{"id":12608,"date":"2021-11-25T18:28:05","date_gmt":"2021-11-26T01:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12608"},"modified":"2021-11-25T18:30:28","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T01:30:28","slug":"our-thanksgiving-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12608","title":{"rendered":"Our Thanksgiving Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"M. and I have this little tradition where every Thanksgiving we read aloud (people who eat with us have to participate) Gary Snyder’s poem “Prayer for the Great Family.”((He says it was inspired by a Mohawk prayer, but you can feel his Pagan-ish form of Zen Buddhism in it too.)) You can say “in our minds so be it” in unison if you like.<\/p>\n

Prayer for the Great Family<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Gratitude to Mother Earth, sailing through night and day\u2014
\nand to her soil: rich, rare and sweet
\nin our minds so be it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gratitude to Plants, the sun-facing, light-changing leaf
\nand fine root-hairs; standing still through wind
\nand rain; their dance is in the flowering spiral grain
\nin our minds so be it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gratitude to Air, bearing the soaring Swift and silent
\nOwl at dawn. Breath of our song
\nclear spirit breeze
\nin our minds so be it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gratitude to Wild Beings, our brothers, teaching secrets,
\nfreedoms, and ways; who share with us their milk;
\nself-complete, brave and aware
\nin our minds so be it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gratitude to Water: clouds, lakes, rivers, glaciers;
\nholding or releasing; streaming through all
\nour bodies salty seas
\nin our minds so be it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gratitude to the Sun: blinding pulsing light through
\ntrunks of trees, through mists, warming caves where
\nbears and snakes sleep\u2014 he who wakes us\u2014
\nin our minds so be it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gratitude to the Great Sky
\nwho holds billions of stars\u2014 and goes yet beyond that\u2014
\nbeyond all powers, and thoughts and yet is within us\u2014
\nGrandfather Space. The Mind is his Wife.
\nso be it.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Snyder has been influential in my life since I was in high school, as a poet and in a sort of “What would Gary do?” kind of way.((And we went to the same college, for what that is worth.)) He is an old man now, 91, I think.<\/a> He won’t be around forever. I would walk in his funeral procession to the pyre, if I could, but I probably will not find out in time to dash to California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M. and I have this little tradition where every Thanksgiving we read aloud (people who eat with us have to participate) Gary Snyder’s poem “Prayer for the Great Family.”((He says it was inspired by a Mohawk prayer, but you can feel his Pagan-ish form of Zen Buddhism in it too.)) You can say “in our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104,75,412,115,413,48,296,232,12],"class_list":["post-12608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-buddhism","tag-california","tag-elements","tag-food","tag-gratitude","tag-nature-religion","tag-pagan-ish","tag-poetry","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3hm","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11375,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11375","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":0},"title":"“These Are Dangerous Books”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Dale Pendell, erudite writer of \"the poison path,\" author of Pharmako\/Poeia, Pharmako\/Gnosis, and Pharmako\/Dynamis, died two years ago, but I only recently found a video of his memorial service. I am starting this video at the 30-minute mark, because that is when Gary Snyder comes on. Quite simply, I think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animism\"","block_context":{"text":"animism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/pharmakopoeia-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":653,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=653","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":1},"title":"Llewellyn Takes on a School Board","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Llewellyn, the largest New Age\/Pagan\/astrological publisher in the US, has pushed a North Carolina school board into a corner. When the board said that \"religious groups\" could distribute \"scripture\" in the school's, Llewellyn's publicist decided that the works of Silver Ravenwolf would qualify as well. Jason Pitzl-Waters has the details.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3815,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3815","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":2},"title":"Survey on Pagan Prayer","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Evidently it's the season for surveys. This one comes from researchers at the University of Warwick.\u00a0 I recognize one of the names, a sociologist of religion who has published in The Pomegranate. If I take it, I will say that I do not engage in petitionary prayer very often, preferring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8498,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8498","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":3},"title":"Books and Movies for a Pagan Mindset","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been thinking that I needed to add a new category of reviews \u2014 not just books etc. deliberately focused on Paganism (which to my mind automatically includes polytheism), but those that promote a Pagan mindset without coming out and saying it. Go ahead and say it: Pagan-ish. My\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"movies\"","block_context":{"text":"movies","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11594,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11594","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":4},"title":"Dior Dresses the Fair Folk","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This promotional film has me thinking of the special \"Paganism, Art, and Fashion\" issue of The Pomegranate, guest-edited by Caroline Tully, University of Melbourne, and coming very soon Or at least it is the very object correlative of \"Pagan-ish,\" which is how I will label it.","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10263,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10263","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":5},"title":"A Pagan-ish Easter Ceremony in Poland","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"R\u0119kawka is a celebration held in Krakow the Tuesday after Easter, so loosely speaking, it is a spring equinox festival. My friend in Krakow calls it \"a civic holiday with Pagan roots.\" R\u0119kawka is also one name for the tumulus (artificial mound) in the video. The celebration has long included\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"equinox\"","block_context":{"text":"equinox","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=equinox"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12608"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12615,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608\/revisions\/12615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}