spirit, thereby connecting us to those who worshiped these deities in the past. They must have been on to something, and these are the sorts of rituals the Holy Ones are used to, and presumably like.

Most important, the rituals express both the ADF/IE cosmos and the way we relate to our deities. They teach us these things and reinforce in us, to the point where it becomes easier to relate to them, and to make those spontaneous prayers. So participating in the more planned out rituals actually strengthens the non-planned out ones.

If possible, then, it is good to have structure to your own prayers. This will set up echoes between them and the public ones, as well as with the cosmology and ritual theory behind ADF practice.

At the minimum, it is best if you can do your prayers in the presence of fire and water. That's standard IE practice, for which there are a number of reasons. Fire can be seen as Order, and water as Chaos; both fire and water are purifying; water is the border and fire the center; and so on. If you can, use the actual objects, but there's a fair amount of discussion off and on on the Dedicants' list as to what to do when you can't, especially when you can't use fire -- electric tea lights, pictures, stones, etc.

It's worth making the effort to do this. But if you can't, because of where and when you are, then go ahead and pray. In a sense, such prayer is less than ones in the presence [of fire] and water, and in a sense they are exactly the same. Just do your best. I'm not saying the classic Neo-Pagan/Neo-Wiccan platitude of "do what seems right," but "do what is best (under the circumstances.)

I recommend having an arsenal of set prayers that you can whip out at a moment's notice -- ones for calm, for when you are afraid or sick, ones when you want to praise, thank, or feel connected with a deity, ones before eating or drinking, and so on. The more you have of these -- and they can be just a single sentence (http://ceisiwrserith.com/ritual/theory/piety.htm) -- the more you will be putting yourself in tune with the divine and the cosmos.

Above all, never let the fact that you don't have the time or equipment to do an elaborate ritual stop you from praying.

Ceisiwr Serith

(One more thing. Using objects in prayers, and not just words, makes sure we remember that it is not only thoughts and speech that can be sacred, but the material.)

Our Social Circle

We've now attended two 'pubmoots' with a small group of Asatruar in northern Virginia. They're not part of the same kindred, but they gather once a month as fellow travelers for socializing (so far, none of the conversations have actually been about Asatru.)

This gives us a second pagan social outlet (in addition to rituals at Cedar Light Grove) and one that's much easier to get to for us. I'm liking the way our social circle is building. But our home practice has not been keeping up. We had been holding a small ritual of our own each full moon, but a variety of issues (including some dissatisfaction with the source material we were using plus several weeks of either having house guests or travel) disrupted it. I'm hoping we can get back into that at the next full moon.

We also have not been using our home shrine for any sort of devotional work. It's a habit, one we fell out of before building it up. With luck and some diligence, we should be able to return to it.

Review: Gods and Myths of Northern Europe

(A draft of one of my Dedicant book reviews.)

Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by H.R. Ellis Davidson, recounts the lore of the Nordic culture in great detail, providing the student an accessible survey of what we know about the deities revered in Iceland, Norway and other Scandanavian lands in pre-Christian times.

Apart from the Romans and the Greeks, the Norse lore is probably the best-preserved and most generous collection available of any Indo-European culture. Between the Poetic and Prose Eddas and the various sagas handed down, there is wealth of information about Odin, Thor, Freyr, Freya, Balder, Heimdall and others.

However, as Ellis Davidson points out, this lore doesn't come to us unfultered. It was committed to writing during the Christian era, by Christian authors. Separating the authentic heathen lore from the Christian glosses can be challenging. The opening chapters of the book describe the sources, and then summarize the overarching themes of the lore – the cosmology and creation, the relationships of the Aesir, Vanir, Jotun, dwarves, elves and man, the binding of Fenrir, the coming of Ragnarok and other major stories.

Turning to the actual myths and gods, Ellis Davidson devotes most of the book to Odin and Thor, with Freyr, Freya, Heimdall, Loki and other figures getting briefer surveys. Given the prominence of Odin and Thor is the religious lives of the ancient heathens, this seems appropriate. She examines Odin's role as warrior god, as cognate to the Roman Mercury, and as a shaman. On the latter point, she describes Odin's journey to the underworld on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, as recounted in the poem Baldrs Draumar. Sleipner also tarveled to Hel – whether the rider was Odin or an emissary is unclear – to try to reclaim the slain Baldr. Odin hung on the World Tree to discover the runes, and has the power to send out his spirit in animal form.

Thor is presented as the powerful god of action, defender of Asgard, the friend of man, adversary of the Jotuns and other powers that would seek to do harm. With his iconic hammer, Mjollnir, Thor slays giants. He is married to Sif (about whom little is known). Thor is associated with the sky, and therefore, the weather, thunder in particular.

Thor also was portrayed as a powerful adversary to Christ, and Ellis Davidson includes accounts of his appearing in a dream to a recent convert, warning him to return to Thor or else be consigned to rough seas and "never to be delivered from them." In another incident, Thor stirs up a storm to shipwreck Christian missionaries.

Turning to the deities of fertility, drawn from the Vanir, Ellis Davidson details what is known of Freyr and Freyja, the twin son and daughter of Njord. It was apparently customary for the image of gods of abundance tobe drawn through the land in a wagon, to be worshipped and sacrificed to when they passed through. Ellis Davidson recounts a story that she says was probably intended to be comic, about the servant of King Olaf impersonating Freyr and delighting the Swedes because the god could suddenly eat and drink with the people. Tacitus, meanwhile, recounts a practice in Denmark of a priest pulling a wagon bearing the image of the goddess Nerthus through the land.

Then come longer sections on Freyr, the Earth Mother and Freyja and the Vanir overall.

Ellis Davidson then turns to gods of the sea, the gods of the dead (Odin and Thor make prominent return appearances here) and the "engimatic gods" about whom little is known from the lore or whose nature is unclear, but who nevertheless appear to have been important figures in Norse culture.

She concludes the book with a chapter detailing the beginning and end of the world (Ragnarok) as told in the myths, and an epilogue on the passing of the gods in favor of Christianity.

Conclusions

I found the book to be very helpful in understanding the northern myths and the major figures, but I also have some concerns.

For one, the book, published in 1964, appears to be outdated in some ways. Ellis Davidson takes as a given the thesis that the Aesir and Vanir existed as separate pantheons for a time before warring and being blended. However, it appears that this notion has become more controversial in the light of continuing research.

For example, Rudolf Simek of the University of Bonn, in an article published in the December 2010 newsletter of the Reconstructive Methods Network, argues that the Vanir are almost never mentioned in the oldest heathen poetry. The bulk of the information about them comes from Snorri Sturleson's Prose Edda, which must be regarded cautiously when it departs from or adds to earlier lore due to its late composition and Christian overlay.

Simek writes:

I believe that these are not Snorri‟s mistakes that we are dealing with here, but rather his deliberate creation. As a literary name in medieval [Old Norse] literature, we shall have to live with the Vanir, because Snorri has made them immortal. As an element of heathen Scandinavian religion however, we should accept the vanir as a rare collective term, but bury the Vanir as a family of gods. No Viking Age heathen Scandinavian, apart from a handful of skalds interested in arcane terminology, would have known what is meant by vanir, and even these would not have known which gods to ascribe to a group of them called Vanir.

In sum, Ellis Davidson's work provides me a great deal of insight, much of it intriguing, but some of it disturbing. I am put off by the number of these gods who seem to have demanded human sacrifice – even the presumably peaceful gods of fertility and plenty – and also dubious about the vision of the Otherworld presented. If John Michael Greer is correct in his defense of polytheism, A World Full of Gods: An Inquiry into Polytheism, and a person's fate after death can vary depending on the gods the person honors, I think it must be possible to do better than a choice between endless bloody battle in Valhalla, haunting one's grave mound or a shadowy fate in Hel's unpleasant domain.

Overall, I can say I recommend this book but with reservations. In particular, readers should be alerted to the issues Ellis Davidson presents as settled that subsequent scholarship has reopened.

The Importance of Theology

I caused a minor dust-up on the ADF Dedicants' list recently when I objected to someone's reference to "using" gods as the gatekeepers in a ritual. Teo Bishop raised my consciousness on this a little while ago, and I've been sensitive to it ever since.

A few others on the list agreed with me, a couple thought it was no big deal. I think it is.

In ADF, officially at least, we believe in many gods and we believe they are real entities -- not archetypes, not personifications of nature, not manifestations of the one true God, but real deities with whom we seek relationship. If we really believe that -- or even if we don't really believe it but want to work within that paradigm as if we did -- then it's incumbent upon us to show the proper deference to the gods.

In your relationships, if they're healthy, you're not trying to "use" your friends. You have relationships with them. If you need a favor, you ask your friend for the favor, you don't "use" him for it. Why should the gods get any less respect?

In hindsight, I should have created a new thread to discuss this on the list, rather than respond to the original poster, who was trying to ask an entirely different question. However, I do stand by the point I made.

Along the same lines, I've also been thinking lately about how ADF Druids choose the deities they want to honor and seek relationship with. ADF allows its adherents to consider the whole range of Indo-European cultures, while encouraging us to choose a hearth culture from among them. It's probably not uncommon for members to be attracted to gods and goddesses from different pantheons, but I've come to think that those who don't want to be limited to a single pantheon should probably use some care in branching out.

Again, if we're taking the gods seriously as real entities, it's probably not wise to assume that any two we seek to honor are necessarily happy about being brought together. The Romans and the Germanic tribes were frequently at war, for example. Is it safe to assume that Mars and Thunor want to be in the same room?

Going Deep

I've been quite the dabbler in matters of religion. In 48 years of life I've been a Christian three times, an agnostic two or three times, a seeker considering but not quite practicing Judaism, Baha'i and Buddhism and, most recently, a Unitarian Universalist, which may be just a spiritual Home for the Bewildered.

As much as anything, I'm hopeful that my study in ADF will bring me a home where I can go deep rather than broad.

Yule Be Surprised

Paradoxically, the holidays have knocked us off-kilter a bit and we've fallen off the trail in our studies. We have a plan for getting back to regular reading and writing after New Year's though.

We went to the Yule ritual at CedarLight Grove. It was a cold night and the whole experience was a little uncomfortable physically, but otherwise a good time of renewal.

We honored the Norse deities, and it felt unexpectedly familiar, and Lynda found it especially fulfilling. I had read some about Asatru before rejoining ADF, and I appreciated seeing some sense of what it means to honor the Norse in practice. We "sacrificed" a straw goat in lieu of a real one, and one of the clergy sprinkled red wine around the circle in lieu of goat's blood.

The evening also marked a change of officers at the grove, with a new senior druid taking over. I am new enough to not really have any way to know what to expect in terms of how that may change things, but ready to wait and see.

For all of you, Happy Yule, Merry Christmas, Good Solstice.

I Spoke Too Soon

The intention I expressed in my last post has proven to be easier said than done. At this point, I'm planning to go to the Yule ritual at CedarLight Grove and probably leave off most other ADF study until the new year.

I'm a little disappointed at that, but I do have to prioritize. The kindred will understand, I hope.