A Practical Guide to Pagan Priesthood by Lora O'Brien

Author:Lora O'Brien
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: CVR01042019, pagan, paganism, priest, pagan priest, how to become a pagan priest, becoming a pagan priest, pagan priestess, high priest, high priestess, laura o'brien, reverend lora o'brien, lora o'brian, guide to pagan priesthood
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2019-08-27T17:37:25+00:00

Being Available

As a priest, you are permanently on call. It’s not that you don’t get downtime or that you have to say yes to every request, plea, or demand, but the reality is those requests, pleas, and demands will keep coming and building whether you’re answering them or not at any given time. If your work is largely sacerdotal, you’ll likely have a direct line open to gods, guides, guardians, spirits, ancestors, and/or an assortment of other beings and entities. We’ll talk more about this in the next section. If your work is largely pastoral, those demands are being made by people—the same thing applies. They’ll just keep coming whether your “open for business” sign is flipped or not. And for some of us, requests and pleas come from all angles, corporeal and noncorporeal, this world and the other/s.

You have to find ways to set boundaries that channel the flow of requests for aid as well as an efficient system to handle what comes in. We’re dealing here with the pastoral side of things for which you’re going to need an official online presence. I’m afraid there’s just no avoiding it, if that’s what you’ve been trying to do. On the bright side, you do have control over what your online presence looks like and how involved it is. The primary benefit is that there is a distinct separation between personal and official online interaction that creates some healthy allowance for downtime for you, plus a layer of protection and discretion through a light privacy filter. It certainly won’t deter a person who knows their way around a computer, but it’s better than nothing. The benefit for others is that they have a way of contacting you that doesn’t seem intrusive and is more easily available.

Facebook business pages, LinkedIn profiles, and Twitter accounts are the most common social media services on which clergy can set up a professional profile currently. For those reading this book in the future, things will likely have changed dramatically, but I’m sure you’ll have an equivalent. I will caution that when you set up on a social media platform, you’re effectively building on rented land—anything you develop there can be shut down or taken away at the discretion of the owners. The popular social media sites are most useful for sharing your thoughts and relevant content, as well as marketing your services. Ideally, they should be used to send people to a website you do own, and to build a mailing list. Yes, everybody needs a mailing list; it is your primary community-building, resource-sharing, emergency contact asset. There are a number of free mailing list software services that are easy to learn how to use. Set one up to gather email addresses from the people who visit your social media pages or your website (or both) … and send them emails! Your online presence should clearly provide the following:

• An email address or contact form (at least) through which people can message you

• A phone

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