Ordained!

Shira is… ordained???

Yes, it’s true! The story goes something like this:
It’s been a dream of mine to be able to perform handfastings and wedding ceremonies for the longest time. I had been studying under Lady Chandara Anath, H.P.S., of Circle of the Crescent Moon (formerly of Temple of the Evening Star), who performed my own wedding. But even after several years of study, I still hadn’t yet been ordained.

In the meantime, I founded and have been operating Handfastings.org since 2004, a website dedicated to linking people in the Pagan and Wiccan communities with ordained officiants who perform handfastings, wedding ceremonies and other rites of passage unique to Nature-based and earth-friendly traditions.

I was just recently interviewed by the eZine, The Magical Buffet, about Handfastings.org. They sent me the link to the article and, much to my surprise, it is entitled, “Ten Questions with a Handfasting Officiant”. And I thought – uh oh, did I misrepresent myself? I’m not yet an officiant. While I had not yet been ordained, it’s probably safe to say that I know a great deal more about handfastings than most legal officiants, due to extensive research, study, personal experience and a regular ongoing obsession on the subject. So instead of informing them that I am still in the works, I’ve saved myself the embarrassment and – have become ordained online!

You are now looking at the officially unofficial officiant, Shira G. Tarantino, H.P.S., O.C.P. HPS means High Priestess and OCP means – I forget…Ordained Celebrant of the People? Something like that. Nevertheless, I am one step closer to becoming legal (surprise! ordination does not make one legal in the State of New York). I am officially ordained by the Church of Spiritual Humanism, a legally recognized, 501 (c) 3 religious entity in the U.S. Now all I have to do is wait for my papers and register with the state in order to perform LEGAL handfastings! I am very excited about the whole darn thing.

In the meantime, check out my interview on The Magical Buffet:
http://www.themagicalbuffet.com/Issues/Vol02_Iss06/Article_039.html

And go to my website, Handfastings.org!

By the power vested in me, I now pronounce – ME.
Shira


P.S.- Special thanks to Lady Lisa, you know who you are.


“A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge.”
- Carl Sagan