Hymn to the Primordials
O primordial forces of the universe,
Potent, nameless and unfathomable,
Receive my prayer.
O vast void of darkness and empty space
In which the All of existence is held
You are nothing and contain everything
I bow to you.
O spinning stars, crucibles of alchemical transformation
Releasing radiant light across aeons of time
You seethe with the cosmic heat of creation
I bow to you.
O massive bodies of metal, mineral and ice
Drifting, hurtling, dancing, circling
You are each an ancient world unto yourself
I bow to you.
O moon in orbit, close but ever farther
Battered, shadowed, wreathed in clouds of dust
You have been with us from the beginning
I bow to you.
O world beneath my feet, with iron heart
And bones that crack and shift, moving mountains
You pull us close with inexorable surety
I bow to you.
O watery abyss that cloaks the earth
Boundless, black, an echo of Beyond
Your cold depths harbor the unknown
I bow to you.
O winds that swiftly stream across the skies
Storm-bringers, cloud-movers, rain-bearers
You are the rhythmic breathing of the planet
I bow to you.
O molten rock erupting from below
Lightning bolts and blazing conflagrations
You are the fires that unmake and make new
I bow to you.
O elemental constituents of matter
Infinitesimal galaxies hidden in all things
Your ambiguities sustain reality
I bow to you.
O primordial forces of the universe,
Potent, nameless and unfathomable,
Receive my prayer.
*******
To Nerthus
O great Mother of the mire
whose body is the black, wet earth
whose roots plunge deep, embracing stone and bone
whose night-dark pools swallow what is offered
whose fungal proliferation consumes and regenerates
You are the source and end of all life
I call to You who are older than Your names,
vaster than Your forms,
stronger than gravity
I call to You with reverence, awe, and holy terror,
O devouring and fecund goddess
By branch and bark,
by moss and mold,
by spore and seed,
by every crawling thing beneath your skin
I pray to You
O great Mother of the mire
whose body is the black, wet earth
*******
To Dionysos Ampelios
You are the vine and the blood of the vine
The warmth of the sun the leaves unfurled
Yours too is the swell of the buds on the vine
Vital god of the dance and the shout
We call to you now in the humming of bees
With honey-slick throats we call to you now
We welcome your touch in the press of the fruit
The juice bursting forth from within
We feel you arise as we pour out the wine
Through soil and soul your blessings unfold
We throw back our heads as we swallow the wine
And rejoice as your gifts are unleashed
*******
A prayer before meals
I eat of the earth
I drink of the land
I honor the ground
on which I stand
I honor the life
that feeds my life
And I’ll feed the soil
when I die
*******
A prayer to fire before devotional practice
Welcome, fire
You who are every fire
from smallest spark to wildest conflagration,
the fire of the sun and stars
the fire inside the earth
the fire lying dormant in all things.
Thank you for bringing your light and life
to this holy work.
*******
Kindred Species Adorations
Mushrooms, I adore you
Woody, long-lived mushrooms consuming old trees, I adore you
Damp, fleshy mushrooms swelling up from the forest floor after rain, I adore you
Brilliantly-colored gelatinous fungi adorning stumps, I adore you
Mycelial strands tightly woven beneath crumbling bark, I adore you
Devouring mold, softly and slowly unmaking, I adore you
Strange lichens, wondrous chimaeras, in your multiplicity of forms, I adore you
Myxomycetes, amorphous intelligences, seething, spreading, bubbling up, I adore you
Feathery ferns, horsetails and clubmosses, bearing the spores of the primeval world, I adore you
Finely-furred bryophytes blanketing ground, trunk, stone, I adore you
Ancient granite bedrock and boulder, shaped and carried by glaciers, I adore you
Crystalline veins of quartz sparkling in the sun, I adore you
Translucent sheets of mica like shards of moonlight, I adore you
Pale flowers of ghost pipe nodding on pale stems, I adore you
Blushing ladyslippers, precious orchid of the northern woodland, I adore you
Savory sweetfern, verdant sensory delight, I adore you
Tender-leaved ephemerals – trillium and orpine, violet and lily – I adore you
Stinging nettles, fierce riparian defenders, I adore you
Sarracenia, insect oubliette, and sundew, jewel of the bog, I adore you
Lanky cattails rising from the marsh, bursting with downy seeds, I adore you
Bulrush and sedge, ubiquitous grasses of the swamp, I adore you
Fragrant cedar, extending lacy fingers through the canopy, I adore you
Dark hemlocks gathering in groves, I adore you
Slender birches the color of snow, I adore you
Tall pines thickly coursing with sap, I adore you
Tamaracks turning gold and copper, I adore you
Speckled alders bending over streams, I adore you
Witch hazel with your ragged autumn blooms, I adore you
Strong oaks nourishing the forest, I adore you
Squirrel and chipmunk, scurrying and foraging, I adore you
Mink and ermine, slyly slinking along the ground, I adore you
Handsome, ruddy-faced foxes, I adore you
Surly skunk, shy possum and clever raccoon, hungry night prowlers, I adore you
Wise beaver deftly remaking the landscape, I adore you
Gentle deer delicately threading through the trees, I adore you
Woolly caterpillars, banded in black and umber, I adore you
Spiders in vivid ornament, patiently awaiting your prey, I adore you
Sphinx moths hovering on silver wings at dusk, I adore you
Fireflies lighting tiny torches in the darkness, I adore you
First bats of summer, fleetingly glimpsed against the stars, I adore you
Many voices of the spring chorus, liminal frogs, I adore you
Bonded mallards, swimming serenely together, I adore you
Murmuring doves alighting to the earth, I adore you
Bold blue jays, arriving in great flocks, I adore you
Little birds of all kinds, flitting, feeding, perching, singing, I adore you
Gangs of raucous crows and silent, solitary ravens, I adore you
Broad-winged hawks in shades of dappled brown, I adore you
Madly laughing woodpecker crowned in vibrant red, I adore you
Loons calling out eerily in the dawn mist, I adore you
Heron standing regal in the water, I adore you
Massive black-winged vultures circling the sky, I adore you
All you kindred species who share with me this land, this place, this home, I adore you
*******
Crow Song
From the oak tree
What do you see?
Crow, Crow
In your black eye
All things must die
Crow, Crow
Beyond the stars
Dark against dark
Crow, Crow
Come the full moon
Grant me a boon
Crow, Crow
Hark to my words
Carrion bird
Crow, Crow
I’ll pay the toll
Silver and gold
Crow, Crow
Guardian, guide
Where shall we fly?
Crow, Crow
*******
The Old Man of the Woods (for Odin)
Past the wall of gray stones, through the trees,
In a house made of spells, full of books,
With a light in his eye and his mind,
There he waits – the Old Man of the Woods.
Though the cupboards are usually bare,
It is knowledge and magic he hoards –
Slakes his thirst at the Well, and then sups
On the power of letters and words.
Will you drift off to sleep in your bed,
Just to find yourself there at his door,
Seeking answers, alone in the night,
To the mysteries down at the core?
Just one page from his books could reveal
All the secrets the world hides within.
They are printed on leaves from the Tree;
They are bound in such curious skin.
But he leads you far deeper inside,
With a hint of the wolf in his gait,
And a certainty beats in your chest
That you’re following him to your fate.
Up a flight of impossible stairs
Lies an opulent room in the sky,
Where he views all that is and will be
With a canny and avian eye.
Here he offers you water or wine –
Wine will send you back home to your life.
But the water is drawn from the Roots;
It cuts open your mind like a knife.
Only those who survive this ordeal
Will return to this place at the seams,
To be taught to decipher the signs
Of the language of mem’ry and dream.
In a forest familiar yet strange,
Where the crows speak in riddles and rhymes,
And the stars spell out patterns above –
The Old Man of the Woods bides his time.
Bird Spirit Land 