∴ Prayers of Honoring: Prayers of Honoring was written for sharing from the heart in community. In western culture, we keep many things to ourselves. Prayer, among other things, has become a private practice for those of us who don't congregate for spiritual purposes. Our language for connection to something greater than ourselves has become truncated to basic iterations and generalized affirmations. These prayers were written to honor the things which are easy to celebrate, and also those things which require more practice. It was written as a reminder of the process of honoring, which is to show high respect. It's my thought that respect and reverence have all but gone missing from western culture. To cultivate these things through the rhythm of prayer is to demonstrate devotion to the unfathomable energies which suspend us between the divine energies of Earth and Sky every day and night. It's my belief that creating our own family practice of prayerfulness brings us closer as we travel forth.∴ Prayers of Voice: The throat, located just one energy center north of the heart and one jump south of the mind, is in a precarious position in the body. Play with me for a moment: if you were to consider the mind a machine, say, a telegraph in service to the heart, then the heart gives the first dictation. The mind then translates vital information in the form of language to the speaker system of voice, which will hopefully transmit the communications as the heart intended, if that is the priority. It is a good time to ask yourself what your priorities of communication are. What is motivating you?A short journey from heart to mind and back down to the throat takes mere seconds, but a mighty many detours are taken en route. This may be because the fear residing in the mind is like a highwayman, waylaying our genuine matters of the heart and causing havoc as it tries to make its simple way out of the human body. There are other desperados who lure the vulnerable traveler off-path: insecurity, anxiety, self-consciousness, the fragile ego—but nearly all are unmasked first cousins to fear when flushed out of the shadows. Some fears are linked to primal traumas which may yet be unearthed. These deserve special attention when working with voice.I think the greatest of all distractions between heart and throat might be faithlessness, because reigning religious institutions have effectively redirected the focus from faith to matters of righteousness, wrongness and “policies”. Faith in love, and what it can do, has taken a particularly destructive back seat to the priorities of massive organizations with other things in mind than loving kindness, peaceful communication, fair resolutions, wellness and the expressive voices of living, breathing people.For today’s spiritually traumatized, broken-hearted and soul-wounded, the process of revealing what rests on the heart can be a paralyzing challenge. To clear the path of negative imprint, one must declare the intention to speak to what matters most and set about the task of discerning what that is. One can make a choice now to stand up to the fears that mangle the truth into expressions more palatable for others, cause explosions of rage, freezing up, or cut-and-run behavior.To love the truth more than anything else is a tall order.∴ Prayers of Honoring Grief: Prayers of Honoring Grief is the third book in Pixie Lighthorse’s prayer trilogy. This book challenges our cultural orientation towards “getting over” loss on a convenient schedule. It asks us to take the time to honor our feelings, so that we may express them and move them through our bodies. To make time and space for fully experiencing grief. These prayers are a reminder of our connection to something greater than ourselves, which holds us while we are healing.There is a void left in our culture by the absence of death rituals or rites of grieving, and this book is a lifeline for those coping with that void. Pixie encourages us to see grief as a natural, normal part of life: as a process for working with deep, embodied wisdom to heal after loss. In her words, we can “honor our unfulfilled dreams and desires, our missed opportunities for love, and the depths of our pain, both individual and collective. We can lift, sing and pray the lost parts of ourselves back home.”With the deep assurance of lived experience, Pixie guides us through the pains and discomforts, the moments of clarity, and the potential for aliveness that arises when we make space in our lives to grieve our losses. -28 prayers, 7 for each cardinal direction. -Space to the left of each prayer to journal, collage, and draw-Journal prompts at the end of each section and space to write. Foreword by Jennifer Houston, founder of The Red Balloon Project.
