Paganism, Personal Practice and Ethics with Negative Emotions or Workings

 While I wouldn't normally post twice a day, my first post was very short.  Also, I had a ton of time Sunday so  I have an excess of writing which I'm trying to sort through in a sane and reasonable manner.  To that end we have an unusual and non-habit-forming second post.

Baring The Agis, placed up an article relating to Vengeance from a Hellenismos perspective. It made me both jealous of the reference texts Recons have to follow and  relieved that my faith doesn't have ancient laws I have to try to modernize.

I am always impressed when someone makes applicable use of ancient customs. It was particularly brave to discuss vengeance in a Hellenismos perspective because as Temperance points out:

“My gut instinct says that this practice [of taking blood vengeance on those who committed wrong against a family or the self] was prevalent in ancient Hellas, and was most likely executed more often than we would like to accept in our current law-regulated society.”

The idea of seeking vengeance and justice has separated in modern society, and perhaps it should. I don't think thieves should be murdered just because they pissed off the owner of said goods, though I find rape and murder victims' (and their families) a more slippery slope. Our legal system is set up to help protect the wrongly accused (at least in the USA), but we do sacrifice some in the case of how we condemn the guilty. For the record, I am against the death penalty, but I do question how one should handle a criminal with multiple life prison sentences. They will never be rehabilitated and often cause danger and disruption to prison guards and minor offenders who still may be returned to society (and whose “rehabilitation”--if what is offered in prison can be called that, is negatively impacted).

Towards the end of the article, Temperance turns to the mythical applications of vengeance and honoring darker emotions in modern day. The last line of her post reads: “Sometimes, we wish for dark things, and that's also alright.”

This particular aspect of her post  reminded me of a large part why I'm Pagan. We don't shun our negative emotions or desires. We have different ideas on how to act on those emotions. Some of us choose to acknowledge and release. Some of us petition our Gods or the universe to act out proper treatment to those who have wronged us. Some of us work magic against those who have hurt us. 

There are other schools that believe bad things happening to us are meant to be a teaching tool or opportunity for personal growth and others who believe it is a sign we are practicing incorrectly. Others feel this is a chance for compassion and understanding of those who have antagonized us, and some people believe it is evidence that there is a real and present danger to “their kind” of people. Most of us will use a mixture of techniques/views depending on the level of hurt and the seriousness of the wrong done to us or those we love. We may not agree with the actions/view of another in regard to their feelings, but very few of us deny that we have these desires or pains.

Most of us try to hold space for an open conversation about what happened, how a person responded, and why they responded this way. Whether or not we agree with the person at the end of the conversation is another matter, but I think it's healthiest to hear a person out and to leave each to follow hir own path so long as it doesn't impede own our own personal rights or safety.

I believe in doing good in the world and I believe magic is part of a means to that end. I don't think that we can take our obligation towards others, our world, or ourselves lightly. I'm privileged that my day to day life holds very little violence. There is hostility and frustration, particularly in my work space (the service industry seems to bring out ugliness in other people like few other fields can), but it is not of the nature that threatens my life, the lives of those I care for, or my livelihood. My daily test is to hold energy and try to keep compassion for people who are consciously and unconsciously being difficult/hurtful to me.

There is little place in my practice where I have to consider physical, emotional, mental, or magical violence. Banishing, meditating, and releasing is usually the kind of magic I most require to get through negative encounters in my day to day. Sometimes I ask Gods for more insight into the mind frames of those who have hurt me, or I pray for the Gods and my guides to keep me away from person x until I calm down more. On very rare occasion I feel the need to work a protection spell or call for further protection, because while I don't have the legal means to report a person, I still feel deeply threatened by what is going on. My day to day workings have never escalated beyond this.

I don't think taking magical action against someone who has hurt you is inherently wrong, but it's not something to be done lightly and it's not something I've ever felt compelled to do. I try to hold space open for those who have been more deeply wronged to speak on their experience and their process for vengeance/ justice/ catharsis. Part of what I like about the pagan paths is that there is space for people to explore their pain, being wronged, and taking action against those who have hurt them instead of always demanding mindless forgiveness.

We hear a lot about the rede (which to my mind says nothing about what will happen if we harm others only that anything which doesn't harm others is ok) and the three fold law. Rookies often assume it applies across all traditions. We often see our own pagan representatives assure the media that we all agree with the rede. I am always glad when more experienced and honest pagans come out to remind us that there are those who acknowledge all human aspects in their practice, including wants and desires society as a whole would choose to silence. If the circle isn't a safe space to air those pains and grievances we hold close to our heart, where can we find catharsis and release? If we can not be honest and true to our gods, our guides, and ourselves, then where can we show the entirety of our being and learn love and compassion for both ourselves and others?

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Delphic Maxim #8: Know Thyself

This is part of my commitment to posting once a week on the Delphic Maxims.  

This particular maxim is just straight out excellent advise, which is probably why it's one of the most repeated maxims from the original list.

Particularly in Paganism, we are a group of faiths that attempts to be self aware and in the present moment at all times. While the last maxim, perceive what you have heard, discussed how to be aware in the world around you, this maxim lets us know we also have to be present in our internal emotional conflicts.

Knowing one's limits, tolerances, and preferences can only help us further enjoy our lives and being frank with others about ourselves and personalities should lead to better personal relationships.

While the maxim is probably core to most Pagans' journeys, I find the language so direct and specific that I have little to add.

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Delpic Maxim: 7 Percieve What You Have Heard

 

This is part of my commitment to posting once a week on the Delphic Maxim.  This post was originally added to my personal journal, and I am cross posting it here for the sake of continuity.  There has been some editing on my part to clean up the writing, correct spelling, and properly credit others of ideas they presented me.

While this is a maximum I struggle with, I certainly think it’s crucial to Paganism full stop. One defining aspect of paganism is that we all strive to be more conscious in our daily lives. There’s a couple of key things one has to do if one plans to be an active participant in his or her own life and the world around his or herself.

First one has to pay attention to what’s going on or listen. There’s a ton to observe, hear, know, explore, and discover. Open one’s eyes, ears, mind, and heart and all sorts of new information, thoughts, and experience will traipse in.

Second one has to interpret what one sees and hears. For example, a co-worker may sigh a lot but is that because she’s sad, bored, frustrated, has a medical problem, or something else? These little cues are things one can pick up on, inquire about, or in some cases simply make a judgment on in one’s own mind. Step two is also known as perceiving.

Third, once one has observed and interpreted one’s surroundings, one needs to respond in a thoughtful and reasoned manner. The thing is that if one doesn’t first listen and second stop and interpret what one is observing, there is absolutely no way to make a thoughtful, reasoned, and conscious decision regarding the world around oneself. There is no magic, intention, or depth to life without these first two steps. 

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Delphic Maxim #6 Know What You Have Learned

This is part of my commitment to posting once a week on the Delphic Maxim.  This  post was originally added to my personal journal, and I am cross posting it here for the sake of continuity.  There has been some editing on my part to clean up the writing, correct spelling, and properly credit others of ideas they presented me.

 It is even more important to remain aware of what you have not learned or perhaps cannot learn. I'm talking about book knowledge, social experience, cultural knowledge, and religious mystery here.

Book knowledge can often be easy to uncover, though depending on the field of study one might find a limit to discovered material as well. Knowing what assumptions one has made or what gaps may exist in one's knowledge is core to moving forward in studies or in applying that knowledge.

Social experience is personal. One can never learn a lesson or teach a lesson to someone else. One can advise or offer suggestions, but there is a true and important limit to one's understanding of other people and other situations. When it comes to judging another's words, actions, or view point it is knowledge and compassion for this lack of knowledge that helps me communicate and understand another, not my actual knowledge on said subject.

Cultural experience is very closely related to social. I think it's important to acknowledge the two are separate but linked. Both obtaining cultural knowledge and knowing when one is out of one's known culture is more important than to me than knowing every cultural nuisance of one's home culture.

Religious mystery is something I think is core to talk about in the Pagan Umbrella. We aren't all mystery religions and we don't all believe in religious mystery, but enough of us do that we need to be familiar with it (at least as familiar as one can be with a secret). Speaking purely for myself, this idea of a mystery faith was almost impossible for me to grasp when I first started exploring paganism. I was raised Christian and the whole idea that there was something one could not or should not teach another about one’s faith or the universe was completely foreign. After all, Christianity isn’t just a revealed faith, but one who’s core tenant is to spread the good word far and wide. The concept that deity might want you to keep quiet or may choose how to disseminate information in a way that one cannot adequately share the knowledge, is beyond imagination.

I followed on in confusion and ignorance. I have to admit I often thought and felt unkind things toward people keeping religious secrets. It seemed to me like there was some kind of exclusive club I wasn’t being let into or some grand information that would make my world view fall into place if only these people would give up the goods so to speak. Finally one person finally gave me an example of a religious mystery being experiential based and therefor impossible for them to relate to me as I had not had that experience and words couldn’t fully describe or explain the meaning of that experience. This idea was something that finally clicked for me in a way it just hadn't before. Suddenly the world of a mystery religion or a religious mystery made sense to me. It occurred to me, that I might already have a few of my own religious mysteries. I could tell people about the ritual and what I perceived as happening but no words would describe the fullness of my understanding or the way the information was imparted to me. 

It’s like trying to explain the feeling of white water rafting,  I can talk about the bumps, the sprays of water, the size and shape of the raft, the near misses with rocks, and moments where I was almost thrown out. The person I tell the story to can relate to a certain degree with what I’m telling them so long as I’m descriptive, but if they’ve never been white water rafting or they’ve seen a river or been on a boat, their understanding is naturally incomplete.

The point is that there is a ton I don't know and this used to bother me greatly.  There was huge pressure on me to know everything and be sure of everything.   Something the pagan community has given me is that I don't have to know it all and I don't want to know it all. That's a years in the making conclusion and one I have to come back to sometimes when I push too hard, but it's helped me tremendously over the years to be aware of ignorance and in some cases be alright with it. 

 So know what you've learned, know what you have not learned, and know that you don't have to and should not learn it all.

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Delphic Maxim #5: Be Overcome By Justice

This is part of my commitment to posting once a week on the Delphic Maxim.  This first post was originally added to my personal journal, and I am cross posting it here for the sake of continuity.  There has been some editing on my part to clean up the writing, correct spelling, and properly credit others of ideas they presented me.

How I read this: surrender to justice. This maxim is the first powerful and evocative one. I think of a tide surging over and through me. It is capable drowning with it's depth, suddenness, and force but the water itself can also be the birthplace of life and beauty.

 I think of looking up into the night sky on a new moon with all of the cosmos around me and how that makes me humbled and awed. I am a small insignificant part of this beautiful vicious universe. 

Then I think of the idea of following justice to the fullest and it makes me feel like I'm part of this irrefutable truth—an undeniable common good that will exist beyond me and sustained merit. It's the awe of being larger and more lasting than the self as opposed to the awe of my tiny place. Both are true and divine.

My less poetic self knows that justice is a human concept and any “good” I do may be lasting but is limited to human and possibly godly perspective. The stars don't care. When I'm in a less self righteous state of mind, I'll also happily acknowledge that Truth with the capital T may not exist and something that is just for me might not be just for others. In attempting to give others justice, I may even be perpetuating the opposite.

Above all, justice is hard to define in what it is, what it looks like, and in how best to create it in the world. How I can help champion justice or accept it in the case of wrong doing, if it changes face and structure. That we deserve justice is irrefutable, but what that looks like is a lot of wiggle room. I try to walk through my day with compassion and empathy. I like to think that if all of us stopped to consider or even to ask one another what we would think is fair and endeavored to provide it for one another, our world would look a great deal shinier. This seems to be against the grain of a lot of people, and I can't say I manage to be the change in the world I want to see every moment of every day, but I know what it looks like.  I'm grateful when I receive it. Were justice a warrior and the world a battlefield, I'd surrender to justice in a heart beat and serve her in whatever manner she deems best.

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Delphic Maxim #4: Respect Your Parents

This is part of my commitment to posting once a week on the Delphic Maxim.  This first post was originally added to my personal journal, and I am cross posting it here for the sake of continuity.  There has been some editing on my part to clean up the writing, correct spelling, and properly credit others of ideas they presented me.

I really struggled with what to write for this particular maxim. I have the benefit of following a lot of established and well written bloggers through these maximums and their answers have helped to prompt more insight in this maxim.

So far, everything I've written has a tone of denial or been conditional in a way that I know my mother would source as my inherent contrary nature. Any absolute offered or implied absolute, I feel required to challenge. Even thinking of what she would say to these responses, knowing she would never read them and knowing that she would never be able to get over the non-Christian nature of them to be truly critical, rankles me.

My relationship with my parents is troubled and our primary area of stress ties to my non-Christ based faith. This stress does strain our ability to adequately display love or respect for each other.

I love my parents quite a bit. I want to please them and make them proud of me. I want us to agree on our standards for living and morality. I just won't do any of this at the expense of my sense of self or what's right, a strength of character than I credit entirely to my mother.

I still go to them for advice and I consider their advice heavily. It tears at me when I have to go against it, if that's the case, but it doesn't stop me from following me first. This consideration for their words and contributions should show respect. It's a respect I would offer anyone who gives me advice or shares their life experience with me, which makes me wonder if there is a certain quantity of respect one needs to give and if I've given my parents their fair share. Would they be insulted to know how I weight their words vs others? Do they feel slighted every time I do my own thing and does that come down to a lack of thought or respect or is it truly just a different world view? How much is enough, am I right or are they or is there some middle ground? It's heart breaking for me and I wonder how many others feel this way in a quite corner of the world where they don't voice it.

Most people want to respect their parents and elders. We argue over what that means. We all want to assert that we value this without thinking about it and we want to assert that we do respect our parents. I know I am hurt by the idea that I don't respect my parents adequately but in the same moment I am hurt by the concept that I must follow their path or there is no true respect or understanding between us.

Because my relationship is fraught with the same insecurities I've had since teen-dom, this maxim makes me think of being young and how I treated my parents then. It was not always with the respect they deserved, particularly where paganism was involved. I violently rejected Catholicism. Now, I wish I could have been kinder. There was fault on both sides, but I have a lot more sympathy for their thoughts and feelings on the subject now. I feel like I'll always be trying to make up for that mistake. Its not a case where I regret what I told them at the time because what I said is essentially true now.  I regret how harsh and intense I was about it. Who knows, maybe nothing but that kind of rejection would have ever made them understand, I know on some levels now, they don't get it still.

In some regards, I don't feel I respect them now because I am always holding back and couching what I mean so as not to hurt them. Is it disrespectful for me to hold back my truth feelings and understandings for the sake of another's comfort? Is it it inherently disrespectful to reject another's view point or to believe one knows better even when the other has more experience than oneself in the subject?

I don't think that a person has earned respect just because they reach the age or fertility, had sex, and were able to birth another human being. I've never been one to agree with the idea that one should have to respect any other being just because. My parents have been good to me. They provided for me above and beyond the bare minimum required. They have stood beside me in battle for what they think is part of my rights or part of what I've earned. They look out for me and my interests as best as they can. This sort of person whether a friend, family member or partner, should be cherished valued and respected. 

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Delphic Maxim #3: Worship God

This is part of my commitment to posting once a week on the Delphic Maxim.  This first post was originally added to my personal journal, and I am cross posting it here for the sake of continuity.  There has been some editing on my part to clean up the writing, correct spelling, and properly credit others of ideas they presented me.

 My only response to this seems simply to be “yes”. I've gone through a lot of phases of divinity. I've spent large amounts of time considering different ways to worship, what worship means, and what form of worship is best for each god or divine presence. I've never been without praise, awe, humility, and reverence. I understand these concepts are tricky to grasp and mean different things to different people. That's a whole other series of essays I don't want to cover right this moment.

Huge swathes of my life, my time and my plans are all part of doing and being in the name of my gods or divine energy.

For me, this knowledge of divine is innate within me. I have first hand experience that drives me in my faith and makes me certain I am on the right path doing the right thing for me.

A couple things I want to point out here for clarity. Worship does not mean that I follow blindly, refuse to acknowledge imperfections or flaws, or that I feel compelled to impose my will or beliefs on others. Also, ritual that defines worship does not have to be complex or ornate. The structure of ritual does not have to be either rigid or brittle. Worship/ ritual can be deep, meaningful, impromptu, and unique each time. I know that what is or is not worship can be touchy to a lot of pagans as is the whole idea of whether worship is a good or appropriate thing. For me, worship is a needed part of my life and practice. 

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Delphc Maxim # 1: Follow God

This is part of my commitment to posting once a week on the Delphic Maxim.  This first post was originally added to my personal journal, and I am cross posting it here for the sake of continuity.  There has been some editing on my part to clean up the writing, correct spelling, and properly credit others of ideas they presented me.

My first and instinctive response to “Follow God” is a simple “no”. It doesn't last long, but part of me violently rejects the idea that I am a being meant to obey or follow above all else. Chalk it up to my problems with authority figures I guess.

Coming to Gods, was a long and slow process.  I started my journey into paganism by leaving God.  I felt divine and "other" presence and I realized it wasn't though the Abrahamic God.  I didn't know what I was feeling, but I thought it might be pagan, so I settled over in this direction.  

For the majority of my time as a Pagan, I've been without Gods of any sort.  I've had guides, local guardians, land spirits, and plant spirits.  I've called on angels.  I've traveled to a place where there is nothing but divine energy and where I was made to understand that everything in all worlds and planes is a form of this divine energy.  Such a thing is so far removed from human motives, it can be hard to consider a God though I never had trouble classifying this Energy as Divine.   

I was Godless until I moved to Alabama and was literally greeted by the local God of the region.  We've been working together and getting to know one another for almost two years.  It's still a state that is not at all natural to me. We negotiate a lot. We are fluid and respectful of each other. 

 The word follow is too forceful to describe the interactions between myself and my Gods.  Its tangled up in the Christian sense of surrendering the self and restricting one's nature to please a deity. It takes away my will or what I want from the equation entirely and simply requires I kneel to all demands. Objectively, I realize follow doesn't have to have any of these implications.  Emotionally, it's a word I reject often before I've thought too much as to why.

There are all sorts of way to follow. Before I had Gods, there was still something sacred, worthy of respect, and bigger than me in the world. I took time to acknowledge, admire, and learn from this nameless experience based thing. Often this feeling came from the natural world for from random acts of kindness others demonstrated. It was something I valued as transcendent and core to my own life. These were moments in time that I needed to honor and that I would cherish and carry with me. I think this could qualifies as following God so long as the idea of God in general is not required to have too many human characteristics or human like will.

 If following God means to acknowledge and honor God then most moments of most days I'm the model of this maxim.

On the other hand, if following God is something that's done without question, without discussion, and without hesitation then I really only have a 50/50 track record.

Furthermore: I don't think Gods inherently know what is best for a human or for me in particular. I'm not certain one should follow every edict a god may choose to make.

Star Foster thinks there are two bits of criteria to judge one's ability to follow god. She asks us to consider:

“1. Is what we are pursuing godly, sacred and of high virtue?

2.Are we following that instead of trying to drive the train ourselves?”

I have no qualms with her first meditative question assuming what's godly is paletable.

The second concern bothers me though. I'm all about driving my own train. Gods might be like life's GPS, but I should be able to take a left when they want me to take a right.  My ability to go "off program" is especially important if while traveling to said destination I want to explore the farm stand over on the left, or I notice heavy construction to the right and want the GPS to re-route me away from there.  GPS's don't know all the driving conditions or all the possible stops a long the way, which is a great analogy for pagan gods who are not all knowing or all powerful.  They may be leading me to a grocery store but not know about the farmers market I spot along the way.  I know where I prefer to shop at.

The point: there are perfectly good benign reasons not to follow Gods. Indeed I wouldn't even necessarily call a farm stand stop directly disobeying Gods so much as leisurely following. While my interactions with a more human minded deity is very new, there has already been a time where I went left when deity said right and they just re-routed me to where they wanted me to be because in that instance it meant that much to them. If Gods can do this, I don't see what it matters how willingly or immediately I follow. When they want me to get there, I'll be there.

We all know what if best for ourselves or at least this is a core truth we should all strive to find with or without Gods. I think we need to follow the call that works best for oneself whether that involves Gods or not.
 

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Delphic Maxim Weekly Posting Project

What are the Delphic Maxims?

According to witchipedia: “The Delphic Maxims are inscribed at Delphi and are said to have been delivered by Apollo Himself. The Maxims are suggestions for pious living, not quite commandments, really strong recommendations. According to legend, they were written down by The Seven Sages who are usually identified as: Solon of Athens, Chilon of Sparta, Thales of Miletus, Bias of Priene, Cleobulus of Lindos, Pittacus of Mitylene and Periander of Corinth.”

How many Delphic Maxims are there?

There are 147 Delphic maxims and they are on witchipedia but straight up list with alternativeinterpretations of the maxims can be found here.

Why are Delphic Maxims Important Today?

For those follow a Greek path they are a description on how to be a moral person. For those of us not following any flavor of Greek path they still may be of interest because they provide both a non-Christian and specifically pagan moral path which we may use as a starting point for finding our own morals and faith. There are other examples of Non-Christian ethic commands, the nine noble virtues inform the Norse path, and we are probably all familiar with the rede and the outer court 161 Wiccan laws (which are mostly meaningless but that's a separate post entirely).

Why I am Blogging About Each Maxim in Detail?

Star Foster's orginal post here started an impromptu blogging party way back in May surrounding the Delphic maxims. Many people were partaking in this event (myself included though it was under a personal journal). Her attempts to make modern understanding out of old pagan law spoke to the community and it spoke to me personally.

I don't follow any kind of reconstructionist tradition, but I appreciate taking rules that were traditionally pagan and considering what wisdom they carry over to the present, and whether they have any meaning in the path I follow. One of the most well known quotes “Know thyself” comes directly from the maxims. Even if all of the other 147 laws are duds, it's worth looking more deeply into something that offers a least one significant nugget of truth.

My blogging in the past has been very sporadic. I'm looking for some stability in posting. One of my weekly reoccurring segments is going to be to pick up these maxims and talk about each at length.