Americans gave away  $499.33 billion in charitable donations in 2022. The largest single source of those donations – 64% or $319.04B – came from individuals. And somewhere between one-third and one-fifth of those donations were made during the month of December.

Gifting within a spiritual tradition

A good portion of charitable giving, no matter when it occurs, is guided by spiritual or religious practice. Some mainstream religions have specific rules about charitable giving. In the Jewish community, the tradition of ma’sar kesafim calls for adherents to give away 10% of their income to support those in need, or to some other cause within the community. In Islam, the practice of zakat asks the faithful to donate 2.5% of their accumulated wealth each year. These donations are meant to support the community or advance the faith in some way. 

Growing up in an Evangelical Christian tradition, I was taught that the appropriate tithe was 10% of one’s net income. (Christianity Today reported in 2020 that the average tithe among Evangelicals in the U.S. was actually 2.5% of net income.) Buddhist and Hindu traditions teach the importance of the practice of Dāna, or selfless giving, but do not comment on the specifics of what constitutes appropriate generosity. But what about Pagans (in general) and Druids (in particular)? What does giving look like within our spiritual traditions?

Pagan views on charitable giving

As with most things pagan, there is no single or definitive answer to this question. The contemporary pagan community is decentralized and varied: each tradition and community has its own practices and beliefs, and each develops its own virtues and ethics. Within those groups, each practitioner relies on personal discernment and gnosis rather than orthodoxy, so much is left to the individual when it comes to determining what constitutes the path of right action. The same is true for charitable giving and volunteer work. 

Circle Sanctuary

Still, there are some reference points that we can look to. For example, the website for the Wiccan community Circle Sanctuary states that one of their spiritual principles is to “live life in consideration of others as well as oneself, endeavoring to be of service and to do no harm.”  The community has also defined a set of virtues that includes “responsibility, balance, empathy, kindness, service, and freedom.” 

OBOD

The Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids (OBOD) has published a brief article titled “The Web of Life and the Illusion of Separateness.” It reads, in part: 

Woven into much of Druid thinking and all of its practice is the idea or belief that we are all connected in a universe that is essentially benign – that we do not exist as isolated beings who must fight to survive in a cruel world. Instead we are seen as part of a great web or fabric of life that includes every living creature and all of Creation. This is essentially a pantheistic view of life, which sees all of Nature as sacred and as interconnected.

According to OBOD’s druid philosophy, all life is divine and all life is interdependent. Although there is no specific mention of an obligation or duty to give to others, charitable giving could be interpreted as a means to make real this commitment to the sacredness and interdependence of all life. 

ADF

In my own Druid community of ADF, there is no specific guidance on how to practice charitable giving. However, I do think the impulse toward generosity is embedded in the “Nine Pagan Values” as they are described in our literature. 

The value of integrity refers to the qualities of fairness and acting honorably. Vision, as ADF defines it, challenges us to “broaden [our] perspective, to have a greater understanding of our place/role in the cosmos.” The virtue of hospitality reminds us of the importance of welcoming others into our hearth. The virtue of moderation asks us to check our appetites and seek balance in all things. With the virtue of “fertility,” we are called to cultivate “bounty of mind, body, and spirit,” not only in ourselves, but also in others. 

In addition to the “Nine Pagan Virtues,” ADF also builds upon Indo-European tradition and mythology. In Deep Ancestors: Practicing the Religion of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, Ceisiwr Serith, discusses the importance of charity to our Indo-European ancestors. In his view, charity was a virtue for our Proto-Indo-European ancestors. Charity plays a role in the maintenance of the *Xártus, which is another term for “the living structure of the Cosmos.” (34) Serith also ties charity to the practice of *ghosti or hospitality: 

This is the model for Indo-European charity. We are obliged to share our wealth. We are obligated to help strangers as well as those we know. So important is this model that the Proto-Indo-European deity who enforces charity is Dyēus Pater, the highest of the gods. Thus we have Zeus Xenios, “Zeus of the Stranger” who enforces our relationships with those not of our kin group. Charity is in the hands of the enforcer of natural order because it is part of the natural order. (43)

Even if the act of charitable giving is not explicitly described in ADF’s virtues, the virtues themselves provide support for acts of generosity. And there does seem to be a historical precedent for them – a precedent that stretches back to our earliest Indo-European pagan ancestors. 

Winter gifting as magical work

Many of us give gifts or do some type of volunteer service during the holiday season. Sometimes we do so out of obligation or habit. But sometimes we also do so to experience the joy and interconnectedness these acts of generosity provide. 

Pagans have an opportunity here. Rather than simply going through the motions of giving our money or time to causes and organizations we support out of habit, we can transform our charitable giving into works of magic. By giving what we can, we are shaping the future world and sustaining proper order of things, what our Indo-European ancestors may have conceived as *Xártus. We are making good on our promises to uphold the virtues extolled by our pagan communities and demonstrating that generosity can be inspired by wisdom traditions that exist outside the mainstream. 

How do we do it? The same way we perform any other act of magic: by focusing our energies and directing our intention. In my personal practice, I first figure out what I can give: time, treasure, or talent. Then I do a simple ritual in which I dedicate my gift to one of the Kindreds. Last year, I was able to make a donation to the Arbor Day Foundation, which I did in honor of the nature spirits. This year, I am able to donate some time and money to a local help center. I am doing this in honor of the ancestors of this place, since they are the foundation of the community in which I live. 

We make our generosity magical by recognizing that, when we give to the causes and organizations near to our hearts, we are taking actions that reverberate throughout the Cosmos and reinforce the web of interconnectedness that is central to our druidry.