1: Names for God and Chanting
When adapting trinitarian Deanic prayers, I generally substitute the names of the Trinity with Shekhinah, the Divine Presence; Gvirotai, the feminine equivalent of Adonai (which literally means “our lords,” though the plural is a majestic plural and not a literal one), and also a fitting parallel for the emanating of the Janyati (our Ladies) from the Mother; and Ein Sof, the Kabbalistic name meaning “without end.”
But I’m not really a trinitarian, and recently I’ve become more and more enamored with Elah as a name for God as a whole. The name is used in the Tanakh as it derives from Aramaic, in which it’s a masculine word, but it’s also the Hebrew word for “goddess.” There is also just something very beautiful about the name’s simplicity, I find. Shekhinah, Gvirotai, and Ein Sof feel more like titles, where Elah feels like a name. And both ways of addressing Her have their own appropriate uses.
I’ve thought about this recently because, inspired by the Oxonian Rite, I’ve been wanting to start a chanting practice for myself, and it seems more natural to chant a name than a title. Consistent internal chanting throughout the day like the OR describes is hard to keep up at first, but it’s something I would like to work towards.
