My Pagan Values - part 1

From the ground, up.

One of my readers asked for an articulation of my Pagan values. [I love this kind of question.] I’ve written about the difference between virtue ethics and group morals here. Pagans have a largely libertarian ethic. Do what thou wilt but harm none, isn’t any more complicated than Don’t hurt people and don’t mess with their stuff. The details are debatable.

In 2008, I was taking a class at Cherry Hill Seminary titled Boundaries and Ethics. I had just started working on my M.Div. [Yes, I’m going to finish it,] and it was exciting to be thinking about this subject in the context of Paganism. [CHS is the only Seminary that offers Masters of Divinity with a specifically Pagan focus] We read multiple professional ethical codes and considered how those rules might change or be reconsidered in the context of a religion that engages in shamanic healing, doing spells that seek to make changes in the material world, and makes extensive use of the physical world.

At the time, I was trying [unsuccessfully] to build a practice in nutrition coaching. One of the books we read for the class was Emma Restall Orr’s Living With Honor. She is a druid and a vegan. I had issues with her ethic of veganism and with idea that one had to try and live without doing any harm at all. With the encouragement of my teacher and classmates I wrote her the letter below. Which felt very bold since she was being held up as someone to follow. I share it here unedited, and I’ll warn you, it’s heavy in nutrition information [I have a MS in Nutrition.] So skim as needed.

Dear Emma Restall Orr,

Your book, Living with Honor was one of the textbooks in my Boundaries and Ethics class at Cherry Hill Seminary. It was a wonderful and admirable thing to see someone tackling the concept of ethics within the Pagan community. As a Pagan myself, I know this is no small challenge, and as with any ethical code, your work will generate conversation and controversy.

So on that note, I need to say that I think your view point on not eating animals or using animal products is in conflict with both the concept of ‘harm none’ - assuming one is including oneself – and with not damaging the planet. I agree with the idea that we need to respect animals as they are, but I don’t agree we can do that by avoiding their death. You make the point that pagans should not fear, or try to avoid death. So perhaps we should not fear or try to avoid the use of animals for food, but should do our best to do so consciously, and with awareness and engagement with the process. My concern about the planet is that growing only plant foods requires the application of both high amounts of nitrogen and chemicals.

In the chapter on environment, you cite Singer’s concept of only using another part of Nature if it is necessary for self-preservation, and you state clearly enough that you believe humans don’t need to eat animals or animal products to survive. Yet that is exactly what we did for millions of years of evolution. We ate so much meat that our bodies stopped making B12 and essential fatty acids, slowed way down on production of vitamins A, K and D, and lost our ability to digest cellulose. These biological changes cannot be reversed because of a human moral imperative. You even acknowledged that the human physical condition was greatly reduced when we switched to farming instead of hunting, so you must realize that our health is tied to animal foods.

But the biological changes did not only happen to us, they happened to the animals we ate on a regular basis. The wild ancestor of the cow, the aurochs is extinct while its descendants survive in great numbers. Their species genetic pattern continues because we continue to breed them. And without human planting, corn would die out completely, because it can’t get out if its thick wrapping without help. Dogs would not exist if some wolves had not thrown in their lot with us eons ago. We developed a relationship of mutual interdependence and it worked. It worked for what we ate, because domestic animals and plants got to survive as species.

It is true that the essential amino acids can all be found in plant foods, but plant proteins are not as bio-available as those in animal products. Soy is a case in point. This legume is very high in phytic acid - which blocks the absorption of protein -and is difficult to digest. Soy is a common source of food allergies and blocks the absorption of calcium, magnesium, B12, zinc, and vitamin D. It also contains toxic levels of aluminum, and reduces thyroid function.

But there is more to animal foods than amino acids; vitamins must also be considered. Animal based proteins come with far higher amounts of fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, K, and E, as well as B12, B2, B6, and Zinc. True vitamin A – retinol – is not the same as the beta-carotene found in vegetables, and a person must consume much more vegetable matter in order to get the RDA of 3000 IU. 64% of vegans are deficient in B12, the lack of which causes irreversible neurological damage. The B12 found in miso and brewers yeast are not true B12 but analogs that do not work the same in the body.

The amount of calcium found in plant foots is vastly inferior when compared to animal foods. 6 oz of cheddar cheese provides the RDA of 1200mg. To get the same amount from spinach would take 13 c and from lentils, 32c (dry). Leafy greens contain oxolic acid, which blocks calcium absorption. Calcium also requires the fat-soluble vitamins D, A and K2 found only in animal fats. The form of iron found in plants is much less absorbable then than that found in animal foods, and may be further inhibited by the presence of phytic acid, phenolic acid and fiber.

But do not think that I am advocating factory farming. Such places are morally and environmentally reprehensible, as well as producing meat that is of such poor quality that it is barely nourishing. But it is possible for farming, when done in a way that mimics the cycles of nature, to heal and restore degraded grasslands, green up areas that have fallen to desertification, and balance overgrown forests.

You refer to humans as animals, and I agree, we are animals. We share the same drives, we reproduce in similar ways, we need to eat, breathe, and sleep. We feel fear, anger, and affection, even love. As a pagan, I respect my animal nature without allowing it to be the sole deciding factor of my actions. I seek to integrate the wild with the civilized, the primitive and the cultured, because both are powerful and satisfying.

But in your book, you fail to acknowledge that animals eat each other. There are, in the animal kingdom, both predators and prey. Is this somehow un-natural? Is it morally wrong to be a predator? Big cats start to eat their prey before it is dead. Humans at least finish the kill before digging in. How is eating animals an un-natural behavior?

Nor does eating a purely plant-based diet prevent animal death at human hands. Animals are killed for the production of plant food. Up to 300 per acre of mice, voles, moles and ground nesting birds are sliced and squashed by heavy farm equipment. Certainly this is unintentional, but is that somehow better? Particularly if we wish to live intentional lives.

Then there are the chemicals needed when animal manures are not used to improve soil health. Soybeans require hundred of thousands of pounds of herbicides every year, and corn – with which soy is most often rotated – demands petroleum-based fertilizer and pesticides. Virtually all vegetable fields receive ten sprayings of chemicals annually. The vast fields eliminate hedgrows, willow thickets and natural water-courses. No land anywhere will produce large volumes of edible plants year after year without the addition of chemical fertilizers. If producing meat in factory farm conditions creates an ethical and toxic mess, growing food plants in a factory-farm setting creates an ecological wasteland.

I would offer you a different vision that supports the health of the planet, of food animals, of forests and grasslands, and last but not least, humans. This is a vision of cattle, chickens, pigs and other domestic herd animals being raised and cared for with respect on small farms, and in a way that allows them to express their essential being: Ruminants eating grass, chickens eating bugs, pigs rooting in forestlands. The human population is still growing and unless we have some sort of devastating plague or other disaster - and is it really ethical to hope for such a thing - those are still mouths that have to be fed. Livestock can be raised on marginal lands - that would otherwise require vast inputs of chemical fertilizer for plant foods - and even improve the health of the soil in the process. Also, small, intensively managed farms produce more food per acre than do factory farms.

The thick layer of soil on the American prairies at the turn of the century was the result of patterns of movement by the bison. They gathered tightly together to protect against wolf predation. They left piles of manure and trampled ground behind them. A day or two later the birds came in and picked the larvae out of the muck and scattered the manure. The grass shed some root - which broke down into loam - and then re-grew, thicker than before. This pattern can be mimicked, which is the concept of biodynamic farming or permaculture. Not an ancient concept, but a new one that demands considerable conscious attention to the land.

You are loved and admired by many and your words will no doubt influence many people to choose the path of being vegan. And I cannot in good conscience allow your words to stand without challenge. As humans, we need to find a way to not just eat, but to nourish ourselves, in body, as well as mind and spirit. As pagans, I think we can lead the way on a path that is as creative, innovative, and conscious as the religion itself.

Selina Rifkin

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Living in the embodied world and cherishing our physical existence is a Pagan value. While Christianity values a post-death existence, Pagan values include the world and the joy one can take in being here now. Why live if we take no pleasure in it? But if we simply indulge in immediate whims and desires, there is no future. Nor did our ancestors have to deal with the extensive list of chemical degradations we inflict on our soil. They didn’t even have the option of thinking about it.

We do.

Because we value the natural world, we have to consider how to live in harmony with it. Not just because it a source of peace and happiness, but because we are not separate from it and any changes we make affect us as well.

Orr’s ethic was one in which she gave no consideration to humans. Her writing about walking barefoot in the rain was lovely. She describes the disappearance of self as she became one with the world around her. This is my experience as well.

However, we are embodied. To not care for the body is to self-harm, and we are as we were made; creative creatures that build and change the world around to our will.

For the class we had to articulate a specific set of values in relation to how we would behave in a position of leadership in the Pagan community. However, I felt a need to start with more personal values. Like the most moral way to nourish my body. That’s about as grounded in the world as you can get.

In the coming weeks, I’ll articulate my thought process on the values useful in the modern world from a Pagan perspective. Suggestions are welcome.

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

Cherry Hill Seminary

Sacred Well Congregation