Rev Janet Callahan

What is Clergy, Anyway?

January 2, 2019 by Janet Callahan 1 Comment

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what our initiations mean, and what “being clergy” means when you’re not part of an active, structured worship group (like a coven, or kindred, or church, or whatever). Christian folks use minister, clergy, pastor, and a few other terms almost interchangeably, and priest is only used in a few specific situations….but we’re different.

priestess in a circle of stars and swirling colors

We talk about everyone being a priest or priestess – everyone is capable of reaching out to the divine and interceding for themselves, without someone standing in between them and a specific deity.

We also talk about priests and priestesses serving specific gods, the way temple keepers would have in the old days. It’s a form of dedication to that specific deity, in service to them.

We talk about clergy when we mean, “able to serve as clergy in the legal sense” – weddings, mostly, but sometimes funerals, hospital visits, and maybe house blessings. Sometimes we use the word ordained here, or ordained minister, because it’s “official”…but anyone can be ordained by the ULC, so I often wonder what this word really gets us [1]

Ministers…minister. They tend to the spiritual needs of the flock. They do sick calls, they pray with people, they help people who are struggling with faith.

And as pastor, they’re also the leader of the congregation. That’s a lot of jobs to put on one person, and it’s no wonder that so many Christian groups struggle with finding people who can really do all these things.

One of the things that we don’t talk about is teaching. In most other religions, those who are worship leaders are also teachers of that faith. Our teaching is more decentralized, more squishy. Frequently, students are asked to teach as part of their training – learning how to teach by example, and learning more about their subjects as they teach. Even when our working group teaches, we learn at festivals and at events and go to individual workshops and read books and websites – so many incoming sources of information!

And teaching is one of the things I’ve done a lot of over the years. It’s become a focus of mine over the last few, because I so often feel that those formalized learning opportunities are missing as we Pagan folk become less centralized and more and more solitary with occasional group rituals.

It’s one of the reasons I’m opening Lady Arianrhod’s Magical Academy – teaching is a passion of mine, and while there’s lots of good information out there if you google, you have to sort through and figure out what’s credible (just today, someone asked about runes in one of the groups I’m in, complaining that different sources say different things, and how do they figure it out?)

So, head on over, check out the classes currently available, and consider our introductory offer – I’ll likely do a sale for a year’s worth of membership later this year. There are more offerings coming for members too, which will not be released as separate courses.

This is my focus this year – the Academy and the Magical Moms Club – so let’s make 2019 a great year!

[1] Which is not to detract from the ULC, mind you – they serve an important role, and now that the circle that initiated me as a high priestess, capable of running a circle, and capable of legally acting as clergy no longer exists, I have an ordination from them to help manage the state’s requirements.

Check out my new energy work page, http://www.facebook.com/GoodVibrationsEnergyStudio

Children and Ancestors

September 19, 2018 by Janet Callahan Leave a Comment

In a recent discussion in one of the business masterminds I’m in, we got to talking about children and various things about raising them in a magical household.

Most days, it’s complicated.

One topic that we’ve actually touched on at home recently that came up was ancestor veneration.

Have you seen the movie Coco? One of the big features of Dia De Muertos is the ofrenda, the altar that deceased loved ones come to visit as part of the celebration. The idea that we must remember those ancestors is key to the story, and it’s a key to ancestor veneration too, though we can take it a step farther and call on ancestors that we don’t know.

Ancestors are a pretty concrete idea for most kids – they know that their parents also had parents (their grandparents). It’s not much of a stretch to understand that their grandparents also had parents and grandparents, even if they never met them.

So hearing that family tree, and stories surrounding those people, help make their memories come alive. This is why people tell stories. Every year at Samhain I tell my kids stories about relatives who have passed on – relatives they knew, and relatives that they never met. I have grand plans to make a book with photos and everything….but so far it’s a pile of scrap booking supplies.

The question then becomes, how do we talk about veneration with our kids?

At our house, there are two parts to that answer.

The first is that on a regular basis (theoretically daily, but we’re in a not-daily mode right now), we light a candle and incense, and we ask all the grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles, all the nature spirits in and around our home, and our gods and goddesses, to protect us and our home and our extended family.

The second, which has come up more recently, has been asking them for help. My daughter suffers from severe anxiety, and she’s an empath. One thing we’ve talked about during a recent flare up of her anxiety is that she can ask all the grandmas and grandpas to help her be brave, and to help her see which feelings belong to her and which ones don’t. And we’ve talked about how she can ask the grandmas and grandpas to help her carry her big feelings when they’re too big, and to help her let go of feelings that aren’t hers.

It’s big picture. It’s not subtle and nuanced. But right now, it’s working for her, and giving her ways to make the energetic connections, and tools to help her control her anxiety.

How about you? How do you approach teaching your children about ancestors?Check out my new energy work page, http://www.facebook.com/GoodVibrationsEnergyStudio

Grounded

September 26, 2017 by Janet Callahan Leave a Comment

For the 3rd time in a month, I found my hands in a mix of flour and water. This time, it’s nixtamalized corn meal (corn is treated with lye to make it store better, and to prevent pellagra) for making corn tortillas.

Mixing cornmeal for tortillas

And before that it was fry bread (Native American bread, made from the sorts of things that came in commodity food boxes in the early reservation years. Before that, it was Roti, an Indian flatbread made from wheat flour.

Mixing fry bread dough

Cooking has always been a source of grounding for me – a thing to do when I’m overwhelmed. Because the repetitive acts of cooking – chopping, stirring, kneading – are like a moving meditation.

Cooking tortillas

But there are spiritual aspects beyond that meditation. I’ve been exploring the foods of my ancestors, and expanding our menu here a bit. While my Native ancestors weren’t farmers, they likely knew of corn from others….and it’s definitely native to North America.

Golden frybread

While there are groups out there promoting only eating what our ancestors ate for our own health…more than half of my ancestors are, we believe, from Europe (I guess I’ll know soon – 23&Me is running a study on mental health and genetics, and by getting into the study, I get my DNA done for free). They had wheat, milk, and domesticated animals. So I don’t think we’ll be cutting any foods completely out of our diets anytime soon.

Tacos with chicken and cheese

But there’s something to be said for making connections with the earth and our ancestors via food – most families have those recipes handed down from parent to child. There’s magic in cooking from scratch – turning random things into a totally different dish.

Classic Indian Taco

Next up, I’m trying out some traditional dishes involving “wild rice” (Native American wild rice isn’t really rice, it’s a grain from another type of plant) and corn soup. Good fall dishes for celebrating all the harvest festivals.Check out my new energy work page, http://www.facebook.com/GoodVibrationsEnergyStudio

Fall already?

August 23, 2017 by Janet Callahan Leave a Comment

How in the world has it been 8 months since my last post? My goal this year was weekly…but it’s been that kind of year. We’ve started new therapies with the kids, and had some new health things crop up with them. I’ve had some more intense things come up at work that have required my attention. We’re without a housekeeper at the moment, so laundry and cleaning toilets has to fit in there too.

I’ve been working on doing a better job of time management, and of planning how to get business things done. And…I’ve decided to take a break from learning about marketing and running a business to actually write…which is a huge part of my business.

I’m writing a (public) monthly Pagan Parenting Tip of the Month (PPTotM) on Patreon and I’ve started posting outlines and work in progress on “Magical Parenting” over there (for patrons only). I’m writing a Pagan parenting advice column on PBN news. I’m getting some help to get back on the newsletter horse, so to speak, and hired someone to help pull that together every month. I’m scheduling local in-person classes. I’m doing more business networking locally. I’m on the hunt for a space for local classes and for doing Reiki and other energy work, because I want a space that is mine, and because the local scene for those sorts of spaces are pretty full.

School here starts in about a week and a half, and my goal is to talk more here on my blog about special needs kids, and holidays, and putting it all together. I signed us up as our own little 2-child splinter of a local Pagan youth group, and I’m working on building that into our schedule too. The kids thrive on routines and schedules, and I need them to keep me from dropping any of the balls I’m juggling 🙂

So, here’s to the new school year, and to more consistency….Check out my new energy work page, http://www.facebook.com/GoodVibrationsEnergyStudio