One of my priestly goals for the coming year was to do videos for several environmental holidays. I didn’t really have a clear notion of how I would do them, but sort of thought they’d look like other videos I’d done. The first on the list was today, World Water Day, which it turns out is a United Nations initiative (I did not research that in advance of putting it on the list, but I learned a lot researching it after). Check out the World Water Day Prayer Video here.
I didn’t really expect the process of writing to include a “call to action” or anything like that (nor did I expect to be praying to the goddess of the sewers), but here we are, having done those things.
One of the interesting things about Druidry is that the work brings with it a process of action to go with prayers, whether it’s offerings, donations, writing your representatives, or other ritual work. It’s not always clear what you’ll end up with, but it’s often clear that you’ll end up doing more than you expected.
I wandered out into the bog behind my house for the video, which was great; I wanted that backdrop of waters cleansed by natural processes.
I did this video in two takes; the first one, the geese were pretty loud, but that was the only real issue with it. I also used an interesting “double layer” technique on the vocals to make them clear, using Adobe’s new (free) tool to enhance speech. I’ve also put this together as a landscape and a portrait version for a couple of different platforms.
Recording the landscape and portrait versions together let me edit audio only once, which was really helpful in speeding the process through.
Finally, I used Adobe Premiere to both burn in subtitles and craft the caption file (rather than doing it through YouTube), and I found that worked really well (you want to include captions even when you burn in subtitles: captions are responsive and you can change their look to fit your needs, while subtitles that are “burned in” don’t change and can’t be altered).
The prayer to Cloacina was also interesting to write; there’s not a lot of extant material, so I had to work with what I had. I liked how it came out, though.
Prayer to Cloacina for World Water Day
Lady of the Cleansing Stream,
Drawn from the Waters of the Land
And flowing forth from Earth and Sky,
Through you we return what we do not need.
You who have power over filth and waste,
Help us to craft a useful strategy
That purges for ourselves and others,
And brings clean water to the world.
Cloacina, Lady of Sewers,
Cleanse the waters that flow from us,
That they may be filled once more
With benefit and blessing.
So be it.
