Words of Power

Maiden goddess, holy one,
protector of hills and forest,
protector of mothers in labor,
protector of the buds of infancy,
triple goddess, I invoke you:

bless the trees around my home,
the ones that shade me,
the ones that screen the wind,
the ones that perfume the air.
May they protect me as you do.

How will I thank you?
When I eat flesh, I will thank you.
When I eat fruit, I will thank you.
When I drink clear water, I will thank you.
Your trees will never lack for offerings
as long as I live and breathe,
maiden goddess
triple one
my protector
as long as I live and breathe.

--Horace

Thus most ancient cultures had ritual of thanksgiving, in which the goddess is thanked for the protection she generously affords us. What such ritual will we each perform today?

I always heard my teachers saying, "Please and Thankyou are also words of power." It came up often because so many newcomers to working 'magically' and/or with earth's energies so often forget that, or perhaps assume that, such ordinary words carry no weight in magical circles, (literally).

The assumption is that because there is no grandiose ritual involved in the speaking of the 'thanks' that it doesn't count. Because there is not occult hocus pocus involved in the 'please' that nothing will come of thinking with intent and speaking the simple word. Neither assumption could be further from the truth.

The truth is that thanking the powers, thanking the Old Ones begins with the intent that we carry in our hearts, thus even the most grandiose ritual of thanksgiving means little to nothing if the feeling and emotion of such thanks is not carried witin us. It's like when we talk to the people in the world around us. We can say 'please' and not mean it, or we can say 'thanks'and in the back of our minds, in our human arrogance believe that it is something we deserved anyway, so why should we speak words of thanks. Sadly, many of us are - as a human race - very arrogant, believing we deserve many things that would be better realised if we understood and lived our connection with all life. The need for it is expressed within the line of that charge that urges us to remember 'humility' as well as 'honour' in our lives.

To live humbly, to tread gently upon the earth, to give as well as take, and to remember our Ps and Qs is the essence of, and the heart of, living as a fully connected, fully spiritual individual, and the nice thing about it - the thing most often forgotten - it does not matter what our path, or which is our faith, please and thank you are still words of power.