Finally, the First Principle

Sorry about being so erratic, that will change. It has taken me some time to sort myself out some, but I will now post more regularly. Hoping to post the first Monday of every month, and maybe try for a second post during the month as well.

The First Principle: The inherent worth and dignity of every person. This one a big one, like the seventh. Without this one, there is no community. Humans have struggled with and against this idea for millennia. With each battle over civil rights, we get a little closer to realizing it. I am not sure that we could ever actually attain this; it is a goal to strive for, not a destination to arrive. To have this goal means that we are on a path to better ourselves, and if we take that seriously, we will improve everyday. We might not gain much on any single day, and it may look like we are not going anywhere, but after we look back at how we have changed, we will see it.

Druidry, I think, has inherited something like this from Neo-paganism. Because pagans are so diverse and different from the overculture, we don't like to exclude people just because they are different from us. Also, we are small enough, that for our very survival we cannot turn people away without good reason. This goes deeper, though. We respect all of nature, and we see ourselves as part of nature. How can we not respect the inherent worth and dignity of everyone?

This one ties in very closely with the Seventh principle. The Seventh is about respecting all of nature. This one is about respecting a subset of nature. The principles always seemed to me to build on one another and several increase the scale where it operates. You start out with one person, build up to groups of people, then it is groups of groups, and finally all of creation.

Like many things in nature, the principles are circular. You start at one end and circle round till you end up right back where you started. Each is a foundation for the rest with the others building on it. They are similar, but not the same, as many ideas, morals, virtues, etc in paganism. We are all heading to the same place, though our paths there are different.