The Druid's Prayer I: Start Here...

[Silverlight]

Brought up as a convent educated Roman Catholic, I was blind for many years to the rather obvious fact that my relationship was with 'Mary' and that all my conversations and prayers were with her, it was to her that I turned in time of conflict, for comfort and sometimes simply just to be. The official God of my supposed religion did not get a look in. It was on that realisation that I began my search for the right path for me.

Yup Beadmouse. I know exactly what you mean. Mary is precious to me too.

[OakWyse]

Although I used the "Druid's Prayer" for years, I no longer find it helpful for me. What I use now as a basic invocation is a series of lines from the Pagan precursor to Patrick's Lorica:

I bind unto myself today
the virtues of the star-lit heav'n,
the glorious sun's life-giving ray,
the whiteness of the moon at ev'n;
the flashing of the lightning free,
the whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth,
the deep salt sea,
around the old eternal rocks.

Peace of First Snows,
Eosaidh

[Night Hawk]

Those are some beautiful lines, Eosaidh. Thanks for sharing them. A lovely blend of Heaven & Earth. :bride:

[Mike]

The first line is something that I intially struggled with when I first came to this path - it seemed to me to be far too Christian and therefore alienated me.

I felt that I needed to embrace Druidry in a thoroughly ancient (as opposed to 17th century) fashion and as such I would have been far happier with a prayer that acknowledged the ancient Gods rather more fully. Also, as one who views nature as just as sacred as diety, the prayer did not address my feelings as much as I would have liked.

So intially I would use the prayer with the opening line thus -
"Grant, oh Spirits" later on this altered, as it seemed too cumbersome, to "Grant, oh Spirit" but it still did not seem right to me.

Also, and in contrast to some of the above answers, I felt that the word "Grant" sounded too much like begging (isn't it odd how we all view things so differently!) and I did not like that - it made me think of Catholic Priests ordering me to beg forgiveness and I really did not find it comfortable.

After some months of experimenting with various openings I came across an alternative version of the "Druids Prayer" (which is used by the "Druidnetwork") which I now use with no qualms, it goes like this -

Awaken within me oh Gods, your inspiration,
Your inspiration of true strength,
Your strength of true understanding,
Your understanding of true knowledge,
Your knowledge of natural law,
Your love of natural law,
And in the love of natural law, the love of all existences,
And in the love of all existences, the love of the Gods and of all creation

This I use daily and it really works for me. However, I am also a member of an OBOD grove and regularly attend rituals and gatherings and in that company I tend to fit in with all the others and use the more recognisable version out of respect for them. That said, I always smile as the first line is spoken - you get about 20 different versions going around the circle

[Adam]

Grant O God thy protection
And in protection, strength,
And in strength, understanding,
And in understanding, knowledge,
And in knowledge, the knowledge of justice,
And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it
And in the love of it, the love of all existences,
And in the love of all existences,
The love of God and all Goodness.

Having only just set foot on this path (in this lifetime at least), and this being the first time I have come across this prayer, one thing strikes me straight away. That is the recursive structure, that each boon leads on from, and is dependant on, the previous. This is similar to a recursive elicitation that occurs in a process known as Core Transformation in which we assume that any problem behaviour has a positive intention and, having elicited the positive intention, recursively ask the question "... and having {previously elicited state} fully and completely as a way of being right now, what is it that you want that is even more important still?"

This tends to elicit a chain of desired outcomes such as
Security
"... and having security fully and completely as a way of being right now, what is it that you want that is even more important still?"
A sense of safety
"... and having a sense of safety fully and completely as a way of being right now, what is it that you want that is even more important still?"
Freedom
(you get the picture)
until you arrive at a state that is goes no further, the core state... these tend to have qualities such as universal love, oneness, that sort of thing.

My reason for bringing this up is that I have been looking for other examples of recursive elicitation, and the prayer as given here, although not strictly an elicitation, does demonstrate the same recursive quality chaining to a numinous outcome... I'm suspecting that such recursion can be a powerful meditative and spiritual tool.

Peace

Adam

[OakWyse]

Good observation, Adam. I think that's the real intent of the words - to have power in themselves to elicit change in the person uttering them. In that sense, it's much more like a 'spell' than a 'prayer'.

Blessings,
OakWyse/|\

[Adam]

Thanks... I was a bit nervous posting about druidry as a complete novice, but the language structure fascinates me, and I write in the spirit of genuine inquiry:-). My next inclination would be to ask the following questions to reverse the chain

How does having this experience of the love of God and all Goodness as a way of being in the world, transform and enrich the experience of the love of all existences?

How does having this experience of the love of all existences as a way of being in the world, transform and enrich the experience of the love of justice?

How does having this experience of the love of justice as a way of being in the world, transform and enrich the experience of the knowledge of justice?

How does having this experience of the knowledge of justice as a way of being in the world, transform and enrich the experience of knowledge?

How does having this experience of knowledge as a way of being in the world, transform and enrich the experience of understanding?

How does having this experience of understanding as a way of being in the world, transform and enrich the experience of strength?

How does having this experience of strength as a way of being in the world, transform and enrich the experience of protection?

maybe taking each line as a seed meditation

Peace

Adam

[Donata]

Hi Trance,

I like your reverse questioning! what an original method to use in a meditation!
I've used this prayer for meditation often - now you've given me a new perspective.

Thanks,
Donata

[Merlyn]

Here's one to have look at that might explain some of the Druid prayer structure. I meditate on each line and it becomes "trasforming"

Chant of Amairgen

I am the wind that blows o’er the sea
I am the wave of the deep
I am the bull of seven battles
I am the eagle on the rock
I am a tear of the sun
I am the fairest of plants
I am a boar of courage
I am a salmon in the water
I am a lake on the plain
I am the word of knowledge
I am the head of the battle-dealing spear
I am the god who fashions fire in the head

[Adam]

Thanks Merlin... I am familiar with that one from background reading, but not in any "deep" sense... it will be fascinating to approach it in this way. I am working on the assumption that some or many of the Druid poems/prayers/tales etc "have power in themselves to elicit change in the person uttering them" as Eosaidh so nicely put it, or to elicit change in the person hearing. I may be wrong, but for me it seems a fruitful line of enquiry:-) As such I would be particular interested in discussing patterns of structure within these prayers in order to identify repreated techniques and approaches if such can be seen to exist, but I'm aware that this may stray of the thread somewhat... I'll take it another

*edit: thread of enquiry moved here*

Donata... the idea came from the Core Transformation process I mentioned earlier, and seemed to present itself as a natural progression... but if all I do here is give one person a new perspective I'm a happy guy

Peace

Adam

[Druantia]

Thank you so much for this prayer, I am going to say it each day.  Blessings,   Druantia

[sageblossom]

I am very new not only to these boards but to the path as well,  but I feel a little uncomfortable with the reference to god and prefer to use the term spirits or the name of a specific deity.

[Donata]

"Spirit" is totally acceptable in the Druid's Prayer, so please use it if it is more compatible for you. God/dess are other options only.

BB
Donata

[Maester Fwibos]

Well, I suppose I'll chime in.

This being my first actual post, after introductions.

It seems this prayer first and foremost addresses the need for safety. It's like Maslow's hierchy. You can't look for truth and justice if you do not feel safe where you are.
The prayer kind of bridges the Safety Needs and Belongness needs in the first lines.  Assuming your diety-of-choice answers, you can be assured that your safety needs and "belongingness needs" have been handled.

Interestingly enough, Julia cameron's The Artist Way follows a similiar format regarding touching the transcendant through creativity. Her path is about recovering a sense of (in order): Safety, Identy, Power, Integrity, Possibility, Abundance, Connection, Strength, Compassion, Self-Protection, Autonomy, Faith.

As I write, it occurs that this may be a similiar path as the prayer:

Grant O God thy protection (Saftey, Identy)
And in protection, strength, (Power, Strength)
And in strength, understanding, (Abundance)
And in understanding, knowledge, (Possibility)
And in knowledge, the knowledge of justice, (Integrity, Self-Protection)
And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it,  (Compassion)
And in the love of it, the love of all existences, (Autonomy, Connection)
And in the love of all existences,  
The love of God and all Goodness.  (Faith)

Hmmm.. doesn't quite work out.

And since we are talking about persoanl prayers, I don't have one.
I grew up Lutheran and when that didn't work out, I looked at all the others and said "f-bomb it."

However, in general, I use the Rogue's prayer.

"Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! "

And as for the comment of recursion, of course it's recursive. It's performative language. It's meant to sound in such a way as to be poetic.

Jason

[Eustacia]

From someone very new to this I find this a beautiful prayer, simply asking for the help of the divine to become the best we can be.

Although personally I feel that for me, it would be best as

"Grant, O Divine Ones, thy protection

And finishing with:

The love of the Divine and all goodness

Stacy
(Daughter of the White Wolf)

[Donata]

Hi Stacy,

Please feel free to use "the Divine" in the prayer. it's usually written, at least for OBOD, as "God/dess/Spirit" to be inclusive, and with the choice of 'God', 'God and Goddess', 'God, Goddess and Spirit', or only 'Spirit'. If the 'Divine' works better for you, use it!

BB
Donata

[Druantia]

"The one who started life in the first place".  Who do you think that is?  Do you believe that a person started life in the first place?    Druantia

[Brianna]

This is a wonderful topic to go more in depth into something so basic as the Durid Prayer, and very good if you want to learn more. Thank you.


So does this mean that you can amend the first and the last line according to what you feel best with?

Is there an original version (like the one where Merlyn posted a printable version)? Has it really been invented by Iolo?

That's also a reason why I'm happy for this topic, because from the first time on when I read that, I thought why so much emphasis is placed on a prayer that has been invented by a 'forger' as some call him.

[Brianna]

I have just realised something about the prayer that looks astonishingly like it's supposed to be this way. And I will use Maester Fwibos copy of the prayer, because his additions make it even more clear.

The prayer correlates amazingly accurate to the Quabala!

'Grant O God thy protection (Saftey, Identy)'

= Malkuth, the material world

And in protection, strength, (Power, Strength)

= Ysod, the astral plain, fire & spirit, strength in our own intent

And in strength, understanding, (Abundance)

= Netzach, emotions

And in understanding, knowledge, (Possibility)

= Hod, thought, knowledge

And in knowledge, the knowledge of justice, (Integrity, Self-Protection)

= Tiphareth, the connection, self-integrity, the center, the sun

And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it,  (Compassion)

= Chesed, love, compassion indeed, Goddess forms

And in the love of it, the love of all existences, (Autonomy, Connection)

= Geburah, will, all God forms

and that's where we cross the third abyss, beyond which our perception does not reach, because we enter the supernal triangle, the primal forces and the all-oneness

And in the love of all existences,  
The love of God and all Goodness.  (Faith)

= and that's why this last piece is maybe so different for everybody.

The path we walk here is incidentially also the "Path of Power", also called the "Path of the Magican", which is - I think - no coincidence either.

If Iolo had only a bit background in the then prevailing mystery traditions, I think it could very well be that he has based this prayer on the one written piece of the western mystery traditions that is said to be the ground pattern for any kind of spiritual developement in the west.

What do you think?

[Selene]

Is there an original version (like the one where Merlyn posted a printable version)? Has it really been invented by Iolo?

Brianna,

Here's a bit of the history of the Druids Prayer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid's_Prayer

Also see http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/bim1/bim1123.htm