The Constellated Approach to Pagan Ministry

The majority of pagans today practice primarily as solitary practitioners. For some, this might be a choice, for others it might be because it is their only practical option. Either way, the modern pagan community is more individualistic and less bound together by official organizational structures than most larger faith communities.

This reality can be both a blessing and a curse. By keeping one’s spiritual practice private, you ensure that your practice is an authentic expression of your relationship to your deities. You also ensure that you don’t leave yourself vulnerable to spiritual authority figures who may be abusing their positions of power.

But the downside is that you also don’t have anyone to turn to when you need spiritual guidance or advice. If something isn’t working, you have no one to help you to get back on track. You don’t have someone who understands your spiritual needs to officiate your wedding or other life transitions that might be spiritually important to you. You may lack a spiritual community to turn to in times of crisis. And it can just feel downright lonely when you feel like no one around you understands you on a spiritual level.

This is where we see the need for trained clergy who can minister to the pagan community, while still honoring each person’s individual spiritual approach and understanding. I approach pagan ministry from the perspective outlined by Holli S. Emore in her book “Constellated Ministry: A Guide for Those Serving Today’s Pagans.*” I was introduced to this approach as part of the course work during my pagan clergy training from Greenwild Spiritual Academy.

Constellated Ministry: A Guide for Those Serving Today's Pagans by Holli S. Emore*

In this constellated model of ministry, the idea of spiritual support concentrated on a particular leader in a particular place or organization is replaced by an interconnected web of support across a wide network of community resources. Instead, we have a network of priests, priestesses, ministers, officiants, healers, etc. each working within their own areas of expertise derived from their own specific traditions and experiences.

For the individual pagan, this could mean having your own individual daily practice of worshiping your patron deities, while also attending a larger group for seasonal rites, attending classes at local metaphysical shops, and maybe occasionally going to a priestess who is trained in pastoral counseling for extra spiritual support. This person maintains their individual practice, but also maintains community connections and their individual practice is able to benefit from this support.

According to Emore, up to 80 percent of practicing pagans have no particular group affiliation, with around 60 percent of solitaries claiming that they would like to be part of a group if it were “possible and a good fit.” She states that many are unable to access resources locally due to health issues, such as being housebound, while others find “emotional safety and individual freedom in their spiritual privacy.” Still, many of these solitary practitioners still seek out online connections within the online pagan community, finding a sense of belonging that deepens their individual spiritual practice. Many solitary pagans also report that they would like to occasionally participate in some type of in-person spiritual community, such as seasonal rituals and in-person pagan festivals.

The main problem I see is that we as pagans would like the benefits of community and spiritual supports from trained clergy, but we also don’t want to be dependent on organizations with set dogmas and doctrines. We don’t want someone telling us what gods we should be worshiping or how we should be worshiping them, but we also want a community to celebrate with and perhaps someone to help us spiritually and emotionally in times of crisis.

In answering the call to serve the pagan community in a clergy role, it is important to meet the community where they are. My patroness, Inanna, is a goddess of many things, including love, war, and civilization as a whole. Building a strong community is one of the most important things we can do to keep civilization working as it should. So my main goal as Her priestess is to do what I can to bring the pagan community together and to help others to build their own relationship to the divine, individually and as a community, whether they ultimately come to the same understandings that I do or not.

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