Do Pagans Pray?

The National Day of Prayer is coming up on Thursday. Patheos senior editors have a site-wide emphasis on the topic of prayer, and one of the questions they asked was “do Pagans pray?”

As with virtually everything else dealing with Pagans and Paganism, the only completely honest answer is that some do and some don’t. We are nothing if not varied and individualistic and we have a strong aversion to anything resembling orthodoxy.

That said, as a participant in this community for over 20 years my observation is that the vast majority of Pagans do pray.

Prayer is one of the cornerstones of my own Pagan practice (the others are meditation and making offerings). I pray formally four times every day: first thing in the morning, before lunch, before dinner, and before bed. I pray informally as necessary. Some days that’s many times, other days it’s just a few, or none.

Prayer is a near-universal human practice, something done in virtually all religions. As we approach the National Day of Prayer, let’s take a look at the practice of prayer from a modern Pagan perspective.

Prayer is talking to the Gods

Volumes have been written on the theology of prayer from many different perspectives in many different religions. But for all that prayer can be deep and mysterious, it’s really very simple.

Prayer is talking to the Gods.

We begin by calling to one or more of the many Gods. My last prayer of the day always begins “Cernunnos, Lord of the Animals and Lord of the Hunt…” We call Them by name, by title, by epithet. We list Their virtues and recount Their mighty deeds. They know who They are – we need to remind ourselves who we’re talking to.

We offer thanksgiving for Their blessings, Their aid, and Their presence in our lives. We speak words of devotion – again, as much for our benefit as for Theirs.

We ask for what we need. They may intervene on our behalf. They may point us toward a solution we had previously overlooked. Or They may gently – or not so gently – let us know that what we ask is something we’re perfectly capable of doing for ourselves.

Prayer is expressing your deepest thoughts and feelings

I pray as a polytheist, as one who worships and works with several of the many Gods. But some Pagans are pantheists, duotheists, or non-theists. They may not pray exactly the same as I do, but they still pray.

People occasionally ask me “who do I pray to?” My answer is always the same: “just pray.”

It’s one thing to rattle off some consumerist wish list. It’s another thing entirely to express the desires of your heart. What is your greatest concern? What is your deepest need? Speak it – give it breath.

I do not believe in praying to “the universe.” But I do believe that genuine prayers will be heard, whether by a God, an ancestor, or another spirit. And even if the only person who hears your prayer is you, that’s still a good and helpful thing.

Approach the Gods by relationship, not by function. If you’re wondering who to pray to, pray to your God, not the God of this or that. But if you don’t have a God you worship on a regular basis, or if you’re not sure there are any Gods, just pray.

Prayer works best as a regular practice

A Methodist minister I used to know said that most people treat prayer like a spare tire. They don’t think about it for long periods of time, then when they get in trouble they dig it out and hope it has enough air in it to get them home. The Gods can be gracious and it’s better to pray in an emergency than to do nothing, but prayer works best when it’s done as part of a regular spiritual practice.

When we pray, we ask our Gods to come to us. When we pray, we draw nearer to Them. Prayer brings us closer to our Gods. When we’re closer to Them and when we’re regularly in Their presence, we become more like Them. And when we become more God-like, we find that our deepest thoughts and feelings become less about the whims of popular culture and more about the values and virtues of our Gods.

This takes time, and it takes regular, consistent practice.

If prayer isn’t already a regular part of your day, make it so.

Prayer can be scripted or extemporaneous

There is no one right way to pray. My morning prayer is completely scripted – it’s the first thing in the morning and it’s good to not have to think about what I’m going to pray. My last prayer at night has a consistent framework, but other than the invocations it’s mostly extemporaneous: giving thanks for good things that happened that day, asking for guidance and assistance on the things I need to do tomorrow, and whatever is on my heart at the time.

I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian church who taught that scripted prayer was just meaningless words. As with so much else, they were wrong about that. If we write them, scripted prayers allow us to think in advance about exactly what we want to say. If someone else writes them, they help us approach our Gods in ways we may not have considered on our own. If they are very old prayers, they connect us to a tradition of those who knew the same Gods and promoted the same virtues.

Use your own words, use someone else’s words, or use the words that come to you in the moment. Just pray.

Spells are not prayers (but spells may include prayers)

This is really a different question, but I occasionally see Pagans and witches say something like “spells are just prayers in another form.” This is usually an expression of the well-meaning but ultimately wrong idea that deep down all religions are the same. They aren’t. Different religions have different foundational assumptions, different goals, and different methods. Different is good, but different is different.

A spell is a magical working, an attempt to, in the words of Aleister Crowley, create change in conformance with will. Spells typically involve aligning correspondences (“this is like that, therefore this will influence that”), directing energy, or consorting with spirits, to manifest or achieve a targeted goal. That’s very different from reverently asking your Gods to provide what you need.

Still, spells may include prayers – mine usually do. I do the work myself, and then I ask my Gods to add Their magic to mine to make the spell even more powerful. They often do, particularly if I’m working magic for something They want me to do in the first place.

It is good to pray

In this country, prayer is often – and incorrectly – assumed to be Christian prayer. But Pagans were praying long before Christianity existed. They prayed to Zeus and Athena, to Freya and Odin, to Lugh and the Morrigan. They prayed to their ancestors and to spirits of Nature.

Prayer is talking to the Gods. Prayer is expressing the deepest yearnings of our hearts.

Prayer is a near-universal human practice.

It is good to pray.