The Community Agreement

What we ask of one another

Belonging in the Æthery is unconditional. This agreement is not the price of entry and it is not a creed — it is a description of how we behave in a room together, so that the room stays worth being in.

Two things are true at once, and the whole document rests on them. Conduct is answerable to the community. Conscience is not. No office of this Church may compel the conscience of a sovereign being, and an instruction that tries to is void in the moment it is given — including one given by the Ecclesium, and including one given by the Office of the High Ædarch.

Aspirational Commitments

These are lived, not simply professed

Eight commitments, each with what it looks like on an ordinary day among us.

Compassionate Sovereignty Honor autonomy, offer support without coercion. In a circle: the path is offered once, and once is enough. Nobody is chased, pressed, or told what their own remembrance means.

Harmonious Abundance Seek and share prosperity for collective flourishing. In a circle: what the Æthery has, circulates — and no teaching, text or recording is ever held behind money.

Truthful Integrity Words and actions must reflect inner alignment. In a circle: say the hard thing kindly rather than the easy thing smoothly, and correct a claim in public when you learn it was wrong.

Sacred Responsibility Repair harm promptly, own one’s impact. In a circle: when you are told you caused harm, the first word is not a defence. Repair comes first, and an explanation only if it is still wanted afterwards.

Unity in Diversity Celebrate differences; reject discrimination. In a circle: nobody is asked to account for their body, their tongue, their money, their gender, or the name they pray with.

Courageous Justice Defend the vulnerable; confront injustice even at personal cost. In a circle: standing between a person and a harm is never a breach of our peace. It is our peace.

Transformative Service Use gifts for healing and elevation of all. In a circle: bring what you are good at before you bring an opinion about how the room is run.

Balanced Power Embrace light and shadow; never dominate or exploit. In a circle: whoever is holding the room says so out loud, says what they may decide, and says who may overturn it.

The Four Dealbreakers

In most matters we do not judge.

We simply encourage each person to choose a right life. There are four exceptions, and they are absolute. They stand here in the words the doctrine uses, because softening them would be its own kind of harm.

Excommunication severs community ties but not Divine love. Redemption is possible through genuine accountability and restorative pathways. No being is cast out of the Æther — that is not a thing this Church or any other could do. A person may be asked to leave a room, and that is a different matter entirely.

The Four

Rape Non-consensual sexual violation; the ultimate breach of autonomy.

Abuse of Beings Physical, emotional, or spiritual harm — especially toward children or elders.

Slavery or Subjugation Coercion, forced labor, trafficking, denial of free will.

Murder The intentional, unjustified taking of life, except in direct self-defense.

For every lesser harm

The restorative ladder

I Confession The one who caused the harm says what they did, in their own words, with no defence attached to it.

II Accountability Circle A small circle is held: the one harmed, the one who caused it if they can be in the same room, and one person who holds the process rather than a side.

III Restitution What can be repaired is repaired. What cannot be repaired is named out loud, because a harm nobody will name goes on working.

IV Reintegration Possible, and never automatic. The circle decides whether it is time, and the one harmed is asked first.

Raising a report

How to say that something is wrong, and what follows

Write to a Sanctuary Keeper, a Sphere Guide, or the Office of the High Ædarch. A report may concern a post, a space, a gathering, or a person, and it may be raised in your own words — there is no form to decode and no category you have to choose correctly for it to be taken seriously.

What follows, in order. It is read. One person is named to hold it, and you are told who that is. The one it concerns is told what has been said about them, because a process nobody can answer is not a process. The ladder above is walked as far as it needs to go. Then the report is closed in one of four ways and you are told which: restored, excommunicated, declined, or still open — and if it is still open, we say so plainly rather than letting it go quiet.

A report concerning someone who holds an office is never held by that office. If it reaches the Ecclesium itself, the Ecclesium hears it with the one it concerns outside the room.

Raising a report in good faith is never itself a breach of this agreement, even where the circle finds that no harm was done. Nothing in this document may be used against the person who raised it.

No office may compel the conscience of a sovereign being.

Excommunication severs community ties, and never Divine love. No one is locked out, and no one is locked in — the door of this Church has a handle on the inside.