Blessings,
Courageous Ones!
I
return to you after—wow!—a month away from this blog. My eight day family “vacation” turned into a
two week plus end-of-the-A’s-season-beginning-of-the-A’s-postseason-end-of-the-A’s-postseason
bacchanal turned into getting sick for over a week due to burning the candle at
both ends. I am still not quite 100% and
am slowly getting back into the swing of things. This means back to my Ethics class! I’d like to share with you more of my
explorations around Ethics and how they relate to my practice as a High
Priestess.
As
Dr. Katherine MacDowell writes in Chapter 3 of her book, Ethics & Professional Practice for Neopagan Clergy, “we ‘judge
the effectiveness of ministers in terms of the congruence of their beliefs,
personal life, and performance’* with the theo/alogical principles of their
tradition. In this fashion, adherents look
to their priests and priestesses as models of how to negotiate contemporary
life through the maintenance of the core values of their religious tradition.”
It
is necessary for a Priestess to show congruency between what she teaches and
how she lives her life. Character traits
such as integrity, transparency, thoughtfulness, clear communication, respect,
authenticity, and openness, among others, are healthy and beneficial to a
community. On the other hand, character
traits such as opacity, prejudice, irresponsibility, lack of discipline,
disorganization, selfishness, and others, are unhealthy to inject into a
community.
I
believe authenticity is one of the most important traits for me, as a High Priestess,
to model. I must be willing to show who
I truly am, including sharing my imperfections and what I am personally working
on if it will benefit the community.
This is also helpful in keeping my Sisters from placing me on a pedestal—transparency
helps to reveal that I am just as human as they are. Knowing what is beneficial to share with the
community and what could be harmful is a fine line that I am still learning
about.
I
have been in communities where the leadership was careful to never publically show
any imperfections and in one case, went out of their way to make sure that
adherents did not know the truth of what was happening behind closed doors and
in their personal lives. This lack of
transparency coupled with a changing list of “rules” created a lot of
instability and drama in the group.
Demonstrating
the three character traits found to be most desirable by The Association of
Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (1. service without need
for public recognition; 2. integrity; and 3. generosity) and being mindful of
not manifesting the three most undesirable traits (1. lack of discipline; 2. self-serving;
and 3. immaturity) can be very helpful for the long-term health of a coven or
group.
Dr.
MacDowell writes:
In this fashion, to be a minister an
individual must have an underlying motivation for service without the need for
public recognition—in other words, service for service sake. Integrity reflects the capacity for an
individual to keep their word and maintain consistency; while generosity refers
to our capacity to be open and giving of self to others. In contrast, the three most undesirable
traits…: A lack of discipline reflected not
only a lifestyle of excess, but also disorganization in one’s personal life,
emotions, and environments. While
self-serving reflects an individual who places their own needs above the needs
of their coven or congregation and structures the role of priest/ess to solely
serve one’s ego rather than to serve Divine energy that guides the specific
tradition the individual speaks for.
Finally, immaturity reflects an inability: (a) to maintain a leadership
position, (b) to manifest the breadth and scope of the religious ethics of the
specific tradition, and (c) to manifest depth in theological thinking. Considering this study we can develop a
preliminary description of the ideal character of a priest/ess, as follows:
1. motivated for
service, both to adherents and to the divinity of the tradition;
2. maintains an attitude
of respect and integrity—behaviorally manifesting the ethic all are divine (“thou
art goddess”, “an it harm none” for example);
3. maintains an attitude
of generosity, authenticity, and openness;
4. is disciplined,
organized, and focused in behavior, thought, and emotional response;
5. is empathic and
sympathetic—oriented to fully hearing others;
6. motivated for
personal growth and deepening one’s knowledge and relationship to the divine;
7. maintains congruency
between faith and behavior, “as above, so below; as within, so without”;
8. has a mature
religious identity; this means the individual feels certain in their beliefs
and does not feel threatened by other religious beliefs and is able to
translate their beliefs into their everyday behavior.
I
find myself in deep meditation about the habits, addictions, and/or compulsions
that do not serve me or my community that I still have in my personal life,
whether or not my Sisters are aware of them.
What incongruencies still exist? As
the figurehead of the Sisterhood, the community is only as healthy as I am as a
Leader and High Priestess. What personal
work must I do at this time to engender more health within myself, my community,
and in each individual woman?
I
invite you to share your thoughts!
Blessed
be,
Lady
Jesamyn Angelica
High
Priestess, Sisterhood of the Moon
*
Gula, R.M.: Ethics in Pastoral Ministry.
New York: Paulist Press, p. 31,
1996.
