Eleanor Wiley - A String and a Prayer: How to Make and Use Prayer Beads

A String and a Prayer is an important little book a spiritual history, a primer of prayer forms, a treasure house of understanding. There is no one who cannot benefit from this book.

JOAN CHITTISTER, OSB, author of Illuminated Life and In Search of Belief

Eleanor Wiley and Maggie Oman Shannon show us that a fine answer to the question of how to pray is found in our fingertips. People throughout the ages have known what many of us are relearningthe things we touch and see and finger can bring the unseen near.

REBECCA LAIRD, editor of Sacred Journey: The Journal of Fellowship in Prayer

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to all who are interested in the subject of prayer.

RON ROTH, author of Reclaim Your Spiritual Power

First published in 2002 by

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

500 Third Street, Suite 230

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2002 Eleanor Wiley and Maggie Oman Shannon

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN:978-1-59003-010-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wiley, Eleanor.

A string and a prayer : how to make and use prayer beads / Eleanor Wiley and Maggie Oman Shannon.

p. cm.

Includes bibiographical references.

ISBN 1-59003-010-9 (pbk.)

1. BeadReligious aspects. 2. Prayer. I. Oman Shannon, Maggie,

1958 11. Title

BL619.B43 W55 2002

291.37dc21

2002005704

How-to figures in chapter 3 and cover illustrations by Sylvia Bennett.

Cover and workshop photos by Donna Sall Morgan.

Sacred Wheel illustration by Graham Tattersall.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the following people for permission to reprint their work:

Coleman Barks for Only Breath from The Essential Rumi, copyright 1995

Tami Briggs for her poem on page 117

Jennifer Tattersall for her poem on page 110

Typeset in Requiem

Text design by Joyce C. Weston

Cover design by Laura Shaw Design

Printed in Canada

TCP

10 9 8 7 6 5

www.redwheelweiser.com

www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter

To Colette and all the young people of the Balkans who think of me as a grandmotherthey are the hope of the world.

EW

This book is dedicated to my precious friend Molly Starrand to all those like her who so lovingly and freely share their kindness, encouragement, creativity, and beauty with the world.

MOS

T he use of prayer beads, like all spiritual practices, taps in to deep mysteries that unfold with time. Just as the act of touching each bead happens in succession, so too is there an inherent progression, or evolution, to one's experience of prayer beads. Both of usEleanor and Maggiehave been and continue to be joyfully surprised by what the creation and use of prayer beads offers. Truly they seem to have a life of their own. In this book we share many stories of people whose lives have been changed through prayer beads, beginning with our own.

Eleanor began her life as an artist at age fifty-eight. While working as a speech pathologist in long-term care, Eleanor's friend Betty asked her to make some beaded necklaces for a show in 1994. Instead of saying she couldn't, Eleanor said she didn't know howa slight twist of language that would change her life. With a little instruction, Eleanor made several necklaces. To her surprise, they sold.

On a trip to Bali soon after that, she found what is known as a Goddess of Transition (see photo below), a ritual object made of fossilized ivory with an opal navel. It turned out to be a very important amulet. Since Eleanor knew that she would need to find a new job when she returned home, she wanted that carved goddess to remind her of change, so she incorporated it into a bead necklace. Once in her new office, Eleanor was astonished when her new boss looked at Eleanor's beads and said, I have to have that. Eleanor said she couldn't, but her boss persisted. Finally Eleanor said, You don't even know how much it costs, to which her boss replied, I don't care! Now that made Eleanor stop and think. At dinner with friends, Eleanor told this story and they all promptly asked, Well, do you want to be an artist? If you want to be an artist, you just put a price on the piece and she writes you a check! So Eleanor named a price, and her boss paid it.

GODDESS OF TRANSITION. Fossil mastodon with opal, jade, stone, fossil, Alaska coral, and sterling silver.

Her first work as a bead artist had passed through her hands. She could not have foreseen what was to come. Eleanor says now, It all started with that Goddess of Transitionand how complete the transition was! A week after selling that piece, Eleanor heard from one of her sisters, with whom she had not spoken for five years. The sister had sad news: she had been diagnosed with cancer.

The call was very brief, leaving Eleanor with all sorts of thoughts and questions about how to deal with this information. A few days later, Eleanor received a brochure in the mail for a Spirituality and Aging conference in the city where her sister lived. She knew that exhibitors presented at these conferences because she had attended one before. With her sister's condition compelling her to visit, she decided to register with the conference at the same time and display and sell her beaded necklaces. Thus, her new career was launched.

In the beginning, Eleanor was just making and selling hand-strung jewelry. But one day, when she was preparing a talk on meditation, she decided to look up the word bead and found that it is derived from the Anglo-Saxon bidden (to pray) and bede (prayer). The necklaces she had been creating evolved into the prayer beads that they had really been all along. Eleanor began a new life as an artist, making the decision that she would only show her beads at conferences where she can also talk about prayer, meditation, and present-moment practice.

Prayer beads are so meaningful to Eleanor because they ground us in the present moment, enabling total absorption into the here and now. She also relishes the inevitable surprise when she finishes making a piece, for she never knows beforehand what it will look like. Like our experiences of life, eventsand beadsdon't always turn out as we plan. For Eleanor, making prayer beads serves as both a meditation practice and a gift.

More than that, she's awed by how prayer beads have opened doors in her life, sometimes literally. Taxi drivers, sales clerks, people in the streets have stopped to inquire about the prayer beads Eleanor wears, creating openings for spontaneous conversations about spirituality. The beads help us to cut through the superficial and get right down to the most personal and meaningful aspects of our lives, says Eleanor. And the beads transcend religions, which is what makes them so exciting. For Eleanor, her prayer beads have served as stepping-stones, leading her from a career she'd practiced for thirty years to an unforeseen arena of international travel, artistic expression, and spiritual communionat an age when most people contemplate retirement.