My Own History With Prayer Beads

Walking to and from high school every day, I prayed the Rosary. To Our Lady of Walsingham. In Latin. Yes, I was an unusual Anglo-Catholic teenager who stuck out like a sore thumb in a Fundagelical Independent Babdiss high school, but I covered a lot of ground in a relatively short period of time this way, did a lot of praying, developed concentration (and, in hind-sight, trance skills) as well as losing some 75 lbs. in doing so. Since I was walking while praying, I learned to coördinate my breath and my steps with the phrases of the prayers in a natural rhythm.

After being introduced to the Jesus Prayer a few years later, I became particularly attached to this devotional form of the Eastern Orthodox Churches. In the Greek form (komvoskini, κομποσκοίνι), it is simply a hundred knots for repetitions of the Jesus Prayer. I prayed it in English, French, Spanish, Greek, Latin, and Old Church Slavonic (the Russians, BTW, use 106 knots). Br. (now Fr.) Ælred at St. Gregory's Benedictine Abbey, seeing that I used the little set I had made for myself assiduously, gave me the Greek-style prayer rope that he had made and used. I long treasured that personal gift.

This is very much the same concept as the Hindu (and later Buddhist) 108-bead mala: using the beads to count the number of mantras one has repeated silently or aloud. The "power beads" fashion craze a few years ago was a big help: easy to get and easy to carry with you.

My father, despite having a radically different religious mindset, realized what a useful tool this could be, too. So we made two different sets of beads for him: one with round faux turquoise beads, the other genuine lapis—and he used these for "making his confessions" (read: "affirmations") with Bible verses. He still has them and uses them.

I used to make precious stone, glass, and wooden sets of prayer beads for people. Nowdays, I mostly just grab the ball of hemp twine I have, cut off a section, knot it ("granny knots" or the traditional "rosary bead" knots), and get on with it.

My Current Practices

There is always the straightforward method of the Hindus, Buddhists, and the Eastern Orthodox: take a simple string of beads and use them to count off your affirmations, mantras, prayers, or spells—whether in symbolic multiples or not. As an example, after interviewing for the job that brought me out here to California back in 2000, every morning and every evening, I'd grab my knotted hemp string, and do a mile around my neighborhood in El Paso both praying and affirming for "the perfect apartment for me in Silicon Valley." I daresay I got it, and lived mostly quite happily there for just over six years (save for a short period of the batshit-crazy, mutually abusive neighbors from Hell next door). I still thank the Gods for that apartment every time I think about it.

The Dominican Marian Rosary is unusual in two ways:  first, it is made up of sections called "decades" beginning with an Our Father (The Lord's Prayer) followed by ten Hail Marys.  Second, at the same time you are praying, you are also supposed to be meditating upon a particular event in the lives of Jesus & Mary.  These sets of events are called mysteries and were traditionally divided up into three, and since Pope John Paul II added another set, four sets of mysteries called the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious, with the new "Luminous" set of mysteries.

I very much like Robert Barzan's "Earth Beads".  They use the same physical arrangement of beads as the Dominican Marian Rosary, but are Earth-centered in that it uses four sets of Seasonal mysteries: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.  While the seasons are fixed, the mysteries of each season aren't: it's up to you to determine which events of a given season you will meditate on as well as what prayers you will use.

How I use prayer beads these days is my own arrangement based on the order of the Standard ADF Liturgy. You make one "lap" around the five decades of beads varying the prayer in a number of different ways. I translated the prayers into Old Irish (all translation errors being fully mine) with the aid of that ever-blessed lover of Old Irish, Donncha from the Nemeton-L mailing list over a decade ago now.

1st decade: The Earth Mother

• Sé do bheatha a Dhanu, mo bhandia. (Literally "Be to you life O Danu, my goddess." This is adapted from the Irish translation of the Hail Mary.)
• Hail, Earth Mother, full of grace, from whom all blessings flow.
• Our Mother, who art the Earth, hallowed be Thy Body.
• Hail, O Earth Mother, this day/night.
• Blessed are You, O Earth Mother, this day/night.

2nd decade: The Spirits of the Land

• Sé bhur mbeatha a Sprideanna na Talaimh. (Literally, "Be to you life O Spirits of the Land.")
• Hail, O Spirits of this Land (where I dwell/visit), this day/night.
• Blessed are You, O Spirits of this Land (where I dwell/visit), this day/night.
• Thank you, O Spirits of this Land, for allowing me to prosper in your domain.

3rd decade: The Ancestors

• Sé bhur mbeatha a Shinsir. (Literally, "Be to you life O Ancestors.")
• Sé bhur mbeatha a Shinsir Fhola. (Literally, "Be to you life O Ancestors of Blood.")
• Sé bhur mbeatha a Shinsir Chroí. (Literally, "Be to you life O Ancestors of Heart.")
• Sé bhur mbeatha a Shinsir Fhola agus Chroí.
• Hail, O Ancestors, this day/night.
• Blessed are You, O Ancestors, this day/night.

4th decade: The Gods

• Sé bhur mbeatha a Dheithe. (Literally, "Be to you life O Gods.")
• Sé bhur mbeatha a Shendeithe. (Literally, "Be to you life O Ancient Gods.")
• Sé bhur mbeatha a Thuatha Dé Dannann. (Literally, "Be to you life O Tribe of Danu.")
• Hail, O Gods/Tribe of Danu, this day/night.
• Blessed are You, O Gods/Tribe of Danu, this day/night.

5th decade:One's Matron or Patron

• Sé do bheatha a N. (N. being the Name or titles of your M/Patron deity.)
• Hail, O N. this day/night.
• Blessed are you, O N. this day/night.
• Nota Bene: this 5th decade can be repeated indefinitely.

I have yet to come up with a prayer which fits well for the beads between each decade. I really ought to pull out the Carmina Gadelica and see what can be usefully adapted, or what I can find to use for a springboard. I'd like to have a prayer addressing the Three Kindreds in that position. Currently I use it to take a conscious breath before shifting focus from one Kindred or Deity to the next, and begin the next decade.