What do Pagans believe? Is Paganism and Wicca the same? Are there different kinds of Pagan groups?

Answer 1

Wicca is a type of Paganism - one of the most popular, and probably the easiest to find information on, but by no means the only type. There's a wide variety of Pagan groups - if you're looking for broad categories, there's pretty much a category for each of the ancient civilizations (Greek, Roman, Nordic, Egyptian, Celtic, etc.)

What they believe in varies (sometimes quite widely), based on the religion. Many people mistakenly attribute Wiccan beliefs to all Pagans (based on Wicca's popularity), but that's not a good base to start from. Most Pagans believe in non-Abrahamic deities (though the form of those relationships vary), and have some sort of belief in at least some of the things commonly called paranormal or supernatural.

Answer 2

Pagans generally believe in the divine in both female and male form, and they are usually polytheistic. They tend to believe in karma, that anything you do returns to you three times, or for wiccans, in the wicca rede, which says to harm none, and is generally interpreted to mean harm no one or nothing is any way, be it physical, emotional, financial, etc.
Wicca is one of the pagan religions. Wicca itself also is divided into several traditions. Paganism encompasses all polytheistic religions (except Hinduism). There are different types of pagan groups, including, but not limited to, wiccans, druids, asatru, and shamans.

Answer 3

Our beliefs are many. Wicca is modern Paganism. There are many paths within Wicca as well, but basically it's a modern form of a mixture of different ancient beliefs. There are many different kinds of Pagan groups. Some of us are Solitary, basically meaning that our beliefs are too individual to belong to any particular group.

Answer 4

I guess it depends on your definition of Pagan. In ancient times they were simply the people who lived out in the boonies rather than in the cities or even the towns surrounding the cities. Living so far from everyone else, they were always the last to hear about any news at all.

Today's pagans do not worship the God of Abraham. They worship many gods or no god at all.

Wicca is not the same.

Answer 5

There are many Pagan religions, Wicca and Asatru being two of them. An excellent description can be found here:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/paganism.htm

Answer 6

Wow, have you opened a can of worms here.

Asking "What do Pagans (or Wiccans) believe?" is like asking "What do Christians believe?" You get a few common points, and then things get REALLY LIVELY in the individual interpretations! We're as independent-minded as cats, and since there isn't any "central church body", and nothing that really counts as dogma, it can get very......free-form.

FWIW, here's kind of a general "thumbnail"---BUT KEEP IN MIND THAT 'YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY'. You may want to hit some websites, or check out the "Dummies'" or "Idiot's" guides; they're not too bad for an overview.

Pagans, in general, tend to believe in a male-female dual Deity, although a lot of them like to spend MUCH more time talking to the Goddess.

(Lots of different aspects and faces; many Pagans worship Her/Him under many different names. It's really not **too** different from considering the Trinity as the Creator of the Universe, Jesus Christ, the Paraclete, First Cause, God of Abraham and Isaac, the Son of Man---and addressing It by all those different titles, as your needs/feelings vary.)

Most Pagans that I've run into believe in some sort of afterlife, which will be open to people of all sorts of spiritual backgrounds. There WILL be a need to "take responsibility" for your actions---good and evil---and a judgment, but I've never met a Pagan who believed in an _everlasting_ hell/damnation. Even the worst of humans will get a chance to make amends and learn necessary lessons.

The usual rule for Pagans and Wiccans is roughly translated as "you can do essentially what you like, PROVIDED you don't hurt anyone". There's also a general belief that whatever you do will come back to you, so Be Nice----yes, we have a version of the Golden Rule. Most people in religious systems or spiritual paths _do._

Wiccans ("witches") tend to work "magic", which is fancy for "using your will to try and influence things in the material world". Think of it as a highly-concentrated form of prayer or meditation, and you're not too far off. Most of us have noted that magic tends to work best when it is consistent with "natural order"---very hard to make things fall UPWARDS!

The doodads---chants, magical tools, incense, etc.---aren't really necessary, but do seem to help to focus the restless mind on what you're trying to accomplish. It's very unethical to "cast a spell" or work magic on someone without their permission--even for healing---which is why we tend to give bad looks when people ask about love spells, hexes, etc.

There's some overlap between the two groups; in my experience, the Wiccans tend to be a lot more "well, let's DO something!" activist sorts---real go-getters.

Hope this helps a bit.

Answer 7

yes i so far really know of two big ones. wicca and asatru. they dont believe the same thing. paganism really is just believing in a different religion other than christian, jewish, or islam.

Answer 8

i wager it relies upon on what type of pagan, yet maximum do believe that our souls/spirits keep on after lack of existence. So i'd assume they'd believe in eternal existence (eternal afterlife, i wager you recommend)

Answer 9

there are lots of pagans. there are some that worship nature, there are some that worship so many gods and goddesses, etc. i believe wiccan is withcraft. i'm just not sure yet.

Answer 10

Pagans believe that no-one else can find or choose or lead them to their metaphysical goals.

Most Pagans and Wiccans do not actually worship any Gods or Goddesses, at least not in the Christian way - - - we're not looking for salvation or any beyond-life favors. We engage in rituals to celebrate the Deities whose ways we enjoy, or with whom we have personal agreements, or that we are trying to learn about or contact; and we engage in these rituals sometimes to appease Deities whom we may have offended or to contact and make new personal agreements with other Deities. We rarely consider that any of these Deities created the world or are responsible for all of fate, we consider that they are part of existence, part of the season turning, part of the moon rising. There's a 'nameless' Deity whom almost every Wiccan and quite a few Pagans revere just called the Goddess, and She is a part of all life everywhere. One of the reasons that we do not worship them in the Christian, or Judeaic, or Muslim way is that we have been taught and recognize that they and we are actually equal in ultimate power, just that the focus of their existence is metaphysical and the focus of ours is physical, and that they need to interact with us just as much as we need to interact with them. In discussing these things with Wiccans, you will discover a more reverent, sacred attitude that may disagree with some of these statements, but keeping looking deeper, and you might find that my perception is close to correct.

There are belief-branches, but rarely does anyone in anyof these branches say or have the attitude that 'we are right and they are wrong' - - - the different traditions or ways are considered choices that are like different flavors of food that are all ultimately nourishing. There are some traditions that are more dogmatic or judgemental than others, of course. Listing the traditions is difficult - - - you might do internet searches for 'Wicca Traditions', 'Pagan Traditions', etc.
Two very widespread Wicaa Traditions are the Gardnerians (based on the work of Gerald Gardner) and the Alexandrians (based on the work of one of Gardner's students). A whole different Pagan/ Ceremonial Magick tradition is based on the work of an English metaphysical group at the turn of the 19th-20th century called: "The Golden Dawn". Another whole different Pagan traditon is called "Feri". Most Pagans create their own unique traditions by choosing parts of other belief-systems that they enjoy or that they find effective, these are called Eclectics. Then there are Witches, who aren't focused on religion but on worthwhile folk magic, and the Mages who have a variety of 'ways', like Ceremonial Magick (focused on worthwhile rituals) or (another = ) Chaos Magick (focused on worthwhile spontaneous magick). This may not have clarified your understanding, but it gives you some places to start researching more.

Most Wiccan Groups and many Pagan groups have a rite of entrance that is nothing more than a social ceremony that they call initiation. Many more have a kind of dedication rite. But some have serious initiation rites, in which the person involved goes thru a simulated 'death', changes and begins learning to do magick purposefully (whether there is a spiritual focus or not). Most Wiccan groups have some version of the 'three degrees' strata of spiritual development, spending at least a year and a day in each degree. What is involved in each varies with the tradition, but almost uniformly only 3rd degrees can be High Priests or High Priestesses. In our rites generally the High Priest does not pray to any particular God so much as invoke that God and temporarily become that God's mortal incarnation, and the same with High Priestess and the Goddess involved.

Some Wicca groups claims to be inheritors of the 'Old Religion' that existed in Europe long before Rome and Christianity....which is dubious/ debatable. Whether we can claim direct connection or not, the myths, fables, and parables that Pagans tend to revere and value come from one or another ancient civilization - - - Celts, Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Hindi, Sumerians, Sufi, etc.

There is an awareness of an ancient time when humans were civilized along Matriarchal lines, where men roamed thru the wildernesses, hunting, mining, wandering, etc, and women lived in villages, had domesticated animals, raised children, owned land, were leaders, judges, bankers, etc. The men would 'visit' the women for as long as they were welcome and there were few long-term relationships. The most essential 'magic' was the miraculous apparent capacity of women to create children all by themselves, among whose results were that inheritance went not to a man's son (for who could tell for sure which was actually his own son) but to his nephew, his sister's son. Some parts of Judaeism continue this.

Then the men discovered that they were necessary to procreation, seemingly felt 'tricked' or betrayed by the women and conquered them, beginning the sequence of Patriarchal civilizations that have continued for thousands of years, including results of valuing sons over daughters, direct inheritance, devaluing of women in almost every way, primogeniture, etc.

The Goddess is Life, all life everywhere. Whether She created all things in the beginning or not is not important, She Mothers and nurtures all of life now, She is a direct source of wisdom for all stages of human understanding. She is seen as having three personnae (reminiscent of the Christian Trinity) - - - Maiden, Mother, and Crone. There's some kind of link between Her and the ocean, between Her and the Moon...

Deities are contacted in a variety of ways, but usually a celebration occurs either on a Full Moon, a Dark Moon, or a Celtic Holy Day (the soltices, the equinoxes, and the points halfway between them, (called the 'eight-spoked wheel of the year'); usually the High Priest, High Priestes or both hosts the gathering, cleanses the area, casts a circle (draws it in the air going clockwise, often with a magical tool called the athame (ah-thah-may), sometimes chanting things), and sets a guardian (a person who will not participate in the celebration, but will cut open and closed the circle gate to let people in and out, and who will challenge those who would participate at the beginning to ensure that they were invited, that they know what they are doing, and that everyone's intent is harmonious with each other); before facing the guardian and entering the circle, people are often cleansed and/ or blessed with charged water or salted water or sprigs of sage and/or incense. Often ritual phrases such as "Merry Met, Merry Part", or "Perfect Love, Perfect Peace" are exchanged.
Once everyone is in the circle and it is closed, the High Priest or the High Priestess or both will begin the service, which usually includes contacting or honoring the God and the Goddess (or the Lord and the Lady, or even specifically Named pairs, such as Isis and Osiris, or Kernunos and Caer Idun), having people summon Elementals (usually Air, Fire, Water, and Earth) or open 'gates' at the edges of the circle to the Elemental Realms (Air = usually East, Fire South, Water West, Earth North;; but different traditions vary widely on the number and direction of the Elements). Then the 'work' of the ritual is done - - - participants make wishes, or express problems that they need help with, divination and/or channeling is done, and a bunch of other things are also possible (Wiccaning a baby, handfasting for a year and a day, etc). The Deities and Elementals are invited to "Stay if you Will, but go if you must, and know that You are always in our hearts", the guardian opens the gate, the people leave the circle, the circle is un-made and the area cleaned up. Usually the people share a meal ("cakes and ale") and/or some celebratory songs,,, usually ending with hugs and everyone's appreciation of everyone else's participation.

Deities can usually be contacted when in circle by calling or chanting their name. If you do this without a definate place for the Deity to 'show up' (called 'evocation'), She / He will probably make Himself / Herself known within the person calling (which can be disconcerting).

We definately believe in Deities powers, its just that they seem to value our physicalities almost as much as we value their metaphyical nature and abilities.