Power isn't One, it's Many

One day some years ago, around the time that the second or third Harry Potter movie was coming out, my husband and I were listening to a Christian Radio program. I like to do that so that I hear different perspectives than my own. The local Christian stations are all very Conservative.

This particular day they were talking about the "evils" of the "occult" and Wicca. At least, what they think the occult and Wicca entail. Which is to say half-truths and falsehoods shaped to support their own spiritual understanding of the Divine and the world. (I realize that those half-truths and the like were based on ignorance, but still...)

They talk about Neo-Pagans with minimal understanding. They say that we worship the creation, not the creator (that is not true.) They also paint us as a bunch who are hungry for "power," and they claim we are simply lost and seeing to gain that power through consorting with fantasy or worse, diabolical powers.

If you read the earlier post on Pagan values and compassion, then you read "The Charge of the Goddess" by Doreen Valiente, and you will have noticed that power is indeed listed there.

But this isn't power like the Christians on the radio are thinking. Starhawk writes extensively about power. She classes various types. Most people interpret power to mean "Power Over." Which is, she posits, where a great number of our society's errors descend from. CEOs have power over their employees. Hierarchies and the like proliferate. Few understand that it is much more important to have "Power Within." This is the ability to manage our impulses, our base urges. It is the ability to master our sense of duty, to face our responsibilities with honor.

He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still. - Lao Tzu

But really power is more than that. Power is the ability to believe in yourself. To understand that you can make a difference in the world. Starhawk classes this as "power with." It means being able to unite in common cause to do what is right.

This includes power within as a matter of course, because working with others is not always easy and means mastering one's smallness inside.

I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do we as Pagans seek power? Yes. Many of us do. But by that do we mean the power to curse? I'm sure there are some who do so. Just as there are Christians who pray for the harm of others. Those who have, honestly forgotten that even those who you despise carry the Divine within them.

But by power we do not mean power over. Power over is manipulative and destructive and often relies on tearing others down, when in truth we are all equals. The money and materials we gather do not make us better or worse than anyone else.

Power is bigger than that. Power is the ability to face fear and do right in spite of it. Power is the ability to overcome what challenges we face. Power is the call to become whole, to be empowered to act in a way that best reflects our world view.
And it is a view that accepts diversity, that accepts that we can be wrong and that we should grow.

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. - Epictetus

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. - Alice Walker

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.
Mohandas Gandhi

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.
Socrates

Nothing external to you has any power over you.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.
Tony Robbins

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
Marcus Aurelius

The power to do good is also the power to do harm.
Milton Friedman

May the Gods guide you true,

Pagan Values and Compassion

Charge of the Goddess
________________________________________

Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess;
she in the dust of whose feet are the hosts
of heaven, and whose body encircles the universe

I who am the beauty of the green earth,
the white moon among the stars, and the mystery
of the waters call unto thy soul;
Arise, and come unto me.

I am the soul of nature who gives life to the universe.
From Me all things proceed, and unto Me all things must return.
Before My face, beloved of gods and of men, let thine
innermost divine self be enfolded in the rapture of the infinite.

Let My worship be within the heart that rejoices,
for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals.
Therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion,
honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.

To thou who thinkest to seek Me, know that thy seeking and
yearning shall avail thee not unless thou knowest the Mystery.
If that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee,
thou wilt never find it without.

For behold, I have been with thee from the beginning; and
I am that which is attained at the end of desire."

- from Doreen Valiente's "Charge of the Goddess"

I'm not Wiccan. I started out on that road though, and what I learned there is deeply influential on my spiritual path. I've thought about joining a coven, preferably something a bit BTW (British Traditional Witchcraft.) The opportunity doesn't exist near me.

June is Pagan Values Month for a bunch of Pagan Bloggers. Last year, I really enjoyed reading all the entries. The sheer wealth of sources for values, ethics and morals that exists for Pagans is wide ranging and diverse. Shall we look to Cato? to the words of the Egyptian Book of the Dead? to the Nine Virtues of the Asatruar?

Warrior virtues. Earthy virtues. Values born out of the Laws of Nature.

As my Pagan Values series, I am looking to the Charge of the Goddess, as was written by Doreen Valiente, inspite of not being Wiccan myself.

" Therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion,
honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you."

These are part of my code of values. Over the next few weeks. I will talk about each of these.

Values are not neat and clean, but diverse and challenging.

We are given to find out what is right and true. To listen to our deepest self, the part of our life that can hear the voice of the Divine. This takes hard work, honesty and the ability to accept that sometimes we won't act appropriately.

We will make mistakes.

The importance is how we deal with those errors. We pick ourselves up and make amends. We check and see if we have lived up to the virtues that we hold close. Then we let go, and do better.

It's a process, a journey.

In so doing, we become a better person, a better child of the Gods.

The hardest part is letting go. I am terrible about it. I cycle through the past in replay, and it's a dangerous and dismal thing to do.

But we can do it.

The trick lies within Compassion.

Compassion is a virtue that can be found in every religion that I have met. Whether it be Jesus talking about the Good Samaritan or the Dalai Lama sharing his wisdom about loving kindness.

Compassion is about empathy, about being able to see the perspective of others.

"Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival." - The Dalai Lama

"The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another." - Thomas Merton

"No man is a true believer unless he desireth for his brother that which he desireth for himself." - Muhammad

More relevant for my purpose here, however is Pema Chodron:
"Compassionate action involves working with ourselves as much as working with others."

When we err, we must look to compassion. Rather than battering ourselves with the past, we must have compassion for ourselves.

This is hard.

In Kemetic, ancient Egyptian, thinking, the act of abusing yourself is called eating your heart. You are lost in thought, thinking about the future and then your mind turns towards past mistakes and before you know it, you have a great big bite of yourself, and you are chewing it to bits.

Let go. Honor yourself with compassion.

"Hail, Bast, coming forth from the secret place, I have not eaten my heart." - The Negative Confessions

May the Gods light your way.