Perfect Love and Perfect Trust
Feb. 10th, 2002 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nyykiI've heard these words used again in a public context.
Perfect Love and Perfect Trust (PLPT) is a Wiccan concept that was used (and is still used) in a coven context. People who were oathbound to each other held this as the way of working in a closed coven.
Generally, a coven is understood to consist of up to 13 people. Think about it -- can you name 13 people you trust well enough to consider it "Perfect Trust?" If you're in a coven, I hope your answer is "yes". The perfect love part of that is even tougher. It means an unconditional love for each other and an open heart. This concept of PLPT is what is supposed to guarantee that all participants deal with each other genuinely and with the concern for each other overriding any agendas or selfish issues.
It is a term that seems to be misunderstood. Otherwise, how can someone enter a public circle and pledge PLPT to people they do not even know? And how can a business try to use it as its modus operandi? There are so many variables and people in and out of the equation that there is no way to forge those bonds.
I can hear the excuse now. "It's an ideal." No, it's an oath. It is not something you strive for, it is a statement. "How do you come to the circle?" It is a statement asking for a response of HOW YOU ARE, not how you are trying to be. (Just for the record, my usual response is "Honestly, and with an open heart.")
Too often people in the pagan community latch on to things like this and add them to their repertoire of sayings and pat responses, never thinking too deeply about what they are saying or doing. I thought rote liturgy was one of the things many of us were rejecting when we left our other path? And when I see it as a defense, I'm offended. I've been in a coven, both as a member and as a leader. I do not say those words lightly. To see them bandied about or used as a shield offends me as an affront to the oaths of people who have sworn those words honestly. Their words cheapen and tarnish the value of PLPT. Eventually, it will become just another pat phrase, and the words sworn by those who meant it will have lost their impact.
Perfect Love and Perfect Trust (PLPT) is a Wiccan concept that was used (and is still used) in a coven context. People who were oathbound to each other held this as the way of working in a closed coven.
Generally, a coven is understood to consist of up to 13 people. Think about it -- can you name 13 people you trust well enough to consider it "Perfect Trust?" If you're in a coven, I hope your answer is "yes". The perfect love part of that is even tougher. It means an unconditional love for each other and an open heart. This concept of PLPT is what is supposed to guarantee that all participants deal with each other genuinely and with the concern for each other overriding any agendas or selfish issues.
It is a term that seems to be misunderstood. Otherwise, how can someone enter a public circle and pledge PLPT to people they do not even know? And how can a business try to use it as its modus operandi? There are so many variables and people in and out of the equation that there is no way to forge those bonds.
I can hear the excuse now. "It's an ideal." No, it's an oath. It is not something you strive for, it is a statement. "How do you come to the circle?" It is a statement asking for a response of HOW YOU ARE, not how you are trying to be. (Just for the record, my usual response is "Honestly, and with an open heart.")
Too often people in the pagan community latch on to things like this and add them to their repertoire of sayings and pat responses, never thinking too deeply about what they are saying or doing. I thought rote liturgy was one of the things many of us were rejecting when we left our other path? And when I see it as a defense, I'm offended. I've been in a coven, both as a member and as a leader. I do not say those words lightly. To see them bandied about or used as a shield offends me as an affront to the oaths of people who have sworn those words honestly. Their words cheapen and tarnish the value of PLPT. Eventually, it will become just another pat phrase, and the words sworn by those who meant it will have lost their impact.
