Today we have a Priestess Interview! It’s been a while.
We are chatting with the awesome Catherine Clarenbach, the badass resident priestess of The Way Of The River. She’s exceptional in that she is both a Wiccan priestess and is training to be an ordained minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church, totally devoted to serving the Divine. Take it away, Catherine!
How do you see and relate to God?
“God” is for me a somewhat inelegant word for the Oneness, the Source of Life and of Love. When I use the word “God” in my own practice, it is “God Herself,” lest we forget that the One is Male, Female, Both, and Neither—and that frankly, I associate the Creation and Destruction of worlds with a female Source. I hold both those truths, the infinitely and never gendered God and the all-encompassing God Herself. More on that if you’d like it.
Within us and beyond us. I generally use “God language” in church settings, though I do push the envelope with other language, as well.
You are a 3rd degree wiccan priestess in the Stone Circle Wicca Tradition: Tell us a little about your tradition.
Our tradition grew out of the larger community of Four Quarters Interfaith Sanctuary (4qf.org). The tradition is largely, though not exclusively, focused on excellent public ritual. We use the term “transformative psychoemotive ritual,” by which we mean ceremony that really changes people’s live. Ceremony that involves the body, mind, emotions, and spirit.
Some SCW priests and priestesses are involved in the larger Pagan community. Some focus on the governance and ongoing sustainability of Four Quarters, and many are mostly involved in the ceremonial life of the 4Q community.
We are a teaching community. This year’s intro class, which can lead to initiation into the First Degree, should students choose to become Dedicants, began with over 20 students.
You are currently in training to be a Unitarian Universalist Minister – can you tell me why you felt the call to be both?
Unitarian Universalist ministry affords me the capacity to reach people in a tradition that draws on many sources. It allows me to sink into an existing tradition of initiated, ordained ministry that benefits from and nourishes the broad and deep experience I have with many traditions.
Unitarian Universalism is a religious tradition which affirms a set of seven ethical principles (http://www.uua.org/beliefs/principles/index.shtml ) and Six Sources of religious insight, including “Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life” and “Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit,” as well as other spiritual and religious teachings. The Sixth Source, “Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature” is the Source with which many Pagan UU’s find themselves most aligned.
Unitarian Universalism has its roots firmly in Protestant Christianity. Nonetheless, it has in the last three centuries, grown to include many strands of belief while maintaining the principle of covenant – that we need not believe alike to love alike.
What does it mean to be ordained as a Unitarian Universalist Minister?
It means so much. For one thing, it means you become a representative of a tradition—someone called upon to be preacher, prophet, and teacher. Someone who speaks to the injustices of the culture in which one lives. Someone called upon to listen to the woes and ills of those in one’s community. Someone willing to share knowledge and wisdom gained from many places, times, and experiences in one’s life.
If a minister is called by a congregation to serve there, it also means an intimate and covenantal relationship with a specific religious community.
In Unitarian Universalism, there is a particular challenge as a minister: The theological diversity of those one serves. As in Paganism, there are many, many ways of seeing the spiritual life. Some UU’s don’t even like the word “spiritual”! Some are Pagan, some are Christian, some are humanist or atheist, some simply open to many Sources of wisdom and insight and Divine inspiration.
In your point of view what does it mean to be a Priestess?
To be a Priestess of the Third Degree is to walk in twilight, having learned to see in the bright light of day and in the darkness of inner work. It is to be a master of ritual craft and a devotee of the Divine Love. It is to acknowledge the Divine spark and radical connectedness of all people, beings, things. Butterflies and black holes.
Priest/esshood demands respect for many paths of experience, truth, and insight. For example, while the African Diaspora traditions are not mine, I have been blessed to be invited into ceremony with practitioners of la Regla de Ocha (Santeria), Palo, and Voodoo/Vodun. Learning about these traditions, while not claiming them for my own, has been a deep part of my journey.
Priest/esshood in my tradition also carries a mantle of teacher and mentor. Our tradition has students and/or Dedicants working toward each degree. Priests and priestesses are available for those who seek us out, who yearn for ritual learning and closeness with the Divine.
Tell us about your work, what you help people with and where we can find you!
I have two websites at this point. http://www.thewayoftheriver.com is the site through which I offer spiritual counselling and accompaniment, classes, and meditations. There is also a blog on that site; generally update it once or twice a week.
If you are interested in exploring spiritual direction, counselling, or accompaniment, simply go to Work With Me at the top left of the site and learn more about what that relationship could mean for you.
You will also see on The Way of the River, that I have a free newsletter, Reflections. Reflections is a distillation of insights I have received through my twenty-five years of conscious spiritual and religious work.
Those who sign up for Reflections also receive an e-book. I am SO proud of this work. The book, Your Journey Toward Wisdom, is just beautiful (if I do say so myself!). It is forty pages, each with a tidbit of wisdom, set off by gorgeous photography. (Photographs by my dear, dear, genius friends Lea Ann and Stephanie S. Mawler.)
Your Journey Toward Wisdom is a reflection on spiritual practice as it has brought wholeness and joy to my life and how I believe it can help others. I’m so excited when folks get it! I receive email after email about how helpful it is.
The other website I have is http://www.catharineclarenbach.com. This site is dedicated to my work as a congregational minister in the Unitarian Universalist tradition. If you are interested in my work there and how it is informed by my experiences with other traditions, feel free to check it out.