Oops, broke my blog post goal. I’ll keep trying… in the meantime, a quick Craft related post.
This is the name (yet another thing I got from Devoted) that I give to the little chores I do (or try to do) every day for my devotions. The term is to set them apart from daily chores like cleaning up the kitchen or wiping down my desk, which are the chores of my mundane life. They are the chores of my spiritual life, the making of small offerings, my basic prayers and taking care of the shrine areas. My prayer rosary/beads are a pretty big part of my basic prayers. They really help me to open up on a different level- I always feel my third eye particularly strongly when I am running through them- and I think part of it is that I made the rosary, I took time with it, I took time finding the beads and I was very careful about finding the right charm to go on it, so it is ‘mine’ and it is something that I do care about it. Offerings are generally milk and jam (based on Jewish folklore. I’ll probably post something about the story that the jam thing comes from at some point- it’s a pretty fun story) with a few other things (mini bottles of wine, bread and so on) on high days. I burn some incense, greet Them, settle myself down comfortably and start with some breathing exercises then I run through the beads. The prayers that I chant help to drive my awareness inward which usually awakens my third eye and some other parts of my ‘spiritual’ body.
Mia Labores are the basics. They are the bare minimum (for me at least) of devotion. Caer of mystiknomad has written some posts on growing devotions that are far more eloquent than I could probably write and if you’re starting to create a devotional practice of any kind they are definitely worth a read.
My main reason for writing this post is simply because when I was starting out I had no idea where or how to begin. There’s what seems obvious: altar, offerings, prayers, but how do you do it in a way that seems ‘real’ and meaningful? It’s hard. It takes time, which sucks because dammit I’m human and I want to do it now. Alas and alack. I don’t even know entirely how mine began to be something that felt like a working set of devotions. First came the offerings (milk and jam have been my go to for a couple of years now) which evolved out of my research into my Mother, then the basic prayers which evolved out of looking for prayers to Her and not liking the ones other people had written, then the prayer beads. Which mostly came from seeing posts other people had on them. And then proceeded to steal and make my own. I like the idea of growing when it comes to mia labores; it’s an organic thing, you start with the initial seed and keep going and growing until something sprouts.
If you’re someone who has stumbled on this dusty cobwebby little nook of the internet who is struggling with developing devotional practice, don’t give up. Keep going. No matter how small whatever you do is it can grow. And most likely will.
And don’t worry if you can’t do them every night. I often work late and meditating and so on for even ten minutes isn’t going to happen- I will fall asleep- but when you do do them, do what you can and that’s what counts. Sometimes They can be demanding, but mia labores will cushion that. You’ll have a foundation to work from if shit should become real, and they’ll also be part of something meaningful even if you never have the fireworks some people have with their Gods.
I’m going to close this one with the most basic of my stand alone prayers to my Mother:
Hail sweet Lilith, my Mother and Love
Hail to She Who Knows me best
Hail wise One, dark One, radiant One
Hear my prayer
The words of one who would be Your Daughter
Singing to the Storm 