Words and moral compass

my main Druidism blog on the trendiness of being Pagan

I didn’t think I would be blogging here at The Pagan and Pen. But when Myspace began labeling all my press links as phishing sites put up by a spammer, it made me realize I had to get wordy someplace else. I have signed up here at WordPress and bit by bit am moving in.

The link above is a repost of the British press coverage of a proud Morris Dance company that recently performed at a museum benefit for celebrities. Hunter’s Moon Morris and Black Pig Border Morris are favorites of mine over there. If you go to my blog it has lots of working links to them.

Lately I have been ministering to a nonhuman member of my grove who is a paraplegic. It gets me thinking to wipe butt for somebody who can’t. I would only do such a thing out of love.

So many are coming to Paganism, socalled, because of dissatisfaction with the religion in which they were raised. ‘An it harm none, do as thou wilt’ is the wellknown Wiccan creed. Our Druidism is even vaguer–”Nature is good”. The scope for amorality could be tempting, for Nature is red in tooth and claw. Nature has a place for famine, pestilence, and decay.

I know many Pagan authors who write horror. I have even edited some. But myself, I have chosen the vehicle of erotic romance. I don’t want to focus on the gummy underside of the great cycle. There’s quite enough gummy underside in my life, thanks very much, and as I struggle with chronic depression day to day, I do not have a pressing appetite for more of it.

No, I am more concerned with why I should take my next breath when the world is so full of a number of things that would be happier dead, and maybe I could be one of them. Dead is so peaceful, and when you are weary it is inviting.

I gave my paraplegic little friend a butt bath and a good spray of salve and pain medicine and a long cool drink and a good breakfast. I sent healing into her withering feet. The rest is up to her and the spirit inside the body.

I have had fellow pagan authors who have told me, Love does not make everything all right. I refuse to believe it. Without love and the beauty it brings, nothing has a reason to continue. That is why I support Happily Ever After or as it is often called in the romance business, HEA. The more the better, in as many situations as I can shoehorn it into a story. Gay, straight, BDSM, filthy, lacy, sugary, smelly, you can make them all worthwhile, humane, when you add the love.

Take the love away and the most luxurious pampering can be torture. If I were not there to clean my little parishioner’s hindquarters for her, she would not still be living. If even that begins to hurt, she’ll let me know. Then it will be weeping time.

Do I minister in every way I can, having taken up the metaphorical mantle of ministry in RDNA? Yes. And it involves love for those to whom one is called. Ministry in any religion is a deeper level of personal commitment than mere adherence to stated principles. Pagan paths may have fewer principles, but just as in other faiths, by their fruits ye shall know them. Each being exhibits a moral compass, and not all Pagans will be good people, or spirits.

As there are more people using the term Pagan to describe themselves, more care will have to be taken to see how humane– how much of a human being– each one is. That includes their published words.

Our writings are weapons of change and seeds of forests.