Category: Pax’s Beliefs

There is no knowledge that is not power

On By PaxIn Bouncing off the Gods, everyday, Food for Thought, Pagan Values Blogging, Pax's BeliefsLeave a comment

(or) Learning and the Quest for Wisdom as Pagan Values

If the Abrahamic Faiths are the Religions of the Book,

then the Pagan Faiths must be Religions of the Library…

~An old, old joke about Paganism

It is not just that in order to become a Pagan many of us have had to amass, and/or read, a library of books or sites in addition to what other forms of learning we have had the privilege of having on our life journeys.  It is also the fact that in all of the Pagan cultures out of history we can see knowledge and wisdom and learning were much valued.

Of course, I am a bit biased on the matter of the value of learning.  I grew up in a house that, while not Pagan, was similarly devoted to learning.

“Ignorance means there are things you haven’t learned yet,

Stupidity means you aren’t able to learn.”

I grew up in a house whose walls were almost literally lined with words.  The house I grew up in was a split-level Ranch style house with the lower level being a sort of daylight-basement where it was half-underground so at about chest level to your average adult there was a shelf along several of the walls.  Above that shelf on many of the walls that would support them, were book shelves.  Books of all sorts, reference works and classics and various treasured novels both intellectual and popular in hardcover and paperback.

I grew up with a mother who had originally planned on being a school teacher and who had double-majored and double-minored in College… only to marry at a time when most respectable married women did not work outside the home.   I could ask that classic child’s question “Why….” all the live long day and my mom would either answer,  or if she wasn’t sure aim me at a dictionary or encyclopedia… often both because of course a child’s stock of “Why…”‘s is often much larger than even 5 average adults schedules can allow…

Once the Internet started getting navigable and usefully informative (to those of us in the general populace) sometime in the 90’s it was a boon to me… especially as informational and educational sites blossomed at the turn of the 21st Century.  While I am aware of its limitations, I consider the Wikipedia project to be one of the noblest endeavors of the 21st Century. I find it invigorating and exciting to live in a time where society is changing because of a new information technology… a time of change and transformation as big as Writing, or The Printing Press, or Radio.

I am sometimes surprised when, at local Pagan events or in online chats, I will bring up ideas from Psychology or (my own admittedly limited understanding of) Physics, or History, or any of a number of other subjects where my interests and reading and willingness to look stuff up have cross-polinated…. and then finding myself having to explain ideas like Entrainment, or Venn Diagrams, or Transference and Counter-Transferance, or the blossoming of the Spiritualist movement in the late 19th Century and the 20th Century Occult revival starting in the 1960’s as a continuation of The Great Awakening, or… well stuff that I am surprised not everybody knows about.

“Well, maybe my frame of reference is a little obscure…”

~Pax

The ancient societies featured Bards, and Skalds, and Law-speakers, and Philosopher’s and traveling Poets; all of whom had to memorize hundreds of books worth of material.  Our Pagan ancestors created great Temples and Store-Houses of Learning in the Philosophical Schools and the Mouseaum/Mousaion (a Temple to the Muses/University of which the Library of Alexandria was but one part) was a wonder of the Ancient World that has continued to inspire humanity down through to the present day.  Never mind the surprising technical sophistication of even the near Stone Age monuments, much less Greece and Roman technology.  Pagan Culture’s have always valued learning and wisdom, and I feel our Contemporary Paganism’s are striving in our own ways to do the same, this is why you see a LOT of Pagan content online and why we seem to be early and eager adapter’s of technology.

Unfortunately, Pagans have not always had a firm line between the categories of History and Folklore…  and between honoring and being inspired by our ancestral cultures and slavishly trying to recreate a world-view that is better adapted to the world of the 9th Century BCE than for the 21st CE…. and of mediating between our metaphysical beliefs and our understandings of the Hard and Soft Sciences.   We live in a world where it is becoming more and more common to be isolated from ideas and information that challenges our world-view as we ‘like’ and select certain articles and sites which results in your various media sites aiming only certain types of information in your direction; we also live in a world where discussion and cooperation and compromise are being replaced by screaming and rhetoric and ideology.  What can we do to balance these issues?

Listen.  Learn.  Read.  Be open to conversation and knowledge and ideas.

When I was thinking about writing a piece for Pagan Values Month, I was originally thinking of either Hospitality or Community as my topic and I was reminded of the folk-tales of Gods or Culture Heroes who go abroad in the world disguised as mortals/regular folk, how they go amongst the humans and reward or punish their hosts depending upon their treatment.   The Gods (Divine, or The Good) are, or can be, present in any person … or book, or idea, that we encounter so why not be open to them.

The Ethical and Virtuous Witch

On By PaxIn Harm None, Highest Ideals, Love Unto All Beings, Pagan Values Blogging, Pax's Beliefs, Witches Virtues9 Comments

Dear Pagani,

I am a Witch, of the type popularly called Wiccan.  In my case this means religious and British Traditional Witchcraft inspired Neo-Pagan Religious Witchcraft.  I came to this path, and later fell off of it for a while, nearly 17 years ago. This essay is my attempt to discuss the core values, ethics, and virtues I have found within the path and faith of Witchcraft.

I can only speak for myself, as a Witch, especially a Solitary one.  These are what I have found, your mileage may vary!

After having studied Witchcraft for a few years and Invoking the Divinities, seeking Them through Ritual and Gnosis.  I prayed and read and studied what I could find at the time… I wanted more, I felt the need to dig deeper.

So the first thing I did was take a good look at The Rede.

Now anytime one talks about ethics or values in the Neo-Pagan Witchcraft world, especially from the Wiccan or Wicca inspired end of the spectrum; the topic of the Rede comes up.

“An ye harm none, do what thou will.”

The Rede is almost always (and in my oh, so humble opinion incorrectly) cited as the only rule, ethical statement, or religious law of Witchcraft. While I disagree with the only part, I would say that examining the Rede, and really thinking about it, is central to understanding the philosophy of Witchcraft.  So let’s take a look, shall we?

First let’s focus on the word Harm…

“HARM (noun): Physical or mental damage.”

Nouns are words that name a person, place, thing, quality, or action. Eliminating the person and place we have Harm describing a thing, quality, or action. This would seem to say that Harm is something that is done by one party or group to another. To do something, to do anything in fact, you need intent. So while you may not always succeed at it, if you strive to do no harm to yourself or others you are practicing the Rede.

Now let’s look at the word “An” in “An ye harm none, do what you will”. An, is the archaic form of “If” so a more modern wording would be…

“If you harm none, do what you will.”

“If” is darned important.  “IF” means that we have the choice to do harm, to ourselves and to others, but that we must face the consequences of our actions.

If… So what if you harm someone, with intent? Since Witches don’t believe in the Devil, we can’t say “the Devil made me do it?” or “It was because I was a sinner!” or “It’s not my fault because I was acting under medication for my sinus infection”.

In fact Witches and a lot, if sadly not all, of our fellow Pagans believe very strongly in personal responsibility as a part of their life paths.  We choose our actions, and we are capable of choosing our reactions, so we are always responsible for what we do and the choices we make.

Harming “none,” also includes oneself. This is a key ingredient in my decision making process… Is it more harmful to myself to allow this situation to continue, than any harm X, Y, or Z might encounter as a result of my decision?  The thing is to be a Witch you must be willing to strive to do no harm. There may come times in life where you have a choice and no matter what you chose someone will be harmed by your actions, but in most cases you have a choice open to you to NOT harm anyone or yourself.

So that takes care of the “Harming None” aspect of the Rede, what about “Do what thou will.”?

This is another area worthy of some examination.   Are you thinking about will as in doing whatever you want?  That’s ok, as far as it goes, but we can dig deeper!  Like a lot of Witches, I look at the Rede’s similarity to certain Thelemic ideas and consider the will discussed in the Rede as being True Will.  Will, with a capital “W”, as being an ongoing effort to live from moment to moment a path of action in perfect harmony with Nature or the Universe; to seek ones ultimate Destiny.

So another wording of the Rede might be…

“Strive to do no harm, and seek a path of harmony towards your destiny”

This is a little more complicated, and adult, than just doing whatever you want; even if you are trying to mind the consequences!

Now the next thing a lot of folks seem to think about, in connection with the Rede, and with the topic of virtues and ethics in Witchcraft, is the Three-fold Law…

“What you do comes back to you Threefold!”

Some Witches maintain that this is a core value or belief, other Witches look upon it and go

“Meh, Newton said it better!”

There is some variation of the Golden Rule or the Ethic of Reciprocity in most of the world Faiths.  While I respect the idea of the Rule of Three, as it is also known, I just can’t see myself grounding my actions and values in a system where I am fearing punishment or seeking reward.  That just seems somehow childish to me.

So I moved out from the Rede and the Rule of Three, in my own explorations  trying to figure out how to actively live as a Witch and carry my faith with me into the world.  Then I began to really look at Doreen Valiente’s Charge of the Goddess.

A few passages especially stood out…

“For mine is the Spirit of Ecstasy, and mine as well is joy on Earth, and Love Unto All Beings is My Law.”

“Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it; let nothing stop you or turn you aside.”

“Therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, and mirth and reverence within you.”

These are the things the First Goddess of my heart demands of me.  I remember being so shocked that none of the books I had read talked about the implicit instruction aspect of the Charge of the Goddess.

“Love unto all beings is my Law.”

This passage was the first that sort of hit my in the face when I started really looking at the Charge for moral and ethical guidance.  It is the only place in this sacred piece of poetry and inspiration where The Goddess lays down Her Law… not a recommendation, not a suggestion, Her Law.

The thing is, Love, is complicated!

Love for your family, and friends, and beloved.  Love for your neighbors, your co-workers, and your acquaintances.  Love for the people who cut you off in traffic, love for the scary and possibly schizophrenic homeless guy you walk by on your way to work.  Love for all beings, no matter how violent or vile their actions or pasts…

Now loving someone doesn’t require us t unconditionally or blindly love them and it doesn’t require us to to accept their immoral or unethical behaviors.  As long as it is truly rooted in love, we can practice Tough Love in those cases.

Then too there are those people in the world and in our regional and religious communities who have committed crimes; sometimes horrible and “unforgivable” crimes like murder or rape or worse.

Please Note: I use the quotes because it is easy to forget, especially if we or someone we love has been victimized in the past, that unless the person we are faced with actually victimized us then it is not our place to forgive them.  Only their own victims can possibly do that!

However, if they have served their debt to society, and seek to live a moral and ethical and sane and healthy life now, then all I can do is to be cautious and watchful in my Love for them; because She demands I find within myself, and act with, Love for them!

Like I said, Love, is complicated.  The Law of the Goddess is not unlike the goal or practice of Metta or Loving Kindness of the Buddhists.

So, to paraphrase, again…

“Live a life of Love,” She says “ do good things, and act with balance and wisdom!“ She says…

Striving to find Love for all beings, and striving to identify and live out and act upon our Highest Ideals.

You know though, I am still still struggling to identify and articulate my highest ideals; heck that was one of the motivations for starting the International Pagan Values Blogging month blog carnival in the first place!  For me, my ideals are wrapped up within the Rede, and The Law of The Goddess, and the U.S. Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, and many other sources and inspirations.

Then too, as someone who is barely making ends meet, and who is desperately seeking for a second job or one full-time job, a lot of my sense of actively working for my highest ideals; well, it feels on hold.

I do try to do good in the world where I can.  Writing and speaking out in favor of Gay Civil Rights, and Pagan Community.  I participate in workplace giving with a few dollars of each paycheck going to some charitable causes.  I tell myself that I will do more as I am able, but a lot of times that feels nowhere near enough.

So, for now, I try to hold to my ideals as best I can and pray to the Gods for guidance and good things for myself and my family and for the opportunity to act upon my ever evolving Highest Ideals.

It’s not like I, as a Witch, don’t have some guidelines in how to act…

“Therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, and mirth and reverence within you.”

These 8 virtues or qualities are what the Goddess wishes me to try and embody, each and every day.   They are a part of the plan the Goddess has laid out for us, Her Witches.

I have copied down the dictionary definitions of those 8 goals/ideals/virtues, I have sought out quotes about them that strike the same chords in my soul as the Charge does, I meditate and contemplate the meanings of the words and how others have related to them trying to puzzle out my own relationship to them.   I have in this very blog tried to articulate what some of the virtues mean to me, and rambled a bit about striving towards my highest ideals, and of love unto all beings.

The truth is though that these are things I think and pray upon on a daily basis,… now.

“Mother Celestial, and Father Divine,

Let me walk in Beauty and Strength,

Exhibiting Power and Compassion,

With both Honor and Humility,

Let me always remember Mirth as well as Reverence,

That I might be worthy of Thy Perfect Love and Perfect Trust,

And that of those in whose hearts you dwell.

Blessed be, so mote it be”

Originally I did that work studying definitions and contemplating meanings and looking at what others had said or thought about these qualities of character; and then, somehow, I sort of set it aside.   I got distracted from the important matters and guidelines of spirit by the pressures of everyday life, and by giving in to some of my more self-destructive impulses.  It has been a long and winding, educational and rough and yet not entirely unpleasant road back to living my Witchcraft on a regular basis; I am still working on it, and suspect I shall be doing so for the rest of this lifetime.

I have failed to live these ideals in the past, sometimes grievously, but I keep trying… one of the definitions of Strength relates to perseverance…and persevere I do!  Each day I pray my prayer, sometime it comes out more like a memorized recitation than a heartfelt speaking and sharing with the Deities, so I will repeat it… sometimes mantra-like until I feel I have truly thought about each of the virtues and what they mean to me and have had a moment of connection to Them as I contemplated these Virtues I am ordered to embody.

She wants so much from me!  I can get intimidated sometimes thinking about it, yet when I offered myself  to Them they accepted me.  So I persevere and I struggle and I keep going,

And still I struggle, Beauty and Strength, and by extension Health are  issues for me lately.  Well, Beauty is always something I have struggled to find in looking at myself, and to find myself worthy of striving for.  But Strength and health are things I have let slip in the last couple of years.  She expects more of my, and through Her love I have learned to start expecting more of myself.

As I write this I am realizing that one of the key things, for me, about the values and virtues I have found within Witchcraft is that they are things each of us must work with.  Whether you are a Solitary or in a Coven, no one else is responsible for your Grace, your Gnosis, your encounters with the Numinous Divine.

Each of us must look to the values and ethics and ideals and morals we find in our many Pagan Paths.  We must not only study and contemplate them, we must wrestle with them daily as we try to live them and as we carry them with us into the world where we will act in accordance with them.

Peace, and Love, always Love,

Pax

Discussion of my recent Beltane post…

On By PaxIn Aphrodite, Bouncing off the Gods, Dionysus, everyday, Food for Thought, Harm None, Highest Ideals, Modern Pagan, My Florida Sabbats, Pagan Ponderings, Pax's Beliefs, Reinventing the Wheel2 Comments

So the ever fabulous Tracy the Red posted a reply to my recent Beltaine related post.   I should like to share it and my reply, with you my dear readers and encourage more discussion on this, here, and on the Pagan Community Builders list, and elsewhere in the community.

Anyway Tracie posted this to my comments section…

“Be careful there, darlin’ because Beltane is a festival that is directed at the Celtic fire God Bel and Aphrodite is Greek. She has Her own holy tides and we all know how stroppy She can get if She doesn’t receive Her proper worship. Beltane also doesn’t involve Maypoles either; that’s May Day. Maypoles are something Germanic peoples are into, even to this day. May Day itself is a day sacred to Freyja and is a lot more “Samhain-esque” than most would realize.

Wouldn’t mixing and matching deities and festivals fall under “cultural misappropriation?””

Well, I’ve written a small bit about cultural misappropriation recently, and also had a bit of a chat on the topic with Tracie the other day (pray for her air-conditioning unit folks!), so the topic is hovering about and well worth bringing up.  It is also an issue I have started to seriously wrestle with as both a Neo-Pagan Witch and a budding Hellenic Polytheist.

I have re-read the article, and I can see where, as a result of some inspecifics in my writing of it, I did commit some cultural misappropriation… or an least provide opportunity for it to flourish.

I would say there are two areas where I could have written things out better.

1. I did not write clearly enough about which Beltaine I was writing about.

Beltaine/May Day/Walpurgisnacht are three inter-related festivals that have some very different meanings for different branches of our Pagan movement.  I tried to speak to this within the post

“Especially this time of year.  Beltane, or May Day, is the time of year when many of us modern Pagans celebrate fertility and passion and joy and love and lust.”

Note the use of the word “many”… not “all”; but I should have been more detailed.

To a Celtic Reconstructionist, it is the fire festival celebrating the beginning of Summer and a festival for Bel.

To Heathens it may be a festival of Spring, and a time to honor Nerthus and Njord.  (for some Kindreds anyways….)

(And in both of the above examples different groups and individuals will have different observances, and ways of relating to and honoring the holiday.)

For the Hellenic Recons and well Beltaine really has little to do with the directly reconstructionist path.  Some have already celebrated Anthestreria.  (more on this Dionysian festival later)

Then of course for the Neo-Pagan and Witch and Wiccan communities the Beltaine Sabbat takes elements of  all of the above with a heavier focus on the light-hearted fertility and spring and a little less on the Samhaineque elements.

(by the by Tracie I am officially filing the serial numbers off of ‘Samhainesque” and going to be slipping it into as much everyday conversation as is possible)

It was this last iteration of Beltaine, one of the more widely celebrated ones (currently) in the Pagan movement, that I was speaking to in my recent article.

2. I did not explain a few things about my Hellenic Polytheism

See even though I am a self-described Hellenic Polytheist, and I am currently researching and involving myself in some Hellenic and Greco-Egyptian Recon subjects/groups… I am not a hard core recon… at least not yet, I am more than willing to concede that my thoughts and feelings on this issue may change and evolve, but here is where I am at the moment.

~I am drawn to the worship of the Immortal Gods, the Olympians, the Cthonic Dieties and a number of others from the Hellenic Pantheon, most especially Dionysus and Hecate with some burgeoning relationships with Antinous, Aprhodite, and Pan.  I make offerings of incense and pour libations of water and, as I am able, wine to Them whilst reciting from the homeric and orphic hymns and sometimes my own poetry striving to do Them justice and honor.

~ It is my heartfelt belief that the Gods are real are many and have always been with us, to paraphrase Plethon.  They didn’t go up onto some shelf at some point in History.  Thus they are as much a part of the modern world as say cell phones or Valentines Day.

~ At the moment I am welcoming the Gods into my life in the Modern world… Honoring Aphrodite at Valentines for example… and Dionysus during the two Florida Wine Harvests  (June and August).  I am looking at some of the Recon calendars… but my thing is I am not living in Ancient Alexandria or Athens… I am living in Davenport, Florida USA.   The agricultural and spiritual rythms, the rhythms of the natural world around me, are very different than those in the lands where the Theoi were first honored.

~This also relates to a similar difficulty I have had with the Neo-Pagan Wheel of the year since moving to Florida.  What does Beltane really mean in a land where fertility is never in question and Winter Solstice and Imbolc are the Citrus and Strawberry Harvests respectively?

So those are some of the issues I am trying to sort out for myself right now, and part of why I wrote of Aphrodite in association with Beltane.  I was not trying to claim that Beltaine is a festival of Aphrodite, more that Beltaine celebrates things that are a part of Aphrodite’s concerns…

I send my apologies to Aphrodite, Bel, any hardcore Recons reading the blog for any offense the piece may have caused.

Though, in the end, I must also stand by the posts core message of honoring fertility and sex and sensuality, honoring the Goddesses and Gods related to those things, and honoring ourselves through responsible behavior.

Peace,

Pax

_PS_ this may seem like a silly post to some, but if I am going to speak about how words and language has power I need to be very conscious of how I use them.  Also, if I am going to kvetch to people about a local Pagan groups “Native American” Pipe Cermony (which doesn’t actually involve ANY native americans nor any sort of sanction approval from the Lakota people whose ceremony they are stealing)…. well, if I am going to complain about such things I need to keep my own spiritual house clean!!

“What Now?” ~ Pagan Community Builders

On By PaxIn Activist Alert, An Important Message..., Community Building, Food for Thought, Modern Pagan, Pagan Evangelical, Pagan Pride, Pagan Responses to Recession, Pax's Beliefs7 Comments

So Darkly Fey, from Live from the Red Leather Couch and I had some fabulous back and forth conversations recently via e-mail about Paganism and Pagan community.  We decided to share with the Pagan Community Builder’s Yahoo.  This stirred up a little bit of discussion, and some really cool questions…  This encouraged me to engage in some of the following ranting about Pagan community…

I don’t know if movement’s neccesarilly mature into institutions, but I would definitely agree with the idea that they can mature into communities.  As I have said here and elsewhere that is where I think Paganism is right now…

Paganism is a spiritual, religious, and cultural movement made up of different interwoven and overlapping religious and regional communities.

It is my hope that Paganism as a movement will move and grow and develop into a family of interwoven and overlapping religious communities.  I just don’t think we are quite there yet.  (in my ever so humble and correct opinion!) ~ 😉

Moving on, if I may quote you…

“What would a mature Pagan community look like? More importantly, what would it do?”

I think that we as individual faiths and communities are in a process of hammering that question out… I also think it is related to another of your questions…

“But Pagans– do we have a goal? Is it individual enlightenment, collective enlightenment, improving the world with the idea that with an immanent divine, one serves the gods by serving others?”

I would say that the goal of a Pagan depends on the particular religion or philosophy of the individual Pagan.  ( I know, obviously, but I am moving towards a point here so please bear with me…)

I would observe that for the different Pagan faiths and paths there seems to be an overall theme of development into being a better person (personal growth and perhaps enlightenment, although it is not neccesarilly phrased as such) by practicing certain rites, and developing our relationships with the Divine (or the All That Is) and with the Spirits of the World Around Us (Elements and Land Spirits), and living certain  (intertwining and overlapping) virtues and values, and by building our relationships with others in our groups and faiths and societies through those virtues and values and practices…

I think that his theme of growth and development leads us quite naturally into engagement with other branches of Paganism, and from there into engagement with the rest of Society.  I also think that fear of discrimination, and a lack of outside pressure in the form of legal or social restrictions on religious practice, has helped to hamper that process of engagement.  Of course the fact that Paganism, with its Pantheism and Polytheism (among other Theisms present under the Pagan umbrella) whose essential concept of “our way AND your way” is having to re-emerge culturally from an immersion in Monotheism’s predominantly “Our way or the highway” mindset has also hampered our development as a community…

I think that both of your above questions are being hammered out by different Faith and Regional communities within the Pagan movement.

My instinct is (or, admittedly, perhaps it is merely my deep hope) that we as a movement are reaching a threshold point of in-group and inter-group communication and networking and growth and expansion that we are ready to go towards the next stage in our development from a movement into being a community.

Of course, I have been accused of being somewhat of an optimist and idealist…

“In my thoughts, I’d figured finding other Pagans would be the hard part. After all that navel-gazing and contemplation, the theological musings and soul-searching, we’ve figured out what we believe. We’ve found each other!….

…what now?”

I, SO, hear you! I share some of your frustration and experiences at local Pagan groups and rituals.  Socializing, in and of itself, is not enough.  Rituals on the Moons and/or on the Seasonal Holy Days are not enough!

That is part of why I created this discussion group.  To start and encourage discussions of “what now?”

“What now?” is why I have written Invoking the Power of the Pagan Dollar 2.0

Because I believe we need to start supporting our own community members (by supporting them as business people, and not just the occult tsotchke shoppes either!)  and institutions (religious, community, and charitable).

“What now?” is why I support the Pagan Pride Project and Pagan Pride events of all sorts… despite my occasional misgivings about some of the modes of dress and behavior!

We need, as religious and regional communities within the Pagan movement, to start engaging and reaching out to our wider local, regional, and national communities; not to proselytize, but to show clearly and honestly who and what we really are and are about!

We need to start looking at celebrating open and public rituals and observances at CIVIC holidays, not only to show our lager communities who and what Pagans are and are about; but to also deepen and expand ourselves as Pagans and our relationships with the spirits of our ancestors and of our Nations, and of the World around us; and to further build and strengthen our communities!

That, at the very least, is “what now?”!

Beyond that, well let’s keep talking!

Peace,

Pax

PS- if you are interested in taking part in this discussion, or ones like it, you can post here, or even better yet sign up for the Pagan Community Builder’s Yahoogroup !!!

Everything is Magic!!! Everything is Holy!!!

On By PaxIn Aphrodite, Blame Sannion, Bouncing off the Gods, Food for Thought, magick, Pax's BeliefsLeave a comment

…or magick, if you prefer.

I am writing this as a reaction to Hecate’s post regarding some comments she’s gotten on the fabulous Calendar post of hers.  There is also a fantastic Elemental Castings podcast where T. Thorne Coyle interviews Jason Pitz-Waters… that touches on this and is inspiring me to rant.

While this may not help make my rantings any clearer at the very least it provides the careful reader with something resembling context.

It works like this, at least for me it does…

“If you harm none, do what you Will.”

Note the capital ‘W’, it’s important.  It relates to the concept of True Will, which while not intimately or commonly associated with Witchcraft, is one worth looking at.  Especially since whoever introduced The Rede ™  into modern Witchcraft probably had seen some mention of it in Crowley’s works or had read up on Thelema…

“It is defined at times as a person’s grand destiny in life and at other times as a moment to moment path of action that operates in perfect harmony with Nature. This Will does not spring from conscious intent, but from the interplay between the deepest Self and the entire Universe.” ~ from the Wikipedia entry on True Will (accessed 10:17pm 12/30/3008)

As a modern Witch, whatever your Tradition, you have to deal with The Rede, either as a requirement of your practice, or as an outside Not-so-bad-idea but nowhere near the core of your practice ~ that is automatically associated by others with what you do.  The thing is that this idea of True Will becomes important when your Circles and prayers and invocations start to align you with the Universe.

Not that this is to be seen as a process that ends.  We, like the Universe, are in a state of change, growth, evolution.  Unfolding like a thousand-fold lotus of enlightenment on the waters of intuition.

So we chase after this True Will, this Higher Self.  We practice and study magic, or magick…

“What is a Magical Operation? It may be defined as any event in nature which is brought to pass by Will. We must not exclude potato-growing or banking from our definition.” ~ A.C. or” Evil Uncle Al” in  Magic in Theory and Practice

So anything we do, from the most ornate and moving of rituals, to the simplest of every day tasks are magick… if we let them be so, magick and holy.

Holy, because just as we and the Universe are constantly growing and changing, so to are the Gods.  Mercury is the God of Bike Messengers, Fax Machines, and Cell Phones.  Freya and Aphrodite are rocking the house in clubs across this planet!

Holy because the divine is everywhere and the Gods are a part of every atom and cell of creation.  Some Deities are more…fully present?…accurately reflected?… not quite sure how to say this but by an example.

Aphrodite, for example, is present in all the world.  But where there is love, and passion, and beauty She is more fully present or more accurately reflected there.  That part of Her which is a part of all Creation is more …there in those moments and things which reflect Her essential nature.

Every atom, every cell, all of Creation is holy and sacred and of the Gods, if we let it be so!

… I’m ranting. again… as I reread this I think this is one of those spiritual things that makes perfect sense to me at this stage of my growth, but is, just out of reach of explainability unless you’re right there with the person you are trying to explain it too.

I remember when my dear friend PK  (the ceremonial Magickian, Chef, and Great Geek Bear of the Moutain) had tried, as part of my request to help me learn the more ceremonial / formal Magickal side of things, to explain some of the above to me…

PK~”Any act is a magickal act, picking up a glass of water and moving from one table to the next, is a magickal act…”

Pax~(blink, blink) “uhm, ok, but that doesn’t sound very magickal?!?    So what was that book of essays by Regardie again, and is his writing any easier to slog through than Fortunes???”

I’m either growing, or falling off my rocker, at least life isn’t dull!

Peace and a Happy New Years!

Pax

“maybe I’m some sort of idealist…”

On By PaxIn Food for Thought, Highest Ideals, Love Unto All Beings, Pax's Beliefs, Religio-Americana1 Comment

I said.  To which The Big Guy looked at me bemusedly and responded

“Yes, you are.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am wrestling with how to respond to some stuff in the news lately.  There are a lot of incidents of Mormons and other supporters of the Yes on 8 campaign being harassed either by anonymous pranks or by angry ‘protester’s’.  Then there is the arson that was committed on the Wasilla Bible Church, the non-denominational church that Sarah Palin goes to now.

(The one you’ve seen online in the movie clips about the African preacher is an Assemblies of God church she was raised in and is less active in now that a few years ago…)

Anyway, the thing is…

If I am to stand up for my civil rights as a Gay man, or as a Pagan, then I must also be willing to stand up for every-ones civil rights.  Even the rights of those with whom I have theological or political disagreements; especially of those with whom I have political or theological disagreements!

This just seems such a simple and obvious thing to me that I am having trouble articulating it… thus today’s post…

Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Life, Liberty, The Persuit of Happiness, that All Men (and women, and all of those in between) Are Created Equal.  These are some of the ideals I hold dear.

It is very easy, once you start doing it, to stand up for your ideals and your beliefs and your rights.  It is much more difficult ( but it is the truest test of your ideals and your commitment to them) to stand up for those with whom you disagree.  If I am not willing to stand up for others and defend their rights as I would defend, or seek to ensure, my own; well, then those ideals mean nothing!

I wouldn’t really be caring about, focusing on, or standing up for, my ideals as I would be serving and focusing only on myself.  It is so important, yet so few people seem to get it!

For me, at least, a lot of it comes down to my faith as a Witch…

“Sing! Feast! Dance! Make music and Love

all in my praise and presence.

For mine is the Spirit of Ecstasy,

and mine as well is joy on Earth,

and Love Unto All Beings is My Law.”

~ From the Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valliente

Love unto all beings.  Love to those who disagree with me.  Love to those who would see my rights limited because of my faith or of my sexual orientation.  Love unto ALL beings, even the difficult ones… especially the difficult ones, because they need it more!

I need to go to sleep now, and pray and meditate on this later…

Peace,

Pax

Freedom of Religion?

On By PaxIn An Important Message..., Highest Ideals, Pax's Beliefs, Witches Virtues2 Comments

Ok, folks time to get busy!!!

A mother has been denied custody of her child because of the mere
perception that she is a Wiccan!

http://www.wildhunt.org/2008/11/slandered-wiccan-denied-rehearing.html

The lady in question may or may not be Wiccan( or a Witch, or a Pagan
for that matter), but the mere perception that she might be has caused
one intolerant judge to deny her custody of her child!  And another
group of judges to uphold the decision!  What can we do?

Prayers, spells, petitions to our many Goddesses and Gods, these
things can work wonders.  This is a part of my faith and philosophy as
a Witch.  Acting in accord also works wonders, making a phone-call, or
writing letters to the editor, writing your State representatives if
you live in the U.S..  Send letters to the ACLU and to who ever else
you can think of.  Please do something in both the physical and the
metaphysical world to stand up for Religious freedom and basic human
rights!

Peace,

Pax / Geoffrey
https://chrysalis1witchesjourney.wordpress.com/

http://gaymarriageorsomethinglikeit.blogspot.com/

Reacting (more constructively) to the Election and Anti-GLBT votes…

On By PaxIn An Important Message..., Community Building, Cross-roads, Day One, everyday, Gay Pride, magick, Pax's Beliefs, Religio-AmericanaLeave a comment

I am a Patriot, an Idealist, and a Witch.  I find myself overflowing with hope in the promise of America.  Optimism that through the efforts of committed hardworking people the world can be changed.   Barrack Obama’s election proves that.  There were volunteers in all 50 states canvassing and calling and working day in and day out to reach out to their fellow Americans in support of their cause.  It worked.  Yes, as a matter of fact, they could!

Even as I experience the wrestling match of emotions between elation at the results of the election, and grievous disappointment at the results of the anti-GLBT ballot innitiatives, I know that I can either sit sullenly and complain or I can do something about it.

As a Witch my Goddess has been giving me my marching orders for years now…

“Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it;
let nothing stop you or turn you aside.”
~From The Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valliente

I just didn’t have the compass until now.  While I am not a rich man, I am , on occassion, an eloquent and sometimes even persuasive one.  I am impelled to use my words and my Will in the cause of justice and equality.

I have seen how the grass roots efforts of the Democratic Party and Obama’s vollunteers has changed the world; we in the GLBT community can do nothing less.  I should do nothing less.

To that end I have started a new blog…

Gay Marriage (or something like it)

I am still working out some of my thoughts and feelings… and trying to figure out where to start my research… I think I shall have to track down the writings of Dr. King.  I also need to reach out to like minded souls.

Thus I have created a companion Yahoogroup to go along with the blog.  Here is the group description…

This group is founded upon the belief that Marriage, and all other GLBT Rights are Civil Rights issues.

This is a place for discussion, planning, sharing, and mobilization. Let us form a grass roots movement towards the end that we will see Gay Marriage (or something like it) in all 50 States in our lifetimes.

While national organizations like the HRC and GLAAD have helped GLBT people make great strides over the last 30 years or so, the elections of 2008 have shown us that we need to do more. The victory of President Elect Obama is instructive. He took his message to every corner of our great Nation and mobilized thousands of people in support of his cause. We the GLBT people can do now less in our efforts to reach out to our fellow Americans, calmly quietly and consistently speaking our truth so that, in the end, it is We The People who stand up for GLBT Civil Rights!

If this sounds like something you’d like to be involved in bookmark the other blog and join the Yahoogroup.

Peace, and Equality,

Pax

Witches Virtues

On By PaxIn Chrysalis, Pax's Beliefs, Witches VirtuesLeave a comment

“Therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, and mirth and reverence within you.”

From The Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valiente

 

 

            When I started to examine the text of Valiente’s Charge of the Goddess for a deeper understanding of the Witches faith this passage stood out.  This short, simple, passage lists 8 Virtues, or Values, that the Goddess wants us Witches to embody and exemplify.  I started by reading the dictionary definitions of each, and listing those that seemed most appropriate in my BoS.

 

            As I mentioned in my last post, I recently read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and how much I am enjoying it.  One of the aspects I love about this book is that in encourages one to seek out ones core values and then to prioritize and make decisions based upon the bedrock of your core values.  As a Witch, the 8 Virtues in the quote above are a part of my core values and in the Witches Virtues series of posts I will be exploring each of them in depth.

 

            I fully expect these posts to be interspersed with other thoughts and ramblings, so I am adding a Witches Virtues category so you can click on the series so far…

 

Peace, Wisdom, Mischief,

 

Pax

 

The Virtuous Witch

On By PaxIn Chrysalis, Pax's Beliefs, witchery, Witches Virtues1 Comment

“Therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, and mirth and reverence within you.”
From The Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valliente

This passage from the Charge of the Goddess has been a challenge and an inspiration to me in my journey as a Witch. Eight things that She wishes us to embody. None of these words are more than three syllables, but each of them is carrying a lot of weight and power within them. One of the first things I did when I began to contemplate the above piece of the Charge of the Goddess was to look up the dictionary definitions of these eight words and in some cases their root words… humble for humility for example.

Go ahead and take a moment to look them up, and while your at it, take a look at some of their related words…

“Therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, and mirth and reverence within you.”

I looked these words up in my own (hardcopy) dictionary and wrote the definitions that seemed applicable to living my life as a Witch, into my Book of Shadows. From there I developed a prayer that I say each day.

“Mother Celestial and Father Divine,
Let me walk in Strength and Beauty,
Let me exercise both Power and Compassion,
With both Honor and Humility,
Let me always remember Mirth, as well as Reverence,
That I may be worthy of Thy Perfect Love and Perfect Trust,
And that of those in whose hearts you dwell,
Blessed Be,
So Mote It Be.”
~ A prayer by Geoffrey Stewart/Pax

Like other aspects of my daily practice, I have not always remembered to recite this. I lose track of center and balance in the mad rush of daily life. Yet, continually, I am reminded of and return to them.

Taking Valliente’s Charge as a divinely inspired text. Taking it as the Words of the Goddess, and looking at these qualities or virtues as what She expects of Her Witches, She asks a lot of us. I am sometimes intimidated by the thought, but then I remember my prayer, and it helps me not only get through my day; it helps me to stumble towards being the man, and the Witch, I believe my Goddess wishes me to be.

Harm None

On By PaxIn Chrysalis, Harm None, Pax's Beliefs, witchery3 Comments

Harming None
By Pax / Geoffrey Stewart

 

“An ye harm none, do what thou will.”

 

The Rede, as the above is known, is often cited as the only rule, ethical statement, or religious law of Witchcraft. While I disagree with the only part (See previous post on Love unto all beings…) I would say that examining the Rede, and really thinking about it, is central to understanding the philosophy of Witchcraft.

 

First let’s focus on the word Harm…

 

HARM (noun)
Physical or Psychological injury or damage.
Wrong; evil.

 

Nouns are words that name a person, place, thing, quality, or action. Eliminating the person and place we have Harm describing a thing, quality, or action. This would seem to say that Harm is something that is done by one party or group to another. To do something, to do anything in fact, you need intent. So while you may not always succeed at it, if you strive to do no harm to yourself or others you are practicing the Rede.

 

Now let’s look at the word “An” in “An ye harm none, do what you will”. An, is the archaic form of “If” so a more modern wording would be…

 

 “If you harm none, do what you will.”

 

“If” is darned important.  “IF” means that we have the choice to do harm, to ourselves and to others, but that we must face the consequences of our actions.

 

If… So what if you harm someone, with intent? Since Witches don’t believe in the Devil, we can’t say “the Devil made me do it?” or “It was because I was a sinner!” or “It’s not my fault because I was acting under medication for my sinus infection”. In fact Witches and a lot, if sadly not all, of our fellow Pagans believe very strongly in personal responsibility as a part of their life paths.

 

Harming “none,” also includes oneself. This is a key ingredient in this Witches decision making process… Is it more harmful to myself to allow this situation to continue, than any harm X, Y, or Z might encounter as a result of my decision? The thing is to be a Witch you must be willing to strive to do no harm. There may come times in life where you have a choice and no matter what you chose someone will be harmed by your actions, but in most cases you have a choice open to you to NOT harm anyone or yourself.

 

Many Witches also believe that what we do will come back upon us, classically(at least according to some Craft Traditions), three-fold. Thus IF you choose to somehow do harm to, yourself or others, you MUST be willing to take the repercussions of your actions.

 

“Harm none” is an ideal, much like “Perfect Love, and Perfect Trust”; we can strive in our every word and action to live up to these ideals, and should work to bring them about to the best of our abilities. We should also not wallow in a sense of failure or an idea that we are somehow lacking in worth when we do not live up, 100 percent, to our ideals. We should dust ourselves off, pick ourselves up, and try, try again!

 

~Update!~

 

I hadn’t felt ready to deal with the concept of will in the Rede. True Will, not just what one wants to do. Partly because it has been so long since I had read up on True Will. In her comment to this post Cossette (who has a great blog of her own) says it better than I could…

 

“An important aspect of the Rede is the part of about “will.” It isn’t just about the individual’s desires or wishes, but true will as Aleister Crowley described it deals with a sense of a person’s greater purpose and path of action that operates in perfect harmony with nature.”

 

~Thanks for the eloquence Cossette!!

 

~ Rede Related Links ~

The Evolution of Wiccan Ethics ~ an interesting series of web articles

The Wiccan Rede Project ~ another online set of articles about the Rede

Wiccan Rede and Wiccan morality on Wikipedia…

The Wiccan Rede article at Religious Tolerance (dot) Org

Finally the Wichvox Wiccan Rede article

Love Unto All Beings

On By PaxIn Chrysalis, Love Unto All Beings, Pax's Beliefs, witchery1 Comment
“Sing! Feast! Dance! Make music and Love all in my praise and presence.
For mine is the Spirit of Ecstasy, and mine as well is joy on Earth,
and Love Unto All Beings is My Law.”
~ From the Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valliente

Early in my journey as a Pagan when I felt called to the faith of Witchcraft I tried to find a Coven, but could not. So I read and studied and practiced on my own. The Solitary Witches journey is a difficult one, and there are a lot of side paths, but it has been my path for 17 years now. I would not trade a moment of it because it is how I got to the wonderful place in life where I am today.

At one point, fairly early, in my journey I began to read and analyze the Charge of the Goddess, and other writings and liturgy within modern Witchcraft. For me the Charge is a divinely inspired work; as much so for the Witches faith as the Bible is to any Christian, the Koran to any Muslim. The text of Valliente’s Charge represents The Goddesses Own Words. In my studies I realized one day that the above quote was central to my understanding of the faith. Yet, surprisingly one never sees it given any emphasis in the written works about Witchcraft. Heck, sometimes it doesn’t even get mentioned unless the author quotes Valliente’s Charge, or one close to it.

I sometimes joke that as a Witch my Goddess instructs me to Love all people; unfortunately the way some of them choose to behave makes this very difficult!

The thing, for me at least, is that Love in the same sense of the word as Buddhists discuss Loving Kindness is so obviously a key part of the Witches journey. Or at least it seems obvious to me.

Love unto All Beings. This is the ideal. You know, one of the ones we are supposed to strive ever towards? The practice, well, the practice of this is much harder.

It starts with trying to honestly love yourself, your head, your heart, and your body. To act and think and make choices for oneself rooted in that love. Not to beat yourself up emotionally when you do or say something you regret, but to accept that you are mortal and mortals make mistakes. To Love and accept who you are, what you look like, where your life is right now, and the choices you have made that brought you here.

You may not be where you want to be. But as I’ve learned you cannot change your life for the better until you can see yourself and your choices clearly with both love and acceptance. From that place, which can be tricky to find sometimes, you can move on to finding love within yourself for others. Loving them for who they are, not what you wish they were, and sometimes in spite of what they do or have done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Loving Links
Loving Kindness ~ redirects to Metta on Wikipedia
Facets of Metta ~ an essay by Sharon Salzberg
The Lady Arising, Aphrodite, Goddess of Peace and Love ~ links about this most multifaceted of Goddesses

"You’ve been Tapped."

On By PaxIn Chrysalis, Dionysus, Hecate, Pagan Ponderings, Pax's Beliefs, SeekingLeave a comment

That was the heading that my friend Tracie posted a comment about my previous post. I find myself wondering if this is so…

Did Hekate take me by the hand so many years ago as I stood at a literal and metaphorical cross-roads reeling from a moment of primal gnosis, wavering between “eek!” and “wow!”? I remember distinctly the sense of being guided home by something other than my own self… I was still caught up in the whole “eek and/or wow!” of the moment to really think too much of anything.

Then there’s Dionysus. He’s been on my mind recently as well. I can look back upon my journey as a Witch and see several points… several moments where he may have been lurking in the background. I’ve prayed to him in the past… and felt the siren song of the path of ecstatic theurgy before…

Such strange musings for a Mabon. A harvest of the memory and the soul. A Limnal point in the year. A cross-roads of the spirit from where I choose to give myself to Hekate and Dionysus. Triformis and Diphyes, …change is, touch is, touch me, change me… hmmm

They win. I surrender.