sanepolytheism | Entries tagged with resources

On last week's Magic Monday, I asked for resources on developing prayer as a spiritual practice, and many folks were kind enough to share a wide variety of books, websites, and more. Below is a collection of what was shared, organized by topic. I hope it might be helpful if you're asking "how do I do this prayer thing, anyway?"

Polytheist Prayer & Worship Resources

I was pleasantly surprised at how helpful some of these resources were, since much of my exposure to the modern polytheist world has been filtered through authors who view prayer as "something monotheists do", and I was afraid I was going to have to entirely adapt Christian material (see below for some of that). Luckily, that attitude is less common than it once was, and is especially uncommon amongst Magic Monday regulars, so there's a lot of good stuff below!

JMG recommended A Book of Pagan Prayer by Ceisiwr Serith and Pagan Prayer Beads by himself and his wife. I've found both helpful for examples and general discussion, even if I haven't used many of the specific prayers included. Pagan Prayer Beads is, if anything, even more useful as an introduction to beading as a craft. Before I checked out the actual prayers included, I used it to help me make a bracelet to be used with Rune Poems for the Elder Futhark.

This was not actually a response to my question on Magic Monday, but reading this post by joshuarout is part of what led me to ask for further resources: https://joshuarout.dreamwidth.org/322.html. It's a collection of quotes by JMG on the topic of prayer, and it was helpful to get his point of view summed up in one place.

hwistle recommended Kaye Boesme's work, both her blog, https://kallisti.blog/, and a guidebook on how to worship gods from a Platonist point of view, including chapters on prayer and ritual: https://kayeofswords.github.io/soulsinnerstatues/

Rhydlyd recommended When a Pagan Prays: Exploring Prayer in Druidry and Beyond by Nimue Brown, but a few other commenters (Sister Crow and anonymous) said that they found it's depiction of her thinking when she was an atheist to be at least frustrating, and at most actively off-putting in its impiety, so approach with caution, I suppose. Rhydlyd also recommended Cerridwen: Celtic Goddess of Inspiration by Kristoffer Hughes. I haven't personally checked out either yet

Sister Crow recommended Galina Krasskova's Heathen reworking of the Rosary: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/pantheon/2010/05/retooling-the-rosary/. Krasskova's goal was to keep as much of the spirit of the Rosary as possible without actually praying to Christian figures. I have found it a useful model, but fair warning, the actual layout and presentation of this article is a bit hard to follow.

Ottergirl and neptunesdolphins both recommended Raven Kaldera's prayer beads, who can either craft them to prayers of your own creation, or provide prayers. Kaldera has some, erm, colorful beliefs and practices, and so is seen as controversial by some folks. I have found some of his co-authored books very helpful and haven't totally made up my mind on how to feel about some of the controversial stuff, but both of these commenters have found his prayer beads lovely and helpful.

Christian Prayer & Worship Resources

Though I am coming at this as a polytheist, and this group is, in fact, Sane Polytheism, for the past thousand-plus years, spirituality in the west has been Christian, so many of the resources we have to work with are as well. I also explicitly asked about the Rosary, because I've had the intuition that it's a practice worth analyzing for application in a polytheist context (for one approach, see Galina Krasskova's "Retooling the Rosary" above). What I have found helpful in reading through Christian sources is to ask a) what is common in my beliefs and theirs, and b) what is any one part of belief/prayer/practice doing functionally? For example, when praying the Rosary, you open with the Apostle's Creed. Functionally, this is a statement of core belief about how the world works and the most important religious beliefs, so if you were trying to craft a similar prayer in your own tradition, you might open with a statement about how your tradition believes the world works, or if belief is less important in your tradition, a statement of actions or intentions.

samchevre recommended the section from the Catechism of the Council of Trent "On Prayer":
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_catechism_of_the_Council_of_Trent/Part_4. Having skimmed it so far, I find it a helpful and serious look at the role prayer ought to play in a normal, but pious person's life. For the Rosary specifically, samchevre recommended The Secret of the Rosary by St Louis de Montfort: https://www.ecatholic2000.com/montfort/rosary/rosary.shtml He especially recommended the Novena to Mary, Undoer of Knots, especially if combined with planetary hours, as a borderline magical/religious practice for solving problems.

emmanuelg recommended The Practice of the Presence of God which collects some of the discursive meditations of Brother Lawrence, a Christian monk who lived in the 1600's: https://d2y1pz2y630308.cloudfront.net/15471/documents/2016/10/Brother%20Lawrence-The%20Practice%20of%20the%20Presence%20of%20God.pdf. I haven't checked this one more than a skim yet, but it looks like a good example of what discursive meditations/contemplative prayers can look like.

methylethyl recommended looking into Orthodox sources for contemplative prayer, such as the "Jesus prayer," "Orthodox meditation," and "way of the pilgrim" and the book The Jesus Prayer by Frederica Matthews-Green.

Princess Cute Kitten pointed me to ewtn.com, the website for a global Catholic television network. I've only poked around a little bit, but it looks like they have lots of multimedia resources for things Catholic. Especially helpful if you're looking for recordings

Some Short Takeaways

So, while I am still working my way through the materials above, as well as seeking help from the Gods I pray to, I thought I would highlight a few threads that many of the sources above share:

Prayer is about aligning yourself with the divine: From my own experience and reading these and other sources, I think that the single thing prayer is most for is to get your mind and spirit in tune with the divine. That's why there's value in at-least daily prayer, and in finding lots of opportunities to pray for other reasons (like at meals, wake up, going to bed, and so forth).

Prayer is a Conversation: We often think of prayer as one-way - I say a prayer to a God/Gods, but it's far more helpful when you also listen for responses. Whatever you end up doing to address the divine, make sure you're also leaving space to listen for the responses you might get.

Prayer Should Not Be About Getting What You Want: JMG likes to compare the "gimme, gimme" kind of prayers to treating the Gods like a vending machine. This is not such a good idea. The Gods are independent, sentient people with their own personalities, goals, and point of view, only way bigger than any one of us, so "give me a BMW" is not really a helpful way to interact. A phrase of JMG's that I've found helpful in my prayers is to add "nonetheless, your will, not mine, be done". That being said, I do currently think there is some place for asking for things in prayer - the difference is both in what you ask for and the attitude with which you do it. For me, it is helpful to ask to be more like the kind of person I'm trying to be, and to gratefully recognize what comes from the Gods by asking for it in prayer - for example, saying some kind of prayer over a meal before eating it might both offer thanks for what is there to eat and ask for the nourishment and happiness I hope the meal will bring.

Both Structured and Free-form Prayer are Helpful: From what I can tell so far, there are distinct benefits to both structured/formal/repetitive prayers and free-form "just talking" prayers. Composed prayers that are the same every time can be poetic, bring you back to the same thoughts and feelings every time, and are easy to make habitual. Free-form prayers, on the other hand, can be sincere, spontaneous, and responsive to what's going on in your life today.

Current Mood: calm

jprussell

Reason for edit: While adjusting the tags, I hit "enter", which posted before I had written most of the body of the post!
Second Edit: tagged sources for quotes when they have a dreamwidth account.

A few weeks ago, I asked about resources for getting started learning about Shinto on a Magic Monday post. I thought it might be helpful to gather the responses together into an easier-to-find post similar to what

causticus did with the information on Roman Polytheism. I asked a similar question about Hinduism on the same MM, and I'll likely put together a post gathering that soon.

It strikes me that it might be worthwhile to have a "getting started" page for as many varieties of polytheism as we can gather credible resources for. If we gather enough, we might even have a pinned or otherwise prominently linked entry that gathers links to all of these round ups of starter resources.

For now, though, here's what the Magic Monday community was able to share on resources for learning more about Shinto, lightly edited by me to make this post more easily read and used as a reference. You can find the original comment thread here.

Resources for Learning More About Shinto

Core Religious Texts

The two core Shinto texts are fairly similar in terms of "what they are" (a purportedly historical chronicle from the earliest of times to when they were written that includes mythic material), and in terms of what myths and stories are conveyed, there is overlap, but they are not identical and both have played a role in shaping current practice.

The Nihongi: A chronicle of early Japanese myth and ancient history.

The Kojiki: A chronicle of early Japanese myth and ancient history.

tunesmyth shares some thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of various translations of the two core Shinto texts:

As far as Shinto source texts go, the two primary texts are the Kojiki and the Nihongi (aka the Nihon Shoki), which were recorded at very nearly the same time-- the general consensus is that the Kojiki came first, though there are some who disagree. Right now, due to historical reasons that were in part responsible for the split between Buddhism and Shinto in the 19th century, the Kojiki has come to predominate as far as fame with the the general public goes. Through most of Japan's history, though, it seems that the Nihongi was more considered the first place to go for the mythology, often offering multiple versions of the same mythological stories for comparison within the text itself (but missing some crucial stories that appear in the Kojiki, including one of my favorites, The Hare of Inaba).
If one is just dipping their toes into Shinto, I strongly recommend the Heldt translation of the Kojiki, which keeps its language simple but pleasant, and is of a length that isn't too daunting. One quibble though, it has a major weakness in that all the kami and place names are translated as their literal meanings in English, rather than by the names that anybody who actually prays to these great spirits actually uses to address them with (though there is a glossary in the back). If you need to go for a free version of the Kojiki, the original Basil Hall Chamberlain version is readily available, though it suffers for many of the same problems as JMG has lamented with Waite's translation of Levi.
The only currently extant English translation of the Nihongi, by W.G. Aston, is also a Victorian translation, but I find it quite a bit more readable than Chamberlain's Kojiki.

Histories, Commentaries, and Explanations

Kami no Michi by Guji Yukitaka Yamamoto: The reflections of the former high priest of the only Shinto Grand Shrine in North America, he explains how his experiences have shaped his view of Shinto and its place in the world today. The full text is available on the Tsubaki Grand Shrine's website here.

Dancing With Spirits: the Festivals and Folklore of Japan by Denny Sargent: Recommended by Justin Patrick Moore, he had this to say: "Denny Sargent, aka Aion 131 is a founding member of Horus-Maat Lodge with a long background in Western magic, and he his wife lived in Japan for awhile if I recall correctly. This book, I believe, came out of that time spent there."
And here's the blurb from the back of the book:

Nowhere are religious traditions more uniquely tied to the historical, cultural and spiritual identity of a people then in Japan. Almost all Japanese follow one intertwined religious mixture of Shinto, Matsuri and Buddhism. This forms the basis of much of their culture. To know this is to know Japan. Dancing with Spirits is an intellectual but accessible 'travel guide' through the history and fun reality of the most important Shinto, Matsuri and Buddhist festivals of Japan. It features entertaining first-hand accounts of wild revels like Tanabata and Setsubun, but it also offers something more; the history of the these festivals and explanations of the symbolism and meaning behind them, things that even many of the Japanese revelers themselves often don't know. Other aspects of Buddhism, Matsuri and Shinto are covered within these pages as well, from a succinct history of the origins of these great traditions in Japan to chapters about specific deities and Amulets. Come and leap into the amazing world of Shinto, Matsuri and Buddhism and the 'floating world' of Japanese rituals and folklore as it is being celebrated today! Dozo!

The Essence of Shinto by Motoshisa Yamakage: This was recommended by jruss, with this comment by tunesmyth: "It is an excellent introduction to Shinto as a form of religious practice for the lay reader. It eloquently describes a coherent worldview of interaction with the world via a Shinto lens and I found it extremely inspirational when I was first exploring Shinto."
Politics Warning: the author of this book has been accused of anti-semitism, and tunesmyth, despite the positive quote above about the book itself, had this to say about the author: "All that said, the antisemitic stuff is for real and pretty much poisons one's ability to read it in a mood of "This stuff is so good!" like I had when I first read it-- let alone recommend it to others. Nothing antisemitic shows up in "The Essence Of Shinto" itself; rather it's that he wrote a whole series of apparently strongly antisemitic screeds. To be fair I haven't gone so far as to read any; but with titles such as "Final World War: How to Counter Jewish Money" and "The Jewish Strategy for World Dominance" (volumes 1, 2, and 3) I don't really have any desire to either." Make your own decision about whether the author's views about other matters can be separated from what he wrote about Shinto.

Myth and Diety in Japan by Kamata Toji: recommended by jruss, but apparently pretty expensive.

Japaneseness by Yoji Yamakuse: also recommended by jruss, who says "it's more about the core concepts of being Japanese by going over values anyone can adopt but as Shinto is rooted in Japanese culture this can help explain things."

The Catalpa Bow by Carmen Blacker: recommended by tunesmyth, he says of this and the next entry: "They're both erudite, readable, and manage to convey a sense of the spiritual power that resides in Shinto."

The Fox and the Jewel by Karen Smyers: recommended by tunesmyth, he says of this and the entry above: "They're both erudite, readable, and manage to convey a sense of the spiritual power that resides in Shinto."

Books Focused on Practice

Shinto Norito by Anne Llewellyn Evans: According to JMG, it "gives you the actual text of traditional Shinto prayers, and a robust appendix full of practical instructions."

Websites

The Tsubaki Grand Shrine of North America

Green Shinto: Recommended by tunesmyth, this blog is now mostly inactive, but has an extensive archive, including a few series that do an in-depth comparison of other polytheistic religions and Shinto, as well as a series on ancestor worship in Shinto.

Living With Kami Reading List: An extensive reading list compiled by a practicing Shinto Priestess

Shinto, Paganism, and Witchcraft Syncretism: a private Facebook group described by jruss like this: "lots of good discussion but the other English speaking Shinto groups have nothing to do with it as they see Shinto as a vehicle for their politics."

Buddhism & Shintoism in Japan: Also recommended by jruss and tunesmyth, this website has an especial focus on sculpture and art in Japan, and is slightly more focused on Buddhism, but given how interwoven they are in Japan, it contains a lot of useful information.

Current Mood: cheerful

jprussell

I'd like to share a few sources below that I have found helpful for shaping my individual daily and seasonal practice, and to invite anyone willing to do so to please share some of their own, ideally with a bit of commentary on what you've found helpful about them.

Personally, I'll be focusing more on individual practice, as I feel like most flavors of polytheism these days have books or websites available explaining how to do community rituals, and by definition, if you're participating in a group ritual, the group has some kind of approach to doing it! I suppose the one thing left out here would be if you are an individual trying to establish a group, so if that's your situation, feel free to share that as well.

The other thing I'll mention is that I have not included books whose primary value is for studying and understanding myth, or as many in my tradition like to refer to it the Lore. While fascinating and enjoyable, I feel like that's the least-transferrable kind of work, and therefore the least helpful for folks following other paths.

Most of my sources below are Germanic-flavored, but I'll try to point out what I think is helpful about them even for other traditions.

Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner by Galina Krasskova and Raven Kaldera
Despite the potentially depressing title, I have found this book rather helpful. It gives a number of different viewpoints of what daily Germanic polytheist practice might look like. It follows the framework from Dale Cannon's Six Ways of Being Religious (itself mostly focused on Christianity, with some inputs from Buddhism and other traditions) and gives suggestions adapted to Germanic beliefs. What I like best about this book is that it makes a strong case that "devotional" practice of various kinds is not the exclusive property of Christianity and can be usefully integrated into a polytheist worldview. Includes a lot of practical tips on setting up an altar and using prayer beads.

Viking Poetry for Heathen Rites by Eirik Westcoat
The specific poetry in this book is likely only going to be helpful if you worship the Germanic Gods, but if you do, wow is it helpful! Also helpful, it explains the conventions of traditional Germanic alliteration and stress, so you can compose Germanic style poetry in modern English, which I suppose might even be helpful for other pantheons. Even if this particular book doesn't do it for you, I'd say I've found it very helpful to have a ready source of calls to Gods/Goddesses and prayers to them in the form of poetry, so looking for something similar in your tradition might be helpful (like the Orphic or Homeric Hymns, if you follow a Greco-Roman tradition).

The Druid Handbook by John Michael Greer
This is likely familiar to most folks here, but this book gives a nice entry point to a nature-focused spirituality that is extremely flexible when it comes to the finer points of personal beliefs. For myself, I'm currently celebrating the 8-point year with the rituals given here, but with Germanic deities. See below for another work I might use for future ritual timing, but this is a great place to start if you don't have something else to follow. Oh, also has a fantastic explanation on discursive meditation.

Pagan Prayer Beads by John Michael Greer and Clare Vaughn
Written by JMG and his wife, I found this most helpful for the actual, physical "how to make a string of prayer beads" advice, less so for the example prayers or strings given, but maybe I ought to revisit them. Pairs especially well with sources of poems/prayers like I mentioned above (someone following a Germanic tradition might consider a string with one bead per rune and match it to the relevant Rune Poem, for example, or write your own)

By the Sun, the Stars, and the Moon and To Hold the Holytides by Thorbeortht Ealdorblotere
These two books kind of need to be taken together, as one discusses the calculation of holy days following what the author believes to be closest to what we can figure out about ancient Anglo-Saxon practice, and the other explains what rituals to hold on those holy days. As the title suggests, you can determine some days by the Sun, some by the Moon, and some by the Stars, and I like the attention it gives to integrating and balancing these cycles (for example, you might select a seasonal ritual date as the first full moon after the equinox). While the conclusions are likely not as relevant to most folks not interested in the Anglo-Saxons specifically, it is a nice example of a ritual calendar that isn't the Wicca-derived 8-points of the year.

True Hearth by James Allen Chisholm
I like that this focuses on integrating your beliefs/practices into your life and household. Includes some good advice on setting up a household altar and rituals for things like moving into a new house or naming a baby. Mostly pretty Germanic-focused, but again, some of the occasions marked might provide some ideas.

Path to the Gods: Anglo-Saxon Paganism for Beginners by Swain Wodening
One of many "intro to Germanic religion" books I read, this one sticks in my memory as providing a nice, flexible framework for ritual/prayer that works individually or for a group: 1) hallow a space, 2) call on/praise the God(s) to be worshipped, 3) make a toast to your ancestors with a hallowed drink, 4) share drink among those participating, 5) sprinkle some of that drink on participants, 6) give what's left of hallowed drink to the God(s) called on, 7) close hallowed space.

The Art of Divine Meditation by Bishop Joseph Hall
Recommended by JMG, this book is very explicitly Christian, and many of the specific recommendations for what to do or think about won't apply to many traditions, but the general approach of "how do I take meditation and find more things to do with it?" is helpful.

Edited because I accidentally posted before complete

Current Mood: calm

causticus

There was a very informative comment thread a couple MMs ago with some links to resources for anyone wanting to engage in devotional practice for the Roman Gods. I've compiled here some key parts of the thread.

First, from

neptunesdolphins :

Books:
-The Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the Garden: Religion at the Roman Street Corner by Harriet Flower
-An Introduction to Roman Religion by John Scheid

And, from

boccaderlupo :

I would recommend Associazione Tradizionale Pietas, which is based in Rome but has various chapters around the world. They have a lot of good resources, especially in Italian (Latin speakers might be able to make use of those), including a weekly Q&A/podcast. They were recently recognized by the government and have set up the first new Tempio Giove in Rome in a good long while, as well as temples elsewhere in that country.

https://tradizioneromana.org/

Next, this very helpful and lengthily comment:

1) On Roman Polytheism, I've found the essays of Horatius M. Piscinus to be a great source of obscure info, though they can be a little overwhelming and too detail heavy. Neopolytheist's blog is a great introduction for a beginner and I recommend starting there.

For literature, Cato's On Agriculture, Varro's On the Latin Language in 25 Books, Varro's Agricultural Topics in 3 Books and Macrobius' Saturnalia will be where you want to start hunting for flecks of gold.

And now for my personal religious views, which should be taken with a single molecule of sodium chloride and thrown out forthwith if you have a different interpretation:

The Roman Gods are not Greek Gods, though they might be called twins or close siblings. Many gods which appear to be "imported" are in fact the Romans projecting their own gods onto cultures they admired and were probably a little jealous of, though the Romans did import many foreign gods such as Aesculapius, though there was often a distinct "this is a Greek god, so we must worship him with the Greek Rite, while this Roman god represented with a greek statue and with Greek myths grafted on is Roman, so we use the regular Roman Rites for him."

Second, there's a lot of confusion about who the Lares are, since later Roman authors refered to multiole beings. I treat "Lares" as a catch-all term like "spirits" and use them primarily to refer to the spirits of the house (lares domestici), the spirits of the land and neighbourhood (lares compitales) and the spirits of the roads and crossroads (lares viales) and I call the spirits of my ancestors just "ancestors" instead of lares familiaris to decrease confusion. Also, while some scholars believe that every man has a guardian Genius and every woman has a guardian Juno, other scholars disagree with this interpretation and so do I, so I consider Genius to be the term for the gusrdian of every person and every piece of land (much less confusing). Your friend may find these artificial distinctions I've made useful, or not. Just remember that like the Romans saw a statue of Athena and said "Look, a statue of Minerva! Let's bring it home and build a temple to Minerva!" these are mostly my projections, influenced by my own desires and cultural artifacts, trying to make sense of a convoluted system mostly lost to time and unable to be entirely perceived by flimsy human intellects anyway.

Here are some links to get started:

Absolute Beginner:
https://romanpagan.wordpress.com/household-shrine-and-ritual/

One of the first Horatius M. Piscinus essays I read. Every essay is gold, though don't be afraid to discard specific practices that are too inconvenient (like using spring water or water gathered from rivers in the four cardinal directions).
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religioromana/2013/05/odds-and-evens/

Useful for invoking Janus, which is done a lot. The prayer offered is almost verbatim a section from the oldest Roman ritual invocation (fragmentary of course) still existing:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religioromana/2013/01/kalends-rite-for-janus/

http://societasviaromana.net/Collegium_Religionis/contributions.php

One more thing: stay away from Nova Roma. They started as a bunch of atheists more interested in awarding themselves fancy Roman titles and creating a "micronation" of larpers, with Roman Religion just one more part of the larp. Over time that has changed and there might be some legitimate polytheists involved, but I worry that their egregore is permanently tainted along with their reputation. Best to just avoid them altogether and skip the viscious back and forth drama.

Finally, I've omitted recommendations for Nova Roma as a serious resource, as (per my own investigations into the matter) I agree with some of the sentiments expressed in the thread that NR are primarily LARPers, and most of them are probably atheists too. In other words, going to a group like that for advice on serious devotional practices or spiritual counsel in general, would be rather ill-conceived. It would be nearly as absurd as asking a Christian for advice on how to properly venerate Jupiter.