Craft Post I: Becoming a Priest/ess
May. 30th, 2011 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabrinamariThis is the first of a series of posts created for some of the Priests and Priestesses with whom I work in Blue Star, FoV and the Gardnerian tribes I have befriended. I want them to have a place to come for my answers to some of the questions they’ve asked me over the last few months. I’m also hoping that sharing the answers here will make it easier for them, since I’m not always around, and at the same time invite other Blue Star Initiates and tribesmen to share their own thoughts and answers to these questions.
I also hope these posts can answer the queries of several Blue Star students while explaining something about Blue Star to my Gardnerian friends. Please remember that I don’t have anything like an exhaustive or definitive set of answers. I just have my answers.
Please also note that I cannot claim that my approach is the original, best, true or right way to do Blue Star. In many ways, it is very different from that of others in my tribe whom I love and respect. Know that I value the experiences, preferences and approaches of other Blue Star Initiates, including the teachings of our elders, and I have no interest in telling anyone what they should or shouldn’t do.
Finally, this language may not work for you. If it doesn’t, feel free to change and adapt it to your own needs and the language of your tribe. If “Priest” or “Priestess” doesn’t work for you, perhaps “Initiate” or “Guide” will. If that doesn’t work, I trust you to find your own words.
****
What is an Initiate? What does a successful Priestess or Priest look like?
Yesterday, my friend and Blue Star student Peggy asked me a question. “Why am I reading a book on psychotherapy?” she inquired, as we discussed the books she had been reading as part of her pre-Dedicant work. “That’s a good question,” I answered. “Let’s go sit at the fire circle in the backyard and I’ll tell you why.”
The book she was talking about is called Grace Unfolding: Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao-te Ching, by Greg Johnson and Ron Kurtz. I assign it as required reading for all of my Neophytes (the point at a Blue Star student’s training in which she or he has decided to pursue 1st Degree Initiation, which in our tradition confers a ministerial status). As the name suggests, it is not a book about Craft, and as far as I know, the authors had no thought of applying their book to the study of Wicca. So, for a Wiccan student on an initiatory path, Peggy’s question was entirely reasonable.
As an answer to Peggy’s question, I told her the following story:
When I came into Blue Star a couple of decades ago, the tradition was still relatively young. The 3rd Degrees with whom I trained were very much still in the process of defining themselves. They were grappling with life-cycle related challenges, traveling a great deal, and at the same time, trying to figure out where the tradition was going. It was a serious challenge, to say the least.
As a student, I loved much of what I saw in Blue Star. I knew that I wanted to stay in the community and train, learning as much as I could about its graceful liturgy and unpretentious, communal approach to Paganism. Still, I had questions. Some of these questions were really important to me, and it bothered me that I could not get a clear, concrete answer to any of them. I don’t think that it was my teachers’ intent to be elusive; I just think they weren’t quite used to my way of thinking. Whenever I asked, “What does an Initiate look like? What characterizes their core behavior?” they heard, “What does an Initiate do? What is the role of an Initiate?”
But these questions were not the same. I didn’t want to know what roles a 1st Degree played, or rather, I didn’t think that was the most important thing I needed to know. I wanted to know what an Initiate was. What made them different from non-Initiates? Why should I invest two to five years to become an Initiate and a Blue Star Priestess?
No matter how I attempted to ask these questions, I couldn’t get a clear answer. The answers I was given always boiled down to the requirements Initiates had to meet or the roles they were expected to play. No one seemed to be discussing the internal transformations that characterized the successfully traveled path to initiation. At this time, no one around me appeared to be grappling with the characteristics that marked a successful Initiate or how one might cultivate them in others.
To make matters worse, the Initiates around me at the time were very, very new, and by the time I had learned enough to begin asking these questions, my teachers’ primary relationship had begun to dissolve. They both became focused---and rightly so---on how they were going to part ways and create new lives for themselves and their children in the midst of a painful separation.
At that time, no matter how I searched, I couldn’t find a clear role model or concrete description of what I was attempting to become.
For a long time, I didn’t get any answers or see any living role models from whom I could extrapolate them.
****
During these years, I was also working on the very early stages of a dissertation and book project on the survival strategies of inner-city HIV-positive women. As part of my preliminary research, I went to an alternative healing conference at the Omega Institute designed for HIV-positive individuals and those working with and for them. One day I spent a little time browsing Omega’s bookstore. Just as I was about to leave, my hands plucked a small book off the shelf. The title said something about psychotherapy and the Tao te Ching. I didn’t know anything about it or have time to look through it, but for some reason, I felt the need to buy it.
When I got home, I began to read it. As I read, I noticed that it took quite an unorthodox approach to therapy---at least, it didn’t describe any kind of therapy I had ever heard of. It also seemed to speak to an audience far wider than just therapists and counselors, despite the title. To me, it almost seemed to describe the work of a committed, caring spiritual teacher or guide.
In that context, the book painted a picture of a very different kind of ministry than I had ever seen enacted around me. Yet, it resonated deeply. Somehow, it felt right. I quickly found that if I substituted the words “Priestess,” “Priest,” or “Minister” for the word “therapist,” it made complete and absolute sense as a guide for counselors and ritual facilitators of diverse traditions. I nearly devoured the book in one sitting. And when I made it to one of the later chapters, I was so surprised at what I saw that it nearly fell out of my hands.
There, in a chapter entitled Simply Being, was a description of what a successful Priestess---a truly powerful and caring Initiate---might look like. The following chapter, Not Striving, described what a successful Priest or Initiate did---not in terms of a specific set of roles or duties, but in terms of the way he or she existed and moved through the world.
This was exactly what I had been looking for. In a handful of pages interspersed by a few quotes from the Tao te Ching, I found a concrete description of the ministerial guide and ritual facilitator I was seeking to become.
****
The next two to three posts, typed up by my wonderful friend Peggy, will include the full text of Simply Being and Not Striving, altered here and there through the replacement of a few specific words. In particular, I always replace the word “therapist,” with “Priestess” or “Priest”. Other replaced terms will be bolded.
Please note that I follow the authors of Grace Unfolding by shifting the gender of the subject from female to male and back in order to include everyone. While this is not a perfect solution (because it replicates the exclusion of those who don’t identify with either category), it is, at least, a stab in the right direction.
An upcoming post will also include a brief, annotated guide to several of the other important chapters of Grace Unfolding, noting what issues they address that might be relevant to an Initiate or Priest.
I hope you’ll take a look.
I also hope these posts can answer the queries of several Blue Star students while explaining something about Blue Star to my Gardnerian friends. Please remember that I don’t have anything like an exhaustive or definitive set of answers. I just have my answers.
Please also note that I cannot claim that my approach is the original, best, true or right way to do Blue Star. In many ways, it is very different from that of others in my tribe whom I love and respect. Know that I value the experiences, preferences and approaches of other Blue Star Initiates, including the teachings of our elders, and I have no interest in telling anyone what they should or shouldn’t do.
Finally, this language may not work for you. If it doesn’t, feel free to change and adapt it to your own needs and the language of your tribe. If “Priest” or “Priestess” doesn’t work for you, perhaps “Initiate” or “Guide” will. If that doesn’t work, I trust you to find your own words.
****
What is an Initiate? What does a successful Priestess or Priest look like?
Yesterday, my friend and Blue Star student Peggy asked me a question. “Why am I reading a book on psychotherapy?” she inquired, as we discussed the books she had been reading as part of her pre-Dedicant work. “That’s a good question,” I answered. “Let’s go sit at the fire circle in the backyard and I’ll tell you why.”
The book she was talking about is called Grace Unfolding: Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao-te Ching, by Greg Johnson and Ron Kurtz. I assign it as required reading for all of my Neophytes (the point at a Blue Star student’s training in which she or he has decided to pursue 1st Degree Initiation, which in our tradition confers a ministerial status). As the name suggests, it is not a book about Craft, and as far as I know, the authors had no thought of applying their book to the study of Wicca. So, for a Wiccan student on an initiatory path, Peggy’s question was entirely reasonable.
As an answer to Peggy’s question, I told her the following story:
When I came into Blue Star a couple of decades ago, the tradition was still relatively young. The 3rd Degrees with whom I trained were very much still in the process of defining themselves. They were grappling with life-cycle related challenges, traveling a great deal, and at the same time, trying to figure out where the tradition was going. It was a serious challenge, to say the least.
As a student, I loved much of what I saw in Blue Star. I knew that I wanted to stay in the community and train, learning as much as I could about its graceful liturgy and unpretentious, communal approach to Paganism. Still, I had questions. Some of these questions were really important to me, and it bothered me that I could not get a clear, concrete answer to any of them. I don’t think that it was my teachers’ intent to be elusive; I just think they weren’t quite used to my way of thinking. Whenever I asked, “What does an Initiate look like? What characterizes their core behavior?” they heard, “What does an Initiate do? What is the role of an Initiate?”
But these questions were not the same. I didn’t want to know what roles a 1st Degree played, or rather, I didn’t think that was the most important thing I needed to know. I wanted to know what an Initiate was. What made them different from non-Initiates? Why should I invest two to five years to become an Initiate and a Blue Star Priestess?
No matter how I attempted to ask these questions, I couldn’t get a clear answer. The answers I was given always boiled down to the requirements Initiates had to meet or the roles they were expected to play. No one seemed to be discussing the internal transformations that characterized the successfully traveled path to initiation. At this time, no one around me appeared to be grappling with the characteristics that marked a successful Initiate or how one might cultivate them in others.
To make matters worse, the Initiates around me at the time were very, very new, and by the time I had learned enough to begin asking these questions, my teachers’ primary relationship had begun to dissolve. They both became focused---and rightly so---on how they were going to part ways and create new lives for themselves and their children in the midst of a painful separation.
At that time, no matter how I searched, I couldn’t find a clear role model or concrete description of what I was attempting to become.
For a long time, I didn’t get any answers or see any living role models from whom I could extrapolate them.
****
During these years, I was also working on the very early stages of a dissertation and book project on the survival strategies of inner-city HIV-positive women. As part of my preliminary research, I went to an alternative healing conference at the Omega Institute designed for HIV-positive individuals and those working with and for them. One day I spent a little time browsing Omega’s bookstore. Just as I was about to leave, my hands plucked a small book off the shelf. The title said something about psychotherapy and the Tao te Ching. I didn’t know anything about it or have time to look through it, but for some reason, I felt the need to buy it.
When I got home, I began to read it. As I read, I noticed that it took quite an unorthodox approach to therapy---at least, it didn’t describe any kind of therapy I had ever heard of. It also seemed to speak to an audience far wider than just therapists and counselors, despite the title. To me, it almost seemed to describe the work of a committed, caring spiritual teacher or guide.
In that context, the book painted a picture of a very different kind of ministry than I had ever seen enacted around me. Yet, it resonated deeply. Somehow, it felt right. I quickly found that if I substituted the words “Priestess,” “Priest,” or “Minister” for the word “therapist,” it made complete and absolute sense as a guide for counselors and ritual facilitators of diverse traditions. I nearly devoured the book in one sitting. And when I made it to one of the later chapters, I was so surprised at what I saw that it nearly fell out of my hands.
There, in a chapter entitled Simply Being, was a description of what a successful Priestess---a truly powerful and caring Initiate---might look like. The following chapter, Not Striving, described what a successful Priest or Initiate did---not in terms of a specific set of roles or duties, but in terms of the way he or she existed and moved through the world.
This was exactly what I had been looking for. In a handful of pages interspersed by a few quotes from the Tao te Ching, I found a concrete description of the ministerial guide and ritual facilitator I was seeking to become.
****
The next two to three posts, typed up by my wonderful friend Peggy, will include the full text of Simply Being and Not Striving, altered here and there through the replacement of a few specific words. In particular, I always replace the word “therapist,” with “Priestess” or “Priest”. Other replaced terms will be bolded.
Please note that I follow the authors of Grace Unfolding by shifting the gender of the subject from female to male and back in order to include everyone. While this is not a perfect solution (because it replicates the exclusion of those who don’t identify with either category), it is, at least, a stab in the right direction.
An upcoming post will also include a brief, annotated guide to several of the other important chapters of Grace Unfolding, noting what issues they address that might be relevant to an Initiate or Priest.
I hope you’ll take a look.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-05-30 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-30 10:36 pm (UTC)Love you.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-30 10:39 pm (UTC)Thank You
Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-05-30 11:24 pm (UTC)Different toolboxes for different Priests, I suppose.
Re: Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-05-30 11:39 pm (UTC)And nyx, I need your voice and onyx's voice in our community. Your commitment to the safe-keeping of a more conservative approach frees me to specialize in my own.
There can be no heterodoxy without orthodoxy, right? : )
Re: Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-05-31 12:17 am (UTC)Re: Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-05-31 12:36 am (UTC)Re: Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-05-31 04:28 pm (UTC)I feel this too.
Re: Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-05-31 04:35 pm (UTC)Re: Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-05-31 08:00 am (UTC)Re: Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-05-31 10:55 am (UTC)I feel similarly. How did WE (
Re: Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-05-31 04:38 pm (UTC)"Conservative" and "orthodox" are just not right.
What I mean is this: I love this tradition, and I am married to it and to my Blue Star tribe, but first and foremost, I am an agent of transformation and change.
Therefore, this tradition is one of the most important channels through which I do my work, the ministry I offer this world. I facilitate transformation in those who enter my vision, and I do it not as an authority figure or director, but as a midwife to their own needs, desires and processes.
My highest calling is not to this tradition, although I love it.
It is to the highest flowering, the most powerful, beautiful forms of the people and organizations who come into my purview that I am ultimately most loyal.
Thus, the tradition is ultimately a tool for my greater work.
And this is not true for many of the Initiates around me, or at least, I don't think so. Many of them are Keepers of the Trad in all its glory, in its rich, symbolic detail, in the tremendously complex kaleidoscope of its paradigm. It is to them I bow when I need to know details of this breathtakingly beautiful form. Without form, spirit cannot flow, and no transformation is possible.
Yet for me, form is always malleable, and must be so, if I am to achieve my broadest purpose.
But without the Keepers of Form and Tradition, I am sunk.
I am a luxury grown by a slowly maturing Tradition that now has room for me, but I am *not* the first-line or second-line guard that generated and now preserves it.
Re: Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-05-31 07:40 pm (UTC)Re: Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-06-07 08:10 pm (UTC)Re: Not Buddhist
Date: 2011-06-07 08:22 pm (UTC)There's certainly a lot of similarity in technique and practice...
no subject
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