Three prayers written while on a plane home, after several miracles of luck and timing coinciding to let me catch a flight on far too short a layover. Most prayers I feel very private about, but these felt meant to be shared.
*
Hail Hermes lightfooted, swift-winged!
Hail to the traveler, to the messenger, he of the golden sandals and the silver tongue!
Hail to he to speeds the way, who clears the path, who lightens the load.
Hail Hermes swift-footed, clever tongued, fleetly winged!
Hail to he who aids the foolish, guides and speeds along the way.
Hail the Messenger, he who connects and facilitates all.
Hail his kind heart and laughing eyes.
Hail Hermes, kind to the deserving and undeserving.*
Hail to my lady of the frost and snow, she who descends with the chill of the air.
Hail to she who carries life beneath the earth to slumber till her rise.
Hail Persephone Khthonia, our lady beneath the earth, she who carries the turn of the seasons on her heel.
Keep chill what should be, and let not your mother’s heat wrack the earth and tear it from its slumber.
Let all things lie fallow and recover their strength until the proper time.
Let no life’s green force be wasted, Persephone Karpophoros, my lady of flowers and fruits.
Let the seasons turn in their time and all belong where it falls.
Beg your mother to cool the southern summer that kills bat and stills bird.
Let all happen as it should, in its cycle, in its turn, in its allotted time.
Hail, fair Persephone, cruel and kind, light and dark, above and below and never less than divine.*
Hail the Theoi, gods of our ancestors, gods of our today.
Hail to those brightly burning and to those shrouded.
Hail Zeus, King of heaven, God of lightning, God of xenia.
Hail Hera, queen of heaven, goddess of marriage of family of home.
Hail Hestia, maiden goddess, she of the hearth and the flame.
Hail Apollon, brightly burning, of medicine and sun.
Hail to Hermes, ever laughing, he who parleys between all.
Hail Demeter, fertile mother, she who cares for the life of the soil.
Hail her daughter, Queen Persephone, ruler of dead men underground.
And hail her spring face, Karpophoros, bringing life forth with her rise.
Hail Hephaestus, clever craftsman, overlooked and underestimated.
Hail Aphrodite, child of sea foam, goddess of passions in her right.