Personalized Prayer Beads

John Becket is an engineer, Pagan, Druid, and Unitarian Universalist trying to shape his core beliefs into a consistent and meaningful theology & practice.  He is the Co-ordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a Druid in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.

He has always been interested in prayer beads, even as a young child, but as his family were strict Baptists they wanted nothing to do with anything that could be considered or associated with anything 'Catholic'.  Hmmm, isn't that a familiar tune to me?  I get the same kind of opposition all the time.

Earlier this year, there was a guest preacher at his Untarian Universalist church who handed out small strings of four beads to everyone in the congregation.  She walked them through a little prayer bead exercise.  This re-sparked John's interest in them and he figured out how he could use them in his own practice.

I like his method for creating a personalized strand of prayer beads.  He began by making a list of all the people, dieties & things he wanted to pray for, to or about each day.  This included his family members, ancestors, Nature spirits, peace, justice, etc.  He also wanted to add a bead for each of the four Elements / Directions, as well as, three more for death, birth and the mystery in between.


My First Set of Meditation Beads

Once you have them all written down, you can begin to select beads for each individual item on your list.  My list will be different than your list.  Follow your own heart and practice when selecting what to include in your prayer beads.  Choose each bead to reflect the person, diety or thing you will be praying for.  No two beads will be the same.  You can include as many or as few as you desire on your strand.


John's Pagan Prayer Beads


I've found prayer beads to be an excellent tool on my spiritual journey.  As John says, 'If you want to make prayer a regular part of your daily practice but you're having trouble being consistent about it, I highly recommend prayer beads'.  He has chosen to pray with his beads six times a day.  Again, the frequency you choose to use yours may be different.  The important thing is to do it on a regular basis, the same time each day will help form a habit.

I look forward to hearing about your exploration and creation of a bead strand, as I will be sharing mine with you.  Happy journey!

For John's blog posting on this subject, click here.