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Pagans In The Workplace: A Guide
For Managers and Human Resource Directors
by Cecylyna
Dewr [Pagan
Pride]
An employee at your company practices a religion with
which you may not be familiar. This leaflet is simply
to give you information you may need to understand the
different experiences this employee may share with you,
and answer any questions you might have.
What is a Pagan employee likely
to practice and believe?
Because Pagans generally follow a non-credal, non-dogmatic
spirituality, there may be even more variants between
Pagan religious beliefs than there are between denominations
of Christianity. The most commonly practiced types of
Paganism are Wicca, Asatru, Druidry, or simply Paganism
or Neo-Paganism, just as a Christian can be Catholic,
Presbyterian, or simply Christian. All of these are
somewhat different from each other. Because of this,
the following statements may not be true for every Pagan
you encounter. However, there are some practices that
are generally common among Pagans; the employee can
tell you if his practices differ significantly from
the following:
A Pagan employee will celebrate
a nature-based, polytheistic religion
- A Pagan employee will honor Divinity as
both God and Goddess, sometimes with a feminist emphasis
on the Goddess. One effect of this is that the employee
is likely to treat gender equality as an assumption.
- A Pagan employee will celebrate religious
ceremonies with small groups on an astronomical schedule,
rather than with large congregations or on a set weekly
schedule. Most observe the beginning and midpoint
of each season as major holidays (sometimes called
Sabbats); some also celebrate on Full Moons (sometimes
called Esbats). These celebrations are called rituals,
circles, or blots, and the congregations called covens,
groves, hearths, or circles. Some sects believe that
holding the ceremony at the exact astrological moment
is important. Others will schedule their gatherings
at the closest convenient time. Your employee may
want time off during some or all of these times. Requests
should be treated the same as any other religious
time off request; that some Pagans do not ask for
time off should not invalidate the needs of the others
whose tradition follows a more structured calendar.
- A Pagan employee may wear a symbol of his
or her religion as an item of jewelry. The most common
symbol is the pentacle, a five-pointed star
in a circle. The misconception of the pentagram as
a satanic symbol is based upon its inverted use by
those groups, in the same manner in which devil-worshippers
may use the Christian cross inverted. The meaning
of the pentacle as worn by Pagans is rooted in the
beliefs of the Greek Pythagoreans, for whom the pentagram
embodied perfect balance and wisdom; inserting the
star in the circle adds the symbol of eternity and
unity. Other jewelry that may be worn includes Celtic
knotwork, crosses, and triskelions; Thor’s hammer;
the labrys, a double-headed axe used as a symbol
by Greco-Roman worship of Cybele; Goddess figurines;
crescent and/or full Moon symbols; the Yin-Yang symbol;
or an ankh, eye of Horus or horns of Isis from Egyptian
mythology.
- A Pagan employee will honor Divinity as
immanent in Nature and humanity, and view all things
as interconnected. This often leads to a concern with
recycling, ecology and the environment, and a fascination
with the natural life cycle and seasonal patterns.
- A Pagan employee may believe in magic, and
may spell it "magick" to differentiate it from stage
illusions. This may include belief in personal energy
fields like the Chinese concept of chi. Quite
often it also includes the use of rituals and tools
to dramatize and focus positive thinking and visualization
techniques, many of which are virtually identical
to the techniques taught by motivational leaders and
found in books such asThe One Minute Manager
and Unlimited Power. Just as in motivational
training, the object is to focus on positive issues.
Therefore, a Pagan will not attempt to "hex" or curse;
in their ethical structure such actions are believed
to rebound on the sender, and therefore are proscribed.
- A Pagan employee may call herself a Witch,
a Wiccan, a Pagan or Neo-Pagan,
a Goddess-worshipper, an Asatruar, an
Odinist, a Druid, or a Heathen.
He is unlikely to call himself a "Warlock", as that
is believed to come from the Scottish word for "oathbreaker".
And while a Pagan employee may or may not be offended
by the stereotype, she is likely to quickly inform
you that the green-skinned, warty-nosed caricature
displayed at Halloween bears no relation to her religion.
A Pagan employee will hold ethics
emphasizing both personal freedom and personal responsibility
Pagan ethics allow personal freedom within a framework
of personal responsibility. The primary basis for Pagan
ethics is the understanding that everything is interconnected,
that nothing exists alone, and that every action has
a consequence. There is no concept of forgiveness for
sin in the Pagan ethical system; the consequences of
one's actions must be faced and reparations made as
necessary against anyone whom one has harmed. There
are no arbitrary rules about moral issues; instead,
every action must be weighed against the awareness of
what harm it could cause. Thus, for example, a Pagan
employee could consider consensual homosexuality a null
issue morally because it is an individual decision involving
sharing love with another person. Yet stealing would
be wrong because it harms one's integrity and the business
environment, and causes the costs of the theft to be
absorbed by innocent consumers. The most common forms
in which these ethics are stated are the Wiccan Rede,
"An it harm none, do as thou wilt," and in the Threefold
Law, "Whatsoever you do returns to you threefold."
A Pagan employee will hold
a paradigm that embraces plurality
Because Pagan religious systems hold that theirs is
a way among many, not the only road to
truth,and because Pagans revere a variety of Deities
among their pantheons, both male and female, a Pagan
employee will believe that each person is free to choose
his or her own destiny, and will not believe in evangelizing
or proselytizing. One advantage of this is that a Pagan
employee will thrive in a pluralistic environment, eager
to support an atmosphere that discourages discrimination
based on differences such as race or gender and encourages
individuality, self-discovery and independent thought.
A Pagan employee is also likely to have knowledge of
other religions; most Pagans have explored other spirituality
before deciding on their own. Because Neo-Paganism’s
mainstream popularity is less than 50 years old, few
Pagans were born in the faith, but those who are were
likely taught about many religions as well; Pagan parents
are adamant about not forcing their beliefs on the child
but rather teaching them and letting the child decide
when he is of age. While a Pagan employee will focus
more on individual experience of the numinous than written
dogma, she will respect the sacred texts of other religions,
but be unlikely to believe them literally where they
conflict with scientific theory or purport to be the
only truth.
A Pagan employee is likely
to enjoy reading, science, and helping professions
Margot Adler, National Public Radio journalist, reported
the results of a survey of Pagans in the 1989 edition
of her book, Drawing Down the Moon. The results
showed that the one thing Pagans hold in common despite
their differences is a voracious appetite for reading
and learning. Pagans also seem to be represented strongly
in the computer and health-care fields, so the Pagan
employee is likely to be computer-literate and highly
effective in any helping profession.
Despite its sometimes-misunderstood beliefs, Paganism
is believed to be currently the fastest-growing religion,
and provides a satisfying spirituality to its practitioners.
With the present appreciation of diversity and tolerance
in the business environment, more people now understand
that different cultural backgrounds bring perspectives
that can be valued instead of feared. It is our hope
that as a manager or human resources executive this
will provide you with the information you need to be
able to facilitate understanding.
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