“Who do you pray to?” I asked my dear friend.
They’d just mentioned they had been praying more. My question made me realize there are many options.
Here are some deities, forces, spirits, entities I have prayed to over the years and lately.
- Mother of God
- Parent Earth
- Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi
- Harriet Tubman
- Jagaddhatri–gravity, protector of the universe
- my mom
- my mom’s mom
- ancestors
- art ancestors
- transcestors
- spirits of the land where I’m currently
- spirits of the land where I’m from
- Ming’s ancestors
- spirits of the water
- the moon
- the sky which is my best friend
- a tree
- myself
- my friends who have died
- the spirit of a house and the land the house was on
- a broad notion of God as a force of energy
- the universe
- Great Goddess
- fertility deities
- Durga
- Jaguar
- Sekhmet
- Inanna
- Astarte
- Shakti
- a few friends
- Snake Mother
- the sun
- Love
conversation
“Who have you seen me pray to?” I asked Ming.
“Can I have some examples?” Ming asked.
“Harriet Tubman, Sri Sarada Devi, the universe,” I answered. “My mom, her mom.”
“Do you pray to hummingbirds?” Ming asked.
“Well,” I said. “I definitely talk to hummingbirds.”
risk love
What is prayer? Usually there’s some aggrandizement. I’m connecting with a mystical entity or life force. I think they have something I don’t have, like a largeness or a power. But really, we are all one.
Prayer is a way of connecting and experimenting with relationship. If I hook up with this particular flavor of energy to worship, give thanks, ask for help, or offer up some part of me, what will happen? How will it change me?
Faith has transformed my life from silent and fearful to telling the truth and doing what I’m here on earth to do. Loving my own body allows me a stability that I’d never felt before. Loving my own body allows me to re-open to the possibility of the sacred and ask for help. Who I pray to is determined by where I feel power and what directions I want to move toward.
As always, it could be pretend and that’s fine. If all I did was use prayer to organize my desires and calm myself with the rhythm of my own incantation, I’ll take it. Always I would rather try things and risk love, than stay rigid in fearful distance.
beautiful
I really like the artist Anthony Hurd in Albuquerque, and this is a recent one. Speaking of “who do you pray to?” I would pray to these lovers.
3 replies on “who do you pray to?”
Questions for Discussion
Who do you pray to ?
What do you pray to ?
What form is your prayers ?
What is something you seek to increase in your life, or diminish ?
What art or artist would you amplify ?
I love you !
*giggles*
[…] done person-ing. I need to go wild and live in a way that I see starlight every clear night. Mother God gave that gift to me. You know how sometimes a gift can contain a […]