Questions for Pagans about Paganism?

Question

What does being a Pagan mean to you? What does Paganism mean to you? I mean in terms of your daily life. I just want to know what it means to you. Also how many different forms of Paganism are there? And what are the beliefs of them? What are the differences if any at all? What are the similarities if any at all? And if you feel like it what is Paganism? I know that this might be a pretty broad or even vague question but it requires broad and vague answers so to speak. I will apologize in advance if I annoy you with my questions.

Answer 1

To me, paganism means being polytheistic and growing relationships with the gods and goddesses of my anscestors. It means exploring for yourself the spiritual 'landscape' and spirituality on a first-hand basis. I keep mindful of my state of mind through my day. I make a pretty constant and concerted effort to keep myself humble and project warmth, affection, and acceptance (the make up of Love). It wasn't always so with me. I used to live with a dark cloud over my head, mostly from my own paranoia and mistrust of my fellow man. My self-importance led me back to self-pity over and over. I decided that wasn't how I wanted to conduct myself or feel for the rest of my life. Being pagan is a personal responsibility. I cannot just follow what someone else tells me, I cannot blame any other being for my failures, faults, or short-comings. I have to be willing and able to correct myself and work on improving the being that I am.
There are many different paths of paganism. I'm sure someone has defined the term by now. You're talking about New Age Paganism, right? Most pagan paths involve:
1.Personal connection and relationship with the Divine
2. a respect for nature and the understanding that we are natural beings, not beings seperate from the process of Life on our planet.
3. Many hold personal responsibility, independance, and compassionately helping others in need to be important too.
Huge differences can exist in different pagan paths. Those who worship the ancient Scandenavian gods/goddesses usually use no magick and their practice is more devoted to the dieties (Asatru and/or Heathenism). Wicca is a pagan path and it concerns itself more with practicing magick and personal experimentation with the Divine which is all around us and is less focused on the gods/goddesses themselves than the Heathens are. Voodoo is technically a pagan path. They believe in direct contact with the spirits which are all around us. Most pagan paths beleive in balance. Life has positive, negative, life, death. The goal is to seek improvement and promote positivity while not fearing or denying the existance of the negative. This is seen in the natural world and cannot be denied.

Answer 2

Paganism is an umbrella term for religions that are not Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, and whose practitioners consider themselves pagans.
There are countless numbers of pagan religions. You only need one person to have a religion (according to my Folk Religion class), so there are a great many pagan religions.
It would be impossible to state the beliefs of all pagan religions, because there is not one belief that is shared by all of them (hence the vague definition at the top of this post). Some pagans are monotheists, some polytheists, some pantheists. Some pagan religions are earth-centered and others are not. Some pagan religions focus more of belief and others on ritual.

"The primary belief of Pagans is that there is not a truly caring monotheistic force, other than that, it's all jumbled."
I'm going to disagree with you. There are monotheist pagans. A follower of the religion of Akhenaten would be a pagan monotheist, for instance. Some pagans are monists, which is a form of monotheism (the same reason many Hindus call themselves monotheists).

Answer 3

To me, Paganism is complicated. It starts much like this: I do not accept a monotheistic force that is caring in any way, I may [some may not] accept polytheism. I find nature to be beautiful, and ever unfolding, a reflection of the divine present within all, scary yet beautiful.

I do not fear my imperfection, but I do not gloss over them as unimportant. I am myself, because that is what feels best to me.

There are countless forms of Paganism. Unlike most groups who will have members with differences, more often, we just create our own denominations, based off other things. This is not even counting Ecclectics.

The primary belief of Pagans is that there is not a truly caring monotheistic force, other than that, it's all jumbled.

Paganism is a huge umbrella term for many faiths, not of an Abrahamic origin.

Answer 4

Oh fun.

There are about as many forms of Paganism as there are Pagans. Broadly, a Pagan is anyone who isn't one of the Big Three i.e. Christians, Jews, or Muslims, so this leaves a great deal of people being technical Pagans. If you want to define it a bit more, Pagans tend to find their Divinity in Nature and their surroundings rather than having to go to a church to worship. (not saying there aren't Pagan churches, but still.)
Some Pagans believe in One Deity, others believe in two or more, then others, (like me) just aren't sure. I tend to refer to Divinity in the singular for the most part, but then again, Divinity being that which has put Order to the Universe, could be Astrophysics and Biology... That might make my beliefs polytheistic... but then again, if I just say Science..... you see my point... Divinity may be plural, but it/they is/are nondivisible. Oh, the problems with being an imperfect human trying to understand Perfect Divinity......

Some Pagans believe in majick and do spellwork... others don't. I don't see too much difference between prayer, spellwork, and hoping ~really~ hard for something, I've seen too many coincidences to dismiss any of them.

To me, being Nondenominational Pagan, without any form of organization other than what I give to my beliefs......

Religion itself is about forming a personal relationship with whatever you refer to Divinity as. Personal relationships are tricky. What does it mean to be a Christian, a Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, anything else for that matter? Two people who claim the same beliefs will not give the same answers when asked this question. We all see Divinity as it shows Itself to us........

Answer 5

Aw man, there's enough questions right there to fill a book.

Paganism covers a huge range of religions, it is after all an umbrella term for non-abrahamic faiths. Each one has unique beliefs. Many of them are modern religions seeking to recreate indigenous, usually pre-Christian, beliefs and practices.

You have the ones with a more reconstructionalist bent such as Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism, Dievturiba, Finnish neopaganism, Germanic neopaganism, Ásatrú, Hellênismos, Judeo-Paganism, Kemetic polytheism, Romuva, Stregheria. And the ones that are more syncretic and eclectic such as Druidism (Some Neo-druids are eclectic, some are Reconstructionist), [Wicca: Alexandrian Wicca, Dianic Wicca (Feminist Wicca), Faery Wicca, Feri Tradition, Gardnerian Wicca, Reclaiming (Starhawk is one of the founders), Seax-Wica (Founded by Raymond Buckland).] Santería, Vodou. Any Native American religion, Dharmic religions can also fall under the term "Pagan".

Now I can only answer from my perspective as an Asatruar. (Technically I'm more of a Heathen than a Pagan.) What I like best about being an Ásatrúar? That we are polytheistic. That is, we believe in a number of deities, including Goddesses as well as Gods. That we do not accept the idea of "original sin", the notion that we are tainted from birth and intrinsically bad, as does Christianity. Thus, we do not need "saving". I like Asatru because it gives me a fulfillment in life that no other religion ever could do. Being connected to the Gods who are as close to you as blood-kin, following a Lore that teaches you to be strong and independent, honoring your ancestors and the heroes of before, that is Asatru for me. It gives me strength in daily life, it gives me hope that there are actually Gods that care, and that stand with you if times are hard. Asatru is one of the only religions that doesn't clash with the modern day scientific view on the world, it views the world as it is, a natural place, with many Gods.

I like being Asatru because it rewards people who are academically-inclined. Really and pervasively, not just in theory. I like being Asatru because its ethos match mine. I can be a reasonably good example of an Asatruar; I would never be anything but a marginal, footnoted, trouble-making member of any other religion. I like hanging around with people who think that an oath is an oath, for example. I like being Asatru because it validates my inclination to bonk irritating people on the head with a Big (Rhetorical) Hammer. I am blunt; in Asatru, blunt is a good thing. "Frith" and "cooperation" are much more resonant values for me than "niceness" or "harmony". I like Asatru because it is not a One Way kind of religion. I can disagree strongly with other Asatruars about all sorts of things and we can still be in the same religion together just fine. And I don't have to worry about sorting out all the people outside of Asatru, either.

Answer 6

Okay, first off to Mr. Duck, just because a person may draw from traditions from another religion doesn't mean that they are of that religion. I know plenty of people who use Kabbalah/Qabalah who are not Jewish;and plenty of neopagans have bastardized the concepts of reincarnation and karma, but they aren't Buddhists or Hindus. Every religion borrows from others, even paganism. So get over yourself.

As to the OP, for me, being pagan means finding my relationship to all other forms of consciousness in the Universe, even those that I may not be able to fully comprehend. I believe in deities, but I don't see them as any more or less important than animals, or stones, or stars. What's important is that I find where I am in relation to these other beings.

As for my everyday life...hmm....it's not so simple as "I read my tarot cards every morning before breakfast". Rather, it affects my outlook on life in general. Everything I do comes bakc to that awareness of my connection to all other things, and the responsibility that comes with those connections. I try to be mindful of the impact I have on others as well as myself; both my inner and outer realities are important. I believe in magic as a way of shaping my reality to fit my desires, adn as a way to be a conscious participant in my life.

"Paganism" is an umbrella term for any of a number of modern nature-based religions or reconstructions of pre-Christian religions. Most modern indigenous religions don't call themselves "pagans", by the way--for instance, many followers of traditional Native American religions would be insulted. In context, though, neopaganism includes such religions as Wicca, Asatru, Druidry, and just plain generic paganism. There are as many ways to be pagan as there are pagans ourselves. It's a highly individualized path comprised of numerous religions and philosophies.

Here are some places to read more:

http://www.witchvox.com (particularly their section on traditions)
http://www.twpt.com
http://www.davensjournal.com
http://www.thegreenwolf.com/links.html (my personal collection of links)

And for books:

http://lupabitch.livejournal.com (my book reviews)
http://www.facingnorth.net

Hope that helps! I can't speak for all pagans, but I can speak for myself!

EDIT; Oh, I should also add--not all pagans are polytheistic. There are monotheists, henotheists, pantheists, panentheists, agnostics and even atheists among paganism as a whole.

Answer 7

How can you follow pagan tranditions (Christmas, Easter) and not consider yourself a pagan?

Walks like a duck, talks like a duck........ IT'S A DUCK!

Answer 8

http://www.sacredhearth.com/whatispagan

Your question doesn't annoy me. People ask ALL the time. That's why I created the website, so I didn't have to type so much.