In the heart of truly trying to use AA and its tenets to aid in my recovery, I purchased the book “The Pagan in Recovery” by Deirdre Anne Hebert to supplement readings from “Alcoholics Anonymous” aka The Big Book. The Big Book has a LOT of Christian overtones (it doesn’t matter HOW many people tell me “but it’s not religious! You can’t look at it that way!” - it DOES, especially from a Pagan perspective). I don’t have the energy to truly reflect on the book, but I will be writing down my favorite passages and sentences that truly speak to me, that I will want to look at later on down the road. I will also be listing the page(s) the passages are found on.
That said, let’s begin with step one!
Step one - We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
“How can it be that the power of the deity resides within us, yet we still remain powerless? The truth is, though, that this is only an apparent paradox. We are powerless, not because we are without power or ability, but because we have lost the means to put the power within us to use.” … “Deity has not abandoned us; we’ve simply lost touch with the divine within us.” (pg 12-13)
“The truth is that like an infection, despite the fact that things appear manageable right now, they’re not going to get better unless we recognize the problem and take action. Like an infection, the disease of addiction is out of control the moment we have it – it is progressive and will have its way.” (pg 13)
“Freedom is about being able to make our own choices. When our lives are unmanageable, we are no longer making our own choices.” (pg 14)
“In our society, heavily influenced with Christian asceticism as it is and with so many churches still preaching temperance, becoming addicted is viewed as a moral issue. Whether we wish to admit it or not, we’ve likely been influenced with these views as well. Often we tend to believe that if anything is in control of us, then we are morally deficient. We seek to gain control over that which has us in its grip. We seek to break free from these talons with our own will-power. ” (pg 17-18)
“In the case of addiction, surrender doesn’t imply that one surrenders to the disease. Rather it is a surrender to the fact that we have a problem. We surrender in the sense that we recognize that there is no power which we can possibly muster under our own efforts that will solve this problem. We surrender because we recognize that in this situation, we are truly powerless.” (pg 18)
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