It is hard to put Pagan values into a classification.
And I sooo cringe when I hear “Harm none do what you will”.

The way I see things is that there is a natural order to things. We all believe energy is there weather or not a person chooses to recognize it. We have tried to explain to many “muggles” that there is simply a natural order to the way the Universe works things. We pagans just tap into it on a more visual and conscious level, trying to kick out the unnatural roadblocks.
If our religious path is a way of flowing with the energy then why should values be any different? Values are, after all, no more than discovering the natural order of what works for us and those around us. The bottom line is there are things that are good and there are things that are bad. We do the best we can. None of us are a complete version of either good or bad. For the most part we are trying to dance with that universal order and finding where we fit.
And then there was grey. Should healings be done without asking the person being healed? Is getting tanked before and after ritual a good idea? Should it really be accepted that there is usually a “pagan” around that seems to use the word to see how much sex they can get? The list goes on. I can even tell you my point of view (no, no and yes) but it isn’t even what my values are that make a difference to anyone but me and those I love. In essence it isn’t even worth more than a grain or two to this concept that I have values that would be considered pagan to begin with.
Moral code is a way to connect with what is right. Pagans are trying to connect with what is ingrained into being human. There are just some things you don’t do (bad attracts bad) and some things you do (good attracts good) if you want to lead a happy, well adjusted life.
So what are those things? They really don’t need explanation. We all innately know them; it’s part of the human code. You shouldn’t let anger get the best of you. You should appreciate the beauty everywhere. You should help the ones you love and stand up for what is right. There are a few more but that is basically the end of the story.
Or is it? There are good people and bad people everywhere, even in the pagan community. I think that is where the true discussion over pagan values comes from. How do we cope when we smell bullshit? What do we do now that we are so disconnected from our neighbor? There should be a level of acceptance of the fact that there are jerks in every crowd but never an acceptance for what a “bad person” does that is wrong. If anything, pagan or not, we should do some more standing up for what is right and stop hiding behind the fact that we are all trying to better ourselves. Is bettering yourself hiding out from a confrontation when you know of an injustice? I don’t think so. I think it is just self-preservation. But where did we get this idea that to preserve our light we have to avoid calling someone out on what is dark? And the fact is that a person will hide the bad stuff they do. They know it’s wrong too. So I am not talking about stopping a rape, beating, injustice if you see it happening. It happens in private.
What do we do when we know there is someone we know of that did something really bad? We chose to either not hang out with them or avoid talking anywhere near their close circle about it. Ohhh that takes a bite out of them. How could they ever live with our snub or silence?
The behavior continues.
We continue to be ok with it because we do nothing to stop it happening again or help heal the victim. Why? Because we don’t know the victim that well or it isn’t our place. It’s gotten so bad that it’s become taboo for people who have been wronged to even talk about that wrong to anyone except a close, secret circle.
Most of us are doing pretty good at doing the right thing. I have that confidence in the readers here. But what can we do to prevent the bad to come or heal from that which was??
And has anyone ever noticed that it is strongly human to do something? The more we preserve self in avoidance the more that part of nature tells us to reach out against something wrong. If the only wrong we are left exposing ourselves to is who picks whose nose then we’ll be overly critical.
Society says --
We should never, ever cry in public.
We should actually control every extreme emotion in public.
No PDA, no arguing with the SO.
We never even talk about politics at parties for crying out loud.
Keep everything a secret. Only let people in when you have to.
Donating time and money regularly is good but not necessary.
Is this pagan? This is normal? It seems it is. How very sad.
After the complaints are blogged what do you do to right that wrong??

Two snakes this one is for you!

Ahhhhh the life of a pagan socialite!
We pagans pride ourselves in being a diverse group. That we are! If there were paper degrees to earn based on the pagan experience there would be a few to be gotten from being a pagan socialite! From four years being active in the pagan community you could earn your bachelors in psychology, sociology, crafting, management and of course mead among many other things. Well, personally I believe a degree in mead could be very useful.
Getting used to the pagan community could cause a lot of mental turmoil. You have to become a mind reader at times to decipher what is going on. And when dealing with the likes of psychics and natural empaths, well it can be hard to figure out what’s up. THEN - Just when you think you have it down pat what is acceptable and what is not you run into another group with an entirely different demeanor and “set of rules”. Some things can leave even an “experienced” pagan confused as to what people are thinking or how to react.
It starts with the Internet. It isn’t like you can just go to the club, put on your pagan nametag and find others out there that have those unique views on religion. No, if you crave the contact of those other like-minded then it usually start with an online search. You do the Google thing and if you add Michigan to the search you’re likely to come up with either one of Robin or Gordon’s sites, throw a search of Witchvox in for good measure and your on your way to being one socially endowed pagan. Great, ya hit pay dirt you think! Here is where it starts! Yea!
It’s great how far we have come with online socializing. But there is no body language to convey what exactly is meant in the world of the typed. What about when those slippery smilies come sneaking in? Add it to pagan lingo and your screwed. What exactly is meant by “Perfect love and Perfect Trust” when it is typed? When someone is talking about his or her experiences is because they see it as a requirement that you follow their same path or is it because they are simply sharing? And ya just can’t beat the drama that inevitably some people seem to feed off of.
You met some people online and the next step follows naturally. Time to step out of the life of the solitaire and start rubbing elbows! So you meet Silverstar-Goldenfire-Moon-Wind-Earthwalker. Cool name you think. For a while you chat online getting to know Silver. She seems cool. She explains a lot of the confusing pagan lingo and what differences are between paths. After a while you ask for a picture exchange. She is actually a he. But ummm you remember him talking about past boyfriends. So he is gay, no big deal. But the whole time you’re thinking of Silver as a she. Oooops. You’re quite embarrassed but you can go on because he is really cool and it was your mistake anyhow.
You meet Silver out at a ritual at his place. It is going good except for the fact that you cannot for the life of you remember his actual name. He remembers yours and talks about the importantance of a names so you can’t very well ask can you? You wait – ok there you got it. His name is Kelly. That’s the other reason you thought he was a she. Ok, it’s going good. Ritual time! People are getting naked. Ummmm-eeeer. Oh well, it doesn’t seem as strange as you thought it would – When in Rome! The mead is poured and the ritual goes great. People feast after and there is more mead. Then another bottle is opened. Hmmmm cool. All in all it’s a great night and fun was had.
You continue to hook up with other pagans because this is fun and everyone is great! This next deal is different. Still seems cool, but different somehow. You go to your next ritual, making it a point to remember the hostesses name perfectly this time. You bring the mead cuz you find out just how cool a mead night can be. Ritual time!
You - “I’ll pour the mead, where’s the chalice?”
Not you - “We don’t drink here.”
You - “Oh, ummm sorry.”
Not you - “Oh my god, are you taking off your pants?”
You - “Umm, well, I just thought. Ummm”
But all is not lost. You have a good laugh over it and everything is discussed logically and the night is winds up worth it. All’s well that ends well.
I won’t even go on about what happens when this poor pagan walks into the house with Slayer music blaring, complete with Kiss costume answering the door.
But you win some and you loose some – 2 out of 3 aren’t bad.
Yes, a diverse group we are! Sometimes you find people that you click with right away and know there is a connection. Some people you meet online and chat, chat, chat then in person the most logical thing you can say is “have the time?” Some people make ya squirm and you can’t wait to bolt from their company. No matter what you can’t really claim there is a dull moment!

Mr. Obama - Just a few questions please.

As everyone that knows me personally, knows I am a big fan of Obama. As a matter of fact, I recently and publicly (well myspace anyhow) declared the Obamas to be the hottest public couple in America. Sorry - Angelina and Brad eat your hearts out! This is the greatest place to be an Obama fan, the pagan community. I don’t know how many announcements I heard for circles on inauguration night. I don’t have to express here why I think our new pres is so great.
Alas, that’s not the total public view. Along with the inauguration circles there was plenty of talk about protection spells going out. I lit my candle. I think I am going to make a permanent place for more candles. I grieve to say I think they’ll be needed. They’ll be needed for all the power hungry, money snorting fools out there that are watching our new pres like hawks, or rather vultures. Those candles should be burning for a very dangerous reason – fundamentalists right to lifers.
Within a day of his presidency Obama was working his tail off. He was getting to know all those he was going to rub elbows with. He was politely seeing Bush and his Gestapo out the door. He also signed a paper or two. One of the already famed paper signing experiences he had dealt with funding in relation to places that also perform abortion.
The Freedom of Choice act is the new Right to Life hot topic. If you Google Obama and abortion, the Freedom of Choice Act has plenty of reading material. This act "declares that it is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child; terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability; or terminate a pregnancy after viability when necessary to protect her life or her health." That’s according to Wiki. Sounds reasonable to me. I’m pro life – Pro that a woman has a right to do what she feels she needs to with her life.
Obama was already told that Jesus wouldn’t vote for him. He is just to free on his views of Freedom – Like the view that people should have it uncontrolled by slanted, narrow church views. I know the pres is pissing off right to life junkies. I am scared he’s going to piss off some real assholes his term. (Maybe I shoulda said jerks?)
I was still shocked when I received a very strange phone call the other day. “Hi – this is a recorded voice calling you to make sure I tell you my point of view. Before we start I want to make sure you know that everything I tell you is true. I would not have gone through the trouble of recording my voice to have some yahoos call as many people as they can if it were not true. Not only is it true but also you need to agree with me by the end of this message. Period.” Ok so I admit that’s not exactly how it started, but that’s what it translated to anyhow, roughly, sorta, kinda. What that little recorded voice DID state was a series of questions. Did I know? Did I know that Obama is right to life? (duhh, it was a winning point.) Did I know? I listened somewhat distractedly I am sorry to say. However, I am not sure why I didn’t hang up as soon as I knew it was the friendly robo-man. So at least I listened. As disgusted as I was with what I heard later I think robo-man was right about one thing – we need to listen.
We need to know what these trippy right to life people have to say. Because they are NOT saying things like – Since we are right to life we are going to open a right to life kids care and all abused and neglected children who are taken from their families will live here happily ever after. No – we have run down foster care systems and stressed adoption agencies. I think that every right to lifer that stands up and says “That woman should NOT have an abortion!” Should also be prepared to say, “If that baby is born to this world I will take the child as my own!” Every single one of them should have this sentiment. We need to know what they say because they are angry. They are angry enough to distort the truth into a huge pack of lies with one hope – to get everyone they can as pissed off about the things they are pissed about.
Did you know that Obama is working to ensure that every current restriction is erased from abortion? This means that anyone anywhere can perform an abortion regardless of medical qualifications. This means that sanitary conditions will no longer be a consideration. Anyone anywhere can perform abortions at any time and it will be legal, more than that encouraged. Is anyone getting these calls from robo-man actually believing this shit? I’m sure they are. To go so far as to state that Obama wants to ensure that a woman can abort a child anywhere, from anyone is ridiculous. To be honest any one anywhere can perform an abortion and likely not get persecuted. The statements made were to be used as an insinuation that Obama cared nothing for human life. That he encourages the mass death of innocent life. The thought is taken further in that the innocent life will be destroyed under circumstances that even the most extreme pro-abortionists must find reprehensible. It is an old, unstable stepping stool to say the least. It is taken a step further here because Obama is popular and they have to take their extreme to the next level.
Did you know?
Click. I couldn’t take it any more. I hung up before I got more of an education.
I only hope that mainstream America also chooses logic
I have a couple of questions.
Did you know it is impossible for Obama to pass anything to completely take all restrictions from abortion, even if he wanted to? Did you know it is just fine to be pro-choice and not feel you’re going to go to hell?

So there is Kathy Lee and there is a wedding and there is a quote. "The nasty, bad pagans". If you want to see it for yourself go here - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25367004#25368216
than fast forward to 4:25 or so (that's 4 minutes and 25 seconds into the video) and it's there in all the glory that TV brings us. All the glory of a bad, ignorant TV personality. Shame - I used to like Kathy Lee.

So what is a Pagan to think??
I began thinking of all the media spots where pagan-like things have been bashed. I couldn't think of many beyond Blair Witch. I think it's funny that the movie Blair Witch they had to put a disclaimer that they weren’t bashing Witches as a rule and it was all fun and games. Should I even go there yet how Witches are a small percent of Pagans? I do wonder why an entire movie has to cater to a small percentage and one lousy TV hostess is allowed to go beyond Witches and bash a plethora of religions in one single spit out sentence. I wondered if she even knew the religions she was encompassing with that word. I wondered if she has a clue that Native Americans commonly consider themselves pagan and many that do not still rub shoulders with pagans all the time?
All fun and games till an eye gets poked out. So would this be Kathy Lee poking an eye out or at least an attempt?? She did spit the word pagan out like it was a horrible inconvenience that she even had to read the word and an absolute chore to having to say it out loud. I am thinking that she is clueless. And by her rules of Christianity shouldn't there be an eye for an eye? But if I was a TV hostess and said "the nasty, bad Christians" then I would have been banned forever. Or at least have caused a pretty big splash. Besides those are her religions rules, not mine. No, mine I have to accept that an eye for an eye only makes the world blind and that karma comes back in forms, when bashing others, that are not all that pleasant. Besides it's not Christians that I think are bad or nasty. It's ignorance. Ignorance prevails again in the mainstream of out society!
With the fourth coming up it makes me just so proud to be an American! "One Nation under God" and all that jazz. So not to sidetrack I am proud to be an American, really. I have the freedom to fight for my religion even if I don't have the TV power to do much. I also have the free speaking that I can say “One Nation under the Goddess Earth”. It chafes though that those that not only don't have to worry about gas prices because they don't even pump the gas into their vehicles also have the TV time and the comfort that no one will be saying "the nasty, bad Christians" on public television in retaliation. The cookie cutter rich. But I am sidetracking again.
What's a poor pagan to do? Or anyone for that matter that doesn't like to hear the bashing of religion (or non-religion). I suppose she is politically correct enough not to have said that Atheists are nasty or bad. Or Muslims. Oh boy, that would've been fun! No, just us nasty pagans in our nasty little homes that do our bad things. But alas, no one really knows what us nasty pagans do or really who we are. So would writing to say that she's full of shit do any good? By all means if you feel the need, please do. Even if it a line or two with the title in the e-mail of Kathy Lee and Nasty, bad pagans. It may make a dent. I did - Here's the e-mail - today@nbc.com . I wrote just to blow off some steam so I'm not stewing over this for a week. I have enough to stew over. I don't need Kathy Lee to pee in my Cheerios too.
Would a letter campaign really make a difference? What really brings down ignorance in a bad, nasty TV hostess?? I don't expect anything more than the form letter that I got back. I don't expect an apology from her. Though I did ask if she would have the audacity to call a pagan nasty to their face. No - I am not sure what would the best thing for a pagan or religious tolerant person is to do. Show our numbers. Now that would be nice. If there were letters from thousands of people then that would be something. It would take some numbers to care for that to happen though.

In the meantime all I have is this blog, no TV time. Just my nasty, bad religion in my nasty, bad life. I wonder if it would make me feel better to go sacrifice a child now?? Maybe I should surf the web to find out how I can save my soul for only a down payment of $99 and monthly installments of $25 a month. Or maybe I should just sit back and be happy that even though I do have to worry about gas prices and I don't have a TV spot (that's my daughters job) I am working for tolerance and education myself. Even if I'm a bad, nasty pagan.
Oh as a legal note children don't like it when you ask them if they think of themselves as nasty, bad pagans. They just don't take it very well.

By Arayla

TOP RULES OF PAGANISM

I have been really sick of people asking if I am "satanic". People don't understand anything about the pagan religion and well it's pretty hard to explain in just the few seconds I have right after they ask if I practice satanic rituals - before I break their nose. So I am working on a more peaceful solution. Here is my pagan list that I think all pagans live by. It's hard to organize general ideas about paganism because there is such a variety of beliefs but I think I have the basics covered here

For those that even slightly know what paganism is then they also know that is is tough to get strict rules of conduct because all pagans are different. If any pagan hereby disagree with the following please feel free to have your people contact my people - otherwise it is going to be published as is in the next Silver Ravenwolf book - "How to Shove the Broomstick up the Loudmouthed, Uptight Persons Ass"

1 - We are pagans we strive for balance. Typically if you eat that huge slab of cow you should do a religious fast soon after to cleanse your body before next ritual. Then eat another huge chunk of cow.

2 - Many pagans are vegetarians, honoring our brother and sister animals by not partaking of their flesh. For those pagans substitute rule one with cheesecake.

3 - We do honor the Earth Mother and the Greenman with ritual. We honor the change of the seasons. Nature is great! We also honor that pagans have many names for deity. So dance naked around the bonfire screaming any name that comes to mind. The God and Goddess will never leave in a huff for this.

3 and 1/2 - Dance naked every chance you get. Or is that just me?

4 - A good fuck buddy is hard to find but weeeell worth the effort to look!

5 - Oh - That's not pagan is it?? Ooooooops - That is just my personal rule. However - Not all pagans are sluts and whores because they enjoy sex! I have met many, many more Christian tramps that are convinced they are going to hell for their actions compared to a pagan that loves a good roll in bed and knows that it is bliss!!

6 - Satan does not exist - period - ever - If you have a confirmed belief in him then I have to say - LAY OFF the mind trip you are one!! It's not doing the rest of us any good.

7 - There is hell - It's what happens when you die and take the baggage with you. Jerry Faldwell is a prime candidate for entry. Lighten up, no one wants to have some egotistical play on life thrown into their face. You live your way - I live mine. We all get along and sing happy songs! Then dance naked around the fire.

8 - Lies are bullshit - always. Well except the little white ones that people tell each other in relationships. Those can be ok sometimes. Trust me men, the woman want to hear a SINGLE digIt number!!! And no woman looks fat in that, k. And you really should tell your boss it was traffic and not morning sex. He'll sniff you when you walk by and you may loose that next promotion - it just isn't a wise choice ok.

9 - There is more to the world than black and white. There is gray and red and green and blue and fushia and pink and . . . Got it???

10 - We only sacrifice the really bratty kids. The rest we keep around 'til they hit puberty, then we sacrifice them because it's so much more meaningful when they struggle.

11 - Animals are bought at the store. I don't need to sacrifice any more to the Gods. And I am not about to make a ritual sacrifice to Meijer. Life has changed. Rules have changed - If you think that you may know because you knew about the Mayan sacrifices hundreds of years ago To you I say - you need to change and stop grabbing your balls in private and saying ugga uggga.

12 - It's not idols we have on our alter It's symbols, totems, reminders of the beauty we see in our life, in our Gods - I have never ever known a pagan to worship an inanimate object!! CEOs, they are mostly non-pagan - they worship idols - If you don't believe me then have some blond bimbo put a huge bag of money on the desk and tell me they wouldn't get hard in 1.2 seconds.

13 - Most pagans believe in reincarnation in one way shape or form. It's that simple and for the record I read a thing somewhere that even among non-pagan; some of the most intelligent people of our time have believed in reincarnation - Einstein, Ben Franklin and on and on - Eat that Jerry Faldwell.

14 - Take care of everyone you love. If they don't believe the way you do then that is fine. Be there for that 3 am phone call. Talk to your kids about drugs. Love your life. Know you make mistakes and learn from them. Live - for Goddess sake live and live and live. . .