EarthSpirit was one of the co-sponsoring groups for International Global Prayer Day, an event created by Grandmothers of the Sacred We, which is an organization founded by several Grandmothers (and Great-Grandmothers) from several different countries and spiritual traditions, with the intent of promoting world peace, understanding and respect. Andras and Donovan Arthen represented our community in this international Zoom event, and what follows is their statement and prayer.
I come with heart in hand
I come with peace in mind
I come with soul on fire
We are Donovan Arthen and Andras Arthen, and we join you from our homes in the hills of western Massachusetts. We bring with us the pagan traditions of the indigenous peoples of Galicia and Scotland that have come to us through our blood and through our teachers before us, whose ancestors before them learned from the mountains, trees, and storms, as do we now.
We are honored to be invited to be with this group of wisdom keepers of so many generations.
In recent days we have seen so much struggle across the world, so much pain, so much wounding and illness. But this is not new. It is the poisonous harvest of a long history of greed, which places the few above the many, and ignores the deep connection that all beings share.
As people who are striving to preserve the Indigenous spiritual traditions of Europe, we are very aware that this is a poison that has been spread all over the world by some of our own European ancestors. Those who embraced a religion that claimed ownership of the one Truth and rejected all others. Those who burned their own roots and tore holes in their hearts before they ever left their shores. Those who destroyed and forgot the traditions that connected them with the land that gave them birth, and persecuted into hiding those in their own families who refused to follow them.
To truly heal the wounds of this tragic legacy, European descendants must recognize the violent acts committed by these relatives of ours, and take action to remedy the harm that they caused and that we have benefited from. We must also look back to the roots that tie us to our Mother, and remember and embrace the traditions of our more ancient ancestors, so that we, too, can walk next to our cousins who continue to hold the old ways, the ways that bring healing, the ways that bring peace.
This is a time to listen deeply to our connection with our Mother, the Earth, so that we can give voice to wisdom that most human ears have long forgotten how to hear. It is time for those who have loudly spoken for so long to listen, and reflect on the voices and songs that are struggling to be heard.
The wind carries the stories of those who have been hidden, and those who have been buried under greed-disguised-as-progress, and it is time for us to raise our voices in song and shout alike, so that the bones of the Earth might echo with the rhythms of justice and of healing.
So that all peoples may find the endurance for the healing work ahead, we offer this prayer of peace and strength:
Power of raven be yours,
Power of eagle be yours,
Power of storm.
Goodness of sea be yours,
Goodness of earth be yours,
Goodness of sky.
Power of moon be yours,
Power of sun be yours,
Power of sea be yours,
Power of stars.
Yours be the unyielding course of the river,
Yours be the howling voice of the wind,
Yours be the fire that guides the way,
Yours be the strength of the stone,
May the deep peace of the running waves be with you,
May the deep peace of the flowing air be with you,
May the deep peace of the shining stars be with you,
May the deep peace of the quiet earth be with you,
May the circle of Earth and Sky hold you
as you rise, and fall, and rise again
In this place and every place,
On this day and every day.
As it was, as it is,
As it ever shall be
With the ebb and the flow, as it ever shall be.