ritual tool: reflection beads for my core values, desires, gratitudes, people, deities, & nature kin
icon: "magical (Michael Whelan's "Beanstalk" with a fractal overlay of color)"
I made myself a new spiritual tool. (I'll try to get a good photo of it soon) It's a set of reflection beads (like prayer beads or meditation beads, but not from any religion). I made it with 80 beads: 11 spring-green translucent prehnite beads for my core values, 22 glow-in-the-dark light green & clear glass beads for my desires, 13 white moonshine beads for my gratitudes, 13 shimmery grey-violet glass beads for my people, 11 green kyanite beads for my deities, 8 kambaba jasper beads for my nature elements, and 2 large prehnite beads for the quality I am most trying to develop (to be reflected on at the beginning and at the end). I made a little booklet to go with it, where I wrote down little verses which I will read aloud and reflect on (and hopefully eventually memorize but I'm doubtful).
My core values are the thing that started all this off: justice, growth, creativity, connection, curiosity, openness, honesty, action, reverence, respect, thoroughness. ( the details on my core values verses)
[desires, gratitudes, people, deities, nature]
I also came up with 22 desires, phrased as thank-yous. These are things like "thank you for tangible, memorable spiritual interactions."
Gratitudes I plan to do on the spot and varied each time, and they'll probably be things like "the sweet warmth of the sun." I will say a thing I feel grateful for and rest in that for a moment.
People will vary over time, but at any one point I will have a certain set of names, and do a little gratitude/well-wishes for each person. I made up a new set of paper coins which I will draw from them each time.
For deities, I looked up traditional honorifics and titles, used some of those and interpreted from some old ones to make new ones that were more suitable for me. I listed out a good number of their titles, thanked them for their attention, and requested their blessings and promptings in the ways that I felt they most care about. I included Bast, Nuit, Geb, Hapi, Renenutet, Ma'at, Taweret, Hathor, Shiva, Jesus, Aphrodite (in no particular order).
For nature, I wrote little four-line poems of praise for the 8 aspects of nature that I most connect with: fungi, trees, wood violets, witchgrass, moss, stones, fruits and vegetables, and vines (in no particular order).