Tradition Values, Ethics and Core Tenets

Our mission and values above all else are committed to:

• The Divine, to who we are in service, and who we honor through our thoughts, words, actions and deeds.
• Ourselves and to our continued self-improvement and growth, through treating ourselves with dignity and respect and demanding that from everyone around us.
• Our families, both of blood and of choice, to strengthen community through the bonds we share, to enhance the quality of our lives through harmonious relations with those that live in our hearts, to grow our community through the raising of strong young men and women of spirit and passing the knowledge of our path on to future generations of Wise Ones.
• Our fellow Wise Ones, so that we may teach and guide each other in love and trust.

In pursuit of those values, we hold the following as our ethical standard:

• Members of the Path of the Wise Ones Tradition recognize that the Divine is immanent – that the Divine is at once all around us and within each of us. In recognizing the sacred within, we acknowledge, honor and celebrate the sacred that surrounds us through the natural cycles of birth, growth, death and rebirth. We practice rites that attune ourselves with the natural cycles of our Earth, including the Lunar and Solar cycles.
• The Tradition acknowledges and honors the duality reflected in all of nature: dark and light, female and male, within and without. We understand the need for both sides and honor them as well. To this end, we honor the Divine -- known to some of us as the Goddess and the God or as the Lord and Lady, acknowledging again the duality, or simply as a Higher Power, the Universe or the All.
• The Path of the Wise Ones embraces and emphasizes the need for a forging and nurturing a personal relationship with the Divine within, in Nature and in daily life. Rather than focusing on any single culture or pantheon, the Tradition encourages initiates to cultivate relationships with deities of the pantheons of their own choosing.
• The Tradition acknowledges the right and responsibility of each initiate to take charge of their own spiritual development. Initiates are required to immerse themselves in lifelong learning in the different aspects of the path that call to them, or that they have a natural affinity for, as well as in the basic tenets and spiritual beliefs of their chosen path.
• We acknowledge and experience Nature, and the Earth, as an embodiment or expression of the Divine, and we seek to live in harmony with the Earth and all its inhabitants.
• The Tradition does not acknowledge the existence of an absolute evil; we see evil as a choice made by individuals who choose to engage in negative practices of their own free will.
• It is Tradition belief that we are here in this place and time to love and grow spiritually and to offer our guidance when it is so desired.
• The Tradition views energy as natural and pure, neither good nor bad, black nor white. It is only human perception and intent that denotes otherwise, and summarily decides how the energy is utilized.
• The Traditions sees one of the stipulations of evolving into priest/hood as service -- to the Divine, to oneself, ones chosen spiritual family (coven or circle), ones Tradition and the pagan community as a whole. We seek out ways to be of service in any way we can, through teaching or guiding others, assuming roles of leadership in communities lacking for such, taking care of our youth and our elders, and those in great need.