Priesthoods and the Cultus Deorum

Our friends at Neos Alexandria have an interesting post on the reconstruction of priesthoods. They suggest an important reason for us to be interested in this:

"...to create religions that provide for the spiritual needs of the people who follow it, and help cement the chances of our survival as a faith in the modern world. Many of the successful and still surviving ancient religions have such divisions, and it is one reason why they still exist, despite pressures from Western Monotheisms." (1)

Neos Alexandria is a multicultural group, and they mention the case of Roman reconstructionism:

"The Romans had similar divisions [of society] particularly with the Pontifices who oversaw the priesthoods, the Flamines who carried the rituals out, and the Augurs who served as diviners." (1)

I agree that our survival and growth depends in great measure on our ability to speak to people's spiritual needs. More than that, we need to agree upon and promote a set of core values and procedures that we can keep in common. I don't mean that we need to have a "Spanish Inquisition" type obsession with orthodoxy, but if we are to be anything we have to be something. This is the reason, for example, that we carry the "Basic Principles" statement at the bottom of every page of this blog. (That statement came out of both scholarly research and discussions with a fairly large group of self-identified followers of the Cultus Deorum.)

What I disagree with, though, is the suggestion that the best way to do this is through establishment of formal priesthoods such as the College of Pontifices. There are several reasons for this.

The Meaning of the Games

Following up on the post of the November calendar and the mention there of the Ludi Plebeii, I want to call attention to this excellent post on the E Nos Lases Iuvate blog:

Meaning and Sense of Ludi 

Many rites in the Ancient Roman Religion implied the execution of  Ludi or sport activites and games. These activities, surely showing competitive and sporting features, had a remarkable "sacred" value and importance. For this reason the Ludi had the feature of Res Divinae. Usually an agape, supported by an invitatione daemonum, completed the Ludi.

Read the rest here.

The Salii

Their origin is lost in the mists of time; nobody remembers how it started. Around the time of the vernal equinox they go through town in their groups, wearing their archaic costume. There are different groups attached to various towns. They perform their leaping dance, the meaning of which most people do not understand and they themselves cannot clearly explain. It is the custom that they do it, though, so each year the sights and sounds are repeated. They are the Salii.