Book Description

This treasury of more than 350 poems, prayers, hymns, blessings, and dramatic readings provides beautiful, powerful pieces that you can use to mark holidays, milestones, and the passing of the seasons. Discover prayers to Janus from Horace and Ovid, a traditional Scottish blessing for Imbolc, an invocation to Pan by poet Helen Bantock, a salutation to the sun by Aleister Crowley, a pharoah's hymn to Isis, a song for Lammas by Gwydion Pendderwen, and many, many more. In addition to readings and blessings for Pagan holidays and other special days throughout the year, you will also discover prayers for weddings and funerals and to coincide with phases of the moon. Author Barbara Nolan includes brief historical or biographical details to contextualize each piece as well as descriptions of various holidays and festivals to help you integrate these readings into your practice. A Year of Pagan Prayer demonstrates that the literary worship of Pagan deities was never fully lost in the West. This bounteous collection draws from the creative and spiritual legacy of Italian Renaissance poets, ancient Sumerian priestesses, twentieth-century Pagans, French Romantics, Greek playwrights, nineteenth-century British occultists, and Egyptian hymnists, making it a must-have sourcebook for anyone who yearns to embody the eloquent expressions of our Pagan past.