Modern Paganism

Have you ever asked someone about their spirituality or religion and had them answer “I’m a Pagan.” Most people are baffled by that reply. So, what is Paganism? In both past and present times the definitions offered up for this word can be quite contradictory.

1. One who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Jew, especially a worshiper of a polytheistic religion.
2. One who has no religion.
3. A non-Christian.
4. A hedonist.
5. A Neo-Pagan.

From miriam-webster.com

1. heathen; especially : a follower of a polytheistic religion (as in ancient Rome)
2. one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods : an irreligious or hedonistic person.

Modern Pagans are a much more diverse and highly spiritual group than these historical definitions would lead us to believe. The last thirty years have seen tremendous amounts of growth in this realm of spirituality. Stemming in part from the different human potential movements of the late 1960s, many ideas Eastern beliefs and nature-based principles are flourishing in contemporary culture.

A Pagan or Neo-Pagan is someone who self-identifies as a Pagan, and whose spiritual or religious practice or belief fits into one or more of the following categories:

1. Honoring, revering, or worshipping a Deity or Deities found in pre-Christian, classical, aboriginal, or tribal mythology; and/or
2. Practicing religion or spirituality based upon shamanism, shamanic, or magickal practices; and/or
3. Creating new religion based on past Pagan religions and/or futuristic views of society, community, and/or ecology; and/or
4. Focusing religious or spiritual attention primarily on the Divine Feminine.

This modern definition is much broader than most dictionaries would have you believe and encompasses multiple faiths. In hosting this site, I would like to help those with such beliefs better educate themselves and others about the rich and varied belief systems that can be included under the vast umbrella of paganism.

Many modern Pagans find themselves confronted over their spiritual beliefs. Just looking at the population proportions, Paganism is practiced by a very distinct minority of Americans. According to US Census estimates from the 2000 census, 76.5% of the US population was Christian, 13.2% identified as non religious, 1.3% was Jewish, 0.5% each were Buddhist and Islamic, and 0.1% were Wiccan, Pagan and Druid combined. Although added together, the Neo-Pagan total represents less than half a million people overall. Such a minority positions makes it rare that many people will have read from a range of sources when it comes to educating themselves about neo-Paganism. As such, beliefs about Pagans are often generated and passed along without any external feedback.

One of the biggest fallacies continually propagated is that Pagans, Wiccans and similar faiths worship the Devil, more often referred to as Satan. There may be a huge range of Gods and Goddesses in the various world cultures, however, this specific character is the Christian embodiment of evil. In many of the variations of Christianity that exist, especially fundamentally-oriented ones, worshipping any deity or concept of Supreme Being that does not conform to the ideas expressed in the Bible is interpreted as devil worship. To many Pagans, the Devil doesn’t exist in their world. The overlap of the Pagan holiday of Samhain (honoring the ancestors) and secular Halloween has been twisted over the years so that many people think that Pagans take this night to worship forces of evil and make sacrifices. However, very few non-Pagans ever take the time to actually ask Wiccans and Pagans if they even observe Halloween themselves, let alone ask what the holiday is actually oriented towards or what activities happen.

In many Pagan belief systems, to force your help on, or make magic for, someone who doesn't want or hasn't asked for your help is often considered one of the most grievous cases of harm against another that can occur. This runs contrary to the Christian concept of proselytizing or missionary work. Often when Pagans resist conversion attempts, those working to convert them become more zealous in their attempts rather than discouraged. What those working to convert neo-Pagans don’t understand is that, to their perceived prospective converts, the idea of proselytizing is almost thought of as a sin. Nature-oriented beliefs don’t use the actual word “sin,” but it’s the closest Christian word for how most neo-Pagans view attempts to covert them from their own spiritual point of view. This viewpoint, plus the oft-occuring neo-Pagan affinity for pacifism, is what most people attempting to proselytize to Wiccans and Pagans encounter.

A humorous account of a confrontation over the issue of “saving Pagans” was written by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart. A sculptor and master artist, he is the author of the Gaia Thesis and was the founding publisher of Green Egg magazine. “We are the Other People” recounts how he used the Bible’s own stories to explain to two visiting missionaries why Pagans don’t need to be saved. This piece makes for an interesting argument, as Bible quotes are often one of the key weapons when people try and convert Pagans. Zell-Ravenheart shows how the Bible is very clearly open to many interpretations, including the idea that Pagans are doing just fine on our own.