International Pagan Values Blogging Month: The Obligatory Crotchety Post
I hear-tell that June is " International Pagan Values Blogging Month." Part of me is all about this. And part of me is counting the ways it could go hideously awry.
Whose values? Which Pagans? The realm of Paganinity is no more a monolithic culture than that of Christianity or Islam. We have different practices, different beliefs, and, yes, different values. And while these differences can be and have been the source of beautiful collaboration and understanding, they likewise can be and have been the source of bitter conflict and judgment. We're supposed to blog about our "Pagan values" and then put the link on this blog for all to see. A noble endeavor, but perhaps not that well thought-out: what happens when folks start reading each other’s blog entries and start leaving comments along the lines of, "That's interesting, but..." or the even blunter, "You're wrong!" Let the witch wars abound.
You may think I'm being overly pessimistic; that Paganisms are religions of love, and surely such a thing would never happen. Hah. Hah. Hah. I have been judged; and I admit that I have judged.
I practice a literally Earth-based path. Some is based on what we know of pre-Christian Pagan practice, but the majority has developed over the past 30 years or so. This is one of my Pagan values: a religious system that changes and adapts as the world in which it functions - and, therefore, its practitioners - change and adapt. Yet many a Reconstructionist Pagan tells me that my Paganism is invalid because it's new. They also tell me, as they drive back to their McSuburbs in their SUVs, that their Paganism is about their ancestors, not about the Earth, and that they don't have to be environmentalists because their ancestors weren't environmentalist. Um, what? Your ancestors might not have called themselves environmentalists. No one called them black-and-white TVs until the invention of color TVs, either. But your ancestors had a relationship with the place in which they dwelt. Most of us don't. Many of them worshipped something like the Roman Genius loci, literally the spirit of the place. You clearly don't. If those ancestors that you claim to care so much about saw Divinity as immanent in their surroundings, should you be throwing that Evian bottle out the window? And if you do throw that Evian bottle out the window, how much do you really venerate your ancestors? And, yes, that's a judgment on my part. I'm not perfect, either.
The Reclaiming Principles of Unity, the only document that anyone has to adhere to in order to call themselves Reclaiming, contains this beautiful line: "Honoring both Goddess and God, we work with female and male images of divinity, always remembering that their essence is a mystery which goes beyond form." This to me is a central value of Reclaiming, and of Paganism as a whole: Mystery touches each person differently. And yet people have conveniently ignored the "mystery beyond form" part and informed me that I'm "not really Reclaiming" because the only "goddess" I honor in my personal work is Earth itself. I have also, after explaining patiently and reverently why I choose not to work with named deities, why Earth and Cosmos are plenty for me, had people tell me, "Oh, OK, that's cool - but Odin and Freya are really awesome to work with, and you should try it sometime."
The first thing I learned in the first Reclaiming class I ever took (after how to cackle) is this: "I am my own ultimate spiritual authority." This has become one of my core values as a Pagan. No priestess or author or elder tells me what to do or what to believe or how to communicate with Mystery, and we have the freedom - indeed, the obligation - to challenge any who would limit that authority. And yet, the self-same teacher who taught me that has stopped talking to me because I had the temerity to suggest that it was not his place to go around telling people that their beliefs and practices were wrong, that they were, in essence, doing Reclaiming wrong.
In recent years, the interfaith movement in Paganism has gained a lot of ground. Interfaith organizations are increasingly contacting Pagan elders and organizers to join their committees and speak on their panels. And many Pagans are responding by saying it's time for us to do similar outreach; to treat Christians and Muslims and Jews and everyone else with the same respect we, as a group of religions, want them to extend to us. And I'm all for that.
But we ought to start by showing each other as Pagans respect, first.