A lot of Pagans are hesitant to use the word prayer since it's so strongly connected with Christianity in modern western culture. But really, one of the things many of us do in our spiritual practice is pray. Prayer has been around a lot longer than Christianity has.

What is prayer? At its most basic, it's a conversation with a deity. In Ariadne's Tribe, we pray a lot, although often we simply call it talking with deity.

Language is a fundamental way that humans communicate, how we connect, and it's what we largely use for prayer - though there is a sense in which music, action, and even emotion can be prayer.

For the moment, though, let's talk about the language-y kind.

Prayer can be casual or formal, spoken out loud or silent, rote or off-the-cuff.

A few paragraphs ago, I described prayer as a conversation with a deity: you talk to the gods. The thing is, the most important part is what happens after you talk, when you stop talking and listen.

A lot of people have trouble figuring out how to pray, or at least, how to get started. That's where pre-fab prayers can be helpful, like the devotionals from my book Labrys & Horns:

Pre-written prayers such as devotionals can help you get over the inertia of "How should I start?" or "What should I say?" And given that Tribe spirituality, like other types of polytheism, has so many deities to choose from, a devotional can help you key in to a specific deity's energy and connect with them more readily - like tuning to the correct radio station (remember radio?).

But you don't need a prefab prayer. You can literally just begin by calling the deity's name. I like to identify myself as well, then launch into whatever topic I want to share with them. If you're old enough to remember Judy Blume's books, her title "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" is a pretty basic way to begin a prayer.

Then, when I'm done talking, I listen.

To me, that's the most important part, listening until I'm sure I've heard what they're trying to get across to me. Some people call this the "god-phone." And sometimes it's more like string and tin cans than 5G.

But practice makes it easier to hear, I promise.

And through all of it, I'm reminded of something the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart wrote: "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was thank you, that would be enough."

Enough indeed.