[Main Blog Post] [Heathen Rosary] Draft "Hail Holy Forebears"

[jprussell]

I am so very, very close to having all of the bedes of the "Heathen Rosary" at least to a stead where you can say the whole thing, but the draft of the closing bede still feels a bit "flat," and so once again, I am asking for your help in working out what I might change about it.

Your thoughts on the "Hail Idun" and "All-Father" have been very worthwhile and truly helped them take shape, so even more so than usual, kindly share them on this one as well so I can have a full set of prayers I'm happy with and get to working out the "mysteries" to go with them.

Thanks ahead of time if you choose to share any and all thoughts, big or small.

Comments

[borealbear]

Thanks for the encouragement! And yes, as I might have said before, I'm very much of the mind that there's a certain appeal to using beautiful objects as part of the practice, as long as it doesn't get out of hand. For this Tally I found some lovely oak beads, which might be more in style of the Druid Revival, but it's still a suitably regal Northern wood. For the three bigger beads, I went with ash. Personally I prefer the traditional interpretation of Yggdrasil as an ash, even if I respect the scholarly position that yew might be more "correct". For the medallion, I went with a piece of an apple branch from my own property, since I didn't find anything for sale I either liked enough or felt was worth the price. One thing this showed me is that the Etsy market for beads of tropical woods is huge, but there's not much choice for temperate trees.
In case you're curious how it ended up, here's a picture of the result: https://tinypic.host/image/Tally.24yYxf


Using the old Germanic languages could have been a good option too. Still, I'd also rather have them in my native language if possible. Speaking of which, after my last comment I had another look at the Catholic prayers, and I think I made some decent progress. I was thinking of a way to adapt the Apostle's Creed's declarations of "I believe..." with something more suited to actions and intentions, following your reasoning for the "Tree Deeming". That's when I had a realization that's probably obvious: what if prayers could also be affirmations, JMG style?

So I tried to phrase it as "I [verb]...", as if it's already a fact, which as I understand it is the idea behind affirmations. Instead of the Christian triad of declaring belief in the three aspects of the Christian deity, I made a threefold structure based around 1) the Aesir/wisdom and trust in their guidance, 2) the Vanir/peace and reciprocity and 3) the Tree/being rooted in the human and non-human community of life. I also tried to incorporate some alliteration and rhythm, without going all-in on the poetic meter. It's not the most exquisite composition of all time, but I'm reasonably happy with it. At least for a first attempt. And again, your explanation of your thinking behind your "Tree Deeming" was very helpful here as a guide.

[jprussell]

My pleasure! And agreed on the value of beautiful objects, with the caveat you mention. I have a vague idea for a multi-part project looking into "the good, the beautiful, and the true" to delve more into this, but I've got to wrap up getting the Tally somewhere I can share it first.

Your beads turned out lovely! And I love that you found some wood from your own property, I definitely would have if I had something fitting. As for oak and ash, those are also excellent choices - we know that oaks were holy to the elder heathens, most likely most of all to Thunor/Thor due to their tendency to get hit by lightning. I also respect the position that Yggdrasil is better thought of as an Ash, and I tend to best like the idea that It transcends earthly species and partakes of something of the essence of both ash and yew (and maybe every other tree), and so which mundane wood we choose to symbolize it is more about calling out certain aspects, rather than getting it "right."

Also, agreed that Etsy is woefully under-supplied in temperate wood beads/other craft items!

I'm glad to hear that you found my thinking on the "Tree Deeming" useful for coming up with your own "creed." I've given some thought to using the rules of affirmations for crafting prayers, and I think I even asked about that in a Magic Monday sometime back. If I remember right, JMG's response was that prayers shouldn't necessarily follow the rules of affirmations, because they are a form of communication with a fully sentient other being, rather than a way of hammering something into your own subconscious. That said, to the degree a prayer is also a communication with your own subconscious, making them more affirmation-like strikes me as reasonable, especially for something meant more as a statement of belief/intention rather than speaking directly to a particular God or set of Gods. I also really like the three-fold structure you chose.

Again, glad you're off to a good start, and I hope you keep on finding stuff that works for you!

Cheers,
Jeff