Free To Walk a Pagan Path: Practical Spirituality for Every Day by Alaric Albertsson Page B

light on me,
    On field and meadow, on hill and tree,
    Mona who shines so bright above,
    Bless the folk I know and love.
    I direct the moon wish prayer to Mona, the Saxon sover-
    eign spirit of the moon, but it should not be difficult to alter f 70 2
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    the words to reflect your own spiritual path. All you need to
    do is change the name of the moon deity, and perhaps the
    gender if your path perceives the moon as a feminine spirit.
    An eclectic Pagan (someone who does not follow a specific
    path, but instead borrows from different cultures) could even
    direct this in a more generic way, saying “Moon that shines
    its light on me”, and so on.
    DAILY OFFERINGS
    So far we have looked at events that are part of your daily
    routine—awakening, bathing, meals and bedtime—and these
    are only a few examples chosen from those activities we all
    share. I am sure that you can think of other daily events,
    unique to your own routine and lifestyle, that can be sacral-
    ized in ways similar to what has been described here. When
    we evoke the sacred in our normal activities our lifestyles
    become holistic, and every day is transformed into a spiritu-
    al experience.
    Beyond this, there are actions we can take to extend this
    experience even further into our lives. Wicca’s fundamen-
    tal tenets are embodied in the “Charge of the Goddess”,
    an inspirational text attributed to both Gerald Gardner and
    Doreen Valiente, in which worshippers are called upon to
    meet “once in the month, and better it be when the moon is
    full”. But this is minimal participation; nowhere in the short text does it say that Wiccans cannot or should not “dance,
    sing, feast, make music and love” at other times of the
    month. Whatever path you follow, you do not need to wait
    for a special phase of the moon, a sabbat or a high day to
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    honor the spirit realm. You are a spiritual being every day of
    the year!
    One way to acknowledge the spirit realm on a daily basis
    is to make an offering to your house elves. Many Pagan cul-
    tures traditionally prayed and gave offerings to household
    spirits. The Saxons called these spirits cofgodas . The Romans called them lares . European folklore abounds with tales of small, fairy-like beings helping those mortals who show
    them honor and respect.
    From those same tales we know that house elves usually
    appreciate offerings of either milk or baked goods, or both.
    I pour a few ounces of milk into a cup in the evening and set
    this on the mantel over the fireplace. In the morning I pour
    whatever is left (house elves drink surprisingly little) down
    the drain. This is for an ordinary daily offering. If the gift to the house elves is part of a more extensive ritual, the milk is more likely to be left overnight on our household altar. Further, the offering is sometimes a food or drink other than
    milk, although milk is my usual choice for a daily offering.
    If you intend to do this every day, keep it brief. The words
    you speak, if you say anything at all, can be as simple as,
    “Know that you are remembered by me and my household.”
    That, in fact, is exactly what I say when I leave the offering
    for our house elves.
    Some people have told me that their house elves like
    whiskey, ale or another non-dairy beverage; these are usually
    alcoholic. If you sense that your own house elves would like
    something besides milk or cake, try other things. Folklore
    warns us that the one thing you should never give them is
    clothing. The story of the Shoemaker and the Elves, re-told
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    with a variety of different titles over the years, can be traced back at least as far as the early 1800’s when it was published
    by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, but elements of the tale are
    undoubtedly much older. In the Grimm version, a poor shoe-
    maker and his wife find their fortunes begin to change for the
    better when a pair of elves begin secretly assembling shoes in
    the shop