The Hundred-Handed Three Power Ritual

O three children of Earth, I honor your strength with reverence.
Briareus, your name rises first in my voice without diminishing your brothers.
Kottos, I honor the force that the old singer gave your many arms.
Gyes, I honor the firmness with which your name completes the three.
Earth bore you beneath the broad roof of Sky; no small measure can contain that birth.
Yet I will not confuse vastness with goodness simply because it is vast.
Teach my courage to begin with honest knowledge of its own reach.
Let each power in me answer to a purpose I can state in daylight.
May I lift no burden merely to be seen lifting it.
May the work that is mine be carried faithfully to its end.
I greet three beings, not a single nameless force.
Their names remain distinct in the unity of this prayer.

From bonds into light your strength came.
Hesiod remembers a long confinement under the earth.
He remembers Earth advising Zeus that your release would answer an unfinished struggle.
A hidden gift can become a grief when it is denied every worthy use.
A freed gift can become a danger when no principle governs its use.
Let neither captivity nor reckless escape rule my understanding of strength.
Where another is unjustly restrained, let me recognize the wrong.
Where I am able to help, let my help be careful and lawful.
Where a boundary protects the vulnerable, let me keep it intact.
Briareus, Kottos, Gyes, receive honor for the passage the poet records.
Zeus, let wise counsel open only the doors that should be opened.
Let gratitude follow every release that leads to life.

Zeus, let strength walk with justice.
The war in Hesiod is terrible, and the poem does not soften its thunder.
It gives the three brothers a place beside the Olympians when the long contest turns.
I honor the alliance, not the ruin that any war brings to living hearts.
Let me learn the moment when cooperation is more powerful than solitary pride.
Let me distinguish loyalty from obedience to an unworthy command.
May the strong hear counsel before they act.
May the weak be heard before decisions are sealed.
Let my own hands join others in a task whose end can be defended.
Briareus, Kottos, Gyes, mighty allies, receive my deliberate praise.
Zeus, keep power intelligible to the justice it claims to serve.
May firmness and restraint dwell together in my conduct.

O guardians, you keep the boundary in fidelity.
The ancient gates are not an ornament placed before an empty dark.
Hesiod gives them a wall, a threshold, and those entrusted to watch.
I do not ask to pass beyond the gate.
I honor the labor of staying when watchfulness is difficult.
Let patience be counted among the forms of strength.
Let a promise have a keeper who remembers why it was made.
Let an entrusted boundary protect rather than flatter the one who holds it.
Kottos, Gyes, and Briareus, receive honor in the several places the song assigns.
May I neither abandon a rightful post nor claim a post that is not mine.
May the vulnerable sleep because a faithful hand remains awake.
May my own doors be opened and closed with discernment.

I bring my own hands to good work.
The poet's hundred hands belong to the sons of Earth; these two are mine.
I cannot carry the weight of a cosmos, but I can carry an honest share.
I can repair what I have damaged and ask help where I need it.
I can build, defend, lift, write, and release with care.
Let the memory of the three brothers enlarge my courage without swelling my pride.
Let the gate remain in its place and my dwelling remain in mine.
Briareus, Kottos, and Gyes, receive thanks for the image of loyal strength.
Zeus, keep my labor proportionate to justice and time.
May the first task after this rite be small enough to begin.
May it be worthy enough to finish.
I turn to the living day with both hands free.