In the late Winter of 2020, I had an all night dream that I was meant to be part of the next cohort of Kohenet.
Even though the website clearly stated, applications are closed.
I clicked on and off the site for days before the dream.
It really made no sense. I don’t think I want to be clergy!
Even though I already had a million other “ trainings”
all night I heard the word Kohenet whispering to me.
“You must do this” The dream said.
I woke up, and wrote an email to the contact.
“Hi, I know the application is closed, the cohort full, the waitlist full BUT I just had an all night dream that I was in Kohenet. And I have to at least reach out and ask to join.”
Shortly after I was interviewed, and told “ we are full. we’ll be in touch.”
And shortly after, I was accepted into cohort KAF.
Turns out, this would be the last cohort of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute.
Shortly after my ordination, the Institute dissolved and while NEW communities are emerging and forming that are no doubt connected/meaningful/powerful- but are not the Kohenet that I had the dream about.
So, here I am enrolled in this program and when I tell people about it- I often hear them say it’s so “ FRINGE” ( please see the long beautiful quote below from the EMERALD podcast on why FRINGE is ESSENTIAL!)
What is a Kohenet? The feminine Hebrew form of the word, Cohen or Kohen, which means Priest. So a Kohenet is a PRIESTESS.
Rabbi Dr. Jill Hammer and Taya Ma started Kohenet in 2005 “as a clergy ordination program, a sisterhood / siblinghood, and an organization working to change the face of Judaism. “ AND YES IT HAS!
Through the program, some of the most important themes and concepts I have learned are about RECLAIMING practices & rituals that have been buried/ silenced/ denied/shamed from “mainstream” Judaism.
“Students reclaimed and innovated embodied, earth-based feminist Judaism, drawing from ways that women and other marginalized people led Jewish ritual across time and space. “
Also, praying in the FEMININE! HOLY WOW.
Along the way, I tried to figure out WHERE this would fit into my life and all the roles I currently play. I chatted with many folx who had been ordained asking them about Kohenet experiences in “ corporate world, chaplaincy, coaching, clergy roles” trying to feel into where my Kohenet path would lead/take me.
I kept thinking about “ WHY DOES THIS EVEN MATTER?” I made the tree map below and started to see that for me, this was not going to be about anything CHANGING in my daily life but rather, DEEPENING /affirming and validating that I have been Priestessing my whole life.
Learning about the paths of the Priestess ( see Weaver Wheel below!) and finding myself living through these archetypes and learning about the lineages in our tradition, was so nourishing.
I could find myself on spiritual quests as THE SEEKER ( Doreshet), the grief and death work I had been doing in my community for years as The MOURNING WOMAN ( Mekonenet) and hearing/ knowing things from deep within, The PROPHETESS ( NEVIAH). Honestly, the list goes on and on as to how I had been living a deeply spiritual/ connected life for so many years, mostly to the beat of my own drum .. gathering people, creating spaces to connect to the divine, asking big important questions and supporting humanity along the way.
I am a Priestess.
It’s not about the “ title” it’s about the sacred presence and awareness.
It’s about the power of finding ourselves in this wild world that is often SO isolating and chaotic and that worships money and power and greed.
Those are not my values.
I find my core strengths on the relational map of community/ collective relationship and natural rhythms and praising the beauty in the ordinary moments, a place of grounded wholeness and healing in all the realms/ all the worlds.
Whether or not I have the title, the ordination-
I could feel my branches coming alive in this map, and especially as THE WEAVER ( Oreget) -one who brings it all together, who can’t be defined in 1 way-
Who lives and breathes in interconnections.
And to be honest, I think ALL of us can step into our full embodied presence of these lineages/archetypes and reclaim an aspect that feels powerful/aligned.
I believe finding ourselves at HOME in this body/ this life can begin to repair the ruptures that have been caused by feeling so lost - lonely-disconnected-dis/eased by a spiritually anorexic cutlture that prioritizes the material over the natural world.
Where are YOU on the wheel? ( see below!) What’s your
Which aspects do you feel most alive in yourself and which are dormant?
I’m so curious as to how you are THE LOVER, THE FOOL, THE WISE WOMAN?
And so, while I did get the robe ( Kanfot) and I do use my title ( b/c I’m proud) I think it’s so juicy & affirming & delicious to ground/root/LAND on our own feet, on our own terms.
To find ourselves on the map of the belonging-
in the long line ( standing on the shoulders) of humans living for a just and humane world in our communities, changing family patterns -
all while beating the drums, singing our songs, writing our poems and dancing our dances.
May we Priestess ourselves into the days ahead.
Bag designed by Kohenet Keshira HALEV Fife
A poster I made when I was trying to map out what being a Priestess would mean to and for me.
From THE EMERALD PODCAST
“Across the globe, the arrival of 'civilization' brought with it the persecution of the seer, the shaman, and the visionary. Why? Perhaps it is because civilization, with its narratives of individual agency and control, its relentless emphasis on forward progress, its commitment to the removal of mystery from daily life, and its encouragement of numbness over feeling, is fundamentally at odds with the seer's sensitivities and alignment to larger forces beyond human control. So modernity pushes the seer to the fringe — and once cast aside, seeing can veer into charlatanry and delusion. The rise of free market spirituality and New Age conspiracy is a result of the unmooring of the seer from traditional context. Yet what this points to isn't something 'wrong' with seeing or spirituality. It points to the need for context in a larger culture of disconnect and fragmentation, for slow learning and earned wisdom within a culture that always rushes things outwards. Dichotomized narratives that pit scientific rationalism against the spiritual, shamanic, or oracular ignore the central importance that spiritual movements play in culture. Visionary movements drive all aspects of culture, including scientific innovation. And ultimately — as science itself tells us — having a 'fringe' that sees things differently than the mainstream is absolutely essential to the growth of culture. So perhaps the modern-day seer must re-learn what it means to find anchor and context and earned wisdom, just as society must remember that the seer is vitally important. In a world of fragmentation and numbness, the seer comes to wake the culture up, to restore its sensitivities, and ultimately to drive culture forward. “
Love learning this part of your journey! You are also making me realize that my writing on my journey is now “lost” in the internet archive, since peelapom.com crashed. You are inspiring me to pull it out and save it to my current website.
This is so beautifully written, your Priestess path so powerfully explained, your weaving of worlds so remarkably you and the loving way you show up in the world.