One of my earliest memories is watching a Sunday morning religious show when I was about four years old. When they talked about people dying and going to heaven, I remember clearly thinking, “That’s stupid, everyone know when you die you come back as another person.” Learning that neither my parents, relatives or Hebrew school teachers shared this belief didn’t shake it in the least, so I was delighted, when I grew older, to discover other religions that did, including Paganism.

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Do all major religions share values of love, compassion and forgiveness, as the Dalai Lama says? I can’t speak for ‘all religions’—I can only speak as a Pagan about the values I see in our tradition. Even there, probably every Pagan would give a slightly different answer.

The heart of our spirituality is the understanding that everything is interconnected and interrelated, and that the Goddess is immanent—embodied in the world, in nature and in human beings, not separate. Love and compassion spring naturally from that worldview, for love is the way we connect with the Goddess—love aroused by the beauty of the natural world, love stirred into being by our connections with each other, love that cherishes the well being of the beloved. Of course, for us passionate, sexual, erotic love is also sacred--a way of deeply connecting to the Goddess—and that does not seem to be common in all major religions.

‘Forgiveness’ would not be my number three Pagan spiritual value. I would put justice, freedom, beauty, balance, ecological responsibility and creativity up there, not in any ranked order. Human forgiveness needs to come after a wrongdoer repents and makes amends for a hurt—otherwise, premature forgiveness can simply perpetuate systemic violence. The Goddess’ forgiveness—well, we don’t really see the Goddess as administering a system of transgression and punishment. Rather, she faces us continually with the challenges we need in order to grow. If we fail to meet those challenges, she just keep giving us the same ones over and over again, sometimes in more and more extreme forms. Sometimes a flat-out punishment might be easier to take. But we always have the chance to grow and change.

If there’s one belief religions do share, sometimes against all evidence to the contrary, it’s that our practices and insights will make people better than they would be otherwise. Yet there are Buddhists who fail in compassion, Christians who lack charity, and yes, even Pagans who drive SUVs and don’t compost their garbage. Knowing that, perhaps we can practice some compassion toward each other, judging people not by what they profess to believe but by their actions, and not blaming other religions for the transgressions of their imperfect followers.

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Starhawk’s Fall/Winter Schedule:

* The Spiral Dance -- October 27, San Francisco
* Samhain ritual -- October 28, Sebastopol
* On-Line Course: "Inner Compass: Finding and Holding the Vision" -- starts November 12
* Urban Earth Activist Training Weekend Series -- starts November 16 - 18, San Francisco
* Winter Solstice ritual -- December 20, Sebastopol
* Earth Activist Training -- January 5-19, Sonoma County, California
* Advanced Earth Activist Training: "Earth-Healing Strategies" -- February 10-17, Sonoma County

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From a Pagan point of view, there’s no contradiction between religion and science. Our Goddess is immanent in the earth and the cycles of nature, and the more we understand about the earth, the deeper is our sense of awe and wonder.

In The Spiral Dance, I wrote: “In future or contemporary Goddess religion, a photograph of the earth as seen from space might be our mandala. We might meditate on the structure of the atom as well as icons of ancient Goddesses; and se see the years Jane Goodall spent observing cimpanzees in the light of a spiritual discipline. Physics, mathematics, ecology and biochemistry more and more approach the mystical. New myths can take their concepts and make them numinous, so they infuse our attitudes and actions with wonder at the richness of life.” (Starhawk. The Spiral Dance, p.220)

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The Real Meaning of Halloween
By Starhawk

Ghosts and goblins, witches on broomsticks, pumpkins, candy and spiderwebs…it’s that time of year again. Halloween—probably every child’s favorite holiday, combining the irresistible attractions of dressing up in costume and gorging on candy.

But there’s a deeper spiritual meaning that underlies the holiday for Pagans and real Witches—those who follow earth-based Goddess traditions that predate Christianity.

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Perhaps our thinking about Halloween would be clearer if we recognized that there are really two Halloweens. There’s the Pagan Halloween, a deeply spiritual time of year for us, and a profound celebration of the cycles of death and rebirth, which I have discussed in my post “The Real Meaning of Halloween.”

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