Paganism?

Post Reply New Topic

I am a member of Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship (ADF). I was just curious how many earth-center religious folks we had here at wrong planet.

I'll join that religion if I get to burn people I don't like in a giant wicker man.
Considering the amount of people I don't like, that's a lot of wicker.

But in all honesty, what is it you believe?

I claim that pagans usually fall into two categories:

People brought up in Christian homes who have rejected Christianity for the wrong reasons. The point is that you are supposed to believe in things which have evidence for them. There is more evidence for Christianity than there is for paganism.

White supremacists who think that Christianity is a Jewish invention whose purpose is to neuter the white race.

There was a time when I had an interest in Paganism, particularly Wicca, and read up on it. However, I see now that I was only drawn to the mystical elements of Paganism, and I wasn't all that serious about dedicating myself to the religion.

Strictly for the goyim.

ruveyn

Paganism is not a religion, it is a term given to tribal philosophy and spiritualism centered around nature.

Christians would do well to understand and recognize that 90% of their religion is based on Paganism...

Paganism is different for different people/ cultures around the world which is another reason why it is not a religion, at least in the dogmatic sense (some exceptions granted).

While I do not classify my beliefs as Pagan usually, they do venture into that territory. There are so many labels that mean the same thing and so many ambiguous labels as well.

Certainly the universe is alive.

Here is another label that interests me, I think you will enjoy this article if you are interested in theosophy/ metaphysics etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism

Very insightful post.


As for what I believe, I am polytheistic. Unlike certain Wicca believes that all gods and goddesses are aspects of a god and goddess figure, I consider all gods and goddesses to be their own individual entities. I also believe in the existence of nature spirits and in the prevalence existence of ancestral spirits.

I want to make a very clear statement that Wicca does not = paganism. There is shamanism (an umbrella term that means all indigenous earth spiritual practices, although its original meaning was used to refer to Siberian medicine men), druidry, santeria, Vodoo, wicca, odinism, etc.

To me druidism is more than participating in rituals and wearing robes (I have yet to wear one!) It is about being in communion with all the worlds and being mindful of the earth realm we live in.

I recycle, I am very honest, I buy biodegradable items, I avoid living in the city when I can and try to grow my own cooking herbs when I have the time.


I do also participate in seasonal rituals. Lúghnasadh is comming up this august forth and my grove is already in full swing for preparations. I have been a pagan for a very long time, before I even knew that this is what the term was. Although my deepest knowledge and connection tends towards indo-european hearth cultures.

A goddess I pay great homage to regularly is Brigit, daughter of The Dagda or "Good God", who became later on St. Brigit after the christianization of Ireland. She is the patron goddess of p oetry and smiths and is also called the flame arrow. Temples used to be kept in her name with a fire tended by women that was never allowed to go out, a tradition that remained after her transformation into sainthood, the fire then tended by nuns.

i seem to have strong ties to the nordic beliefs of my ancestors namely Odinism as well as rune casting

Well--I wasn't brought up in a Christian home AND I'm not a white supremacist (I'm not even supposed to claim I'm white when reporting my ethnicity). I think a lot of Christians might fit into those two categories though, if you omit the "rejection of Christianity" aspect.

Edit:
I tend to lean towards subjective spirituality. Personally, I am considering getting into Wicca because I need to integrate the masculine and feminine aspects of myself more...and deal with their relationship to each other. The evidence which fuels my beliefs is more persuasive to me than any evidence I've seen for Christianity--not to pick on that religion in particular.

What evidence? I'm afraid that the historical record trumps spiritual experience when it comes to evidence. I can have a spiritual experience whenever I like simply by taking certain drugs or getting into the right frame of mind. It doesn't provide strong evidence that whatever I am thinking about at the time must be true.

The problem I have with modern-day paganism is that I'm not sure if most people who claim to be pagans actually believe in what they say they believe. That's a problem I have with more religions that have surfaced recently, like Scientology, and any other religion that popped up or became popular within the lifetime of anyone still alive. There is one young man I know who claims to be a pagan, but I doubt he believes in the ideas behind his beliefs. It's more of a fashion word.

What I find a bit more amusing, though, is that the pagans I've encountered so far were mostly from the United States. Is it the same kind of false nostalgia that previously inspired Americans to build hundreds of castle-like houses and develop their own brand of christian fundamentalism?

Good description. Modern-day pagans pretend to belong to groups which have ancient legacies, but in actuality all modern-day pagan groups are extremely recent and were basically just invented by nerds who took themselves too seriously. The clue is in the name: "pagan". "Pagan" was originally a name given to non-monotheistic belief systems by monotheists. If anyone calls themselves a "pagan", it tells you everything you need to know about them. They're a poser.

I've yet to meet a pagan who describes themselves as a hard polytheist. Most of them are pantheists.

Though I agree about the 'ancient legacy' strain to it, I find it kind of lame. I have felt a 'spiritual' (I don't like that word because it implies something separate from the physical) connection to natural landmarks before and I have revered animals, but I wouldn't ever call myself a pagan. The word 'animist' suits it better. I can sympathise with the kind of religion they have in Japan where they mix Shinto (which is partly animist) with Buddhism. I don't claim to belong to any ancient belief system.

I'm not talking about personal experience as evidence. Personally, I take my evidence from psychology and anthropology (in combination with my own personal experience).

But couldn't you say this is a problem with modern day Christianity as well? I don't think this is a "pagan" problem--but a human problem...yes, there will always be hard-core believers, and then there will be the rest of us.

How many Christians really believe in the stuff in the bible, literally, word for word? Who decides what individual Christians' ideal level of belief is, to qualify them as Christians--you? I suppose you are also the judge for people who aren't even in your religion as well?

I have no doubt there are some people who intentionally claim to be pagan because of fashion, just like there have long been people claiming to be Christian out of fashion...there are liars in every religion--and superficial people, as well.

Last edited by Zinia on 29 Jul 2012, 2:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

OK--as opposed to people who calls themselves "non-monotheists that don't fit into Hinduism, Buddhism, or any other major non-monotheistic religions." Then, when they spill out that mouthful--you know they're not posers. Mm hm. Good test.

I find it amusing when some people simultaneously deny the legitimacy of paganism as a belief category, while generalizing all pagans into a belief category they've constructed out of their own SUBSTANTIAL experience with a few pagans.