The priesthood path is full of unique experiences, hard work, and constant transformation. This path was one I chose two years ago. With training and initiation, I create the Iseum of The Liminal Moon as Sacerdos Mora Sininho Rosa, that you can explore in this page. I thought it would be perfect for the first message of this spiritual space to be talking about priesthood and my specific path. The text you are reading does no aim to be absolute truth about priesthood or the priestly path - not even about the pagan path. Just one of the truths, among many others, that existis in the context of the Iseum and the constent transformation I subject myself to. 

Being priest, priestess or priestex is a promise of service to the Divine and community around us. It is not just being a devotee of the Divine that has faith, nor is it doing small works with the Divine. It is promising part of yourself, your time and your practice not only to this Divine, but to everyone around you that needs guidance. Put this way, many might side eye, feeling it be a religious obligation - but I need you to think to it as a work and passion like any other, like a doctor has the responsibility to heal, a teacher to teach. This passion, like many others, only happens within the limits and energy defined by the person that accepts this work. It is also for that reason that each person has their own way to fulfil this service, and their own way to guide and help others. There isn't one Sacerdos like the other, because as each person has their own individual idea of the Divine and Spiritual coming from their experiences, so do priestly folk. We help people on their path, even if that path is not exactly like ours (such a thing would be impossible). 

The beginning of the priesthood path will also look diferently for everyone. However, I wanted to leave my own experiênce, so you can reflect on it and on this path that is still so mysterious. 

Starting the path

More and two years ago I made the decision to start this journey. I always felt myself directed to help others through spirituality, something that was amplified by my presence on social media. More and more people looked to be to guide their paths - even before my priesthood, when I might not have been the best person to answer their questions - and more people with the priesthood path walked into my life. When I heard priestesses talk about their practice, functions, passions, I felt a pull to know more, an instinct of diving in this world and path. With this instinct, fear and doubt settled in, the feeling I was not ready for something like this, of not knowing what to expect - but the more I saw of the path, the more overwhelmed I felt with the great need to walk it. That, I pulling out the Priestess card over and over in Tarot reading until I stopped ignoring that pull, made me seek out how to start my training.

As no priest is the same, no initiation path is either. I considered self-initiation, but I felt I needed a stronger guidance that isolated experience, I needed someone to teach me. I considered the Druidry path, but I did not feel the same conection to it that I felt with the idea of a priesthood. I ended up acepting the choice right in front of me: the Iseum do Caminho da Terra. Its priestess, Alexia Moon, was the first of this path to appear in my life. Before initiating me, she was my close friend, and we met in online paga communities. That's when I decided to contact her with the idea of starting priesthood training, that she accepted with a waiting period so we would both be sure it was the ideal path. 

I started training officially in November 1st 2022, a day that is spiritually meaningful. From this day, I started discretelly doing training until the day of initiation.

The path I chose

I was initiated with Nabia and Ataegina, and started my training with these Goddesses in mind. I started the training with a lot of ideas of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to follow my path, and except for the Goddesses, almost none of those ideas remain the same. The priesthood training brings a growth and learning that is very particular, and, altough not for everyone, it was one I needed a lot. Even the Goddesses I serve had their mutations, exploring other Deities and points of view. Of course, the Good Folk also had to be included, e I also had a lot of reflection about the nature of them. 

When I started, I was still holding on to the idea of belief as something fixed, like and unchangable truth that can be discovered. This became related to the fact I still tried to imposed a fixed nature to myself, bargaining my sense of self as something unchangable. Thanks to my initiator, that truly turned training into a safe space, I was able to explore not only my own fluidity, but the fluidity of faith itself. Nothing is fixed, everything is in permanent construction and deconstruction. I learned quickly that, on the contrary of what most think, priesthood is not a position of high power, but humility. A priest/ess/ex is not someone who tells you right or wrong, but gives you their time and experience to help you find your own path and support you in all transformations.

The path I explored and took with me to the initiation ritual - for which I travelled to Braga, a location that is spiritually significative due to the connection to Nabia - was one based on the lessons of transformation and resistence of Ataegina, lessons of fluidity and empathy of Nabia, lessons of freedom and joy of the Good Folk. Both me and this Iseum have as a basis tarot, art and meditation for the discovery of secrets and contact with the Divine and Liminal. 

My functions and the futureNow with my training finished, I have my Iseum pillar under which I act. I have my functions, that were defined during my training - even so, like faith, they are always open to being transformed. Priests, Priestesses and Priestexes of my specific linneage, in the Fellowship of Isis that houses I.C.T. and I.L.M., have general functions and specific functions. In general functions we have what we expect normally from someone with a religious priesthood - guiding and teaching about faith, helping the community, unions, funeral. Now, the specific functions are more related to the relationship each person has with their faith and practice. In my case, I promised to be the creative of the Goddesses, and to keep creating images and stories that can reveal this pantheon further, one so mysterious to paganism. Art is was feeds faith, passion, curiosity - without it, the Divine remains hidden, needing that translation that our mind can understand. I promised further to do liminal mediation with the Good Folk and spirits, both to help them and the people who have to deal with them. Finally, my queer identity and fight are tied together with my faith, to keep the fight in the spiritual spectrm to promote a more inclusive paganism. 

The future of this Iseum is in these functions, and you will see many reflections, stories, images and experiênces filling this space with resources that for sure will be useful to those exploring their faith. Here, you have a safe and open space for those who need that safety, and you will always have it. It was to this space my journey has brought me - and I am glad yours has brought you here too. 

Bright blessings!