Last summer, I wrote that one of my cats had decided to join me when I did the morning sun prayer at the window. Over the next few months, as my bonded pair matured, the other one replaced her at the window. On most days, she will run from wherever she is in the apartment … Continue reading Welcoming Standard Time
Tag: on prayer
Playlists as Prayers
I've spent the past week listening to several songs from Ancient Mother, an album from 1993. We played several of the pieces from that album a lot when I was young. I love both the title song ("Ancient Mother") and "The Circle Is Cast," in addition to "Lady of the Flowing Waters." Playing the songs … Continue reading Playlists as Prayers
Conversions Away from the Gods
When I was in college, one of the women in my social group called herself pagan, but she would not come to the events that the campus pagan group — which I ran for a few years — organized. She was adopted, she went to Catholic school, and she was raised by a traditional WASP … Continue reading Conversions Away from the Gods
How To Write a Hymn (2)
Listen to Rachmaninov’s cascading concertos,to the majestic meander of Yes’ “Awaken” —follow these melodies as they set forthbeginning to end, an evolution always revertingback to the first breathing fingertips upon keys. Now: an epithet. Come to it as an agalma.It is sheet music — syllables and stresses.It is speech coiled together — dimensioned tight.Like a … Continue reading How To Write a Hymn (2)
How To Write a Hymn (1)
Give forth enough breath to let imagescut shapelessly into the lungs’ flatness.Wrap each symbol tense, layering uponsteep cliffs the cascade of fall·catch·fall·rise.The God will buoy you. Attend to this:a flutter of notes light as incense,brittle as dried laurel crushed between palms.Open up this everything in ink's meandering traces.Work them gently like clay upon a wheel,but … Continue reading How To Write a Hymn (1)
Reconnecting with old prayer habits
Today, for the first time in a long while, I knelt at my shrine and felt around for the faux velvet bag that keeps the prayer beads I purchased for Hermes five and a half years ago. They are made of bright metal and white-gray spiderweb jasper, and I bought them on Etsy a bit … Continue reading Reconnecting with old prayer habits
Why worship Gods?
And now for the text version, which might be better here — WordPress degraded the image quality of the infographic. Why Worship Gods? Platonists are fond of saying that the world is full of Gods, quoting from a pre-Socratic philosopher named Thales. Platonists like Proclus add that everything prays, each in its own way, just … Continue reading Why worship Gods?
Building a Routine
In The Soul's Inner Statues, one exercise I recommend is a post-it note thing to find a time when a few minutes of prayer work best for you. I mention several tools (Mural, post-it notes, something else), but another tool someone could use for an exercise like that is Google Jamboard. As the hardest part … Continue reading Building a Routine
Prayer Itself Isn’t Toxic, but Spiritual Leaders Sometimes Can Be
For the past few weeks, I've been reading Amanda Montell's Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism. I'm two-thirds through reading it. In this post, I will discuss two points within the book: the first my critique of how Montell describes prayer, the second some comments I have on toxic leaders in spiritual communities abusing the concept … Continue reading Prayer Itself Isn’t Toxic, but Spiritual Leaders Sometimes Can Be
KALLISTI 