The Wiccan Minister's
Manual, A Guide For
Priests And Priestesses
Manual, A Guide For
Priests And Priestesses
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Introduction
As long as man has been conscious of a power greater than himself,
he has striven to connect with it. Through trial and error, religious
doctrines have evolved to help the followers of the respective
religious systems to connect with this Ultimate Divinity, by
describing a way to live life spiritually. Lacking these doctrines,
these maps to divinity, when a follower of the Wiccan faith comes to
you seeking guidance on how to live spiritually, what is there for the
Wiccan Minister to fall back upon, or to use as a guide? How do you
describe the way to live a Spiritual life? How do you describe the
feeling you have when you become connected with Spirit? How do you
explain the way to become connected to the Divine? How DO we
become connected to the Divine?
These are some of the questions all of the worlds’ religions have
long tried to answer for mankind. For far too long however, the
published works on the Wiccan Faith have for the most part ignored
these questions. So the seeker has often found little available in the
way of published works and resources. And of the resources that have
been available, seekers and followers of the Wiccan Path have been
encouraged to discover their own individual answers. This was OK
for a while, but the Craft is evolving, changing, and becoming more
than just a religion of Clergy. For far to long the Craft focus has
been upon spells and how to do “stuff” rather than upon helping to
guide the followers of this life philosophy to where they may tap into
those spiritual waters of life which refresh and connect with the
divinity within. Hopefully that will now change and the Craft will
finally be able to take its place among socially accepted religious
traditions.
In ancient times, each village and tribe had its own religious or
spiritual leader. This person, a Priest or Priestess of the local
faith, led the seasonal rites and rituals, and was the person the
people came to when in need of healing mind, body and spirit. It was
this person, skilled in divination, to whom the people came to for
direction and advice. This was the village or tribe “Wise one,” who
could be either male or female who belonged to a separate caste of
Priestesses and Priests.
Today we seem to often become bogged down in “labels.” We need to
tag everything with a name that strictly defines an object, occupation,
classification, & etc. This was not always the case, as our ancestors
being much less rigid and structured, were more open to different and
alternative beliefs and practices. But to delve into labels for a
moment, the Celts had the Druidic class of Priests (drui or draoi)
and Priestess (bean-drui, or ban-draoi), which were separated into
three parts. One of these factions of the Druidic College were the
“wise ones,” or the Vates or Ovates (Celtic words meaning “wise
ones”). Later, after the Anglo-Saxon invasions, The Vates/Ovates
became “Wicca, pronounced “wicha” (male) and “Wicce,” pronounced
“wichee” or “witchy” (female). These same wise ones later became
the village wise women and cunning men, retaining their positions as
healers, midwives, psychologists, diviners, and in some cases, even
sources of spiritual connection and health for the villagers long after
the villages were converted to Christianity. It is from the craft of
these wise women and men that the religion of Wicca has been born or
reborn, and since its’ reincarnation, the Craft has grown and matured
and this religious evolution continues. In ancient days, the Pagans
were separated into laity and Clergy, the Clergy being the village or
tribal priests, priestesses, shamans, shamanesses, sorcerers and
sorceresses. Today Wicca is no longer a religion of clergy only.
Many of those drawn to the Craft have no desire to fulfill the role of
Priestess or Priest. Many are quite content to worship quietly as
solitaries in their own ways. Many people who feel drawn to Wicca,
because the tenants of the Wiccan faith resonate deeply within them
have no desire at all to become Wiccan Clergy in any sense of the
word. However, they sometimes feel the need to seek the services,
guidance, and solace, and spiritual direction from Priests and
Priestesses of the Craft. Most of those same Priests and
Priestesses already have their hands full with personal lives,
commitments, and their own Covens to have the time to spare for
Wiccan followers outside of their respective circles. But now there
are a few Wiccan Priestesses and Priests who are being called to
step into the role of fulfilling the role of a Minister of the Wiccan
faith. And up to now, there has been very little available to fulfill the
guidance and training needs of a Wiccan Minister. Hopefully this
work will begin a new direction in fulfilling this niche.
The role of a minister is a very demanding, complex and often
challenging role to fulfill. Even more so than the role of Coven High
Priestess or High Priest. You become a source of spiritual strength
and support for members of our faith beyond the circle of the coven
itself. In this work, I have endeavored to describe these various
roles, but all in all, the most important role you will fulfill is to help
those who are spiritually disconnected, to reconnect with the Source
of All, within the philosophical framework of our religion.
When discussing the Universal Mind, the Ultimate Divine Being,
or the Cosmic Creative Force, many people try to make the
intangible fit into a limited, tangible form so that they can try to
grasp some small bit of understanding of it. Historically these
efforts have resulted in the creation of statues and paintings that
represent an aspect of this force. Witchcraft does not hold with the
worship of images of a tangible entity because we recognize this
Being, Entity, or Force as all permeating, all encompassing
intelligence/force/power which is itself, neither male nor female,
though harboring the properties of both. Some people hold that there
is no Divine being, or if there is, that it is an idle being which is
unconcerned with our world. Wicca however believes that there is an
Ultimate Divinity, and that there is some sort of Divine Plan for
our world. We also recognize that there are many different faces and
aspects to this Ultimate Divinity, which seem to act as
intermediaries between us and the totality of this Universal Mind.
These aspects we recognize as the various Gods and Goddesses of
our faith. We also believe that these Gods and Goddesses exist to
help mankind and we know when they are present and know that we
can partake of their power.
The Wiccan Philosophy teaches us that everything is interconnected,
and as a result, we all contain a spark of the divine essence within
us. Thus, we are all aspects of divinity. We all have a divine
Nature, which must be refreshed by making that connection to Spirit,
or the Divine Essence. If this connection is not made, we eventually
begin drying up inside. We become spiritually thirsty, and we begin
feeling that spiritual void within us. Then we try to fill that void,
which often becomes an ache inside of us, with the acquisition of
material possessions, or we may try to drown that constant ache in an
artificial euphoria created by alcohol or substance abuse.
We humans seem to be driven to connect with divinity. Unfortunately,
as absurdly easy as it really is to find, many of us never do find IT.
We just cannot find that connection to our spiritual natures on our
own. So we seek out religious leaders, our High Priestesses and
High Priests, so that they can show us how to make that connection
to the divine. The problem is that very few of our Clergy are well
enough trained to fulfill this role, simply because the necessary
training just has not been available, up until now. So it is the
purpose of this work to act as a guide to the spiritual leaders of the
Craft so they may help others to make the connection to the divine
and immortal spirit that resides within each and every one of us.
he has striven to connect with it. Through trial and error, religious
doctrines have evolved to help the followers of the respective
religious systems to connect with this Ultimate Divinity, by
describing a way to live life spiritually. Lacking these doctrines,
these maps to divinity, when a follower of the Wiccan faith comes to
you seeking guidance on how to live spiritually, what is there for the
Wiccan Minister to fall back upon, or to use as a guide? How do you
describe the way to live a Spiritual life? How do you describe the
feeling you have when you become connected with Spirit? How do you
explain the way to become connected to the Divine? How DO we
become connected to the Divine?
These are some of the questions all of the worlds’ religions have
long tried to answer for mankind. For far too long however, the
published works on the Wiccan Faith have for the most part ignored
these questions. So the seeker has often found little available in the
way of published works and resources. And of the resources that have
been available, seekers and followers of the Wiccan Path have been
encouraged to discover their own individual answers. This was OK
for a while, but the Craft is evolving, changing, and becoming more
than just a religion of Clergy. For far to long the Craft focus has
been upon spells and how to do “stuff” rather than upon helping to
guide the followers of this life philosophy to where they may tap into
those spiritual waters of life which refresh and connect with the
divinity within. Hopefully that will now change and the Craft will
finally be able to take its place among socially accepted religious
traditions.
In ancient times, each village and tribe had its own religious or
spiritual leader. This person, a Priest or Priestess of the local
faith, led the seasonal rites and rituals, and was the person the
people came to when in need of healing mind, body and spirit. It was
this person, skilled in divination, to whom the people came to for
direction and advice. This was the village or tribe “Wise one,” who
could be either male or female who belonged to a separate caste of
Priestesses and Priests.
Today we seem to often become bogged down in “labels.” We need to
tag everything with a name that strictly defines an object, occupation,
classification, & etc. This was not always the case, as our ancestors
being much less rigid and structured, were more open to different and
alternative beliefs and practices. But to delve into labels for a
moment, the Celts had the Druidic class of Priests (drui or draoi)
and Priestess (bean-drui, or ban-draoi), which were separated into
three parts. One of these factions of the Druidic College were the
“wise ones,” or the Vates or Ovates (Celtic words meaning “wise
ones”). Later, after the Anglo-Saxon invasions, The Vates/Ovates
became “Wicca, pronounced “wicha” (male) and “Wicce,” pronounced
“wichee” or “witchy” (female). These same wise ones later became
the village wise women and cunning men, retaining their positions as
healers, midwives, psychologists, diviners, and in some cases, even
sources of spiritual connection and health for the villagers long after
the villages were converted to Christianity. It is from the craft of
these wise women and men that the religion of Wicca has been born or
reborn, and since its’ reincarnation, the Craft has grown and matured
and this religious evolution continues. In ancient days, the Pagans
were separated into laity and Clergy, the Clergy being the village or
tribal priests, priestesses, shamans, shamanesses, sorcerers and
sorceresses. Today Wicca is no longer a religion of clergy only.
Many of those drawn to the Craft have no desire to fulfill the role of
Priestess or Priest. Many are quite content to worship quietly as
solitaries in their own ways. Many people who feel drawn to Wicca,
because the tenants of the Wiccan faith resonate deeply within them
have no desire at all to become Wiccan Clergy in any sense of the
word. However, they sometimes feel the need to seek the services,
guidance, and solace, and spiritual direction from Priests and
Priestesses of the Craft. Most of those same Priests and
Priestesses already have their hands full with personal lives,
commitments, and their own Covens to have the time to spare for
Wiccan followers outside of their respective circles. But now there
are a few Wiccan Priestesses and Priests who are being called to
step into the role of fulfilling the role of a Minister of the Wiccan
faith. And up to now, there has been very little available to fulfill the
guidance and training needs of a Wiccan Minister. Hopefully this
work will begin a new direction in fulfilling this niche.
The role of a minister is a very demanding, complex and often
challenging role to fulfill. Even more so than the role of Coven High
Priestess or High Priest. You become a source of spiritual strength
and support for members of our faith beyond the circle of the coven
itself. In this work, I have endeavored to describe these various
roles, but all in all, the most important role you will fulfill is to help
those who are spiritually disconnected, to reconnect with the Source
of All, within the philosophical framework of our religion.
When discussing the Universal Mind, the Ultimate Divine Being,
or the Cosmic Creative Force, many people try to make the
intangible fit into a limited, tangible form so that they can try to
grasp some small bit of understanding of it. Historically these
efforts have resulted in the creation of statues and paintings that
represent an aspect of this force. Witchcraft does not hold with the
worship of images of a tangible entity because we recognize this
Being, Entity, or Force as all permeating, all encompassing
intelligence/force/power which is itself, neither male nor female,
though harboring the properties of both. Some people hold that there
is no Divine being, or if there is, that it is an idle being which is
unconcerned with our world. Wicca however believes that there is an
Ultimate Divinity, and that there is some sort of Divine Plan for
our world. We also recognize that there are many different faces and
aspects to this Ultimate Divinity, which seem to act as
intermediaries between us and the totality of this Universal Mind.
These aspects we recognize as the various Gods and Goddesses of
our faith. We also believe that these Gods and Goddesses exist to
help mankind and we know when they are present and know that we
can partake of their power.
The Wiccan Philosophy teaches us that everything is interconnected,
and as a result, we all contain a spark of the divine essence within
us. Thus, we are all aspects of divinity. We all have a divine
Nature, which must be refreshed by making that connection to Spirit,
or the Divine Essence. If this connection is not made, we eventually
begin drying up inside. We become spiritually thirsty, and we begin
feeling that spiritual void within us. Then we try to fill that void,
which often becomes an ache inside of us, with the acquisition of
material possessions, or we may try to drown that constant ache in an
artificial euphoria created by alcohol or substance abuse.
We humans seem to be driven to connect with divinity. Unfortunately,
as absurdly easy as it really is to find, many of us never do find IT.
We just cannot find that connection to our spiritual natures on our
own. So we seek out religious leaders, our High Priestesses and
High Priests, so that they can show us how to make that connection
to the divine. The problem is that very few of our Clergy are well
enough trained to fulfill this role, simply because the necessary
training just has not been available, up until now. So it is the
purpose of this work to act as a guide to the spiritual leaders of the
Craft so they may help others to make the connection to the divine
and immortal spirit that resides within each and every one of us.
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