Self-responsibility: My Pagan Value

This month has been about Pagan Values for some of the blogosphere.  I had intended to take part and post a few things but babies and hospitals got in the way a little.  I shall probably post some things over the next month or so anyway as the topic is of great interest to me.

Central to my Pagan practices is the relationship I have with my surroundings.  I include my relationship with the Gods as part of my surroundings.  I attempt to live in harmony with those around me and part of that is being responsible for my actions and choices.

Self-responsibility is easy to talk about and theorise about but living it day by day is a lot harder.  To me it means accepting the consequences of my actions.  It also means that I control how I react to situations and the actions of others.  If I let someone control me then it's not that person who is at fault but me.  I have given away my responsibility, my power, to another.  If this is true then I can take that responsibility and power back if I choose too.

However, I need to be flexible as well.  If I do not give any responsibility then I can not share power with another and that is also a very lonely road.  I give responsibility and power to others, most notably my husband, and I call this trust.  I trust others with my responsibilities and they trust me with theirs.  This is responsibility for my emotions as well as my physical world.  In other words, I trust them not to willingly hurt my feelings and to not abuse our relationships.  If that person violates that trust, I must take back my responsibility for that relationship and not allow that person to continue to violate it.  This is self-responsibility in action, to my mind.

I guess what I am saying is that self-responsibility in my relationships is key to building harmony with my surroundings.  I feel this is an important Value for everyone but as a Pagan where we don't particularly have a guiding text or set of texts this is even more important.  Paganism, to me, is such an individual path that we need to be even more mindful of our Values and Principles.  I think that walking a path that is more individual requires more discipline as we have to make up our own minds and decide our own principles for faith.  Hang on, in other words, we are responsible for our own actions as Pagans.

This is why self-responsibility is so important, to my view, to my practice as a Pagan and as a person in general.