Degrees of Priesthood?

[tellmetruth]

Have another question for you all - I see people in the neopagan/new age community sometimes claiming to be "third degree priests" (for example, Tim Emert, Francesca Gentille's partner we discussed in a previous thread). I don't understand what that means? How many degrees of priesthood are there, and how is a third degree priest different from a first degree priest?

I know this is probably not lifted from Native American culture but I hope that it's still appropriate to ask about other aspects of new age claims here. I also don't want to be disrespectful of anyone's religion, including paganism, but I really wonder what it means when "healers" and "coaches" make this claim in their bios. Thanks.

[Defend the Sacred]

The three degree system of priesthood comes from Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca, aka British Traditional Witchcraft, or BritTrad. We have some background on Wicca in this thread: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3687.0

Basically, it was started by an English colonialist, Gerald Gardner, in the 1940s. He took bits and pieces from many different religions and occult systems, making it a modern, eclectic tradition based heavily around "working magic" and worship of ancient goddesses and gods from many different, unrelated cultures. Unfortunately he also lied and claimed it was a longstanding tradition he had inherited.

In some covens (their term, not mine, for circles of about a dozen people or less) people study for about a year before attaining each "degree" and having an initiation ritual for that level. In some groups people study for less than a year for each, in others, more. Usually after the third degree people are authorized to "hive off" and form their own covens. BritTrad covens are usually led by a male and female team. Many Neo-Wiccan groups have diverged significantly from those first covens, and are now even more eclectic and newage. Some come in lineages where they've learned from people who are experienced, others have just proclaimed themselves. You really can't know unless you ask around about people.

Gardner took the idea of a degree system from Masonic rituals.

While some claim Wicca is Celtic, it is not. Gardner took names for some of the Wiccan festivals from some of the Celtic cultures, but it has more in common with misappropriations from Hinduism and Boy Scout fantasies of NDNs than anything Celtic. Any legitimate folk magic in the tradition is usually English. And at this point, so many books have been published encouraging people to make it all up as they go along, that people who both claim to be Wiccan (let alone Pagan) may have very little in common with one another. There is no real governing body, and there is a lot of disagreement and infighting in those communities. Along with a lot of cultural appropriation and racism.

[tellmetruth]

Thanks for the information. No wonder I find it all so confusing. It totally is.