Pax declared June to be “Pagan Values Blogging Month,” as I’m sure anyone who actually reads this blog has noticed by now. The end of June draws near and I still haven’t said anything about it, so I suppose it’s time. I’ll get back to the tattoo next time.
I’ve read all sorts of posts on the topic of varying levels of quality. Some simply engage cheerfully and eagerly with some particular aspect of a values system without reflecting much on how or why such a value is “pagan.” Some of these are quite good for what they are, but I feel like there’s a big glaring hole in such an approach. Others address the thornier problem of defining what makes a value “pagan” or not, and have come up with various answers. I was ready to just steer clear of the whole thing because I’m not sure what a “pagan value” is either and I’m not sure I’m up to wrestling with it. But “it’s hard!” is not a good enough reason to not do something (there’s one of my values, I guess) so I have to give it a shot.
I think Kullervo hit the nail on the head in his post when he talks about the common human practice of taking what we are doing anyway and applying a values system to it in a retroactive way. We do what we do, and then we come up with a system to call the things we do “moral.” Or we take a system that already exists and bend it around ourselves so that we don’t have to change much and or be challenged – we avoid any friction between “the stuff that we want to do” and “the stuff that we should do.” That’s true of everyone; it’s not just a Pagan failing.
You have to be something of a rebel to come to this path. No matter how accepting your family, friends and neighbors might be, the fact is that you have to be willing to be an oddball to do this. It’s a little bit dangerous (or a lot, depending on where you live) and it takes courage and self-determination to follow this path. One thing almost all of us share is a strong feeling that this path is the correct one, and we all have to deal with institutional voices that tell us that our path is wrong. We have to be willing and determined to listen to that inner voice and follow our heart to what’s right. The darker side of that, of course, is self-indulgence, and self-determination/self-indulgence is the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of our community.
It’s no wonder, then, that we have a hard time coming to a common understanding of “pagan values.” If self-determination is a defining characteristic, then no outwardly-imposed system of values will stick if the inner leading disagrees with it; if self-indulgence is as well, then nothing that is inconvenient or difficult will stand a chance.
Aleister Crowley said “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” and I think he was really onto something there. It got watered down a bit in the Rede with the “an it harm none” bit – I think they should have stuck with “the whole of the Law” because everyone gets bogged down on that part and the significance of “do as you will” gets skimmed over or lost, and “an it harm none” takes away the real force of “do as you will”. Do what thou wilt – now there’s a challenging value, if you’re willing to actually engage with it. As far as I can tell, Crowley’s dictum is the basic Pagan value that we all follow. It has to be, because we can only get here by following that will – there’s no one else to tell us to do this. There’s nothing else to compel us, ultimately, but our own will to do so.
Druid's Apprentice 
June 26, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I think a lot of people get stuck on Crowley’s bit because they don’t really understand it. It took you and Mr. Nettle explaining Will for me to think of it other than an excuse for a villain to do what he wanted. 🙂 I believe I understand it more now, but I agree that self-indulgence combined with that Law is probably A Bad Thing.
I also have difficulty with the idea of Pagan Values for many of the same reasons you have. What makes independent thinking a ‘pagan’ value? It’s like herding cats. Your values will probably not be the same as mine. You are pagan, I am pagan… which one of us has the name rights? 😉
I think that my values would go roughly thus: (it’s hard to articulate and they are geared precisely for me. Take what you want from them.)
1) Follow your own damn path, but thoughtfully. Make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons, and no guilt, need for attention, obligation, or fear. Dammit.
2) If it costs you little or nothing, do small goodnesses when you can. It doesn’t screw the Balance, and there’s enough bad crap out there to soak it anyway. This ain’t Recluce.
3) If you have to do something hard, unkind, potentially cruel – do it quickly, cleanly, kindly, and with as much love in your heart as you can muster. You don’t have Anubis’ Scales, but it’s okay for you to stop bad things happening in your life.
4) Model the kind of behavior you want to see. Nice does matter. Manners matter.
These are the sets of rules I choose to follow because I like the way they feel and I think they accomplish what I think should happen. Mostly, anyway. 🙂
June 26, 2009 at 10:16 pm
When I sat down to write this post, I started by making a list of “my rules” and they were pretty much the same as yours. Be kind unless it’s necessary to be unkind, and then make it quick and clean. Be a person that you want to love. Be honest unless honesty is needlessly unkind. Follow your own damn path (I like your Rule 1 a lot) I didn’t put those in the post because they don’t really apply to the topic, but I bet a lot of us would come up with a similar set. And my reasons are pretty much the same as yours – these are rules that work; I’ve violated them all at one point or another and violating them feels terrible, so it’s better to just go along with it.
Somehow in this post, a whole paragraph got lost before the last one. It made more sense with that paragraph in, but it’s too late right now for me to bother to go hunting for it and put it back. As long as everyone gets what I’m saying, it’s OK with me.
June 29, 2009 at 2:53 pm
There is much to comment here, but I’ll stick to “Hmm, interesting”. I never thought about this topic in the terms you describe, but it makes total sense.
It’s like that zen-esque query about martial arts. Once you get awesome enough to kick ass, you don’t want to anymore. So, “Do what thou wilt” is intrinsically self-benefiting. If you really truly feel driven to do something and it’s allied with your True Will, then the result can -only- be positive.
interesting indeed…
July 1, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Very interesting and very thoughtful. Personally I decided to be flip about “Pagan Values Month” because personal standards of morality and behavior should be independent of spiritual path. In other words, if you change religions, do you also change the way you treat other people?
I agree with you about the “an thou harm none” clause. It is impossible to implement. Buying a magazine kills trees. Eating a carrot harms the carrot. Keeping a cat harms mice. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the Bible’s Golden Rule. It’s good advice, definitely a baby that needn’t be thrown out with the bath water.