Pagans: Are you able to summarise your beliefs?

Question

This isn't meant to be an aggressive question.

Answer 1

"Pagan" is too big an umbrella term to be able to summarise their beliefs. Pagan just means a Non-Abrahamic religion, so they have many varying belifs.

Answer 2

I'm Eclectic Egyptian
That means I sort of mesh some universal beliefs, such as the God and Goddess, but that I honor thier aspects in Osiris, Isis, Thoth, and Ma'at. That could expand as my life changes.
I believe in the God and the Goddess are two different deities. The reflections of the world around us. Everything has an opposite that I believe balances the other out.
My tradition tends to look to the stars a little more then to the earth, but I greatly respect both.
Christians say we worship the created and not the creator but that's not true either. We just belieave the creators are in the creation. It's not a distant diety for us. Its in everything and everyone around us.
It just feels right for me. I like it. My favorite thing is to create a circle and feel my world wrap up in saftey. It's sort of how someone else would feel walking into a church.
We (pagans, which yes encompasses a LOT of tradtion ie denominations) have holidays and celebrate the passing of the seasons as a part of life and symbolic of life. We are all born, we all grow, we all die and there is no fear in that. You must have death in order to have life. (You think we're over populated NOW? What if we never died??)
I believe the stories of my faith are not literal. They teach lessons, give me a guide to life, but in the end I answer to the Gods.
That's a very rough summery but it's an over view for me personally. You'll see it varies from person to person
Blessed Be

Answer 3

All living things are connected. Karma plays into this in a very general way... much like "you reap what you sow", the Law of Return, etc... I view "magic" as the natural energy that is in the world and is in all living things... it's just a different religious term for it is all. I believe in one Source (whether you call it God, Goddess, Divine, Spirit, etc... doesn't matter), but this Source does not hold a personality, we merely give it those attributes so that we can define it to other people (example: God is Love - the Source is NOT an emotion and doesn't have emotions like we do... but "Love" expresses the feeling some get when experiencing the Source)

That's about as brief a summary as I can make it. :-) And this is only my personal belief. This is not the beliefs of all Pagans.

Answer 4

For me, it's a belief in nature (comprising of each and every thing, plant, creature and person on earth... and beyond to encompass the whole universe) as the divine in both it's seen and unseen forms (which can be equated to the scientific ideas of matter or objects, and gravity or the the Zero Point Field that exists (and yet doesn't) and permeates everything).

A universe whose full understanding is beyond the current scope of the human mind. Forces and energy patters both seen and unseen. A belief that I co-create my own reality and life sometimes in partnership and sometimes in opposition to the world around me. A belief that my truth is only one such truth amongst many.

Such are the major aspects of my beliefs anyway. The first paragraph is the main point I think. There are many more things I could say, but so few characters available to say them, and of course, you asked for the summary, not the full list. ...and like somebody above, I was almost tempted to just answer "yes" too. lol

Answer 5

YES Truth Will set you free
Did you Know that 99% of all species
to have existed on the earth today are now Extinct!

Deiism works for me
Deism is the belief that the universe was created by a God who then made no further intervention in its affairs, often expressed by the metaphor of the "Divine Watchmaker" who created a mechanism so perfect as to be self-regulating. Deists do not believe in miracles or revelations. Because of their rejection of revelation, they attempt to infer their theology entirely from philosophical arguments.

Deism was popular among thinkers of the Enlightenment such as Voltaire and the Founding Fathers of the United States, Thomas Jefferson is perhaps the most well known and outspoken of the American founding deists. Benjamin Franklin seems also to have shared components of this view.
As did Washington. The US is not as is populary thought
Founded by Catholics or Christiens.

If you desire more information on the basis of christianity
or other popular religious philosophy.
See the Beginining of Zeitgeist!

Take what you need and leave the rest

In Summary RELIGIONS seek to control
through fear ceremony and manipulation

We are exactly what we are nothing more or less
Deal with it!

:-)

Answer 6

sounds agressive tho' fry - sounds like "hey pagans are you actually either intellectually competent or united as a religion enough to have the capacity to summarise your beliefs. you were right to note that it sounded so and excuse it!

I give credit to a religion for the increase in quality of the effect a follower through following it, and take away the level of irresponsibility created in them by it's false promises or inconsistencies. If you end up above zero that is good.

Dao
Buff

p.s - pagans generally score
p.p.s - as the pagan answerer KP clearly proves

Answer 7

I am able to summarize my own beliefs. I consider myself a henotheistic eclectic Pagan. I've basically learned about many different religions and borrow ideas and beliefs from different ones to form a unique religion just for me. The majority of religions I have borrowed from do tend to be Pagan.
Regarding deity, I believe in one and many. I believe there is one Godd who has infinite faces and personalities which are all the other gods and goddesses. I can pray to Godd and cover every base, or if I need help in a certain area I can pray to Zeus, Isis, Bridget, or Thor.
I believe in karma and reincarnation. I believe that whatever you do reflects back to you, good comes back good, bad comes back bad. This is part of the reason I respect nature and do what I can to help.
I believe in magic, it is just another form of prayer. Tools such as candles, wands, athames, etc. are just guides to help a person focus, they are not necesities.

Answer 8

You really need to be more specific as there are a lot of different religions that go under the umbrella term of Pagan. Do you mean Wicca? Hellenism? Kemetic? Celtic Recon? Asatru? What?

To sum up my beliefs (Asatru) I worship the Gods and Goddesses of the Northern Pantheon whom I believe to be very real and exist as individual beings, not aspects of a "greater whole" and I believe in living my life according to the Nine Noble Virtues. I also believe magic is very real and I practice it.

Answer 9

I follow a Celtic Reconstructionist path. But I can only speak for myself and my personal beliefs/practices and not for all those following a CR path.

I honor land and water deities and my ancestors. I worship some of the ancient Celtic deities. I am polytheistic and animistic. I believe in reincarnation and value honor and hospitality. My practices include honoring my deities daily with song, prayer, and an offering (usually food or drink) as well as celebrating four yearly agricultural holidays. The deities that I am closest to are Taranis, Lugh and Epona. I have never believed in the existence of any all-powerful or all-knowing deity. I believe that there are many deities and many ways of relating to those deities.

Answer 10

Yes, I am able. Are you next going to ask us to actually do it?

Lol. I'm a non-theistic Pagan. Which is to say, I don't have a specific religion, but I am following a nature-revering path, I do practice witchcraft and I do honor my ancestors. As an eclectic, I cannot claim any of the pagan religions alone, so I consider myself to simply be Pagan.

I do not however see any need for deities or supernatural entities. (Which seems to separate me from the majority of pagans, who are less skeptical.) For me, nature is real and amazing. Life is wonderful. Death is a mystery. And magic is everywhere. (But you have to squint, tilt your head and spin around 20 times, lol.)