Paganism

What do I mean
when I say that I am a pagan?

First
I am both a
pantheist & a polytheist & panentheist -
I believe in plural gods
and gods in
and as
and of
everything.
Existence is constantly becoming
and that becoming being
is plural
and divine.

Second
I am a believer in the magical
or supernatural
or paranormal
or whatever you like to call it -
that which is in the realm of the occult,
occluded and mysterious,
the ancient religious mysteries
and holy secrets.

Third
I worship especially the Goddess,
who has many names and faces,
who is mother to all,
the self-sufficient holy virgin,
the ancient crone older than time who knows all things,
the moon and the sea,
the starry-eyed and rainbow-hued,
the eternal child,
the ageless source,
the most benevolent,
the Highest of the High,
and the center of everything.
Mother, maiden, warrior, witch.

A fourth thing:
I am a seeker of alternate explanation
as well as absence of explanation
and reject the belief in the completeness of science -
not the possible benefits,
but the sole devotion
to scientific method, explanation, and pursuit.
Other means exist,
are desireable,
often offer alternate or even better benefits.
These include the artistic, literary, and creative means,
as well as the religious and magical previously mentioned,
in addition to other means
like familial, or plural, or historic,
just to name more.

Fifth
I attend to the natural holy cycles
in the wheel of the year,
the turn of the stars, planets,
in the sky.
I take these cycles as evidence

for a sixth claim:
the recurring self
is in a cycle of death to life
and back again -
a cycle as eternal
as the universe itself.

Seventh
I accept the laws of change,
which dictate reactions to actions
as well as reward and punishment,
on the scale of causality
and also scales greater,
like karma.

 This leads me to eighth
distinguish between
beneficence and maleficence
through harm versus kindness,
and all degrees between,
and a principle of harming none,
not even oneself,
excepting only defense,
which must be reactive
or preventative
rather than pro-active
and preceding
any harm or threat thereof.

Then ninth comes
a respect for ancient traditions
and ancient peoples,
the first ways and the first knowers,
and hence also a preservation of
relics, chronicles, and the elderly,
as well as ancestor-worship.

This is tied to the tenth meaning
of my statement that
I am a pagan:
an impetus to preserve and conserve the earth,
the ecological systems,
and the geologic stability we need
to survive not only as a species
but also as a kingdom of life on earth,
as inhabitants of this
wandering star
we call home.
It is our duty to ourselves,
our co-inhabitants -
the other Terran species,
every blade of grass,
cold virus,
and elephant herd,
as well as our duty
to the rest of hte universe
to keep our orbit round our star,
to preserve this solar ecological system
so as to save the Milky Way Galaxy
as a whole,
for should our galaxy fail,
then the entire universe is at risk,
just as much as destroying a pond
can kill a town,
a population,
a butterfly.