Interfaith Event: Faith

While I was in Europe, the sixth Interfaith Blog Event took place. As I wasn't able to get to a computer around the time that it was posted, I am now getting around to posting my response to this month's question. So here it is.


Welcome to the sixth Interfaith Blog Event! In each installment of this monthly series, we'll take a look at a single topic from the perspective of our different religious traditions. I am writing from a Pagan/Unitarian Universalist perspective. Mike, from Unknowing Mind, writes from the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and Jon, from Jesusfollowers Journal, will be writing from a Protestant Christian perspective.

And introducing our two new members: Jeff, from Druid Journal, writes from the Druid perspective and Matt, from Journeys In Between, writes from an Evangelical Christian perspective with influences of Wicca, NeoGnosticim, Yoga and Zen.

The topic we'll be discussing today is the following:

What is your view regarding the meaning and the role of faith? What importance does it play in your community and in your daily life?

(Links will be provided as they become available)
[Jon's Essay] [Mike's Essay] [Jeff's Essay] [Matt's Essay]


The Meaning/Definition of Faith

One of the first questions that comes to mind when talking about faith is "What is it?" According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of faith has many parts to it:

(1) allegiance to duty or a person
(2) sincerity of intentions
(3) belief and trust in and loyalty to God
(4) firm belief in something for which there is no proof
(5) complete trust
(6) something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs

While we have this formal definition, we also have the connotations that go along with the word that also tell us something about the meaning. Words that come to mind when thinking about the meaning of faith are hope, trust, belief, relationship, complete confidence (in someone or something), love, peace, religion, intuition, gut feeling and wishing. And I'm sure that everybody reading this can think of other words as well. Faith is a much bigger concept than just a irrational belief (i.e. - not based in fact) in something that can't be confirmed by our senses.

As the word "faith" is used for so many purposes and has so many connotations, it is sometimes difficult to come up with a meaning for the word that everyone would agree with. Because people have different ideas of what it means, it has almost become a word that is not to be talked about in some circles (religious or otherwise). One reason why this might be (especially in Pagan circles), is that some definitions of faith give the impression that to have faith in something/someone, one must follow blindly and believe what is presented to them. I have noticed that there are not many Pagans that discuss faith in regards to their religious views because of this very idea. Pagans as a whole do not like to think that they are blindly following anything. However, there is more to faith than just believing that something is true.

The Role of Faith

Faith is not something that can happen over night; it is something that needs to be developed over years. It is something that is developed as a result three ideas - believing, practice, and experiences. While most ideas of faith revolve around believing, we can't forget that putting belief into practice, as well as the experiences that result, helps us to strengthen our faith and make it personal.

But there has to be a balance between all three of these ideas for faith to be personal. I think that making faith personal is what should matter. If one has faith in something, but it is based on someone else’s beliefs, it would not be an authentic faith; it would just following the words of someone else. For faith to be authentic, it has to based on all the three of mentioned ideas of belief, practice and experience.I see the role of faith as helping to discover and bring about a deeper, personal understanding of our religious belief through these three ideas.

The Importance of Faith

As I mentioned before, I really don't think that the concept of faith is seen as overly important in Paganism. Sure, people have faith in their beliefs, their gods, and their experiences, but they necessarily talk about it in terms of faith. The concept of faith has too many strong connections to Christianity for many Pagans. I think that we need to learn to express our faith, no matter what our beliefs are.

Part of having faith is making your views known. Declaring your faith in something, either to others or just yourself, helps to not only to come to an understanding about your beliefs, but also helps to strengthen those beliefs.

Faith in My Daily Life

I admit that I have a difficult time putting my beliefs (and experiences) into practice. Part of my problem is that I tend to intellectualize my beliefs rather than listening to feelings and intuition. Understanding for me tends to come from facts, research, and study. I forget that there is more to understanding then knowing "facts;" understanding can also come many other areas of my life.

Even with this dilemma, faith is something that I try to keep in mind on a daily basis. I know that sometimes I tell myself that it is a matter of not “having enough time” or it is a matter of not knowing what to do to express my beliefs and faith; I have to change this. Instead, I know that I need to make the time for practice and realize that knowing what to do comes through my experiences. Even though I know that, it still is difficult. I am coming to realize that the concept of faith is much more complex than just pure belief.

Interfaith Event #6

Just thought I would drop by real quick and let you know that the sixth Interfaith Event is now posted. I haven't been able to type mine up yet, as computer time for me has been scarce and expensive, so I will give you the links to the posts that have been put up. I will be posting mine when I return home next week.

In the mean time, hop on over to the blogs of Mike, Jon, Jeff, and Matt (post not up at the moment of writing this) to see what they have written regarding the following question:

What is your view regarding the meaning and the role of faith? What importance
does it play in your community and in your daily life?

I hope you enjoy!

Interfaith Event #5: Forgiveness

Here is the next installment of the monthly interfaith event! Jon, from Jesusfollowers Journal, will be writing from a Protestant Christian perspective, and Mike from Unknowing Mind, will be writing from a Mahayana Buddhist perspective. And I will be writting from a Pagan perspective. This month, our question comes from Jon.

The topic we'll be discussing today is the following:

What role does the concept and application of interpersonal forgiveness play in your spiritual tradition?

[Jon's Essay] [Mike's Essay]

The concept of forgiveness is usually tied into many spiritual and religious paths. Within Christianity, the concept of forgiveness comes through Jesus’ sacrifice. In Buddhism, to show forgiveness to another is to lessen the suffering of everyone involved. Within Hinduism, the concept of karma is related to forgiving.

What about Paganism? Doing a quick search on the internet, I find that there are not many discussions on the concept of forgiveness within Paganism. I think it has something to do with the idea that Pagans don’t follow a set dogma and do not discuss it in terms of their relationship with the divine. Yet, it is a concept that is mentioned, just not as directly as it is in other religions and faiths.

It is difficult for a Pagan to discuss the concept of forgiveness within their religion because, in a traditional religious sense, it is tends to be tied to sin. And many Pagans don’t acknowledge the idea of sin. While forgiveness isn’t central to the beliefs of Paganism, I would say that forgiveness is an important concept in life that Pagans do embrace. Pagans are not necessarily looking for forgiveness from the Gods, but from the ones that they have wronged.

When it comes to wrongdoing, Pagans believe that one’s actions need to be dealt with in the here and now. To ignore the fact that you have done wrong against someone else and to ignore that there are consequences in this life, seems like a cop out to me when it comes to the idea of sin. I’ve seen too many people use the concept of sin as a way to forgive themselves of their actions. That has nothing to do with forgiveness.

If I know that I have done something wrong, I try to go to that person right away and deal with the fact that, yes, I am human, and yes, I have hurt people with some of the things that I have done. Humility is a big part of asking for forgiveness. Everyone has difficulty in showing humility and admitting that they have done something wrong.

While asking for forgiveness requires humility, forgiveness also requires showing humility. It is difficult to forgive someone. It is almost as if to forgive someone else, you need to realize that you yourself are not perfect. That is hard to admit. But when you forgive someone else you are showing them that you except them in all their imperfection and are willing to take them for who they are. When you forgive someone, you are releasing your fears, your resentments, and your anger about the situations. And you are reconnecting to the person that is asking for forgiveness.

Thank You

I would like to thank Angela-Eloise, Jeff, Bernulf, and Mike for guest blogging while I was in New Orleans. I appreciate all the hard work and effort they have put into this past week and encourage you all to visit their blogs.

Impact of Wicca on Everyday Life

"How has your religion changed your daily, everyday life?"

My answer to this question essentially is a heightened perception of my own abilities to affect the things around me and a greater awareness of energy. Wicca has changed my life in other ways too, but these are the things that truly affect me every day in a way that they didn't before I began to study witchcraft.

Every thought you think is magick.

This one quote from Christopher Penczak's book Instant Magick sums up for me the most profound way that witchcraft has changed my everyday life. After I began my formal study I learned how powerful not just spoken words but thoughts and feelings could be in manifesting things in our lives.

As I have followed the way of the witch there have been a few "a-ha" moments when certain principles and beliefs from the craft have suddenly become startlingly clear on a very personal level. I remember talking with a classmate from my Witchcraft 1 class about how much I disliked someone I was working for and how unhappy I was in that job. I realized that I had a habit of complaining and being very vocal about my unhappiness when it related to work. We had just been learning about thought forms in class, so suddenly, in that one conversation I got it. By thinking and talking about how miserable I was, that was the energy that I drew to myself as a result and misery was what I was using my power to manifest. This may seem obvious to some but that's only because magick truly is all around us and we all have more power than we think. Once I realized the power that words and even thoughts have, I appreciated the neutralization technique we had learned, wherein you perform some action - be it a spoken word or a gesture - to neutralize the energy of something you didn't mean to say or don't really want to send out to the universe. A magickal "do-over" if you will.

As a witch, I've become much more aware of how my thoughts affect me and those around me and certainly more vigilant against unintentional manifestation of things that run counter to what I really intend. I've also come to recognize the periods in my life when I was manifesting good things by the sheer power of my force of will. Before I began to study witchcraft I didn't realize what I was doing. Now I know. I was working magick.

Just as I learned early on how my words and thoughts had power, I also began to learn about energy. This work is at the core of witchcraft - you need to be able to work with energy to be an effective witch - and no matter how advanced a witch becomes, she will always return to these basic lessons again and again because they are at the heart of magick.

Have you ever walked by something and gotten a shiver - we used to call it the "heebie jeebies" - or met someone who just rubbed you the wrong way? We all have. Every day we come in contact with the energy that is all around us and sometimes feel it enough for it to affect us. As witches, we are trained not only to sense those energies but to recognize them, protect ourselves from them if necessary, harness them if they can help us, and heal them when called upon. As many people have, I sure that I have always been aware of energies I experience on some level. Now, with the training I've done, I'm much more sensitive to their existence and have a greater capacity for knowing what they are and what to do with them.

This doesn't always mean we have to act upon energy we encounter; sometimes it just gives us deeper understanding or appreciation. For example, the other day I bumped into someone I worked with a long time ago and hadn't seen in many years. Just like that, out of the blue. Seeing him was enough of a pleasant surprise but I was struck by how strongly he was emanating the most energized, upbeat aura. I remembered how I had always thought he had such sparkly eyes. He still does. But now I know that those sparkly eyes are but a hint of how sparkly his personal energy is. As a witch I could experience that energy in a way that I never had before.

Energy, just like thought, has tremendous power to transform us. Witches are taught to respect this power and to use it to serve our highest will - the expression of our divine selves - making sure that it harms no one, including ourselves. That is what the phrase "An in harm none, do what thou will" means. This is one of the guiding principles of Wicca. Anyone can call themselves a witch and practice magick. But to be Wiccan means to take personal responsibility for our magick and to exercise the power that we have in an ethical way.

Impact of Druidism on Everyday Life: Requited Gratitude

"How has your religion changed your daily, everyday life?"

In my original post on the essence of Druidism, I wrote about how gratitude was the essence of what drew me to the religion -- gratitude for our ancestors, our teachers, and our gods. I have found, though, that since beginning my practice, my whole experience of gratitude has changed.

I was not raised with gratitude at the center of spiritual practice. The first fundamental truth of Buddhism, the religion I was raised with, is that the world is afflicted with suffering; and a fundamental truth like that does not engender much gratitude. One of the famous sayings of Zen is "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him". Again, not much gratitude there. This is in no way intended as a criticism of Buddhism -- I know that many Buddhist meditations are very effective in encouraging the development of gratitude, and it is an important part of many kinds of Buddhist practice. My point here is simply that the practice of gratitude per se was not part of my personal Zen-influenced upbringing. When I grew older, and abandoned Buddhism in favor of atheism and agnosticism, I was removed even further from gratitude.

Of course, I did feel gratitude for being alive, and for the forests and the sunsets and so forth. But I had nowhere to direct that gratitude. I was grateful, but there was no one available to say "you're welcome". It was a sort of unrequited gratitude; it was like being in love with someone who doesn't even know you exist, except of course it was really being in love with someone whom you don't even know exists.

As I entered into Druidism, I began to use visualization techniques to make contact with those I was thankful to. I was able to thank the gods and ancestors specifically, by name, for their blessings, and I saw them smile and acknowledge the thanks. Having your thanks recieved with love is a wonderful thing -- it is an additional blessing on top of everything you're already thankful for.

It particularly transformed the Winter Solstice. I always enjoyed that time of year, and the evergreens and gift-giving and so forth spoke to something inside me. In the past, we have always put a Santa doll at the top of the tree -- mostly because it was quirky and cute and Santa was not an angel. But this past Solstice was the first time it was really meaningful for me. When I put Santa up -- and him wearing the traditional red, white and black colors of the Celtic Otherworld -- I knew I was giving proper reverence for a real spirit that was coming into my home. This was probably the happiest Solstice season I've had in my life, simply because I was really celebrating something I believed in. (Well, that one time when I was five and I got a Lone Ranger doll -- that was pretty awesome, too.)

This changed experience of gratitude has opened a door. Somehow, all the things I've been grateful for -- my family, the sky, the earth -- are brighter, more colorful, and more real. I feel more alive and present. I'm going to close with a quote from C.S. Lewis's "The Last Battle" which describes the change in my daily life most vividly:

"Perhaps you will get some idea of it, if you think of it like this.You may have been in a room in which there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away among the mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a looking glass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all over again, in the looking glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were somehow different -- deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know...every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can't describe it any better than that: if you ever get there, you will know what I mean."

Impact of Buddhism on Everyday Life

"How has your religion changed your daily, everyday life?"

"As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery…we have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger and attachment, fear and suspicion, while love, compassion, and a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness." (Dalai Lama)

Buddhism is a religion based upon empirical testing and observation. As the Dalai Lama notes in the quote above, the key to true happiness is inner peace. The primary manner in which Buddhism has changed my life is by showing me the means to obtain such happiness. And by that, I don't mean through pedagogic discourse but through not only giving me the tools to examine myself and my world directly, but also by making it clear that examining the world for myself is the only method by which I can discover the way to happiness--being told about it or reading about it won't get me very far.

In a sense, Buddhism has given me a toolkit with which to examine all aspects of myself and the world around me. Through application of mindfulness, I can slow down and examine the minutest aspects of phenomena. Of course, the ability to do this takes much time to develop--I certainly am not at the point of being able to be mindful to that degree--but the tools allow me to see progress for myself. What's the benefit of mindfulness of this type? As the Dalai Lama stated, anger is one of the primary impediments to happiness. As I slow myself down and look at anger as it arises, I can begin to see it for what it is--a body-less emotion that I, solely, am responsible for generating. Only with mindfulness can I avoid attaching to my anger, which prevents it from controlling me. I can then directly observe its causes, the conditions required for it appear in me, and the ultimate effect it has on my peace of mind and others around me. It is only through this method that I can see for myself the true damage that anger causes me, the effect it has on my inner peace. And it is only through this method that I can observe the true nature of anger.

This same process allows me to examine happiness in life. As the Dalai Lama stated, inner peace is the key to true happiness. But doesn't buying stuff make us happy too? Doesn't a good meal make us happy? Yes, but those happinesses are fleeting, impermanent, and ultimately unsatisfactory. How do I know this? Through mindfulness. Looking directly with penetrating insight at the feelings that arise when I buy something I really want makes it clear that this feeling is based on attachment. I see that after the initial thrill wears off, I need to buy something else to continue the "high." Is that really true happiness?

Buddhism has truly given me the tools to work with my everyday life, to see the true nature of every aspect of myself. It has given me a stronger peace of mind, and I've observed for myself the increase in happiness that comes with such inner peace. I'm thankful for coming to Buddhism when I did because it has allowed me to see for myself the things I do that are wholesome and beneficial, and the things I do that are unwholesome and harmful. It has also given me a 2,500 year old proven process to increase the wholesome and decrease the unwholesome.

Impact of Heathenry on Everyday Life

"How has your religion changed your daily, everyday life?"

One of the things most Heathens figure out pretty quickly is that Heathen isn't something you do, it's not something you get, and it's not something you practice on weekends - Heathen is something that you are. This realization has had a continuously profound effect in my life. I've always been the informal type, raised to be loosely Christian (by which I mean I was never forced to go to church as a kid...although I had no concept for existing religions aside from Christianity). I'd say that for most of my life, I was much more spiritual than religious...and for a number of years, I was definitely setting up my tent in the pantheist camp. So when I first realized there was this thing called Asatru, that there was this living, thriving religion based on gods I once lamented as being dead, I experienced what would be the first of many shocks.

Heathens, among other things, are die-hard polytheists. Walk into a room full of Heathens and suggest that our gods and goddesses are part of a universal Goddes and / or God concept, and are thus the same as Egyptian gods or Babylonian gods, and you'll be lucky if you're just politely ignored. We believe that our gods and goddesses are unique and individual, separate from the deities of other pantheons...suggesting that they aren't is in many cases taken as an affront. I had the luck of joining what would become a Heathen forum populated by some of the most notorious über-Heathens on the Internet, suggesting something I'd once heard about all the gods and goddesses of the world being a multi-faceted gem. This, I assure you, did not go over very well. My change from pantheism did not occur over night - in fact it took a few years - but learning to understand the gods as individuals, as relatives and friends, separate and unique was probably my first real step towards being Heathen. At the same time, there was the slight tendency I had toward seeing the gods as something along the lines of archetypes. This, too, has changed as I've gotten to know the Heathen gods as individuals...they aren't an inherited memory of the Germanic race, they aren't a mental construct, they're real, and they are with us. So in this regard, I went from being a Christian-based pantheist spiritualist, to walking and talking with my gods...it's not just an impact in my daily life, it's a nearly complete rewrite of the part of my mind that deals with things on religious and spiritual levels, as well as an added awareness in my daily life.

One of the fundamental virtues that Heathens strive toward is hospitality. This has quite a lot to do with the concept of community, which of course is essential in Heathenry. Hospitality is of such high importance, that many modern-day Heathens, as well as did Heathens a thousand years ago, believe that the gods sometimes walk this world in disguise, testing the hospitality of our homes. Some form of this belief can be traced back as far as the 5th Century, CE, when 'Old Man Winter' would visit the homes in a village looking for food and drink, as a form of placation for a bit of leniency from the harshness of Winter. I take the virtue of hospitality a bit further with part of one of my own maxims: True hospitality does not lock itself indoors, nor does it suffer the hindrance of inconvenience. In other words, wherever I happen to be standing, it's within my power to offer hospitality, and unless I've been insulted or offended somehow, I can generally be counted upon to do just that. Although I've always been interested in things like community service, charity and even offering a clean, warm environment for guests in my home, Heathenry has added a sacred aspect to hospitality for me that I see not just as an effect, but a benefit in my life.

One of the other great impacts for me has been in the way Heathenry approaches Nature and technology. We embrace both with great enthusiasm - Nature isn't absent in technology, quite the contrary, it's as present in technology as it is in anything else. This isn't a stated belief in Heathenry, but it's one that can be inferred from our history and general approach to things. For a person who loves the outdoors, but lives in the city, learning to see the natural in even the synthetic on a daily basis has been a great benefit to my sanity, as well as being a balm to my spirits, because it helps me to feel as though I'm always connected - not in the digital media sense of the word, but in the sense that I'm always connected to my gods and ancestors, as well as the community around me.

Don't You Go to Church?

Zen and the Art of Childhood

Being a non-Christian in the United States is not always easy. I know, because I grew up here, and I’ve never been Christian.

I was raised essentially Zen Buddhist in the southeast, a region not known for its tolerance and open-mindedness. My mother was Zen; my father and his family were Baptist.

When I was in kindergarten, in 1979, my teacher used to lead the students in Christian prayer before lunchtime. She would do it surreptitiously in the classroom, not in the cafeteria, because prayer in a public school was illegal. When my mother found out, she was irate; she demanded that the school put a stop to it. They didn’t. But in a small southern town, you can’t raise too many waves. My mother dropped it.

In fourth grade, I remember my teacher reading stories to the class – Bible stories. Again, there was nothing we could do.

As I approached puberty, the emotion I most frequently associated with religion was incredulity. Whenever the other children found out that I didn't go to church, or that I didn't believe in God, they were incredulous. Aren't you afraid you'll go to hell? they'd ask. No, I don't believe in hell. But the Bible says... I don't believe the Bible, either. But the Bible says... Why do you believe the Bible? The Bible says... (I'm not making this up.)

For my part, I was incredulous about their beliefs, as well. I was amazed that people could just completely believe every word of a two-thousand-year-old self-contradictory book, without, as it seemed, thought or question. Especially when the Bible had so many things in it that were obviously just wrong -- things that contradicted evolution, geology, astronomy, etc.

We were children; we couldn't argue these things out properly. I couldn't explain my point of view, and they couldn't explain theirs. The upshot was that I was just too weird to be friends with them. That was ok with me, though, because I thought they were weird.

A Foreign Homeland

As I grew up, the simple directness of childhood religious conversation became more nuanced, but the results were the same. People asked me what church I went to, or invited me to attend theirs, and I tried to deflect the questions by saying things like "I don't really go to church". This would generally end the conversation and any possibility of friendship, too. Their unspoken assumption was this: if you don't want to go to my church, you don't want to be my friend.

One result is that I have never, ever felt like I was part of mainstream American culture. I'm not even sure I know what it would feel like to be part of a culture. Effectively, I grew up like an immigrant -- except there was no country I had emigrated from.

Eventually I started to hide my beliefs as much as possible. I never lied about it, but neither would I ever bring it up or wear it on my sleeve. I did sport a yin-yang necklace in high school classes, where everyone already knew I was strange and it wouldn't do any damage. But I didn't wear it to work or to visit my father's family. It would have started too many uncomfortable conversations.

Was I religiously discriminated against? It didn’t feel like that. It was more like I was treated like I was slightly insane.

But probably the reason I didn’t feel discriminated against was that I could hide my religion whenever I wanted to. In the South, discrimination can get pretty bad, and there are lots of people who can’t just hide the fact that they’re not white Protestant conservatives.

I decided pretty early on that I would rather not live in the South. I’d heard things were more progressive elsewhere. Not everywhere else, of course; there are plenty of places in the U.S. where the discrimination is just as bad, but less overt. Now I live in western Massachusetts, and I can be open about my beliefs. I don’t introduce myself by saying, “Hi! I’m a Druid! What about you?”, but I have been able to mention my beliefs or rituals in passing, and no one has batted an eye.

A Majority of Minorities

While just about every minority suffers some discrimination here (and some majorities, too – e.g. women), some have had a lot more success fighting it than others. African Americans made a lot of progress at great cost in the middle of the last century, but (at least from what I’ve seen) not much movement has happened since. That is striking compared to the rapid progress made by homosexuals in the last thirty years. Admitting to homosexuality was nearly unthinkable in the 1960’s; it was worse than admitting to insanity. Now it’s still not easy, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll lose your job, your house, and your family.

Why the difference in progress? I’m no sociologist, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s partly because of the 1960’s sexual revolution, partly because of the publicity surrounding HIV, but mostly because straight white Protestants sometimes discover that their children are homosexual, but straight white Protestants never discover that their children are black. If fine, upstanding, rich Southern white people, through the grace of God, sometimes had black children, that would make a world of difference. It would be much more difficult to dehumanize them, which is the first step in discrimination.

It may be that our situation as pagans is more like that of the homosexuals than of the African Americans. We are in the same families as Christians, and we can allow Christians to get to know us and like us before we let on about our differences. This makes it harder to “dehumanize” us. On the other hand, our beliefs directly challenge Christianity in a way that homosexuality doesn’t. If, by some miracle, our numbers swell, and we are perceived as taking believers away from Christ, will we be directly targeted? After all, not long ago, they were setting fire to Christian churches simply because the congregation was the wrong color. Will the sacred groves be burned again?

I no longer think all Christians are insane; I know that Christianity is ultimately a religion of love and tolerance, and many good friends of mine are Christians of that order. But discrimination, especially religious discrimination, has been a hallmark of Western civilization for two thousand years, and its roots run deep.

Floating My Way Through

Few words evoke the kind of visceral and immediate loathing and fear as the word witch. All of Glenda's pink, glittery sweetness aside, most people still see the ugly green version, replete with evil animal companions and maleficent deeds. We only have to look to the countless depictions of witches as icons of ill throughout the creative imagination expressed in our culture to know how pervasive that childhood fear of the cackling hag actually is. With all of the misconception, bad press and hysteria that witches have endured for centuries, is it any wonder that many of us prefer to stay in the broom closet?

Wicca is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. If you've ever browsed the children's section of a book store you will see that fantasy and magic make up the theme of a vast majority of new literature. Almost as if in rebuttal to negative press, large numbers of articles have appeared in the media recently about Wicca and Neo-Paganism that present an honest attempt to discuss our beliefs in an accurate and respectful way. All of this suggests that there is a certain positive interest in Wicca, witchcraft and Pagan forms of spiritual practice that is tempting to view as a budding acceptance of alternative religious beliefs. Nevertheless, there are enough documented cases of people losing their children, being driven out of their homes, and losing their jobs because they were Wiccan that it gives a Wiccan pause, whether she lives in a progressive environment or not, to be completely open about her religious affiliation. Cases like Laura Mallory's charging that Harry Potter books promote Wicca, however false, still sensationalize Wicca and put it into the spotlight, where it becomes an easy target for those who may not be as open-minded and accepting as we might like to believe people have become.

Witches don't proselytize and we don't stand on street corners handing out leaflets printed with the Wiccan Rede, but wearing a pentacle raises eyebrows that crosses don't. Your Christian friend who enjoys wearing the gold cross she received as a first communion gift doesn't have to think twice about wearing it to work; most witches I know do, however, tend to leave the pentacle they received upon their initiation into the craft in the jewelry box before they go into the office.

I have long been aware that I live in a rarified world. Between Boston and San Francisco I've lived in places where people espouse progressive ideals and are culturally both diverse and accepting. Not only has it been easy for me to find practitioners, teachers, resources and like-minded friends as I have pursued my spiritual path, but even those outside the Pagan community have approached my Wiccan-ness with more interest and respect than hostility or derision. When people find out I read tarot, they enthusiastically ask for a reading. People admire the beautiful pentacle ring I had made and ask me about it. Still, I'm not entirely out of the broom closet and I choose very carefully in whom I confide that I am a witch.

About a year ago, I wrote on the subject of coming out of the broom closet. Even after maturing in my faith and my practice, and after coming closer to merging my Wiccan self with my public self, I'm not sure yet how truly open I want to be. My most recent boyfriend made jokes about me turning him into a frog and I know it was because he was a bit uncomfortable with me being a witch, but he seemed to accept it well enough for it not to be a major issue between us even if it never was an open topic for dinner conversation. Would I mention that I'm a witch on a first date? No. Thankfully, most of my friends are not very religious themselves - the subject of religion rarely comes up and I simply choose to be discreet about my practice and the other religious parts of my life. I'm not certain that some of my friends would understand my choice; I worry that as an out witch that makes me too weird for them. At this point though, there aren't many of my close friends who don't know, and I think that speaks to my level of trust in them as much as it does in my confidence in myself as a witch. However, if I were just starting a new job I wouldn't tell anyone I was a witch. How would I know how safe I truly was? Is my environment really that progressive or have I just been lucky?

Religion in this country has become a political pawn as the "Religious Right" loudly proclaims its persecution at the hands of anyone who doesn't share their beliefs in an effort to parlay post-9/11 fear into motivation for people to vote for the Republican party. What do they care if a side effect of their vote mongering whips up a little regressive hate and discrimination? The unfortunate results are examples of how powerfully those childhood beliefs about witches manifest in very devastatingly real and grown-up ways. In the era of the Patriot Act and the Bush administration's destruction of constitutional protections, is it so difficult to imagine what a modern-day witch hunt might look like?

I'm grateful every day that I'm fortunate to live in a place where I don't have to live in fear for my religious beliefs. But for now, I'm still going to err on the side of caution.

Challenges of Non-Mainstream Faith

How do you deal with the cultural/societal challenges involved in following a non-mainstream religious path?"

In my life, the challenges that have arisen due to following a non-mainstream religious path (in the US, that would generally mean not being Christian) have been of two types -- external and internal. Initially, the external challenges seemed harsher and more difficult to deal with. But I've since learned that not only are the internal challenges more important, but the external challenges are really internal challenges in disguise.

In terms of internal challenges, my main struggle is acceptance; not wishing for acceptance from others, but being accepting of other's religious choices. Buddhism is a tolerant religion that states that other religions carry value insofar as they develop your inherent beneficial qualities of love, compassion, peace, generosity, and discipline (to name just a few), and insofar as they reduce the poisons of greed, hatred, and laziness. I see adherents of other religions benefiting from them along these lines regularly. I applaud them for finding a religion that suits their makeup. But I admit that I struggle understanding how people can choose certain beliefs--in particular, monotheistic faiths--as my experiences have been so contrary, my insight so opposite, to theirs. It's my own attachment to being right; it's my internal challenge for which I train to develop insight. The seed of this attachment is difficult to unearth, but that's partly why we undertake such spiritual training.

The external challenge I faced was one of being surrounded by those of Christian faiths during times of traditional ritual--holiday meal prayers, religious weddings, etc. I quickly realized, however, that this wasn't an external challenge at all, but an internal one. It was my own insecurity acting out. Experience after experience has proven to me the validity and benefit of my own faith, and each one has helped me to realize my choice is right for me, regardless of others' choices. Now, during holiday meal prayers with family, I just feel thankful for food and family in my own mindful way--I pray in a Buddhist manner. At religious ceremonies like weddings, I practice in my own way by generating loving-kindness for the lucky couple.

I've learned that any external pressure I feel is solely a product of my own internal state, which clear insight can break right through. Such challenges have truly turned out to be a blessing because they have spotlighted areas where my practice was weak, where my views were unwholesome. Now, I am thankful for each and every one of these challenges.

Dealing with the Mainstream

"How do you deal with the cultural / societal challenges involved in following a non-mainstream religious path?"

When I first read this question, I had to laugh. Not because I think the question itself is funny, but the circumstances in my life have presented me with two very different approaches to dealing with this, based on the experience of living in two different cultures / countries, each with their own take on religion.

In Germany, where I currently live, you don't really talk about religion all that often. I've lived in this country for a few years now, and I can still count on one hand how many times I've been asked about my religious beliefs...despite my wearing a Thor's Hammer pendant, and talking about one day opening up an esoteric center. At least in the region of Germany in which I live, one's religion is considered a very private matter - asking someone about their religious beliefs (unless they are family or a very good friend) can be taken as a very rude intrusion, and is a sign of poor social skills. It's pretty close to being a social taboo. So while it would be safe to say that Christianity (although to a growing extent, Atheism) is the mainstream choice for religion, it's also safe to say that religion itself is not a mainstream topic of conversation here. If I were to bring up religion in day-to-day social interaction the way it is often brought up in America, regardless which religion I brought up, I'd be branded as a fanatic and people would go out of their way to avoid me. For the most part, people here want to get to know whether or not you're a decent sort of person - and to the mainstream people I've encountered here, one's religious affiliations do not determine one's decency.

I know that, for many of you who are reading this in America, I've just described paradise...but even paradise requires a bit of adjusting to. When I first moved here, I thought I was going to go nuts - I figured if no one asked me about my religion, that meant they really didn't want to get to know me. When I was teaching one of my classes about American culture, I naturally assumed they would be interested in knowing about how religion is approached in America...I was quite stunned by their reaction. It was getting to the point where I was about ready to spark up a conversation with one of the Jehova's Witnesses that stand around our main train station, just to get a bit of religious action. Finding other Heathens in this town, other than my wife, was next-to-impossible...even looking for people wearing Thor's Hammer pendants fails when you live in a place where little kids wear them on their necklaces the way American kids wear arrowheads. You see, I'd spent the prior third of my old life living in the American Midwest. I lived in the same town that fueled Dubya's fanaticism, I spent time in other cities that were nearly as fantical, having at one point lived a good drive of the golf ball from one of those so-called mega-churches that boasts a congregation of 4,000. I was so used to having to hold up a small wall that when I moved here, it was like the wall fell out from under me.

In America, I really did hold up a wall. On my side of the wall, I was armed with plenty of facts, philosophies and educated guesses. I believed that the only way to deal with the mainstream was to lob these things over my wall whenever it looked like someone was approaching, then walk out and have friendly and informative exchanges with whoever was left (usually either Pagans, Heathens, or people who were of a more tolerant nature). In the American Southwest, I never really had this problem...but then during the first two thirds of my old life, I wasn't aware that there were options outside of Christianity, so it could have been just as bad and I wouldn't have known the difference. Since I've come to Germany, the hardest part about dealing with the mainstream has been to de-program myself from my years of living in the Midwest. My old wall has been dismantled...with nobody intruding, there's no reason to keep the thing up, it blocked my view and limited my perspective. I'm still a pretty religious person...I have no problems doing outdoor rituals out in public view, I research, study and contemplate religion whenever I have the chance, I have a pair of blogs that are each dedicated in their own way to religion...but I approach all of this now from the point of view of someone who lives in a place where he's able to share his beliefs and perspectives with people who are interested, rather than having to defend them from those who are intolerant.

Children in Paganism

This past Samhain, my family and I went up to New Hampshire to attend a festival thrown by the Spiral Scouts of Peterborough. The Spiral Scouts are a sort of Boy/Girl Scout group for non-monotheistic children, and the event, to be held in the Unitarian Church, was geared toward all ages, with crafts, music, drumming, a costume contest, storytelling, and ritual. We figured it was the perfect opportunity to plug into the local Pagan community and meet some other families with children that we can build relationships with.

We succeeded; but I have to say we were also a little disappointed. There were clearly over a hundred people in attendance, but only a dozen of them were children. Four of those were mine.

No Children's Crusade

Now, I'm not saying that we pagans need to get out there and start being fruitful and multiplying and such. No pagan doctrine that I'm aware of contains such an injunction and I think most people would agree that childhood indoctrination is not the best way to fill out the rank-and-file in any case. Most pagans today are adults who have found this path through their own wanderings, and this is probably ideal. Given the choice between a community of people who have arrived at their faith through a process of reflection and personal growth, versus a community of people who simply remain pagan because it's how they were brought up and it's what they're used to, I'll take the former every time.

Still, it's a shame that children make up such a small percentage of the pagan population. We've found that our children have enriched our pagan practice and experience in completely unexpected ways. Children invigorate and vitalize pagan faith.

Neo-Neopagans

Children seem to be born with an innate reverence for nature, which fits right in with pagan belief. They fill their pockets with acorns, oddly shaped rocks, bits of fluff and feathers, and young blossoms -- they can feel the raw magic sparking off such things. They can easily sense the quiet awe of a forest, and they are most at ease when surrounded by natural materials -- cotton and wool clothing, wooden toys, silk drapes.

They are naturally attracted to seasonal holidays and ritual. They can feel the long, slow, majestic change of the seasons, and they are excited to celebrate their passing. They join in eagerly when an adult thanks the earth, the trees, and the sky, because they can sense the connection viscerally. They love repitition of familiar things, whether it's a short verse of thanks to the sun as the candles are lit for dinner, or decorating a tree every Winter Solstice. The rituals of paganism are the rhythms of childhood. (You can read about some of the rituals we've done with our children here and here.)

And children seem like born polytheists. The world of nearly every child, even those of monotheistic parents, is populated with spirits and guides and gods of all kinds. Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and Jack Frost (to pick few American favorites) are just the tip of the iceberg. My oldest daughter spotted fairies four times on her own while we were still waffling between Zen, agnosticism, and atheism, and one of her best school friends, whose parents are Christian, sees them even more frequently. And all children feel the power and presence lurking in odd corners and nooks in the house... places where adults rarely go, where darkness and silence are allowed to gather. The children can sense the goblins as well as the gnomes.

Teaching Children, Children Teaching.

If you are not pagan, then maybe these facts about children seem like just quirky things that children do. Isn't it cute? (Or, in the case of monsters under the bed, When will they grow out of it?) As they grow up, they have to be gently led away from these beliefs. They must be carefully taught that the trees are not guardians, just large plants; that the sun is no loving father, but a deadly inferno of plasma; that the Earth is not a mother figure, but simply the stage upon which the human play is set. All the love and reverence children have for these things must be somehow transferred to whatever is revered in your religion.

But if you are pagan, you can see clearly that your children don't need to be taught your religion; they are already living it. They may not know the names of all the gods, or the specifics of the rituals, but they can already feel what's important. All you have to do is fill in the details.

So I encourage all pagans -- if you don't have any children in your life, go find some. Target especially children below the age of seven. Take them to your sacred spaces -- walk with them in the woods, stand by the sea, or just sit in your backyard. They will find powerful natural talismans -- stones, feathers, nuts -- and bring them to you. Watch where they linger, and you will know the fair folk are living nearby. Listen to their talk, and you will catch echoes of what Spirit is whispering in their ears. You may not be able to hear the Earth singing her love song to you, but they can.

Update: Cosette at Pandora's Bazaar has a great post about the inherent paganism in humanity, and the universality of pagan symbols.

Essence of Buddhism

What is the essence of Buddhism? We can represent the essence of Buddhism in several different ways. In terms of views, which is the approach I will discuss in this essay, we have what we call the Three Dharma Seals. As defined by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, "Traditionally, seal means something like a hallmark that confirms authenticity." (Shambhala Sun, January 2007. Pg. 52). These represent the views that underlie all Buddhist theory and practice. If a practice contradicts these views, it is not a Buddhist practice.

The first seal is that all conditional things are impermanent. Is there anything in our known universe or in your experience that is permanent and unchanging? We buy a new car and are happy, but that elation wears off and passes away. A family member dies and we are sad. But the sadness dissipates in strength over time. Perhaps it may never disappear, but it is always changing as we adapt to it. When we slow waaaaaay down, we can see our individual thoughts rise and fall as well. Even our sun is slowly dying, and in about 5 billion years will expand into a red giant, whose edge will reach approximately to the edge of the earth, to be followed over time by a slow decline to its end as a white dwarf.

The second seal is that all things are without inherent existence. The key word here is "inherent." The chair in which you sit exists (or else you'd be floating in mid-air!), but it does not do so inherently. By "inherently," we mean independent of all other things. If the chair existed inherently, there would be a quality we call "chairness" that we could identify, that was not dependent on any other phenomena. But look at your chair. It is composed of parts. It has legs, arms, a seat, a back. There is nothing there that you can call "chair" independent of those parts. We are no different. As beings, we have body parts, we have feelings, we have thoughts, we have consciousness. But there is nothing we can find within us that is independent of all other things. There is no independent "self" that we can point to and say, "This is independent of all other things." Everything in us is dependently arisen! Hence, we have no inherent existence either.

The third seal is that Nirvana is perfect peace and happiness. This says that our true nature is perfect peace and happiness, which is only obscured by the defilements, like anger, hatred, greed, and delusion. Hence, if we can eliminate these defilements, our natural peace and happiness will shine forth. This seal actually plays two roles. Not only does it show us that we are already perfect beings, only we just don't know it because we've hidden it beneath a fog of delusion, it also says that we can re-discover this perfect peace and happiness in our lives. And nobody can do it for us. Others can help point out the path, but only we can attain this rediscovery ourselves. I often say that Buddhism is the ultimate optimistic religion, and that is because this seal tells us that regardless of the suffering we feel, regardless of our current faults and challenges, we are truly perfect and are fully capable of realizing that perfection if we only try.

These three seals underlie all other Buddhist principles and practices. They form the basis for Dependent Arising, for mindfulness, for generation of perfect compassion and loving-kindness, for ethical training, for meditation, for generosity, for the Four Noble Truths. And what I find particularly amazing in the Buddha's teachings is that a blind faith in these seals is unnecessary and counterproductive. Rather, the practices are undertaken (perhaps initially motivated by the belief that these seals may be true), and they lead to a direct experience of these truths. Nowhere does the Buddha say, "Believe in these seals, my teachings, and you will be saved." Instead, he said, "Contemplate. Meditate. Discover these truths on your own." I find this last point to be the key essence of Buddhism. Spend your time practicing and experiencing mindfully, not studying for intellectual knowledge or playing mental philosophical gymnastics. While studying can give you knowledge, practicing will give you wisdom.

The Essence of Heathenry

"What is the essence of Heathenry?"

As the word, essence has multiple meanings, so, too, does Heathenry have more than one quality that could be described as being essential. And to be honest, the answer to this question will tend to differ among Heathens.

In one of my posts here last summer, I stated that the true essence of Heathenry was to be found in home and community. This statement is a good leaping-off point, just as the post from which it comes, Heathenry in 300 Words or Less, would be a good refresher for readers who may not be fully familiar with what Heathenry is. Our Heathen forebears spent a lot of time in their homes with one another, and lived in some pretty tight-knit communities. Children grew up hearing stories of gods and heroes, of relatives who traded, explored and sometimes fought in distant lands. In some cases, people might be treated to the eloquence and complexity of a skald's presentation of our lore; but the majority of the entertainment and story-telling would have taken place in the mundane home, provided by family members. The people they would have enjoyed this religious entertainment with would be the same people who were relied upon to hunt, trap, fish and grow food, to provide them with all the other necessities of life, including defending them from predators and enemies with their own bare hands when necessary. In time, these children would grow up to take their places within the family and community, providing what was within their power to provide, and telling stories of their own around the hearth fire at night - and thus the cycle would continue. This, then, is one of the essences of Heathenry, past and present, that our homes, our families, our communities are the sources of our lives and a critical component in the foundation of what we deem sacred. It's likely that this tradition connects us to our forebears as far back as the cave-dwelling days; and likely that it will connect us with our future kin and communities dwelling in the shelter of lunar craters. Hávamál, stanza 50, might best explain the emphasis Heathens place on kin and community:

On the hillside drear | the fir-tree dies,
All bootless its needles and bark;
It is like a man | whom no one loves,--
Why should his life be long?[1]

This stanza compares people to trees (from which our lore tells us we were made). The man, 'whom no one loves' represents someone who has neither friend, family nor community. Like the lone tree on the wind-swept hill on a dreary day, such a person has no one to offer support, no one to act as brace or break from the howling winds life sometimes sends in our direction. The fir tree, especially back in the days when this poem would have been written, is not normally seen as being fit for general lumber uses - neither was the person who had lost all support from family and community seen as being very useful. This stanza is meant to describe the importance of our friends, family and community...what we have, we should treasure and seek to be as useful to as possible. We should seek not just those who might shelter and bolster us in times of need, but also seek how we might be able to do the same for others. Important as this typically is to people, to most of the Heathens I've encountered, it could be called essential.

The man in the stanza above, cut off from love and support, would fit the description for someone who had been banished - among the most severe of punishments among our forebears. One of the reasons for this is because banishment also disinherited one from the Wyrd and luck of family and community. Wyrd would be the second thing I would say is safely considered an essential part of contemporary Heathenry. Wyrd, as I defined in another post from last summer (Beyond Midgard), is a dynamic, always-turning, always-becoming process that many liken to Karma. Wyrd is something Heathens believe we are all subject to and a part of, even our gods...it is the natural process by which the fabric of the past is woven into the fabric of the present. We are not just a part of Wyrd, our existence is a result of our Wyrd. To say that Wyrd is essential to Heathenry is one way to put it...to say that Heathens believe Wyrd is essential to everything would be another. As you might imagine, one's own fabric is strengthened when interwoven with the fabric of a strong network of friends and family.

Tied in with our family, friends, communities and our Wyrd are our Elder Kin, which is another name for our gods. While most Heathens see our gods as being a part of our family I'm treating this area as a separate essence because our gods are our mightiest members of family and community. Many of you will already know the names of several among our gods: Odin, Frigga, Freyr and Freyja, Thor and even Loki are pretty well-known (for a more complete list, check the Wikipedia entry for Norse Gods). It is to Odin and his brothers that we owe the creation of Midgard, while Thor stands between us and those forces that would destroy Midgard. Despite the importance and high value we place on our gods, some might observe a certain degree of irreverence that Heathens (both historical and contemporary) seem to show when dealing with our gods. Actually, it's our informality that I tend to see as our highest sign of reverence for our gods: they are a part of our family, a part of our community and although they deserve (and receive) the highest of respect as our community's mightiest members, we are essentially as one and at ease with our gods, as we are one and at ease with our families and friends.

So if I were to try to blend these three things together, and pull from them a single, unifying thing that could be described as the essence of Heathenry, I would say it is the way in which we tend to see all things as interwoven, interconnected, and interdependent. While this interwoven state can be found in many things throughout Nature and the cosmos, I think for us it's found most truly in the relationships we build with those around us. But just as interweaving denotes multiple things joining to become one, the interwoven essence of Heathenry reminds us that multiple essences are true and play their part in the greater whole.

__________________

[1] Hovamol, Henry Bellows Translation, made available on the Internet Sacred Text Archive

The Essence of Wicca

Trying to distill the essence of Wicca is a bit like trying to answer the question "What is art?" You can circle around the question and get close, but the amount of information is vast and everyone you ask will have a different answer. I do believe, though, that with Wicca, as with art, it is possible to arrive at a few core ideas that serve to represent the essential elements of the thing at hand.

Strictly speaking, Wicca is the religion created by Gerald Gardner and revealed to world in the 1950's after Britain repealed its anti-witchcraft laws. Following in the footsteps of nineteenth-century scholars who led a resurgence of interest in ceremonial magic and regional mythology, Gardner had a deep interest in the occult and studied a number of mystical traditions before compiling his knowledge into his book Witchcraft Today. He worked with Doreen Valiente to build the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca and his student, Raymond Buckland, brought the tradition to North America. Based on information about ancient traditions that could be cobbled together from archeological evidence, ancient texts and reasonably informed speculation, drawing specifically on Celtic, Saxon and Germanic traditions, Wicca became the modern expression of the "Old Religion." That same repeal of the Witchcraft Act allowed many other practitioners of witchcraft, who had been carrying on their hereditary traditions in secret for many years, to emerge and create movements of their own. Women dissatisfied with the oppressive, patriarchal nature of traditional religions were drawn to the renaissance of goddess religions and created feminist branches of Wicca. In 1972 Wicca became a legally recognized religion in America and ordained priests and priestesses have the same rights as traditional clergy. Today there are many forms of Wicca, analogous to the various denominations that fall under the umbrella of Christianity.

But what IS Wicca?

Wicca is a nature-based spiritual practice, meaning that it is fundamentally connected - both in belief and practice - to the cycles of life in nature and in the belief that the Earth is the Great Mother. It is based on practices of ancient peoples who lived close to nature and whose survival depended on their ability to attune to its power and changes. The Moon was their first calendar, and they viewed the cycles of the Sun as a divine force governing their lives. This led to the eventual acceptance of the three phases of the Moon as representations of a Triple Goddess - maiden, mother, crone - and the Sun as the embodiment of the God who was her son, lover and consort. The concept of Moon and Sun as the highest expressions of the divine spirit are one of the few basic tenets of the Wiccan faith that are generally accepted across various traditions, although some traditions place the Goddess in a more prominent role. Just as the ancients attached deities to specific places, objects or animals, most modern Wiccans believe in the existence of elemental or nature spirits. This is not the same as worshipping nature; instead it is venerating nature as a tangible sign that the creator of all things is alive and well and dwelling both within us and outside of us. The common Wiccan expression "As above, so below; as within, so without" holds at its core the belief that if deity can create, so can we.

Wicca is often referred to as the Craft of the Wise. The very word Wicca is derived from a number of etymological roots that range in meaning from "wise" to "to bend and to shape," "to practice witchcraft," "to bewitch or divine the future," to "holy." Wicca refers to the modern revival of witchcraft. Though you can make a strong distinction between the definition of witch and Wiccan, or between witchcraft and Wicca, most practitioners accept both words and identities. Whatever their particular form of spiritual expression and its practical application, all Wiccans believe in their own personal ability to connect to divine and to effect change through the active direction of intent.

As much as it is a belief system filled with the mysteries of the past, Wicca is a living religion. It lives both in the sense that it changes and adapts according to the acquisition of knowledge and from necessity and the desire of its practitioners, and in the ways that Wiccans integrate our spirituality into our daily lives. Every thought, word, action and breath is a manifestation of the divine that lives within each one of us.

The Essence of Druidism

Asking the Priestess

Not long ago Ellen Evert Hopman, a druid priestess with whom I’m acquainted, was asked, “What is the essence of druid practice?”

The asker was a very old friend who had just had a powerful mystical experience, and came to her for help. They talked for most of the day, having tea, walking in the forest, and so forth.

At first, when he asked her this question, she was speechless. Ellen is a priestess of great experience, a master herbalist and researcher in the old ways; so if anyone knows Druidism, she does. But Druidism is not a cohesive faith. There is no World Archdruid, no Universal Grove; there is no Druid Bible or Founding Father; there are no druid missionaries carrying the True Faith around the world. Each druid is called, one by one, alone, to the path, by whatever gods, guides, or spirits there be. So naturally there’s a certain amount of disagreement about what the essence of Druidism is.

Probably the biggest split within Druidism is between what are called the “Revival” druids and the “Reconstructionist” druids. Very simply put, Reconstructionist druids are those who try to cleave most closely to the practices and beliefs of the ancient druids of pre-Roman Europe, according to the best historical and archaeological evidence. “Revival” druids instead adhere to a body of practices and beliefs that arose first in the 18th century among British antiquarians, a reaction against the upheaval and chaos of the Industrial Revolution — a mixture of ancient druidism and early modern mysticism, further influenced by 19th century movements such as theosophy and ceremonial magic. Both groups rightly claim to have a rich tradition and a long history, but they are very different as well: they may celebrate different holidays, with different rituals, and even call upon different gods. Where is the essence there?

Somehow, Ellen found a way to answer him.

Ellen’s Answer

Druid practice, she said, can be boiled down to three things: Water, Fire, and Trees.

Water. All over Europe, sacred springs are found — springs where supplicants come to draw strength, health, or wisdom. People still come to them and tie rags to the branches of trees hanging over the holy waters, binding there their hurts, worries, and ailments. For druids, water is also the element of the otherworld, of the ancestors, and the realm of the Sidhe.

Fire. The fire that cooks our food, forges our metal and warms our bones is also the vehicle that carries sacrifices into the beyond. It is the spirit that sparks creation, the mother of poetry and magic. It is the element of the sky, the stars, and the gods.

Trees. If there is one thing that all druids agree on, it is reverence for trees. The oak was especially sacred to the ancient druids — one etymology for druid is “oak-wise” — but for druids, all trees are ladders to heaven, links between the earth and the sky. The tree is the giver of gifts and knowledge, the friend that stands guard round your house and the watcher in the shades of the night.

Notice in particular two things about this list: first, it is a list of natural things, elements of the earth. Druidism is thus foremost a nature religion, with reverence for the sacred earth at its heart. Second, it is a list of three things. Three is a number that appears again and again in Druidism, both ancient and modern, in all things.

A Triad of Gratitude

I can’t presume to speak to the essence of Druidism myself, since I’m so new to it; I started down this path less than a year ago. But I can speak to what drew me to Druidism — the essence of why I am a druid.

One of the great traditions of Celtic literature is the triad: a saying that compares or contrasts three things (there’s that number again). Here are some examples:

• Three glories of a gathering: a comely mate, a good horse, and a swift hound.
  
• Three false sisters: “perhaps”, “maybe”, and “I dare say”.
• Three things not loved without each one its companion: day without night, idleness without hunger, and wisdom without reverence.
  

I saw a triad recently that summed up what drew me to Druidism; here it is:

Three whose debt can never be repaid: parents, a good teacher, and the Mighty Ones.

Parents. Extended to include ancestors, this debt we owe to our forebears is too great to be imagined, much less paid back. Those of us living in the Western world at the beginning of the 21st century are sailing on a sea of material wealth and knowledge that is impossible to really comprehend. There is an unfortunate tendancy to congratulate ourselves on how very clever and rich we are, instead of acknowledging that it was all handed to us, for good or ill, by previous generations. What we have today, we owe to our parents, our grandparents, our ancestors of 500 years ago, a thousand years ago, 100,000 years ago — these people who were born, made their way as best they could, loved their children, and ended their lives in glory and tragedy. The debt of gratitude can never be repaid, but it does us good to try.

A Good Teacher. All of us have had teachers that challenged us, drew us in, and made us more than we thought possible. Teaching is at the heart of Druidism: classical writers spoke repeatedly of aspiring students who traveled across Europe to learn with certain druids. Those who were fortunate enough to be chosen pursued their studies for twenty years. One of the more famous druids of Irish lore, an advisor to a king, had one hundred students at a time. In modern Druidism, there is a long tradition of druid orders offering coursework in all manner of arcane lore, from astrology to herbalism. The teacher stands between the student and the knowledge, between the child and the adult, drawing the two closer together, like a tree between the earth and the sky.

The Mighty Ones. As the Earth and our ancestors support us from below, the Mighty Ones reach down and draw us up. They give inspiration for creative acts, grant fertility and bounty in our endeavors, and guide us between the worlds. The spirits, guides and gods — Lugh of the Long Arm, Bridget of the Sudden Flame, and their kind — are the sky and stars towards which we reach.

Druidism shows us gently everything that has been done, and is being done, for us; and asks us to give of ourselves in return. For while our debts cannot be repaid — while the sacrifices of our ancestors and the Earth can never be sufficiently honored — we can choose to make those sacrifices worthwhile.

Guest Bloggers

I leave for New Orleans in just a few hours, but I want to let you all know what is happening over the next week. Last August, I had three guest bloggers take over my blog while I was on vacation. This time around, I don't know if I will have internet access, so I invited the same three bloggers back to write again. This time they are joined by a fresh voice so there are now four perspectives instead of three.

First, we have Mike from Unknowing Mind representing the Buddhist faith. Next, we have Angela-Eloise from Blogickal representing the Wiccan faith. Next, we have Bernulf from Expanding Inward representing his Heathen tradition. And last ( but definitely not least), we have Jeff from Druid Journal who is representing Druidry.

Our guest bloggers have chosen several topics to write about from the perspective of their own tradition. Make sure to join in on the conversation and leave a few comments for our guest writers. I hope you enjoy this next week!

Interfaith Blog Event #3 - Connections

Here is the next installment of the monthly interfaith event! Jon, from Jesusfollowers Journal, will be writing from a Protestant Christian perspective, and Mike from Unknowing Mind, will be writing from a Mahayana Buddhist perspective. This month, I got the opportunity to present the question for the event and here it is:

Within your religious traditions, what rituals and/or traditions give you a
sense of connection to your fellow congregants, beliefs, and communities?
What actions do you take to ensure the stability of those connections? Do
you feel that the connections that have been made are sufficient for your
spiritual and/or religious needs?

Here are the links to the other perspectives:
[Jon's Essay] [Mike's Essay]Direct links will be provided when available
Even though I am not officially affiliated with any particular religion, I have been attending an Unitarian Universalist church off and on for the past few years, but never really got involved with the activities of the church. Recently, I started to attend on a more regular basis and also started getting involved .

I am in the beginning stages of making those connections that help to build a sense of community within a religious tradition. As I start to make connections with the people of the church, I am finding that there is a new set of rituals and traditions that are beginning to support feelings of connection. Some of them are:

• I love the lighting of the chalice at the beginning of the service. People have a chance to share their personal stories, their favorite quotes and songs, or dedicate the lighting to someone.
• Reciting the opening words and the closing words in unison with the members.*
• The first service in September, where everyone is coming back from their summer vacations. Every year, a different element is highlighted (this year - water) and people bring something back from their travels to symbolize coming back together as a congregation.
  
• I volunteered to help out in the kitchen. While talking to a member of the church, I found out that the gentleman that was in charge of the coffee, tea and snacks between the services was overwhelmed and needed help. I thought that this would be a great way to meet and connect with people.
• I will be signing up for the adult education classes in the church regarding various topics.
  
• Lunch after service. This happens about once a month. This is a great time to sit and socialize and get to know the people of the church. I will soon be helping out with the preparation of the food for lunch.
  

While I haven't explored this option yet, this particular church happens to be involved with a lot of social action and is very proud of its activities. Many of the members are involved with other groups in the community that promote religious tolerance, GLBT rights, and other social action. As my time frees up (when I am finished with my schooling in December), I will be looking to get more involved with this aspect of the church. I feel that this will help to deepen my connection with the church and it's members.

One of the reasons why I started seeking a congregation to join is that I didn't feel satisfied with what I was currently doing, which to be honest, was hardly anything at all. As I have stated before, I didn't grow up with any particular religious background and because of that, I feel that opened up the possibilities in finding a system of beliefs that is truly for me. Even though I was not brought up with a religious tradition, I have felt the need as of late to reach out for this type of connection.

I think that all human strive for a sense of connectedness whether they find that connection through family, friendships, and/or a church membership. I am starting to feel a sense that my needs are being met. I am starting to feel that I am connected to something that is larger than myself.



*opening words are "Love is the spirit of this church, and service is its law. This is our great covenant to dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another."

Closing words are "May peace dwell within our hearts and understanding in our minds. May courage steel our will and love of truth forever guide us."

Interfaith Blog Event #2: Ethics, Intrinsic or Relative?

Here is the next installment of the monthly interfaith event! Jon, from Jesusfollowers Journal, will be writing from a Protestant Christian perspective, and Mike from Unknowing Mind, will be writing from a Mahayana Buddhist perspective. Our question this month was presented by Jon of Jesusfollowers Journal. The question is:

Is there anything you consider to be intrinsically right or wrong? What grounds do you have for that conclusion? How does the concept of morality impact your everyday life?

Here are the links to the other perspectives:

[Jon's Essay] [Mike's Essay]Direct links will be provided when available

This is a difficult question to answer from the Pagan perspective as each person that you talk to will have a different idea on how to present it. As I am always curious about how people use the definitions of words, I will start with just that – definitions:

Intrinsic – belonging to the essential nature or constitution of a thing

Right – being in accordance with what is just, good, or proper

Wrong – something immoral or unethical

Morality - conformity to ideals of right human conduct

When I first look at the question, my first impression is that this question is asking whether I believe that the concept of good and evil exists and whether it is a part of our core being. Based on the above definitions, I would have to say no. Yes, there can be things that can be considered “bad” and there are things that can be considered “good,” but not because it is part of our essential nature. Our concept of good and evil comes from our system of culture. What determines what is good or bad is due to the environment that we were raised in and our actions and reactions within it.

When I think about it, this perspective has more to do with my education in psychology rather than my religious outlook. Through behavioristic psychology, we learn that behavior is learned by way of reinforcement and punishment. John Locke’s concept of tabula rasa comes to mind when I write this. If we are ‘blank slates’ at birth, then how can we be intrinsically right or wrong (or good or evil)?

Some people disagree that our minds are blank at birth, with no ‘rules’ of how to interact with the world. My recent class in psycholinguistics has shown me that there are things that we are born with, at least in regards to language. One thing that we recently talked about in my class is that, at birth, babies have the ability to distinguish between all language sounds, not just those of their parent’s language. This ability continues until about 8 months of age. The fact that we are born with certain knowledge, as shown by this example of language, still doesn’t suggest to me that we are born with the intrinsic knowledge of good and evil.

The concept of morality is something that is taught to us (abstractly) from an early age and therefore it does seem like it would be considered an intrinsic part of us, but I don’t believe it is. I still think that has more to do to one’s behavioristic training through out life rather being something that we are born with. And religious training is definitely part of learning about the concept of morality as religions have used the concept to regulate behavior throughout history.

Due to my own ‘training’ from my parents, family, friends, teachers, and various others, I would say that the concept of morality impacts my daily life in the way that I am worried about how my actions will effect the lives of those around me. I am well aware that what I find to be ‘good’ someone else may see as having a negative effect and consider it ‘wrong’ with the reverse being true as well. While there are certain things that many cultures would agree that are wrong, I don’t think that there will ever be a total consensus of what is to be considered right and wrong.