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Exploring the Pagan Path: Wisdom From the Elders
Exploring the Pagan Path: Wisdom From the Elders
Exploring the Pagan Path: Wisdom From the Elders
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Exploring the Pagan Path: Wisdom From the Elders

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This book offers you the combined widom of Pagans who have been around for decades. The authors' backgrounds and experiences encompass various Pagan traditions including Witchcraft, Druidry, Norse paths, Shamanism, and more.

Exploring the Pagan Path is the product of selfless work for the benefit of the greater pagan community. Each author has donated the proceeds from this book directly to Ardantane College, a non-profit Pagan educational organization based in New Mexico.

Contributors include: Kristin Madden, Starhawk, Raven Grimassi, Dorothy Morrison, Amber K, Grey Cat, Graham Harvey, Kirk White, M. Macha Nightmare, Azrael Arynn K, Oz, Freya Aswynn, Kerr Cuhulain, Tehom, and Gus diZerega

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 11, 2005
ISBN9781632658272
Exploring the Pagan Path: Wisdom From the Elders
Author

Kristin Madden

Kristin Madden is an author and mother, as well as an environmental chemist and wildlife rehabilitator. She is the Director of Ardantane's School of Shamanic Studies. A Druid and tutor in the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, Kristin is also a member of the Druid College of Healing and is on the Board of Silver Moon Health Services. She has been a freelance writer and editor since 1995. Her work has appeared in Whole Life Times, PARABOLA, and many other publications. Kristin is the author of five books including Mabon: Celebrating the Autumn Equinox and The Book of Shamanic Healing. Kristin was raised in a shamanic home and has had ongoing experience with Eastern and Western mystic paths since 1972. Over more than a decade, she has offered a variety of shamanic and general metaphysical workshops across the United States. Kristin is active in both pagan parenting and pagan homeschooling communities locally and globally. She also served on a Master's Degree thesis committee for a program on the use of visual imagery and parapsychology in therapy with ADD/ADHD children.

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    Exploring the Pagan Path - Kristin Madden

    Preface

    t has been an honor and a joy to craft this book with so many incredible people. Throughout the entire process, I was constantly reminded how wonderful the Pagan community is and how blessed we are to have our elders with us. In fact, when we decided to list all major contributors on the cover, we discussed several standard, linear ways of doing this. Nothing seemed to fit. So, with the exception of me (as editor), we went with a more circular method and drew names from a hat to determine the placement of contributors in our list, as if we all randomly joined each other in a Circle. No one person appears more or less important, no one is a leader or follower; we are all here together to serve you and support Ardantane.

    We would like you to know that all authors freely donated their time and skills to this project. Each and every contributor has graciously agreed that all royalties from the sale of this book will go directly to Ardantane, a Pagan learning center based in the mountains of New Mexico. This is true community, and it says a great deal about the character of these people. All of them are very busy with their own books, travel schedules, families, other jobs, and more. And yet they all came together in the spirit of community to create this book.

    In these pages, you have access to an unparalleled wealth of experience, diversity, and creativity. This book offers you the combined wisdom of Pagans who have been around for decades. Between us, we have probably seen it all. We offer you our backgrounds and experiences in Witchcraft, Druidry, Norse paths, Shamanism, and more. We write from the understanding developed through challenges, joys, successes, and frustrations. Each author is a recognized expert in his or her field and, as I was editing, I found myself in awe of each of them.

    Our intent was to create what most newcomers to Paganism really need and frequently wish for: a mentor—someone who knows the ins and outs and can guide them through sticky spots, teach them the lingo, and help them find other Pagans. We worked and reworked the idea, our chapters, and how it would all go together for nearly two years. The result is Exploring the Pagan Path, and we hope it serves you well.

    Before you move on to the rest of the book, I'd like to speak to the diversity of this book—and to Paganism in general. I think you will find that this book acts not only as a mentor, but also as a microcosm of the community. Because we each write from within our own traditions, you will find unique perspectives in each chapter. Each of us complements each other well, but the flavor of our individual paths may be found in our chapters.

    This is one of the most intriguing aspects of this book. It's almost like sharing a campsite with elders of many different traditions at a festival. You get an insider's view of the unique ways we have of perceiving the world and interacting with the gods, even though we are all Pagan. Conversations would be energetic and lively, but would flow beautifully together as different tributaries of a great river. And eventually, all come together and open into the ocean.

    So keep that in mind as you read on. Each chapter would likely be slightly different if written by someone from another path. It would not contradict nor would it be radically different in most cases. It would just bring through a different perspective.

    Each author focused on writing for the general Pagan community. Where their comments are specific to a particular path, they make that clear. Most of us also share personal experiences with you and are equally clear when we are speaking from our own opinions or choices. These comments are not meant to imply that our choices are the right choices for everyone...they are simply the best ones for us at this time.

    So read on and enjoy! Grab some tea, a coffee, or a glass of wine and relax as you get into it. Imagine that you are sharing a circle of firelight or a sacred grove with us. We are here to guide you and to answer your questions, while we all have fun along the way.

    May your exploration be blessed by all that you hold sacred.

    And may your every action honor yourself, your world, and your gods.

    Kristin Madden,

    editor and contributor for Ardantane

    Chapter 1

    What Is Paganism?

    by Oz

    once read a story about a young man who was given a series of gifts. First was a stone. With this, he was told, you shall learn to love the earth. Next he received a seashell. With this, you shall learn to love the water. Then a lovely moth was placed in his cupped hands, and immediately the moth flew away. With this, you shall learn to love the air. Lastly, he received a small wooden box. Never, ever open this, he was told. With this, you shall learn to love mystery.

    Two thousand years ago, Pagan initiates at Eleusis swore to die rather than reveal the nature of their mystical experiences. This same, sacred unknowable mystery sustains the heart of NeoPaganism today. We seek to revive the essence of the mystery traditions of ancient Greeks, Celts, Egyptians, Siberian Shamans, and myriad other ancestral and indigenous spiritualities. In doing so, we aspire to recapture that inscrutable, mysterious, primal force that inspired our ancestors to evolve and adapt to our unique position as spiritually conscious beings living in the physical world.

    Any attempt to define a true mystery contradicts its inexplicable character. Definition by nature excludes possibilities and imposes limits. Just so, Paganism as a concept defies both definition and limitation, exemplifying the mysteries it sustains. What is NeoPaganism really? Is it a movement, a religion, or a catchall phrase? Is there some one thing a person must be or cannot be in order to be Pagan? A broad and diverse spiritual tradition links the Western cultures. Its ways are like the intricate branches of a giant tree, and its roots complex and intertwined. NeoPagans comprise a new branch grafted onto the ancient central trunk of this tree. Yet each individual NeoPagan, while connected to this network, must come to her or his own sense of what this means, as the true inner mystery gradually unfolds.

    NeoPaganism, the modern revival of Paganism (the term Pagan may refer to any follower of Pagan philosophy—ancient, historical, or modern), is a movement in the sense that it represents a current of living, changing force. It challenges the dominant Western culture's approach to life, seeking the unmasked inspiration that fuels personal spiritual desire. The NeoPagan worldview questions many of the beliefs society hands us—that religion has an objective, one-size-fits-all Truth; that there are rules that can determine right and wrong in every situation; that we require intercessors in the form of teachers, saviors, or priests in order to know God/Goddess intimately.

    Internal questioning or extraordinary encounters might spur you towards NeoPaganism. You might have felt that Nature, or a part of Nature, was alive. Or that you could communicate directly with a non-physical consciousness outside yourself. You may feel as if you remember or sense a different lifestyle or culture, built on values other than those of the predominant world around you. Possibly you have felt yourself shift consciousness while involved in a creative process. Perhaps you feel uncomfortable with the concepts of sin, or the beliefs that define our culture's morality. Some hear these calls as strongly as a siren's song. Others simply awaken to find themselves already participating in the ongoing redefinition of personal spirituality that NeoPaganism generates and demands. However you are called, through whatever provocations, you will find yourself among others who bring life to the pursuit of their own intrinsic connections to the Mysteries.

    Who Are NeoPagans?

    The word pagan comes from the Latin paganus, meaning country-dweller or villager. In medieval Europe, pagan referred to nonurban folk who retained their local customs as Christianity gained converts first among the upper classes. The derogatory terms heathen (literally heath-dweller) and pagan, similar to our country hick, sometimes inferred that these people had no religion. The common usage of Pagan and Heathen evolved to identify those outside the dominant monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, often referring to practitioners of any indigenous earth-based spirituality. Today, Pagan technically encompasses all polytheistic religions and spiritualities, those that worship multiple goddesses and gods, and that tend to honor the living forces of Nature.

    Monotheistic religions generally focus on written or dogmatic teachings, while Paganism more often derives from oral and practical traditions. NeoPaganism, a phenomenon of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, combines ancestral and indigenous spiritualities with individualistic philosophies and ethnic traditions. Like all Pagans, NeoPagans typically honor many deities, both female and male. We worship within the cycles and forces of the natural world, emphasizing personal experience and individual interpretation rather than specified codes of behavior or belief.

    One might say that all our ancestors started out as Pagans—polytheistic worshippers. Monotheism initially took root some 3,500 years ago among early Hebrews and briefly in Egypt. The Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, in the 14th century B.C., temporarily supplanted the many gods of ancient Egypt with his single chosen favorite deity, Aten, or Atun. Persian Zoroastrianism and Mithraism, with emphasis on polarized power and duality, likely influenced the development of monotheism as it grew into Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

    Egyptians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Gauls, Scandinavians, Akkadians, Teutons, Scythians, and Etruscans, among others, each worshipped pantheons of many gods and goddesses. Feminist scholars point to a multitude of prehistoric goddess artifacts and artwork as evidence of even earlier worship of the fertile Mother, indicating that adoration of the personified Earth and natural forces may be a primal human urge. Ancient cultures held their pantheons sacred for millennia, with Shamanic and animistic rites that ultimately evolved into elaborate mystery traditions, such as the Eleusinian, Samothracian, Dionysian, Druidic, and Egyptian.

    During the Dark Ages, Pagans, Witches, Druids, mystery cults, women, homosexuals, Jews, and Shamanic peoples suffered great persecution throughout Europe. The Inquisition brought death to those who resisted or challenged the new monotheism, touted by the proponents of the Roman Church. Pagan traditions survived in secrecy among remote, rural people. What remained of the once great esoteric mystery traditions lived on in the Middle East and in the various occult traditions of alchemists, Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Knights Templar, Hermetics, Gnostics, and other symbolic societies. Thus survived a long lineage of Western esoteric wisdom that, along with European and Mediterranean Shamanic practices, influenced many branches of modern mysteries, including contemporary Wicca, NeoPaganism, occultism, and Ceremonial Magick.

    During these repressive ages, the devil came to life as a Christian personification, composed of an amalgam of pre-Christian Nature deities. The political church, like conquering religions of all ages, demonized the indigenous gods as part of their propaganda regime. Bearing the horns, tails, and other traits of such gods as Lucifer (the light-bearer), Pan (the goat-foot muse), and Cernunnos (the Celtic god of the hunt), this new devil-image identified worship of the old gods with worship of evil. Thus was born the misconstrued myth of devil-worship among Pagans and Heathens. (Today's practitioners of Scandinavian, Norse, Teutonic, and other Northern European Pagan traditions often prefer to refer to themselves as Heathens.)

    Elsewhere in the world, original gods and goddesses thrived. In Africa, Eurasia, North and South America, and the Pacific, indigenous spiritual practices continued until later times. In Asia, the many goddesses and gods of religions such as Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Shinto received constant adorations. Today's NeoPagans often look to such traditional people for inspiration, to help re-create what was lost and destroyed of our own ancestral faiths.

    In 1952, England repealed the last law against Witchcraft. In the United States, the Constitution provided a climate for true religious freedom. The 1960s brought a sweeping spiritual, cultural, and consciousness revolution, catalyzing advances in civil rights, feminism, and environmentalism. During these decades, Paganism slowly reemerged as an active practice, as the numbers of NeoPagans rapidly multiplied throughout the United States and in Europe, Australia, and many other predominately monotheistic Western countries. Some say perhaps up to 300,000 now identify themselves as NeoPagan in the United States alone, but the true number is difficult to calculate. We cannot even estimate the numbers who do not publicly proclaim their Paganism.

    Wiccans or Witches, Goddess worshippers, Druids, Asatru, Strega, Magickians, and numerous diverse followers of revived Greek, African, Italian, Mayan, Neo-Shamanic, and other heritages comprise the many-faceted face of NeoPaganism today. The largest majority follows some variety of Wicca or Witchcraft, although the NeoPagan family ranges widely in types and styles, from eclectic independents to very traditional initiatory schools. The broad NeoPagan label includes Unitarian Universalist Pagans, Discordians (who honor the Goddess Discordia or the Goddess Eris—rulers of all that might, and probably will, go wrong), Techno-Pagans, EcoPagans, and groups that identify as Roman, Lithuanian, Orthodox Egyptian, Neo-Tribal, and Elven. Others, eschewing labels, create eclectic groups that mix formal and free formats, or simply gather for spontaneous drumming or family circles.

    Some NeoPagans join highly structured groups, covens, or groves, a few of which remain secretive. Others strike independent or solitary paths. Still others create unique individualized blends, in some cases inventing traditions whole cloth, inspired by anything from personal visions to science fiction books. Throughout this great diversity, the essential mystery reemerges in myriad expressions. A smorgasbord of choices awaits today's NeoPagan seeker, who may choose to taste or immerse herself in one or many flavors, weaving a personally relevant path that is intellectually stimulating, creatively spirited, sensuously satisfying, or ultimately simple.

    If you are just beginning to explore these NeoPagan pathways, take heart. While the diversity may overwhelm you at first, follow your own inner compass and be aware that you will ultimately arrive at a place that feels right. This book will help introduce you to many of your options, but always remember that if one path feels uncomfortable, a wealth of roads all lead to the place where your own mystical doorways swing open.

    What Do NeoPagans Believe?

    Like all true spiritual paths, this one is a journey of growth, change, and evolution. Finding the course of your own path can mean trying on many hats and many definitions, recognizing that what works now may not be what always works. The spiritual practice requires that you look within, explore, define, and redefine what being Pagan means to you. An ongoing inner dialogue deepens the connection between inner selves, and between self and the Divine. The mystery lies within or, as the Charge of the Goddess states: If that which you seek you find not within, you will never find it without. (The Charge of the Goddess is a liturgical poem used and adapted in many NeoPagan contexts and is originally attributed to Doreen Valiente.)

    NeoPagans do not proselytize. We do not assume ours is either the only true path or the best path for any individual. A well-known British Wiccan Priestess reputedly asked prospective initiates why they chose this path. According to the story, she accepted only those students who answered, I don't know. That inner calling toward the invisible realms behind the outer senses often draws seekers toward NeoPagan spiritualities. Few come to NeoPaganism through conversion. Most speak of finally discovering a place that feels like home, where they fit in among others of like mind. Newcomers to NeoPaganism rarely look to others for their ideals, but rather search for paradigms and communities that fit with their own innate tendencies. Some attribute these internal drives to past lives, karma, or dissatisfaction with traditional religions, although many feel no need to analyze exactly what compels them.

    Choosing to take on the label NeoPagan means consciously aligning yourself with a movement that represents change, that is itself a change in the greater consciousness. This choice says to the world that you stand as a self-identified rebel, willing to walk the road-less-traveled, and willing to combat centuries of misunderstandings and misconceptions. Calling yourself Pagan, NeoPagan, or Heathen means taking a stand for personal and independent beliefs, yet identifies you with a group. As you become one of that group, you assume responsibilities. NeoPagans understand that words and names have great magical power. By accepting the label NeoPagan, you become a representative of NeoPaganism's composite image. You become a collaborator and, hopefully, a supporter of this movement's many joys and growing pains.

    Many NeoPagans consider themselves spiritual rather than religious. However, as in all other philosophical matters, NeoPagans disagree on the specific definitions of spirituality versus religion. We resist the idea of organized or dogmatic religion, and particularly bristle at the idea of hierarchy. Wiccans proudly assert that their path is a religion and deserves due recognition accordingly. Many Wiccan organizations maintain status as legally recognized church groups. Covenant of the Goddess (CoG), a confederation of covens and solitaries who join in their worship of the Goddess and the Old Gods, sends representatives to local, national, and international councils of churches.

    NeoPagans undertake varying depths of devotion, study, and practice. Some prefer to practice intermittently, or move sequentially from one path to the next, while others immerse themselves in spiritual practice as the prime focus of their lives. NeoPagans are not without tradition. While tastes often run toward creativity and invention, many treasure ancient customs and the more measured forms of ritual, worship, and practice. Those looking for more depth might commit themselves to a single path, such as traditional Gardnerian Wicca, Faerie Wicca, Druidry, or the Norse path of Asatru. Others may choose to weave in compatible elements, such as those of Shamanism, Buddhism, Native Americana, Qabbalah, or Sufism. Whether blended or singularly focused, whether spontaneous or ritualized, NeoPaganism hearkens to the root idea of religion, originally re-ligar, or re-link.

    Native Americans have no word for religion, their view of spirituality being inseparable from thought, philosophy, and everyday actions. Holding a similar ideal, NeoPagans seek the numinous connection with the Otherworld that defines true religious experience. It is this transcendence, the active mystery that lies at the heart of all religions—which we often find so unfortunately depleted or diluted in the churches, synagogues, and mosques of today—that draws so many to look for a personal path that feels genuine and alive.

    Theologians and psychologists describe the numinous experience as a moment of spiritual ecstasy, in which an individual undergoes a profound change in consciousness, often accompanied by a sense of nonordinary realities or union with the higher. Fasting, exhaustion, entheogens, passion, sexual ecstasy, and deep trance may bring on or inspire such a state. Although many NeoPagans seek out these peak experiences, perhaps even more common is a shared sense of living in a world that continually borders on the numinous. This means living with a view of reality that colors the entire life—an awareness of living consciousness in every object, and conscious intention behind every occurrence. In this reality, there is no coincidence, and synchronicities offer layers of meaning beyond the mundane and apparent physical world.

    This magical consciousness, or recognition of its possibility, permeates the spheres of NeoPagans. As a child, my grandfather often tried to explain to me why it was so difficult to communicate with the local Native American people he befriended. He tried to explain their completely different way of perceiving the world; how they saw all things through a different lens. I believe that, as a NeoPagan, I now understand something of this quality of being, this perspective through which spirit and humanity live alongside. This comes not from believing that such things are possible, but from living that possibility.

    I recently read a dismissal of the NeoPagan movement, saying that we view the Divine as merely the sum of all the forces of Nature. The broad, deep, rich, and complex NeoPagan worldviews defy such over-simplification. Erudite NeoPagan scholars research and publish intriguing explorations of our polytheistic approaches and convictions. These include discussions of theology and thealogy (the feminine form), such as whether NeoPagans view their divine conceptions as transcendent (outside the self) or immanent (within the self and world). Others consider the differences between NeoPagan pantheism, panentheism, dualism, animism, and philosophical agnosticism.

    Many NeoPagans, however, avoid discussions of belief, preferring to explain their philosophy as they know it, through experience. How can you analyze, for instance, the inner response to a darkening sky that gradually yields to a field of uncountable stars? Or the effect of gazing at length into the face of the full moon from the center of a circle of passionate drummers? Or the feeling that stirs lovers who see God or Goddess in one another? Many NeoPagans find their teachers in Nature, and look to both everyday and extraordinary experiences for their spiritual lessons. Experience rather than faith bonds NeoPagans to one another. While we honor many valid possible intellectual interpretations of spirituality, when we come together to worship, a sense of connectedness to one another and to the natural world takes precedence. In this unspoken shared vision, we recognize and celebrate the unity of spirit between all conscious beings.

    In this worldview, the natural world and the supernatural or invisible realms exist side by side, both equally real. NeoPagans generally see no conflict between science and spirituality, and in fact often find amusement in the disagreements that others observe between the two. Some NeoPagans prefer a simple life, living close to Nature, but many embrace technology and in particular feel at home working with computers and in the otherworld of cyberspace. Most tend to love books, debate, and all kinds of ideas, holding individual opinion as a highly sacred freedom. This makes it virtually impossible to summarize or overly generalize about commonly held views, yet there are basic principles to which the majority ascribes. Keeping in mind that someone will argue almost any statement I could make, I offer here an overview of those precepts I find to be most similar among NeoPagans:

    Divinity is directly and personally accessible.

    We may experience Divinity simultaneously as many manifestations (as many deities) and as one universal force. We recognize many goddesses, many gods, and various other forms of beings of spirit (for example, angels, animal spirits, spirit guides, ancestors, elementals).

    We may experience Divinity both as transcendent (existing independently outside one's own consciousness) and immanent (existing within the self; manifest in creation).

    Divinity is both female and male. We often, but not always, emphasize the female creative aspects, or Goddess(es). Some NeoPagans worship the Goddess only, or primarily. Many honor an equal balance between Goddess(es) and God(s).

    Everything in the universe has consciousness. The Divine lives in Nature. We respect and honor the Earth, Nature, and the cycles of Nature.

    Ethics and morality are not subject to a predetermined set of rules or beliefs, but rather depend on situations, interactions, effects, and personal responsibility. There is no sin per se. Rather than polarizing acts and experiences as absolutely or intrinsically good or evil, NeoPagans tend to conceptualize in terms of balance, growth, healing, joy, love, and evolution, or lack thereof. Emphasis is on harming none, neither the self nor others.

    We accept no dogma, authority, or hierarchy in spirituality. We are here to learn, grow, and evolve through personal choices. We are neither judged nor forgiven by any power beyond that of the natural forces of the universe. NeoPagans as a group have no authority figures, although individual groups may have leaders. There are many respected teachers, authors, and elders.

    We have no personification of evil, so there is no concept of the devil among NeoPagans. As death is necessary for life, so do we tend to honor the dark side of life as necessary for balance and wholeness. Individuals hold very different views about evil and negativity.

    There is no single true path. Many paths lead to the divine, and truth has many forms. We affirm freedom of worship for all.

    Nearly all NeoPagans acknowledge continued existence after death, although ideas about how that manifests vary widely. Most NeoPagans accept some definition of reincarnation, or accept its possibility without necessarily feeling a need to understand exactly what happens after death.

    Worship is a personal, creative, and participatory practice of lifestyle, attitude, and ritual. We embrace music, art, dance, and the savoring of life's pleasures as spiritual expressions, including sexuality, food, drink, and humor.

    We believe in magic or magick, although we disagree on how to spell and define that. Magic usually refers to the practice of using energy and consciousness to create change. Magick often refers to certain traditions of Western Esoterica, whose practitioners often call themselves Ceremonial Magickians.¹ Certain spiritual practices and teachings among NeoPagans and others can be called magic or magick.

    NeoPagans generally harbor a fondness for worshipping outdoors, in Nature, and sometimes worshipping in the natural state, without clothing. Gatherings tend to occur in natural settings whenever possible, and may be clothing-optional when feasible.

    Ethics and Issues Among NeoPagans

    NeoPagans choose lifestyles and philosophies that resist homogenized forms and often lack the stability of constant and clear guidelines or role models. Yet NeoPagans undertake spiritual and ethical questions with earnest sincerity. Some take their morality so seriously that they willingly make blood oaths along with initiation vows. Neither is NeoPaganism pure hedonism, although outsiders often remark at how its enthusiasts embrace the pleasures of physical life with such great abandon. NeoPagans' philosophies about behavior and lifestyle choices compare with those of Taoists and Qabalists, who focus on balance in all aspects of life. The work of the spiritual path is finding and ever realigning this balance, the process of evolution in action. The constant challenge of defining personal ethical standards within an evolving worldview means an ever-fertile ground for spiritual growth.

    Wiccans speak of the Threefold Law, avowing that any act, for good or ill, instigates threefold consequences. The most quoted axiom among NeoPagans today is An Ye Harm None, Do As Ye Will. These two apparently simple statements summarize the core of ethical standards among today's Pagans, but their interpretations can be complex. Constant dialogues that arise require active participation in the definitions, choices, and applications brought about by these principles. This helps to keep NeoPaganism relevant, current, and adaptable.

    On an individual level, most NeoPagans apply teleological ethical standards, deciding whether a choice might be right or wrong depending on the relativistic consequences of any given action. In contrast, most mainstream religions encourage a deontological approach, based on rules and predetermined delineations of right and wrong acts. NeoPagans generally utilize a type of situational ethics, which requires an assessment of outcomes for each event.

    Determining all likely results, however, is seldom an easy task. Most NeoPagans choose what they believe leads toward productive and healthy lives, avoiding harm to anyone or anything—including animals, plants, Mother Earth, and even disincarnate beings. Respect for individual free will frequently overrides other considerations, and most will avoid any acts that interfere with another's personal freedom or rights. In cases of real moral dilemma, such as whether to give life support to someone who may only continue to suffer, NeoPagans generally support the individual's right to choice.

    The guideline An Ye Harm None works fairly well for individuals and especially in one-on-one interactions. Do As Ye Will guides personal decisions effectively when balanced with healthy respect for others' rights. However, as NeoPaganism deals more and more with large group and community issues, these principles become much more difficult to maintain. In the last several decades, most urban areas have seen the rise of communities of NeoPagans. NeoPagan networking organizations might include thousands of members. In addition, gatherings and festivals with hundreds of attendees have become a major feature of the NeoPagan landscape. These factors force new and increasingly challenging issues upon the foundation of NeoPagan ethical thought.

    We now find ourselves frequently forced to weigh the rights of the individual against the rights of the community. While still treasuring personal freedom, organizers and facilitators of larger events must now establish and enforce rules that limit these freedoms. Some want quiet times, while others want all-night drumming. Many want optional nudity, yet some site choices make this illegal. Some want to party, while others want sobriety.

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