Nidhogg Bathroom Prayer
Nidhogg Bathroom Prayer:
Attor sitting on my skin,
Sour stain and spirit stench,
Tinkling stream and dropping dung,
From my body murk be free.
River take this rot for me,
Down the drain and to the sea,
Drown to die, decay to feed,
Writhing dark before the dawn.
(Linda says: The second part is said after flushing or draining the bath water. I wrote this as a cleansing prayer for ritual baths, to be rid of
physical and spiritual toxins. I also wanted my waste to be
properly disposed of, not as poison but as fertilizer. Nidhogg
seemed to be the best deity to pray to for this, the one who eats
and removes the rot from the root of the World Tree, keeping it
healthy. I later realized it would work just as well when using the
toilet, so now I use it for that as well as washing. I honor the
powers of rot for their role in the cycle of life. Attor is an Anglo-Saxon word
that means venom, but also poison or disease (bacteria and viruses).
Basically, it meant anything that could make you sick if it got into
you. We have no such modern word, it's lovely, and I'm reclaiming it
for magical uses.)