Pagan Ethics and Etiquette
will" does not mean you may do as you wish and that is it. It is speaking of your TRUE will, your TRUE purpose in life. If you are following your true or higher will and purpose you will not come into conflict with another's will so therefore you do not have to worry about stepping on anyone else's toes. So you don't have to worry about harming another because you are in touch with the divine, and you are following your own spiritual path and will, which will not cause harm or conflict with another. Of course, we still have conflicts with people. One way to look at this is as a spiritual lesson for either you or the other person. If you are seeking to control another or harm another, this is not your true will. This is based upon the belief that every person is an individual, and as an individual you should be true to your own nature or consciousness. You must find your true will and make all of your actions subservient to the one great purpose. This again leads to conscious living.
If ethics are codes of personal and community conduct, then etiquette is a code of social conduct. Etiquette is defined as - the practices and forms prescribed by social convention or by authority, forms of conduct prescribed by polite society, code of correct conduct, also decorum denotes conformity with established standards of manners or behavior, the forms required by good breeding, or prescribed by authority, to be observed in social or official life, observance of the proprieties of rank and occasion, conventional decorum, ceremonial code of polite society, rules governing acceptable behavior.
Just like Emily Post and polite society, we in the Pagan community have behavior that is expected from us in how we interact with that community. In my opinion, etiquette is something sorely lacking in many Pagans. They are not taught certain things about how we interact with each other. This could be because maybe you didn't have a teacher, or your teacher didn't know them either. Or it could be because you or those who taught you just didn't care, it wasn't important to them. I feel that etiquette is VERY important. It keeps us civilized, it aids us in how we interact, and it shows the outside world that we know how to act.
Beyond the mundane world and it's social etiquette, lets
Latest Articles