In addition to pluralism, I think the other core value of Paganism is immanence. And, like pluralism, I think it stands in strong contrast to the monotheistic society in which we live, and I think it provides us with an ability to shape values that the larger culture can easily mistake for having no values at all.
Let’s define two basic ways of viewing deity: Transcendent or immanent. Transcendence means that deity is outside of and apart from ourselves, and immanence means that deity is within and a part of ourselves. Although this is a binary, we can believe in more than two ways: We can believe that deity is transcendent, is immanent, is both transcendent and immanent, is neither transcendent nor immanent, or is unknowable. So I count five variations, and maybe I’ve missed some.
But we can still talk about the binary, because the binary is this: Either a belief in immanence is present or it’s absent. Every variation I talked about can be fitted into that binary, and that’s really important in terms of values. (I would say that most atheists and agnostics believe a form of immanence, in that they believe non-deity values are within.)
Fundamentally, if God is outside of us, then the rules of good behavior must come from outside of us. They are handed to Moses on stone tablets, or derived from Gematria, or received through divine inspiration. We can receive messages in prayer or study Scriptures or find some other method, but if you believe the gods are not within, then you believe that right and wrong cannot be found within.
Without immanence, people aren’t trustworthy. They will do the worst possible thing the minute they allow God’s Law to loosen its grip on them. That’s why Christians don’t, in general, trust atheists.
But if you understand the gods to be within us, in whatever way you understand that, then people have the innate capacity to be good. People can be good without Law! Now, that is not to say people will be good, or that there is no need for laws, but I am talking about values, not governance. Maybe at some point I’ll write about evil (maybe not). Right now, that’s not the point.
Okay, I’ll digress for a moment. Pagan religion is behavior that places us in touch with the gods. Through our ritual life we do things that allow us to experience closeness to deity. Because obviously, we don’t normally, day-to-day, get the I Have the Goddess Within Me feeling. We mostly get the I’m Stuck in Traffic feeling and My Kid Freakin’ Ignores Everything I Say feeling. So having a ritual life places me in a better position to have an experience of immanence (and transcendence). Many people who are atheists also do things that allow them to enhance the experience of inner goodness or wisdom, just without the deity part.
But okay, where was I?
The point is, the entire book on doing the right thing is within you and within me, and within every human being, because the gods are in there, inseparable from us.
That allows you and I to have different values. We aren’t going by an external rule book, after all, so we won’t necessarily find the same answers when we look.
Which brings us back to pluralism again, doesn’t it?
And again, it doesn’t mean there are no rules. It just means that the rules can vary, can be situational, and don’t have to be written down or handed down to be valid.
