Prayer beads pre-date Christianity and are theorized to go as far back as ancient China. It's well documented that Hindu and Buddhist Malas predate the Christian/Catholic rosary. So, now that we've got that straight let's makes sure that a Pagan who prays with beads is not mistaken for a Christo-Pagan or labeled as someone who can't "stick to their own stuff". There is no one religion who can claim ownership on the use of prayer beads.
Just in case you were wondering where that came from I was reading this article at the Wild Hunt and the subsequent comments that followed.
"The practice of using counters of various kinds for the purpose of reciting prayers is one that embraces the broad spectrum of historical religions in every age.
The repetitive Asian mantra was always dominant among Buddhist and Hindu monastics that developed circular beads on strings to chant continuously, night and day.
Their beads reflected various colours and substances that had rich, symbolic meaning related to their religious beliefs, including the numbers of beads on any given circlet.
Representations of western pagan religions likewise show worshippers holding what appear to be prayer-beads used for repetitive invocations."
Source: http://www.chotkis.com/history.htm
1 comment:
Hi, I realize that your prayer bead "rant" was posted quite a while ago, but I just read it and I heartily agree. I love having a set of prayer beads and I may often struggle about what kind of people I want to worship with I always know where I stand in my beliefs.
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