The Low Down
From everything I have read online and in books as well as seen over various media, priest work is not something to be taken lightly. It's similar to being a godspouse in terms of devotion but at the same time, it is much different. There's a lot of reading and learning to do, you're devoting your entire life and practice, plus it takes a fair amount of training. From what I have gathered, there's 15 topics that a priest follows but there's nothing saying that you have to follow all of it; some people pick and choose according to needs and talents. I am a priest in training for Fenrir and not only is there still so much that I have to learn, but Fenrir and I have agreed that it's not needed for me to cover all topics in my duties.
What Is a Priest and What To Expect
Almost everywhere upon reading, says that a priest is essentially a leader or a teacher. Anyone regardless of age, gender, or spirituality can become a priest but as I've stated, it isn't for the weak of heart and if a deity comes forward to ask you to fill the role, you should think long and hard first.
If you do happen to accept the role, you'll begin the training which takes a while to complete with lots of ups and downs. You'll most likely spend a lot of time reading and working on your abilities. Why all the reading? Well that's because one of the roles of a priest is to be a mentor and a teacher, both of which you need to know a lot of information. Whether that's about the deity that you're training hard for or if its on certain topics like astral travel or herbology. If you're the priest of your coven or you're acting as a priest for your deity online, chances are people will come to you for help, have questions that an experienced person can answer, or you're a mediator for talks between a practioner and a deity. In some covens, there are sometimes different levels and kinds of priests.
Roles of a Priest
As I mentioned, a priest is a leader, oftentimes the head of a coven or using their role to help others through various forms of media. With leadership, essentially you'd be in charge of rituals and much of the spell work. You'll be setting up rituals for the sabbats, knowing when to do spells that may involve the whole coven and tasked with setting them up; maybe writing the spell or starting it while the others lend their energy.
There's also a teaching aspect to priesthood. This includes teaching new members or less experienced individuals. This is where a majority of your knowledge and book reading is most likely to go towards and you'd need to be comfortable with helping and teaching people. Often, this ties in with a leadership role. For myself, I've been slowly trying to teach people about different subjects as I myself, learn them. I've also been asked to help teach people about Fenrir, which is common for priesthood; to teach others about your deity and especially if there's very little information about them.
Often, you could be in charge of the coven's or family's altar/shrine and leaving them offerings. Maybe you lead others in your group to leave out offerings at a specific time or just simply the main one to keep the space tidy. A common example would be a Christian shrine or following examples through history; although I don't think this is the most common practice for priests nowadays.
I mentioned earlier about one role being a mediator; talking between a deity and someone else. In my opinion, this can be important as some people, especially newcomers, may struggle to connect or talk with their deity. This can be done many different ways and all depends on the individual's strengths. Channeling, tarot, pendulum, any of those could be ways anyone could talk to a deity and many people offer these services now in shops physically or digitally.
Another role is that of a seer/diviner/Vitki or Volva. This ties in with being a mediator as it helps to talk to deities. Some priests will offer their services online and I for one, have this role practically thrusted onto me; though I'm not complaining in the slightest. I have been asked to help people heal their traumas and get stronger through the use of shadow work. I've also been told that I'm a Vitki which is just the Norse role for a seer. This means that it can be easier to communicate with energies via pendulum, trance work, and through clairs. Keep in mind that if this is one of your strengths or if you choose to develop it, you can't just turn it off; various energies will come to you all the time and there can be times where you'll have prophetic dreams, especially if that happens to be how a deity chooses to talk to you.
How To Become a Priest
As I mentioned earlier, anyone can become a priest if the role calls to you; regardless of gender, sexuality, race, or type of practice. Just remember that this role basically runs your practice as well as there's a lot of training and learning to do. Often the most common ways of entering priesthood, is if another priest trains you or a deity asks you to; like how Fenrir asked me to act as one of his priests.
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