Celtic Soul Prayer Beads
“My beads have become my constant companions as I go through the day. ”
I AM NOT CURRENTLY OFFERING CUSTOM ORDER PRAYER BEADS - THANKS.
The Birth of Celtic Soul Prayer Beads
I’ve always felt the steady rhythm of beads moving through your fingers comforting as they introduce a regularity, a heartbeat which calms my racing mind. From Catholic Rosary beads as a child or in later years rounds of mala beads provided this route yet neither fitted as they weren’t my tradition.
While I am only vaguely familiar with traditional Celtic prayer beads – the Paidirinean, I was drawn to create Celtic Soul Craft Prayer Beads.
My Tradition
Celtic Soul beads are born from my tradition which involves a deep communication with the land and a relationship with the ancestral energies of that place. My culture is a circle culture which stretches back through generations of wise women, of women who knew the thresholds of life and death and carried the stream of their ancestor’s voices. Ancestors who were weavers, drummers and singers – women versed in herbalism, stone medicine and doll making, women whose language was ritual and ceremony, women who danced between the worlds.
“Thank you again for crafting something so powerful and full of medicine and magic ”
The Symbolism of the Beads
The circle the beads form is based on the Wheel of the Year and the eight festivals. It is the great cycle of birth, death and rebirth which honors the great mystery.
The Pendant – The set begins with the pendant which sets the tone and insight for the set
Step Beads – Three silver beads. I think of these three beads as steps we take on the way to a place of worship, it might be steps out to a favorite tree, preparing for meditation, or the familiar steps into a shrine or temple.
Mystery Bead – The mystery bead is usually the largest bead in the set, it invites us to consider the mystery that exists in all things and is the source of everything. It also invites us to let go of everything we know, of expectations and step into the mystery.
Circle of Beads – The beads are divided up into eight sections which represent the eight festivals of the wheel of the year. Each section has 5 beads which adds to a total of 40 beads.
Threshold Beads – These are the beads which sit between the festivals, are on the threshold of each of the festivals
“Powerful and beautiful soul practice tools. Working with these beads in my hands I can feel the strength, love, and intention in their creation”
“I love this hag stone - it has an ancient skull-like feel to it. Rather than select beads to I asked Jude to listen to the stone to create the prayer beads. The gorgeous finished set - all white beads- was accompanied by Jude’s note about the “beloved bones.” I was thrilled that Jude translated the essence of what I saw in the stone to the entire set of beads. The work is, as always, beautiful and filled with reverence! Thank you, Jude!!”
Ways to Use Your Celtic Soul Prayer Beads
Breathing Into the Circle
Each person is invited to find their own meaning. My main use of these beads is to pick them up and begin the pilgrimage with my fingers around the circle. As I begin to think about the circle I’m traveling I imagine breathing into that circle, it is a circle which holds all the mystery of life. I breathe out what I’m holding and want to release and then breathe in from the circle – it’s one of the few things that quiets my mind and lets me connect to the vastness of life with its thousands of connections. I find this is a wonderful morning meditation to root you into the day.
Other ways of Using the Prayer Beads:
You could consider using a chant, or simply a few words which offer the essence of the particular holy day or to represent a situation or how you fell or wish to feel.
You may simply wish to use the beads with your own chant/prayer (such as protection, intention, gratitude)
Use them while walking, in ritual or in quiet time at your altar
Work with them in creating your intentions at new moon
Concentrate on the symbolism of the particular holyday of the place on the wheel you’re currently at
Care For Your Prayer beads
It’s best not to leave your prayer beads hanging on something as a way of displaying them as this can weaken the silk thread. I’d also minimize getting them wet.
13 Moon Finger Prayer Beads
These smaller sets of prayer beads are specially designed for keeping in your pocket. The idea for these beads came about with wanting a more portable and smaller version of the larger set of prayer beads. There are 13 beads related to the 13 moons of the year.
We are pulled by the waxing and waning of the moon - plant your intentions by the dark moon and explore them again by the light of the full moon. The beads can comfort as they offer the same circle as the larger set, a circle to breath and ground into and allow ourselves to ground and know we have the strength of our ancestors with us in whatever we might be facing.
Bone Mother - 13 Moon Prayer Beads
The ‘Bone Mother’ prayer beads tap into the lineage of your most ancient foremothers. These Bone Mothers are your bone ancestors - so far in time, you don't know their names or their stories. Yet you carry their wisdom and their insight - which is knitted into your bones, it sings in your blood and pulls on your imagination and whispers to you in your dreams.
These beads were carved from ancient bones perhaps by an ancient foremother herself who said prayers, uttered incantations and sang chants over each bead. The beads were made over a 13 moon phase and she strung them together with deer sinew.
As you hold them in your hand they are an invitation to work with the cycle of the moon, your Bone Mother lineage and a deep connection to your souls' purpose on this planet and the work you do in the world. Work that benefits you and your community, work which makes a difference in the world.
