In my recent post “Exploring Paganism – What to Read” I discussed ways to separate the good from the garbage, and select those books worthy of adding to a Pagan-themed library.
However, judging from the comments, my readers saw more in this post than simply how to go about one’s literary pursuits. As Wolf Wind states in his comment:
I think an important foundation stone has been touched on here and that is balance in all areas (outdoors vs. book learning, elder vs. young, solitary vs. group etc.)
Balance.
I agree… balance seems to play an important role in the study of Pagan Spirituality, and it’s a theme that reverberates continuously in our studies and in our reading.
But rather than me simply writing a post about balance, I thought I would turn the subject over to my readership, and let you tell me a little about balance.
So I now ask of you, my readers…
What is balance? What does it mean in terms of Pagan Spirituality?
Why is balance important?
How do you define balance in your own life?
How do you incorporate the concept of balance into your own spirituality, and practice it in your own life?
I think these are some pretty interesting and thought-provoking questions which hopefully will generate a lot of comments and some good discussion.
So let’s share! Leave a comment and tell us all some of your own thoughts on the concept of balance…
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
The concept of balance is one that is key to my Druid path.
This balance is not an unmoving or stagnant thing, but rather like a wave with a peak and trough, the end result is balance. The earth’s season are another example of this dynamic balance.
This concept of dynamic balance is what steered me to Druidry instead of some of the other Pagan religions (such as Wicca) many of which have prohibitions or at the very least admonishments not to do harm unless as a last resort. For my path, doing “harm” is as necessary to being balanced as doing “good”. The trick is to learn and gain the wisdom of when and where harm is needed.
Balance is a fascinating topic, whether in spirituality or life and work. The word (and the image of the scale) seems to indicate that there are two things we must balance–good v. evil, harm v. good, fat v. diet, etc. Duality, however, is a problem on its own. It leads quickly to “them” v. “us” a dangerous place in spirituality, I think. Once we begin to categorize the world into two classes, “those who think like I do,” and “those who don’t,” we run into trouble. Duality sets up the idea of right v. wrong, and quickly leads to taking sides and shoring them up and all of a sudden we aren’t in balance, we are at odds. Or worse, at war.
We know people who start out evenly, but then move to seeing the world in black and white–in duality. But most of us live our lives in shades of gray–we do things right, we fail, we help others, we are selfish.
We are built for balance. We have two hands, two arms, two legs, two ears. We build a lot of our idiomatic speech on ‘either this or that’ analogies. But there is so much more to hold, so much more to consider.
Perhaps balance is about being open, risking being wrong, being still and waiting.
I see balance as, which has been mentioned earlier, as something which is dynamic, it is always shifting and always moving. However, this shifting and moving, is not in ways we may think and are actually echos of deeper aspects of ourselves at work. Psychology calls them Archetypes, those of a more literary bent call them metaphors and spiritual circles often call it symbolism. Whatever the name, balance is something akin to karma, but different as well.
For instance, using the idea of walking a razor’s edge, balance will probbably include at one point having the razor cut into our paths/ideas, to open them up or let out the toxins. It may briefly divide you which is what you may need at the time. AND it may not be a painless process. When we began to seek balance in our life, we automaticlly subscribe to the possiblitiy of chaos happening, or our ideas being broken open and exposed. It’s not that it is appropriate for us to do harm in some instances, but rather a consequence of us being a whole person. No matter who we are, we will do harm at points in our life. To a certain extent we have choice over this-on how to maifest it, but we can only hold out so long and then we blow it. So in a sense, part of balance is minimizing the harm inevitably we will cause. We learn from it, heal what we can and move on down the tightrope or sword’s edge.
A big part of this is tension, for there is always tension in nature. When a seed/flower sprouts, there is tension (pulling and pushing), when we interact with people-there is a period of awkwardness and then comfort but we all know relationships are not easy to maintain all the time. Without tension, we will die as human beings. If we were to loose the shadow parts of ourselves, we would loose the material for fertilising our psyche to grow.
Non-pagan here: Quinn touches on how I feel about the idea of balance. Rather than focusing on the duality, I try to somehow internalize both – BE both at the same time and therefore something different than equal parts of both. I do not know how but I do know I try to avoid thinking in terms of duality.
I love this discussion on balance. I am not Pagan, but have studied many different religions. The concept of balance runs through most world religions– Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism. I feel it’s extremely important to live in the balanced “gray areas” as someone said above than to lean too far to the white or black. It’s hard for me to step outside Christianity to look at it objectively since I was raised in it. This is my culture and mostlly I had positive experiences as a child, but I recognize there are gaps in religion. So I will add my two-cents. I believe we are each created with our own internal spiritual “balance” that is unique and precious to us. A spiritual balance has nothing to do with the religion one follows. The religion helps one to connect spiritually. But we can actually connect without a religion because religion is only secondary to spirituality. It’s just a tool to help us connect. You may find spiritual balance as a Pagan, others may find balance practicing Yoga. Still others find spiritual balance climbing mountains or making music. When we live in balance we can respect all for who they are, and how they connect spiritually or if they choose not to connect at all. Those who live in the black and white seem to have difficulties accepting differences in others. This is because they are unbalanced and feel threatened by their precarious positions. When you are balanced you don’t feel threatened by other points of view, other religions, other ways of life, other cultures. 🙂
ballance to me means just the right amounts, no giving worship to just one male deity or one feamale deity.also the ballance of ideals, as i am pagan but i am allso wiccan trad and i also practice budisim. i take what works for me from all three and ballance it out. in a way that gives recognition to all three forms of worship. it might not work for every one but its what works for me
last night my kids were watching the karate kid – great scenes in the film about the importance of balance for LIFE
for me balance requires long walks in the woods ; )
most definitions define balance with the terms equilibrium, harmony, a weighing over of ideas (pros and cons etc)
i know many people who excel at having balance – most r folks who have devotion to a spiritual praxis
often for balance to emerge the concept of abandonment into something larger than ourselves is critical
peace
p
Many thanks to those of you who have shared your own thoughts on the concept of balance.
I am especially pleased to see that even those who do not practice a Pagan Path still felt comfortable with expressing their own views… this is what the Crossroads is all about – being a safe place where EVERYONE can feel safe in sharing their thoughts, regardless of your own spirituality. We may not always agree with one another, but we can still come together and learn from each other.
You have all made some good, thought-provoking comments that I have enjoyed reading, and I hope others have enjoyed them as well.
Let’s see if we can keep such comments coming! Feel free to share your own thoughts on what balance means to you!
When I think of balance, I think of:
• Family time
• Significant other time
• Kids time
• Work time
• Hobby/Leisure time
and last but definitely not least:
• Me time!
In the DC area, a lot of people tend to forget about the last item, and I think that’s why the work/life balance is so skewed. If you’re not comfortable with your own company, then you won’t be comfortable, period.
Sorry, Mother Nature and I don’t see eye to eye…so no long and leisurely walks in the woods for this girl here. 😉
Balance is not Spirituality. Balance is not found through religion and religion is not Spirituality. Balance is not,
knowing how long to work or how many walks in the woods one needs to ‘feel’ balance. Balance is what occurs once we are able to connect with our inner self, admit to all our weaknesses, face our fears, accept them, learn to understand the mechanisms of the two in order to relinquish what does not belng to our Spirit. To love and hate equally each aspect of our rational and irrational sides (right vs wrong, good vs not good, love vs fear etc..) and yet know how to nourish and care for the wounds that we self inflict in order to bring serenity to our existance through these oponents.
Acceptance is the first step to total freedom. Freedom from judgement, freedom from all fears, freedom from the binds that hold us in captivity in our own existence.
Balance is serenity from within for all that is and acceptance of all that which we are.
Balance is the quieting of the mind and the magnificent expression of the Spirit.
How I love this life I have been blessed with to experience.
Love to everyone.