Hey people I've been thinking.. 'we pagans' believe in balance right? Like mother nature.. she shelters and kills.. so.. I was thinking.. how far can this balance thingie be taken? If we do good, does that mean that somewhere else 'evil' happens? Can the scale ever tip to more good than bad in the world? Like, more peace, happiness etc? If there is true balance, than there will always be the same amount of suffering as non-suffering.. right? So therefor, as soon as you help someone to stop suffering, it means that somewhere else there is more suffering... Just mindboggling this stuff sometimes.. what do you think?
So basically they aren't two sides of the same coin, but more like 'one'? So.. not as dualistic or even a nuance of dualism, but really one and the same?
A poet said: "In nature there are no rewards or punishments - there are consequences." Blessings Sebbi
Ok.. my whole point is... if this is the case, why would you do good, or evil for that matter, since it would generate the opposite in order to keep balance? What do you think about that?
As much of a wonderful and eternal quandry as it seems, my vote would be to be not to try to do good, but just try and do right by yourself, what seems best at the time for the time. I just try and do that and keep faith that the tapestry will take care of itself, she is tough afterall.
if it means 'doing good', then great. Im just trying not to get hung up on the moral question to my existence or its decisions. I have faith in a balance, one similar to Ma'at, im just going to do what i feel is needed, rather than whether its right/wrong. i accept that all the decisions i make in my time here have not and are not going to be 'good' by some moral paradigm. I accept that my existence has negative sides as well as positives, i was just arguing for not worrying about a moral side effect to all actions, this is not to say act brash or with out thought, but to trust in our existence being ok with the universe at large, to not have that extra worry or guilt on mind....ah hell, as the Archangel Eli said, "Do what thou wilt, but be cool..." well enough flowy rambling on this....its early
Hehe.. hey I agree, absolutely! It was just one of those pondering moments, it's not like I'm like this all the time.. just basically putting things together, since paganism has a lot to do with balance, so everything you do therefor has an opposite consequence.. kinda interesting thought Wasn't really planning on changing my life or anything, depending the outcome of this thread *grin*
How can there be balance (1:1) if everything you do is x3 (1:3) unless you/everyone does the exact same amount of good as evil? That's kinda the point I'm trying to make here. Let's say must witches/wicca's only do (or intent to do) good.. love spells, healing spells.. whatever. And all that good stuff comes back 3 times.. that's not balance is it? So there must be some kind of source of evil who balances things.. what is that source? Where does the 'evil' come from? Is it human nature itself, our sinfull minds? Is it 'satan' that lures us into bad thoughts and mistrust? Again.. that's my point. How can you believe in balance AND want there to be more positive energy? That's really contradictionary, unless you believe that at this very moment the balance is off and there is more negative energy, which needs to be balanced out with positive energy to a 1:1 state. See what my dilemma is? I mean.. I also believe in balance AND I like to think I'm doing good/positive stuff.. but somehow in theory that's more difficult than at first glance.. I think. *head hurts*
I don't believe that there is a balance between good and evil because I don't think good and evil inherently exist. They are simply our perceptions. So no, I don't think doing something good will tip the balance and make something bad happen elsewhere. Unless there is such a thing as parallel universes. I also don't believe in the 3fold law.
I certainly believe in the idea of yin/yang, shiva/shakti, or however one likes to call the principles of duality. I also believe that both these forces are a necessary part of the whole and that therefore one can't really call the one good and the other evil. Like Mesektet said, that are moral questions and I too don't spent much time to ponder about that, but rather act and do things that feel right for me at the moment. Life is too complex to decide these questions anyway I think. About the balance, I don't think it works in a way that if you're doing something creative somewhere on the planet, something destructive will happen somewhere else, nor the other way around. Balance is what is desireable, but it is not always achieved. I mean look at our world, I don't think we can say that things are in balance.
I do believe in duality, however good and evil are values both viewed and generated by humankind and are deeply based in free will. Example 1: A Siberian Tiger stalks a child in the forest, kills her, and feeds on her. Example B: A Siberian Tie Dyer stalks his ex-girlfriend in the forest, kills her, and feeds on her. The first example is plainly not evil because that is Nature's way. The fact that the prey was a human child is irrelevant, since she was simply smaller and weaker than the tiger. The second example is the free will of a human giving in to evil (though the Hannibal Lector bit is waaaayy overdone). I believe that humans are mostly compassionate beings and will always strive to be good. And that, friends and neighbors, is the first time in over 15 years that I have put all those anthropology and psychology classes to ANY use at all.
