Paganism, Religion, and Prayer: There is no monopoly on the Divine!
Paganism, Religion and Prayer: There is no monopoly in the Divine!
By Roman Delgado.
Hello friends! The wheel of the year is turning. My thoughts have been running wild. In particular during the holiday season that just passed. My religious background is one in Mexican Brujería and Curanderismo. Both of which are very much intertwined with Catholicism. Yet Mexican Catholicism is very much its own little monster! It is very magical, accepting and mystical, a very far cry from the teachings of the Catholic Church.
It has been recently that I have begun to shed the part of me that hid the fact that I still work my magic and religious practice with a bit of a Catholic tint, but I am not traditional. I am what I call a “Spicy Catholic”. One of the things is have noticed looking at the current and recent interactions with the Pagan Community is the depth of the wounding that pagans carry with organized religion.
What saddens me about this is that due to that wounding, (which is perfectly valid and understandable) many Pagans and witches run away screaming from anything that reminds them of organized religion at all. One of the things that gets lost most often in that process is prayer. A lot of witches have no problem casting spells, yet the idea of connecting to the God or Goddess through prayer seems unacceptable!
It is as if the only ones allowed to pray to a divinity are the members of the organized religions that have wounded us. My beloved pagans and witches: there is no monopoly on the Divine, nor in prayer! Every culture around the world has had some form of prayer as part of their religious traditions, even before the advent of the Abrahamic faiths.
Prayer can be a powerful way to become connected with the divine, to create an intimate and powerful bond with your patron God and Goddess. It must not be overlooked. I invite you to look deep within your heart. See not only what you wish to manifest at this time when the wheel of the year is turning. But at what weighs you so heavy in your soul, that is ripping you further away from your Chosen Faith and Divinity! Be willing to leave in this liminal time between Sabbats what no longer serves you, and with the return of light concrete with God and Goddess what you have been dreaming for some time.
You don’t need a church or a rosary to pray. To connect with the divine all you need is a place and a moment that reminds you of the sacred. It could be in grove of trees you visit, or on a beach by the ocean. It could be in your own bedroom, or even in your heart. For as the charge of the Goddess says “If that which thou seekest thou does not find within thee, thou will never find it without thee.” For you see prayer is about finding the sacred within and connecting it to the sacred without!
I know it seems like a contradiction to ask you to find your sacred space and then tell you it is inside you! But if you first find Divinity within the depths of your soul, your sacred space is the entirety of this world, for you carry Goddess within you in every step you take. As such anywhere will be a good place for ritual and prayer.
Be willing now to think of something you have been meaning to manifest. We are about to go through prayer and visualization to help along with your hard work and labor to make it happen. We will be working with two legendary Lovers: Mother Earth and Father Sky and the sacred space upon which they meet: You!
Do this in a safe space where you won’t be doing anything else and you won’t be disturbed, do not try to do this exercise while driving or operating machinery! Remember to only do this prayer work for constructive purposes. If you try to pray to harm another, you are praying for divine justice to be brought down upon all involved, yourself included and that may not end well for you.
Think of one word that embodies your dream. If you have not prayed in a long time this is the easiest way to get back into it. Bring the thought of your single word prayer into the core of your mind. Know what it’s all about, feel it, think it, experience it. Then bring it down your body from your head through your very core down your spine and let it come out your root chakra as you say your word out loud seeing it plant into mother earth like a seed. Take a time to be thankful towards Mother Earth as she is empowering your prayer. Feel your prayer grow in strength in the core of the earth. Now see it rise as pure white light spiraling clockwise out of the earth. Spiraling up your Aura, coming out of your crown as you say your prayer out loud again. Be thankful to Father Sky as he empowers your prayer. Take some time to have faith and feel your prayer grow in the sky above. See it rain down into the world around you and know that it’s now beginning to manifest.
You have now become the meeting place of these two legendary lovers through which all creation comes to be. Together in prayer and meditation you are manifesting a new tomorrow. This is your new beginning; you reclaiming prayer as your own magical practice!
Make sure to eat a heave meal after this, to help you ground. This can be an energetically intense exercise.
Remember, you have a right to speak to Divinity, and you are Divine in your own right. Reclaim the light within, and bring down the light outside yourself into creation.
Blessed be.
Roman Delgado is a Psychic Reader and Shamanic Healer at Teotl Tonalli Intuitive Arts. He is an active member of the Keepers of the Flame Coven, ATC (The Ever Green Hearth) Please check our Community Connections page to find ways to connect with Roman or other members and Affiliates of The Ever Green Hearth.