Many of us live very busy lives, and find it hard to fit in time for devotionals. Never mind that religious practice is supposed to be a high priority; life seems to get in the way. In response to this, I’ve developed a short devotional for the morning that covers the bases, and does it in about two minutes. It isn’t hurried, and it isn’t abrupt, but it is short. No more excuses (even if I try to come up with them many mornings).
I begin with a purification. If I do this near water, I use that; if not, I just use my fingers as if there was water. First I touch my forehead and say:
May I be pure that I might cross through the sacred.
I touch my lips and say:
May I cross through the sacred that I might obtain the holy.
I touch my left hand, and say:
May I obtain the holy that I might be blessed in all things.
[This purfies my thoughts, my words, and my deeds.]
I follow this with my cosmology song. It's also part of our meeting ritual, a video of which is here, where you can here the tune and see the gestures that accompany it. The words are:
The waters support and surround me,
the land extends about me,
the sky stretches out above me.
At the center burns a living flame.
May all the Kindreds bless me.
May my worship be true.
May my actions be just.
May my love be pure.
Blessings and honor, and worship to the Holy Ones.
The Kindreds here are the Deities, the Ancestors, and the Land Spirits. The cosmology traced out is the Indo-European one. Those familiar with the trifunctional theory of Dumézil might notice that the last four lines list the three functions twice; first as one, two, three, and then as three, two, one.
The Kindreds are then named, honored, and asked for blessings:
God and Goddesses,
Holy Ancestors,
Spirits of this place:
I thank you for guiding me through yesterday,
and ask that you guide me through today,
and all days to come.
I then pray to my patrons, and am done. Like I said, about two minutes. Easy to fit into a busy morning, but not rushed, and quite uplifting.
On days when I have more time, though, I do an extended version. It's still short enough to be able to do without disturbing your morning routine excessively. So you could call it, almost as much as the shorter version, your "no excuse ritual."
The ritual is performed at my household shrine, or rather two shrines, one on either side of my stove. To to the left is my hearth shrine, and to the right my main shrine. (I explain them here.)
First is the purification, for which I use the water in my hearth shrine. I dip my fingers in the water, touch my forehead, and say:
May I be pure that I might cross through the sacred.
I touch my lips and say:
May I cross through the sacred that I might obtain the holy.
I touch the part of exposed skin nearest my heart and say:
May I obtain the holy that I might be blessed in all things.
I light the Brighid's lamp, saying:
Burn on our hearth, Brighid,
soure of all that is holy.
I raise my arms into the orans position and say:
bless this home
and all who dwell here,
and smile on all we own
and give special care to guests
that our hospitality might honor you.
With each container of milk I open, I pour an offering into the bowl in front of the image with the line "and give special care to guests." I leave the milk at least twenty-four hours, and then take it out into my backyard and offer it to the Land Spirits, saying:
To the Spirits the leavings.
If I am unable to do so, I pour it down my sink drain, as an offering to the Cloacina, the Roman goddess of sewers.
I relight the match I had used and transfer fire with it to the oil lamp in my main shrine, saying:
The altar is lit from the hearth.
Next is the cosmology prayer:
The waters support and surround us,
the land extends about us,
the sky stretches out above us.
At the center burns a living flame.
May all the Kindreds bless us.
May our worship be true.
May our actions be just.
May our love be pure.
Blessings and honor, and worship to the Holy Ones.
The Kindreds are then named, honored, and asked for blessings:
God and Goddesses,
Holy Ancestors,
Spirits of this place:
I thank you for guiding me through yesterday,
and ask that you guide me through today,
and all days to come.
I next call on my patrons. I wear an image of Cernunnos and a triskelion for Manannán. When I don the Cernunnos image, I say:
He is in the garden,
he is in the wood.
Lord Cernunnos, I offer you my worship.
Watch over me today as I go about my affairs:
May I be safe, may I be happy, may I be healthy.
I bow. Then I offer into the glass bowl, saying:
I ask the Kindreds:
I put in a hazel nut, saying:
May I be wise.
I put in a walnut, saying:
May I be strong.
I put in an almond, saying:
May I be prosperous.
The hazel is associated with wisdom in Celtic myth, the walnut has particularly strong wood, and the almond is a symbol of fertility in the Near East. When the bowl is full, I take it out into my backyard and offer it to the Land Spirits with the milk.
I bow, and then say:
Extinguished without, but burning within
I blow the lamp out, with may hand behind the flame. I bring my hand to my heart, saying:
The living fire flames within me.
Then I go to the hearth shrine and say:
The fire of Brighid is the flame on my hearth
I blow out the lamp, bring my hand to my heart, and say:
May the fire of Brighid be the flame in my hearth.
I bow, and am done.
When the bowl is full of nuts, I take it out to a place in my yeard where I make offerings to the lands spirits, and give the nuts to them.
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