Pagan absolute


Freedom to move into the experience

Over at my mainstream blog in this entry I said that there aren't very many absolutes in Pagan faiths.

Some will trot out the Wiccan Rede, only to back off when others point out that not everyone follows the Rede or even is Wiccan. An Asatru heathen would laugh in your face if you told them to "harm none."

Some of this gets into the definition of Pagan. Traditional Native Americans aren't exactly members of the Big Three, and they are about as Earth centered as you can get. By this definition, they are Pagan.

But I had something different in mind. To me, it comes down to the difference between an experienced faith and a revealed one. I happen to believe that is one of the fundamental dichotomies in faith. You can live your faith or you can be told your faith, but you can't do both at the same time.

In a revealed faith, you are a spectator. Your faith is shaped by the words on a page or the speech of a priest. There is always an intermediary between you and the Divine. Sometimes practicing a revealed faith can prepare you for an experienced one.

Early Christians called the understanding gained by personal experience gnosis. In my own studies, I've borrowed that term. That moment of frisson from Divine touch can't really be described. It leaves it's mark. It's the difference between supermarket vegetables and raising a garden. It's the dirt under the nails, the smell of fertilizer and sun-drenched plants, the feel of hardpack giving way to tilled soil. It is not even the things that tickle the senses, it is the perception of the things that tickle your senses.

I'm probably old fashioned, but I don't think that Paganism translates well into a spectator sport. I believe ultimately it is about you and the Gods and how you honor those Gods. That demands responsibility and accountability.

When you learn something, you're given rules, guidelines to use. It doesn't matter if it is driving a car, baking a loaf of bread, or setting a broken leg. There is a procedure, something that you can use.

Later as you practice more, the rules become ingrained. You don't have to think about each step, you can do it and adjust as needed.

But there is another step. That is when you have mastered the steps well enough to pick your path make your own way.

The absolute is that the next step is open ended and undefined. It's your choice and your responsibility.

Posted: Thu - December 7, 2006 at 04:56 AM
 ◊ 
 ◊  ◊  ◊  ◊ 

Random selections from NeoWayland's library


Technopagan Yearnings
© 2005 - 2010   All Rights Reserved