Page of Pentacles

Congregationalist Wiccan Association of BC 5196 Moscrop Street Burnaby, British Columbia V5G 2G4 www.cwabc.org

C.C.C.C.C.W.W.W.W.W.A.A.A.A.A.B. C.B. C.B. C.B. C.B. C.

#26 June 2007 c.e.

$12/yr, included with membership.

The great religious and ethical question, “Howshould I live to be a good and ethical person?” has adifferent outcome for people like ourselves, followinga polytheistic religion without a single Holy Book, thanwhat we’ve been taught. This is, however, a questionthat religious people of whatever religion have tograpple with, and so I’m going to take a few minuteshere to explore it.For us, I suggest going from that question toasking “Who am I?” and then following that up with“Who are the Goddesses and Gods that are mainlyconcerned with the type of person that Ifundamentally am?” We don’t need or want to beanything except who we are, and we don’t want to beall like the same ‘perfect’ person, but we want to bethe best and strongest, most ethical, most interestingversion of who we are.By saying that one is a child of a particularGoddess one takes on Her attributes and affirms Heras central to one’s understanding of oneself. Onecommits to personal development in tune with thisGoddess’ Way and can expect Her help in developingan ethical and personal style that fits with Her Way.But one must also explicitly recognize that otherPaths, other ethics and other mores are also valid andlegitimate Paths. My Goddess is not necessarilyimportant in your life and the values and behavioursthat She demands of me are not necessarily anythingthat you should be concerned with. In the broadershared sense, the sense of “How I should live my lifetogether with other people,” ethics and morality arehuman agreements, not Universal Truths HandedDown From Olympus, or whatever.This problem of how the Gods fit in with ethicsand morality was dealt with in 380 B.C.E. by Plato inthe Euthyphro Dialogue between Socrates andEuthyphro, a classic philosophical text that is still veryuseful. The following question, among others, isposed: “Is an action wrong because the Gods forbid itor do the Gods forbid it because it is wrong?” Tryingto resolve the question can be done in two ways,which lead to different conclusions, both of which aremore or less a problem for the monotheist or for thosewho believe that the Gods are the source of ethicsand morality : a) “The Gods forbid an action becauseit is wrong” – this admits that there is some standardof right and wrong that is independent of the Godsand that wrong actions were already wrong prior toGods forbidding them; or b) “An action is wrongbecause the Gods (or a God) forbid it” – the positionrequired to reduce ethics to religion.In the first case we look to the universe or tohuman nature, not to the Gods, for the source of goodand evil. In the second case we end up with threeunacceptable positions: (i) Morality is Contingent. Soany action that is actually wrong could have beenmorally right, including, say, acts of torturing innocentchildren for fun, if a God approved of it. (ii) TheGods’ Commands are Arbitrary. If things aren’t rightor wrong or good or bad independent of the Gods’commanding or forbidding them, then there is no goodreasons to choose what to command and what toforbid. (iii) The God’s Goodness is Trivial andTherefore Not Praiseworthy. If whatever a particularGod prefers is thereby automatically best, then thefact that she/he always prefers the best is a trivialfact, true merely by definition. But then alwayspreferring the best does not make Her/Himpraiseworthy.Socrates also talks with Euthyphro aboutdifferences of opinion among the Gods, but, falsely inmy opinion, accepts that the Gods ultimately agreewith one another. This dodges around the simplepolytheistic ethical way out of the problem – becausethe Gods differ, different ethics result fromrelationships with different Gods, and our ethicalchoices ultimately must come from ourselves and notfrom Them. We adopt ethics that come from ournature and potential as human animals and ourmembership in particular societies.

Talking About Some Big Questions

by Sam Wagar

2Polytheistic religious frameworks do not providean absolute list of ethical and moral guidelines beyondsome foundation statements. There is no single set of rules and guidelines for all people but a great variety– a good place to begin to look at building our ethics isthe Greek idea of virtue ethics. This great variety of moral ways depends on the kind of person that onefundamentally is and the agreements that one makeswith one’s Gods to help develop oneself. Someabsolutes like the preference to avoid harming otherpeople, respect for a range of different Gods anddifferent means of being devoted to them, andhonesty about ones actions and choices are importantin the Wiccan path as well.A few examples – a person who is fundamentallya Vestal, dedicated to hearth and home and the valuesof community, must live a different life with adifferent moral and ethical code in order to be happyand fulfilled than what would be required of a child of Ares, or of Thor, or other Gods. What is moral andrequired of them, modesty, calmness, quietintroversion, will not necessarily be moral for others,and can in fact be immoral for them.So, “Who am I?” - I am a woman who valuespersonal strength and independence, who may beheterosexual but has no desire to be subordinate to aman (even in the sense of having him “look afterher”). I am a child of Artemis. That Goddess willwork with me to make me stronger, more independentand sure of my power. Relationships will be moredifficult because I will insist on my independence, butI will be able to build strong friendships with men andwomen on a basis of mutual respect and autonomyOr, I am a woman who values beauty and luxury,seeing myself as first a sexual being, flirtatious,coquettish, independent from the lasting bonds of anyrelationship but constantly surrounded by men andwomen. I am a child of Aphrodite. That Goddess willwork with me to make me more aware of my beautyand the power of sex. She will help me become morestylish and more aware of beautiful things. Lastingrelationships will be difficult because monogamy isnot for Aphrodite’s children, and it will be difficult togain the trust of women and men that I am around.Or, I am a man who values drunkenness andecstasy, who loves to explore different roles andways of being – an actor and performer, dancer. I ama child of Dionysos. That God will take me deep intoaltered states, will help me to bring others toawareness through ecstasy, will perform through mybody, will give me great charisma and dark power. Hewill lead me to the edge of addiction, will break boundaries and open me up at the very edge of mycapacity to endure.All of these people can be moral and ethicalpeople, devoted to the service of their Gods. They allcan develop great personal power. But the ways thatthey will do it must be different, the virtues that theyneed to express and work through will not be thesame. And the weaknesses that will be accentuatedwill be different as well – Artemis may be lonely,Aphrodite may be mistrusted, Dionysos may be anaddict, Vesta may be prudish and agoraphobic.In a polytheology the “God card” does not trumpanything. When I say that my Patron, Legba,demands certain things of me, this imposes norequirement on you to do or say anything, since therules of Legba apply only to His people (and Herewards only His people). In order to persuade you tobehave in a certain way, I have to genuinely persuadeyou of the worth of a particular ethical position and Ihave to be open to be persuaded myself, since I don’tnecessarily have a truth for anyone but myself.We must be in dialogue around morality, ratherthan giving a set of detailed rules and requiring them.It is not absolutely true, for example, that there is onegood way to be sexual (or even twenty ways – allthat we can all agree on is freely consenting adults)or that there is one diet that our Gods require of us(some Gods are vegetarian, some are hunters, someare herders and shepherds, many don’t care, somewant animal and human sacrifice) or one attitudetoward the use of violence and warfare.Ethical standards are useful and our commonhuman nature as hierarchic pack-hunting socialmammals tells us which areas are important – longlasting pair-bonds and families, order and organizedgroups with leadership and ownership of resources.But these ethics are not binding on the Gods, and theyreflect what we came from but not what we aspire tobecome, not our joint project with the Gods. If rightand wrong differed completely for each individual,building community and organized religion would bevery difficult and perhaps pointless (if religion is in theethics business, which Socrates and I would arguethat it isn’t necessarily). But things do not differ thatdramatically, the Golden Rule does apply, and ourrelationships with the Gods do not over-ride ourethical autonomy and self-determination – the Godsmay be wrong.Dialogue and absence of dogma are essentialqualities of polytheism. We must co-operate asindividuals and as communities to seek the truth,because our Gods are biased as individuals and noone of them has the whole truth. At the same timethere is no endpoint to the dialogue, no finalconclusions, but rather an ongoing exploration of moral and ethical questions. So, living as a good andethical person as a polytheist means living incommunity and in dialogue with others, respecting andlearning from their experiences with their Gods.These ethical questions and our relationships withour Gods are not just individual matters, either, butapply to our Temple work and rituals, to coven work

Temple News

Vancouver-Burnaby Temple

Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Art Magickal(and all the ships at sea),This past month has seen our Beltane celebrationon the 2

of May, our regular coffee meet on the25

, a number of new books, CDs, and moviesenriching our lives, and the renewal of a Great BigProject!After a great deal of work making decorations andhead wreaths and finding a wide array of colouredribbons, the big day of our Beltane finally arrived.Unfortunately, Anne was ill with the pain andinflammation of an incomplete root canal! What apity! But Deb and Mario came to the rescue to set upthe indoor Maypole and the ritual proceeded with Debgraciously acting as priestess. Attendance wassmaller than we’d hoped – only six people. Thehighlight for me was the wobbling Maypole in theYule tree stand, its detachable top wiggling away aswe turned. It was fun, in an improvised and playfulway – no pompous solemnity there!The next Sabbat, MidSummer, will be celebratedon 20

of June, at 7 pm, in the Community MeetingRoom at Metrotown Mall (above Sears, top level of the rainbow elevator in the Grand Court, OfficeGallery level). This is the festival of the Sun in Hisglory and it celebrates personal power andaccomplishment – so come prepared to brag aboutyour accomplishments this year and to celebrate whatyou will achieve in the coming year! As always, freeof charge, open to the general public.Our regular monthly coffee meet-up (last Fridayof the month, Sacred Space bookstore/café 29 EastPender Street, 7-9 pm) on the 25

, was a real treat.As well as a number of old friends a good number of new people came to join in the conversation. Thirteenpeople were there and what a lively and talkativecrew – there were three or four conversations goingand to how we are as religious people in the largerworld.(Useful reference books to begin to investigatethese things more deeply: Ginette Paris PaganMeditations for Vesta/Hestia, Artemis and Aphrodite,Pagan Grace for Dionysos, The Sacrament of Abortion for Artemis; Roberto Calasso The Marriageof Cadmus and Harmony, Plato The EuthyphroDialogue.)on at once and it was all very interesting – we talkeda bit about books, film, music, previous and currentspiritual paths, moving to the city (a fair number of transplants there), the situation in Iran, and otherthings that I have forgotten.Our Temple member Isabella has welcomed hernew grandchild into the world, Deb’s husband isrecovering well from his back injury and lookingforward to returning to work in a few more weeks,Sabrina finally has an appointment with a specialist inankle replacement surgery (which will relieve painand give her greater mobility), and the hot weatherhas come!. As well, Sam and Anne will be performinga wedding on the 23

of June, and two more in July.Oh yes, in the Great Big Project department – TheCanadian National Pagan Conference will be comingto Vancouver in 2009 with Sam chairing the localcommittee. When a new Board for the annualconference was elected in Winnipeg over the VictoriaDay long weekend, one of their first orders of business was to offer the 2009 conference to thelocal conference committee which currently includesSam Wagar, Anne Doré, and Diane Morrison of theCWA-BC and Dan Miller of the BC Freehold, aHeathen organization. We expect to include othercommunities and a broad range of Paganisms asplanning proceeds.Blessed BeSam Wagar, Priest samwagar@shaw.caAnne Doré, Priestess annedore@shaw.ca

Temple of the Green Cauldron (Nanaimo )

Pagan Pride Carwash

Come down and help support our pagan pride dayby getting wet and hanging out with friend. We’ve gotlots of money to raise so we need lot of hands to holdsigns, sponges and best of all hoses! All right, so nowwe need PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE and whatever car washing things you have. (Sponges, carbrushes, buckets, soap, anything you think we needfor a car wash) The most recent carwash wasSaturday the 2nd at the Departure Bay 7-11 from 12-4.For more info contactinfo@nanaimopaganpride.info or call 250-758-8332Visit our website at http:// www.nanaimopaganpride.infoNanaimo is working very hard to raise funds forPagan Pride. We are rather behind and it is going to