Ink Blot

I grew up with a meal mantra, not so much a blessing, that I can still repeat in my sleep. I don’t use that one anymore, and I’ve been feeling that I should be using SOMETHING with the kids. Not that I’m great at cooking to start with. Here are a bunch I found that are happily Pagan.

May We Appreciate and Remember – Buddist

Today may we appreciate this food and remember those who are hungry.
May we appreciate our family and friends and remember those who are alone.
May we appreciate our health and remember those who are sick.
May we appreciate the freedoms we have and remember those who suffer injustice and tyranny.
Peace on earth.

Divine Energy – Pagan

From forest and stream, from mountain and fields, from the fertile Earth’s nourishing yields, I now partake of the Divine Energy; may it lend me health, strength, and love.

Elemental – Wiccan

Blessed be the Earth for giving birth to this food
Blessed be the Sun for nourishing it
Blessed be the Wind for carrying its seed
Blessed be the Rain for quenching its thirst.

Blessed be the hands that helped to grow this food,
To bring it to our tables
To nourish our minds, bodies, and spirits.

Blessed be our friends, our families, and our loved ones.
Blessed Be.

Goddess – Wiccan

Goddess, bless this food you have given me
Let it be filled with your divine energy
So that I will be healthy
And live a long and happy life.
Goddess bless! Blessed be!

Cerridwen – Celtic

O Lady of the Harvest, bounteous Cerridwen,
For the meat and bread that sustain us,
And the wine that brings us joy,
We thank you and promise you,
That we will never use the strength derived from your gifts,
To willfully harm your creatures or violate your laws.

Mother Earth – Generic (vegan)

For the golden corn and the apple on the tree,
For the golden butter and the honey from the bees,
For the fruits and nuts and berries we gather on our way,
We praise the loving Mother Earth and thank Her everyday.

Lord and Lady – Wiccan

Lord and Lady, watch over us,
and bless us as we eat.
Bless this food, this bounty of earth,
we thank you, so mote it be.

A Prayer to the Earth – Pagan

Corn and grain, meat and milk,
upon my table before me.
Gifts of life, bringing sustenance and strength,
I am grateful for all I have.

The Hunt – Norse/Celtic

Hail! Hail! The hunt has ended,
and meat is on the table!
We honor the deer who feeds us tonight,
may his spirit live within us!

Invitation to the Gods – Pagan

I set a place at my table for the gods,
and ask them to join me here tonight.
My home is always open to you,
and my heart is open as well.

Offerings – Greco/Roman

In ancient Rome, it was common to leave a bit of your food on the altar for your household deities. If you would like to do this at your meal, you could use the following prayer:

This meal is the work of many hands,
and I offer you a share.
Holy ones, accept my gift,
and upon my hearth, leave your blessings.

Great Spirit – Pagan/Native American?

We thank you for the gift of this food.
We send blessings of peace, love, and release to all whose bodies energies brought us this nourishment. We honor you in our enjoyment and utilization of this meal.
May it bring us health and joy, reminding us of our interconnections with all that is.
As we receive, so do we give thanks for this gift.

With young children, it is best to keep prayers short, simple, and to the point as below.
Thank you, Great Spirit
Thank you, chicken and peas and milk (or other food items)
Thank you, Mother Earth
We love this food.

Buddhist Blessing for Food

Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space
combine to make this food.
Numberless beings gave their lives
and labors that we may eat.
May we be nourished
that we may nourish life.

The candle that started at Imbloc built to a zenith on Beltaine. It now recedes. Because, really… who wants a huge bonfire in the heat of summer? As I get older, I apprecate the cycles of time more and more. And how they affect me. I am at my most industrious in the fall. And at my most dream-like now in Spring. Looking back over the years, during those years that I’ve had something to distract me, I have stayed more grounded in the spring. During those that I don’t… I do very rash things, like up and join the Army.

2008: slowly going crazy

2007: April thru June: 2 trips home in 8 weeks, very distracting

2006: March and April: trying to get pregant. If that’s not a cure for spring fever, nothing is.

2005: April and May: Bought a house. Very distracting

2004: April thru June: Pregnant, alone… very bad time

2003: March: up and joined the Army

2002: May: Screw Juniata - dropped out of school.

So now it’s the middle of June and in my attempts to function on a daily basis, I feel like an old washing machine, going round and round the same routines until I rattle apart at the seams. What I WANT to be is a balloon, drifting up in the clouds to parts unknown. How many balloons does it take to lift a washing machine?

Beltane is my second favorite holiday. After Halloween, of course. There is a great Fire that fuels the Earth. I mean this both literally (ahem, SUN!) and figuratively. The heat that had been building since Candlemas is the most within our reach, you can almost touch it with out being burned to smithereens. Leap the fire if you dare. 

I was drawn to the magic place, where the veil thins and over the babble of the creek, you can hear the fairies laugh. I came 15 years after the whole thing started. I was hardly the first. Certianly not the last. I stood in the Royal Meadow with my infant son when the Greenman called the corners and welcomed the Spring. I was enchanted.

I returned to the magic place, where invisible wings and hand carved flutes stir the breeze. I wanted that peace that graced the trees. My expectations were high. I had walked here before. I stood by the house with my infant son and watched the fairies transform to lumbermen and EMTs. I was enthralled.

I crave the magic place, where the bounty of Earth springs forth and bears joy by it’s very existence. I found peace and joy and each of the 7 blessings. You can touch them. They dance in the water and wind. I walked from field to farm, bearing fruits of labor to share and partake. I was euphoric.

And like every perfect thing, this too must end. Brought by the politics of the fairies themselves, the circle is closed. The May Pole stands still, testament to what was. I will harvest the land. The magic in that shall last. The magic that drew me, however, has proved fleeting. I will not play the games of bureaucrats and nobility. They can have their Court and their Ball. My sons and I will find another path.

I have never lived today before. At least not that I remember. And not remembering makes it not count. So if I have never lived today before, that means that the possibilities are endless. It’s so easy to get caught in the daily grind. Keeping our noses down that we never look up and see the sky, the trees. Or feel the rain on our faces. I have never lived today before and the world knows it. The world waits, poised, ready to leap. From the water nymphs in Pierceville Run to the firebirds of Siberia to Herne of Sherwood Forest, they wait. For someone to see and respond. Someone less hesitant than I. Maybe one day, I will give myself to the rain. Not Today.

So, I’m waiting for some manner of convergence. It’s Ostara (Equinox), the Full Moon, and Good Friday all at once and I think I am waiting for some manner of energy to es’plode or something. I’ve been totally, 100% unable to do anything about it myself, except maybe watch it pass by. But I was looking forward to the watching.

Wee Bear was up all night, first time he’s done that in MONTHS, and I’m a little bit convinced that he knew something was afoot. Being 14 ½ months old, he wasn’t not super-good at expressing this, but he tried.

So, barring, WB’s fits last night, I’ve been rather disappointed on the whole power surge I was expecting. I guess there’s still time, but I coulda sworn it was going to be last night or nothing. I really was not expecting nothing. Maybe if I manage to pull my head above water on this whole ‘going crazy’ thing, then I will go and check things out for myself. As much fun at it is to watch things explode, its best to find out ahead of time if the cloud is mushroom-shaped.  

Forgive me for the bit of geek-speak…or maybe it’s common knowledge that ‘!=’ means ‘does not equal’. I’m not sure.

Either way, this is one of the ideas that I’ve been playing with recently in my head. We have seasons that come and go and come back. We have a 28.5 day lunar cycle that ever-so-cleverly matches a woman’s menstrual cycle. We have this planet that we live on that goes careening around the Sun every year or so. We even have Haley’s comet, which will come back eventually and I really hope I get to see. We have these HUGE cyclical events. So, given the cyclical nature of, well, Nature… it stands to reason that the little things are cyclical too. Yeah, I mean us. We live, we die, we live again. Whether always as human or as anything else, who cares? I personally think that it would be cool to be a Sequoia tree for a few thousand years. So it’s true for all life, not just the people kind of life.

If death != end; and this is fairly accepted in much of the world, I find the Western fear of death rather…morbid. Death is sad. Sad for the survivors. The dead person isn’t gone, just on the next leg of the trip. Case in point: Mr. Ink’s Uncle died 4 years ago this month. The night we buried said Uncle, we conceived my son, Bear. Despite all precautions, and significant odds. In the course of playing with this idea, I see two possibilities. 1. My son is my uncle (in-law). Or 2. Said Uncle had a hell of a say in an event that happened 4 days after he died.

And the seasons, they go ’round and ’round…

From another blog I wrote:

Allies
Current mood: Itching for a fight

I have a difficult time distinguishing between Friends and Allies.

Friends are those you can chat with, relate to on some level, hang out with, and can rely on in times of trouble.

Allies are those with which you share a common belief, or goal, or situation. Not all beliefs, but at least one. You don’t actually have to like the person.

Now often, these groups overlap, but not always. I’m not great at telling the difference. I want all allies to be friends. Not just in my life, but all lives. You share a common belief with me…you should be my friend…yeah, yeah, I know… it doesn’t work like that.

I find myself in a place where allies are proportionately rare. We stand alone amidst a sea of, well, non-allies (some are out right hostel) So in these Us Against The World situations, are allies more valuable? Or should we be friends? Can we work toward a common goal?

Are you my ally? Are you my friend?

There is more to this, but I am still working out the details. *hunts for a sharper pen* Something about the futility of a common goal in a herd of cats…

Seasonal Mood Disorder is something that I honestly have a hard time wrapping my head around. I do understand that people take the change of seasons and daylight and weather very hard and it can and does affect people’s lives in a real way. But it is more foreign to me than most things. I ‘get’ schizophrenia… multiple personalties….bipolar etc. without having to live with these illnesses. I can see how a person can live in that reality. I don’t necessarily understand that not everyone feels a steady drizzle is their preferred choice of weather. It is for me. I’ve talked to people who like thunderstorms, snow, even fog…and all these things are cool too. But the best thing ever is a solid, steady drizzle. The kind that goes on for DAYS. Having grown up in Oregon I suppose this was trained into me from a young age. Perhaps the rainwater has seeped into my brain. Winter is not 3 ice storms in 10 days, it’s rain from Oct 11 to April 14. Maybe I need to go to Juneau to appreciate the fullness of seasons, or Aarhus or somewhere. For now, I’ll deal with my bright, sunny, snowy February and wish for rain.

I got this from Dianne Sylvan who I believe got the original from St. Patrick. Obviously, it’s been edited from the original.

I rise today
through the strength of Earth
the courage of Fire
the wisdom of Air
and the resilience of Water
By the grace of the God and Goddess,
May I and all in my heart be blessed.

Dianne’s point in posting this was (I’m paraphrasing here) that some manner of daily meditation/prayer/ritual can make it easier for people (me, anyway) to go through the day in a more focused, spiritual way. </paraphrasing> I would imagine this is true for any spiritual path, Pagan, Christian, etc.  Having less defination to my faith than most, I find it immensely helpful.