Earlier this year, I read a blog post by Barbara Ardinger about “handy prayers” in which you use your fingers as your own built in prayer beads. I fell in love with the idea and shared it with our Goddess Magic community. I wrote some new prayers and other people came up with their own five finger prayers and I put them together in a small booklet for everyone to share. The booklet and a companion video explaining how to print it and how to use the prayers are accessible via this week’s newsletter.
Barbara calls this a “handy” practice for prayer and I think of them as “five finger prayers” or “five finger spells.” Connected to the idea of our own bodies as sacred space, we are invited to consider that our own hands can be our “prayer beads” or malas, no special tools required. For a five finger prayer, use a prayer that splits into five lines or use a series of five affirmations or statements and move through them using your fingers to keep track of where you are. You may touch your fingertips together as you say each line (silently or aloud), or you may choose to rest your hand against a surface and tap each finger down lightly as you say the prayer or series. You may also choose to add a sixth element and open your hand for that one. Or, if you are using your thumb to count/keep track against your other finger–tapping thumb to each finger in turn for four statements–you can then open your hand for the fifth line.
These are prayers we can touch, that we can literally hold in our hands.
Resources:
- #30DaysofGoddess daily practice homepage
- Goddess Magic community
- Free Creative Spirit Circle access
- This week’s newsletter
