Monday, January 25, 2016

Finding Compassion Under the Pagan Umbrella

I wrote the following as a summary of some of the discussion that occurred surrounding Cherry Hill Seminary choosing to support the Charter for Compassion. The question up for discussion was "Is Compassion a Pagan (/ Heathen / Polytheist / Pantheist / etc.) Value?" By and large, we (a few students, such as myself, as well as faculty participants) affirmed that it was.

The following is a summary of the points made in that discussion. I am not a spokesperson for Cherry Hill Seminary, and the views on the rest of my blog are mine and mine alone. My intent here is merely to provide a resource for the discussion of Compassion in a Pagan context, compiled from multiple viewpoints in an academic setting.

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 Thoughts on Compassion, as Prose

  • Hades, Ruler of the Greek Underworld, was moved to tears of compassion by Orpheus' pleas for his deceased bride. Compassion hears the suffering of others.
  • Forsetti is a Norse god of mercy and reconciliation. Those who entered his presence fighting left as brothers. The ability to listen to those who are different and transcend our borders (personal and national) is a hallmark of compassion.
  • When Baldur, a god of hope and truth, died, all were called upon to weep for him. When one did not, and he stayed dead, he became instead a god of renewal and rebirth. Compassion and hope are twins, because every act of compassion is a seed hoping to blossom an emotional desert into an oasis.
  • The one who did not weep was Loki, and he too, experienced compassion from the goddess Sigyn. When all encouraged her to think of him as a lost cause, she did not. Compassion sees the roots of hatred are actually fear and pain, and that most "lost causes" are simply lost people, who need the right guide for them.
  • The Web of Life and Weaving of Wyrd shows us that suffering affects the entire pattern, not just one thread. Compassion shows us that "out of sight, out of mind" is an illusion that ignores how the injustice and sufferings felt by a few have an impact on all of society, acknowledged or not.
  • "We are all connected, to each other biologically, to the earth, chemically, and to the rest of the universe, atomically" - Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Humanistic Pantheist Pagans rely on natural models, moreso than mythology. Nature itself shows that when one part of an ecosystem is endangered or one resource is polluted, everything suffers. Even when not anthropomorphized, nature holds a lesson in compassion - for compassion, like nature, knows that we need each other, with all our diversity and differences, to survive on this little blue dot.
  • A mortal couple, Bacchus and Philemon, showed compassion to strangers beyond the call of hospitality itself. What they did for the strangers was discovered as being done unto the gods. Compassion sees the divine in the hungry stranger.
  • This most recent example may strike some as similar to the "Good Samaritan" and corporal works of mercy - but just because one group has an idea (especially an extremely general one) doesn't mean another can't also come up with it. Does Asatru own the concept of mead, or do practitioners of Shinto and Buddhism own the concept of the novel after the Tale of Genji? Then why do western Pagans think of compassion and forgiveness as "too Christian?"

    Perhaps we are afraid of our own shadow, and afraid we will try it and fail as badly as many others have. Compassion teaches us to try anyway, despite our fears.
  • Baubo was Demeter's nurse. When her daughter Persephone was kidnapped, Baubo was the first to make Demeter laugh. Compassion shines a light in the darkest night.
  • Elos, the spirit of Mercy and compassion worshiped in Athens, had a simple altar. It bore no perfect Greek statues, no libations, and no incense. Her offerings were the shorn hair of widows, the clothes of beggars who had risen out of poverty, complaints, and tears. Compassion offers a shoulder to cry on, when words and actions may not be enough.
  • In the Fifth Sacred Thing, Starhawk shows the bravery of compassion. Compassion knows that the best way, and the most difficult way, to remove hatred is not through destruction, death, and violence, but through making an enemy into a friend. Compassion, like Maya Greenwood, says "There is a place for you at our table, if you will choose to join us."

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