![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2014\/03\/296px-Collier-priestess_of_Delphi.jpg\" "\\"296px-Collier-priestess_of_Delphi\\"")
<\/a>I wear many religious hats and fill many religious roles.\u00a0 One of them is priest.\u00a0 I occasionally talk about being a priest of Cernunnos<\/a> and a priest of Danu<\/a>, and I\u2019m ordained<\/a> as a priest in the Universal Gnostic Fellowship.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve read Under the Ancient Oaks for a while, you might get the idea I\u2019m also a priest of Morrigan<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019ve probably written more about Morrigan than any other deity.\u00a0 I\u2019ve made offerings to Her, made requests of Her and received Her blessings.\u00a0 I\u2019ve delivered messages for Her, I\u2019ve led rituals in Her honor<\/a>, and I\u2019ve participated in the initiation of one of Her priestesses<\/a>.\u00a0 I pray to Her every night.<\/p>\n But I am not Her priest.<\/p>\n Our mainstream culture has two primary ideas about priesthood, flowing from the two major strands of Christianity, which is still the dominant religion in the West.\u00a0 The Catholic model says there are some things only a priest can<\/em> do:\u00a0 according to the Catholic Encyclopedia<\/a> \u201cby his ordination a priest is invested with powers rather than with rights.\u201d\u00a0 The Protestant model says that while the clergy has certain rights and responsibilities, any Christian can approach their God about anything.\u00a0 In particular, no intermediary is needed to forgive sins.\u00a0 Both of these ideas influence Pagan thinking about priesthood but neither is adequate.<\/p>\n You can find devotees of various deities going back into the 19th<\/sup> century (and maybe earlier \u2013 this isn\u2019t a historical thesis), and in Gerald Gardner\u2019s original Book of Shadows<\/a> (dated 1949) the first degree initiate is proclaimed \u201cPriestess and Witch of the Gods.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s another (rather Protestant) concept, but it\u2019s not the same as being a sworn priest or priestess of a particular God or Goddess.<\/p>\n In her recent essay on Women in Religious Leadership<\/a>, Niki Whiting pointed out that \u201cPriest\/ess is a skill that may or may not be necessary for one\u2019s tradition!\u201d\u00a0 Last year, Jason Mankey wrote this excellent piece on what it means to be a High Priestess in a Wiccan setting<\/a>.\u00a0 One of these days I\u2019m going to clean up an essay on \u201cwhat is a priest?\u201d I did for my ordination studies and post it here.<\/p>\n For now, and speaking as a devotional polytheist, let me simply say that priesthood is defined not only by what a priest does but also by the nature and structure of the relationship between the priest and the God.<\/p>\n Our differing examples of priesthood (Catholic, Protestant, Wiccan) create confusion for some people coming into devotional polytheism from our wider culture, or even from other forms of Paganism.\u00a0 I hear many people say they feel like they should<\/em> be a priest, or that if they don\u2019t have a patron deity there must be something wrong with them.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a proponent of forming and maintaining strong reciprocal relationships with Gods, and with ancestors and other spirits.\u00a0 But you don\u2019t have to be a priest to pour a libation.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to be a priest to tell the stories of a Goddess.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to be a priest to make a request, or to pay your debts if that request is granted.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to be a priest to hear the call of a God and to respond.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t even have to be a priest to fill the role of a priest in a ritual.\u00a0 Every Summer Solstice for the past ten years I\u2019ve helped lead a temple ritual in honor of the Neteru<\/em><\/a>, the Gods of ancient Egypt.\u00a0 Most years, none of the participants have been priests of any of the Egyptian deities.\u00a0 Based on the results of and responses from these rituals, I\u2019m pretty sure They don\u2019t mind.\u00a0 For reasons known only to Them, They have not claimed any of us as a priest.<\/p>\n When I began working with Cernunnos and later with Danu, the call was early and clear:\u00a0 \u201cbe My priest.\u201d\u00a0 I took vows to Them.\u00a0 When I read those vows now, they seem simple and unsophisticated\u2026 which is appropriate, given my understanding of Them at the time.\u00a0 (I still wouldn\u2019t call my understanding of the Gods \u201csophisticated\u201d but at least now I have a clue as to how much I don\u2019t know.)\u00a0 I have obligations to Them and They have given me a geis<\/a><\/em> \u2013 a minor thing, but it\u2019s important to remember it.\u00a0 There was no explicitly stated time frame for my service, but the expectation was \u2013 and is \u2013 that this relationship will continue for the rest of this life.<\/p>\n When I began working with heavily with Morrigan, I assumed She would also call me to be Her priest.\u00a0 That call has never come.<\/p>\n For a long time that bothered me.\u00a0 I honored Her, I did good work for Her, and I spread Her message of sovereignty<\/a>.\u00a0 Why was that not good enough to be a priest of the Lady of Sovereignty<\/a>?<\/p>\n Eventually the answer came.\u00a0 The Battle Raven wants warriors, and I am no warrior.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a Druid: a bard, a seer, a counselor, at times even a healer.\u00a0 I can support allies with invocations and blessings and I can oppose enemies with satires and imprecations.\u00a0 If it comes down to it I can fight, but not well and certainly not enthusiastically (I trust you understand fighting means more than physical combat).<\/p>\n I am what I am.\u00a0 Not everyone can be a warrior.\u00a0 Not everyone can be a priest of Morrigan.<\/p>\n If She has called you and you are not a warrior, that\u2019s between you and Her.\u00a0 Like all the Gods, She calls who She calls.\u00a0 For me, Her priesthood and warriorship go hand in hand \u2013 accepting one means accepting both\u2026 and trying to become something I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n My debts to Morrigan were squared some time ago.\u00a0 Since then, She\u2019s been less active in my life\u2026 at least in part because the deities who did call me to their priesthood have had work for me to do.\u00a0 But I think \u2013 no, I am certain \u2013 I haven\u2019t seen the last of the Great Queen.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll continue to make offerings to Her, lead rituals in Her honor, tell Her stories, and spread the message of sovereignty.\u00a0 I\u2019ll continue to honor Her in my nightly prayers, and I\u2019ll continue to listen for Her call.<\/p>\n Even though I\u2019m not Her priest.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I wear many religious hats and fill many religious roles. One of them is priest. But in a polytheistic setting, not everyone needs to be a priest, and one need not be a priest of a deity to work with and for Her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":2130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[31,180,29,4,5,8,338,339,147],"class_list":["post-2129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polytheism-2","tag-cernunnos","tag-danu","tag-morrigan","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-polytheism","tag-priest","tag-priestess","tag-priesthood"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>
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