Monday Maxims: Shun & Despise Evil

The Delphic Maxims mention “evil” twice, first as something to be hated, and secondly as something to be abstained from.

But what, precisely is evil?

evil (adj.)
Old English yfel (Kentish evel) “bad, vicious, ill, wicked,” from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz (cf. Old Saxon ubil, Old Frisian and Middle Dutch evel, Dutch euvel, Old High German ubil, German übel, Gothic ubils), from PIE *upelo-, from root *wap- (cf. Hittite huwapp- “evil”).

“In OE., as in all the other early Teut. langs., exc. Scandinavian, this word is the most comprehensive adjectival expression of disapproval, dislike or disparagement” [OED]. Evil was the word the Anglo-Saxons used where we would use bad, cruel, unskillful, defective (adj.), or harm, crime, misfortune, disease (n.). The meaning “extreme moral wickedness” was in Old English, but did not become the main sense until 18c. Related: Evilly. Evil eye (Latin oculus malus) was Old English eage yfel. Evilchild is attested as an English surname from 13c.

source: Online Etymology Dictionary

According to Merriam-Webster, evil is an adjective to describe something as “morally reprehensible” or “causing harm”, and a noun for “the fact of suffering, misfortune, and wrong doing” or the something that causes it.  Extreme moral wickedness…or just the stuff we don’t like.  What is or is not evil seems awfully personal.

Back in November, I discussed Delphic Maxim #136, Gratify without harming, and touched on the idea of evil:

Evil tends to be an interesting subject in Pagan communities.  Views of what constitutes “evil” as a definition and as an action or behavior vary, but tend to emphasize the “I know it when I see it” subjectiveness of the idea of evil.  Of the many discussions (online and IRL) that I have encountered on the topic, my favorite definition comes from an essay on the Wiccan Rede from Proteus Coven–evil is a rip in the fabric of empathy.

All of this really leads me to sometimes think that either everything might be evil (either that, or nothing is)–after all, everything has the capacity to directly inflict harm and misfortune on someone, somewhere.  No one lives in a vacuum and even the most altruistic of acts is going to have a downside somewhere down the line (Newton’s Third Law–every action has an equal and opposite reaction, sometimes I think it applies to more than physics).  And if everything is evil, perhaps it all cancels out, and nothing is more evil than the next, except in the context of the beholder.

When I ran these two maxims through Google Translate, the result I got was “hate wickedness” and “abstain from wickedness”.  Wickedness certainly is implied in the dictionary definitions for “evil”, and indeed, definitions of “wickedness” include the description of “evil”.  But I like the word “wickedness” better than that of “evil”–it isn’t as loaded of a term.  When we think of evil in its usage, it often to carry an additional subtext–either as an absolute that is part of a moral dichotomy (good vs evil), or as some Supernatural Big Bad Being.  

Ultimately, I have to say that evil isn’t supernatural.  It isn’t a moral absolute, or the opposite of good.  Evil isn’t a specific action or person or event.  Evil can’t be defined.  But it does exist.  Evil happens, and it isn’t everything, or nothing.

Evil is a rip in the fabric of empathy.

Now…I guess I just need to take the time to discuss what the heck that means!!

Maxim Monday: No promises

There are three Delphic Maxims that speak very clearly and very redundantly (in case you missed their council the first time!) on the subject of making promises, oaths, and pledges. The advice is simple…don’t. Don’t make oaths, don’t make promises, don’t make pledges, and if you have to…run away rather than making one, no matter who you would be making it to.

I’m thinking this has less to do with the idea of commitment in and of itself, and more to do with the potential for breaking an oath.  In ancient Greece (as in many ancient cultures), oath making was a Big Deal.  The oath in Greek society had 3 main parts–the actual commitment itself, the swearing of that commitment to the gods, and the acceptance of a curse should the oath not be fulfilled.*  For example, the Hippocratic Oath is made to the gods Apollo (as The Physician), Asclepius, Hygieia, Panaceia, “and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses”, and ends with the caveat, “If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.”

It makes sense then, that the advice concerning oaths, would be to avoid them completely.  Oaths in ancient Greece were present in all of society, from oaths of political office, to business contracts.  And they were unbreakable–meaning, if you broke one, you had consented to punishment from the gods (and from the legal system).  Breaking an oath in ancient Greece was perjury, and perjury was a sin in the eyes of the gods, particularly the Furies (according to Homer) and to Apollo (according to Herodotus), who would punish the descendants of the perjurer.  Between the various philosophers there was some dissension on what precisely constituted oath breaking–if one was unable to fulfill an oath, due to circumstance…was that perjury or not?  And over time, the views changed as well as to what exactly was “breaking” a oath.**

But what does that tell us for today?  Should this maxim still stand?  If we read it as “Don’t make promises you have no intention of keeping, or doubt your ability to keep”, then I think yes.  We should hesitate before we make an oath.  Our automatic response to promise-making should be not to make one, unless we really, really, really think it is that important, and really, really, really intend to fulfill it.

My dad and I, at my boot camp graduation, in August 2003.

From the girl that took the Oath of Enlistment some 10 years ago, it is a Big Deal.

Notes:
*source
**source

Honor the Hearth, A Maxim for Candlemas

hearth (noun)
1. the floor of a fireplace, usually of stone, brick, etc., often extending a short distance into a room.
2. home; fireside: the joys of family and hearth.
(from dictionary.com)

In the beginning, before mankind had hearths, we just had fires.  A community fire offered protection from the elements, from darkness, from wild animals, from things that go bump in the night.  A fire acted as a gathering place for the meal to be cooked, for generations of a community to come together to share their common bounty of food and story.  When the community fire became the family hearth, it shifted the cohesion that shared protection, sustenance, and company offered directly into the home, and made it the province of those that tended the home.  For many generations, in many cultures, the hearth tenders (and most deities of the hearth) have been female.  This begins to change, but the stereotype of the Hearth as a “Woman thing” prevails (often even among women).

A lot of the historical context for honoring Hestia, and honoring the hearth (since this maxim can be taken to mean either…though, as all of the other maxims fail to mention any deities by name, I tend to prefer the latter as the meaning the Greeks were going for) is directed towards women, as a result of this stereotyping.  I could talk about things like proper housekeeping, about nourishing food, about keeping a household shrine, about magic in the home…and all sorts of traditional and non-traditional, modern and historical ways to honor Hestia, and to honor the hearth as a physical place (and I do, among other things).  But I think, as a kitchen witch (and a kitchen is just the modern hearth), honoring the hearth ultimately has very little to do with a physical place (even though most of what we do is centered there).  The hearth is just a symbol, a tool, for the working of a certain type of magic…the type of magic that embodies honoring the hearth.

Honoring the hearth is really about honoring those you would share a fire with.

Check back on Saturday for The Bewitching Home blog party!

Monday Maxims: Practice What is Just

Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for rights.*

At the beginning of this Maxim Monday enterprise I wrote about “being overcome by justice”, and its intersection with the 2nd principle of the Unitarian Universalist Association.  In it, I quoted Martin Luther King, Jr. a couple of times.  Somehow in a stroke of kismet or coincidence, I picked its companion maxim for Martin Luther King Day, not really thinking about the timing, until just before I sat down to write.  I had an entirely different post in mind until then…something in line with service (which I’ve talked about before) as a form of practicing justice…

The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.*

I think that this maxim happens to be one that Martin Luther King, Jr. might have been a fan of.

I’m not sure there is much I can say on this subject though, that he didn’t say.  And on that matter, I’d prefer to let him speak for himself.

There will be hundreds of posts and articles and news clips on Martin Luther King today, as a historical figure, as an icon for justice and civil rights, and as a husband and father.  I encourage everyone to watch or read them–the Civil Rights era is an important period of our time that we could all use to be more cognizant of…but this post is not about that, not precisely.

I think we all can agree that practicing justice is a good thing to do, even if we differ on what that means in our own lives, and how we feel compelled to express it.  Men (and women) like Martin Luther King do (and have done) a far better job of orating and demonstrating how we can be more just than I will ever be capable of doing.  But what I can do–probably my most important contribution towards bending the universe towards justice, is to teach my children what it means to be overcome by justice and to practice what is just, by talking to them about justice and our failings in living justly with honesty and integrity to the best of my ability and demonstrating just actions in my dealings with them and others.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.*

Today my Chickadee asked me a very serious question that I wasn’t quite ready to answer,”Why did a white man kill Martin Luther King? Is it because he was black?”  For an almost six year old, this is a serious question that she just didn’t know the answer to.  But for me…this question was just a little bit heartbreaking.

Just last week, my baby girl though of skin color as nothing more than nature’s Crayola box.  Just last week, my baby girl would tell you that “I’m not white, I’m peach” and would correct anyone that might suggest her bus buddy with brown skin was “black”.  As far as she was concerned, our skin colors were no more significant than the colors of flowers, and they should be accurately described.  In a mostly white neighborhood, the most significant physical trait of her bus buddy was not the color of her skin, but that “Miss M has ponytails that are better than mine because they have poof.”

And now, not only did she want to know about The Man With A Dream (as she has taken to calling Martin Luther King)–a question much easier to answer than what would follow, but she wanted to know  why someone would be mean to someone for having a different color of skin.  And then she wanted to know why people would think that they were better than other people for having a different color of skin.  And then she wanted to know why people had owned other people.  And she wanted to know why we are white, when we are really peach, and why people that are brown are called black, and why any of that matters, because we are all just people.  And then she wanted to know if having white skin made people do bad things.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.*

…And I had a hard time answering some of her questions.  I was raised in a family where skin color was treated like eye color…and I come from a place of racial privilege–I’ve experienced prejudice, but never on the basis of my skin color, and never as overt as that sort of prejudice can be.  I might intellectually understand that racism exists and where it stems from (we *do* do Civil War reenacting), but I don’t really understand the depths of hatred that it can and has descended to–I don’t get that kind of hatred, and I sure as hell don’t want my children to.  I might be guilty of saying something that is prejudiced simply because I come from a place of racial privilege, but that would be/would have been from ignorance, and not maliciousness (and I sincerely apologize if that has ever happened).

How do you explain all of that to a six year old?  Especially a six year old with a heart like butterfly wings (seriously, the kiddo gets upset at the idea of hurting someone’s feelings on accident), especially when there are six year olds around the world that LIVE this, on a daily basis. And if not now, from us, when and how will this lesson be taught?

The Hubby and I did our best to explain that people’s minds and hearts can and do change over time.  And that people that lived a long time ago had different ideas of what was right and wrong from ours, and that even then they argued over what was right and wrong like we do today.  Just because something was right (or wrong) then, doesn’t mean it has to stay that way…as our sense of morality grows into one that is more compassionate and more just, we can change what we do and say to be more equitable and to embrace equality…not just on a basis of race, but everywhere, for every quality that makes us different from one another.

We tried to tell her that sometimes people are afraid of people and things that are different from what they see or do on a daily basis and that sometimes people are afraid of change.  That sometimes when people are afraid, they think they need to fight against what they don’t understand, that the fear makes them hate, that the hate can poison their hearts, that poisoned hearts can make them do bad things.  We talked about the fact that people are just people, different and beautiful for it.  We talked about Martin Luther King, and that he believed in justice for all people that were disadvantaged, whether it be because of skin color, or economic status, or any of the other things that divide us, and we watched The Man With a Dream talk about the day when “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

I think that he might have liked to see Chickadee and Miss M skipping down the sidewalk, hand in hand, on their way for a play date.  I think that maybe, for all that practicing justice often means protesting, it can also means two heads bowed together over a coloring book, drinking cocoa, and watching My Little Pony.  Practicing justice is about doing what is right.  And what is more right than two six year olds than playing, together, oblivious to the controversies that might have stirred before they were even born?

*quotes are from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Maxim Monday: Just Gains

Gain possessions justly (Δικαιως κτω) Delphic Maxim #64

Acquire wealth justly (Πλουτει δικιως) Delphic Maxim #117

I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out just what, exactly, can be said about these two (fairly redundant) maxims, that shouldn’t be patently obvious.   And then The Hubby pointed out something else that should have been even more patently obvious–these maxims can’t be all that obvious, considering the economic issues over the last few years.  So, I guess it might be a good idea to talk about just acquisition after all.

1)  What does it mean to acquire things justly?
I’d guess that part of the problem here is that people have different ideas of what a “just acquisition” is…but here are my ideas (in brief):

• Paid for with a fair price
• Purchased from a reputable source that treats their employees equitably
• Manufactured in a manner that has the least harm for the environment

2)  What keeps us from acquiring things justly?

Ignorance–Sometimes we just don’t know.  It would take more time, effort, and energy than most of us have to research each and every supply and supplier we dealt with on a daily basis.

Need–Sometimes we might know, but can’t do too much about it.  When the pennies are being pinched, you might be stuck shopping at the cheapest store, regardless of how they treat their employees, or you buy the less environmentally friendly *whatever* because it costs about half as much.

Greed–Sometimes we know, we don’t need (or can afford otherwise), and just don’t care.

3) Where does that leave me?

I never ended up blogging about it, but last year I did a little social experiment.  One week, I tried to do my shopping entirely with American-made products.  The following week I tried to only buy things that didn’t use plastic packaging, and then I tried to not buy anything where I couldn’t understand the words in the ingredient list, and then I tried making a list of everything I knew I wanted to buy and researched the “best” brand, and then the stores that they could be found at.  It was the worst month for shopping ever.  All four weeks I was over-budget without getting everything we needed, all four weeks it turned a two hour shopping trip into an all day inconvenience, and the third week left me with more work during the week than I was able to get done (and I already do quite a bit from scratch/the long way).  I can’t imagine if I had tried to do all of those things at once…

So I guess that leaves us doing the best we can, and the best we can afford in our day to day lives…and hoping the people at the top are making decisions that we (and our children’s children) can live with (and supposing that they probably aren’t).