As part of the ADF Dedicant's Program, we are to reflect and write about each of the nine vitues designated by the ADF Druidic tradition. A group of us at Cedar Light Grove are meeting in study sessions. We have divided up the various virtues and are to incrementally write on them and then share our thoughts with the group. I chose vision, perseverance, and fertility. Vision will be the first virtue I focus on. In my opinion it is perhaps the most important one.
My interpretation of vision has to do with two key things: one's perspective and one's view of the future. Both are keenly important in determining how one lives his or her life. That's why vision, in my opinion, is the cornerstone of one's ideological, religious, and spiritual life. It affects every aspect of a person's daily existence from the profound and esoteric to the very mundane. "As a man thinketh, so he is."
In my spiritual journey over the past thirty years, I've been involved in many different religious traditions. It has been part of my search. At each stage in this journey, my perspective somewhat changed. I don't mean to imply that I am a chameleon with no core values. But rather that many of my values and beliefs have changed and developed over the years.
There was a time, long, long ago, when I held conservative Christian values. I was a bible- based, evangelical Christian. Part of that vision included seeing the need for women to be obedient to men, seeing the gay lifestyle as inherently evil, seeing diverse traditions as being of the devil. My vision divided the world between the saved and the doomed, the right and the wrong, the saintly and the malevolent. That perspective included a vision for the future. One day, history would end, Christ would return, and the righteous would live forever in service to their King. The non-righteous would of course suffer, but hey, shit happens.
That was my vision, my perspective back when. It has gone through many, many metamorphosis since then. And it will continue to develop and change. I am a work in progress. But to me, Paganism offers a much more tolerant vision of the world and of the future. In fact, tolerance is the key attribute of the Pagan mindset. We are polytheistic, duotheistic, and pantheistic. (ADF is of the polytheistic variety). By the very nature of polytheism, we accept diversity. That diversity can be ideological, religious, ethnic, cultural, sexual, or social. We do far more than tolerate. We celebrate. The only intolerance we have (or should have) is intolerance for intolerance.
This vision is one the twenty-first century desperately needs. As the world gets smaller due to technological advances, diversity will become more pronounced and evident. Most of the conflicts in the world today are due to prejudice and intolerance. What the Pagan vision offers to the world, is the opportunity to live and let live, to celebrate and focus on what we have in common, rather what what we have in differences. If humanity is to survive, we need that vision.
One additional aspect to the Pagan vision, that I can't leave out, is the recognition of Earth as a living entity that we owe ethical behavior to. Other tradtions (ie. Quaker, Buddhist, Bahai) have taught tolerance. But the Pagan tradition is somewhat unique in the way it views the Earth. This too is an ethic, a morality that is needed desperately in the twenty-first century (and beyond). If we don't learn to respect Earth and treat Her with reverence, we may feel Her wrath and become very dispensable.
In conclusion, vision is important because there is a definite link between one's vision and one's behavior. The type of ethic needed today, one of tolerance toward others and responsibility to the Earth is an ethic that is promoted by the Pagan mind-set. It is for these reasons that I come to the Druid path and dedicate myself to it. It is for these reasons that I hope many other folk will find this path.