what is the difference between pagans and wiccans?

Answer 1

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The word Pagan, comes from the latin paganus, which implies someone who lives in the country, or native people of the land. When Christianity first began it's spread throughout other lands, they made an attempt to convert all the native (pagan) people to the religion of a single god. The idea of people from foreign countries who worshipped a god which did not belong to the church was, of course, detestable to every Christian who wanted to preach the word of their lord. This is why the idea of being pagan was looked down upon. Not for a wicked act, but for worshipping a god, or gods, of your own ancestry.

Over the centuries, the word, pagan, has adopted the ideas that people eat babies, and perform human sacrifrices. Some cultures did perform human sacrifices, namely the Aztec people, but it was not out of brutality and in a satanic fashion. Imagine if you will, that you had the means to transport yourself back in time to 1400 AD, walked into an Aztec temple and asked the wisest elder, in his own (non-christianized) language, "Who's Jesus Christ?" What answer would he give you? First of all, he wouldn't recognize the name, Jesus Christ. He wouldn't even concider himself Pagan, though he would, without a doubt, believe in the existance of his gods.

The idea of paganism has changed during the poplar ideas of Magick, in modern times. People proudly call themselves Pagan, and I hope for certain that they have a decent grasp of what the word means. Nowadays, when people call themselves Pagan, they mean it in the aspect which they can proudly state that they practice Magick, in the form of nature worship and/or ancestral heritage.

Now where Wicca is concerned, this religion adopted ideas which further expressed the old pagan beliefs of nature worship and/or ancestral heritage. The Anthropologist, Margaret A. Murray, in her book, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, proved that pagan ideas and beliefs existed in modern times. This book was originally published in 1921, but the idea remains even more so today, than it did back then. It was when Gerald Gardner openly spoke about his own beliefs, in 1954, when the idea of being a witch entered the mind of a mass collection of people, whether they were for it or against it.

Remember that it was the Church who called it witchcraft, but it was the modern witch who adopted the name Wicca, to express the Indo-European word, weik, which had its root in the concept of Magick. When Wicca came about, it became the first established Magick religion of modern times, with the establishment of Gardnerian Wicca. You can be pagan without being wiccan, but you cannot be wiccan without being pagan. Every Wiccan is pagan, but not every Pagan is wiccan.

Answer 2

All Wiccans are Pagans, but not all pagans are Wiccans.

Answer 3

Im pagan but would hate to be associated with wicca especially since it has been adopted as a banner for the "buffy" generation

Answer 4

Pagans are people who follow a religion other than one based in JudeoChristian philosophy. See http://www.sacredhearth.com/whatispagan.html

Wiccans are people who subscribe to a specific Pagan religion (Wicca) which was founded (or revived, depending who you ask) by one Gerald Gardner.

Answer 5

one is an apple the other an orange