Seven Directions Prayer (Valerie Luna Serrels)
“All are welcome, from any or no faith tradition.”
The Seven Directions Prayer
To celebrate the earth is to also honor our ancestors, and the ancestral peoples who have kept the land we live on.To practice an earth-based spirituality in North America means we bump up against Native American traditions and practices that have held this part of the world for many millennium. The wisdom-keepers of this land. When I was drawn back to nature to reconnect with the mystery of God embedded within and between the waters, creatures, dirt, stones, and myself, I was also drawn back to my own ancestry. After much genealogical research, I came back full circle to my Celtic heritage. My studies revealed the reality that all of our ancestors once lived in kindred relationship with creation, shaped by the moon and stars, raven, oak, wild cat and deer. The Celtic people have retained their deep connection with land, sea, and sky; with the thresholds of dawn and dusk, and following the cycles of the year. While there is no clear record of a four-directions or seven-directions prayer, they did find meaning in the cardinal directions, the earth beneath them, the sky above them.
This seven-directions prayer, honoring the four directions, the below, the above and within, was written by my sister, Victoria Loorz, and myself, and reflects our modern version of our Celtic heritage in relationship with all of creation. This prayer has become a favorite at Shenandoah Valley Church of the Wild, and we stand in a circle together to face each direction with our bodies as it is read at every gathering. We lift up our arms and hands to the sky, and drop to our knees with our hands in the earth; we place a hand over our chest for within, and bow to one another to end. We also preface this prayer with an Acknowledgment of Territory, honoring those Native People, both past and present, who held this particular land as sacred. I encourage anyone who adopts this prayer into their own practice to research the original inhabitants of the land they stand on, and honor them with acknowledgment, and to also research their own ancestry and how they were connected to place.
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Valerie Luna Serrels is Founder and Guide at Shenandoah Valley Church of the Wild a “wild church” that meets outdors in the Shenandoah Valley area of Virgina. Valerie started Shenandoah Valley Church of the Wild with the help of her husband, Craig, in April 2017. “She walks the edges of her roots within the Christ tradition, shaped by the values of social justice and nonviolence from the Mennonite church, and by her ancestral heritage within the Celtic spiritual tradition.” Check out our short feature on Shenandoah Church of the Wild. This prayer is part of our issue, “Celebrating Earth Day 2020.” Each post offers recommendations for connecting religious and spiritual practices to greater relationship with Earth’s other living creatures.
