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A Personal Theology

Carol T. Kirk

C5141 Introduction to Pagan Theology

Spring 2011

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Introduction:

In looking at the histories of some of the newer mainstream religions such as Christianity and Islam it is apparent that some fifty years following the death of the founders of these faiths a great debate over thetheologies of these religions occurred. Following these debates the theologies of these religions were codified into the belief systems that we see today.

Modern Neo-Pagan religions are now some sixty years oldand we are seeing a similar discussion arising over just what constitutes a Pagan theology. However, thereis an issue present in Neo-Paganism that was not necessary to confront in either Christianity of Islam. In both of these mainstream religions a single set of beliefs was agreed upon which it was expected that all of that religion’s adherents would follow. Neo-Paganism, on the other hand, is not a cohesive whole, but rather a widely divergent set of religions with different cosmologies and differing belief systems. Furthermore, Neo-Paganism tends to hold to the concept that these paths are experiential religions. There tends to be no set dogma as to how a practitioner should view the Divine, or in what they believe. Rather what is important is that the individual encounter and experience their unique form of spirituality. Thus it is possible to have Pagans who

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are polytheists, monotheists and even atheists…even within a specific Neo-Pagan Tradition.

So it seems to me that where one needs to start to develop a theology for Neo-Paganism may well be at the personal level. Only when we are clear on what we personally believe based on our personal experiences can we begin to find the common threads that reach through all of Neo-Paganism and form a universal concept of sorts that we can then present as “What Pagans believe.”

Many of us have not yet thought deeply on this subject,perhaps as the result of having been raised in religions where one is told what to believe rather thanones in which one strives to find their own truths. Mypurpose in writing this paper is to help clarify and express my own personal theology based upon my own experiences of the Divine as well as interactions with other Pagans and various readings on Pagan theology.

My hope is that, if more practicing Pagans will d o likewise, we can then share our beliefs and experiencesin order to help find a commonality which we can then present as representative of Pagan theology when discussing Paganism as a world religion.

My Personal Spiritual Background:

Like many modern Pagans, I was not raised within a Pagan belief system. My family belonged to a Methodist

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church in New England and I regularly attended church with them until I left home to attend high school. High school was a boarding school in Massachusetts which, while not specifically religious in focus, did place a strong emphasis on religion. Daily chapel services and Sunday services were mandatory. Also mandatory were two years of Bible studies and one year of ethics. Although I no longer adhere to the tenets of faith of Christianity, I do believe that some of theethics stressed during this period of my life remain with me today.

After college I entered the Army as a surgical nurse, and shortly thereafter I was sent to Vietnam where I worked in forward surgical hospitals for eighteen months. During this time I encountered true suffering and a daily quota of the dead and dying. As a result Ifound that I questioned the teachings of Christianity with which I had grown up. If God was truly omniscient, omnipotent, and all-loving how could he permit such things to exist? And if he could not stop such things from happening, then were the things that the Church taught nothing but empty phrases? In addition, I began to question some of the Biblical teachings about women and their role in the world. I particularly found the writings of St. Paul to be highly prejudicial towards women and I refused to believe that I was lesser than men in the eyes of God.

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The upshot of this was that I came to believe that the Bible was a set of lies and that God did not exist.

I remained an atheist for over twenty years. Yet I think that even during this time my soul new that therewas a connection that was missing in my life and that left me incomplete in some way.

In 1990 during the buildup to the Gulf War I began to experience increased anxiety as a result of my PTSD andconcern over our involvement in the Gulf. And somewhere in this emotional time I also began to feel drawn towards a spirituality that had not yet shown me what it was. One soft, summer evening I had walked up into our upper meadow and offered a prayer for the safety of our troops. I didn’t even know to whom the prayer was addressed, just that I needed to do it. As I was walking back down the meadow I thought to myself that if I were to believe in anything again it would bein the old Gods and the Divine essence in nature. Immediately there was a sort of cosmic chuckle in my head saying, “Well it took you long enough!”

The very next day I received a catalog in the mail thatlisted some books on Wicca. I had never heard of Wiccabefore, but something told me I needed to read the books. I ordered two of them, and as soon as they cameand I read the first chapter I knew that this resonateddeeply with me on a spiritual level. I began studying and practicing as a solitary.

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A year later I found a Wiccan coven that felt like family and I began to study and practice with them. I later received my 3rd Degree initiation with them. Subsequently my husband and I founded our own coven within this Tradition and ran it for over twelve years before stepping down as Elders. This group emphasized the importance of personal gnosis and experience. Eachmember was encouraged to develop relationships with a God and a Goddess of their choice. While we shared a standard ritual structure there was no set of required beliefs in the nature of the Divine.

Most recently I became an initiate into Gardnerian Wicca. Gardnerians pride themselves on being a “religion without beliefs” in that they acknowledge that the core of Gardnerian spirituality is experiential. Although Gardnerian Wicca formally workswith a God and Goddess (whose names are oath bound) howone understands the nature of the Divine is an individual thing. Thus it is possible to see the Lord and Lady as unique beings, as aspects of a greater whole, as Jungian archetypes, or simply as aspects of the inner mind. To the Gardnerian, what makes one Gardnerian is the shared practice rather than the shared belief. Thus Gardnerian Wicca is said to be orthopraxic rather than orthodoxic.

In my opinion, one’s spiritual quest and the development of one’s personal theology are a life-long

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journey. Along the way we may explore different paths,each with its own distinct beliefs and practices. Yet while each journey of exploration brings with it a new understanding of our relationship to the Divine, we arenever fully untouched by those areas we have previouslytravelled. It is the whole of our encounter with Spirit and the Divine that make up in the end our personal theology.

Cosmology:

One of the first questions that one encounters in exploring a personal theology, or for that matter an established religion, is that of how the Universe came into being. Ancient Pagan mythologies are full of stories as to how this happened, and these stories explain creation based on the understanding of how the Universe functions at the time they were written. The Abrahamic religions present a picture of the Creation process which is likewise at odds with modern scientific knowledge.

When scientific evidence and religious dogma are at odds can one find a way to navigate the razor’s edge into a realm where both are true? I believe that one can.

I believe that the current scientific viewpoint that the Universe was created according to the “Big Bang Theory” is logical and seems to explain the natural

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processes by which the Cosmos operated. Of course the unanswerable question behind this theory is what was there prior to the Big Bang? As the song in the Sound of Music goes, “Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could.” And it is in this “nothing” that lies beyond the Big Bang that I find room for the Divine hand in creation.

I once wrote a Creation myth of my own. It was not meant to be a literal interpretation of the myth of thecreation process, but rather a symbolic story much as the myths of the ancient Pagans. It is also indicativeof how I view the relationship of Deity to that which was created.

And in the beginning was the Goddess. And She lay dreaming in the dark that had neither form nor place. And there was nothing except the Goddess.

And in Her silent sleep there came a dream, and within the dream a thought. And with the dream, and with the thought, a smile appeared uponHer lips. Her eyes opened upon the darkness of the primeval womb and She breathed a sigh for the beauty of the dream.

And the Lady's breath opened the darkness, and the light of Her beauty shown forth where only night had been. And Her breath stirred the winds of space and the suns burst into life, the planets took up their stations, and the wandering comets were born.

And the Lady looked upon the jeweled heavens of Her creation, and She

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danced upon the cosmic winds with the joy of Her dream. And as She danced, another came. Another crowned with horn and blazing like the suns. And They danced and They loved there amongst the stars.

And as They danced, They came upon a certain world, as beautiful as an opal suspended in the velvet blackness. And They breathed upon this priceless gem and Their breath stirred the waters, and the waters brought forth life. And They breathed and the air was filled with birds, the seas with fish, and the land brought forth beasts of every kind.

And the Lord and Lady brought forth mankind in their image, and They breathed the Breath of Life into them. And with the Breath came both Wisdom to know the Gods without and Spirit to know the Gods within.

For the breath of the Goddess that is the Air, is the breath of life itself, and the love of the Goddess made manifest.

Modern science tells us that what we think of as solid matter is an illusion. If we could see below the surface we would see down to the level of atoms. And if we looked even deeper we would see that all is made up of energy, some moving slow enough to seem solid, some moving so fast we cannot comprehend it. Science teaches us that the Big Bang was a tremendous burst of energy and that only later did matter come into being. And science also teaches us that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Could it be that this intangible “energy” is the “breath” of the Divine, that

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it is the Divine presence which is inherent in all aspects of Creation? To me this suggests the possibility that science and spirituality can find a place where they can exist at the same time without conflict.

A further stumbling block in some mainstream religions is the idea that the Earth was created in the exact form in which we see it today. Yet this outlook deniesall of the evidence that shows that life on this planetevolved over millions of years and in many different forms. If we are unwilling to say that the bones of dinosaurs are snares of the Devil meant to challenge our faith, how do we then account for evolution?

One answer to this is the concept of Process Philosophy, a concept that was new to me this semester but which I find rings true to me on a deep spiritual level. Process philosophy states that creation was nota one-time thing, but rather it is an ongoing process in which all aspects of creation form an interconnectedweb of being. It further says that the Divine did not simply set Creation in motion and then step back. Rather on-going creation is a process in which the Divine and all living things become partners in continuing the act of creating. (Christ, 2003, pg 3)

If one applies the concept of Process Philosophy to theTheory of Evolution one sees that there is no conflict.The Divine may have put the process in action when the

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Cosmos was created. But the natural processes inherent in the Universe interact in unique ways to bring forth new things. Science shows us that we are made from the dust of ancient stars. Those stars died billions of years ago, and out of the death of stars new stars were formed, and then planets, and then the Earth with its abundance of life. We live at the juncture of Divine purpose and natural process. And now we have our own role to play in what is to come next upon this place we call home.

I find that my own feelings about Creation and the teachings of Process Philosophy create an understandingfor me about Creation that permits both scientific knowledge and religious belief. I find it also marrieswell with the concept of the Divine being immanent in this world which is part of Wiccan teachings and which I will address further. Thus I personally see no conflict between my spiritual understanding of the nature of the Universe and that expounded by modern science.

Deities:

The concept of Deity in Wicca is complex and rather confusing. One hears that Wiccans worship the Lord andLady, thus implying a single God and single Goddess that is honored. One also hears the Goddess described as Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Yet often when one talks

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to individual Wiccans one hears them speak of working with particular Deities of their choice.

Likewise when talking about polytheistic religions, of which Wicca is one, there are still differing views on the nature of the Gods. One point of view is that there is an unknowable Divine of which all of the various Gods and Goddesses are simply facets of that unknown entity. Thus one hears the statement “All Godsare one God, and all Goddesses one Goddess.” Others will say that the Gods are all unique entities in themselves.

So which is right? To my mind there is truth in all ofthese positions. It again comes back to the concept that Wicca is an experiential religion and that we eachcome to know the Divine in differing ways. It is similar to the tale of the blind men and the elephant. How they perceived the elephant had everything to do with their experience of which part of the elephant they touched.

In my opinion, the titles of Lord and Lady are place-holders for the names of the Gods and Goddesses. In a Gardnerian circle these are specific entities with specific oath-bound names. In a circle in a different Tradition, those names and those entities would likely be different. What is important in the concept of the Lord and Lady is that I am acknowledging my experience

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of the Divine as manifesting as both male and female energies.

What then of the Maiden, Mother, and Crone? Again I see these more as metaphors than as actual Goddess forms. Most Goddesses are far more complex than can beexplained in the characteristics of a single life phase. I see these terms as speaking more of certain energies that permeate our lives and the web of Creation in which we are embedded. The Maiden is inspiration and new life. The Mother is creation and nurturance, and the Crone is wisdom and death.

I also view there as being a fourth face to the Goddess, that which I call the Hag. The Hag is separate from the Crone in that the Crone is still engaged with humanity, while the Hag is the creative/destructive powers of the Cosmos. I wrote thefollowing about the Hag several years ago:

“In Wicca, most speak of the three faces of the Goddess - Maiden, Mother, and Crone. And there are an awful lot of Wiccans who see all of these aspects as loving and benign. None of these Deity-forms would ever do anything that would cause harm to their worshipers, or make someone unhappy, or (Goddess forbid!) cause death and destruction. So when disaster strikes home they have no understanding of its place in the Universe, and their pleasant little Bambi-Wicca comes crashing down around them..leaving them with an empty faith.

Somewhere along the line we have lost or ignored the fourth face of the

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Goddess, and we do so at our peril. I don't know why the idea of the Goddess having a fourth face seems so impossible. After all much of what we do in Wicca utilizes a symbology of fours..four elements, four suits in the Tarot, for cardinal directions, four seasons of the year, four times of theday...everything is in fourths except the Goddess. And take the phases of the Moon, that absolute symbol of the Goddess. We place the Maiden at the New Moon, the Mother at the Full, and the Crone at the third quarter ofthe Waning Moon. So where is the fourth face of the Goddess for balance? Who is represented by the Dark Moon?

In the Tradition in which I trained, we believed that there is a fourth face ofthe Goddess, and we know Her as the Hag. That is not to say that She is oldand ugly, sometimes She has a terrifying beauty. But Her function in this world is that of the destroyer, and often the bringer of death. Yet there is another side to Her as well. For out of that death and destruction comes new life, new beginnings. She is Kali devouring Her husband's entrails even as His penis penetrates and impregnates Her. She is Pele's lava flow that covers fields and villages in its wake..and brings forth new islands out of the sea.

The Hag is not a comfortable Goddess to be around. Her agenda is not thatof the humans that live upon this earth. She has no pity to appeal to when our death is upon us. She does not care that the forces of nature She utilizes wipe thousands from the face of the planet. She did not care when the dinosaurs were extinguished, and She will not care when humans are gone either. That is Her function and her place in the scope of the Universe.

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We are not comfortable with our mortality, yet death is a necessary part of living. If there were no death we would long ago have overwhelmed the resources of this world we live in. We speak of our belief in a spiritual life that does not die..but none of us really know this for an absolute fact. We can only have faith and belief that it is so. And this belief can seem a bit hollow when we watch a loved one die or face death ourselves. And so we fear our physical destruction, we fear the loss, we fear the pain. And all these things are what the Hag promises us.

And because fear is the 'mind killer', we cannot seem to get beyond the Hagas merely the destroyer. We forget that She is also that one who brings life out of death. Her womb is like the Cauldron into which the dead are laid and rise again.

The Hag is not a Goddess one invites to one's monthly rituals. She is not one that gives you a warm feeling inside. But to ignore Her is to ignore the great cycle of life, to close your eyes against fear of the dark. And nothing you can do will make Her go away when it is your time to face Her. Nonetheless, I think we are unwise to ignore Her, to leave Her out of our teachings and to make it seem as though death and disaster are not something that happens in our world. They do happen, and if we don't come to terms with that we will be shattered when our perfect world is broken.

The Hag is our fears, the Hag is the darkness of the grave and of the womb.She is the earthquake, the volcano, the tidal wave, the plague, and the plunging asteroid. And one day She will gather us all in Her terrible arms and carry us gently home.”

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Like most Wiccans, I am a polytheist, meaning that I believe in the existence of many different Deities. I would further identify myself as a hard polytheist, meaning that I view each different God and Goddess as aunique individual in their own right. Odin is not Zeuswith a horned helmet. Nor is The Morrighan the same asSekhmet even if both are associated with both war and kingship.

Yet I also share a belief common to the soft polytheists who believe that all Gods are one God and all Goddesses one Goddess. That is that I believe thatbeyond the Gods and Goddesses of this Earth there is a transcendent and unknowable Divine which is neither male nor female and out of which the Gods and Goddessesare formed. It is this Divine presence that was present at the moment of Creation and which will be there until the Universe is gone…if not beyond.

I would also further define myself as being a henotheist. In other words I offer honor and service to some specific Gods, yet I do not deny the existence of other Gods who are also worthy of reverence. In my opinion, it is this position which would let those of various religions learn to live together more peacefully by acknowledging that the beliefs of one do not negate the beliefs of another.

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Immanence and Transcendence:

The Abrahamic faiths teach that God is fully transcendent and apart from physical Creation. In fact, in both the Abrahamic religions and in some others such as Hinduism, the material world is seen as lesser than the spiritual and something to be avoided or escaped from. This was a belief that did not resonate with me. While there is much that is ugly andpainful in the physical world, there is also much that is so beautiful it takes your breath away. And in thatbeauty I always found a connection to the Divine even as a child.

Wicca and other forms of Paganism also view the Divine as having a transcendent aspect to their being. The unknowable Divine that lies behind the various Gods of this Earth I feel may be fully transcendent. Yet even then I wonder whether that is so. Could it not as wellbe that that Divine essence is immanent in the greater Creation that is the Universe while remaining transcendent on the more local level of the Earth?

Unlike those religions which view the Divine as wholly transcendent, most Neo-Pagans and Wiccans believe that their Gods and Goddesses are also immanent in the world. That means that there is a bit of the Divine within every rock and tree, every stream, every mountain, and every living thing. This does not mean that rocks or water or living things ARE Divine, rather

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it indicates that they partake of the Divine nature. This is the concept of panentheism.

To return to the concept of Process Philosophy, I believe that it is the very immanent nature of the Godswhich keep them involved in the co-creation of the Cosmos. If they were completely apart from the Universe of matter then there would not be any way in which co-creation could occur.

In my opinion, how we view the nature of the Gods as towhether they are transcendent or immanent has an important impact on how we treat others and how we liveon the Earth. The idea of the Divine being wholly transcendent allows us to objectify others and to view the natural world as something to be used to satisfy our own desires. But when we begin to view others as holding within them a spark of the Divine then we find ourselves encouraged to interact with them as if we were interacting with God or Goddess. When Wiccans say“Thou art God or Thou art Goddess” they are recognizingthat we partake of the immanent Divine.

Likewise when we view all of the physical creation thatmakes up the Earth as being imbued with divinity we aremore apt to act in ways that protect and care for the natural world. We come to see ourselves as simply one part of a complex web of life having no more value thanany other part.

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Relationality, Worship, and Devotion:

“To the classical monotheists, Deity is infinite and humans are finite and the only possible relationship between the two is absolute submission of the worshipper to the God”. (Greer, 2005, pg 113) This statement neatly summarizes the way that I felt when I was a Christian, and it is the way that I had heard it presented in Christian teachings. It was perhaps this belief that began to make me start questioning why suchan unequal relationship was a good and healthy one for my spirituality.

Neo-Pagans do not view this same sort of unequal relationship as existing between themselves and their Gods. Certainly in Gardnerian Wicca it is acknowledgedthat our Gods are “small” Gods, tribal Gods. While we may view our Gods and Goddesses as not being either omnipotent or omniscient, we do acknowledge that they have greater power and greater knowledge than humans. They can therefore aid us in many ways.

This view of the nature of the Gods was one more familiar to our Pagan ancestors. They viewed their Deities as having certain realms that they were responsible for. Hera for example presided over the hearth and family, Ma’at over justice, Mars over warfare. They also saw that their Gods had frailties, that they were not all-powerful. And it was seen that

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sometimes the Gods were unable or unwilling to change something to suit their human supplicants.

Yet if the Pagan Gods are not omnipotent nor omniscient, I do view them as being omni-present. Because they are immanent they are able to be contactedby humans and are then able to interact with the physical world to bring about change. One purpose of ritual is to open channels of communication to the God or Goddess in order to bring their attention onto that which we wish them to impact.

Another purpose of ritual is to create a relationship with specific Deities. One of my particular grievances with the practice of some Pagans is that of using Deities as if they were interchangeable components of aspell or ritual. Why would a random Deity feel any obligation to act in such a case? I have always believed that establishing a relationship with a Deity means that you become part of their “family.” To use an analogy of a small child; is the child more apt to get what they need if they go up to a stranger on the street, or if they ask it of their parents?

I see the relationship between the Gods and humans as being like an extended family, whether you view the Gods as Mother/Father, or as big Brother/Sister. The relationship then carries with it an expectation of mutual obligation. Because we have established a

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relationship with them, the Gods are then more open to offering us help when we request it.

This expectation of mutual obligation seems to be another thing which the ancient Pagans understood full well, but which seems to be less understood by modern Pagans. Our ancestors realized that they owed the Godscertain offerings, and that if these offerings were made then the Gods would see that the crops didn’t failor the animals would prosper. The idea of offerings and even moreso of sacrifice has been lost in much of modern Pagan belief.

Part of this, at least in Wiccan circles, is that in the Charge of the Goddess it says “Nor do I demand sacrifice, for behold I am the Mother of All Living, and my love is poured out upon the earth.” This is interpreted to mean that sacrifice is unnecessary. What I believe it is saying is that the Goddess does not demand that we sacrifice to her. But nothing is said about the willing sacrifice, the sacrifice given out of love and devotion. And throughout the myths of many cultures it has been stated that it is the willing sacrifice that the Gods wish from us and which has the most power. Therefore Ipersonally believe in the giving of offerings and include them in my personal practice.

I do not worship my Gods because worship again implies a disparity that leaves me not as a member of a family but as a helpless mendicant at the gate. In the same

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vein I would not “worship” my mother and father. Yet because of who and what they are they are worthy of respect and of honor. For this reason I do not kneel before my Gods, I stand upright as someone who is myself partaking of a portion of the Divine essence.

Theodicy:

If one accepts that the Cosmos is a creation of a Divine essence and we view that Divine essence as beingessentially good then the question arises as to where “evil” comes from. The Abrahamic faiths polarize good and evil and then personify them as God and Satan, where God is perfect good and Satan perfect evil. Evilcame into the world because Satan rebelled against God and then induced mankind to do the same. The problem that I see with this idea is that it absolves human beings of any responsibility for their actions by letting them have the excuse of “The Devil made me do it.”

Since Pagans reject the idea of “Satan” or a “Devil” weare then forced to take a look at evil in a different light.

To begin a discussion of how evil enters the world we need to first define what we mean by evil, and this is not as easy as it seems. Many philosophers and theologians have battled with the concept of defining evil in a way that fits every circumstance. But this

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denies the effect on the perception of what is evil of cultural beliefs and societal norms. As an example, for thousands of years slavery was seen as a normal practice and accepted in many different societies. It is only in relatively recent times that slavery came tobe thought of as evil. And if that is so, then what common practices that we accept as good today will be seen as evil in the future?

Likewise, the definition of evil is often a very personal one and based on how the individual is impacted by the acts in question. As Sir Richard Burton wrote:

“There is no Good, there is no Bad;

These be the whims of mortal Will:

That works me weal that I call ‘good,’

What harms and hurts me I call ill.” (Barrett, 2003, pg 28)

I am of the opinion that the word “evil” is often overused. To my mind there is a magnitude of harmful action necessary in order for something to truly be considered to be evil. The holocaust was evil. A single murder, while harmful and saddening is not necessarily an act of evil.

I am also uncomfortable with applying the term “evil” to natural events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and so on. Natural events such as

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these do not contain any intention of doing harm, nor are they done out of malice. One cannot blame the Earth for acting in ways that are natural processes. Earthquakes happen because of plate tectonics, without which the planet would die. Tsunamis happen because ofdisplacement of water by landslides or earthquakes. Volcanoes erupt when enough magma collects beneath them. All of these are simply part and parcel of the way that Gaia functions and are as natural as breathingis to us.

I place the responsibility for evil in this world squarely on the shoulders of human beings . And my experience has been that most Pagans do the same. Lacking a convenient scapegoat such as Satan, we are forced to look carefully at our choices and at the consequences of those choices. And it is making those choices that we open ourselves up to the possibility ofcommitting evil actions.

The Dalai Lama says that men create evil when they mistake what it is that will make them happy. (Lama, 2002, pg 123) I believe there is much truth in this statement. We all seek to find happiness, but sometimes we do so at the expense of others. Hitler thought to create a better Germany by exterminating theJews and other undesirables. His goal was happiness for the German people, but the result was great evil. When we selfishly look only to our own happiness and

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view others merely as objects that either help us achieve our goal or that impede our wishes then evil can occur. Robin Wood speaks directly to this by saying:

“Anytime you count your will more important than the will of another, you are harming them. Whenever you decide what you want is what you will get no matter what, you are harming someone.” (Barrett, 2003, pg 30)

Another source of evil comes from the fact that evil actions offer a promise of power that can attract the weak. As Eric Hoffer said:

“The lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness. When the weak want to give an impression of strength they hint menacingly at their capacity for evil. It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.” (Barrett, 2003, pg 29)

It is just this feeling of being weak and ignored by those with greater power that led to 9/11 and other acts of terrorism. When we marginalize others, when wedeny them a voice, when we de-value them as human beings we permit evil to creep into the world.

Although Pagans do not have a distinct God of evil suchas the Christian Satan, this does not mean that our Gods are necessarily all-good or all-benevolent. For instance, Odin knows that when Ragnarok comes he must have warriors filling every seat in Valhalla in order to fight the final battle against the Frost Giant. In order to create heroes, Odin therefore foments warfare.

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Another example might be that of Eris who must have known that handing the golden apple to Paris and askinghim to determine which of the Goddesses was most beautiful would end in tragedy. Therefore I believe that it is possible that some evil in the world comes from a Divine source. But even if the Divine sets up the scenario where evil might occur, it still requires the actions of humans to bring it about. And since we have free will we have the ability to choose to do evilor not.

Again that leaves the responsibility for evil in the world squarely in our hands and hearts.

Death and the Dead:

Popular Wiccan literature does not seem to spend much time on the concept of what occurs after life ends. Tosome extent this is understandable. It is neither a subject that most find comfortable to deal with, nor isit a subject which can be spoken of with any degree of authority. Yet Wicca also is built around the concept of the great cycle of life, and one part of that cycle is that of death. So it seems to me that to ignore that part of life is to diminish the totality of the experience of living.

As with any of the Mysteries within Wicca, my personal knowledge about death and the after-life is largely experiential. I cannot say with scientific certainty what happens when bodily functions cease, but I still

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have experienced things in my life that lead me to certain conclusions.

The beginning of understanding what happens after deathis rooted in my conviction that I am more than simply the physical body. To my mind there is also a spiritual essence that is temporarily housed in the body that I now wear. This spiritual essence may be that portion of Divinity that I share with the rest of the Cosmos, or it may be something which is both Divineand human. What is most important is that I believe that this spiritual essence outlives the physical body and partakes of immortality.

In Gardnerian Wicca there is a commonly held belief that we are born, we live, we die, and we are born again. In addition, there is the belief that those we love likewise are reborn and that we will know and lovethem again. I expressed this belief in a poem that I wrote a number of years ago.

Oh, Do not weep for me my Love,I am not dead, but by the Gods transformedOut of this shape that last knew pain and fearInto a thousand miracles.Remember you my gladsome smile?Then see my joy in flowers tossing on the breeze,The twinkle in my eyes a sparkle now upon the dancing waves.They say that we are made from dustThat was a thousand ancient stars.

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And so, perhaps, this frame of mine shall beThe birthplace of some future galaxy,And you the comet to my newborn sun.Bright Partner in the Dance of Life,As sad we part, so shall we Merry Meet again.

The concept of reincarnation appears to be a commonly held belief by many Wiccans. It is a belief which has always held an attraction to me. It never seemed rightthat we had but one opportunity to learn the lessons that life has to teach us and that at the end of that time we earned either eternal bliss or eternal torment.Life is simply too complex and we are all simply too limited in our capacity to be perfect to make this single opportunity seem a fair way of judging our soul’s worth. The idea that we have many lifetimes in which to learn and grow more in tune with the Divine appealed to my sense of fairness.

I became even more convinced of the truth of reincarnation when I was able to undergo several past-life regressions in which I was guided by a well-trained individual. In two of the three past-life regressions that I underwent I was able to confirm the existence of the two individuals that I had been in previous lives, as well as some of the facts that came up during the regressions. To my mind, this ability torecall individuals and events of which I had no

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knowledge certainly suggests powerfully that we live again and again.

If souls are as I believe reincarnated into this world again and again, then the question arises as to where the soul goes during the time between physical manifestations.

In some cases I do believe that the souls of the departed remain close to the physical plane in order tocontinue to aid the living who were important to them in life. Certainly this belief is present in those Pagan paths which include the honoring of the ancestorsor the Mighty Dead. One such spirit that I have interacted with on a number of cases is that of the manI was engaged to who was killed in Vietnam. He has come to me on a number of occasions when I was dealing with flashbacks and PTSD and given me support. And he has said to me that he will not go on until I join him.

In other cases I believe that the soul goes somewhere that is not on this plane. In Wicca this is often referred to as the Summerland. It is a place where thesoul goes to rest and to reflect on the lessons learnedin the previous lifetime. .By whatever name one wishes to call it, this is a place of peace and healing for the soul.

One question that I often hear is that of what happens to someone who does evil during their lifetime. Wicca does not include the belief in a place of eternal

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torment such as Hell. I likewise reject this concept. I do not believe that the Gods wish us to suffer eitherin our lifetime or in death. So to me, even if we are speaking of one such as a Hitler there is no place of punishment awaiting them. Like any other soul they goto a place to reflect on what they did in their life and hopefully to learn new lessons. Then they are given other lifetimes in which to correct their mistakes and grow more in tune with the Divine.

Another question that is heard is that of where souls come from and where do they eventually go. Again the answer is truly that I do not know. But I believe thatthere is a place in which souls are born, perhaps out of the Divine essence from which the Gods are drawn as well. I also believe that when we have lived sufficient lifetimes in which we learn to be more in tune with the Divine we are subsumed back into that Divine essence. We become then a part of the unknowable Divine.

One result of my beliefs is that death no longer holds a particular fear for me. If the soul is truly immortal and born again and again, then death is merelypart of the natural cycle. In fact death becomes a necessary part of life in order to make way for new life.

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Ethics and Justice:

I view ethics as primarily a human creation. They are a way of codifying what we consider right behavior. And as such they are mutable and influenced by our culture and by societal expectations. They are also open to different interpretations depending upon the specific situation in which one finds oneself. Yet I also view ethics as having a connection to my Gods as well. Because I believe that one of the goals of living is to do so in such a way as to increase the Divine presence within me and make me more like the Divine, I am led to try to live my life to reflect thatgoal. Ethics is the way we honor the Divine in ourselves and in others. It is a way of behaving that is at the core of our beliefs and the basis for how we chose to live our lives. You can call it by many names;good manners, the Ten Commandments, The Golden Rule, the Wiccan Rede...all are essentially a way of describing the same thing. Without ethics, civilizationas we know it would cease to exist. Without them, we would lose the connection to the Divine that we treasure.

As a Wiccan my guides to ethical behavior are the Wiccan Rede and the Three-Fold Law. Unlike other religions which contain lists of rules that tell you what you must not do, Wiccan ethical guidelines give usno unbreakable laws, but rather guidelines by which one

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can make decisions about what constitutes right action in any given situation.

Unfortunately both the Wiccan Rede and the Law of Three-Fold return are most often misunderstood and applied in ways that were never intended and this leadsto situations where the rules no longer are effective guidelines to follow. I see the Rede and the Three-Fold Law in quite a different light as I explain in this essay that I wrote over ten years ago.

Let us look at the Wiccan Rede. "An it harm none, do as ye will." It is a simple and elegant rule on the surface. But people tie themselves in all sorts of knots trying to live according to its precepts.

First, and most importantly, the Rede is generally misinterpreted, and from this misinterpretation all sorts of problems arise. Taking all of the archaic language out of the Rede, what it is really saying is that any action which does not cause harm to yourself or to others is OK to do. In most of the Wiccan community, however, this meaning has been stood on its head and stated as any action which MIGHT cause harm to another is not acceptable.These are very, very different rules of ethical behavior. And herein lies the problem; because the second interpretation is impossible to fulfill.

The common misinterpretation of the Rede says we must harm NONE...no exceptions, no excuses...no harm to the Earth, our fellow creatures, the people around us, or to ourselves. Is this possible? No, of course it is not. We are living beings who require the resources of our planet to survive andto maintain ourselves. Unless you have learned a way to live on air and

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sunshine, you must cause the death of other living beings in order to eat. We build our homes out of trees sacrificed to provide us shelter. If we get the job we wanted, it means that someone else did not. By the standard interpretation of the Rede, we should have neither food, nor fuel, no electricity, nor shelter, nor even modern medicines because each of these involves causing harm in some form or another.

By the standard interpretation of the Rede, harming someone in your own self-defense is a violation of the Rede. Yet you would also violate it by allowing harm to come to yourself or to another through your lack of action. No one who is a policeman or a soldier could be a Wiccan as well..at least according to the generally accepted interpretation of the Rede; yet both are necessary for our society to survive. Is this reasonable?

When we first come to the Wiccan path and we are taught the usual interpretation of the Rede, it sounds so simple and clear-cut. And then we start seeing the inconsistencies...and we start rationalizing to make the Rede fit situation it was never meant to fit. We may begin to say that the Rede only applies within a cast circle or in regards to magical workings. Or perhaps we come to look at the Rede as a quaint piece of doggerel which really is meaningless. And when we do that, we leave ourselves without an ethical framework on which to build our beliefs on right living.

So, let us go back to the first interpretation; that any action which does not cause harm is OK to do. That is simple, straightforward, and fairly easy to live by.

But what about actions that may cause harm? The Rede says nothing of

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these. It leaves us to make the judgment on our own as to whether we wantto pursue a course of action or not. What this involves is considering each decision you make very carefully before you commit yourself to a course of action. You do this by looking at all the possible consequences of that action and whether that will cause harm to any, choosing the path that causes the least harm and (THIS IS THE KEY) accepting the responsibility forthe consequences of your actions whether intentional or unintentional. That is what our religion is all about PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. You can't stand before the Gods saying, "I didn't mean...", or "I didn't think...", or "theDevil made me do it"...it won't wash! Your answer MUST BE, "I chose to do this”. And if you did it, it's all yours to deal with. OUCH! That can be pretty uncomfortable to face up to. We all like to shift the blame away from ourselves. But taking the difficult path is the way to spiritual growth.

And here is another hard pill to swallow. If you take a course of action which you felt initially (or which you managed to convince yourself) would not cause any harm...and harm does come of it, you are still responsible for the consequences. Part of that responsibility then becomes trying to make right the harm which you inadvertently caused. We all make mistakes, we are after all only human. But being willing to acknowledge our mistakes and repair the harm we caused brings us closer to becoming one with the Divine.

We are also taught early in our spiritual journey as Wiccans about the Three-Fold Law, that whatever we do for good or ill returns to us three-fold.. And again it becomes a concept rife with misunderstanding and misinterpretations. We behave because we are afraid of being smacked with the Karmic paddle. Being good little Witches because we fear

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punishment if we break the rules does not make ethical beings, just clever ones. There is no Karmic scorekeeper out there keeping a list of who's been naughty or nice. There is no Divine retribution, or something like the Christian Hell for violations on the Rede. What the Three-Fold Law is telling us is choices of action have consequences for which we alone are responsible. And if our choices are consistently negative or harmful towards others, then the energy which tends to return to us will also be negative and harmful. To live our lives full of anger, guilt, and negative thoughts can lead to both physical and mental illness right here in this lifetime. In effect, we become the tools of our own Karma. The Three-Fold Law tells us that our actions affect us physically, emotionally and spiritually. So, what kind of energy would you like to wake up and find on your doorstep one morning??

Ours is a religion of personal responsibility, not a religion if rules and strictures. This is both a liberating and an extremely difficult path to follow.The biggest obstacle to living rightly is ourselves. For man is not so much a rational being as a rationalizing being. We are often apt to confuse WANT with NEED. We mistake that which will bring us happiness. We pretend thata course of action will not bring any harm, when we truly know otherwise. And out of these wrong choices we cause great harm and evil in the world. In other faiths you might chuckle to think that you broke a rule and no one saw. You might feel that you had successfully gotten away with something, or you might have managed to make excuses, to put the blame on someone else. Wicca does not allow you that freedom. In Wicca, you and only you are responsible for your choices. And you, and only you will stand before the Gods to make answer for your deeds.

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As a Wiccan I must also look at a specific subset of ethics which is not addressed in most writings on the topic. Here I am talking about magical ethics. Wiccans engage in the practice of witchcraft, using spells and rituals to try to shape the Universe in sucha way that what we desire comes to pass. Such power should never be approached lightly or engaged in without thought to the possible consequences of our actions.

As Judy Harrow writes; “Every act of magic has two effects. One is the direct effect, the healing or prosperity working or whatever was intended. The other is a minute change in the mind and the heart of the person who does the working. Everything we experience, and especially everything that we do in a wholehearted and focused way - the only way effective magic can be done - changes us. Each experience leaves its tiny trace, but the traces are cumulative. They mold the person we will become. Our karma is our choice” (Harrow, Only if none be harmed: getting specificabout magical ethics, 2000)

Thus I approach magical ethics in the same way that I approach ethics in any other area of my life. I first consider whether my action will cause harm. If it doesnot then I am free to cast that spell or perform that ritual. If there is the potential that harm may occur then I need to be thinking about alternative ways to approach my goal that either will not cause harm, or that will minimize the harm I cause. My standard rule of thumb is that if the potential action is not one

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that I would consider ethical if done mundanely, then it is not ethical to do it magically either.

Living ethically can be a very difficult thing to do. It is so much more than simply obeying the laws of society. In fact sometimes living ethically means thatone has to challenge those laws. To live ethically requires always listening to the voice of the Divine inside of one. It means learning to be totally honest with oneself about the motives behind our actions. Andit means taking personal responsibility for our choicesof action and for the consequences of those actions whether anticipated or not.

I find that my personal concept of ethics is well-expressed in the following:

I am a bold and Pagan soul, a'rattling through this landI judge the world by my own lights and I come by my own handAnd if you ask me how I learned to live so recklesslyMy skin, my bones, my heretic heart are my authority.” (Harrow, An it harm none; best choice ethics, 2000)

Summary:

Being Wiccan is a challenge to explore one’s ownspirituality. Since traditional Wicca does not consist of a dogmatic set of specific beliefs about the nature of the Divine, about what constitutes right action, or on any other areas

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of theological questioning, one is left to search one’s own heart for what resonates with each individual. Each person encounters the Mysteries for themselves and in those encountersthey come to a personal understanding of theology that to me is more genuine than any theology formulated by a specified dogma. The risk however is that those who come to Wicca from religions in which specific beliefs are handed down from Church teachings may find themselves confused and lost by the lack of specified guidance they receive. Or they may choose to accept beliefs suggested in the latestWicca 101 books and fail to seek the Mysteries for themselves.

Our lack of a specific set of teachings and beliefs also makes it difficult to present ourselves in the arena of comparative theology and often suggests to theologians of other faiths that we are not truly a religion at all. Somehow we need to be able to find a balance between the experiential nature of our personal beliefs and an understanding of our collective viewpoints regarding central questions of

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theology so that we can begin to engage in interfaith dialogue And I believe that the beginning of that journey is in the understanding of what the individual believes tobe true.

Bibliography

Barrett, E. (2003, November). Sword without a hilt: exploring the nature of evil. Pan Gaia , p. 28.

Christ, C. P. (2003). She who changes. Palgrave MacMillan:New York, NY.

Greer, J. M. (2005). A world full of Gods. Tuscon, AZ: ADF Publishing.

Harrow, J. (2000, March 8). An it harm none; best choice ethics. Retrieved April 6, 2011, from Proteus Coven Library: http://www.proteuscoven.org/proteus/Hichoice.htm

Harrow, J. (2000, March 8). Do what ye will: best choice ethics. Retrieved April 6, 2011, from Proteus Coven Library: http://www.proteuscoven.org/proteus/Values.htm

Harrow, J. (2000, March 8). Only if none be harmed: getting specific about magical ethics. Retrieved April 6, 2011, from Proteus Coven Library: http://www.proteuscoven.org/proteus/noharm.htm

Lama, The Dalai (2002). Ethics for the new millennium. New York, NY: Riverhead Trade.

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Paper, J. (2005). The deities are many: a polytheistic theology. NewYork, NY: State University of New York Press.

Starhawk. (1999). The Spiral Dance. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

York, M. (2005). Pagan theology: Paganism as a world religion. NewYork, NY: NYU Press.