The Four Agreements

1. Be Impeccable with your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

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Carol Christ: Goddess Ethics

Nurture life
Walk in love and beauty
Trust the knowledge that comes through the body
Speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering
Take only what you need
Think about the consequences of your actions for seven generations
Approach the taking of life with great restraint
Practice great generosity
Repair the web

~ Carol P. Christ, "I specifically discussed the structural nature of injustice and offered Nine Touchstones of Goddess ethics as an alternative to the Ten Commandments of Biblical religion."

Personal Ethics

I've been thinking a lot about personal ethics lately.  I don't hold to any romantic NeoPagan notions of "An It Harm None..." but I do have certain standards I hold myself to.  They are as follows.

All is permitted. 
What I have I hold. 
There is no magic without sacrifice.
Strive for Perfect Love and Perfect Trust within the circle.
Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be the Whole of the Law.

My friend Orius of The Mad Angry Pagan blog shared a quote with me concerning ethics that I find sums up my personal ethics fairly well:

"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do." ~Robert A. Heinlein

Not how it works.

I do not believe in the threefold law of return. I do not believe in the law of one-for-one return. I do not believe in tit-for-tat, and I do not believe in karma. There is no cosmic abacus keeping track for us. There is only action and reaction: magic and sacrifice. Sometimes we pay dearly for a small act of love and grace. Sometimes there is no payment needed for large acts of hatred and cruelty.  Who can say why Fate spins the patterns she does?

What I do is not for fear of Hell or Karma or threefold return. What I do is my Will. I  can choose to do right or wrong by my own standard of what is ethical.  

Words to Live By

I've been pondering the attributes that I takes to be a good Hellenic Polytheist, and the attributes that I value most within myself. Some practitioners of Hellenic Polytheism subscribe to the Metron, an ethics system of "Seven Pillars" which has been reconstructed in various forms. One of them follows:

• Ethike Arete - the practice of habitual excellence (ethics)
• Eusebia - reverence, loyalty, and sense of duty toward the Gods (of Greece)
• Hagneia - the maintaining of ritual purity by avoiding miasma
• Nomos Arkhaios - observance of ancient tradition, (religious) law, and customs
• Sophia - the pursuit of wisdom, understanding, and truth
• Sophrosune - the control of self through deep contemplation
• Xenia - adherence to hospitality and the guest-host relationship

Laurelei has proposed a system of ethics for the Temple of Aphrodite that I find inspiring:

• Kharis (grace and reciprocity)
• Sophia (wisdom and understanding)
• Eusebia (reverence and piety)

I've been involved in the Caliphate Ordo Templi Orientis for years and as a Thelemite I have some pretty strong Greek ideas of what is right and ethical:

• Thelema (True Will)
• Agape (Fraternal Love)
• Eros (Romantic Love)

Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress, and the great mystery of the House of God.
- The Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX, as delivered by XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI, Chapter I, verse 57

And then there are the roughly 150 Delphic Maxims, most of which are reasonable, some of which are excellent, and a couple of which are patently ridiculous in modern society.

The good:

8. Be Yourself (Σαυτον ισθι)
15. Help your friends (Φιλοις βοηθει)
23. Long for wisdom (Σοφιαν ζηλου)
24. Praise the good (Καλον ευ λεγε)
25. Find fault with no one (Ψεγε μηδενα)
38. Nothing to excess (Μηδεν αγαν)
55. Give back what you have received (Λαβων αποδος)
56. Down-look no one (Υφορω μηδενα)
62. Praise hope (Ελπιδα αινει)
73. Be happy with what you have (Κτωμενος ηδου)
84. Make just judgments (Κρινε δικαια)
90. Live without sorrow (Αλυπως βιου)
93. Deal kindly with everyone (Φιλοφρονει πασιν)
106. Be grateful (Ευγνωμων γινου)
107. Pursue harmony (Ομονοιαν διωκε)
117. Acquire wealth justly (Πλουτει δικιως)
118. Do not abandon honor (Δοξαν μη λειπε)
124. Love whom you rear (Ους τρεφεις αγαπα)
126. Respect the elder (Πρεσβυτερον αιδου)

The bad:

9. Intend to get married (Γαμειν μελλε)
91. Live together meekly (Ομιλει πραως)
95. Rule your wife (Γυναικος αρχε)
132. Die for your country (Θνησκε υπερ πατριδος)
137. Grieve for no one (Μη επι παντι λυπου)

So how do I synthesize all of this into a workable system that won't drive me crazy? Here then is a personal Metron that I am trying to live by:

1. Kharis - grace and reciprocity
2. Sophia - the relentless pursuit of wisdom and understanding
3. Eusebia - reverence and piety to the theoi
4. Arete - excellence in deed, thought, word, and action
5. Thelema - the pursuit of my life's purpose and my Will
6. Sophrosune - moderation and temperance
7. Hagneia - ritual purity and avoidance of miasma

I think of Xenia as being a part of Kharis, and, as a Hellenic Polytheist rather than a reconstructionist, I hold no truck with Nomos Arkhaios. Rather, I value Thelema, which can be viewed as an outgrowth of Arete, but it has been so central to my own spiritual development that I've given it a pillar of its own. I believe that most of the Delphic Maxims can be sorted into one of these categories, and I'm pretty comfortable with holding myself to these standards.

On Health Care Reform and Xenia

Julia Ergane's blogs have quickly become some of my favorite destinations in the web. Really, how could I not like her? She's a Hellenic Polytheist devotee of Athena who knits and is a retired librarian. And here I thought I was so very unique. Ah well.

Now I find out we hold similar political views as well. Julia blogs thoughtfully on the concept of Health Care Reform in the U.S. as an obligation to Xenia, hospitality. I have read criticisms of this concept that refute that Xenia has nothing to do with government entitlements, and that it rather highlights personal responsibility. I respectfully make the assertion that a public option in health care is more than just Xenia, it is Ethike Arete, the practice of habitual excellence, or ethics. How are we as a culture to protect ourselves from the miasma of disease when we cannot afford to treat those diseases? How is allowing a disenfranchised person to languish without adequate health care ethical?

I will readily admit that I have a personal stake in the fight for a public option. I am a hard-working, educated adult who is currently without health insurance. I do not currently have a primary care physician, as I cannot afford to pay out of pocket to see a health practitioner. I am currently without hormonal birth control, as I cannot afford to pay for both the ongoing cost of a prescription and a full yearly exam. I am not a freeloader for expecting the right to affordable health care for myself and my family.

The public option is the ethical choice. It is the hospitable choice. It is the right choice for Hellenics.