I don't live near a large body of water, the ocean, lake or the beach, but thanks to my mom's love off all things beach side and seashell I have plenty of items to choose from for my altar in honor of Neptune. I have placed some coral pieces, seashells, a small dolphin figurine, seahorses, a pewter sand castle, and a small chalice of water. Plus I have lit my go-to incense , Frankincense and Myrrh. My day will be a casual show of respect for the god with candle and incense and incantation.Neptune was the god of water and the sea. Unlike the Greek Oceanus, titan of the world-ocean, Neptune was associated as well with fresh water. Georges Dumézil suggested that for Latins, who were not a seafaring people, the primary identification of Neptune was with freshwater springs. Like Poseidon, Neptune was worshipped by the Romans also as a god of horses, under the name Neptunus Equester, a patron of horse-racing
I found this prayer to Neptune on a Yahoo groups post:
"Gods, who delight in preserving bold ships and turning from them the
perils of windy seas, make smooth and placid these waters, and attend
with good council my vows, let not my words be drowned out by roaring
waves as I pray:
"O Neptune, grand and rare is the pledge we make to You, and in what
we commend into the depths of the sea. Young Maecius it is whose
body we commit to the sea, far from the sight of land, that he, the
better part of our souls, traverses the sea's length and depth (to
the Western Lands).
"Bring forth the benign stars, the Spartan brothers, Castor and
Pollux, to sit upon the horns of the yard arm. Let your light
illuminate sea and sky. Drive off your sister Helen's stormy star, I
pray, and expel it from all the heavens.
"And you azure Nereids of the seas, whose good fortune it was to
attain mastery of the oceans – may it be allowed to name you stars of
the seas – rise up from your glassy caverns near the foaming waves
that encircle Doris, and tranquilly swim circles around the shores of
Baiae where the hot springs abound. Seek after the lofty ship on
which a noble descendant of Ausonians, Celer, mighty at arms, is glad
to embark. Not long will you need to look, for she lately came
across the sea, leading a convoy laden with Egyptian wheat and bound
for Dicarcheis. First was she to salute Capreae and from her
starboard side offer a libation of Mareotic wine to Tyrrhenian
Minerva. Near to her, on either side, circle gracefully around her.
Divide your labors, some to tighten fast the rigging from masts to
deck, while others high above spread forth canvass sails to the
westerly Zephyrs. Still others replace some benches, others send
into the water the rudder by whose curved blade steers the ship.
Another plumbs the depths with leaden weights while others to fasten
the skiff that follows astern, and to dive down and drag the hooked
anchor from the depths, and one to control the tides and make the sea
flow eastward. Let none of the sea green sisterhood be without her
task.
"Then let Proteus of manifold shape and triformed Triton swim before,
and Glaucus whose loins vanished by sudden enchantment, and who, so
oft as he glides up to his native shores, wistfully beats his fish
tail on Anthedon's strand.
"But above all others you, Palaemon, with your goddess mother, be
favourable, if I have a passion to tell of your own Thebes, and sing
of Amphion, bard of Phoebus, with no unworthy quill.
"And may the father whose Aeolian prison constrains the winds, whom
the various blasts obey, and every air that stirs on the world's
seas, and storms and cloudy tempests, keep the North wind and South
and East in closer custody behind his wall of mountain, but may
Zephyr alone have the freedom of the sky, alone drive vessels onward
and skim unceasingly over the crests of billows, until he brings
without a storm your glad sails safe to the Paraetonian haven." ~ P.
Papinius Statius, Silvae 3.2.1-49
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