I have spoken before about growing up in the Southern Baptist tradition. Some of the best people I have ever known were Southern Baptists. They were teachers, ministers, missionaries, parents, grandparents, friends, and mentors. They taught me how to be in the world. They taught me to be kind and loving to all, to value other cultures and people deemed as other. They taught me to do my best to always be in tune with Spirit.

However, there were two messages I heard growing up that are intertwined and somewhat contradictory. These have informed my spiritual journey throughout my life, bringing me both pain and delight. The first message was that I could be anything I wanted to be – EXCEPT a minister. Women could never be ordained, simply because they were women. In that paradigm God came first, then men, then women. While I didn’t understand it, my church taught me that even though God made me and gave me talents and desires to serve Him (of course it was always Him), I couldn’t because of my sex.

The second message that has always stuck with me is something that was called, “the priesthood of the believer.” That phrase meant that my spiritual journey was between me and God. I could speak to God directly without having a priest to intervene. As I look back, I think that concept was taught as a direct contradiction of Catholicism, but for me it meant that I could follow my own spiritual path. In the intervening years, as the church has become more fundamentalist, I don’t believe that the concept is still being taught. However it planted the idea in me that the intervention of a priest or minister was not necessary for a walk with Spirit.

Lately I have been seeing the word priestess. On Facebook, in my emails. – everywhere I turn I see the word priestess. In mediations, I have seen myself as a priestess in past lives. The word resonates with me deeply. Am I being called to become a priestess? Is it necessary to be a priestess to walk the God/dess path? And which Goddess path? When I googled priestess training, I counted thirty-two different offerings from thirty-two different mystery schools offering training retreats and on-line courses. However, I am not committed to a specific goddess from ancient times. I am committed to the Divine Feminine Principle that works in concert with the Divine Masculine.  As I said last week, I am committed to the balance of the two in order to bring wholeness to myself and the world.

Which takes me back to the idea of the “priesthood of the believer.” If it is true, I don’t need to be trained in ritual and dogma. I can serve as my own conduit to Spirit/Source. Yesterday, I clearly heard the words, “Being a priestess is bringing the work of my Soul to fruition.” My task then is to become more in tune with my Soul. It is listening to the still, small voice of Spirit within me. It is acting in love and compassion, not ego and judgment. It is co-creating with Spirit to be the best I can be. It is loving and trusting myself enough to send love and trust into the world without it having to go through a religious or denominational package. I don’t have to be trained in ritual to send love into the world.

In this paradigm, we are all priests and priestesses, male and female. We are called, not to tell others how to live their lives in rigid theological lock step, but to bring our own Soul work to fruition. There is no hierarchy. We don’t have to train in theology, ritual, or dogma. We only have to listen to that inner voice that calls us to love and create and to share that love and creativity with the world.  

Barbara Garland
March, 2023