Priests and ritual specialists
Officiants of a religion who perform rites, blessings and exorcisms within it.
Priests and ritual specialists are the officiants of an organised religion who perform its blessings, protective rites and exorcisms. Many religions keep a place for what looks like magic inside the faith, such as the Hindu pandit's fire offering, the Catholic exorcist, the Tibetan lama's protection rites, the Shinto kannushi's purification, the Jewish ba'al shem and the Muslim imam reciting ruqyah. This page looks at how institutions handle power they regard as legitimate.
Rite and authority
Priestly rites are defined by tradition and lineage. A Hindu priest is born into or trained in a ritual line, a Catholic priest is ordained, a Shinto priest is trained at a recognised school. The authority comes from the institution and not from a personal gift. Priests commonly describe their work as worship and prayer, and not as magic, a distinction scholars say is often contested. The line is not the same everywhere: a rite that one tradition calls a blessing, another may call a spell.
Magic or religion
Scholars once drew a line: religion asks and magic compels. Later writers dropped the line as unworkable, since prayer, sacrifice and compulsion overlap in most traditions. The Catholic Church has a formal rite of exorcism, revised in 1999 and carried out by authorised priests, and a long tradition of blessings. Medieval Christians believed sacramental items such as holy water had power, which Protestants later rejected as superstition. They also keep records, calendars and texts, and in many societies priests were the first literate class.
Gender and exclusion
Priesthood is male in many traditions, including the Catholic and Orthodox churches and most Brahmin ritual. Women lead rites in Shinto, in Vodou and Candombl茅, in Korean shaman practice, and in several Buddhist and Protestant settings. Class also shapes access: temple priests may refuse low-caste worshippers, and caste discrimination in temple access has been challenged in Indian courts. Within Christianity, the Catholic Church has had both a line of exorcists and a series of rules against selling blessings for money.
Misuse and reform
Priests have been accused of abuse in the name of deliverance, of exploiting the vulnerable for payment, and of staging miracles. Reform movements, such as the Protestant Reformation and the Arya Samaj in India, attacked priestly ritual. In many countries today, pastors in Pentecostal churches lead deliverance services that some scholars compare with older exorcism, with benefits for some and harm for others. Protestant, Salafi and modernist critics have often opposed ritual specialists as intermediaries who stand between a person and God.
Priests and ritual specialists on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
馃嚚馃嚟 SwitzerlandMagic circle
A ritual boundary drawn or visualised to create sacred space and protectionTradition 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 5 moreVotive offering
Objects left in sacred places to honor a deity or fulfill a vow, never to be recovered.Tradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 1 moreGardnerian Wicca
An initiatory neopagan tradition tracing its lineage to Gerald Gardner and the New Forest covenTradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Change and initiation Living
馃嚝馃嚪 France and 1 moreLaying on of hands住诪讬讻讛
A physical gesture used across religions to convey authority, healing, or spiritual presence.Rite 路 Healing 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 5 moreRelic
An object or body part kept to honor a holy person and mark their connection to the divineCharm 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚠馃嚜 Ireland and 4 moreWinter solstice
The shortest day and longest night of the year, marked by rites of solar returnTradition 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Protection Living
馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 5 moreAlexandrian Wicca
A British Neopagan tradition founded in the 1960s by Alex and Maxine SandersTradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚠馃嚜 Ireland and 1 moreLughnasadhL煤nasa
A Gaelic harvest festival marking the beginning of the grain gathering seasonTradition 路 Luck and prosperity 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 2 moreEaster FireOsterfeuer
Bonfires lit at Easter to mark the Resurrection and spring renewalRite 路 Cleansing and purification 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚝馃嚪 France and 3 moreReliquary
A container for sacred remains or objects, crafted across many faithsCharm 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚜馃嚞 Egypt and 2 moreLibation
The ritual pouring of liquid as an offering to spirits or the deadRite 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Protection Living
馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 2 moreAstragalomancy
Divination by casting marked bones, carved rods, or numbered diceOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚜馃嚫 Spain and 5 moreSt John's Eve
A Christian vigil marked by bonfires and plant gathering on the summer solstice eveRite 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 5 moreSaint Michael
A Christian archangel who defends the faithful and weighs soulsBeing 路 Protection 路 Cursing and harm Living
馃嚠馃嚜 IrelandFellowship of Isis饟姩饟弿饟亹饟尀饟嫶饟叡饟偦饟惏饟彞
An international spiritual fellowship honouring the Divine Feminine and the goddess IsisTradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Change and initiation Living
馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 3 moreExorcist
A religious specialist who performs rites to remove alleged demonic possession from people or places.Tradition 路 Cursing and harm 路 Cleansing and purification Living
馃嚙馃嚞 Bulgaria and 5 moreApocryphal prayer
A folk prayer text blending church forms with apocrypha and incantations for protection and healingText 路 Protection 路 Healing Living
馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomGorsedd stonesCerrig yr Orsedd
Stone circles built for the National Eisteddfod of Wales to host druidic ceremonies.Tradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚞馃嚪 GreeceSacred mysteries渭蠀蟽蟿萎蟻喂慰谓
Secret ceremonies and divine doctrines held to exceed human reasonBelief 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Change and initiation Living
馃嚜馃嚫 Spain and 2 moreHoly ChaliceSanto C谩liz
A cup believed to have held the blood of Jesus at the Last SupperCharm 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Living
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Libation: Arkady Zarubin ( 袗褉泻邪写懈泄 袟邪褉褍斜懈薪 ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Astragalomancy: Roland zh, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Gardnerian Wicca: Midnightblueowl ( talk ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Winter solstice: Image by Przemyslaw " Blueshade " Idzkiewicz, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Lughnasadh: Mountainash333, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Exorcism: Francisco Goya, Public domain, source
- Easter Fire: J眉rgen Eissink, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Reliquary: Attributed to Jean de Toul, also written Jehan de Touyl in one source, CC0, source
- Gorsedd stones: Robin Drayton, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Sacred mysteries: Johannes Hopffe, Public domain, source
- St John's Eve: Jules Breton, Public domain, source
- Laying on of hands: User:Lipsio, CC BY 3.0, source
- Magic circle: John William Waterhouse, Public domain, source
- Relic: MathieuGuy, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Votive offering: Walter J. Pilsak, Waldsassen ( W.J.Pilsak at de.wikipedia ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Holy Chalice: Vitold Muratov, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Saint Michael: Francesco Botticini, Public domain, source