The term "Perfect Love and Perfect Trust" has become a watchword for the Pagan community. It is a concept which states, basicly, when the pagan community meets all differences etc... are set aside and a safe environment is provided for the act of worship, without reprisals, without difference, without faction splitting or back-biting. It would be questionable in the least to presume this is anything other than the ideal. However we may strive to accomplish spiritual union our behavior as the human race has demonstrated time and again the conflict which exists.

Least we loose heart, we can come close to this ideal. To do so however we must take a great risk both within and without of spiritual communities. I recall one effort of the pagan community where I was growing up to form an organization called PAN (Pagan Alliance Network). Based upon the concept of perfect love and perfect trust, the organization brought together many different spiritual traditions within the pagan community to make it stronger and more pro-active. Unfortunately, the vulnerability of PAN was taken advantage of by a faction of the pagan community present who decided they were the ones who were going to control PAN. The fallout from this of course was an increase in the distrust and damage done to some people's spirituality.

We are often quick to point out the failings of the Christian community, but when it comes to the pagan community our introspection tends to become more limited. While we strive for perfect love and perfect trust, we are put in the paradox of protecting ourselves at the same time, both from our own traditions and the traditional spiritual traditions. How do we walk the line of perfect love and perfect trust, yet still protect ourselves from both the external community and the internal community?

One way is to openly and passionately debunk the misinformation which is fostered and nurtured by communities of any kinds. No where in history is this more visible that all the garbage distributed about Freemasons. The concepts of Freemasonry are strong and sound, yet because of what their organization represents, many people find it a threat and as such began to manufacture misinformation. One of the advantages of debunking the mininformation is it makes your community stronger. It also forces the source of the misinformation to re-examine their position and if they are truly in search of truth they will adjust things accordingly.

We know from past experience, even with correct information out there we are not guaranteed acceptance. A second feature of us walking the paradox is to be sensible about it. There is a time and place for everything, an although the concept of perfect love and perfect trust is one to be followed when we enact it there will be both positive and negative repercussions. Sometimes we need to keep the concepts internal and not manifest them openly. Self protection has to be our first consideration. We need to make sure our expectations are realistic and that our choices are being made in a responsible manner.

Thirdly we need to recognize within our own traditions there are factions whose agenda's are not aligned with the principle of that traditions. This is the source of misinformation for people are more likely to pick out the negative and therefore the factions which are not the ones who are accurate reflections. Even among family systems, where acceptance and love should be close to perfect, we find the same dynamics at work.

Perfect love and perfect trust, what this means is a question we must explore in our life and what the active part of this concept means for us. Our history is a rich tradition of symbol and ritual, but which the world around us often has many misconceptions about, and are not willing to correct or even explore. Therefore in our own communities, we should be more mindful of our contributions and our motives. Perfect love and perfect trust. In the words of Louis Armstrong. "What a wonderful world."