Isaac Bonewits Neo-Pagan Ethics and Theology

This video is from an interview done in 2002 as part of a 10 year anthropological study.

Integrity

 T. Thorn Coyle recently posted a Youtube video on the topic of Integrity.  This video is from her teaching series Fiat Lux, as well as her work in Kissing The Limitless.

 

The Delphic Maxims Blogging Party

Earlier this year Star Foster at the Patheos Pagan Channel started blogging about the Delphic Maxims, and has inspired a spontatneous Blog Party on that worthy topic with a number of bloggers participating.  There were a few shares on this on the 2012 Pagan Values Event Facebook Page and Thalassa at Musings of a Kitchen Witch has a great summary post of who is participating so far!

What sources of inspiration, what texts, what lore, speaks to and inspires your quest for excellence in your Pagan path?

Living Our Values

The recent post The Work of a Witch,  by Witch and fabulously well written and eloquent blogger Hecate Demeter is well worth reading.  In it she discusses her plans for spending a week with her grandson, and of not only living her values as a Witch but sharing them with her grandson…

“Is this the work of a Witch? Yes. Yes, it is. When I was raising Son, I was doing the work of Demeter, the work of THE MOTHER. And, now, I am doing the work of Baba Yaga, the work of THE CRONE.

What I’m passing on is the joy of simple pleasures outside. The love of place. History. Physical strength. A memory of a time when everything was OK and blue jays showed up for breakfast.”~Hecate Demeter (C) 2012

Hecate’s entire blog is well worth reading, not only for its excellence in writing, but for a wonderful example of a Pagan and Witch who is living her values day in and day out, who wrestles with the questions raised by her faith and path and who is willing to share the lessons she’s learned with others.

Compassion

So there is a fascinating discussion of Compassion and boundaries and relationship entitled The Problem of the Pagan ‘Us and Them’ going on over at Bishop in The Grove over on the Patheos Pagan Portal.

That post, and the discussion, are informed by a previous post by Theo  Teo Bishop on Where Does Compassion Belong Among Pagans and Polytheists,  and a responding post by Steven T. Abell entitled Compassion in Cold Climates, both very much worth reading.

At the same time, or at least recently, a new study was released that showed that this virtue seems to show up as a reason for doing good more with non-religious folks than for religious folks… although I have to say the scope of the study seems relatively small given the methodology… I’d love to see more studies on this topic.

Does anyone have any other readings, articles, or thoughts to share on the topic of Compassion in Contemporary Paganism?

 

(edited to corect Teo Bishop’s name, and with my compliments and apologies to the gentleman.)

Pagan Values event 2012

Welcome to the 2012 Pagan Values event.

Started as a blog carnival in 2009 and expanded into an open event for bloggers and podcasters in 2010, this event lasts the month of June and provides a bully pulpit for Pagans and Polytheists and many others to speak about our Values.  In a world where our many faiths and paths are often held up for ridicule or as straw dogs of evil for Fundamentalists, it would be easy to remain silent; especially as articulating our values and how we act upon them challenges the Fundamentalist’s claim of ownership over all Values and Virtues, and can attract unwanted attention from them

However, in not articulating these things we also miss out on the friendships and connections that can arise with like-minded folks of many Faiths and Paths.  We miss out on the opportunity to speak the Truth of who we are and what we do.  We miss the chance to perhaps bring some much needed change and inspiration to a world in need.

What are the Ethics, the Virtues, and Values that Contemporary Paganism has taught you to cherish, to live, to bring with you in your every interaction with the world?  What do you do, inspired by these values?  What adventures, or misadventures, has your Paganism and the Values and Virtues and Ethics it has inspired led you too?  What and who have you encountered on your spiritual and moral journey as a Pagan?  How have you acted upon these Values.  What have you done inspired by these Virtues?  What wrestling matches have you had when these Ethics encountered the real world?

Write of these things on your blogs, speak of them on your podcasts, share the links with me either here in the comments section of this blog post, or on the Facebook page for the 2012 event.

Thank you,

Pax / Geoffrey Stewart

Note: until July 1st this post will be stuck to the front page of the Pagan Values Blogject…

Perserverance, Compassion, and Courage….

Neo-Pagan Elder and Activist Starhawk demonstrates walking ones talk and the Virtues of today’s title in her post “Return to Oakland“.

Full Engagement

Teo Bishop, over at Bishop in the Grove offers a brief musing on the Pagan Value of being present in the world and on the complexities at play in modern life and adulthood.

Wrestling with Pride and Questions and where did the bloger/editor go?

So it is surprisingly difficult to write out the interplay between Pride as a virtue and Pagan Pride… I am attending a Pagan Pride event tomorrow and marching in the Orlando LGBT Pride parade…  and will be trying to coordinate my notes and thoughts into something coherent in the next week or so… I’ve unpacked a lot of questions…

How do we engage and manifest our Pride in contemporary Paganisms ancient heritage?  The values and virtues and ethics and philosophy and wisdom and love of science, the history and the art.

Are the ways in which the differences between Pagan Pride and Gay Pride are manifested signposts for our future development?

How does Pagan Pride manifest itself the rest of the year?

… these are a few of the questions I’ve been wrestling with and wondering about in the last month or so.  I’ve also been trying to post ~something~ each day at my personal/mainblog Chrysalis… to jump start my writing and creativity after a long and difficult Summer.  In the meantime I WILL be posting more regularly here… I suspect many of the posts will be links and excerpts with some sort essays and questions for discussion.

Thank you,

Pax / Geoffrey Stewart

Pagan Values & Pagan Pride

Dear Friends,

September and October mark the time of year when Contemporary Pagans celebrate Pagan Pride, either as affiliates of the Pagan Pride Project or in independant festivals.  This year, a discussion about how to frame these events both for ourselves and with others, has led your Pagan Values Month host and ocassional blogger from here and there, to wonder about Pride…

“Pride is an inward directed (feeling) emotion that exemplifies either an inflated sense of one’s personal status or the specific, mostly-positive emotion that is a product of praise or independent self-reflection. Philosophers and social psychologists have noted that pride is a complex secondary emotion which requires the development of a sense of self and the mastery of relevant conceptual distinctions (e.g., that pride is distinct from happiness and joy) through language-based interaction with others.^[1] Some social psychologists identify it as linked to a signal of high social status.^[2] One definition of pride in the first sense comes from St. Augustine: “the love of one’s own excellence”.^[3] In this sense, the opposite of pride is either humility or guilt; the latter in particular being a sense of one’s own failure in contrast to Augustine’s notion of excellence.

Pride is sometimes viewed as excessive or as a vice, sometimes as proper or as a virtue. While some philosophers such as Aristotle (and George Bernard Shaw) consider pride a profound virtue, most world religions consider it a sin, such as the Old Testament of the Bible used by Christians and Jews, in Proverbs 11:2.”

~From Wikipedia entry on Pride, 10:50am 9/01/11

I find it interesting that Aristotle is mentioned as having thought Pride a Virtue, although given the general emphasis upon Excellence in Ancient Greek culture I don’t find it to surprising as a proper Pride in ones accomplishments would be understandable – as long as one avoided the dreaded hubris!

But if Pride is a Virtue, that begs the question…

“What are we proud of?”

What in our Pagan communities, what in our past, what activities and initiatives in the present, what makes us proud.  What are we doing for the future that fills us with Pride?  I hope you will join me in exploring these issues, dear Pagani.

Peace,

Pax

PS- if you feel moved to post or podcast your own thoughts on this topic, feel free to comment on this post and link to your own thoughts on the matter!