Listening to Goddess-God-the Divine
6.4 Praying in Color as a Contemplative Practice
To introduce the practice of praying in color, I invite students to meditate on the phrase “Tree of Life.” In sharing their reflections, students note the tree’s yearly life cycle. Collectively, they describe how the trunk, limbs, branches, and leaves are all part of a living system and how the tree stretches up toward the heavens while still rooted in the earth. Afterward, I show the “Contemplative Tree of Life” and describe some of the branches representing different ways to listen to the Divine through contemplative practices.[1]
As we move into the last hour of our three-hour class, I pass out card stock paper and crayons and sense the energy level of the class perk up. I begin narrating. Tonight, we introduce one more way to listen to the Divine called praying in color. First, let’s watch a short video clip from Sybil Mac Beth to introduce the idea of praying in color.[2] Notice in the video that she doesn’t like to pray formally but enjoys doodling.[3] While doodling one day, she wrote the name of a sick friend inside of her doodle and then continued making doodles and coloring around the name. Afterward, she realized she was praying for the person as she doodled. She was praying in color! When we finished watching the video, I grin and invite, “Let’s have some fun and ‘doodle around’ while listening to the Divine.”
To begin praying in color,[4] I instruct students to write their symbol for the Divine in the center of the page and draw a circle around it. I suggest they add their name and the names of anyone else they would like to connect with. After writing the names, I recommend that they listen to the Divine for inspiration, adding whatever artwork they feel is appropriate (e.g., shapes, landscapes, animals, other symbols, and colors). After about five minutes, I ask the students to wrap up their drawings, but they protest, “We need more time to doodle!” I provide another five minutes for them to doodle with the Divine. Then, we share our pictures in small groups. Those who want to share their artwork with the larger class. Their designs are so beautiful. Hearing the stories behind the designs, I could see how they were listening to the Divine as they doodled and prayed in color.
Praying in Color Practice
- First, gather the materials—a blank paper and crayons or other colorful drawing instruments (e.g., colored pencils, markers, or pens).
- Next, provide a comfortable and relatively quiet environment where you can invoke a sense of Divine presence (e.g., light a candle, burn incense, take a few deep breaths . . .).
- Write a word or symbol to represent your meaning of the Divine in the center of the page.
- Write another word or symbol to represent youself.
- Visually connect the symbol for the Divine with the symbol for yourself.
- Add other people you want to pray for to the picture with words, symbols, and connections.
- Finally, add creative elemen