By Whose Authority?

Authority is a concept I have been thinking about for the last year or so. Who has it and why do they deserve it? Do I have the authority to get things done in the community? Do I need to defer to this other individual on a given issue? Do the concepts of rank apply in the pagan community, and if so, whose authority do I recognize and why?  It’s been an interesting year to say the least.
Authority is defined on Dictionary.com as :

 noun, plural au·thor·i·ties.
1. the power to determine, adjudicate, or otherwise settle issues or disputes; jurisdiction; the right to control, command, or determine.
2.  a power or right delegated or given; authorization: Who has the authority to grant permission?

It’s pretty obvious that this is an important concept from the definition. We deal with authority in most every aspect of our lives. Work and home, school and city government. Out in the mundane world it is pretty easy to determine who has authority. We get all kinds of cues. The uniforms and badges of law enforcement, fire fighters, and first responders tell us who to listen to in an emergency. In the work place, name tags and titles let us know the rank and file of the organization. At home, we have developed rules and guide lines about who gets the final say in the big decisions.

It gets a little more vague in the Pagan community. We generally do not have visual cues for who is in the know and has the authority to guide us to good choices. Our clergy do not wear the uniforms of the Catholic, Lutheran, or Episcopal churches. We do not wear the name tags of the Mormons or the Jehovah’s Witnesses. We trust our friends and more subtle cues when dealing with the community “leadership”.
So the question becomes, who has authority and how did they get it? Why do they deserve it? There are different schools of thought on the matter. I have a couple of favorites. Both though, have a few things in common.

 First they have to have a strong and consistent set of ethics. They have to prove that they will act consistently within the construct of what they believe, regardless of the situation. For instance, if they are constantly talking about having patience with folks, and then get angry and snappy the first time someone forgets to bring the candles for ritual, that might be a signal that I do not want to honor their authority.

Next, they need to have a sense of personal responsibility. They should understand that when people look up to them, they have a responsibility to set an example. If “Greg” is always late to his own rituals because he falls behind at work or just gets too busy to have things ready to go, he really isn’t showing me any sense of responsibility. Things happen, once in while. If this is a constant sort of thing, then I question his authority.

Lastly, there has to be a sense of accountability within the person whose authority I choose to acknowledge.  If I keep hearing excuses and seeing blame place on the folks around them or the Universe at large for things going wrong in their lives, they lose my respect. If they are willing to accept responsibility for their own issues, then they might be worth listening to, especially if they are also working on those issues.