Pagan Prayer Beads

There’s been a recent string of news articles on Pagan prayer beads lately so I thought I’d put up a post about them for those interested. Many pagans are reworking the idea of the Christian rosary as well as the Tibetan Mala and Buddhist prayer beads – and are creating rosaries with pagan themes to correspond with pagan prayers. I love the idea of prayer beads, they are a great devotional practice that you can perform every day in order to better connect with your deities. For those who have altars in honour of a deity, reciting prayers while running the beads through your fingers is a great way to honour your patron god or goddess and also meditate while perhaps giving an offering of incense or some fresh flowers. There are many websites out there now with prayers to recite with prayer beads, so here are some helpful links to articles and instructional sites:

News Articles:

• Hail Persephone: Pagans Retool the Rosary
• Unpacking the Pagan Prayer Beads
• New Book Teaches How to Make and Use Pagan Prayer Beads
• Spirituality on a String: A History of Prayer Beads in World Religions
• How to Incorporate Prayer Beads into Your Spiritual Practice

Links:

• A Pagan’s Rosary
• Pagan Prayer Beads by John Michael Greer
• The Witches’ Ladder

And as a treat for the eyes here are two pagan rosaries I recently completed. The first is a Greenman Witches’ Ladder. I cut, drilled, carved and sanded all of the beads and the pendants completely by hand. The prayer beads are Hawthorn wood, the four leaf spacer beads and the greenman pendant are Rowan. Each bead was painstakingly strung, knotting and braiding the red cotton cord after each bead – it took hours just to assemble, let alone the time it took to carve all of the beads! (SOLD)

This second set of Pagan prayer beads is a Norse runic rosary with hand made and pyrographed blackthorn beads as well genuine onyx and black glass beads all strung and knotted on black flax linen. The pendant is also handcarved blackthorn wood and is a 3D Raven’s head. The runic beads are double-sided, this set can be used as prayer beads or a necklace and is suitable for both sexes. (SOLD)