Even though 15th St. is a busy street it has a very odd and strangely village like feel between 7th and 6th Avenues. Yesterday I watched 2 police officers leisurely pass by on majestic mounts just before twilight, they took their time and the elegance of the horse's motions in time with the sounds of their hooves dominated the block. Today what drew me in were these St. Patrick's Day decorations, whose charm the picture doesn't really capture. I associate leperchauns and green beer with that holiday, because I really don't know much about it.
Today I came across a morning prayer supposedly written by St. Patrick. I never even new there was such a thing as a morning prayer until 2 weeks ago when I was reading a National Geographic article about Lubavitchers in Brooklyn recounting Rabbi Schneerson's charisma. I wonder what it must have been like to hear him talk. I want to go to his grave sometime and look at all the prayer notes that people leave there. Anyway this article mentioned a Jewish morning prayer and I regret that I have never heard one. My mornings have no room for prayer, just rushing around, slogging around, I feel like the day starts before I can find a proper orientation.
I wonder if any Irish people still say St. Patrick's morning prayer:
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven–
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendour of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock
It conjures an image of the scope of the universe you might experience standing on a sea cliff on the Emerald Isle. It doesn't mention God at all, but concocts a picture of gloriousness drawn from the splendor of the elements.
St. Patrick. Who was he?
2 comments:
He drove the snakes out of Ireland that's who he was!
Although Ireland is predominately Catholic, there are lots of pagan/mystical/wiccan influences.. Fairies and stuff like that. I think that's where all the naturalism in the prayers come from. Plus the place is so damn green and misty. There is also a myth that when you are a redhead you are a "pagan". or in other words "TROUBLE"!
See ya at the Brooklyn St. Paddy's parade, always in Windsor Terrace!
Slante
Lisanne
I wonder what kind of snakes those were supposed to be? In myth, of course, they are devil snakes but in reality a few snakes might be good to gobble the mice that eat the grain.
In Ancient Egypt people had to deal with finding poisonous snakes in their houses, cobras, asps....
That may be part of why cats were so sacred to them, because they could kill the poisonous snakes that slithered into your domicile. It's been recorded that people who killed cats, even by accident, were executed in Egypt, and a widely worshipped fertility goddess Bastet appears with a cat's head. Her name means devouring lady and no doubt what she devoured was the Egyptian snakes and their poison.
So this Egyptian Goddess and St. Patrick have a few things in common, including the fact that she is associated with the color green.
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