Pagan Federation Blog

Much has been made recently of the latest guidance document released by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (not, as some media organs have suggested, the European Court of Human Rights ECHR) concerning Religion or Belief in the workplace- ‘Religion or belief in the workplace: a guide for employers following recent European Court of Human Rights judgments’. The document can be downloaded here: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/guidance-for-employers/religion-or-belief-new-guidance-february-2013/
Popular media commentary has focused on a notion that the guidance insists that Druids, Pagans Vegans and Vegetarians are now entitled to special privileges such as time off for festivals and reason to avoid having to clean out fridges that contain meat products. These ‘special privileges’ are identified by the media as loony, wrong and a step too far.
Putting aside the inaccuracy of identifying the guidance document as enabling ‘special privileges’, I feel drawn to comment on what appears to be an issue felt by the media with the concept of equality. In the wake of the Leveson enquiry, I have to wonder if any lessons have been learned by a media that clearly felt it was above the law in pursuing and presenting a story. The latest outbursts from our media, in targeting Pagans, Druids, Vegans and Vegetarians as the main thrust of their ‘outrage’ , seem to be of the opinion that a) those groups should not have equal rights in the workplace and b) are fair game for grabbing the headlines. The Leveson enquiry indicated that there were concerns with unethical behaviour in the media. These media outbursts seem to confirm that and to suggest that the media does not feel an ethical approach to presenting ‘information’ is something that should concern them. ‘All animals are equal unless you are a journalist, in which case you are more equal than others’ seems to be the attitude. How the media hopes to convince us that they should be self-regulating is beyond me.
But getting back to the document that has so animated the media- The title of the document should give the first lie to the media outrage. Religion or belief in the workplace: A Guide for employers following recent European Court of Human Rights judgements. So, this document seeks to help employers understand the implications of judgements made in the European Court of Human Rights with regard to region or belief. That would imply it isn’t intended to dictate, but to guide. You would think journalists would understand the difference between ‘dictate’ and ‘guide’, as they make a living choosing language appropriate to deliver the news of the day. You would also think that they may be able to make a distinction between the European court of human rights (especially as they had already reported on those judgements by the ECHR) in the past and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Perhaps they were confused by the reference to one organisation by another.
The document itself suggests:
This good practice guide aims to help employers understand how to comply with the Court’s judgment when recognising and managing the expression of religion or belief in the workplace. It specifically addresses the following questions:
• How will an employer know if a religion or belief is genuine?
• What kind of religion or belief requests will an employer need to consider?
• What steps should an employer take to deal with a request?
• What questions should employers ask to ensure their approach to a religion or belief request is justified?
• Do employees now have a right to promote their particular religion or belief when at work?
• Can employees refrain from work duties?
And goes on to provide some examples of requests and how employers might deal with them.
The very next paragraph of the document states:
The Equality and Human Rights Commission supports individuals’ right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and to conditional protection of the right to express religion or belief. It seeks to promote a balanced approach to recognising and managing religion or belief issues at work and to help employers and employees find reasonable solutions, wherever possible, and avoid complex, costly and damaging litigation. It is in the interests of all parties to try to find reasonable solutions through discussion, mutual respect and, where practical, mutual accommodation.
To me, that seems to suggest that the remaining sections of the document are likely to indicate ways to ensure that employees are entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and that a conditional right to express religion or belief in the workplace exists. That conditional part seems important in that the document refers to seeking to promote a ‘balanced approach to recognising and managing religion or belief issues at work and to help employers and employees find reasonable solutions wherever possible…’
Ok, so maybe it is just me completely failing to understand this document and the media have the right of the matter. I have to be honest and say I am not in the slightest bit convinced that is the case. My feeling is that this is another case of the media picking up on some news and twisting it to create sensationalism. However, in doing so, I feel they are throwing into question the entire concept of employees having rights…. Except, perhaps for journalists. ‘Four legs good. Two legs bad’ indeed!

By Mike Stygal

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by S. Ceanadach

Over the last three months I have been working for at least one day a week at a place that produces the spoken word for the blind. It’s called ‘Cue and Review’ and has its studios in Bishopbrigs, Glasgow, UK. It turned out that although quite a lot was being done for adults, there was no children’s material, no children’s stories available so I sat down and began to write some.

Other members of the community, Pagan mostly have also sent me stories and either me or one of the actors from the studios have been reading and recording the stories.
We have no idea how many people have found the stories, or who listen to them but we carry on. There are up to 2000 wireless sets that can receive the service here alone.
As this is a charity which works for Wireless for the Blind in Britain, we think it’s a good idea to produce these stories and make them available to anyone with children, to play at bedtime perhaps or simply to sit and listen while having a quieter moment.

I’d welcome any new stories for the children, so if any of the writers out there would like to ‘gift’ a short story for the blind that would be wonderful. And perhaps we can put them together and raise some money for the charity?

Some of the stories can be listened to via my website:- www.foxyandcinders.co.uk

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I have often been asked the question down through the good few years that I have been a member of the PF.

The question varies in construction but it’s normally something along the lines of “what is the benefit of PF membership”.  That is a fair enough question in this day and age when there are so very many other Pagan organisations around and many that don’t even charge you a penny.

Well as I see it there are two kinds of benefits to membership of the PF.  Firstly, there are the obvious concrete, stated in the Constitution benefits of membership:

a.)             As a member you get a subscription to the house magazine of the PF (Pagan Dawn at this time), you get the Green Pages, you get your District Newsletter (if your District has one) and you get reduced rates of access at PF events.

b.)             As a member you can become a regional co-ordinator or local co-ordinator and help run the PF.

c.)              After a years membership you are eligible to stand for Committee and vote in the Committee Elections.

Now that is all well and good, five minutes reading PF’s constitution will reveal these to you with little delay.  I have always felt that this is not entirely good enough.

It is fine and dandy to be part of a group of like minded people, it’s always nice to receive a good quality magazine and it’s great to be able to join in and help to run a group that is made up of people that have similar beliefs to you – but is that reason enough on it’s own to become or stay a member of the PF?

Many might well suggest that it is not.  Fortunately there is a second set of benefits to membership of the PF. These are the less concrete benefits of joining and continuing to support the PF. Ones that PF is not as great at shouting about as it should be, ones that you need appreciate are just as real as the main reasons I’ve detailed above:

a.)             You are supporting an organisation that stands up for Pagan rights where they are threatened.  Fair enough we may not do this in as aggressive and proactive a manner as members might like – but it is done in a calm professional manner and because PF has been around so long we are taken seriously and not seen as a bunch of kooks!

b.)             You are supporting an organisation that provides chaplaincy services to the Prison services and is recognised (due to the hard work and continuing professionalism of our chaplains) as the representative body for the Pagan faiths.

c.)              You are supporting an organisation that provides hospital visiting.  Attending to Pagans who want a spiritual friend in their hour of need.

d.)             You are supporting an organisation that supports interfaith work across the pagan faiths and presses for membership of the national body in a fair and professional manner.

e.)             You are a member of a group that give you contact with other Pagans in your local area.  Through our District structure or District Managers and Regional Co-ordinators, we can put you in touch with reputable Pagan groups and bring the Pagan community to life for those that might otherwise feel isolated and cut off from those of their own beliefs.

f.)               You are a member of a group that can provide Advocacy services where you fall foul of prejudice or discrimination from others due to your beliefs.

g.)             Where your District hold events and gathers funds it is entirely likely that a part of these funds goes to a local charity of Pagan significance.  Annually many groups affiliated to the PF support the Earth Day initiative and other community support projects.

h.)             Finally and of greatest significance to me personally, my being part of PF gives me is it makes the voice of PF when standing up for the Pagan faiths a far louder voice than I could possibly provide on my own.  Many have compared PF to a Pagan union over the years and I think that that’s a fair metaphor.

It’s quite a list in my opinion.

Is it enough?

Well that’s your call not mine – let us face it, I’m already a member and on the Committee so it’s clear that I have made my mind up – really it is over to you to think it through and come to your own decision.

Belonging to an organisation isn’t simply a case of belonging for what it can do for you (that’s clearly always a factor but it is not the whole picture) it is what it can do for others and what you can do for it – it’s the members that make the PF, not the other way around!

I hope my ramblings have made some sort of sense and perhaps have cast some light on why there are those of us that work so hard and devote so much time to supporting the Pagan Federation.

Bright Blessings

Keith

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There is an old maxim that knowledge is power and one possible way of understanding spirituality and religion is through the epistemological position suggested by the historian of religion Karen Armstrong.  Armstrong (2010) and (2005) argued that the ancient Greeks recognised two equally valued types of knowledge referred to as Logos and Mythos.

Logos is knowledge that describes the way the world is.  There are two types of logos knowledge; things that are necessarily true, e.g. 1 +1= 2, or ‘all bachelors are unmarried’ and things that are contingently true, such as elephants are grey or the theory of natural selection.  Logos knowledge operates in the domain of true or false; it is the knowledge of science, analytical philosophy, mathematics, history etc.  Logos knowledge is useful for manipulating the world but it does nothing to help people find meaning or assuage grief or despair (Armstrong, 2010).

Mythos on the other hand makes ‘sense of’ the world and in a culture that is use to thinking in terms of facts is much harder to understand (Armstrong, 2010).  It does not operate in the domain of true or false, but rather is evaluated by its aptness.  This knowledge brings meaning and tends to be highly allegorical and figurative in nature.  It is the experience of meaning found in the arts, mythology and music and so is engaged in at the subjective level.

The Oxford Philosopher Gilbert Ryle (2000) argued that we commit a category mistake, when we assign inappropriate properties to an object, or mistake something as belonging to one category when it rightly belongs to another.  So if we were to say that the colour purple is furious, we are inappropriately ascribing the property of being furious to something that does not have it (unless you have synaesthesia) .  Likewise if we take a piece of Mythos knowledge, say the creation myth of Genesis and ascribe to it the property of being true, we have made a category mistake.  The myth was never meant to be in the domain of true or false; it is about subjective meaning.  As such when fundamentalist Christians make that mistake, biologist, palaeontologists, archaeologists, historians and physicists can go out and look for the evidence, and of course the evidence shows that it is false.  The point is that it was not meant be taken literally in the first place.  The fundamentalist have mistaken myth for history.  No one in their right minds would describe a piece of music as being true; it is evaluated in a different way and so it is the same for myth.  Now what is true of Christian mythology is also true of Pagan mythology.  Its purpose is figurative and allegorical, it is about making ‘sense of’ and creating meaning rather than being either true or false.

Problems occur when mythos is reified meaning we mistake something abstract and figurative for something concrete and material.  When discussing the ‘non physical’ it is easy to imagine Gods, fairies, energy and spirits to be some kind of quasi-physical thing; as a ghostly presence.  However, ‘non-physical’ means it does not exist in time and space; it is not made of anything.  To my mind, these entities are about ‘making sense of’, they are a way of forming meaning from numinous experience; they are not physical but allegorical although they can still exert powerful influence.   The unreal can influence the real.  Just think of abstract concepts such as fairness or justice.  You won’t find a single atom of justice in the Universe as it is a convention, part of mythos, but it still exerts a powerful influence and informs societies.

Reification of mythos knowledge puts it into the domain of being subject to evidence.  So those who believe a myth is literally true, despite all evidence to the contrary, will have to rely on blind faith, or in extreme cases retreat into fundamentalism.  Likewise, neo-atheists make a similar category mistake where they enthusiastically demolish mythos, using evidence to prove it is false (Dawkins 2006).  Admittedly, in some respects they provide an important service, shattering our illusions, but they go too far in arguing that mythos knowledge has no value or power.  Taking mythos as being fact is what Armstrong (2010) would describe as unskilful religion.  To my mind it is better to walk a middle road as in a world of literal religionist and neo-atheists the middle ground is the home of the maverick and free thinker.

Category mistakes also occur when we conjoin two categories inappropriately.  Ryle (2000) gives the example of a foreign visitor watching a game of cricket.  The foreigner says I can see the batsmen, the bowler, the fielders, the umpire, but I can’t see the player responsible for the team spirit.  The foreigner has mistaken team spirit for another role in the game rather than the way the game is played.  It is a bit like saying; I have a left glove, a right glove and a pair of gloves.

To my mind it would be a category mistake to say I see animals, plants, mountains, lakes, oceans, space, stars and the Goddess.  This is because the Goddess is not another being in the world, but rather how we make ’sense of’ it; or perhaps how we experience its character.  The Lord and the Lady are not other beings that we can go out and literally find in the world.  As Gardner (1982) said they are not persons.

However language can sometimes lead us astray.  It seems perfectly reasonably to say,” I feel the wind, I feel the rain, I feel the standing stones and I feel the energy” but we mean something different when we use the word feel in the latter sense.  Another analogy might help clear things up.   When we say the tide is rising and the stocks are rising we mean different things by the word rising.  The tide literally rises, but do the stocks?  Rather we are using the word as a conceptual metaphor.  Stocks don’t literally rise.  It is the same with feeling the energy.  We literally feel the wind and the rain, but feeling the energy is our subjective experience of the place; it is the meaning and relationship we ascribe to (and have with) it.  It is mythos knowledge and not Logos and so it is no surprise that a scientist checking with an energy detecting device will find nothing.

Magic breaks down the dualism between logos and mythos.  When new logos discoveries are made corresponding new mythos is created to make sense of it.  Likewise mythos meaning influences logos.   People use mythos knowledge, such as the meaning associated with religion, or prayer, or crystals, etc. to recover from certain illness amenable to the placebo effect.  The mythos provides meaning which transfers through real scientifically attested robust phenomena, influencing belief and expectation through authority, to facilitate recovery.  Placebo does not work for all illnesses but mythos can always provide a way of creating meaning which helps people to cope with them. Mythos has a profound influence on peoples’ actions.  While it is a simplistic generalisation most religious wars are fought at least partially over differences in mythos.  As Campbell (1988) says, “people are dying for metaphors all over the place”.

Magic works through the interaction between mythos and logos.  It deals with symbolism, mythology and the manipulation of meaning (mythos) but produces tangible effects in the phenomenal world.  One kind of magic achieves this through belief.  The 18^th century philosopher Immanuel Kant reasoned that we could not know the noumenal world (the objective world as it really is).  Rather we take in information from our senses which is coloured by our beliefs, concepts and cognitive biases and so we have a subjective phenomenal experience (Kant as cited in Beaney 2007).  Witches argue that symbolism, mythology and meaning can be used to transform belief and so the phenomenal experience of reality.  Supposing someone comes to you for a love spell.  If you use authority, suggestibility, meaning and symbolism which hint at numinous experience to transform their belief to a confidence that they can find love the chances are they will.  Placebo works even when we know it is placebo, so this kind of magic will work on you as well, especially when backed up by the authority and numinosity of mythos.  In Terry Pratchett’s Disc World novels this is Headology.  It is claimed the difference between headology and psychology is that a psychologist will try to convince you the monster chasing you isn’t real, while the headologist on the other hand will give you stick to hit it with (Wikipedia, accessed 12^th April, 2012).  It is important to remember that just because we have a rational explanation for this kind of low magic; it is still none the less magic.  Other kinds of magic may be more speculative in how they work, but they will still have an underlying mechanism.

Daniel Dennett (1991) and discursive psychologists, suggested that humans are the story telling ape; that we see the world in terms of narratives.  When you tell people what you did during the day or what you will do tomorrow, you tell it as a story.  Dennett (1991), Baggini (2011), Hollway (2007) argued that we construct our sense of self as a set of narratives.  Story is largely mythos, making sense of, hence the influence of mythology and the role of the psychology of Jung for some in the Craft to make sense of their personal narratives.  It you can control the story is experienced then you are the master of phenomenal reality.

Once we understand the distinction between Logos and Mythos we can start to speak meaningfully about Gods, myths, spirits, energy etc. not as facts but as ways of making sense of profound numinous experience.  The ancient mystery schools and renaissance esotericists accorded to humankind a special place within the cosmos in their Hermetic and Neo-Platonic mythology (Goodrick-Clarke, 2008).  They saw humans as a conduit between the logos material world and the mythos world of meaning and so it is for the Witch.  A talk by Derek Wood on Norse mythology at the East Anglian Leaping Hare Conference summed this up beautifully with a metaphor.  He said that there were two infinite universes.  There is the infinite material universe outside and the infinite universe of meaning and imagination existing within our minds.

References and Further Reading

Armstrong, K., (1999), A History of God, London, Vintage Books

Armstrong, K., (2010), The Case for God:  What Religion Really Means, London, Random House

Armstrong, K., (2005), A Short History of Myth, Edinburgh, Cannongate

Baggini, J., (2011), The Ego Trick, Granta Books

Beaney, M., (2007), Imagination and Creativity, Milton Keynes, The Open University

Campbell, J., (1988), The Power of Myth, New York, Anchor Books

Dawkins, R., (2007), The God Delusion, London, Transworld Publishers

Dennett, D., (1993), Consciousness Explained, London, Penguin

Gardner, G., (1982), Witchcraft Today, Magical Childe

Goldacre, B.,  (2008), Bad Science, Oxfordshire, Harper Collins

Goldacre, B., Accessed 5^th April 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsFTgirKXHk

Goodrick-Clark, N., (2008), The Western Esoteric Tradition A Historical Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press

Hollway, W., (2007).  Self.  In W. Hollway, H. Lucey, & A. Phoenix (Eds.), Social Psychology Matters (pp. 119-144).  Milton Keynes:  The Open University

Pratchett, T., (1988), Wyrd Sisters, Victor Gollancz

Ryle, G., (2000), Concept of Mind, Penguin

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What do you see/make of the shadow in the middle of this picture taken 2012 in Blackpool.

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I wish everyone a happy, more accepting and peaceful new year.

1st January has become a date when communities around the world speak of world peace. 1st January, and our calendar system of dating is, of course, a human construct, rather than the natural calendar of solstices, equinoxes and seasonal changes that indicate a shift in the growing season. But it is a construct that is accepted and made use of by our diverse human tribe- a construct that unites that very inclusive species known as Homo sapiens. The Pagan community is no stranger to diversity, containing within its number, a wide range of spiritual worldviews, people of all races, colours, ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations- a cross section of humanity, in fact.

Diversity can be challenging. As humans, we have a tendency to tribal behaviour. In identifying ourselves as part of our tribe, we also identify those we perceive to be ‘other’. We may not know much about the ‘other’. But we note that they’re not us. They are different in a bad way. We demonise the ‘other’, suggesting they are all that is wrong with the world, that they seek to bring an end to our ordered world, even that our concept of the divine finds the ‘other’ an abomination and their existence and acceptance will lead to the end of our world. We create divisions, platforms for conflict and animosity. We create obstacles to understanding and peace.

The Pagan community is no different to other communities in this. Whilst we acknowledge, and fairly successfully manage the diversity within our number, we still identify the ‘other’, and sometimes choose to demonise that ‘other’. But that other is still part of the inclusive species known to us as Homo Sapiens, still part of the tribe of humans that will be marking the turning of another calendar year, hoping that the new year will bring good things for our tribe, hoping that the ‘other’ will change their ways and be more like us.

So what might this Pagan wish for 2013? We have heard World Peace day statements from some ‘other’ communities that appear to mark some within the species known as Homo Sapiens as a threat to the world simply for being who they are and wanting to be accepted. This Pagan would hope that those ‘other’ communities might realise that their words could lead not to world peace, but to conflict, harm and even the death of people simply because they are different.
I have been following the Human rights issue of ‘accusations of witchcraft’ and subsequent abuse and murders. http://www.paganrightsalliance.org/ In our globalised world, this issue is no longer isolated to small communities in rural areas of nations struggling to survive. The results of these crimes against humanity have accompanied human migration around our planet and have appeared in the most cosmopolitan cities around the globe. I would hope that much greater attention is given to putting an end to such horrors.

The Pagan community is, by its very nature, aware of many environmental issues. Even within our own community there are different views on the issue of a possible badger cull to combat bovine TB. We are aware and concerned about the continuation of whale and dolphin hunts, fracking procedures engaged in to extract more fossil fuels, but at the expense of our natural landscapes and the health of our land. We are concerned about deforestation and the continuation of policy to create more space for housing and agriculture at the expense of the healthy biodiversity of the planet. I would hope that these environmental issues were reviewed in ways that considered the wider implications for our species and for all species that inhabit our world.

I am very aware of conflict between people of different faiths and spiritual perspectives. I would hope that respectful dialogue will be more apparent as this can reduce tensions and improve understanding between people who perceive the world in different ways.
I am aware of our global period of austerity and the threat it poses to peace and equality. We would hope that a desire for peace and equality could help in coping with austerity. By choosing not to demonise the ‘other’, but to seek understanding with the ‘other’, we might discover that together we can support each other through testing times. We may find that combining our strengths can balance out our weaknesses. But this will not be possible if we see difference as a threat. This will not be possible if we choose to put the continuation of our artificial differences above the artificial differences of others. I would hope that we might all find a way to fear the ‘other’ less and to try to understand and appreciate the range of diversity inherent in being part of the community of living things on our planet.

I wish the world peace and a happy and more accepting new year.

Mike Stygal

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I get to play!

Reverence and Mirth, are a much more powerful combination for me, than Reverence alone.

I get to dress up and imagine I am somebody else; use tools and props, which I have enjoyed choosing or making; invent prayers, songs and ceremonies, and investigate their effectiveness.

I get to continually challenge myself to higher levels of mental and physical dexterity (e.g. meditation leads to clearer concentration. Breath exercises improve lung efficiency and energy utilization).

And so, I build on my creativity and self-confidence (self-empowerment). I reach for greater heights of self-understanding, and work towards a broader outlook on the human process ­ across borders and cultures.

To paraphrase a chap called Scott Sonnon – “You start getting old, when you stop having fun”. My Spiritual practice is, amongst many other things ­ fun!

I wish you all an enjoyable and youthful Spiritual practice, whatever it may be.

- The Chanting HedgeWitch.

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By Nimue Brown

Experienced Pagans have a variety of responses to those who dabble. When a person is new to Paganism, It’s only reasonable to expect that you will need some time to look around and get your bearings before making any kind of commitment to a path, course of study or working group. I would suggest to anyone new to Paganism, that if you come under pressure to commit before you are ready, it’s probably a sign to step back from the person in question. Dedicating to a path is a huge personal commitment, and not to be done lightly. We are not birds jumping out of the nest, we do not need to be pushed and you should have the space and freedom to jump in your own time.

Many people who come into Paganism take a little time to look around, work out where they fit and settle down to doing that thing. I have every respect for the Pagan Federation in its role as portal, allowing people to come in and look around, facilitating the sharing of good information, and making the transition from dabbler to dedicant much easier. Having open spaces where exploration is safe and easy, is very important. I’m a huge advocate of open rituals, for this reason. Open rituals do not allow the kind of deep work and tight bonding of closed gatherings, but they enable exploration. Some Druid groups – ADF in America most noticeably, have a public service requirement to provide open ritual to all comers. I think this is a great idea. Even if you only do it once or twice a year, it gives the curious a chance to come along and have a look. Open rituals dispel negative myths, strengthen bonds across the wider community, and allow groups and individuals to check each other out without any pressure on either side. If you aren’t sure where you fit, then these open rituals will give you opportunities to explore, and I can’t recommend them enough.

There are also people in the Pagan community who never settle down to a specific path. I would include ‘walking my own path’ as a clear and defined path – because it is! We don’t all fit neatly into other people’s designations, some of us are happier alone, and some of us need to dance to our own tune. A commitment to explore the countryside of Paganism by leaving all the known paths and delving into the undergrowth is a perfectly valid choice and is the means by which new paths are formed. Not having a specific path means spending a while learning about wicca, and then six months with a Heathen group, before going off to study Buddhism, then Reiki, Druidry, chakras, Shamanism and so forth. There are some who refer to this as spiritual tourism, seeing it as an unwillingness to go deeper, to accept the challenging parts of a path, or to make a commitment.

I’m not sure that’s a fair or helpful perspective. The only way to find where you fit is to keep looking. Who am I to stand on the outside and judge what it is another person needs or why they have not yet been able to settle? The person who travels from one system to another learns comparative religion. They learn about the overlaps and the spaces in between, which gives them a different perspective. It’s worth noting that in chaos magic, people deliberately move through different systems to avoid developing excessive attachment to one way of working, and with a view to freeing up their own thinking process to make themselves more powerful and capable.

It’s very easy to criticise others, or to view their way of doing things as lacking substance, commitment or other virtues. Looking in from the outside, you never know what motivates another person, what they are questing after, or where their own, unique journey is supposed to go. The primary message of all polytheistic religions is that there can be no one true way. And surely, if nothing else, then a toe in the water of spirituality is better than nothing at all.

We all have opportunities to help or to hinder each other, to judge, or to try and understand. None of us are responsible for anyone else’s choice or how they develop spiritually. It doesn’t matter if we think they are doing it wrong. It matters if we think we are doing it wrong. The only right answer in Paganism is to be following the call of your own heart, your own inspiration, inner deity, higher self or whatever it is you respond to. The path under your feet is the only one that matters, and if it doesn’t go where you expected to, or other people told you it should, that doesn’t invalidate it in any way.

Nimue Brown is a Druid, author of Druidry and Meditaiton and Druidry and the ancestors, and blogs most days at www.druidlife.wordpress.comshe is passionate about non-dogmatism and inclusivity.

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