A Teaching Handbook for Wiccans and Pagans (26 page)

In an effort to illustrate not taking yourself too seriously, in one class healing ritual, I accidently set my long hair on fire…. I wasn't hurt. It went out, and I don't think anybody really noticed, but hey, I learned to laugh at myself after that.

Get Out While the Getting's Good

Sometimes, no matter what you do, the desire to teach is extinguished, and it isn't going to come back. In these cases, the right self-care to administer is often to decide you're done teaching and retire. There's no shame in that. Teachers are just people, after all, and people's lives, interests, and needs change.

If you think you're in this situation, don't let it drag on too long. We've all seen professional teachers who hang on and keep teaching long after the passion is gone in order to keep their retirement or because they don't know what to do with themselves next. These teachers are often ineffective at best. Don't be one of them. Retire gracefully.

If you are going to discontinue your classes, make sure you give students adequate notice. Try to help students who are in the midst of projects finish, or refer them to other teachers who can help them complete their training. You can also hand your class over to another teacher, if one is available. Transition out of the teaching role respectfully, and then take a good, long break before jumping into something else. You've earned it.

Short-Term Self-Care

Even the best teachers can reach a point of crisis. Maybe they have been pushing themselves too hard and it's finally caught up with them. Maybe they've expended a lot of energy helping a student through a personal crisis. Maybe something crazy has happened in their personal lives that has derailed their teaching. The point is, acute crisis situations arise, and you'll need immediate, short-term self-care to handle them.

In my experience, unless something is literally on fire
right now
or you're dealing with someone in immediate crisis—such as a suicidal student—the best way to handle an acute situation is to get away, calm down, get some perspective, and make a plan.

Get Away and Calm Down

It's difficult to make rational decisions when you're freaking out. Your amygdala—the part of your brain that just reacts—gets overwhelmed with panic, and your cortex—the thinking part of the brain—can't do its job to get you out of the situation. The best thing you can do when this is going on is remove yourself from the situation, either physically or
mentally
, and calm yourself down. The idea is to break the stress feedback loop so you can move forward in a more constructive way.

Once you've removed yourself from the immediate situation, try one of these ideas to calm down and take care of yourself:

• Do something you consider therapeutic. Personally, my go-to stress relievers are bad rubber-monster movies, the mugwort bath at the local women's day spa, and live drag shows, but you're free to find your own.
  
• Get some hard exercise. Hike, run, or dance away your stress.
  
• Get outside. We're Pagans, right? We derive energy from the earth. No better time for that than when you're in a crisis.
  
• Get under or into running water. There's something about the negative ions released in falling water that seems to release tension. A medicine woman I know likes to do healings in waterfalls when she can for this reason, but the shower will
  do too, or a bath with Epsom salt and/or soothing herbs.
  
• Meditate. Make sure you include deep breathing.
  
• Do grounding and centering exercises.
  
• Play with your pets. Animals are great for shifting your perspective. We have a very talkative parrot, and when we get upset, she says “it's okay” over and over. I'm not sure if she's trying to soothe herself or us, but when she does this, we make sure to calm down just so we don't upset her.
  
• Go to a movie. Sit in a dark theater, trance out a little, and allow your mind to let go of the problem for a couple of hours and be wrapped up in something else.
  
• If your crisis is less a “trip to the emergency room” situation than a “crisis of faith” about a teaching situation, make a list of all the great experiences you've had teaching and/or the reasons why you've enjoyed it. Remembering these things and reliving them in your mind can help pull you out of an acute morale crisis.
  

Remember that it's okay to get away from the situation and calm down. You're allowed to take care of yourself and handle the problem thoughtfully and calmly. Unless someone is on the bridge, ready to jump, don't allow yourself to get sucked into others' stress about the problem. Find your center.

Get Some Perspective

Once you're calm and you've detached enough from your emotions about the problem that you can begin to think clearly, ground and center (if you haven't already) and try to get some perspective on the problem that's not colored by your feelings. Talk to your friends or mentors. Do a meditation or a pathworking about the problem. Talk directly to your gods and ask for insight. Do some divination, or have a friend do it for you if you think you can't be objective.

Make a Plan

When you've thought things through and gotten insight from outside (or inner) sources, make a plan for dealing with the issue. Brainstorm a variety of possible solutions. Pick two or three that seem the most reasonable, and think of any consequences they might have. (Chances are they'll all have them; if this problem were easy to solve, it wouldn't be a crisis.) Choose the one you think will solve the problem with the fewest negative repercussions. Check in with your gods or guides, and put your plan into action. Take some comfort in knowing that you have really thought this out, and you didn't just jump at the first solution that presented itself.

After you've executed your plan, don't dwell on the problem. Use some of the “getting away and calming down” techniques to let the problem go. It's possible you'll need to go back and tweak a few things after you've done your plan—clarify things with people, soothe hurt feelings, comfort or reassure someone—but for the most part, it's important to move on and not feed the problem any more of your energy.

[contents]

Chapter 12

From Teacher to Clergy

As I've mentioned already, being a teacher of Paganism doesn't mean that all you do is teach. Sometimes you're a mentor. Sometimes you're a counselor. Sometimes you're a traffic manager. Sometimes you're tech support. Sometimes you're a herder of cats. And sometimes, by accident or design, Pagan teachers are asked to take the next step and serve as Pagan clergy. As a matter of fact, some Pagan teachers—many of those who lead covens, for example—are clergy from the start. The point is, in the Pagan community, the line between teaching and being a clergy­person isn't just thin; it's porous. So it's helpful to know a little about being a Pagan clergyperson even if you're not planning on going that route. I never planned to do it, and I've been ordained twice. This chapter is about supplementing your teaching with clergy work and some of the incredibly important ways you can serve the Pagan community as a teacher/clergyperson, including interfaith work and prison ministry.

Become an Ordained
Pagan Clergyperson

Becoming an ordained clergyperson (or at least “legal to marry and bury”) can be a large undertaking because of the time it takes to go through the training and jump through the legal hoops, and also in terms of the time you might end up spending teaching and serving as clergy, but it is also an essential service for the community.

In the past, the idea of “official”—especially professional—Pagan clergy could be a divisive topic in the Pagan world, and for some people it still is. Some Pagans felt that the only way we were going to be treated with any respect by non-Pagans was if we had professional teachers and clergy, and schools or seminaries in which to train them. Others believed that the autonomy of the various Pagan traditions (and eclectic practitioners or those with no established tradition) was absolutely sacrosanct, and having professional clergy in particular, but also professional teachers, was a one-way ticket toward becoming a hierarchical, monolithic, bureaucratic religious institution, not unlike some of the religious institutions many of us left to become Pagan in the first place. And still others just resented people setting themselves up as authorities in a community that prides itself on its lack of centralized authority.

About fifteen years ago a woman moved to the city I was living in at the time, declared herself a professional Pagan clergyperson, tried to set up a church with herself as a salaried Pagan minister, and expected the community to fall in line behind her. Some people in the community got pissed at her hubris, audacity, and presumption for thinking she could swing into town and have the community acknowledge her authority over them, but most of us just yawned and ignored her. It didn't take her long to move on.

However, times have changed. A lot. More and more Pagans are finding ways to get legal ministerial credentials, and for those who want structured ministerial training, now we have Pagan seminaries and training programs. We've come a long way.

Getting ministerial credentials is essential if you want to perform legal weddings. Getting credentialed might also allow you to officiate funerals, work on certain interfaith councils, and visit sick people in the hospital as a clergyperson. Unfortunately, as Patrick McCollum has discovered, being Pagan clergy will not necessarily get you into prisons to minister to inmates (although it might). Patrick has been fighting in court to challenge the “Five Faiths” rule in the California prisons, which states that only Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, and Native American clergy can be hired to represent and work with inmates. And without a clergy­person present, inmates are often not allowed to gather to worship together at all.

Some Pagans sign up online with multi-faith organizations, such as the Universal Life Church, to get credentials. Others join Pagan umbrella organizations like Covenant of the Goddess, which also provide credentials. And still others have formed actual Pagan churches. I've talked to many Pagans who have been intimidated by the idea of jumping through the hoops to get credentials, but it's not necessarily as difficult as it sounds. Sylva Markson told me about her experience getting credentials. Her first set of credentials came from an already existing Pagan church, so all she had to do was file a certificate of ordination with the county. Later, she and a different group decided to establish their own church. This, of course, was a little more complicated:

The most difficult part of this process was simply finding what was needed by the state—there is no nicely laid out, step-by-step process, so we waded through the statutes. In my state, there are several different ways that a church can be legally established, largely based on the amount of money we anticipated the church would bring in annually. Since our plan was for the church to bring in
no
money, we chose the simplest set-up. We had to draft a certificate of incorporation and file it with our county.

Just a decade or two ago, if you were Pagan and you wanted to learn how to minister to and counsel other Pagans, you wouldn't have had many options beyond joining an established Pagan group or coven and hoping they could give you some guidance, or studying materials aimed at training Christian clergy and adjusting them for Paganism. Now we have workshops and online courses for clerical training, and we even have full Pagan seminaries, such as Cherry Hill Seminary and the Woolston-Steen Theological Seminary affiliated with the Aquarian Tabernacle Church. Holli Emore told me how Cherry Hill Seminary got its start:

Kirk White, of Church of the Sacred Earth, originally conceived of Cherry Hill Seminary as a correspondence course with occasional retreats on his land in New Hampshire. An early collaborator, Cat Chapin-Bishop, suggested that courses be offered online through an open source program called Moodle. Laura Wildman-Hanlon was another person involved in the early years. The initial brainstorming by this trio quickly identified a need for training beyond one's tradition. Today, about a dozen volunteer staff comprise the team (and one paid executive director) which maintains the Cherry Hill Seminary organization and continues to implement our vision.

I also spoke at length with Pete “Pathfinder” Davis about how the Woolston-Steen Seminary came into being:

It was clear to me that one of the major problems in Paganism is that pretty much anybody can stand up and declare themselves a priest or priestess, and maybe they're good at it, and maybe they're not. I have seen people offer counseling services, who if you took counseling from them you might be more inclined to go home and hang yourself in your closet, because they don't know what they're doing. I just felt that we needed to do something to professionalize the clergy in my tradition. I'm not saying that everybody else has to do this, but I want the people who decide to be clergy to others to be properly trained.

I asked Holli Emore if there was any such thing as a “typical” Cherry Hill student and what kind of person the seminary attracted:

As you have already guessed, Cherry Hill Seminary students, just like the entire Pagan world, are diverse, if nothing else. We have many students who come to us with graduate degrees already earned but who wish to go further in developing skills and knowledge for ministry. Even those with no college background tend to be individuals who have been leaders in their communities for some time. One trait which I see almost universally is that they value education as a means to their spiritual ends of service and personal growth.

Of course, the benefits of getting some ministerial training go far beyond the rights you are granted by law as clergy. There are opportunities for a great deal of personal development as well. Holli Emore spoke to me about this:

I will share with you what I have gotten out of my experience, since I've been a Cherry Hill Seminary student for the past five years. I have gained a great deal of knowledge, of course, on the topics studies. But I've also worked through and developed my own personal code of ethics. I've integrated every single class I've taken with what was going on in my life at the time and ever since. I've gained new friendships and connections all over the country and in some other countries, too, and have people to whom I can reach out when I need help—and I've done that quite a few times. I feel supported in a way I never did before. And learning in the company of diverse Pagans gives me a perspective I might not ever develop in my own community or group of friends and peers. Finally, I feel validated and affirmed in my work, something which rated highly in a recent survey we conducted.

Starting a Pagan Organization

Starting a Pagan organization that provides teaching, clergy services, or both can be very rewarding and a valuable service to your community that's a step beyond simply teaching. There are legal issues to consider, as well as writing a charter, finding other members and a location to meet, holding meetings, and putting together the services you are planning to provide.

Pagan organizations can have a huge impact. I asked Oberon Zell-Ravenheart about the founding of the Church of All Worlds and
Green Egg Magazine
and Green Egg Online Forum, all of which were seminal in forming the Pagan community:

As pioneers, I think it can be fairly said that Church of All Worlds and
Green Egg
established early templates that have served as models for many groups and, to a great extent, much of the entire Pagan movement. Certainly much of our CAW liturgy has been widely embraced and circulated throughout the Pagan community—such as our handfasting rites, water sharing, theatrical rituals, Gaean thealogy, etc.

I also asked him what he thought the role of the Church of All Worlds is today:

Well, I guess I see our work as continuing to seed and tweak the evolving community in the direction of our very “green” vision and mission; specifically: “To evolve a network of information, mythology, and experience to awaken the Divine within and to provide a context and stimulus for reawakening Gaea and reuniting her children through tribal community dedicated to responsible stewardship and the evolutions of consciousness.” Thus we sorta add our little influences here and there, like working on a bonsai tree.

Most of this we've done by subtly encouraging (through
Green Egg
, workshops, interviews, books, rituals, art, music, our personal lives, etc.) things we think should be part of the new world we are creating (such as inclusivity, cherishing diversity, the Gaea Thesis, polytheism, immanent divinity, sacred sexuality, feminist values, freedom of choice, equality, environmentalism, seasonal celebrations, nature worship, honesty, integrity, wisdom, service, cooperation, community, tribal values, ordaining priestesses as well as priests—and acceptance of personal lifestyle options such as different sexual orientations and identifications, polyamory, and social/ritual nudity). And of course, to not-so-subtly discourage aspects and attitudes we don't think should be part of the Pagan community, such as exclusivity, bigotry, dominance, competition, contempt for other ways, homophobia, racism, classism, sexism, “one-true-right-and-only-way-ism,” environmental desecration, manipulation, dishonesty, stupidity, abuse, and buggering choir boys.

Interfaith Work

Interfaith work—working with representatives of other religions to increase religious tolerance and mutual understanding—is something of a controversial topic in the Pagan community. Some Pagans believe we need to reach out to Christians and people of other religions to dispel some of the myths about Paganism and further establish Wicca and Paganism as legitimate religions with the same legal standing as other faiths. Other Pagans feel that outing ourselves to represent the Pagan community can be dangerous. Still others believe that if we do interfaith work at all, it should be within the Pagan community, since there are so many paths that fall under that umbrella, and—let's face it—we don't exactly coexist in peace and harmony. Personally, I think we need to do interfaith work both within our community and with people of other paths, and that it is a great way to teach. The ultimate goal of interfaith work is, after all, peace.

Interfaith work is a big commitment, but not in quite the same way as running a coven or teaching a class. Some Pagans sit on formal interfaith councils, working with Christians and others to advance tolerance. Others act more as ambassadors for their paths, speaking at interfaith or other non-Pagan conferences and venues to try to expand awareness and tolerance for Paganism. Interfaith work usually doesn't require planning classes and dealing with students' problems (although it might require giving some speeches or presentations and answering questions). It's more of a diplomatic role, and it requires a slightly different skill set. Reaching out to others and acting as a representative of your tradition or community—whether it's inside the Pagan community or outside—takes a lot of time, energy, and patience. However, it can be a great fit for people looking for a way to teach but who would prefer not to do so in some of the more conventional ways.

Prison Ministry

One of the biggest Pagan teaching commitments you can make is to do prison ministry. This means going into prisons and providing clergy services and education to Pagan prisoners. This is extremely valuable work helping some of the people who need it most, but it's not to be undertaken lightly.

Prison ministry is not my area of expertise, so I interviewed Pagans who have done this work, including Patrick McCollum. McCollum serves as a statewide correctional chaplain for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He has been working with prisoners for more than fourteen years and is well known in the Pagan community for his work on behalf of incarcerated Pagans and for his extensive interfaith efforts.

In 1997, a California Wiccan inmate won a court case and the right to have religious and chaplaincy services, so the attorney general contacted McCollum and asked if he could facilitate these services. What started with one student soon escalated, and now McCollum is working with 2,000 inmates at 33 different institutions, as well as facilitating chaplaincy services across the United States at both the state and federal levels.