Kirt A. White posts a daily tarot card in the Shaman group I admin. He seldom posts anything else but when he does it is often deeply insightful for sharing perspective. Today he posted this about the High Priest/High Priestess: My personal thoughts on what it takes to be a High Priest or High Priestess. I am using HP/s as a catchall term for spiritual leaders of town village and tribe. this could include Shamans, Medicine men, Hedge witch, etc.... Yes While High Priest/ess is a position of high honor, it is first off a life style. What defines a High priest/ess is how they live their lives by their faith. For many small communities the spiritual leaders life involved a lot more than running a spell circle and telling others what to do; most didnt even do that. You had to gather your herbs and make all your own tools of the trade. In many places you would also be the village doctor, midwife, metal-smith, or potter depending on the resources of the village and what the customs of give and take were with the spirits of the area. You lived your life in service to your community and in turn, as payment, they would see to the needs you had that you yourself could not readily attain. You were given the respect you were due because you earned it by the way you lived, and you lived for the community not the other way around. Really to claim the title of High Priest in any path would not be worth it if you werent willing to do all the work from the beginning. Things seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way and now finding a High Priest or Priestess that really lives the path they have chosen is difficult at best. After weeding out the obvious power hungry cult leaders, you have to look out for the ones who do not seem interested in your life outside the ritual grounds, then the pretentious ones whose only claim to power are what they say they were in a previous life, and then the ones that say they were initiated but have no clue about anything and seem way too young for the position. After weeding all those out you have to be able to work with the person so finding someone with a compatible personality is really a plus. Of course how does a solitary go about proving S/he is capable when there really isnt a way to prove it. Just because youre self-taught doesnt mean you cant Be a High Priest/ess. If having someone else initiate you into that position is really that important then I would think the easiest way would be to find someone that follows a similar path and work up an initiation with, them so they can see how far you have come and they can tell if you are really ready. How many people do you know (especially those calling themselves High Priest or High Priestess) who actually live the role?
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 21:51:10 +0000
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