What does the Cleric alignment requirement mean for Clerics with no deity?

Question

The Cleric rules say:

Alignment: A cleric's alignment must be within one step of her deity's, along either the law/chaos axis or the good/evil axis.

But you can also be a cleric with no deity:

While the vast majority of clerics revere a specific deity, a small number dedicate themselves to a divine concept worthy of devotion — such as battle, death, justice, or knowledge — free of a deific abstraction.

What does the alignment rule mean if you have no deity? I am currently Chaotic Good; would that mean that I cannot become Neutral Good because I don't have a god to give me an axis?

Answer 1

What does the alignment rule mean if you have no deity?

It means absolutely nothing to you, it will only affect which spells you can cast, as you cannot cast spells of an opposed aligment.

I am currently Chaotic Good; would that mean that I cannot become Neutral Good because I don't have a god to give me an axis?

No, you could become Neutral Good. The fact you don't have a deity doesn't affect what aligment you can be, or change to. The "axis" isn't exclusive to a deity, it is about the lawful/chaotic and good/evil axis, and it's the same to everybody.

You can be a cleric of no deity, but you must follow an ideal (choose two domains), the aligment in this case will change what type of energy you can channel (positive or negative).

If you are a good cleric, you can only channel positive energy. If you are an evil cleric, you can only channel negative energy.

If you are neutral, though, you can choose (when you take your first cleric level) if you will channel positive or negative energy.

Your lawful/chaotic axis won't change your powers, only what kind of spells can affect you or not (ie: protection from chaos). And what kind of spells you can cast, a lawful cleric can't cast protection from law, just as an evil cleric can't cast protection from evil.

Keep in mind though, that in Golarion (Pathfinder's default campaign setting), you cannot be a cleric without a deity. The closest thing to that is an oracle.

Answer 2

A deity-less Cleric lacks the Cleric's normal alignment restriction. He still can't cast spells with an opposed alignment descriptor or choose an alignment domain without that alignment. Just as a real Cleric can change alignment with impunity, so long as he remains within one step of his deity, so can your deity-less Cleric but to any alignment he feels like.

Note that you must uphold the principle(s) you have devoted yourself to, and alignment change does not allow you to engage in behavior that was previously forbidden.

Answer 3

While you have no deity you will still retain a divine concept (battle, death, justice...) So while you have no alignment obligations to a deity, some alignments will make more sense for particular concepts than others (a cleric of anarchy is unlikely to be lawful) I would look through deities that are relevant to the particular divine concept you want and maybe use their alignment for inspiration, but mechanically you have no alignment restrictions.