What are Pagans?

Question

sure, i could just google, but i wanted to hear from followers themselves; things like

general descriptions of their beliefs
thoughts about adherants of other religions
philosophy of life and such
how they came to the pagan beliefs

Answer 1

Pagan comes from the latin word "paganus" and it refers to people who lived in the forrest, as oppose to people who lived in the city. It later applies to non-christian religions because Christians were considered to be civilized (aka had towns), while pagans were cxonsidered to be uncivilized

Answer 2

Pagans is an earth-based religion which worships mother nature.
To the Pagans, the Earth is their mother.
Some typical quotations which demonstrate this meaning of "Pagan" are:

1) "Witchcraft, or Wicca, is considered part of the occult, but has little relationship to Satanism. Wicca is pagan (pre-Christian, as opposed to anti-Christian) and is currently gaining popularity."

2) "Witches do not worship the devil...Witches are more interested in magical arts and the divinity of nature...Wiccans are considered pagans because they worship several nature gods instead of a single god."

3) "The World Christian Encyclopedia estimates 6 million Americans profess to be witches and engage in practices like these. They are a sub-group of over 10 million persons the encyclopedia says call themselves pagans, who practice "primitive" religions such as Druidism, Odin worship and Native American shamanism."

The pagans are usually mistaken to be devil witchcraft due to the art of pagans they hold and the black cloaks they wear during their rituals.
However, to the Pagans, black is a universal colour since it is the combination of all the colours, and by wearing the black, the Pagans believed that this will absorb the power from the Mother Nature.

Pagans themselves set a certain rules on their craft, thus they cannot do their arts for the bad purposes.
If you want to meet more of other Pagan followers, I could recommend a web community where you can learn a lot about Pagans and ask anything to the Pagans followers themselves.

http://beliefnet.com/index/index_10015.html

Hope this will help.

Answer 3

Ok. Briefly, "Pagan" is an umbrella term for anyone who practices a pre-christian or non-christian religion, Pagans generally acknowledge multiple gods and goddesses and practice an earth-based religion. I myself, as a Pagan, believe in a live and let live philosophy toward adherents of other faiths, unless they attack me in some fashion. Philosophy of life? Everyone has their own opinion here, we as Pagans encourage this, so you'd get differing views depending on who you asked.
How I came to be a Pagan? The Bible made no sense, I found most Christians that I met to be obnoxious and elitist and really snobby about their faith,and I eventually got tired of it all. I researched many other faiths and eventually came to Paganism, I embraced the sense of personal responsibility, the belief in mankind's divinity, and the respect for everything in Nature that it offered. This is over-simplified, but I don't have the space to go into it all here.

Answer 4

Many different religions and belief systems a termed paganistic,everything from Hinduism to Wicca(witchcraft).Because of this your question is a more complicated to answer than you may think.It does not mean Satanic or evil,pretty much anything that is not recognised or viewed favourably by the mainstream organised religions or churches you will find classified as paganistic.Also you will find many organisations claiming to be pagan but also do little to project a favourable image such as cults and certain covens I choose to be solo so that I am free to be the kind of pagan I believe to be true to the old ways which is basically free to hold my own beliefs about all aspects of my spirituality including when and where I pray,I try to use a holistic and natural approach to health and try to never harm anyone however no one is perfect regardless of they're belief system I live by the rule as long as you learn from it they're is no such thing as a mistake they are all life lessons some just learn a little more slowly than others...witchfromoz's Daughter (Its just Me)

Answer 5

Well, honestly, if you ask ten pagans what paganism is you'll get fifteen different answers! Pagans can be polytheistic, animistic, pantheistic, panenthiestic, duotheistic, monotheistic, and even atheist and agnostic. We may or may not practice magic, and we may or may not believe in such dualities as "black: and "white" magic. Some of us divine through tarot cards and runes, others don't. We may work with faeries, totems, and other spirits, or none at all. While many pagans are open-minded, unfortunately we do get anti-Christian pagans who mistakenly assume that all Christians are out to "get" them, thanks to the actions of a few jerks. And while the pagan community tends to be pretty tolerant overall, there are rare cases of racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism (in both directions) and other bigotry. Pagans may work in groups, or we may be solitary by circumstance or choice. Many, though not all, pagans are liberal or progressive, and support human rights, environmentalism and related causes.

Speaking for myself, I have been pagan for about a decade. I'm pretty much completely solitary; my path is a mix of animism, pantheism and totemism. I am also a frequent practitioner of magic; animal magic tends to be my main focus, but I've worked with all types out of experimentation. My matron Goddess is Artemis, though I've worked with other deities as well.

I discovered paganism for myself when I was 17, and studied for a bit before deciding to walk that path. It's not that I have anything against the Catholicism I was raised with; I just have a different view of how the Universe fits together. At first I was interested in *everything* and really wasn't sure where to start. Over the years I refined my beliefs, adn these days I have a pretty good idea of what I believe reality really is. I share my thoughts and beliefs through books and articles that I write, as well as hanging out and talking shop with other pagans. I'm always learning and growing, and one of the beauties of this set of religions is that everyone has hir own perspective to share.

Answer 6

A Pagan is basically someone who believes in an earth-based nature religion or belief system.
Pagans are *usually* tolerant of other people's religions &
believe in all sorts of things & philosophies, depending on the type of Pagan they are. It's a very broad term which has more specific pagan religions/belief systems which come under the category of "Pagan".
I have always been Pagan, I just didn't realise there was a "category/title" for it until I found the internet.

Answer 7

Paganism is a recognised religion that acknowledges a connection with the earth and nature and quite often Goddess worship. It is spiritual-based rather than being concerned with Dogma. The moon is also significant and is used to determine when certain rituals are performed. Generally, Pagans are very tolerant of other people's choices concerning religion and sexuality. Many Pagans believe in reincarnation and this fits in with the concept of the Wheel of the Year - Birth, Growth, Death and Renewal, which also coincides with the four seasons.
I was drawn to Paganism because of its logic and spirituality. I have also held a strong connection and concern with nature, so it just became a natural progression. There was never an actual moment that I "chose" to be Pagan, I just realised that I was, because of my existing attitudes and ideals! For me it is about personal growth and development and there is no Dogma attached to it, no guilt factor and no one constantly standing in judgement of you. Actually, that last bit's not quite true, there are a lot of conservative Christians in my area and I am often referred to as a Satanist.

Answer 8

Within a European Christian context, paganism is a catch-all term which has come to connote a broad set of not necessarily compatible religious beliefs and practices (see Cult (religion)) of a natural religion (as opposed to a revealed religion of a text), which are usually, but not necessarily, characterized by polytheism and, less commonly, animism. There is little organized "-ism" in paganism.

Answer 9

There's no real definition of pagan. The only requirement to be a pagan is to say so. It's pretty common for them to worship nature and multiple deities they read about in some book or website. Some of them like to pretend to do magic and cast spells etc but the the results can't be proven any more than that of Christian prayer.

Answer 10

I use it to describe any one who dosen't worship the Abrahamic God, mostly polytheists.

I persoanlly use it in the sense a Greek would be, I worship more than one god, but I am not an equinox dancer. I live in a city, but collect things from the country on my trips.

The basic pagan thing is to allow the gods to know you, emulate them, and show reverance. You die, you forget, you come back. It's not so much a "Spend eternity after you die once." [Though some have a Hell concept].

Paganism is really an umbrella term for many faiths.

For other faiths, you'd have to ask individuals, but the consensus is, "Live and let live," but many of them dislike Christians [Because they believe the witch hunts got their ancestors, which is false.]. Personally, I dsilike Christians due to their ignorance, and Wiccan's because of their simplicity [I tolerate Wiccans more though]. Other than that, I respect all religions.

I studied it, and it felt right. I am, however, more than a pagan.