[Main Blog Post] [Heathen Rosary] First Pass at Saying the Heathen Rosary

[jprussell]

For the past week or so, I've been giving it a go saying the Heathen Rosary in its almost-done shape, and I thought I'd share how to do that in case anyone else wants to give it a go.

If you do try it out, kindly let me know how it goes, as so far, I've been feeling this one out with little but prayer and divination to guide me, so hearing if it's helpful for others would be very big indeed.

Comments

[borealbear]

Late comment in the cycle, I know, but just wanted to say I appreciate your work with this project. Another one of those fun Heathen innovations that would seem jarring to a purist, but somehow makes a lot of sense. Catholicism has always struck me as the least "weird" and off-putting form of Christianity, since it's so much closer to polytheism and "normal" religions, as I like to call them (ie. the vast majority of historical religions that weren't monotheist and book/rules-based). The idea of combining spoken prayers with the tactile sensation of handling beads is appealing, and I like the idea of borrowing this.

Unfortunately it might be a little while before I get to actually try it and have any feedback for you, since I'd need to both assemble the physical beads themselves and do some translation work with the prayers. Well, I suppose I could just go with the English versions, since Gods presumably don't care about human languages, but something as personal as prayer would feel more right in my native language.

Still, I'll seriously consider the effort, since I think this could be a useful practice. As a former atheist, I'm still struggling a bit with how to relate to Gods and doing prayer and sacrifice properly. Having a structured framework for it like this one might very well reduce some of that friction and help make it a regular habit.

[jprussell]

Thanks so much for your kind words! I largely agree with your assessment of the "feel" vs purism, and on Catholicism. Growing up, I didn't know much about Catholicism, but as I've learned more about it, I've had a similar impression - likewise with the Orthodox church(es). Another Ecosophia regular, Kenaz Filan, went from polytheism to Catholicism largely because he believes it's "polytheism done right" - i.e. the emphasis on saints and angels addresses the need for localized, specialized spiritual beings, but he's come to be convinced in an over-arching, singular divinity. Obviously, I differ on that, but I can respect his position.

As for the practical issues with giving the prayers a try, after I posted this, it occurred to me that a "quick-start" version of the beads might be a cord with knots, which I believe has been used by other repetitive tacticle prayer practices (like the "Jesus Prayer" in the orthodox tradition and the Rosary in Catholic). Paracord or leather lace would likely work better than plain string, and you might want to do double knots for the "medallion" and "Well Bead" places. I'd like to give a little more thought to a an easy way to make the beads so as to minimize barriers to entry, but besides the knotted cord, I haven't come up with anything yet.

As for translations, fair enough, but I'm afraid I can't offer much direct help there, being nearly perfectly monolingual (my college Latin, Ancient Greek, and Arabic are rusty, corroded, and crumbled to dust, respectively, and those characterizations might be generous). I don't have a good feel for how easy or hard it would be to mimic the alliteration-based meter in other languages, but it ought to be at least a little easier to translate than straight rhythmic meter or rhyme, and likely would be easiest in other Germanic languages, but again, that's a guess.

Once again, I'm glad to hear this sounds appealing, and if you do get the chance to give it a shot, I'd love to hear how it goes. I've faced a similar challenge, and putting this together has been one piece of groping toward a solution. Besides this, the other major pieces for me have been ritual (the Sphere of Protection), meditation (currently working through the Druid Magic Handbook and Dolmen Arch material, but I began with the Poetic Edda, and plan on returning to explicitly Germanic material at some point), and divination (the Runes and Ogham currently), along with a simple daily prayer at a home altar (to the Gods & Goddesses, "well wights," and "holy forebears". I can expand more on what I've pieced together if it might be helpful).

Thanks again!
Jeff

[(Anonymous)]

A simplified version might be handy to get started, but personally I think I'd rather wait a little for a good thing and do it "properly". Especially since the "physicality" of it is part of the appeal...and I do have a soft spot for cool ritual objects. :)

Speaking of the DMH/Dolmen Arch, your Heathen/Druid hybrid approach is interesting for sure. I can see the appeal, since I've been kind of torn between both of those traditions myself. I actually thought I'd settled on the Druid Revival before I found myself on this path again unexpectedly. And I do really like the DMH system conceptually, but I find that Golden Dawn-style magic fits me much better in practice.

Even if I'm not doing the DMH, though, I have a lot of fondness for the Ogham, both in the aesthetic sense and with the tree symbolism. In spite of being a novice I also got (what felt like) some surprisingly accurate results with it. I'd very much like to go back to it one day, when I'm thoroughly practiced with the runes, so it's good to see from your example that the Ogham can be combined with a Germanic approach too.

By all means, I'll let you know when/if I get a chance to try it out. I'm doing the classic JMG triad of ritual/meditation/divination as part of the Heathen GD course, and hoping to have a proper altar setup soon. When you say "Gods and Goddesses", am I right in thinking this means you invoke them all as a collective in this case, rather than a set of specific ones?

A couple bonus questions for the Rosary: do you think it would make sense to do this in a magical space? Ie. an open Grove in your case with the DMH, or an open Temple/Ve with GD methods. And how do you feel about vibrating the final ALU of each bede rather than just speaking them? Maybe it's just me, but that word feels very easy and "right" to vibrate, with the sounds all flowing into each other. Which of course makes a lot of sense when we know this word was very likely used for magical purposes back in the Iron Age...

[jprussell]

Fair enough on wanting to wait to do it "right" - there's value in "good enough" and value in "get it right," and when/where to go with each can be a tough call, so I think you're right to go with what feels right.

As for a "Heathen Druid" approach, I kind of stumbled into it. When I first gave JMG's "magical tripod" a try, I used the Heathen LBRP+MP, meditated on the Poetic Edda, and divined with the Runes. After getting some startlingly positive results to my experiment, I decided I needed to get serious and follow a complete system start to end. Well, the Heathen Golden Dawn book hadn't been completed yet, and I knew I wanted to stick with a JMG book, so that left me the DMH or the Celtic Golden Dawn. I had also found the GD rituals very congenial, and I wasn't all that interested in Revival Druidry as a religious path, but I got some nudges that GD might be "too solar" for my own development, and that the balance of solar and telluric energies as well as flexibility with deities provided by the SOP might serve me well, so I went with that and was pleasantly surprised to find druidry growing on me quite a bit. All that being said, it seems to be a very personal process, and considering I would have taken up the Heathen GD in a heartbeat if it were already available at that stage in my practice, I certainly can't fault you for going that way!

JMG has said that many folks find that either the Ogham or the Runes work better for them, but not both. Luckily, that hasn't seemed to be the case for me. I speculated a bit on why that might be in my recent conversation with Luke Dodson. The short version is that I call upon Woden (Odin), Frige (Freyja), and the Wyrds whether I'm using the Ogham or the Runes, and when I was learning Ogham, I made a lot of connections between Runic and Oghamic symbolism. Your mileage may, of course, vary.

So, the short answer is that I do invoke them as a collective, but with a slight caveat. Throughout the day, I try to have opportunities to pray, and these are usually to specific Gods, Goddesses, or other wights. For example, when I start meditation, I pray to Woden and Frige, when I put on my Thunor's Hammer necklace, I pray to Thunor, and when I go to sleep, I pray to a handful of deities for specific things (and obviously the Heathen Rosary prayers are more targeted). For my "daily prayer" at my altar, I say the "Hammer Token," call upon Thunor to hallow the drink offering, and upon "the Gods, Goddesses, Well-Wights, Holy Forebears, and Holy Warding Wight (Holy Guardian Angel)" as I light the candle. Then I call upon "Frigg, Hearthmother" to open the altar by passing the candle around it three times clockwise. I then kneel and say the "Tree Deeming," then say a more involved prayer to the collective positive entities I mentioned for lighting the candle. If I have any specific prayers I'm currently saying daily (usually 2-3 focusing on things like healing for those who have asked for it and anything I'm trying to work on personally), then I toast the "holy forebears" and take a sip of the drink offering and put it back on the altar. For the past couple of weeks, I've been saying the (nearly) full Heathen Rosary at this point. Then I again call upon the collective positive spiritual beings and try to "open my heart" to whatever they might have to share with me for at least 9 slow, deep breaths, but for as long as it feels right. I close by saying the "Mark of the Wells" and leave the candle burning for a bit (usually around an hour), then I come back, say the "Hammer Token," call upon Frigg, Hearthmother to close the space as I move the candle three times counter-clockwise. I ask for the leave of the collective beings to take the drink offering, and if I feel it's given (which is pretty much always), I say the "Mark of the Wells" and then go pour out the drink, giving what's left of it to the House and Land Wights.

All of which is to say I try to strike a balance between "targeted" and more general prayers.

For your last couple of questions, I haven't given either a try, but at first glance, they sound like they make sense. As I mentioned above, I've mostly been trying to say the Heathen Rosary in a sacred space, but not a magically sanctified space, but I can't see a reason it wouldn't work. Vibrating ALU seems sensible (and doesn't at least one of the later rituals in the HGD do that?), with the caveat that I'm not sure about vibrating words of power outside of explicit rituals, whether it's helpful, harmful, or neutral. Might make for a good "Magic Monday" question.

Anyhow, sorry for the extremely long answer, but hope it's helpful!
Jeff

[borealbear]

No need for apologies, and I appreciate you taking the time to write out a detailed response. Also appreciate the glimpse into your prayer practice. I haven't been able to be so structured yet, but I'll keep some of these approaches in mind as possible ideas when I get my altar set up properly. So far I've mostly been doing some "freeform" prayer at the end of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram, often centered around gratitude (partially inspired by Kimberly Steele). Since I often bake bread, I've also found a habit of offering the first slice of each bread to Frey as a way to show appreciation for the blessings of grain and field.

As I might have mentioned before, I also started with the Heathen LBRP/MP back when JMG first posted them, and also floundered a bit because I wanted a more complete system. So coming back to it now is like coming full circle in many ways. And you're right that vibrating ALU features in the aptly named ALU Ritual, ie. the Rose Cross analogue. Plus many of the planetary rituals IIRC, but that'll be above my grade for a while yet.

Finally, if you don't mind a couple more quick points about the Rosary: first, while I like the detailed instructions on your blog post, I think it'd be very helpful to have a picture to go with it, to get an idea of how all this fits together. Or if putting up a picture of your own beads would be too personal, maybe a drawing/schematic? Second, I'm curious why the focus is on Idun rather than Frigg? To my mind She would be the closest analogue to Mary, but of course I respect that you've probably based this on divination and prayer and don't mean to argue, just curious.

Again, thanks for the guidance and for doing this project! After looking at some videos of the Catholic version I'm even more intrigued to try this in a Pagan context.

[jprussell]

1) Thanks for the kind words, and my pleasure. I should add that my own structured practice has been cribbed together from a bit here, a bit there and a lot of experimentation. I think doing freeform prayers and then seeing where your intuition pulls you is a great way to start, and is basically how I did, but over time, I have found the structure of formal rituals and set prayers (with some room for freeform and being open) to be helpful to me, but they might be less so to you. Happy to share some of the sources I've drawn from, if that's of interest.

2) Fair enough! I asked JMG about vibrating ALU in this context, and he suggested experimentation. He suspects that it might work for some folks and not for others. The only thought I had on it since writing my response yesterday was that it would alter the timing/flow of the repetitive prayers - which might be helpful or might not! One intermediate option might be to say "Alu" normally after each "Hail Idun" and then vibrate it after each "Mark of the Wells" at the end of each ninefold, but I haven't tried any of this yet (I might tonight, though!)

3) I don't mind at all, I'm thrilled to talk about something I've been spending so much time thinking about and worrying is interesting to precisely one person (me).

3a) Sure, I'll be happy to post a picture and/or a schematic, I'll just have to figure out how to do so with my current very primitive blogging set up, or else find a place to host it/them and post here to dreamwidth.

3b) The short answer is "because She told me to" :) You're not the first person to suggest Frigg. In fact, hearthculture composed a lovely "Hail Frigg" when I posted a version of the "Hail Idun" to a Magic Monday: https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/223141.html?thread=39594405#cmt39594405

The longer answer is that Idun is and has been very important to me personally and has helped to steer my spiritual life. I had the vague feeling I should work out a set of (mostly) repetitive prayers with beads, and the vague feeling I should have a more focused devotional practice to Idun, and then it hit me that I ought to put those two vague feelings together. As I've worked through making that happen, along with my other work, a tantalizing, but vague, link between Idun, the Mead of Poetry, and Yggdrasil has held itself out to me, and in a way, these prayers are my attempt to make something concrete of that.

For what it's worth, I'm planning to write up some thoughts on customizing the Heathen Rosary, including changing which Gods/Goddesses you pray to while saying it. I think there's value both in putting out a "complete" version that can be picked up as-is, as well as providing a model for something more individualized, so I'm aiming to do both.

Anyhow, thank you again for your thoughts, and hope this helps,
Jeff

[borealbear]

2) Sounds about right, and good idea to run it by him. His comments about Catholic Rosaries being "charged" with energy was intriguing too, since I've been thinking about how GD consecration rituals would interact with religious tools like rosaries and god figures. I think I'll ask a broader question about that on a future MM. Anyway, I'll experiment with the ALU when I have my Rosary (we really need a more Heathen-flavored name for this, don't we?)

3b) I see, appreciate the explanation, and your Idun UPG makes a lot of sense. Again, I'll start out with the Hail Idun and then see about experimenting later.

[jprussell]

2) I look forward to reading your question, as I also found that a very interesting data point. Speaking of intentions, I'm currently reading a short little book by "Brother A.D.A." recommended by open_space way back when I started this undertaking called How to Pray the Rosary and Get Results, which gives a lot of practical advice on imbuing Rosary praying with specific, material intentions, which sounds like it should be quite interesting for potential applicability with these prayers.

Also, yes, agreed. I really like the "Rose Tree" imagery that has grown up around the Rosary, but it's so very Catholic. Winifred Hodge Rose suggested calling the set of prayers the "Tally of the Bedes," which is growing on me quite a bit, but that still leaves a name for the physical beads themselves - maybe something like "tally-beads."

3b) Sounds good, and I look forward to hearing about it!

Jeff