What, pray tell, is a “Pagan Issue”. What really affects all of us on such a basic level that it earns such a title. Is there such a cause in the world today?

Perhaps ecology. Perhaps we should all join Green Peace and the World Wildlife Federation, sending our hard earned money to countless organizations when we never actually dig our hands in the mess to help out. Certainly Gaia needs our assistance. In no time at all our species has devastated nearly every eco-system on the planet, filling the Earth with trash and the technology that creates it. Surely this must be our common cause.

Or should it be the fight against religious persecution? There are a great number of narrow minded individuals out there who delight in attempting to discredit ours, and other religious paths. Certainly we should send our money to one or many of the organizations who defend Neo-Pagan religions. Yes, that should be our issue.

Then again, maybe we should start from the ground up, promoting natural parenting practices such as Attachment Parenting, breast feeding, and healthy family living. If our generation does not see the changes that will be evoked, then certainly our children will, and they will make a brighter future for us all. Yes, that should be our cause.

However, the government is oppressing people as we speak. The poor and the sick are living on the streets of each of our towns, and cannot find help or relief from their problems. They are rejected by a government that would dare to deny their children benefits due to sloppy bureaucratic errors, and crazy laws designed to keep the rich wealthy and the poor in the slums. Yes, that should be our cause, we should help the needy.

Or maybe all of those things are the wrong way to go. Maybe they are all right. There are so many things to fight for that it’s hard to choose one! Do we educate the illiterate, organize demonstrations for women’s rights, or set out to educate the public on the hazardous effects of eating meat? Hard to say. There are too many wars to be waged, and not nearly enough soldiers to fill all of the battle positions.

So what do we do?

It’s simple.

We love ourselves.

Yes, that’s right, we love ourselves, seeing ourselves as the wonderful people we were designed to be. We look into the mirrors every morning and tell ourselves how great we are, and when we have done this enough, we begin to believe it. We naturally drop habits which only serve to harm ourselves. We change our lives because we know we have the power to do it. We pick ourselves up from the dirt where society has thrown us, and we stand tall.

It is then that we can begin to touch the lives of others. We demonstrate power and assurance to our children, our parents, our friends, and our lovers. We show our love to the Earth, and we begin to pick up the litter on the sidewalk as we pass by. We collect our cans and diligently we trek down to the recycling facility. We begin to feel empathy for others, for now we know what it was like to be down on our luck, as well as how it feels to be whole, and we send powerful healing waves across the land.

All things start small. We are born being conceived with only two tiny cells. We grow bit by bit, piece by piece, and never stop. And when we are at the peak of our power, we find that we do not need to feed it as once we did, and we begin the journey back to the womb, back to the Goddess, and the Spiral continues on.

If we really want to change the world, we must begin by empowering the only thing on Earth we have control over....ourselves.

That is the true “Pagan Issue”, isn’t it?

Valeria Holtz

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