Early Wiccans--the lineaged, initiatory lines--called themselves a "priesthood." Which was fine, and accurate... but when asked "what makes them a priest if there's no laity to minister to?" They wound up answering, "because we speak to the Gods directly, and perform rituals for them"--leading to the idea that anyone who does these things, must be a priest.
Some parts got left out. They do minister... to each other; a coven serves as an interwoven pack of spiritual advisors & trainers. They don't just "perform rituals"--they perform them according to a specific set of doctrines and purposes. And they don't get to invent or change those doctrines & purposes; those are built into the religion.
One problem in modern [non-recon] paganism is there seems to be no space for the devout layperson... everyone's pushed to be either clergy or fluffbunny. Even among recons, I run across some of this... people who want to be devoutly religious but not gather a master's degree in historical study of their religion are often disparaged.
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Early Wiccans--the lineaged, initiatory lines--called themselves a "priesthood." Which was fine, and accurate... but when asked "what makes them a priest if there's no laity to minister to?" They wound up answering, "because we speak to the Gods directly, and perform rituals for them"--leading to the idea that anyone who does these things, must be a priest.
Some parts got left out. They do minister... to each other; a coven serves as an interwoven pack of spiritual advisors & trainers. They don't just "perform rituals"--they perform them according to a specific set of doctrines and purposes. And they don't get to invent or change those doctrines & purposes; those are built into the religion.
One problem in modern [non-recon] paganism is there seems to be no space for the devout layperson... everyone's pushed to be either clergy or fluffbunny. Even among recons, I run across some of this... people who want to be devoutly religious but not gather a master's degree in historical study of their religion are often disparaged.