I think everybody on the globe, in every faith practice, has memorized exactly two prayers: help me help me help me and thank you thank you thank you.
Those are shockingly unspecific and lacking in detail considering whatever dramatic circumstances have prompted them, but the energy both carry supersedes what can be coaxed into words, in each instance.
What are we doing when we are praying, though? We don’t get a receipt for praying, an email confirmation, or a return text. It is technically an act of petition or praise to the Divine, with only silence to follow; unless we’ve trained ourselves to look for signs of response or to be fine without them.
If I pray earnestly, I have accepted that the shift I hope for will come into my awareness, or that I will take it on faith my appeal was heard and is at work in a way I am not able to see at this time. Without physical guarantee of satisfaction, our prayers are an unconditional engagement that assumes whatever happens will ultimately be for the best.*
The Star card, in Tarot, is similarly a card of faith and the assurance that, every night as we look at the stars, something looks back even though it seems silent and unfathomably far away.
We don’t have to engage with the Divine by use of already written prayers, and there is nothing preferable about these over spontaneous prayer. The Robinsons did both. The difference between a prayer you repeat consistently, and a prayer that flies out of your mouth when you are moved to utter it, is that the written prayer functions like a GPS recording your most used routes instead of having to input them each time.
I’ve written a Robinsonite Creed, and a Morning Prayer, and now this Evening Prayer because all three of them help me keep it in the road during the day and then remember to close the garage door at night.
Because they are calm, scheduled prayers, I can include all the details about my spiritual goals and aspirations that I might leave out in a prayer for a more urgent time, and I appreciate the clear architecture of that. These prayers, or something like them that you write for your own needs, might be worth your time, too.
Robinsonite Evening Prayer
Divine Creator, Hand of Providence,
Ahead the night, the stars, the harbor.
The events of the day stowed or jettisoned,
the ropes stored and the decks cleared,
to the best of my ability.
I ask for rest and a clear horizon behind and before.
I ask calm waters to bring me dreams and messages,
and the maps of stars, tides, and birds
to navigate the course ahead.
May my ship at anchor be still.
May the lights above me shine undimmed
through the long night,
and may I wake rested,
fit to raise the sails for another day.
Ahoy.
*Of course, there are conditional and transactional prayers but I’m not talking about those; because, as I see it, those are spells and energy workings.
