The Power of the Pagan Dollar 2.0

Amazing how fast the summer passes isn’t it? July was an incredibly busy month, and August will be more so with a couple great projects coming up, a wedding to perform and of course Lammas. I was lucky to have a vacation in July, a trip spent with no electricity or running water in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And no distractions in the middle of the wooded north gives you plenty of time to think.

“What comes next?”

After the last Living Reciprocity focusing on pagan ethics, with comments and quotes from some of the most outstanding pagans out there, I had a hard time returning to the normal topics. I have some great interviews lined up, but it just seemed to be too abrupt to return to “business as usual.”

So I talked to Pax at Chrysalis, who had a post that really summarized some of my thoughts when I started writing Living Reciprocity. So to get me back onto track of my usual posts next month, I give to you “The Power of the Pagan Dollar 2.0” shared with permission.

The Power of the Pagan Dollar 2.0

We need to build the economic self-sufficiency of our local, regional, and national Pagan communities!

We are facing some of the worst economic times, certainly in my lifetime, and it just seems to me as if we, as a community, haven’t really been talking about this. I say this as someone who is a self-confessed blog-a-holic, a member of multiple yahoo-groups, and an avid surfer of the Internet, and who is not all that hard to track down either in his local community or by friends nationwide. I’ve seen some small mention of individual challenges and responses to the hard times we are in, but nowhere have I seen discussions of how we as a community can face and deal with these troubled times. I think it’s about time we started talking about this folks, because the tough times are not going to go away overnight!

I first started thinking about Pagan community economic self-sufficiency in the months after Ellwood “Bunky” Bartlett won the lottery, and there were a lot of discussions and posts about his windfall and opinions of all sorts were floated about how a Pagan with a lot of it should spend his money. Then, too, there are the many discussions I’ve heard, or read, about various Pagan owned businesses that shut down for a lack of support. I’ve also been thinking a lot about how various other sub-cultural communities have focused their economic power inward and reaped no small rewards, including any number of ethnic and religious and other sub-cultural communities.

All of these influences have had me thinking a lot lately about how we in the Pagan community could build a stronger community through economic empowerment. For me, economic empowerment means that we, as a community, are focusing our economic decisions on those choices that strengthen our community locally, regionally, and nationally. To strengthen our Pagan community, in this case, means spending our money within our community as much as is possible and practical.

Time after time in the history of my beloved United States we have seen how the ethnic, sub-cultural, and religious communities that form up the patchwork quilt of the United States have been able to strengthen the their communities and build their social ties, and their economic, and political power by concentrating money into community owned businesses and interests. These decisions include supporting Pagan-owned and Pagan friendly businesses, as well as supporting local and national Pagan community organizations, and Pagan charities.

Pagan Owned and Pagan Friendly Businesses

The first thing that I would like to say is that a Pagan business is not necessarily a metaphysical or occult shop. I know, I know, some of you out there are going…

“Well, DUH! Pax!”

But it was both interesting and instructive for me to notice that many, many times, on many separate occasions, when I tried to communicate with others about the idea of supporting our Pagan businesses that the idea of a Pagan business often seemed to be all but consumed by the idea of a metaphysical book and paraphernalia shop. When I look at many Pagan stores or periodicals, most of the adverts are for fortunetellers, workshops, or various metaphysical shops.

Where are our doctors and realtors and other professionals? Where are the Pagan owned home repair businesses, yard services, and plumbers? They are out there, I know because I have run into many of them on the Web and in book stores and at open Circles and community socials. Sadly, a lot of our Pagan business owners and Pagan professionals who may be active in the Pagan community are to one degree or another closeted for fear of the very real economic effects of discrimination and prejudice. Even with full protection under the law you can still be fired, or have your business ruined by a word of mouth campaign or boycott, if you are Pagan.

These fears are real, and serious. Being out as a Pagan can be hazardous to one’s livelihood. What can we do about this?

Within my own experience in the GLBT community, in local newsletters and in local Gay venues such as bars and community centers you will often see ads for various GLBT owned businesses. Realtors, lawyers, doctors, books & gift shops, florists, mechanics, the local Metropolitan Community Church (a GLBT friendly Christian denomination), massage therapists, psychotherapists… all of these and more will have advertisements in their local GLBT newsletters and posted in Queer friendly businesses, as well as in GLBT community directories… jokingly often called “the pink pages” after the “yellow pages” of U.S. phone directories. These community directories are often free booklets that are paid for with advertising fees and donation.

Do you think that GLBT lawyers, doctors, and realtors, are nervous about the possibility of being out could affect their livelihood? Yet still many are willing to advertise in GLBT community directories and publications. Why?

Two reasons…

One, those of us in the GLBT community have for nearly 30 years subscribed in a broad sense to the philosophy of supporting our own. If there is a Gay owned or Gay friendly business in my area I am darn well going to use them first… keep the money in the GLBT family! Because of this those who advertise in “pink pages” and in GLBT publications know that they are reaching out to their own community, or to a community they are friendly towards, and one that will actively spend it’s money in house first!

Reason number two, is that for the most part the people most likely to actively discriminate against GLBT owned and friendly businesses are the people least likely to willingly pick up, much less read, a GLBT publication where they would be advertised. As for the “pink pages”, well those are usually only available in Gay bars, GLBT owned businesses, and GLBT Community Centers; none of which are on the bigots top ten list of places to go into or be seen!

To be fair I have seen some ads for paralegals and therapists in some Pagan bookstores, and that is a start. In searching the Internet, I was only able to find one comprehensive listing for a Pagan community business directory; a similar search for a Gay business directory yielded ~ many ~ interesting ~ results.

Once we start identifying our locally owned Pagan and Pagan friendly businesses we must commit to supporting them! When we keep our money in the community, the community will become stronger. By supporting our Pagan businesses we also strengthen their ability to support themselves and in turn our community.

Pagan Community Organizations and Charities

A lot of you are probably thinking of groups like the Asatru Folk Assembly or Covenant of the Goddess, and yes I would certainly encourage Pagans to support some of our national spiritual/religious organizations. I would also never hesitate to encourage you to support your local Pagan Community groups. Is a local Pagan group holding a fund-raising dinner for a campground or community center or local charity? Then go eat a few plates… even on a work or school night already!

Just as there are more types of Pagan business than the occult supply shop, there are other types of Pagan community organizations that we could come together to support through either our membership or charitable donations.

Cherry Hill Seminary is a graduate level Pagan Seminary with counseling and public ministry programs that is currently working at creating a Masters of Divinity Program.

Then there are programs like the annual National Pagan Leadership Skills Conference, now in its 5^th year, fostering workshops on issues of Finance, Pastoral Care, and Group Facilitation.

Pagan professional organizations have come and gone, yet some remain. The best current example is, of course, The Officers of Avalon. This international benevolent organization for Pagan Law Enforcement Officer’s and Emergency Services Personnel has also established an active non-profit charitable wing Avalon Cares, which has done some fundraising and participated in several aid and relief efforts! Avalon Cares is one of a number of Pagan organizations doing charitable work, and worthy of Pagan community investment. Circle Sanctuary maintains a list of Pagan groups doing charitable work, for more examples.

Organizations like these, and supporting them as a community, are, I believe, the next step in our evolution as a community. Think about it… having a fully accredited Pagan Seminary… is the idea of a Pagan University, a real academic 4-year degree University that happens to be run by, and offering some programs specifically of interest to, Pagans all that radical or far off a notion?

Imagine the impact, for example, if each of us focused our charitable donations to Avalon Cares for one year? Imagine if every Pagan group in the United States focusing it’s food drives towards a specific food bank or hunger fighting organization like Feeding America (formerly Second Harvest), and then specifically donating in the name of the U.S. Pagan community. Imagine if each of us donated even 3 dollars to Cherry Hill Seminary. Imagine, not only, the positive impact we could make in the world, but the positive impact that would have in our community?

We all want a world where our spiritual path, our faith or belief system, is simply a part of who we are; not something that has the potential to get us fired or harassed. We want a world where the leaders of our cities, regions, and nations address issues of concern to our community; rather than writing us off as nuts or “not a religion”. We want a world where the press will jump all over a public official making ignorant of bigoted remarks about Pagans, rather than just letting it pass or chuckling.

Empowering ourselves economically is the pathway to that world.

Blatant and Shameless

While you are here at Witchmoot, make sure to sign up for an email subscription, so you will be the first to see new articles as they are posted.

Also, new to the people in the Michigan area is Witchmoot founder Dawn Black’s newest project PaganMichigan.org where yours truly is the moderator for he Michigan Pagan Leadership Council. Make sure you check it out if you live in or near Michigan.

And take a visit to my wife Spider’s ebay store at SpiderCreationsOnline.com, and find her profile on PaganSpace.

I Can’t Do It Without You!

Living Reciprocity won’t work without your help! Send me people to talk about. Send me businesses information to promote. This is a community building exercise and you are needed!

Please contact me using the comment link above, visit my MySpace page, PaganSpace, Pagan Michigan page or you can email me at twosnakes@witchmoot.com.

I hope you will join me for a one-of-a-kind edition of Living Reciprocity; the Pagan Values Special.

What you are about to read is unlike anything I have ever written. As many of you know, Pax put the thought into the air; a month where pagan bloggers wrote about values. The writers here at witchmoot embraced the idea, and we have written some very good posts on the subject.

I knew that given the theme of the month, I wanted to write something very different for this months Living Reciprocity, but I didn’t know what.

I have been doing a lot of thinking over the last few months about community, and ethics, and how we as pagans interact with each other. I have definite beliefs about where we are going, and where we need to go as a community. I see parallels in other sub-groups that have walked these paths before us. But how could I be sure that what I was feeling and what I was sensing were really valid? What if in the diversity of the pagan community, everyone was fine with how things were? Could I really be off base?

The answer was simple. Living Reciprocity is not just about me, it is about the people who are out there doing things. What would they think is the most important ethical issue facing the pagan community? There was only one way to find out, so, I sent out a question, and waited for replies. I hoped that by reading the answers of others, I might be able to answer the question myself. The question, you may be asking?

What is the greatest ethical question or problem facing the pagan community today?

One of the very first replies I received was from the always warm Janet Fararr and Gavin Bone.

This has to be its movement into the mainstream! Many pagans simply don’t want this to happen - they feel it will ‘water down’ the belief structure and commercialize it. But, on the other hand, many pagans realize that this movement is necessary for acceptance from other religious groupings if we are going to avoid discrimination.

The whole issue brings up other ethical concerns as well, charging for teaching, making a living from paganism, acceptance of newer traditions etc. with out the watering down as mentioned.

It seemed to me that perhaps I was on the right track. The things Janet and Gavin mentioned were indeed a large part of what I was seeing as I looked about. Mainstreaming is a very good term for a whole host of issues. It really boils down to how well we stand together as we face the world at large. But is this the whole of the issue?

Bill “Strings” Hilton also gave a very thoughtful answer. Strings is the President of the Maritime WI BACA a very good organization for everyone to check out.

I can see a whole bunch of “ethical questions” that need to be addressed. Not only by the pagan community, but by society in general. But pick one? Hmmm…

This is going to sound odd, but I think the biggest “ethical question” would be how to address our differences, both within the pagan community, and between ourselves and the “mainstream". And it IS a thorny problem. I’ll take those as separate issues.

Relations between the pagan community and the mainstream have been strained many times. On the mainstream side, many Christians feel the need to proselytize to “the heathens". This creates ill-will, which can be exacerbated by irritated pagans lashing back at them: I’m sure you’ve seen the folks that would be easier described as “anti Christian” than “pro Wiccan": their lives seem composed of attempts to belittle Christians and their beliefs, baiting them into debates with no purpose but to try and humiliate them. We (as pagans, represented by these folks) come across as trouble makers, not as followers of a different path. This is enhanced by the number of people who use Wicca as a way to rebel against their parents during their teen years. I can expand on this concept more, if you’d like…

The challenge within the community itself is slightly different, and even more alarming. The “witchier than thou” thing can NOT be overstated: far to many people on the pagan path feel that THEY are “true Wiccans", while everyone else is “just a poseur". This creates strife within the community, straining bonds between people with wide-ranging beliefs. Add in the ease with which a pagan path and be co-opted by a cult (of which there are a few), and the divisions with the community can become deadly to all involved. All it takes is one or two “bad apples", and all of us are tainted in the eyes of our parent society.

We need, as a community, to learn to be accepting of other beliefs and viewpoints. I know, many say they are: but go into most pagan groups and try talking about the benefits of hunting, or a prolife stance regarding abortion. Show yourself as having beliefs different from the group, and you see the fangs barred rather quickly. So much for “tolerence", huh?

It’s a many-faceted problem, and one with no easy answers. Maybe learning to be truly “tolerant” would be a good first step…

I thought to myself that I saw a theme indeed forming. Here are some very diverse people all speaking about mainstreaming. Strings raised some excellent points about our image and how we project ourselves both within and without the community, points very similar in some ways to ones Janet and Gavin raised.

Feeling buoyed by the answers I was getting I thought I must be on t something. But I was temporarily confounded by the answer I received from a Facebook request I had randomly sent out to Ellen Bergstrom.

Sexism and meanness of Patriarchy. Too many Pagans are unaware of/or chose to ignore Goddess as the original Pagan religions as well as the initial matriarchy the once existed. So many also are unaware that Patriarachy is not the opposite of matriarchy. They are two different things.

We all need to do our homework on various things but this is a must know. And I am not interested in communing with people who identify themselves as pagans who chose to be sexist, mean, mealy mouthed, etc.

Ah, the Goddess moves in mysterious ways, but they are not ever without reason. The terms Ellen used confounded me briefly. And then I realized, that my conclusion was still, the same. Ellen’s concerns were differently expressed, but at the core they seemed to me to be very similar to what Strings answered. It was about tolerance. So then, I had to wonder, was I wrong after all? Was the grand and unifying answer tolerance, not mainstreaming? More answers were needed.

Luckily for me, more were coming, namely from Tommy-Elf, the host of one of my favorite podcasts From the Edge of the Circle.

This is a tough question to tackle. The supposition here is that a particular choice will be widely accepted as an “issue” of an ethical nature within the Pagan community as a whole. The problem with this is that the Pagan communities – smaller, regional groupings as well as even smaller communities within city and belief systems boundaries – may not view these same questions/problems as being anything to provide substantial concern. Priorities can be different amongst those groups, as well as social differences, which can drive the differences in what would be the greatest ethical question or priority facing the community at-large.

With that bit of a disclaimer out of the way, I would consider acceptance of other Paths to be the largest ethical issue facing the community at-large. Pagans discuss the need for acceptance in pain-staking detail, but then provide the same level (or sometimes greater) of discriminatory and exclusionary practice towards their own fellow Pagans. I cannot even begin to count the numerous times I have heard that one particular individual is not a “real” Pagan because their understanding of the concepts of Paganism are too “fluffy” or “white-light” to be considered “serious” Paganism. An interesting quandary arises there, as there are similar notations made against Pagans by individuals on a Christian path. The Pagan religion lacks a standard aspect of “authority” such as the Christians have with the Bible as written in the Old and New Testaments or as the Catholic faith has in their Papal authority. Pagans constantly rail against this concept, pointing out that the Pagan faith is a non-central position of religious faith, with no central figure of authority – and decry this as a position of strength. The degree of hypocrisy that this position applies when the “fluffy” aspects of the Pagan faith are sneered at and dismissed out of hand is quite telling.

As I noted previously, there will be various smaller communities that will take exception with what I am stating – providing ample evidence that their particular community does not tolerate or practice this kind of exclusionary measure. I am also quite sure that no matter the type of question or issue that is presented, there will be groups/communities that will provide the same position of exception for their position. Therefore, it would seem to me, that the question of what is the “greatest” could be up for open debate, no matter what the presented particular states.

Once again the theme comes forth. Tolerance. Acceptance. Could this be the answer I was seeking for my own? But then another answer came that pushed me even further. I knew the chances of hearing back from her were small, her office help told me so. She is on the road a lot, teaching for extended periods with limited internet access. So imagine my surprise when I opened my email and found a wonderful answer from Starhawk.

The greatest ethical problem at the moment, I think, for those of us who believe the earth is sacred is how to respond to climate change, to the immense potential loss of life and biodiversity it represents, to the personal and social challenges it poses. How do we both live with personal integrity and also help to galvanize a more effective public response? How do we make people aware of the urgency without plunging them into cynicism and despair? What sacrifices are we truly called to make, and how do we
formulate a truly pagan response, that avoids falling into quasi-Christian moralism, that lets us continue to value pleasure, joy and beauty, that seeks to create abundance, regeneration and healing?

Starhawk had sent me a very powerful note about the environment, and more so about what we as pagans might do in response to environmental needs. It talks about what we can do, and what sacrifices we can make. Once again my thoughts changed. Perhaps mainstreaming and tolerance were just aspects of a larger ethical call; coming together, and making sacrifices to protect the larger world and the Gaia? Should we be focusing on strengthening the community, mainstreaming and building tolerance so we could be a larger force for action?

Famed pagan academic Judy Harrow seemed to align with this thought stream.

I’m a bit leery of picking out the single greatest ethical issue before us. I think different issues become salient for different people depending on their own inclinations and situations – and that a Pagan perspective (or the perspective of any other religion) would be applicable to any of them.

For me, personally, it would be the challenge of living “green” in the City. Other people may feel more called to address other issues.

So if I had to reduce it to one question, it would be very generic. It would be “how do I live my everyday life in congruence with my values and beliefs?”

While Judy’s reply had an environmental theme to it as well, it too seemed to want us to focus on what we could do. How we lived our lives and the choices we made. How do we live what we believe? That statement alone is a very powerful one. Could that be the overarching theme I was seeking?

World renowned author Storm Constantine sent a reply which took this thought further.

My first reaction to it was that I don’t think Pagans are facing problems of an ethical nature any different from any other member of human society. We are all just humans facing the same mess that our world has become.

When I thought about it more, I considered that - and this is not so much an ethical matter but one of belief - many Pagans got into their various alternative belief systems in the 80s and 90s, and there was a strong conviction then that the world *could* be changed for the better, with a meld of New Age, Buddhist and Pagan views on compassion, tolerance, positive thinking, magic and respect for the planet. I do wonder now how many of those initiates feel jaded and hopeless in the face of what appears to be increasing estrangement from a possible hopeful future for the earth and humanity. Do Pagans still believe things can change positively, or do they have to accept that the majority of humans are fast asleep, unaware, lacking any sense of self-responsibility, and do not even *want* to acquire qualities to the contrary, and that beneficial change is therefore very unlikely?

As far as actual ethics are concerned, I think that the greatest one among Pagans (now, and always has been), is how much should you act to create change when it impinges upon the will of another, when certain action is regarded as expedient. And what constitutes expedience? That could tie into the question of belief also.

There was the thought again. Belief. If we believe we need to live it. Living it means showing tolerance, and acceptance. We need to build the community. We need to mainstream so we can become a larger for for action both in our own lives and in the world at large.

There it was. I had one more reply to read, one more that I hoped would complete the thought. And in a serendipity that was beautiful to behold, I happened to email Emma Restall Orr just as she was preparing to give a talk on issues facing the pagan community in London. What would this groundbreaking author share with me? Her generosity amazed me, as she shared more than I could imagine.

To answer this question with respect to the whole Pagan community, the broad diversity of that community risks invalidating any answer. It would be easy to address the environmental crisis, for example, as a key issue relevant to Pagans, but some within the broad Pagan community do not consider environmentalism an inherent or relevant part of their religious practice. Equally, in an overpopulated society with families dispersed and neighbourhoods no longer cohesive communities, the ancestor worship and social responsibilities important to some Pagans are dismissed by others, happy - even proud - to consider themselves detached from mainstream society.

The single word answer, then, that I would offer in response to the question is: integration. Risking disagreement from some quarters, with some confidence I propose that the vast majority of Pagans hold a similar belief about the fundamental construction of nature. The semantics differ from the metaphysical to the poetic, with notions such as the woven fabric, the web of threads, the coherent field of vibrations, and so on, but the essence is the same. It is this weave of connectedness that lies as the basis of Pagan practices from animistic devotion to the efficacy of magick.

Yet the Pagan community still presents a significant gap between the understanding of this notion, and any expression that fully grasps the comprehensive implications of this belief. Personal decisions, clearly revealing where we place our care, from simple daily actions of how we spend our money, what we consume in terms of food, drink and drugs, through to life decisions about employment, travel, family and social responsibility, too often do not reflect those beliefs asserted. Until they do, Paganism and Pagans will not and do not deserve to be taken seriously.

Integration begins with the achievement of an internal consonance. This requires study of one’s own beliefs, assumptions, attitudes and expectations, in order to clarify and hone one’s thinking, uncovering prejudices, hypocrisies and unconsidered conditionings that limit our willingness to learn or act in accordance with our religious beliefs. If we understand nature to be a web of interconnecting threads, the self and soul are equally made up of threads that need to be held in the ease of perfect tension if we are to be sustainably sane, functional, creative, peaceful.

Only once we have found some of that clarity are we able to integrate our beliefs with our actions, making decisions and behaving in a way that is ethical. Able to justify our actions by explaining our ethics, where we fail to act ethically we are aware of having done so. This integrated behaviour includes the willingness to show one’s face, to stand tall in one’s own shoes and express those beliefs through respectful communication: my own tradition would speak of acting in a way that makes our ancestors proud. The misuse of drugs, sex and ego, were the sabotaging features of Paganism in its twentieth century revival; in twenty first century Pagan communities, the internet allows interaction that is faceless, and so too easily dishonourable.

Lastly, integration means no longer living on the edge of family and society, but becoming a responsible part of the societies within which we live. Many religions are populated by those seeking meaning, guidance, healing, and this is equally true of Paganism. However, while self-discovery and self-development have their place (as I have stated above), and many Pagans would deride altruism with a Nietzschian sneer, Pagans and Paganism must learn to serve more than themselves.

Individualism and anarchic self-determinism is too much a part of Paganism: it is still too often expressed through a selfish lack of integration. Its heritage of protest and alienation may be something to be proud of, but only in that perhaps it nurtured and welcomed innovative thinkers and radicals who have at times provoked conventional society to reconsider its habits and complacencies. Where such a stand is not in accord with the fundamental tenet of nature’s integration, what results is a disintegrating ethics, and the kind of behaviour that does Paganism no good at all: political grandstanding and theatrical protest, robed in hypocrisy.

Secular society is, some would say, so entirely unsustainable that we are heading for annihilation. Whether that happens next Tuesday or in another two millennia, or indeed if human ingenuity does find a pathway through the crisis, we cannot know. It is no good simply to blame the rapacious nature of secular society. If Paganism is to develop and grow healthily, becoming a valuable component in society and its uncertain future, it must learn how to share the best of its values, those based on the core belief of nature’s inherent connectedness. The only way to do this is through improving our ability to integrate those beliefs into each and every action.

I think we all have to take a moment and appreciate the depth of that answer. I’m not sure I could ever say it better or in a more coherent way.

But that would not be fair would it? That would not be living in reciprocity myself. So to be fair, to honor all those that so generously answered me, I have to answer my own question. What is the greatest ethical question or problem facing the pagan community from my point of view?

The greatest ethical question facing the pagan community IS pagan ethics.

Ethics: The science of human duty; a particular system of principals and rules concerning duty, whether true or false; rules of practice in respect to a single class of human actions

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Reading the replies I received, talking to the people I talk to, I sense that the pagan community is ready for a change, a change to a new level as a community and as individuals. To be taken more seriously, to find greater acceptance, and to take our role of prominence in the coming centuries. We are looking to become mature.

Paganism seems to be coming full circle, what started as small groups with definite rules and structures went to the opposite extreme, becoming groups of nihilistic individuals. Rebellious teens in a sense, willing to challenge and push all the boundaries just to see if we could, just to see what was there. But the challenges of finding ourselves, of finding our identities are moving into the past. We have new considerations now, new goals, and while there will always be new individuals joining, new individuals seeking their own way, I sense that all the pagans I talk to are willing to accept some sort of common framework in which we can all operate.

We seek a common set of ethics.

No matter what is before us, be it the “table manner” issues of how we act at rituals and festivals, the larger questions of how we deal with and extract sexual predators, or the very complex issues of why so many of our teachers and elders struggle financially while people still spend generously on themselves, these are all ethical questions.

While some may fear this coming, fearing that standards might create judgementalism, I say there is a vast difference between judgementalism and using good judgment. It is past time that we stop the constant rebellion, and step into a new role of leadership.

Ethics demands that we take a constant inventory of ourselves, to examine our standards to see that they are reasonable and well rounded. It is the attempt to set a code of conduct for ourselves and to make sure that we are living up to those standards though our actions. And I say to you my fellow pagans that it is our community’s shadow self. We are in denial of vast aspects of our own power because we fear what it might take. We fear the will to stand up to abuse. We fear that we might be called to sacrifice some of our resources to care for others in the community, because of the responsibility it brings. We fear we might have to justify our actions to others.

But I sense as well we are ready. That there is a movement out there, an unspoken in some cases, passion to confront this shadow, to accept our power, and to step into this new phase of life as a community. Thus I say my answer again. The greatest ethical question or problem facing the pagan community IS ethics. The solutions, the options will have to come for all of us. Are you taking part in the conversation? Are you ready to help confront this shadow?

Well, that’s about it for this issue. I hope you like it, and find it useful. Please share this link with others, and pass it around. And come back and check, I’m hoping for some lively comments, and if I get late replies I am hoping to either add them to the article, or I will post them in the comments section.

Blatant and Shameless

While you are here at Witchmoot, make sure to sign up for an email subscription, so you will be the first to see new articles as they are posted.

And take a visit to my wife Spider’s ebay store at SpiderCreationsOnline.com, and find her profile on PaganSpace.

I Can’t Do It Without You!

Living Reciprocity won’t work without your help! Send me people to talk about. Send me businesses information to promote. This is a community building exercise and you are needed!

Please contact me using the comment link above, visit my MySpace page, or PaganSpace.