Star Dreamer

Star Dreamer
Nebula Weaver
From Her, all are born
Once Lonely Dreamer
Life's Great Weaver
From Her Loom, we are born

Star Weaver
Nebula Creator
She who loves us all
Bright-eyed Dreamer
Ever-shining Weaver
From Her Loom, fate rules all

Oh Lady My Lady

Oh Lady my Lady
In You I find my strength
Oh Lady my Lady
In You I find my peace
Oh Lady my Lady
In You I find my truth
I am born of Your love

Summer Rain

 My Lady's love is the rain
and my soul a summer day
dust dry under a too hot sun
The cleansing rain falls
allowing my soul to bloom
beautiful in Her eyes

Psalm to the Great Mother

Note: Based off Psalm 23

With You, Great Mother, there is nothing I lack
For my soul knows the sweetness of Your love
Even when I walk in the valley of despair
I will choose courage over fear: love over hate
For You are with me
Your hand & Your voice
Comfort and inspire me
You guide me as I walk this path
For I walk with You once more
Surely Your wisdom & mercy will bless me
All of my lives on this earth
For I am united with You once more

I Walk With My Lady

I walk with my Lady
Under trees so green
I walk with my Lady
And my heart is free
She holds my soul
I'm finally whole

The Forest

I walk in the Forest
Home of my Heart
The song of birds
the scent of earth
The feel of life all around
I walk in the Forest
My Lady walks with me
And Her love is all around

I walk in the Forest
But fires burned my home
The birds are gone
only the scent of ash
and death is all around
I walk in the Forest
and though I may despair
My Lady's still beside me
And the promise of life's in the air

I walk in the Forest
Where life begins again
the Trees have sprouted
Seeds safe from even fire's wrath
The birds not yet returned
Yet the song of frogs fills their place
I walk in the Forest
I thank my Lady for this blessing
As Her laughter fills the air

Prayer for Troubled Times

Oh Holy Mother and Queen
I kneel before you
during these troubled times
And ask that You bring healing
for those who are ill
that You bring hope
That soon we'll know better days
Ask that You bring peace
both for those who have left
and those left behind

Personal Shield Ritual

 This spell creates a shield to keep any nasty energy from your space. It might not protect against anything being sent at you, i.e. curses, but it will protect you against the nastiness people who aren't energy trained (and some who are...) like to throw around unthinkingly. It works by catching the nastiness then grounding it into the earth where it gets transmuted into healthy energy. It is loosely biased off of circle casting and the lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram. Finally while I now do this with a wand I have done this with just my hand.

Note: Quotations indicate lines to speak and notes will be in parentheses.

1.I do this ritual standing in front of my altar I'm not sure how well this will work sitting but if it works for you go for it)

2. Say "This is me" while holding your right hand/wand over your breast (I'm right handed but if you're left handed then feel free to use that hand instead)

3. Move that hand down pointing to your feet and say "These are my feet" Visualize your grounding cord bringing energy up your feet.

4. Move hand up to your head pointing skyward and say "This is my head" Visualize your (skying?) cord bringing energy down through your head.

5. Bring hand back down to chest then move your hand out Infront of you and say "this is the boundary of my space." Visualize the earth and sky energy flowing out from you (don't use your own energies for shields.) and into a shield Infront of you (if you want to you can draw a pentagram or other symbol here)

6. Keep hand stretched make a quarter turn then repeat by bringing hand back to chest then pushing out and saying "This is the boundary of my space"

7. Do this two more times making a quarter turn each time until you face your original direction. Bring hand back in for the last time then bow.

8. Next point your hand back down to the earth and say "I ask the energy of Earth to come and fill this space."

9. Pause a moment then point your hand back up to the sky and say "I ask the energy of Sky to come and fill this space."

10. Wait a few moments until the space feels full enough (if you're not good at sensing energy it generally takes me 3-4 slow breaths to feel full). Bow deeply (you can say thank you in addition to or instead of bowing)

Removing the Shield

I find this shield fades away on its own after a day or so but if you do want to remove it for whatever reason then simply ground the energies back into Earth and Sky.

About Danu

 Among my people, she is our one and only God, our creator, our teacher, our healer, our queen. Originally, we had various religious/cultural groups that had many names and depictions of Her. As such one of our most used epithets is She of a thousand names and faces. As our different groups interacted and formed one large religion, however, three central aspects became central, the Mother, the Queen, and the Holy Mystery.

The Mother - She who is our creator and nurturer. The same concept as the mother goddesses you can find on earth. Her symbol is either a tree or a piece of fruit with animals eating some (the fruit it's self is Her creative aspect and the animals eating the fruit is the nurturing aspect). These can also be combined.

The Queen - She who both creates and upholds Her laws. Sovereignty, ruling, or justice goddesses are probably the closest comparison. Her symbol is the Sun and the Moon on either side of a line (if combining this aspect with the Mother then they'll be on either side of the Mother's tree). Simpler symbols would be simply a sun and/or moon (if both they are often combined in some way).

Holy Mystery - She who cannot be seen or understood. Any goddess of the occult or sacred mysteries would be a good comparison. A couple common symbols are a dark veil (representing the hidden) or a starry sky (light in the darkness).

After this people tend to worship other aspects as needed, which we call Faces. Lady of the waters for fisherfolk or sailors or the Lady of the Harvest for farmers. As part of our training a priestess is expected to find four more faces that (along with the main three) form the center of our personal practice. For me these are:

The Dreamer - She who is our inspiration, our muse, and holds all potential in Her hand. She is the Lady who dreamed of Her creation and it was her love of it's beauty and longing to see it come to life that led Her to create (or so one of our creation myths state)

The Wanderer - The Lady of Fate and the Right Path. She who both guides us and walks with us. An unusual Face for a priestess but I was mostly a wandering healer after I finished training and then there are all the lives I've spent away from my home.

The Healer - She who brings healing and ease of pain.

The Lady of Duality and Balance - She who is what happens when the One becomes Two but also when the Two become One and yet Many. Dark and light, black and white, Life and Death all balanced but she's also the space between these (some say it's the only space She truly exists) so she's the dawn or dusk, the greys (and every other color), the moment where the soul is neither quite alive or dead. This aspect tends to be mostly focused on by mystics (which I wouldn't consider myself) and I've never been sure why this aspect called me.

While we do have names for Her we tend to use titles (and to be fair I'm as likely to call her my Lady as I am Danu). These names are not pronounceable by humans and we tend to not use them around outsiders anyway. And she wanted a name for me to use and chose Danu. I call her that because she requested it of me, I'm not entirely sure why either. With that said this statue of Danu does vaguely remind me of our most widespread icons of Her so I'm guessing this is why. Also Danu has the same number of syllables as Thea (a name I used to use for her), I could see Her picking it so I could change the name easily.

As far as Her personality goes: she is friendly and approachable overall but this can vary depending on which Face She is showing (ie the Mother is much more approachable than the Queen). We view Her as omnipotent but not omniscient (except maybe as the Lady of Mystery... that's actually one of our biggest religious debates), She learns and grows with Her children.

I, like the rest of my people do venerate other spirits (I am an animist after all) but, like mainstream Catholics, my worship is focused on My Lady Danu, Mother, Queen, Holy Mystery.