Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 97: For Sleep

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Cunnian for sleep/evening routine prayer:

Prayer 1

Hail the Gods of Night and Rest

Sleep, I welcome in my bed

The Day is gone, the Night is come

I thank myself for all I’ve done

The vættir for my hearth and home

The Ancestors for blood and bone

The Gods for all Their blessings bright

For the calm and restful Night

Hail and welcome sleep

Health and heil return to me

Prayer 2

Hail Sunna! Hail Dæg!

Day and His Sons subside

Rays redden the realm

The wagon rides West

Hail Máni! Hail Nött!

Night and Her Daughters gather

Darkness descended to draw

Slips across the sky

Hail Mundilfari!

Time and His Tribe treks

Carrying comfort and calm

Singing the spell of sleep

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 96: For Angrboða

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Maleck for Angrböða.

Trees range the mountains’ feet

Warmed in Everglow’s Light

Shining against the great grey heights

Dappling light shining through ancient leaves

Eldest of forests ring the rooted Bones

Full of the Járnvíðr Ættr

Howls and yips, snarls and snaps

Fill the warm Ironwood air

Hooves pound the ground

The dýr make their ways

Traveling the well-trod trails

The Earth breathes at their passing

In Your útiseta You know

The forests’ cycles and the skogsra’s voice

Ormr who slither and those who sleep

How the Urðr of Járnvíðr carves

Mighty is the Gyðja

That guides well in Wisdom

Whose blót brings bounty

To all who partake in them

Járnvíðr grows well from Your Hugr

Fjolkyngi and fróðleikr You bear with Your Megin

The ground swells and the Ættr grows

Heil under Your care

An addendum explaining terms:

Everglow is said to be the name that Jötnar call Sunna/Sól/the Sun in Alvíssmál.
Járnvíðar is the Ironwood.
Dýr translates to deer, more broadly animals like deer including elk, reindeer, deer, etc.
Útiseta is sitting out, a spiritual practice of communing with vættir usually in a natural setting and/or underneath a cloak or similar covering.
Gyðja is the feminine form of goði, meaning chieftain.
Fjölkynngi or fjölkyngi is sorcery or magic.
Fróðleikur is magical knowledge, as frœði are charms and /or magic.
Blót means ritual generally sometimes involving sacrifice of some kind.
Ættr means tribe, clan, or group.
Skogsra or skogsrå are forest rulers, usually seen as female. Like the head vættr of a forest.
Ormr are snakes, or dragons as in wyrms.

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 95: For Skaði

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Cunnian for Skaði.

The snowmelt brings You down

Out of the snow-flecked forest

Cabin far behind You

The tufts of green invite Your feet

Out of brown reindeer-hide boots

Trails stretch behind You

The beam warms Your skin

Out of the Sun-kissed skies

Shadows follow behind You

The river runs beside Your gait

Out of the ice-cold caps

Glaciers glisten behind You

The bow invites Your touch

Out of the shoulder-strap singing

Recalling hunts behind You

The season welcomes Your Presence

Out of the sunless-days’ drawing

Winter falls behind You

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 94: For The Revelry

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Maleck for Freyr’s retinue, The Revelry.

The mound opens

Disgorging the twisting, writhing, dancing

From the yawning mouth

Leaping, pirouetting, raving

Songs and instruments raised in praise

For the Lord Who Has Returned

Ascended from Hel’s Depths

The mad, mighty host

Stretches upon the Sun-kissed lands

The Revelry spreads

Over the heart, the lands, the waters

Taking up new life’s call

Álfar, wild vættir, the Dead

Join the wagon train’s trail

Celebration through bodies and souls

Prepare the way

For the laughing, screaming, shrieking

The hoard that sweep the lands

Join if you dare

The sonorous, monstrous, beautiful, voracious

Retinue of Freyr

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 93: Thanks For the Nornir and Urðr-weavers

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Cunnian for the Nornir and thanks for managing the threads of fate skillfully and patiently, combing out knots and allowing cloth to proceed.

Practiced hands weave warp, weft, move the sword, and clack the heddle

From deepest dark of the Ginnungagap, the brightest starstuff

All the color and texture between

Clack clack clack

The pattern is laid down, the weaving is set

Clack clack clack

The rhythm is made, the ways woven

Clack clack clack

The generations wait watching, working, carrying descendants and preparing the future

From blood born, adoption, lineage, and beyond

All the Ancestors and vaettir gather

Clack clack clack

Orlog is made in the passing of threads

Clack clack clack

Hamingja descends and spreads through the lines

Clack clack clack

The comb comes down, smoothing the snarls, settling the pains and grievances past

From healing hands, health, holiness, and wholeness

Ancestors and descendants work

Clack clack clack

Old wounds sew shut with patient threads

Clack clack clack

Scars stand out in time’s passing

Clack clack clack

Great gifts given, souls and strength, securing the ways that power and life proceed

From the Eldest Eldr, the next generation

Woven well in worth

Clack clack clack

Mighty megin gifted in Gebo

Clack clack clack

Wisdom won well through lives

Clack clack clack

Praise the powerful presiders, creating the cloth, cutting stray cords, and tying the loose ends

Urdr’s weavers whose wisdom guides

Thread and tapestry alike

Clack clack clack

Beginning to end, the journey between

Clack clack clack

Destination and destiny find each other

Clack clack clack

Hail the Nornir and Urðr-weavers!

Patreon Poem/Prayer/Song 92: For Lupa at Lupercalia

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon.

This request was made by Maleck for Lupa at Lupercalia.

O Holy Mother

Whose lashes cleanse

Scourging the soul of sickness

O Great Wolf

Whose teeth rend the enemy

Spilling the baneful blood

O Fierce Goddess

Whose path shows purification

Who beckons Her brood to Her

O Holy Wolf

Whose Voice shakes the heart

Whose Tongue touches the mind

The gift of your festival

Long has been with us

Since before memory

Howl to song to voice to paper to text to digital words made of Fire

Down down down through every age

Your cleansing, Your fertility, Your spirit

Cleanses us, imbues us, blesses us

Hail Lupa!

Hail to the Gods of the Waters

Hail Njörðr!

Hail Rán!

Hail Ægir!

Hail to the Nine Undine Goddesses!

Thank you for the bounty of the sea, of life that swims and strains

Thank you for the sweat of fishermen, the strong meat of the oceans

That raise up from the depths and nourish us

Thank you, Holy Ones.

Hail to the Gods of the Seas, the Oceans, the Rivers, the Lakes, and the Streams!

Hail to the Gods of the Waters, great and small, known and unknown!

May They ever be hailed!

Hail to the throngs of the ocean!

Hail to the fish, the eel, the shark, the whale, the shrimp, the crab, the lobster

All you who we eat;

All of you who are threatened by our fishing;

All of your who are threatened by our pollution and trash:

Thank you for your lives.

Thank you.

I ask not for your patience; we owe you debts no one human could return.

Perhaps not even a generation can.

Yet we try.  We will continue to try.

To do more than simply hail you; to stop the polluting and destruction

Wherever we can.

Hail to our cousins in the Waters; hail to the Watervaettir!

Hail to the fishers

Who risk life and limb to feed us and their families

Or who do the hard work of fisheries

Bless you who brave the waters

Who work the long hours

Who help to feed us

Hail to you!

Hail Njörðr!

Hail Rán!

Hail Ægir!

Hail to the Nine Undine Goddesses!

Bountiful and beautiful!

Fair and ferocious!

Robber and respite!

Giver and gifted!

May You Ever be known

May You ever be offered to

May You ever be hailed!

A Prayer for a Strong Ship

May the frame be strong and flexible
May the engine be powerful and measured
May the prow cut swift through the waters

May the deck be sturdy and resolute
May the hold be solid and sealed
May the cargo be safe and secure

Bless this ship, O Ship-builder
May this vessel be strong
May its crew be skilled
May its captain be wise
and may ever it return home safe

Patreon Topic 87: On Sacred Poetry/Prayers, and Myths

If you want to submit a topic you would like me to write on for this blog or my Patreon, sign up for the Ansuz level or above here on my Patreon.

From Maleck comes this topic:

“Do you differentiate between sacred poetry/prayers and myths? Either in the reading or the writing of them? Has the experience with the 3POTS storytelling ritual changed your perspective on this at all?”

I differentiate between them in the sense that generally the myths I read generally come to me before than the ones I have written. I understand that both sacred poems/prayers and myths reveal truths of the Ginnreginn even if not one way of relating with Them wholly grasps the whole of Them. Each time a prayer, poem, or myth is written or passed along, there is something being revealed about the Ginnreginn even if it is something previously known, such as a prayer to Mugwort praising Her for Her cleansing. In the reading of the prayers, poems, and myths, the understanding conferred is reaffirmed and the truth of it lives in a new time, each bringing forth both the Ginnreginn and the relationships it holds anew.

Myths are stories of how our relationships with the Ginnreginn are, came to be, exist now, or have developed to this point. Prayers and poems may affirm this as well, and may themselves be a telling of a myth, a presentation of a myth in a new way, or the forming/expression of a new myth. They need not be exclusive even if there may occasionally be bright lines between them. We can write praise poetry for which the existing corpus of myth has nothing on the God at hand and, in so doing, singlehandedly inspire a whole new one.

My experience with the 3PoT storyelling ritual reaffirmed this, whether I look at my own with the Ice Jotnar or any of the spontaneous extemporaenous prayers, poems, songs, or myths that came to us. Each story revealed something about a, or many Ginnreginn, and each time it was told again, it reaffirmed while revealing something new. Each story brought with it myth and knowing. I think, for me, that any of these give access to knowing, gnosis, and direct experience of the Ginnreginn.

My experience writing the prayers and poems for the Pack Spirits has affirmed this for me as well. As the corpus of Their myths, and understanding of Them are still being developed through each initiate and each person who interacts with Them, these prayers, poems, and the writings Maleck and others have taken on give many ways of connecting to and with the various Pack Spirits. Despite not being initiated into the work, They reached out to me through the various prayers Maleck commissioned I write for Them. Whether I thought about it at the time or not, for whoever accepts my prayers into their corpus of prayers, it adds to the experience of the Pack Spirits, and to the Tradition each one holds. It’s an interesting thought.

Whether through the medium of myths and mythmaking, reciting or making prayers, reciting or making poetry, each brings with it the ability to recontextualize our relationships with the Ginnreginn. Whether writing, reading, listening to, or otherwise engaging with and through myths and prayers, each brings with it the ability to deepen, to reaffirm, and/or identify a wholly new way of relating with our Ginnreginn.

A Prayer for the Fishers of Lakes

May the fish be plentiful
May the waters be clean
May the rivers and streams be clear

May the poles be strong
May the bait be seductive
May the lines be free of tangles

May the catch be good
May the day be blessed
May Njörðr guide and protect