Prayers to the Stars: "How to Pray with Prayer Beads"
Stellae Rubus
Meditation & Prayer Beads
[Stellae Rubus - An attempt at creating a system of meditational prayer for a persons of spirituality. The “Stellae Rubus” or “Haec Stellae Rubus” are a chain of beads made in thread, and wrapped in some sort of cloth. Much like the beads in a ‘mandala’ are used, or the beads in the Catholic ‘Rosary’, The Rubus is meant for the user to be able to make systematic prayers, in conjunction with a material catalyst of thought, and worship.
The Name is made of latin, and translates to “These Starry Matters” or in short “Star Matters”. Named after the beads symbolization as Astronomically known Stars of the Universe.]
I have found in recent days that there are often times when i would like to pray for the things in my life. The things that happen to me, the things that i happen to or do, the things i see or hear or think. There are so many things in the average course of a day that i find myself wanting to pray over… that i find keeping all of them in my head, a somewhat difficult task. And yet at the end of each day, i feel like i could sit down, and pray for hours on end for all the occurences and thoughts that took place during my day. One prayer after another, for one occurrence and then on another, on and on for more than just a few repetitions. I have alot of things that i would pray for. And by the end of a weeks time i have tons of things i would like to pray for. But the type of praying that i usually afford to myself, i dont believe gives enough, or a satisfactory amount of weight to the prayers that i am making. Just clasping my hands together and closing my eyes feels like i am doing some sort of normal typical thing, that is done everywhere by everyone all the time. I feel like prayer like this is just, if even just alittle in my own opinion, very watered down.
Just recently, i said to myself. I want a way to pray, for these things that occur to me in my life, with some sort of extra “umph”. I want a method of prayer, that will allow me to sit down, for an extended period of time and go into deep meditations of prayer, that lay out all the words, and sentences, and meanfullness to the wishes that i have embedded in my soul.
I thought about this over the course of a week, and then eventually some time within that timespan. I remembered that there was some thing, within the religion of Catholicism; as a length of rope, or necklace, of beads,,.. That was used in the act of prayer. Something called the Rosary, which was a length of necklace embedded with beads, that was used to count a number of prayers off in reverance to Jehova, or the abrahamic God of Christ. Having gone to a catholic church just a few weeks ago and talking to one of the Pastors there about the religion, i remembered that there was a certain order of prayers that was incited during the prayerful use of the Rosary.
When i was hearing about it back then, i couldnt help but be alittle uninterested in the whole thing. Something to do with how the prayers were “supposed” to be said with some types of pre-created stanza print prayers one after the other. It seemed to me like the method was too locked up to allow for the sort of prayer i was interested in(which is praying about all things in my life, and mostly particuler personal things).
After hearing about the “rules” of the rosary, i found myself to be uninterested with the prospect of getting one, but i was still very interested in getting a length of necklace, that i could use in a similar, but not identical manner to the rosary.
Out of this interest, was born the “Stellea Rubus” Prayer Beads.
I finally decided, months after i had learned about the rosary and how catholics prayed with it, to create my own bead necklace. I didnt know how i was going to use it at first, but i knew i would be able to figure something out once the necklace had been made and finished.
I went to the local hobby
Now i have a full length of wax twine, tied together at the ends, and is beaded with 24 beads. Each bead is at least two centimeters apart from the next, and each space of 2 centimeters being wrapped three times over in a small length of wax twine.
The finished product looking like this:
It is with these beads that i have since the completion of the necklace, been used to pray over the matters that i come by in my daily walk of life. I have to say that i’ve become comfortable with the idea of using them. It’s turned out that i have been glad that i decided to make the prayer beads, and been much less than reluctant to utilize them in the act of prayer.
You might be wondering though, alot like how i was wondering before, how it is that I use the necklace of beads for prayer. What good is a bunch of beads going to do for me? How would they make any difference at all in the act of praying to “god”. To this i would tell you that i did come up with a methodology of thought intended for the use of my prayer beads.
This was it...
Philosophy of Utility
Value[?] - Why is it that praying with beads should mean something significant to me?
[+] My strongest point for using prayer beads to pray, is exactly that; praying with beads, You are praying "on" a point. <- Period, like that point.
In the 3 dimensional perspective a bead is a sphere. But consider viewing it on a 2 dimensional plane(if drawn on a piece of paper or seen from a distance,) a bead is a single circular dot. It is both a circle, and a dot. <- A dot
A dot, being one of the easiest markings to make in the makings of written human language, was one of the first markings of mankind, even going back thousands of years to ancient times.
People today use a dot for in the english written language as well as many other latin derived lingos, for the permeation of a statement. A dot, is the written mark of meaning used to make a statement within a sentence of speech.
The point of the prayer beads capitalizes on the significance of an immaterial point within a persons unphysical mind, emotion, and perceived world and relates it to a defined material point in physical space
Consider each bead, to be one point, one statement, being made within your prayer. Each bead is a perfect dot. A 3-deminsional period that is being used to manifest your prayers statement.
A dot. One of the most primal and well gotten and used marks of civilizations all over the world.
A mark, something used to indoctrinate and or indicate meaning
Brings your prayer out of the mind and the heartful body, and out onto the physical world. Either through a peice of paper, a rock, bark, in the sand, or in this case, a bead; and brings it into, and down onto the world. For all to see.
That is my philosophy of Praying with Prayer Beads.
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Subjective Math
2d bead = a dot = a mark = a period
A period: a mark used at the end of a statement
A statement: A definite or clear expression of something
1 bead = Signals a statement is being made by the person making prayers. It serves as a temporary physical representative of sorts. A representative of the prayerful statement.
1 bead is 1 perfect period.
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~How to Use The Rubus`~
The Catholics have their methedology for praying the rosary. Monks of Bhuddism have there method for praying their mandala. I figured it would be good to create my own type of prayer method for my own star beads. Below is what i came up with, and is a rough outline of how i conduct prayer in using the prayer beads.
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1. Come up with a standerd prayer for the entrance of the first prayer.
Anything along the lines of "Hello God, I have come to you to pray about ____ & _____(so and so) Topics.". Giving a signal that you are starting a prayer session, sets the tone of your mind, into the right mode of feeling. Giving you the preconception that you are about to begin humbly praying about some serious topics of your own choosing.
2. Come up With Repition prayer. A prayer to say, every 4 or 5 beads. It gives the entierty of the prayer session, some added consistency and fiber, as well as strengthens your resolve to really put your heart into the matters that you are praying about.
3. Come Up With an ending prayer. Something to close off the end of the paryer session. Anything along the lines of "That is all i wished to bring to you God. Thank you For all your Love, I hope that these matters that i prayed about, come to good light.". This alternativley from the begining prayer, closes you out of the prayer session. Gives a conclusive impact to the prayers that you have made, and lets you turn the page of your life, back to regular events and matters.
4. Make sure to name the beads something. The Prayer beads as a whole, and then if you want(although none of this is actually necessary) you could go ahead and name each individual bead as well. Something i did with my own Stellea Rubus, was name the strands of prayer beads after Some of the Ancient Star constellations of the night sky. For example, One of my Strands, I have named, and taken to calling "The Orions Stellae Rubus", because i have associated its strands and beads with the stars and connections of the Ancient star constellation "Orion". Each bead, is dedicated to a particular star within the constellation, in a different particular point way out in space.
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Doing this, is what really gives the stellae rubus, their flair. And i think that i feel better when my prayers are counted on objects that are literally present in physical reality.
Once all that is done, the order of events should look something like this. . .
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Each Bead Represents a Star
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Give The Entrance Prayer to greet the Act of giving Prayer
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Enacting the matter of the first issue at hand along with the matter of the First star
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Each point can be reflected upon a perfect 360 degrees, Each matter has 360 degrees of expression
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I name the Name of the star and then the name of the matters at hand
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If no matters are there to cover the bead, then choose a choice from a list of precontrived prayer values and topics
Going through every 4 or 5 stars, and then make the repeating meditation prayer
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And on through like that until the last star
Saying the ending meditation prayer to close out the prayer.
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Thats it! Thats what prayer with the Stellae Rubus Looks like
If you have interest in Prayer, or Prayer with Prayer beads, Like i said before, I completly reccomend and commend creating your own row of beads. And maybe reading this note, you might have a better idea of how to use and think of the prayer beads as you pray/meditate.
In any case, I hope all of you are happy and at peace within your life whether you have the beads or not.
As always im hoping the best of winds are with you.
Peace to you all. Ed.w
-,-v
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