Pagan Prayer Beads: Magic and Meditation with Pagan Rosaries [Paperback]

John Michael Greer (Author), Clare Vaughn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

Religions from around the world--Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Islam, and many more, including the Pagan earth religions--use prayer beads as useful guides to remembering prayers and principles. Pagan Prayer Beads by John Michael Greer and Clare Vaughn is a unique and practical introduction to the design, creation, and use of Pagan rosaries, teaching the reader to design and make personal prayer beads for use in myriad spiritual practices. Co-written by a beading expert (Clare Vaughn) and one of the leading lights in modern Paganism (John Michael Greer), this book will garner an eager audience--from beginners to elders--looking for new inspiration in their personal spiritual practice. Beautifully written, instructive, and straightforward, Pagan Prayer Beads is user-friendly and easy to understand. Lovely black-and-white photographs accompany the text to further illustrate the art and craft of Pagan prayer beads. The how-to sections were "tested" by novices to both crafting and "the craft," who found the directions clear and easy to follow. Throughout the book, Greer and Vaughn have included fascinating history and lore as well as crystal properties, Pagan symbology, and deeply meaningful prayers and rituals to use with the rosaries. * 30 lovely black-and-white photos accompany the beading instructions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Michael Greer is the Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America and a widely respected writer and teacher. He is the author of numerous articles and ten books, including Learning Ritual Magic and The Druidry Handbook. He lives in Ashland, Oregon.

Clare Vaughn is a longtime beader who currently makes Pagan rosaries and holds frequent workshops on making and using prayer beads. Clare is an experienced ceremonial magician and a practioner of plant-spirit magic, as well as the co-author of Learning Ritual Magic. She lives in Ashland, Oregon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Weiser Books (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578633842
• ISBN-13: 978-1578633845
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,735 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Earth-Based Religions > Paganism

More About the Author

Born in the gritty Navy town of Bremerton, Washington and raised in the south Seattle suburbs, I began writing about as soon as I could hold a pencil. SF editor George Scithers' dictum that all would-be writers have a million words of so of bad prose in them, and have to write it out, pretty much sums up the couple of decades between my first serious attempt to write a book and my first published book, "Paths of Wisdom", which appeared in 1996. These days I live in Cumberland, Maryland with my spouse Sara; serve as presiding officer -- Grand Archdruid is the official title -- of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), a Druid order founded in 1912; and write in half a dozen nonfiction fields, nearly all of them focused on the revival of forgotten ideas, insights, and traditions of practice from the rubbish heap of history.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learned a lot from this book, May 11, 2007

By 

NyxChik (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pagan Prayer Beads: Magic and Meditation with Pagan Rosaries (Paperback)

I'm an experienced beader, but have never ventured into making rosaries. This book is great for folks who know their way around beads, and probably for beginners too. The authors give practical advice and suggestions, as well as creative ideas for personalizing your rosary. They give detailed information about what materials to use (beads, stringing materials, crimps, etc) and good descriptions of how to make the different designs. My only minor complaint is I wish the pics had been in color (such beautiful designs, and I'm sure they would have looked even better in color), and some pictures of the actual process of making them would have been nice, especially for beginners. But overall a great book that I would definitely recommend!

42 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected. What do I do with the results of my work?, August 24, 2008

By 

K. Page "Scarlet" (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pagan Prayer Beads: Magic and Meditation with Pagan Rosaries (Paperback)

I bought this book in hopes of learning, not just how to create a meaningful and useful personal prayer tool, but also the variety of ways I can use one of these beautiful creations.

What I got, instead, was a book about beading. That's about it. The bulk of the book focuses on how to design and construct a pretty necklace or bracelet or other jewelry, interspersed with personal stories of how others have gone about the asthetic process. There seemed to be no mention or thought about what purpose the final product would serve. Some of the book does touch on various corrospondances that can be easily gained from other books (colors and their associations, gemstones and their uses etc) and there are many examples of how certain beads or charms can be used as symbols, but there is only one chapter, a footnote really of less than 20 pages (out of the 180 pages), on various things to do with the pretty necklace once you've made it.

While the book was written, apearently, by members of the pagan community and contains recipes and tips for constructing Wiccan, Druidic, Goddess and Fairy jewelry, there is hardly a mention of how to use these creations for the "prayer and meditation" mentioned in the title once you've tied and hidden your final knot.

I ask, how can I design a set of prayer beads if I don't have a plan for what I'm going to do with it when I'm done? What purpose is my rosary going to serve etc? This question is left without much guidance or suggestions by the authors... I was very dissapointed considering what I'd hoped for... I would have liked MUCH greater depth in the possible uses for each of the designs as, to me, the purpose dictates the design and rosaries or prayer beads are much more to me than a pretty string of beads.

But if you need a book about bead/charm corrospondances and need some friendly expert advice on how to make beaded pagan jewelry that could possibly be used for prayer and meditation, this might be the book for you.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and uplifting, October 4, 2007

By 

Autumn Butterfly (Jefferson, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pagan Prayer Beads: Magic and Meditation with Pagan Rosaries (Paperback)

This book is a fantastic resource for anyone who has ever considered designing his or her own prayer beads but had no idea where to start, how to work with beading wire, or which types of beads correspond to the specific purpose and/or intent. Different styles and techniques are shown (symmetrical/asymmetrical, for example) and explained in enough detail to help you through, but not enough that it becomes a substitute for your own ideas. The tone and language are uplifting and encouraging.

The only thing I'd change about the book if I could would be the images. As beautiful as the images are, it would be so much more helpful to someone with little to no understanding of color correspondences to actually see specific colors in use.

Even without the color images this is now one of my new favorite books - I will definitely be going back to it when I'm ready to start working a bit more with the beading wire.