A few months ago, I decided to become an ordained (nondenominational) minister. I have long felt an affinity for taking religious vows—I’ve got a few scattered past-life memories of being a priestess in Egypt and a Christian monk in what seems multiple lifetimes—and for several years have been considering the possibility of becoming a nun of some sort if I become widowed once my children are grown. One major stumbling block, of course, is that most religious orders want you to believe in their dogmas, and … well, that’s just not me. I consider myself a student of all religions and spiritualities, and I admire the nuggets of truth within them all.

The Deciding Factor: Legality

What finally decided me on officially becoming a minister, though, was a far more earthly issue: legality. In its most basic form, Reiki involves very light touch—not physical manipulation but a light placing of the hands on parts of the body that will receive healing. Reiki does not require touch, however, and can be done from thousands of miles away. Sometimes, though, I have found that physical touch lends a little extra something to the healing practice, and multiple studies have confirmed the power of simple affectionate touch or comforting touch. Sometimes, a person simply needs to be touched—a hand held, a hug given, a shoulder clasped in solidarity. While performing Reiki, the practitioner can provide the comfort of touch at the same time as directing energy.

Still with me? I promise I’m getting to the part about legality finally making this decision for me. (Spoiler alert: It’s not at all “romantic,” just black and white.) Some states in the US require that, to legally touch clients, you must be, for example, a licensed massage therapist, nurse, or doctor—or a minister for whom healing by touch (laying on of hands) is part of your religious belief. My state is one where no specific strictures exist for or against touch in Reiki, but as I began to offer in-person Reiki sessions at a friend’s massage practice, I wanted to cover my bases, and this became the final nudge, giving me the … well, I guess you could call it courage to become an ordained nondenominational minister.

The Longtime Draws

That was ultimately the deciding factor in me becoming a minister, but the story of it doesn’t cover the months of consideration that I went through, or the strong pull I felt toward being able to act in an official capacity for people at some of their most important life milestones (baptisms, weddings, and funerals, to name only a few). One of my research interests and foci in graduate school was on end-of-life care (another, coincidentally, was on the benefits of touch in patient-healthcare provider interactions). For a time in graduate school, I volunteered for a hospice organization supported by a religious organization. The peace I found in—and, I hope, helped to bring to—the rooms and homes of hospice patients was transformative, and I felt the highly spiritual energy in the last few hours, and even days, of the patients’ lives.

Formal Support of the Less-/Un-Supported

That feeling has stuck with me through the intervening years, and I have found myself lamenting periodically that because of my legally blind status, I am unable to drive to volunteer in hospice settings, to sit with and possibly bring comfort and aid to the dying and their loved ones. Being ordained has given me the opportunity to keep alive that ability to formally support people in times of transition and transformation, I suppose you could say. I have no church, no “flock” to tend, no congregation to be there for. But I know a lot of people who don’t belong to churches, who aren’t members of flocks to be tended, who aren’t part of congregations.

Truly, it’s those people I want to be present for, those people for whom I am now making myself present. Whether we have chosen to leave flocks on our own or have been expunged from congregations for some reason, we all still have social and spiritual needs, and momentous occasions for which we may desire some spiritual solemnity, something more than just a formal civil recognition.

Special Recognition of Momentous Occasions

When I was planning my wedding some years ago, one of my work friends told me in no uncertain terms that she and her life partner were never going to get married because they didn’t need to have a ceremony to prove their love or commitment to anyone. Only as I tried to explain to her the reason I was going to have a wedding did I fully realize it myself: we were declaring ourselves to each other publicly not to prove anything but to share with the people we loved—our family and friends—the very special, spiritually momentous event of our pair-bonding. We wanted to share our joy of the declaration with them.

Because we are not religiously inclined and were not married in a church, we chose a mayor—who was a friend of my parents—to preside over our ceremony, thus making it neatly legal without just the quick words in front of a Justice of the Peace.

My heart swells at the idea of being able to preside over a bonding ceremony for others in similar situations. Over a baptism or naming ceremony to welcome new life. Or over a funeral, in which people formally see a loved one out of this life and on to the next. Over any momentous occasion for which special recognition is a human need.

I take to heart this formal recognition of my “authority” and ability to be a spiritual guide, helpmate, counselor, and officiant, and I greatly look forward to performing special ceremonies for others, no matter their faith—or their ambivalence about faith.

 

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Watch this video if you are curious about how I prepare for all of my readings and Reiki work, and how I perform readings and conduct conversations with Spirit.

 

My Year of Shadow and Light (My Memoir)

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