Call for Submissions: Frey Devotional November 14, 2009

This is posted on behalf of my friend and housemate Joshua. (Yes, it’s actually him and not Raven who’s doing this book, for those who are wondering.) Josh loves Frey very much and really wants this devotional to be awesome, so send him something good!

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I am putting together a devotional anthology for Frey (because I love Frey!) with the working title “Honey, Grain, and Gold.” I am looking for:

1) Prayers to Frey, of any kind. Under 100 lines.
2) Poetry for/about/from Frey. Under 100 lines.
3) Frey-relevant rituals, of any kind. Under 2000 words.
4) Frey-relevant recipes.
5) Essays about your personal experience of Frey, or your devotional activity towards Frey, or how honoring Frey has changed your life, or similar topics. Between 500 and 5000 words.
6) Devotional songs for Frey, either with sheet music, or with a recording you can send me.
7) Traditional songs (past copyright or with author’s/songwriter’s permission) that you find particularly Frey-relevant.
8)Frey-related images suitable for printing in black and white, such as images of Frey, photos of Frey/Vanic altars or ritual items, or exceptionally inspirational nature/farm/grain photos. The original must be at least 300dpi at final print size. If you didn’t make the image yourself, I need some kind of documentation of copyright permission.

Please do not send me writing that complains about or criticizes other people’s spiritual beliefs or practices.

Send submissions to joshuatenpenny@yahoo.com. Files can be in Word, Open Office, plain text or cut-and-pasted into the email. Include your full legal name and your mailing address so I can send a release form, and tell me what name you want used in the book.

Thanks and please pass this along wherever you feel it is appropriate

(Also, if there is a deity that you’d like to see a devotional for and you’ve got some material for it but are scared of organizing the anthology yourself, send me an email. Asphodel Press is always looking for more deity devotionals, especially for gods besides Odin and Loki – They have enough! We are also interested in collections of prayers and rituals. And don’t think that we won’t publish your devotional because we don’t know you or because we don’t like your god.)

– Joshua Tenpenny

Book Review: Books of Hours November 4, 2009

The Book of Hours: Prayers to the Goddess and Book of Hours: Prayers to the God represent something of a departure from the norm for Pagan publishing in that they are not “Wicca/Neo-Paganism 101″ texts nor are they compilations of magical correspondenses, tables and spells. These are genuine books of hours arranged for daily, seasonal, lunar, solar and occasional use, and they contain prayers rather than invocations or rituals.

Designed to be used either separately or together, these are primarily intended for a Wiccan audience. Prayers to the Goddess is based around the aspects of the Threefold Goddess and the prayers for Her are meant to be said in the morning, evening and at night. A separate Common of the Moon contains prayers for the Full and New Moons, and the Seasonal Common reflects the eight Sabbats.

Prayers to the God celebrates Him as the Lover of the Goddess and contains daily prayers addressed to the God and meant to be said in the afternoon, as well as solar, lunar and seasonal prayers. Unlike the first volume, this one also contains prayers specifically for men and women. Both books have a selection of assorted prayers for different purposes and an appendix describing a few commonly worshiped Hellenic, Celtic and Egyptian deities.

In modern Wicca and Wiccan-based Neo-Paganism, the Goddess has ascendancy over the God and is often the focus of more devotional and ritual behavior. The author is writing from that standpoint and therefore, the first volume is more of a stand-alone book than the second, where the material addressed specifically to the God isn’t as extensive. However, the real beauty in these two books is that they are meant to be used concurrently, so that one would be praying to the Goddess and God daily at different times, forming a continous round of prayer from morning to night and following the cycles of the Sun, Moon and seasons.

As my housemate pointed out, the one potentially discordant thing about these two books is the different between the tone of the prayers addressed to the Goddess versus those addressed to the God. The former are prayers of reverence and devotion to a universal deity, while the latter are expressed from the point of view of a lover to one’s divine but very particular Beloved. Since the author is a (presumably) heterosexual woman, this makes a certain amount of sense. However, it also limits the usefulness of the prayers somewhat for those who aren’t inclined to view the Goddess and God in these roles. While the author acknowledges this in her preface to Prayers to the God, it would have been nice to see the same approach consistently in both books.

While the theology expressed doesn’t reflect my own beliefs (I’m a hard polytheist and conceive as the gods as separate entities rather than facets of a universal Goddess and God) I do admire the sincerity and devotion that went into the writing of the Books of Hours. The brief prayers are very beautiful, and while some might find the daily affirmations and meditation topics too “New Agey” or simplistic, there is nothing preventing one from using different subjects for these. Additionally, it’s nice that these were conceived by the publisher as quality books intended for many years’ use; they’re hardbound with an attached ribbon marker and parchment endpapers, and printed with an easy-to-read font (but no illustrations). Unfortunately they’re both out of print, but used copies may be found online.

I highly recommend these for Wiccans and Neo-Pagans of that bent who seek to develop a closer relationship with the Goddess and God and who are inclined towards regular devotional practice or monasticism. For others, these books might serve as inspiration for a Book of Hours more relevant to their own tradition or theology.

Book of Hours: Prayers to the Goddess
Book of Hours: Prayers to the God
by Galen Gillotte
2002, Llewellyn Publications
$14.95 (each)

A Long-Delayed Book August 11, 2009

Be Thou My Hearth and Shield: Prayers in the Northern Tradition, which I compiled and edited, is finally available from Asphodel Press/Lulu. It’s a collection of prayers written by eighteen contributors (and myself) for different purposes and in honor of various deities of the Aesir, Jotnar and Vanir. It is intended as an offering to my gods, which to me is the most important reason to write a book of this nature. And I hope it encourages people to pray. Speaking to the gods is just as important as listening to Them, and the all-too-common attitude that prayer is something Pagans don’t do (because it’s associated with those other religions) saddens me.

I expect the book will be controversial in some regards and with some people, but fame (or infamy) wasn’t my goal when I put this book together, and those who would find fault with it are unlikely to buy it anyway.

Movie Review: Brother Sun, Sister Moon July 23, 2009

Brother Sun, Sister Moon is a fanciful retelling of the early life of St. Francis of Assisi as conceived by Franco Zeffirelli. As with all of Zeffirelli’s work, it’s beautifully filmed, but this movie contains a number of “conceptual” shots that attempt to bring Francis’s divine revelations to the viewer in a way which may not work for everyone. Also, if you are the sort who likes to have everything explained at some point in a story, you’re probably going to be frustrated.

The movie opens with the young Francis returning from a bloody, traumatic war and being nursed back to health in his father’s house. During his recovery he has terrible visions and finally, a spiritual revelation which causes him to crawl out his window onto the adjacent roof chasing after a little bird, much to the amusement of the neighbors and the consternation of his family. After his recovery, Francis spends a lot of time wandering around agog at the wonders of nature and ignoring his responsibilities as the son of a rich merchant.

One day, in a bout of ascetic fervor, he hurls bolts of expensive fabric out the window of his father’s shop, exhorting onlookers to turn from the temptations of the material world (and is mostly ignored by the delighted townsfolk). He then appears before the local authorities, uttering a passionate speech about spiritual riches before doffing all of his rich clothing and abandoning the town and his family forever.

The film then follows Francis as he struggles, first alone and then with like-minded brethren, to live a life of poverty, chastity and prayer. Along the way he meets the future St. Clare, a girl from the town who is kind and brave enough to give bread to the local lepers. Eventually Clare becomes a nun and joins Francis in his efforts, living alongside the brethren and sharing in their difficult life as they strive to rebuild an abandoned church in the countryside for the people.

Perhaps one of the most striking scenes in the entire film occurs when Francis’s completed church is finally open for Mass and is filled with peasants who are clearly in awe of the poor brothers and their humble yet hard-won gift. Meanwhile, the town’s wealthy nobles and merchants gaze around disgruntledly at their own richly decorated and empty church. The spectacular and often grotesque wealth of various churchmen of the time is portrayed in the film via elaborate costumes, which one of my housemates asserted are historically accurate — massive heavy velvet and brocade robes, incredibly uncomfortable-looking standing collars, and giant, bejeweled velvet letters hanging on chains around the neck, like medieval rap stars.

Francis’s struggle to convince the Church that he is in earnest continues through the second half of the film, culminating in a visit to the Pope, where the marked contrast between the barefoot, threadbare monks and the obscenely overdressed cardinals and bishops is most apparent. Alec Guiness (before he was “Sir”) portrays Pope Innocent III with admirable gravity. Although the exchange between Francis and Innocent as portrayed is completely fanciful, it is a matter of historical record that the Pope did indeed meet with Francis and eventually gave his approval to the fledgling mendicant order. However, no mention is made of the dream Innocent III is attested to have had prior to Francis’s audience with him, which would have added considerably to the story, in my opinion.

Since much of the film is wordless it is sometimes hard to follow, and one must pay close attention to the dialogue to be able to understand what’s going on. Knowledge of the actual facts of Francis’s life will probably have some viewers snickering or scoffing. Because this film was made in 1973, it was evidently somewhat influenced by the hippie movement, and perhaps even targeted to same — it’s also got music composed and performed by Donovan, including the title song. The back of the DVD even says that Francis was “history’s first ‘drop-out.’” Far out, man!

If you’re looking for an accurate historical account of the early lives of St. Francis and St. Clare, this is not the movie for you. Nor is it a scathing indictment of the wealthy Catholic Church; religious dogma does not play a strong role in the narrative at all. Its real value lies in being a lush and artistic (but admittedly not very realistic) portrayal of a god-touched person driven by faith and love of nature to consciously turn away from all that he knows and follow his vision of a spiritually rich life. Because of that, it has potential appeal for monastics of many faiths.

Brother Sun, Sister Moon
Starring Graham Faulkner, Judi Bowker and Alec Guinness as Pope Innocent III
Written by Franco Zeffirelli and Lina Wertmüller
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli
Paramount Pictures, 1973

Another page July 6, 2009

I’ve made a Bibliography page listing some books I like. These will not be reviewed in the blog, although that isn’t to say that books I do review here won’t eventually make it onto the list as well.

Book Review: Practical Wabi Sabi June 6, 2009

“Wabi sabi” is a concept derived from Zen Buddhism. It is both an aesthetic and a way of thinking which emphasizes an appreciation for the world as it is — imperfect, ever-changing and transient. Simon G. Brown’s Practical Wabi Sabi is not about Zen per se, nor is it necessarily concerned with self-help through getting rid of all your stuff. Rather, it is a brief guide to the principles of wabi sabi and how these may be applied to one’s daily life, in particular one’s home environment, regardless of your religious beliefs.

The book opens with a short description of the history of wabi sabi, followed by a section exploring many of its aesthetic and philosophical principles: simplicity, emptiness (as in space), transience, asymmetry, tranquility and naturalness, to name a few. Brown uses specific examples to illustrate how a wabi sabi house and garden which incorporate these principles might appear. While wabi sabi is not what you’d call luxurious, it does not advocate strict practices such as lying on beds of nails, or getting rid of all your cozy blankets — quite the opposite. A wabi sabi house may seem plain and spare, but the goal is greater authenticity and awareness of existing beauty, rather than deprivation or punishment.

Practical Wabi Sabi’s main section covers various rooms and home features one by one and suggests how to bring them into accordance with a wabi sabi mindset, with ideas for decorating, removing unnecessary items and storage. The style evoked is natural, simple, sparse and muted. There is a small section at the end of the book which briefly addresses related topics like meditation, diet and creativity. Many of the practical suggestions offered are similar to those extolled in the so-called “voluntary simplicity” movement. For example, Brown advises readers to paint rooms in muted hues, to use natural fabrics for bedding and clothing and clay or earthenware for dishes, and to have lots of empty space in your home. Good natural lighting or candles is said to be preferable to glaring track lights, and objects and surfaces with texture and “character” are favored over slick, new-looking things.

Using branches, seashells, dried flowers, plants, rocks, even rusty metal objects as objets d’art (arranged in asymmetrical and nonregimented ways) is highly encouraged because such things remind one of imperfection, transience and nature. The idea is, in part, to foster an appreciation of time’s passage, the seasons and the changes they bring, as reflected in the objects surrounding you. From a Pagan standpoint, it can be seen as bringing nature and the raw elements from outdoors directly into your home. Of course, this aesthetic will not suit everyone. Those who are fond of elaborate altars, fancy ritual tools and shelves lined with statues, crystals and bric-a-brac will probably recoil from this approach as being too self-denying and boring.

Overall, the book is mostly about redesigning your living space, but the idea is that doing so in accordance with wabi sabi will also alter your outlook and allow you to focus on what is truly important in your life — whatever that may be. However, what struck me most forcefully about Practical Wabi Sabi is that without the text ever once mentioning the word “mindfulness,” that concept underlies everything Brown discusses, even when he’s talking about painting a room. Zen is a philosophy which stresses mindfulness, however, so this should come as no surprise. It’s just unusual to find this in a Western lifestyle/decorating book.

The book is neither very long nor very dense (just about all of the topics covered are limited to two facing pages) so it is a fast read — perhaps too fast for some people, who might see it as a blithely superficial approach to a thoughtful subject. Here and there Brown makes some dubious statements, such as his assertion that “by introducing a more wabi sabi atmosphere into your home, you may find yourself in a better frame of mind to accept the loss of someone close to you,” which to me seems unduly optimistic. Even the most serene and orderly environment has its limits, after all. Also, his repeated mentioning of macrobiotic diets grew a tad annoying, and the bit about relationships in the third section seemed out of place and the most superficially addressed of all. However, these were all minor quibbles.

While I am personally not interested in Zen Buddhism, I did like this very much, despite its flaws. I recommend this book for fans of voluntary simplicity, novice monastics and others interested in an ascetic approach to one’s home that advocates a keen and honest appreciation of natural beauty and everyday objects, without the sacrifice of either beauty or comfort.

Practical Wabi Sabi
by Simon G. Brown
2007, Caroll & Brown Publishers, Ltd.
United Kingdom, £12.99

Courage (and Acedia) April 24, 2009

Courage is often equated with brave action, and rightly so, but what constitutes “bravery” is a matter of opinion. Many times, whether or not a person has courage is something only he or she knows for certain. Real courage does not demand or even require recognition by other people in order to exist and be of benefit to us. Courage is what helps us sustain ourselves when we are treated unfairly or misunderstood, and while it can indeed be proven by a deliberate action, having courage can also mean simply refusing to back down — or conversely, stepping aside if that’s what’s called for.

While the kind of courage necessary to fight in a war or defend the helpless is good and worthy, we need another kind of courage as well if we are to grow spiritually and do service and honor to our gods, and this kind of courage is the most hard-won of all: refusing to let our most secret, perhaps unacknowledged fears control us. Successfully conquering those fears releases us to dedicate our whole hearts and selves to our work (monastic or otherwise, if that’s the case), whereas letting them rule our actions means that we can give of ourselves only partly. For devotion to mean anything it must be given freely and of our own will, and if fear is running the show then our devotion is incomplete.

Being courageous can be a hit-or-miss thing when you are trying to conquer your fears one by one. For example, I am unreasonably terrified of hornets. I would rather get up and dance half-naked in front of a crowd of people than be shut in a room with even a single hornet flying around in it. It is a fear I have yet to have gotten rid of. I don’t think that makes me a coward, especially since I have gotten up and danced half-naked in front of a crowd before. Other people would rather face a swarm of angry wasps. But courage is relative in this way, and one person’s mortal fear is another person’s “so what?” (And by the way, if someone had told me when I was younger that I would overcome my body hatred to the extent where I was willing to belly dance topless in front of my friends, I’d have laughed in their faces. Does having done this make me courageous? Maybe. I think I’d have been far more so if I’d done it a few years before that.)

That relativity is why relying on other people’s opinions to determine what is or isn’t an expression of courage is so risky. Just as only you can decide if you actually have courage, only you can decide whether or not an action will require you to overcome whatever fears you have about it. This is not always a conscious choice, and perhaps it’s a matter of seconds, like running into the street to drag a child out of traffic, heedless of your own safety. Or it could have been a decision made after much consideration. At any rate, the refusal to give in to fear, especially when that fear is something one has spent a lot of time in denial about, is the true hallmark of a courageous person.

Monastics also have fears which must be overcome — taking up this work doesn’t automatically guarantee that your human foibles vanish overnight. It is no easier to be courageous when you live a contemplative life. Sometimes, that actually makes things harder, especially if you live in a cloistered or isolated environment where opportunities to face some of your fears directly may be few and far between. But honestly identifying your fears and preparing yourself to face them one day, even if that day never comes, counts for a lot. Even just admitting that you have certain fears might require a lot of courage. And whatever else may be said of the gods, I do not believe any of Them look down on people for being afraid of things — but it’s possible They are disappointed when we let our fears govern us. They, more than anyone, can see we are capable of so much more.

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On another note, I’ve recently (finally!) acquired Kathleen Norris’s Acedia and Me, which I’ve mentioned here before. While I’ve only gotten partway through, so far I am really impressed with it. I find it very relevant to my own experience even at certain points in the past when I was not actively striving to live a monastic life. I’ll post my thoughts on the book after I’ve finished it.

Pimping for a new website March 1, 2009

Some friends and I have started writing an online magazine for those who are god-touched spirit-workers, shamans, shamanic practitioners and the like. So far there isn’t anything about monastic life there. However, there’s some overlap with some of the things I’ve been discussing here, so if you’re interested, head on over and check us out:

The Gods’ Mouths

Not Dead, Just Sleeping… February 12, 2009

I apologize for the long silence. I have several ideas stewing in the back of my mind for future posts, but lately I’ve been occupied with helping out some friends, (still) hammering out my clothing issues and getting some writing projects finished. I haven’t had the mental energy left over for the kind of thoughtful post I’d like to write next, and I’ll be traveling next week so I’m not sure when I’ll have something new here.

While I can be garrulous without really saying much of substance, in this blog I’d rather not go on and on about mundanities that will bore what few readers I have. As they say in The Sandman: The Wake, you shouldn’t say anything unless you’ve got something to say.

And yes, I realize that’s the second Sandman reference in as many posts. In addition to being a nun, I’m a comic-book-reading dork.

Addendum: My friends Galina Krasskova and Raven Kaldera have written a book called Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner, which has just been released. Some of you might be interested in this, although be warned that it is likely to be a controversial book in Asatru circles. It is focused on devotional activities rather than rituals or magic, which is why I’m mentioning it here.

Food for Thought January 7, 2009

I recently finished reading Kathleen Norris’s The Cloister Walk. It is half memoir and half meditative account of what it’s like to be a Benedictine oblate, in the monastary from time to time, but not of it. Much of the theology is alien to me as I am not a Christian, but Benedict’s Rule has existed for centuries as a guide for monastics, and today many folks other than Catholics are finding inspiration within it. Among other things, it is a helpful and compassionate guide to living as a true community rather than merely a collection of individuals. And I find that admirable.

Norris’s book is difficult to get through at times since although it’s loosely structured in a Book of Hours-like format, in chronological time it jumps around quite a bit. And since it is part memoir, a good deal of the content has little or nothing to do with monasticism (the author is a poet by profession and tends to wander all over the mental map, as most poets do). But Norris’s friendships with various monks and nuns and her own reflective, thoughful nature have given her a unique perspective on modern monastic life. Take, for example:

Monastic men and women tell me that one question that bites pretty hard in their early years in the monastary is why anone would choose to live this way, deprived of the autonomy and abundance of choice that middle-class Americans take for granted. We’re taught all our lives to “keep our options open,” but a commitment to monastic life puts an end to that. It is not a choice but a call, and often the people who last in a monastary are those who struggle through their early years reminding themselves of that fact.

I found this incredibly heartening, having recently grappled (yet again) with the question of “why am I doing this?” I often have a hard time remembering that for me, too, it was not a choice but a calling. And by “calling” I don’t just meant that my gods told me this is what They wanted. It was also a deep, inexorable soul-pull towards the culmination of action that in my own religious tradition is called wyrd, a recognition that for me, this is the way things ought to be or rather, become.

Elsewhere she writes:

If scarcity makes things more precious, what does it mean to choose the spare world over one in which we are sated with abundance? [...] What would I find in my own heart if the noise of the world were silenced? Who would I be? Who will I be, when loss or crisis or the depredations of time take away the trappings of success, of self-importance, even personality itself?

Reading these bits was electrifying for me. It came along precisely at a moment when I, in the grip of acedia, was desperately and uselessly searching for some kind of banal distraction with which to avoid silencing the noise of my world. I was not born knowing I’d become Loki’s priestess-wife, never felt that one day I would willingly choose this weirdly cloistered existence over the things my parents, my peers and everyone else told me I ought to pursue to supposedly fulfill my life. When the call did arrive, I answered it gladly enough, but that hasn’t made it any easier to lose the things that obstruct my view of where I’m going and want to be eventually.

I realized that I can make vows and take on the veil (symbolically speaking) and commit myself to a more rigorous daily life, but only the silencing of the voices that take my attention from my Beloved can really help me understand who I am and what shape my devotion will take. And I can’t do that if I’m constantly getting involved in useless hobbies that don’t serve any practical purpose, or getting caught up in issues that have nothing to do with my religious commitment. Just because I haven’t got a cloister to retire into, and just because my god is one who requires neither chastity nor self-restraint nor fierce asceticism from His followers doesn’t mean I’m exempt from the need to improve my life’s signal to noise ratio.

So reading this book, while sometimes boring or annoying, provided me with some things to chew on as regards my own life and novice state. I’d owned my copy for some months but never gotten around to reading it until a month or so ago, and when I did I found that, as so often happens, it was exactly what I needed to hear.