John Reinhard Weguelin – The Obsequies of an Egyptian Cat (1886)
Monday, 08th April 2019
To be faithful.
The practice of fidelity.
I happened upon this post recently by Galina Krasskova on her blog Gangleri’s Grove.
It’s not a recent post, it is actually from nearly a year ago, and I found it quite by accident.
(Or did I? Sometimes, I marvel at the synchronicity of life!)
I continue to find it profoundly moving.
It spoke to me about being faithful as a practice.
This resonates deeply for me both as a marriage celebrant and as a devotional polytheistic practitioner.
What does fidelity mean?
The word itself can sound a little old fashioned.
So to rephrase: what does being faithful mean?
To quote directly from Galina’s blog post:
“Fidelity can best be defined as remaining faithful to one’s commitments. One of the things that Sigyn has gently pointed out to me the past few days is that it’s not enough to remain faithful. There are ways to do that poorly, grudgingly, carelessly or mindfully and well. To embrace fidelity in the best of ways is to do so consciously, as an ongoing practice. That means accepting and embracing [self-directed] curbs on one’s behavior in some cases (perhaps not all) and acting consciously from love and a desire for the other’s happiness and health. How do we embody this practice in our devotional relationships and in our human ones too? Do we even give it a second thought beyond the most obvious?”
Over the last week I have read, and re-read Galina’s post.
To be faithful – or fidelity as a daily practice.
What does it mean to you?
How can you make this relevant in your religious / spiritual practice?
How is this relevant In your relationships?
Other posts on this topic:
John Beckett raises the point that fidelity isn’t about having faith, it is about being faithful.
I recently wrote a blog around being a Devotional Practitioner, and how important daily practice was to me.
This, too is part of being faithful.
It’s interesting how few discussions focus on the practice of prayer.
Pagans & Polytheists as People of Prayer ~ Amor Et Mortem
To me, this aspect of faithful practice is very important.
There is however, a lot of discussion given to fidelity in reference to the Nine Noble Virtues.
On a very old WordPress Blog called Pagan Quill which no longer seems to be active, I found a great post discussing fidelity from the perspective of loyalty and being faithful.
I really liked the final few lines of this blog post:
“From holding our faith with our gods, to holding faith with our spouses and friends, the virtue of fidelity describes not just a virtue, but a sacred, interactive and interdependent bond based on merit.”
Ivy
As an aside, one of the attributes of Ivy is fidelity.
Trees of Sanctuary ~ Ivy, interestingly..
I found this interesting, because where ever I live in the City of my Heart (Melbourne), ivy and violets grow. If they weren’t there when I move in, if they weren’t present when I moved in, they *arrive* if I stay longer than 18 months.
I am just starting to consider this more deeply, and reading this blog post of Galina’s, happens to coincide with reading The Witch’s Familiar by Raven Grimassi.
In this book, Raven talks about relationships of all kinds.
Again, synchronicity.
What are your thoughts on fidelity?
Do you see a difference between fidelity and being faithful?
Is it an important consideration in your spiritual or religious practice?
Are there any blog posts that have spoken to you on this topic (pop them in the comments, I would love to read them!)