| The structure of my morality and ethics is very like a physical structure with four cornerstones and one central column. The four pillars are strength, flexibility, purity and balance. The central column is respect. My ethics are based on respect for Spirit, for others, and for myself.
Respect for others includes: 1. Respecting their free will. It is up to each individual how they want to run their life. I cannot and should not try to force them to do anything, even if I see it as in their best interest. If I want to see someone healed, for instance, and they do not wish to be healed, that is their choice and I must respect it. 2. Respecting their culture/belief system/world view. This is especially difficult when I believe they have an incorrect view of how the world works. If a Christian comes to me for a massage and I think they need energy work, their belief system may not allow that. I am not allowed to work on them, even to save their life, if they do not wish it. If I feel they have soul loss and they believe they are being punished by God, I cannot do a soul retrieval for them without their permission. I don�t believe in a punishing God, but they might. It is their life to live and their choice to make, not mine. That apparently erroneous belief may have some part to play in the larger scheme of things that I cannot possibly understand. 3. Respecting their knowledge and abilities. When I am working with someone to accomplish a healing, I must remember at all times that I am not infallible. The person coming to me for help may have knowledge about their body, their history, the nature of the illness, etc. that I do not. Just because I feel it is a specific cause (for instance, an energetic intrusion) does not mean that they are unaware of the cause of their own suffering. And I may perceive one problem while they are concentrating on another, entirely different matter, even when we are seemingly talking about the same thing. For example, a woman may come to me to help cure her headaches. I see (hypothetically) energetic intrusions in her head caused by her husband�s abusive nature. She feels that she needs a soul retrieval. I would want to remove the intrusions, but if she says not to, I have to respect that decision and decide if I want to do a soul retrieval for her. Maybe the retrieval is needed to give her the strength to stand up to her husband and the problem will be solved in a much more permanent manner than I would have originally planned. And maybe she is just wrong and has to find that out for herself. In either case, I have to respect her knowledge about her own problem and act accordingly. Repect for myself includes: 1. Believing in my own abilities. That is not necessarily believing that I can do anything, but rather, believing that I can do anything the Spirit asks of me. I must have the confidence to be bold when necessary and stand on my own feet as a representative of Spirit in the physical realm. 2. Belief that I am worthy of the work. This goes hand-in-hand with the first point. The Spirit does not choose inadequate or improper tools. If I have been given a task, I am worthy of it. While we all must remember that we are nothing more than human, we also must remember that we are nothing less than divine. If I am given a task or a work to accomplish, I own both the suffering that may accompany the work as well as the glory (even if it is only my own self-recognition and no outside praise) that may come from success. A wise person once told me that �no sacrifice is without honor.� Of course, I am sure that sacrificial lambs in ancient Israel found little comfort in that, but our sacrifices are not to be discounted. It is petty and self-serving to go around bragging about how much one has had to give up and how hard the life of a seeker can be, but we can at least have the satisfaction of realizing that our efforts are important and that we are special if only because of the work we do and our relationship with the Spirit. 3. Self-preservation--Respecting oneself enough to defend against attack, for instance. We have not only the right, but the duty, to defend against physical and psychic attack. That does not mean we should be lured into �witch wars� or �sorcerer�s duels.� It does mean that we must protect ourselves when necessary and not allow others to suck away our energy or do us direct harm. It also means we should protect ourselves from ourselves. This is where it can get a little dicey. I believe it is my duty to eliminate harmful substances from my life. This includes chemicals in food that I can avoid, drugs like cocaine and heroin, excessive amounts of sugar (and other things that are harmful only when over-indulged, such as alcohol), tobacco smoke (when not strictly used in ceremony) and others. I realize that this one is very difficult and anyone who knows me can tell you I haven�t kicked my long-standing addiction to cigarettes, but I will. Because it is the right thing to do for myself. Respect for Spirit includes: 1. Trust in Higher Wisdom. I cannot always see the plan that Spirit has for me. In fact, I am very often in complete befuddlement regarding the course of events that make up my life. That does not mean there is not a plan; it only means that I am either too subjective to see it or it is just too complicated for my finite mind to fully understand it. My personal ethical standard is to assume that the Spirit knows what it is doing. If I mess up or just don�t see it, I will be led to the correct point in the path eventually. If the Spirit tells me to dance on a street corner, I should have enough trust in the Spirit (and in myself to know the message is truly from the Spirit) to grab my rattles and go dancing, irregardless of whether I ever see why it was necessary. It is not the duty of Spirit to explain everything to my satisfaction�only to guide me. 2. Reverence for all traditions. This means that I should no more desecrate a Catholic church than kick over an altar table in the middle of a Wiccan ritual. All religious traditions are, at their roots, guided by humanity�s desire to connect with the divine. I should always respect that, even when I believe their actual methods are counter-productive. I have little love for the institutions of Islam or Catholicism, but that does not give me the right to denigrate them or scoff at their ancient traditions. These are just a few of the core beliefs that underlie my personal ethics. Respect is the foundation of my morality and, ideally, the deciding factor in my actions. These points are not to be memorized or consulted before I make a move. They must become a part of me�so much so that they guide even my immediate reactions at those times I do not have time to think or plan. They must permeate my being so that I experience them in much the same way I experience gravity. It has always been there throughout my lifetime. I don�t think about pushing against it when I jump or climb. I don�t �hope� it works when I hop down from a step-stool; I just hop. I want my ethics to become that integral a part of my life. |
| Personal Ethics |