Prayer Beads

For centuries, prayer beads have been used by people in many spiritual traditions, including Islam . . .

. . . Buddhism . . .

. . . Christianity, specifically Roman Catholicism . . .

. . . and Paganism too. Our oldest visual depiction of prayer beads comes from Ancient Greece. Even our modern English word "bead" comes from the Old English "bede," which means "a prayer."

Prayer beads are also commonly used today in the Hindu, Sikh and Baha'i faiths.

Prayer beads help people to focus their minds, to give structure to their communion with the Divine and to keep track of where they are in a prayer cycle.

Some contemporary pagans use prayer beads as well. Last autumn, I felt a pull to design my own set of prayer beads to honour the Triple Goddess, using some suggestions and examples from the internet. I then gave my personalized design to my sister, who is a talented beader and jewelry maker. She did an absolutely fantastic job of beading it for me as a Yule-Christmas gift! Needless to say, of course, these prayer beads are extra special to me because of the infusion of our "sister energy" in their creation. Here's the finished set, displayed (as goddess prayer beads should be when not being used) in the Sacred Spiral of Life arrangement:

In a series of upcoming posts, I'll be explaining the spiritual and other significance of the first and final attached items, the number-and-colour symbolism of the various beads, and how I will be using these prayer beads.

[Photos #1 and #3 from the internet; Photo #2 by Debra She Who Seeks (Japan) 2013; Photo #4 by My Rare One 2017]