tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809530.post5883560836566043396..comments2023-03-25T06:56:06.572-01:00Comments on The Stroppy Rabbit: What would a Pagan "clergy" look like?Yewtreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02028699564003381058noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809530.post-90191207263638241192009-04-09T07:12:00.000-01:002009-04-09T07:12:00.000-01:00Hi Steve,Ancient polytheist practice was more cult...Hi Steve,<BR/><BR/>Ancient polytheist practice was more cultic (i.e. people participated in multiple cults to individual deities) and less integrated as far as I can gather.<BR/><BR/>Also in many cases we don't really know what these priests and priestesses did.<BR/><BR/>Regarding the Vestal Virgins - I don't think a decade of virginity would be very popular...Yewtreehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02028699564003381058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809530.post-88186213800122432962009-04-09T04:46:00.000-01:002009-04-09T04:46:00.000-01:00Surely there are lots of pagan models to choose fr...Surely there are lots of pagan models to choose from, to mix and match as desired?<BR/><BR/>What about the Vestal Virgins? The oracle at Daphne? There must be hundreds more.Steve Hayeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11283123400540587033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809530.post-39962169579117249912009-04-07T07:31:00.000-01:002009-04-07T07:31:00.000-01:00Yes, the Wiccan and Pagan notion of the priesthood...Yes, the Wiccan and Pagan notion of the priesthood of all believers is lifted straight from Protestantism as far as I can tell. Also Eastern Orthodox Christianity believes in this concept (and who knows, they might have lifted it from ancient Paganism). They have priests but they are not intermediaries in the same sense as in Catholicism.Yewtreehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02028699564003381058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809530.post-91944057962587958452009-04-06T19:44:00.000-01:002009-04-06T19:44:00.000-01:00It's funny, but the Pagans and Quakers I have been...It's funny, but the Pagans and Quakers I have been hanging around with say that they're all clergy -- that there's no such thing as Pagan or Quaker laity, but everyone has a ministry (whether or not they identify it or live it is up to them).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809530.post-21848900238597415122009-04-06T09:27:00.000-01:002009-04-06T09:27:00.000-01:00Apparently the word originally referred to the lot...Apparently the word originally referred to the lots of land that were not allotted to those who were dedicated to the temple. The "only people who could read" bit got attached later, in medieval Christianity.Yewtreehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02028699564003381058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29809530.post-41084156405686059182009-04-05T23:33:00.000-01:002009-04-05T23:33:00.000-01:00I read somewhere once that "clergy" originally mea...I read somewhere once that "clergy" originally meant someone who could read the Bible. In those religious traditions where the Word of God is revealed through a book, literacy becomes a necessary threshold to spiritual authority.<BR/><BR/>And frankly, I think the role of clergy in the general population is to be a type of interpreter of meaning. Not that the "laity" can't create their own meaning, or become clergy in their own right it they desire it, but that sometimes it helps to have a guide.Yvonne Rathbonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04614194420076768577noreply@blogger.com