PRAYER BEADS

PRAYER BEADS

All Mother, All Knower, Soft Speaker, Silence Keeper, Spindle Wielder, Wise Watcher; You who know much, but speak little, You who spin the battle from afar, Distaff Keeper, Keeper of the Hearth,  to thee do I give Honor, and to thy Handmaidens.

I let the beads slip through my fingers at the names of the Handmaidens: Vor, Saga, Hlin, Syn, Sjofn, Gna, Fulla, Lofn, Vor, Eir, Snotra, Gefion. I think of each Handmaiden as I speak her name. I do this twice before I come again to a space between the groups of beads and in that space I repeat my prayer to Frigga.
Alternately, I intone the runes, one by one, along the length of the beads, interspersing with runic charms or poetry.
Through this, the beads are charged and this charge is created also within me. When I need these beads for active prayer, that is, for a specific working, they are ready and so am I. The link is forged and strengthened through my prayerbead meditations.
I also use my beads to get ready for spellwork. I sit with them to empower long passages I will need later during a spell I’m planning. Sometimes I write my own spells, sometimes I memorize from other sources such as from the Poetic Edda, from the Havamal. Prayerbeads help in the memorization process. In writing your own spells and prayers and in reciting them in a meditative state, you sometimes tap into your soul’s purpose for this lifetime.
While using beads, you may cross from prayer into spell work, having purified your space, set up your ve’ or holy circle, working up energy and signing your intent. Sometimes the two, prayer and spellwork, are inseparable.

My runic prayerbeads.

A Mother bead at the beginning, larger than the others.

(This bead lets me know when I’ve completed one round.)

After this are 5 sets of 24 each.

24 because there are 24 runes.

5 is the number for Mankind.

5 is also the number of active order and control of will.

The total number of beads is 120. Plus the Mother Bead.

This is a multiple of 3, which is always powerful.

If you divide 120 by 3, you get 40.

40 is 5, (points of the pentagram, five senses of man),

multiplied by 8, (spokes of the wheel, paths of power,

runes in an aett, 8 winds, 8 legs of Odin’s horse,

8 is the number for travel between the worlds).

In the number 8, you have 2X4, echo of the 24 runes in Futhark.

The number 12 is the Teutonic number of wholeness.

There are said to be 12 Gods in that system of magic.

There are 12 palaces (possibly corresponding to the astrological wheel)

12 is the number of power brought into earthly being (3X4).

This number 12, multiplied by 10, gives the total 120.

10 is the number of completion, where one thing ends and another begins.

10 reduces to 1, the prime source.

Reduce the number 120, you have 12,

Reduce again; you have 3, the number for Mother who gives form to Spirit.

The third rune, Thurisaz is the driving force behind successful rune magic.

Daunting? Your string of beads can be any number you count meaningful.

There are no wrong numbers.

(A small chaplet of 24 serves me well in RuneSong: Fu,Fa,Fi,Fe,Fo

as well as for created mantras having to do with the working of the day.)

Add one bead to a string and wear it to remind you, Center. Breathe. Aum.


Author: Keldarune
http://cozycauldron.blogspot.com/
May be reproduced without change with this notice