My Adventures with Prayer - Part I

If meditation is opening to the highest power, then prayer is the speaking through that opening-- with praise, requests and thanksgiving. We connect and invoke the power of creation to bring forth goodness into the world. The highest prayer is for Divine Will to unfold through us. Our ishta deva or chosen deity could be named or unnamed, Mother Nature or Jehovah, Krishna or the Great Spirit. For me these are all names for the same Power & Love, just as we are all separate impulses of the same Oneness. Maybe I am a bit like the character in “The Life of Pi” who worships as a Muslim, Hindu & Christian with equal fervor and belief, even though his various teachers all saw it as impossible and improper to do so.

I remember praying as a child before I went to sleep each night: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take.” It was a little scary to me to contemplate that I might die before I wake every night just before sleeping. I have amended that prayer over the years—“Now I lay me down to sleep, I ask you Mother, grant me peace. Fold me to your loving breast and nourish me with healing rest.”

As I grew I learned the prayers of my Lutheran heritage—my favorite was the Lord’s prayer. “Our Father Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever & Ever. Amen.”

Then as my matrix of faith shifted from God the Father to God the Mother I learned to invoke the Goddess in ritual, but there wasn’t much emphasis on prayer. Ritual was where intention was set into motion, not by asking or giving thanks.

As a Sufi belly dancer, I learned to pray the Muslim prayers. First we would do ritual ablutions to wash away the world, then the prayer, facing Mecca. We would say our prayers in Arabic, between a whisper and normal voice, as we did our movements of letting go, and supplication. We also chanted, danced, whirled and studied texts. The power of praying at set times each day was great—to stop whatever you are doing, to turn towards Allah, Allah hu Akbar! God is great! I received the vision of the wave of Muslim prayers moving around the world as time passed around the globe, a constant remembering of the Only One God.

When I began the path of Siddha Yoga, meditation, chanting and selfless service became important spiritual practices to feed my soul. But prayer was not a practice we were taught per se.

Ayurvedic studies included vedic mantras, the invoking of divine power through sacred Sanskrit syllables. It is prayer in a very pure form. Once I was treating a woman with a painful tailbone, hurt over a month before in a fall from her horse. Even her experienced chiropractor husband couldn’t replace it. I was inspired to chant the Sanskrit healing mantra “Tryambakam Yajamahe, Sugandhim Pusti Vardanam, Urva Rukamiva Bandhanan, Myrtyor Mukshiya Mamritat”. This mantra protects as well as heals. It calls upon Lord Shiva, who was the first to utter it to transmute poison he had swallowed to save the world. In ayurveda school we had chanted this mantra thousands of times and it’s also part of the Siddha Yoga tradition in the ancient vedic Rudrum chant, so I was empowered to use it. As I gave her reiki, holding my hand gently over her tailbone, I chanted. Suddenly I felt the tailbone move of its own volition. She reported that it felt better and that the pain was gone from then on.

In giving Reiki we invoke healing energy to course through us, asking that it bring the highest possible good to both the receiver and the practitioner. It is a prayer in action.
-By Terra Rafael

Watch for Part II to hear more about my Adventures with Prayer.

If you’d like to have a healing session with Terra using her unique combination of Ayurveda, Maya healing, massage, reiki, flower essences & women’s knowledge call her at 720.628.5015 or email at wisewomanhood@gmail.com.

Reiki & Worry

Insomnia didn’t just take away sleep time—it added worry time. When I couldn’t sleep, I often would find someone or something to worry over. With my midwifery practice both insomnia and worry were easy pathways to follow.

Reiki helped me through both the worry and the insomnia. This energy healing system from Japan was originated by Dr. Usui in the late 1800’s. “Rei – Kei” means Universal Healing Energy. Through initiation, the channels that carry this energy are opened widely to allow it to flow more freely. It can be focused for specific uses as well—mental /emotional healing and distance healing.

It was the distance healing that came in handy during my night wakings. I promised myself that rather than worrying, which was counterproductive to both sleep and anyone’s well-being, I would send Reiki to the “worry-ee” instead. Permission is necessary for giving Reiki to someone—and my midwifery clients had given me implicit permission do what was helpful to for them and their pregnancy. So, I’d tune into Reiki, invoke the distance healing symbol for them, and send Reiki.

Did my night sessions help? It certainly helped me. While giving Reiki to others it flows through me, filling my energy body with that healing energy. So even if still half awake, I calmed and rested.

Reiki is like food. We take it in and our body does what it naturally does when nourished and working well. Reiki is like sleep. The deep relaxation often accompanying Reiki allows the body to go into deep healing mode. One of the things I like best about Reiki is that it can do no harm.

During prenatal visits, when massaging the woman’s pregnant belly and the baby inside, Reiki would be flowing to them. And at the births, Reiki was filling the room.

The other outstanding phenomenon in my practice after beginning to use Reiki was that babies didn’t have meconium staining in labor. “Mec”, the release of the baby’s bowels, can result from stress. It is not uncommon—except in my midwifery practice. It was so uncommon that, in fact, my apprentices had never practiced the standard procedure of deep suctioning of the baby to prevent aspiration of the meconium when breathing begins. When later my apprentices started attending births with other midwives I was accused of not performing this crucial procedure when needed, since the apprentices didn’t know how to do it. Babies simply didn’t need it. Whether it was the Reiki or some other factor in my practice is hard to discern.

Still, Reiki is such a convenient tool—nothing to carry; no supplies to buy; just initiated hands and the will to share some healing energy.