Retooling Rosaries For Pagan Rituals

Tirgereh, a 35-year-old Seattle-based Wiccan, first used a rosary in college, when her Irish Catholic grandmother was struggling with Alzheimer's disease. The two women found common ground in the beads, and eventually, Tirgereh researched pagan prayers for her rosary and then wrote some of her own.

"There's a very satisfying, tactile aspect to meditating with prayer beads," said Tirgereh, who only goes by one name. "I would really miss the soft slide of metal and beads over my fingers were I to ever stop praying the rosary."

Tirgereh's handmade rosaries replace the crucifix with a more pagan-specific charm, such as an image of a goddess or tree. She also hands out copies of simple rosaries at pagan gatherings where she finds "a remarkable interest" in the beads.

"I've had folks who had always been curious, folks who had been raised Catholic but never knew how to incorporate it into their own practice and those just curious to see if I'm doing this from a place of respect and honor," she said.

Some pagans, like Tirgereh, use the Catholic rosary of their youth for new purposes while others are discovering the beads for the first time. One Catholic scholar said the distinction should be made clear.

"The neo-pagan 'rosary' has no connection whatever to the Catholic devotion . . . other than the use of beads and repetition," said Monsignor Robert J. Wister, an associate professor of church history at Immaculate Conception School of Theology at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J.

Neo-pagans are not limiting themselves to Catholic rosaries. Many are making their own prayer beads with colors, symbols and numbers of beads that are meaningful to their own practice.

"It seems to have hit critical mass," said Clare Vaughn, a Druid and co-author of "Pagan Prayer Beads," a new book that describes the history and how-to of such beads.

Vaughn first saw pagan prayer beads at a neo-pagan gathering in the Midwest four years ago. "Now, when we go to a pagan gathering, there is always at least one vendor selling prayer beads," she said.

Fuensanta Plaza, a follower of the Norse gods, says if her house caught fire, the only thing she would run back for would be her prayer beads, dedicated to the god Loki and goddess Sigyn.

"They are extremely important to my spiritual life, and therefore to my life," said Plaza, who lives in Carmel, Calif. Every day, she sits before her home altar and slips them through her fingers one at a time, "very much, presumably, as my Catholic grandmother used to say her rosary every day."

Why the surge of interest? One explanation is that neo-paganism has simply grown up. Many contemporary pagans come to their faith after rebelling against the religion of their youth. They have now matured to the point where they can reach back and borrow practices that once worked for them.

"For a long time, pagans were exploring," said John Michael Greer, Vaughn's co-author on "Pagan Prayer Beads." "Sooner or later you say, 'I have been talking about the gods and goddesses, maybe I should find a way to get in touch with them.' One way you do that is through meditation and prayer."

Many neo-pagans say more prayer is precisely what neo-pagans need if they want to be accepted as genuine people of faith.

"I really want to get pagans to pray," said Raven Kaldera, a pagan who makes and sells pagan prayer beads via his Web site, http://www.cauldronfarm.com. "If paganism is going to find its feet as a religion and not just as a subculture, people need to actually believe in the gods and not just treat it as something you go to for fun. I think prayer is a part of that."