Pagan Paths


PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.

  • Home
    Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
  • Tags
    Tags Displays a list of tags that have been used in the blog.
  • Bloggers
    Bloggers Search for your favorite blogger from this site.
  • Login
    Login Login form

My Prayer Card Project

 

 

While I’m updating my readers here about recent additions to my work (Wyrd Ways Radio), I figured I should also tell you about my current prayer card project.

We don’t have enough devotional images. This is what I decided one fine day about two months or so ago. I’d just commissioned a painting of the Norse moon God Mani (I have such a God-crush on Him lol) and on a whim, gained permission from the artist to use this image (http://krasskova.weebly.com/9/category/mani/1.html) as a prayer card. The artist, V.E. Hardy, was kind enough to provide me with a high quality jpg of the image and thus the prayer card project was born.

At first I was only going to create cards of Norse Deities, but it wasn’t too long before my Kemetic and Hellenic friends started asking me to include their Gods as well so now it’s pretty much a free for all.  To date, I have the following cards ready, made, and in my hot little hands all set to ship out:

Norse Deities: Freya, Sigyn, Loki, two images of Odin, Mani, Sunna, Bragi, Idunna, Hela, Skadhi

Greek Deities: Dionysos

Kemetic Deities: Sekhmet

I have a second Freya, a second Mani, Aphrodite, Hermes, Brigid, Frigga, Sif, Fulla, two images of Eir, Ariadne, Bast, Thor, and Hathor currently in production.  I’ll be commissioning another Loki at some point too since the image I’m using now (while my favorite) is Rackham’s image of Loki rising from the flames and it’s difficult to get a decent jpg (though the image is in common domain).  

I intend to do all of Frigga’s retinue, Heimdall, Ran, Aegir and Their daughters at the very least as well as the twelve Olympians. I’ve been asking folks to email me if you desperately want an image of your Deity and would like to see Him or Her included here. I do take requests.

Each card has an image on one side and a prayer on the reverse. I’ve been laminating them, but with the next set of cards, I’m not going to be doing that anymore. Instead, I’ll be printing them on thick, high quality paper that is very sturdy and frankly, looks better than lamination.

I’m also opening this up for people to help fund. Here’s how the process works: I first contact an artist and negotiate with him or her for an image. Then I *pay the artist* for the rights to use that image. Some artists have been kind enough to donate their artwork for free and while I really, really appreciate that (and it’s a worthy donation to the Deity being pictured, I think) I don’t expect it.

Then, I wait and wait and wait and try not to bug the artists while they work on their images. This is the hard part! I’m an Aries. I’m impatient.

Finally, once I have the jpg of the image (regardless of what medium the image has been done in I need a high quality jpg) I send that over to my printer. I use a local printer because I like to support local businesses too. This particular printer is pretty quick and it usually only takes a couple of days until the cards are ready to go.

This is not an inexpensive process. All told, each card costs about $350 to make from start to finish, sometimes more depending on what medium the artist chooses to use. I pretty much sell them for cost.

So, if you’re interested in sponsoring a card (I will include your name on the back with the other credits), or making a donation to this project, please contact me at tamyris at earthlink.net and let’s talk.  One need not sponsor an entire card from start of the process to finish either. I’m encouraging folks to do what you can do.

In the meantime, check out the assortment of cards currently available: http://krasskova.weebly.com/prayer-cards-for-sale.html.

I really do think we need more devotional images of all kinds of our Gods. If I could paint or sculpt, I think that’s all I’d do. I’ve always found prayer cards and other ephemera of devotion to be beautiful and useful touchstones throughout the day. I even collect them.  I think it’s good to feed the eyes and heart on images of our Gods. We have no prohibition otherwise after all, and feeding the heart fires the imagination and in my opinion, leads to a deeper increase in devotion. This is all good. So if you don’t like my images, make your own. I’d love to see more things like this out there. And if you’re an artist interested in contributing in some way to this project, please feel free to contact me.

 

Ashe, folks.

 

Last modified on

 Galina Krasskova is a Heathen priest, author, and Northern Tradition shaman. She holds a Masters degree in Religious Studies and is currently working toward a PhD in Classics. Galina is the author of several books including “Essays in Modern Heathenry” and “Skalded Apples: A Devotional Anthology to Idunna and Bragi.”
(Photo by Hudson Valley photographer Mary Ann Glass.)

Comments

Additional information