A prayer stick is a stick-shaped object used for prayer.
For example, the rituals of the Pueblo contain many prayers; thus the Zuñi have prayers for food, health, and rain. Prayer-sticks, that is sticks with feathers attached as supplicatory offerings to the "spirits", were largely used by the Pueblo. These sticks are usually made of cottonwood about seven inches long, and vary in shape, colour, and the feather attached, according to the nature of the petitions, and the person praying. The stick is intended to represent the "god" to whom the feathers convey the prayers that are breathed into the "spirit" of the plumes.
The Hopi Indians had a special prayer-stick to which a small bag of sacred meal was attached. Green and blue prayer-sticks are often found in the Pueblo graves and especially in the ceremonial graves of Arizona.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Famous quotes containing the words prayer and/or stick:
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
—Bible: New Testament Jesus, in Matthew, 6:9-13.
the Lord’s Prayer. In Luke 11:4, the words are “forgive us our sins; for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.” The Book of Common Prayer gives the most common usage, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.”
“Does it stick in our minds as a touchstone
Of learning and la politesse?
For while the old place hadn’t much tone,
Two others we know have got less.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)