|
BELIEF |
IMPLICATION |
| * All paths and theologies have validity; there is no One True way to the truth |
** No individual or group has the right to impose its kind of religion on others. |
| * The original religious traditions of
all lands have many ideas and practices in common. They are all part of the
Old Religion. |
** The religious liberties of traditional and native peoples should be defended as our own, for they are our own. |
| * The Divine Principle is eternal, all-powerful, and beyond all personification. |
** Human attempts to define Divinity are inherently limiting. |
| * In order to relate to the Divine Power,
human beings use symbols and images, especially personifications based on
human characteristics. Each deity represents part of the Divine Power. |
** No single deity or other symbol should become the sole focus of worship. |
| * Both genders are equally human, and equally Divine. |
** Goddesses are as powerful as gods. Both men and women are spiritually powerful. |
| * The manifest creation is holy; a continuum
of consciousness from inanimate objects to the pantheons of deities and spiritual
beings. |
** Reverence all life and treat all things with mindfulness. |
| * Earth is the mother of us all, and all created beings are kindred. |
** We have a family responsibility to protect the environment. |
| * The human body is as holy as the rest of creation, and enables us to perceive life in its fullness. |
** We should train the body, but not torment it, and celebrate our physical and sexual natures. |
| * Individuals are responsible for their own spiritual development. |
** We must choose, and keep choosing, to follow the Path. No one can do it for us. |
| * Holiness is most meaningful in the context of community. |
** We should be involved and productive members of our communities, and help others along the Path. |
| * One's life may be shaped by events from one's past, or a past lifetime, but one has the free will to make a new, positive choice at any time. |
** We should never despair. |
| * What one does to others will return three-fold, for good, or for ill. |
** We should avoid negative thinking or action. |
| * Birth and death, creation and destruction, are part of the natural cycle of existence, but the spirit is eternal -- only the form of its manifestation is changed. |
** Death should not be feared. |
| * Evil is the result of the perversion or unbalancing of natural functions, phenomena, or energies. |
** We should try to work with the pattern of nature. |
| * The physical and spiritual worlds are equally real, and by altering one's consciousness, it is both possible and natural to make contact between one and the other. |
** Everyone should learn an effective technique for prayer or meditation and practice it regularly. |
| * As above, so below. |
** What is done on the spiritual level can affect what happens on the physical, and vice versa. |
| * By using words and symbols, one mind or many working together can change the world. |
** Magic works. |