Ethics of the Celts
Our values are more than Judeo-Christian
I didn’t study ethics in school and I don’t know anyone who did besides philosophy majors. Ethics was something one had to look at in the professional world, where agreed upon codes of conduct allowed one entry to a community of peers. There was no discussion of behavioral norms anywhere but in the Mennonite church group where I spent my childhood. I don’t recall discussions of specific behavioral standards in the Presbyterian church of teen years.
Which in hindsight, seems quite strange. We were expected to be thoughtful and caring. The rules of feminism applied, meaning that women were treated like men, having equal voice but without the distinction of being female and the specialness of that identity. But for a Christian church, there was little talk of the Ten Commandments and no talk at all about anything aspirational.
At that point, I didn’t know I needed something aspirational beyond the career that everyone was pushing me toward. I don’t think any of us did.
Paganism introduced me to what became my ethical principle for decades: Do what thou wilt, but harm none. This is a libertarian ethic. To say so will annoy many Pagans since libertarianism is a political ideology that has been associated with the Right. Statistically, Pagans lean left, likely because most of us are educated.* That association is cultural rather than ideological, as libertarians generally think that people should be allowed to do all manner of things that a conservative would find not just alarming, but highly objectionable, such as legalizing drugs, people being allowed to sell their kidneys, legalized abortion, and gay marriage.
Pagans are currently a tiny portion of the general population and I don’t think anyone has done a general survey about our psychological traits. [Puts study on ‘to do’ list.] However, it has been my observation over 40 years of interacting with this community that, as a group, we are open to new experiences. [That’s a specific trait referenced by psychologists.]
There aren’t many books on Pagan ethics [writing such a book is already on the ‘to do’ list] The two that come to mind are Brendan Meyer’s The Other Side of Virtue, and Emma Restall Orr’s Living With Honor. Meyer bases his ethics on the values derived from Celtic mythology. I took a class from him on how this was done over a decade ago. I got a C. It was terribly embarrassing because I NEVER got Cs in language-based classes. I understand it much better now. [Thank you, Jordan Peterson.] Orr too, leans into Celtic ethics since she is a practicing Druid.
While Christians lean hard on the idea that our culture is based in monotheistic Judeo-Christianity, they ignore the pagan/non-Christian roots of many ideas that we hold dear. The Celts influenced the British, [how not?] both through the idea of common law and what constituted legitimate authority.
The Celts rivaled of the Romans in their heyday, but by 84 BC had been reduced to remnants. They were tribal, but had an astronomical calendar, with very complex societies that included the arts and education. They believed in reincarnation. Like all cultures of that era, they had slaves.
While there is a respectable body of archeological research on the Celts, we know them best through the stories they told, a few of which where written down by Christian monks. A culture’s mythology tells us what they valued [as Meyers was trying to teach me] Myths are fantasy playgrounds that hold core values while allowing humans to play with making adjustments to tribal ethics as needed to adapt to environmental and cultural changes. Here are some of the core values I was finally able to extract from the Celtic mythological corpus.
Good leadership
Men need to be able to fight, but they should also appreciate life and beauty
Dying well
Farming was necessary thing, but not held in the same regard as leadership.
Speech is elemental to being human.
Bargaining and the art of the deal was very important. [One might speculate that this is why Adam Smith was a Scotsman rather than a Chinaman.]
Truth
Love
One’s word is of great value
Holding off on reward for greater gain
The human form was primal to identity. [Shapeshifting happened, but no one wanted to die in that way]
I’m not asking for paid subscribers but if you like this then perhaps you could…
Or have a look at the books I write under pen name Sabrina Rosen [On Amazon] or subscribe to my fiction blog.
I will be going back over the Greek myths to do the same with them. That’s a larger body of work and the evolution of those stories is observable, as the stories were taken up by the Romans and later the British [Shakspeare.] JBP has done the same thing with the Judeo-Christian corpus and it’s valuable work. There is no way that Meyers and JBP know each other, and so it it seems like this is something that is emerging from the Zeitgeist.
As the gods will.
The unique innovation of Jewish religion was to codify specific laws as a priority. That didn’t mean the Ten Commandments was the ONLY law. Far from it. Much like the US Constitution, they were a framework, a set of uniting principles for the twelve tribes. No tribe gave up their individual identities, and the Talmud, the book of Jewish law, is a massive document filled with discussions about ethics between various Rabbis.
Pagans don’t currently have such a thing, although there are attempts among the practitioners of the Northern traditions with varying iterations of the Noble Virtues. There is also the far more poetic Charge of the Star Goddess written by Doreen Valiente, which is followed by feminist and non-feminist Wiccans.
A unifying statement of values would be helpful in dealing with the other two religions that are the basis of Western culture and behavior. We can’t ignore them. We can’t afford to. Building such a statement is a good aspiration. The founding fathers pulled it off among fractious states. We can too.
*Voices From The Pagan Census by Helen Berger, Ph.D
If you’re curious about Paganism/Heathenism/Wicca/Druidry, please feel free to message me and I’ll be happy to answer questions.
Selina Rifkin, M.S. [Nutrition], LMT, has been Pagan since she was 14 [which was a long time ago] and been to Hades in a handbasket. More than once. This has given her some opinions. She has direct communication with her gods and they’ve always given her answers when she asks. [One does have to ask.] Like most of her generation [X] she’s okay with snark. Most days she tries for good writing. But the snark, and side comments creep in. Be warned.
Pagan Organizations