What Does a Gothi Do?

I stated earlier that the Gothi leads the ceremonies. That is fairly vague. Also stated was that the Gothi was a respected member of the group. Again, vague, but telling more. If you want to be a Gothi, you will have to be respected by an Asatru group and know enough to lead ceremonies.

Which ceremonies, you may ask. Well, that is one of the things that a professional Gothi would need to know. You will need to learn about all of the seasonal blots and sumbles, as well as days dedicated to the Gods and Goddesses and ancient heroes. There may also be ceremonies to particular to your group, such as its founding or the birthday of its founder, and you will need to know those. I recommend getting a good date book.

There are other ceremonies that call for a Gothi. Weddings are happy occasions, as are the naming ceremonies for newborns. Less happy are funerals. You will need to know about these things. You should know them well enough that you can perform them with little preparation time.

In between ceremonies, you will not be idle. Your folk, and curious others, may have questions that require a religious answer. You will need to know enough about the religion to provide advice. You will need to know about the Gods and Goddesses, about the Sagas and Eddas. These will be your friends when questions arise. To your group, you represent the Gathered Lore and Connection to the Past. To outsiders, you represent the religion as a whole.

Knowledge of the religion may not help you in all situations. You also need to be a counselor, someone who can help guide people through difficult emotional times. That means that you should probably study a bit of psychology as well as your religion. It's worth noting that even many of the Christian denominations have realized the benefits of psychology when their clergy attend the needs of their members. Since we are known to be much more accepting of science, we can easily out do them at this.