And A New Path Appears…
It’s been an interesting month. I said on August 9 that I was cleaning out the deadwood on my old spiritual path, and the Cosmos took interest. On Saturday the 18th I went to a program “Compassionate Peoria” at the Peoria Public Library:
Building Common Ground: Discussions of Community, Civility and Compassion is a project designed to engage the public in contemplation and discussion of the importance of community, civility and compassion in their daily lives. Have you wondered how Peoria could benefit from compassion? How do we change?
Like the Peoria Reads:Don’t Shoot!, Building Common Ground has been working this summer to dial down the disrespect that leads to rage and violence in Peoria. The subject for this particular program was Karen Armstrong’s book Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. Armstrong has written a couple dozen books on religious affairs. In 2008 she received the TED Prize: $100,000 and a wish for a better world. Armstrong’s wish begot the Charter for Compassion, which has been signed by almost 90,000 people around the world. It begins
The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.
In 2010 she published her Twelve Step handbook. Since I had totally run out of compassion for both my friend Lucy and a professional colleague, this was a message I desperately needed to hear.
AND THEN on the very same day, Brendan Myers, Ph.D, did a guest post on The Wild Hunt: “Humanist Paganism on the Rise?” According to Myers, Humanist Pagans “want to be a little more intellectual about their practices, and they really don’t care about the ‘woo” anymore.” –I could not have said it better!
Humanist Pagans tend to be uninterested in ritual, or energy work, or developing psychic powers. Some still practice magic (you don’t have to be religious to do that), but will approach the matter with a critical, scientific eye. And speaking of science, they tend to be interested in astronomy, quantum theory, evolutionary biology, and the like, and will take inspiration from Neil DeGrasse Tyson and from Bill Nye right alongside Starhawk or Crowley. Those whom I have met tended to be in their 30′s or older, educated, earning a lower-middle class income, and raising small families… Social, political, and moral causes tended to be more important to them than supernatural ones.
But they love folklore and mythology, they love going to pagan festivals, and they subscribe to pagan moral values like the Wiccan Rede, and the Heroic Virtues. They’re perfectly happy to shout “Hail Thor!” with an upraised drinking horn. They don’t care whether the gods exist or do not exist: for as they see it, the existence of the gods is not what matters. Rather, what matters is the pursuit of a good and worthwhile life, and the flourishing of our social and environmental relations. They are a kind of pagan that perhaps has not been seen since classical Greece and Rome, and their place in the modern pagan movement may still be marginal and unclear, but they are a kind of pagan nonetheless.
SO! In the course of one day, I get a new label for my practice and a spiffy description, courtesy of one of the smartest men in Pagandom, and I get a roadmap from Ms Armstrong for my path!
Life is good!
Filed under: Bookshelf, Community, Compassion, Spirituality and
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Hi. I saw your comment on Star Foster’s recent article. Though I was sad to hear some dissatisfaction with my writing, I’m glad you identify with what Brendan Myers said in his article. I’m always trying to improve the way I write, so, if you’re willing to share, may I ask what alienated you from my writing? It may help diagnose my blind spots… Thank you.
>Well, thank you very much for this little essay! After a decade of feeling like I am “not Pagan enough,” I was thrilled by Brendan Myers’ post. Might there be a name for me? Myers certainly describes me! http://brewingpermaculture.blo…
But apparently I only get two weeks in my happy place. Now I get to explain to haters that I am not a Natualistic Pagan, I’m a Humanistic Pagan. Oh, joy! No, B.T. Newberg does not speak for me. Yes, Myers does.
Hi there.
I saw your comment on Star Foster’s post about Pagan Calvanism and I was struck by your mention of only getting two weeks in your ‘happy place’, having finally found a branch of Paganism the fits and I guess I just wanted to reach out and touch someone whose experiences are similar.
Pagan Humanism is the best fit for my world view so far (having been through solitary Wicca, Druidy, Chaos magic, animism/shamanism, atheistic leanings, then back to shamanism in about seven years) and I’m honestly a little nervous about talking to other Pagans about it, because of the reactions in the blogosphere. In the end, though, I figure that that living a good life and letting others make of that what they will is probably the best way to go.
Thank you for bringing my attention to Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, and good luck on your path.
Well, once again, I have leaped before I looked. I’ve been reading thru the Humanistic Pagan blogs…and I don’t know!
Almost thirty years ago I went to a psychic fair somewhere in the Pleasant Hills area I think. And I poked around all the tables, had my palm read, and got a Kirlian photograph of my fingertips. The palm reader was very good. The guy taking the photographs was a fraud. And finally, late in the afternoon, I got a reading with one of the “big name” psychics.
I have no idea what his name was. I wouldn’t be surprised if he became somebody famous. He was down-to-earth and likable–but we got into this strange little argument. He said I was afraid of water. I said I wasn’t. He insisted I was; I denied it. He said, “You mean, if you had a choice between sitting on the beach and going out in deep water, you’d take the water?” I said, “I love deep water! I’m not happy if my feet touch bottom!” He put his hands on the table, leaned forward, and demanded, “Then why aren’t you out there giving your own readings???” I looked out at all the seekers wandering around the gym, and I leaned forward and said, “Because those people out there are nuts!”
So, even though Brendan Myers seemed to describe me to a T, even though my formal religious education was Christian Existentialism, and I’ve read my Abraham Maslow, Joseph Campbell, and, heaven help me, Julian Jaynes…even though I dig quantum physics…even though I consider myself a Humanist…I am going quietly back away from the label. I have a personal relationship with my Deities and don’t know if I consider “Nature”–whatever that is–to be sacred. I’m a City Witch, and I also find Grace in concrete, brick, and glass. And I don’t feel much kinship with the folks who are blogging under the Humanist banner.
Pahsia, I think I know where you are coming from. I’ve followed a long, twisty path myself. I dabbled with Shamanism decades before I ever heard the term. Studied astrology and tarot and past life readings, discovered Joseph Campbell and read a bunch of his work. My formal religious training was Christian Existentialism, but my teachers exposed me to Carlos Castaneda, Nikos Kazantzakis, Thomas Kuhn (paradigm shifts) and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I left Christianity in the 80′s when the Moral Majority drowned out a more liberal theology; and even though I could see and feel Goddess energy rising all around me, I couldn’t make an intellectual leap from God the Father to God the Mother (I work with God the Daughter now). It’s been twelve and a half years since I came out as Pagan. My Goddess is a drunken killer cow–what else would I call myself? But I have never fit in. I ask too many questions, I think too many odd thoughts.
Definitely check out Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, and if you are interested click on my 2012 Book List. I keep a running list of all the books I finish reading. It’s pretty eclectic.