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A Year of Pagan Prayer: A Sourcebook of Poems, Hymns, and Invocations from Four Thousand Years of Pagan History
450+ Poems, Prayers, Hymns and Blessings This treasury of beautiful and powerful pieces is the perfect companion for marking holidays, milestones, and the seasons. You'll discover prayers to Janus from Horace and Ovid, a traditional Scottish blessing for Imbolc, an invocation to Pan by Aleister Crowley, an ode to Proserpine by Mary Shelley, a pharaoh's hymn to Isis, a song for Lammas by Gwydion Pendderwen, and many, many more. A tribute to the beauty and resiliency of Paganism, this sourcebook will enhance any special day throughout the year. Enjoy prayers for weddings and funerals, blessings for the sabbats, and hymns to the gods and goddesses of various pantheons. Barbara Nolan includes brief historical or biographical details to contextualize each piece as well as descriptions of different celebrations and festivals to help you integrate these readings into your practice. A Year of Pagan Prayer demonstrates that the literary worship of Pagan deities was never fully lost in the West. This bounteous collection draws from the spiritual legacy of Italian Renaissance poets, ancient Sumerian priestesses, twentieth-century Pagans, French Romantics, Greek playwrights, nineteenth-century British occultists, and Egyptian hymnists, making it a must-have resource for anyone who yearns to embody the eloquent expressions of our Pagan past.
456 pages, Paperback
Published October 8, 2021
22 people are currently reading
296 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Nolan
37 books603 followersBarbara is an Amazon Bestselling Author, and a native of New Jersey.
She loves her emotional, passionate alpha males and the women who tame them. Her writing is sexy, steamy and seductive, and her goal is to have fun while taking the reader away from their world and into hers.
She is proud of this second act in her life and loves meeting and getting to know her readers, fans, and all the wonderful people in the writing community.
Her passion for reading and words make this a journey of love. She considers reading a luxury and writing a necessity.
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3dO8jus
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/barba...
Instagram :https://www.instagram.com/bnolan26/?h...
She loves her emotional, passionate alpha males and the women who tame them. Her writing is sexy, steamy and seductive, and her goal is to have fun while taking the reader away from their world and into hers.
She is proud of this second act in her life and loves meeting and getting to know her readers, fans, and all the wonderful people in the writing community.
Her passion for reading and words make this a journey of love. She considers reading a luxury and writing a necessity.
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3dO8jus
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/barba...
Instagram :https://www.instagram.com/bnolan26/?h...
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 21, 2021
This is a beautiful and extremely useful book. For example, when making solstice offerings, there is a highly suitable prayer for Sunna sandwiched between a traditional Welsh folk song and a Wassail poem from the early 17th century. December is a hubbub of holidays in this book: Poems related to the Faunalia, Country Dionysia, Yule and the Solstice, Saturnalia, Mithras’ Day, among others.
The selections come from many cultures — and four thousand years is a gradient, with items from many centuries leading up to the present day. In addition to the month-by-month framing, there are sections at the back for things like lunar prayers, weddings, funerals, and so on. I was excited to see Ben Jonson’s “Queen and Huntress” in the lunar prayers section. It’s a favorite of mine, as I grew up listening to Mike Oldfield, and it’s on his album Incantations, Part 4, about 13 minutes in. There is an appendix of selections by deity. It isn’t the most user-friendly, as it lacks page numbers, but the index solves this, as you can look up the page numbers for the various excerpts (often in the F section, as excerpts usually start with “from” — Llewellyn’s indexing is not the best) and full hymn or poem titles there. You can also wayfind by going to specific months if you are sensitive to when things happen during the year.
Nolan frames the book with an introduction arguing that in Christianized places — focusing on Europe — the symbols, metaphors, and mental conceptions of the world are often rooted in local pre-Christian beliefs and the cultural reception of polytheistic literature and ideas from Greece, Rome, and so on — not in Christian symbols. Part of her reason for putting so many works in conversation with one another is celebrating that continuity and cross-cultural reception. You will find excerpts and translations from many locations (Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Egypt, South Asia, Northern Europe …) placed alongside translations of recent poems and current polytheists’ compositions. From my standpoint as a reader, the discussion of cultural reception could have been stronger. I found it extremely exciting to see a book that told the story of cross-cultural reception into the Anglosphere, which is a much healthier way of relating to the Gods we worship than to indulge in escapist fantasies about actually being the ancients of whatever area the Gods we focus on in our practice come from. A book like this allows one to be forward-looking and additive in our practice. It is no accident that many translations of ancient works and Renaissance-to-nowadays poems or prayers are focused on the Greek and Roman pantheons, as we have had significant cross-cultural transmission of those Gods into the Anglosphere.
While I highly recommend this book, I also have some constructive feedback. Llewellyn’s insistence on putting everything in a “pagan” framing is definitely done for SEO, but it is awkward and insensitive for a book like this. “Pagan” is a contentious term, especially internationally where it has been used as a pejorative during Christianization and the stigmatization of revivalist practitioners around the world; many people react very badly to it. (It is more accepted as a term in the United States and Britain, but especially when thinking about something with a broad scope, we need to be careful about terminology.) In addition, I doubt the ancient cultures would have embraced this term with enthusiasm given its connotations.
The book could also improve in the diversity of what it chooses to highlight from the recent past to now. The recent compositions in A Year of Pagan Prayer cover non-English languages, too, with some selections translated from things composed by members of the daughter cultures of the local polytheism, others from what must be widely-known compositions in a non-English language. A future volume (will there be one??? 😁) has an opportunity to provide a more accurate look at the cultural reception of the Gods. There are almost definitely more contemporary poets or devotees in the daughter cultures of these ancient sources whose works could be integrated into a future volume, too. There is significant effort in the Latine community, for example, to look closely at Classical reception, and I am almost positive that there are many good poems and hymns written in Portuguese or Spanish. The same can be said for any language and any cultural context that has experienced a reception (daughter-culture or cross-culturally) of these ancient, pious works. Even if we stick to the Anglosphere (and I’m speaking as an American), many anthologies like this focus on white authors due to problematic assumptions about and a lack of engagement with nonwhite poets and devotees. A future volume that uses a cultural reception/continuity framing could benefit from two or three additional editors who have complementary expertise to ensure a book like this provides a firmly holistic look at the rich history of how the Gods have been encountered in the literary and devotional traditions by all of us in contemporary times, painting a beautiful and diverse portrait of piety and praise.
I highly recommend buying this book and using it. Many of the prayers are good for daily use if you want to pray to a God, not only for following an annual rhythm.
The selections come from many cultures — and four thousand years is a gradient, with items from many centuries leading up to the present day. In addition to the month-by-month framing, there are sections at the back for things like lunar prayers, weddings, funerals, and so on. I was excited to see Ben Jonson’s “Queen and Huntress” in the lunar prayers section. It’s a favorite of mine, as I grew up listening to Mike Oldfield, and it’s on his album Incantations, Part 4, about 13 minutes in. There is an appendix of selections by deity. It isn’t the most user-friendly, as it lacks page numbers, but the index solves this, as you can look up the page numbers for the various excerpts (often in the F section, as excerpts usually start with “from” — Llewellyn’s indexing is not the best) and full hymn or poem titles there. You can also wayfind by going to specific months if you are sensitive to when things happen during the year.
Nolan frames the book with an introduction arguing that in Christianized places — focusing on Europe — the symbols, metaphors, and mental conceptions of the world are often rooted in local pre-Christian beliefs and the cultural reception of polytheistic literature and ideas from Greece, Rome, and so on — not in Christian symbols. Part of her reason for putting so many works in conversation with one another is celebrating that continuity and cross-cultural reception. You will find excerpts and translations from many locations (Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Egypt, South Asia, Northern Europe …) placed alongside translations of recent poems and current polytheists’ compositions. From my standpoint as a reader, the discussion of cultural reception could have been stronger. I found it extremely exciting to see a book that told the story of cross-cultural reception into the Anglosphere, which is a much healthier way of relating to the Gods we worship than to indulge in escapist fantasies about actually being the ancients of whatever area the Gods we focus on in our practice come from. A book like this allows one to be forward-looking and additive in our practice. It is no accident that many translations of ancient works and Renaissance-to-nowadays poems or prayers are focused on the Greek and Roman pantheons, as we have had significant cross-cultural transmission of those Gods into the Anglosphere.
While I highly recommend this book, I also have some constructive feedback. Llewellyn’s insistence on putting everything in a “pagan” framing is definitely done for SEO, but it is awkward and insensitive for a book like this. “Pagan” is a contentious term, especially internationally where it has been used as a pejorative during Christianization and the stigmatization of revivalist practitioners around the world; many people react very badly to it. (It is more accepted as a term in the United States and Britain, but especially when thinking about something with a broad scope, we need to be careful about terminology.) In addition, I doubt the ancient cultures would have embraced this term with enthusiasm given its connotations.
The book could also improve in the diversity of what it chooses to highlight from the recent past to now. The recent compositions in A Year of Pagan Prayer cover non-English languages, too, with some selections translated from things composed by members of the daughter cultures of the local polytheism, others from what must be widely-known compositions in a non-English language. A future volume (will there be one??? 😁) has an opportunity to provide a more accurate look at the cultural reception of the Gods. There are almost definitely more contemporary poets or devotees in the daughter cultures of these ancient sources whose works could be integrated into a future volume, too. There is significant effort in the Latine community, for example, to look closely at Classical reception, and I am almost positive that there are many good poems and hymns written in Portuguese or Spanish. The same can be said for any language and any cultural context that has experienced a reception (daughter-culture or cross-culturally) of these ancient, pious works. Even if we stick to the Anglosphere (and I’m speaking as an American), many anthologies like this focus on white authors due to problematic assumptions about and a lack of engagement with nonwhite poets and devotees. A future volume that uses a cultural reception/continuity framing could benefit from two or three additional editors who have complementary expertise to ensure a book like this provides a firmly holistic look at the rich history of how the Gods have been encountered in the literary and devotional traditions by all of us in contemporary times, painting a beautiful and diverse portrait of piety and praise.
I highly recommend buying this book and using it. Many of the prayers are good for daily use if you want to pray to a God, not only for following an annual rhythm.
November 12, 2024
Fascinating collection of literature inspired by deities that predate Christianity (Greek, Roman, Celtic, Norse, and a few Middle Eastern Gods and Goddesses) arranged by their traditional celebratory days around the calendar year, and then for particular events like weddings and funerals. I did not, I admit, read this cover to cover, but primarily read the parts for the season we are currently in and skimmed other parts to refer back to later. A good reference book if you are interested.
(Note to self) Referenced for:
February 13: The City Faunalia (Pan)
December 5: The Country Faunalia (Pan)
(Note to self) Referenced for:
February 13: The City Faunalia (Pan)
December 5: The Country Faunalia (Pan)
September 29, 2021
Interesting book that looks at many different deities and paths which I found interesting from Pan to Apollo to hymns from 400CE to Victorian poems. I liked how each month is laid out.
Really interesting I will be buying this for myself as I think it's a great personal resource.
I received this book from the publisher Llewelyn and NetGalley for a fair and honest review.
3 1/2 stars
Really interesting I will be buying this for myself as I think it's a great personal resource.
I received this book from the publisher Llewelyn and NetGalley for a fair and honest review.
3 1/2 stars
October 17, 2021
I read this as an advanced copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
There is *a lot* of material in this book. It can provide a good amount of inspiration for people that wish to spice up their rituals, or are just interested in historical pagan prayers.
I loved the temporal organization of the book, as well as the indexes in the back which are more thematic (assuming that page numbers will be added — my ARC did not have them — otherwise these indexes are useless).
I found the bibliography lacking in consistency.
For example, wtf is "http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/t...." [sic] in the bibliography. This is lazy to say the least and puts a big damper on the book. This should have been transformed for human readers (author + title of the text), made into a safe link ("https"), and complemented with a "date-consulted".
It is also unclear which pages of a work a selection in this anthology is taken from. Sometimes we find, e.g., "from the Rig-Veda, translated by Griffith". But like, what page? If this is an exact extract, you should be precise.
So: selections were good, references were bad. That being said: well done!
There is *a lot* of material in this book. It can provide a good amount of inspiration for people that wish to spice up their rituals, or are just interested in historical pagan prayers.
I loved the temporal organization of the book, as well as the indexes in the back which are more thematic (assuming that page numbers will be added — my ARC did not have them — otherwise these indexes are useless).
I found the bibliography lacking in consistency.
For example, wtf is "http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/t...." [sic] in the bibliography. This is lazy to say the least and puts a big damper on the book. This should have been transformed for human readers (author + title of the text), made into a safe link ("https"), and complemented with a "date-consulted".
It is also unclear which pages of a work a selection in this anthology is taken from. Sometimes we find, e.g., "from the Rig-Veda, translated by Griffith". But like, what page? If this is an exact extract, you should be precise.
So: selections were good, references were bad. That being said: well done!
September 12, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley, Llewellyn Worldwide, and Llewellyn Publications for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
I really enjoy books like this. They aren’t so much books that you just sit down and read for hours, but more books that you use as reference when you need something, or you might flip through to learn some trivia about a particular event. I personally don’t have anything like this book already in my library, so this is a great addition in this category.
This book takes thousands of years of poetry, hymns, and other collected works that relate to each pagan holiday in a calendar year (along with the rough Gregorian calendar date if possible), as well as some general information about that time period. Each work is preceded by some history of where the piece came from as well, which I find to be that much more meaningful. There are a few celebrations coming up on the pagan calendar I was not aware of, but I am now excited to partake in a celebration appropriate for my home with poetry that resonates.
To be clear, this book is an anthology, and should be used as a resource to any ritual or spiritual event you wish to partake in and need words for in my mind, but it is not the place to go if you want deep information about things like where the Yuletide traditions come from, or what all of the Yuletide traditions are – you will just get some beautiful hymns to utilize. Maybe the final edition of this book will add in more history, or expand on some of these sections, but I don’t feel like it is necessary. This is one of the most unique books I have on my shelf for this type of content, and I am really excited to take advantage of it the rest of this calendar year & moving forward.
I really enjoy books like this. They aren’t so much books that you just sit down and read for hours, but more books that you use as reference when you need something, or you might flip through to learn some trivia about a particular event. I personally don’t have anything like this book already in my library, so this is a great addition in this category.
This book takes thousands of years of poetry, hymns, and other collected works that relate to each pagan holiday in a calendar year (along with the rough Gregorian calendar date if possible), as well as some general information about that time period. Each work is preceded by some history of where the piece came from as well, which I find to be that much more meaningful. There are a few celebrations coming up on the pagan calendar I was not aware of, but I am now excited to partake in a celebration appropriate for my home with poetry that resonates.
To be clear, this book is an anthology, and should be used as a resource to any ritual or spiritual event you wish to partake in and need words for in my mind, but it is not the place to go if you want deep information about things like where the Yuletide traditions come from, or what all of the Yuletide traditions are – you will just get some beautiful hymns to utilize. Maybe the final edition of this book will add in more history, or expand on some of these sections, but I don’t feel like it is necessary. This is one of the most unique books I have on my shelf for this type of content, and I am really excited to take advantage of it the rest of this calendar year & moving forward.
September 26, 2021
If you are looking for a reference book designed to help you move thoughtfully through the Wheel of the Year, this is it! I was interested in this book because I sometimes fall out of step with my practice. I can already see how this book will help me stay more in touch with my holidays and observances.
Things I loved:
-Well researched and provides wonderful context for the historical precedent of observances at different times of year.
- Allows introductions to a wide array of deities
Cons:
-The prayers themselves were not something I connected with in many cases. There were few I would use verbatim. They did not feel natural to me. That being said, I will use the research done to create my own experiences that honor past traditions.
Thank you to NetGalley and Llewellyn Publications for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
Things I loved:
-Well researched and provides wonderful context for the historical precedent of observances at different times of year.
- Allows introductions to a wide array of deities
Cons:
-The prayers themselves were not something I connected with in many cases. There were few I would use verbatim. They did not feel natural to me. That being said, I will use the research done to create my own experiences that honor past traditions.
Thank you to NetGalley and Llewellyn Publications for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
December 10, 2021
I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. The book is divided up into twelve sections, one for each month. It covers both the happy times and the dark ones as well. There are songs, poems, and hymns that cover a lot of different gods and goddesses. My birthday is in the latter part of the year and I was excited to read that month. There are some of the poems that I like better than others, for example, the Faery Song. I have had a fascination with the Fair Folks for a very long time.
August 24, 2021
While I read a lot of books, there are not many that I add to my collection, but this is one that has a spot on my shelf. This is much more than just a year of blessings and readings for Pagan holidays, it addresses so many other areas of Pagan life that we sometimes don’t think about until they are upon us. I will be giving this book to my coven members for our Yule celebration this year. I think we will all find something that speaks to use in here. Well done!
September 20, 2021
Great collection of hymns, prayers, invocations, poetry about many deities in connection with pagan wheel of year. And one can use them in many ways, as part of the ritual, or spell, or just to read them, if needed one can pray these verses. Short introductions are concise and helpful. But I would love to see a few examples in this book on using these "hymns" in actual practice. A fine book for you to explore and enjoy in interesting company.
September 27, 2021
This is is more than a book of prayers. It’s historical background, poetry, desscription, and so much more. I read it as an introduction to the various pagan deities and myths of Europe and the Mediterranean and was impressed by the breadth of the author’s knowledge and the quality of the material. A must read for anyone interested in ancient Western myth or the various mythological references of 19th and 20th century Western lit.
January 1, 2023
Beautiful and useful. The layout, moving through the year and including more than just the modern Wiccan holidays is terrific. There are also some life moments prayers for things like weddings and funerals. It skews towards Greco-Roman deities, presumably because that’s what we have a large surviving record of, but it has variety as much as it can, and includes some Pagan-Renaissance and Romantic period prayers and poems as well. This is going to be one of my most used books.
April 25, 2023
This is a beautiful book that takes the reader through a year of poems and stories. Each one is more beautiful than the last. I highly recommend this as a gift book. I kept this at my bedside and read a story every night before bed.
September 30, 2021
A few days each month get a number of prayers from what looks like a few different sources. Very nice for those wanting some different prayers to add in their practice.
May 6, 2024
Good resource book to flick back through when I need a particular poem, prayer etc.
September 28, 2024
A nice collection of prayers though a bit over focused on Greco-Roman prayers compared to Celtic, Egyptian or other cultures.
April 7, 2024
good source for info regarding all different religions! i loved learning more about Greek poetry and ancient hymns! i cant wait to write a book based off this rich history
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews