Different paths of paganism and occult work?

Question

I'm interested:

What are the main paths of paganism and related religions, and what paths are there in occult work? Could someone give me a brief description of each of the most prominant?

Thankies!
xXx

Answer 1

Pagan is a not a religion but an umbrella term that nowadays refers to someone who doesn't worship a faith that is derived from the teachings of Abraham (Hebrew, Islam, and Christianity). There are actually several religions that fall into this category. Some of the more notable ones are Wicca (Witchcraft), Druidism (faith of Druids), Asatru (Norse religion), and Hellenic (Greek religion). Each of them have their own philosophy and is different from the other. As a matter of fact, Wicca can be broken down into several denominations including: Alexandrian Wicca,Blue Star Wicca, Celtic Wicca, Christian Wicca, Correllian Nativist Church (Correllian Wicca), Dianic or Feminist Wicca, Eclectic Wicca, Faery Wicca, Feri Tradition, Gardnerian Wicca, Kemetic Wicca, Odyssean Wicca, Reclaiming (neopaganism), Seax-Wica, Stregheria, Uniterranism, and Welsh Wicca. So you can see there are tons of different forms of paganism and neo-paganism. If there is a particular one that interests you feel free to contact me and I will see if I can find information for you about it or simply do a web search for any of the terms I listed above.

Blessed Be )O(

Answer 2

You are mixing your spirituality's.

Paganism is an individual belief system. Some may, or may not, include magics, or the occult. Totally depends on the individual, and there are no "main paths" of paganism.

In something you might understand based on your question, there are a few "organized" religions - Druidism, Asatru and Wicca. There are a few other minor ones. Many of these have variations within the practices, and differ from group to group.

Now, occult work, that would be the Ceremonial Magician, and that would be under "practices" not spirituality. Magic is not necessarily a spiritual practice, though there are spirituality's that overlay magic.

Occult work, like the Golden Dawn, which was an off shoot of other practices, or maybe Christian Mysticism, or even Qabalah practitioners... a type of magical system with, or without, spirituality, though the two later practices involve spirituality.

Witches do not practice "occult" magics, rather they tend to adapt simple, sometimes sympathetic, magics, though there are those who incorporate smaller elements of the occult into their practices. And many witches practice different types and blends of magics... so it becomes, again, hard to "pigeon hole" the practices.

This is actual practice and information, not the "textbook" junk that someone made up cause it sounded good. These days, there are more different practices and spirituality's than ever before. Nothing is set in stone regarding the practices of the "Earth Based" spirituality's and magical practitioners. Much has become a blend, or a major mess, depending on what group you are talking to.

For more information, see "Drawing Down the Moon" by Margot Adler for early information on the pagan movement or "Triumph of the Moon" by Hutton for information on the founding of Wicca in the UK by Gardner and for the Goddess Movement look to "Spiral Dance" by Starhawk. Some interesting reading, though it can be very dry at points, even boring.

Answer 3

One of the main pagan paths in the public (say that 3 times fast) is Wicca. There is Druidism, Kemetic (Egyptian) and many different Celtic paths. As for Occult "work", the word itself means Mystery, so you would have to determine just what constitutes "occult". The Left Hand Path, as someone else posted, is usually what some consider to be Crowley's area of expertise. Satanism and it's many different paths (yes, there is more than one kind of Satanism) is usually listed as a Left Hand Path as well. "Left Hand Path" is used more for those things that are not generally accepted within society.

It's hard to give even a brief description as so many people view these things differently. I can say I follow what is called Celtic Reconstructionism, which is a path that is taking history and archeology and trying to find the truth behind the Celtic religion(s) that were followed in ancient times. (The Celts were damn near wiped out by Julius Ceasar, so it's quite difficult to piece everything together)

Answer 4

Most prominant neo-pagan path would probably be Wicca, in regards to the number of followers. (That is, if you discount those of us who call ourselves "Pagan" without self-identifying to a specific path)

Other paths include Druid, Asatru (Norse Heathenism), Shaman, Kemetic (Egyptian), Hellenic, and several other reconstructionist paths. You could also likely include paths like Satanism, Thelema, Ceremonial Magician, Voudoun, Santeria, etc under the "Pagan" umbrella, using the definition of "Not Christianity, Judaism, or Islamic".

You may want to check out "The Everything Paganism Book" which, in spite of its title, actually has a good high-level overview of paganism in general, and some details on specific paths.

Answer 5

Depends on what you consider a Pagan. Some people group Wiccans and Druids in with Pagans sometimes. The ways I see the word Pagan, is it's 1: an actual religion and 2: It's term used by some to group the ancient religions together in a single word and as well 3: it's a term used by some Christians to show their disgust or disaproval of a group of non-Christians.

But anywho, that doesn't answer your question. I follow the Druid faith, and if you want to include that into a list of Pagan religions, I'll be glad to educate you on the ways of the Druids. The best way to keep this brief, which is kind of hard explaining the Druid faith briefly, is to point you to a couple websites which should help.

http://technovate.org
http://www.druidsofalbion.com
http://www.druidry.org

If you still have questions, feel free to toss a message or something my way, I'll be glad to help anyway I can.

Answer 6

Try a google search and ignore anything that mentions Satan, because that's a church propaganda site.

Seriously, there are so many different paths and it's really complicated.

Bright blessings!
)O(

Answer 7

neo pagan which is connected with wicca left hand and right path

Answer 8

They both will lead to a eternal seperation without God

Answer 9

http://www.bloomington.in.us/~pen/mpagan.html

This explains it pretty well.