A Question for the "Pagans"

Do you find the term "Pagan" to define your beliefs, too broad of a classification?

Total Votes:

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This poll closed on February 3, 2005.
No longer accepting new votes.

[maenad nuri]

Ravyn Wing

This is where a lot of people get confused. Pagan, truly, is just a lump sum word that the church uses to describe anyone who is a polythesist, but there are many different styles of The Craft.

1. Not all pagans are polytheistic. Some are pantheists, some are even monotheistic.
2. Not all pagan practice "The Craft"

Please remeber this as you experience the pagan community.

[Shinji-Katawane]

Ravyn Wing

This is where a lot of people get confused. Pagan, truly, is just a lump sum word that the church uses to describe anyone who is a polythesist, but there are many different styles of The Craft. Wicca, no matter what some believe, is simply a softened-up fluff bunny form of the Gardenarian Wicca that Gerald Gardener invented in the mid-1900's. I personally don't mind when people call me pagan, it's when someone refers to me as "witch" that I get pissy...

I beg to differ. Gardiniarian traditions have not changed much at all. They have altered bits but not much.

[Starlock]

I'm almost curious if between us who are watching this thread... if we could even agree ourselves on a definition for "Pagan." One I saw recently described Paganism as a set of nature-based faiths which were some combination of the following: polytheistic, duothestic, pantheistic, animistic. I can't say I've run accross many cases where monotheism has been included under Paganism in the more scholarly literature. What do you guys think of this definition?

[Deoridhe]

Starlock

One I saw recently described Paganism as a set of nature-based faiths which were some combination of the following: polytheistic, duothestic, pantheistic, animistic.

I would argue with the "nature based." I odn't worship nature, I worship the gods.

I usually define pagan as a modern reinterpretation or re-examination of tribal religions with an emphasis on European and North African pantheons and structures.

[Brainwashing Shampoo]

To answer fiddler's initial question, I think of the term Pagan as a sort of place-holder. I haven't yet found the religion that fits perfectly, but the beliefs that I do have put me squarely outside of Judaism, Islam or Christianity. I don't mind being referred to as a Pagan, but, as I am more than my religion, I certainly hope that's not the only term used to describe me.

My personal definition is "anyone who isn't Jewish, Muslim or Christian", but since Hindu's and Buddhists probably wouldn't want to be included, I suppose it should be amended to "anyone who isn't Jewish, Muslim, Christian or a follower of an eastern religion or philosophy" It's still a sucky definition, lbut for my uses, it's fine.

[SlaineWildfire]

Fiddlers Green

Thanks for the imput so far.... Now I'd like to up the Ante a bit, if you don't mind, what is the propper term of address for your faiths?

The technical term for my faith is Tameran, though I consider myself to be an offshoot of Kemetic Orthodoxy. Many people do not know what Tameran is (other than the little monkey-type creature) so I tend to say Kemetic Orthodox.

But no, I don't mind being called Pagan. I think Pagan can be a unifying term in some senses. I mean, when you find someone else who is also a Pagan, one tends to hope that it means that they will actually be taken seriously. It also leads people to hope for a sort of comradre, or companionship.

[Fiddlers Green]

On a side note, how do you (when I type you, I mean you, the person reading this post, not the random second person you) define Pagan?

[Glug]

Well, I'm not Pagan, but I would assume it would be like calling Christians Christian Disciples of Christ, or Brethren United Christians. Stuff like that. I don't mind.

[Greenling]

babybird

My personal definition is "anyone who isn't Jewish, Muslim or Christian", but since Hindu's and Buddhists probably wouldn't want to be included, I suppose it should be amended to "anyone who isn't Jewish, Muslim, Christian or a follower of an eastern religion or philosophy" It's still a sucky definition, lbut for my uses, it's fine.

"Any religion based on older cultural or ancestral traditions that are not direct offshoots of modern Big Name religions, or any religion that borrows any of the main tenets of other pagan faiths (e.g. nature worship, magic, animism, totemic practices) while not following any one specific tradition, or while also borrowing from Big Name religions when the parts borrowed from pagan religions are not included in offshoots or sects of the Big Name religion in question."

So, in general, a Reconstructionist would be pagan under the first definition; a Wiccan would fall under the second one (borrowing from several older religions); someone who mixed, say, Shinto practices with nature worshipping beliefs and magic would fall under the third; but someone like a Kabbalistic Christian wouldn't be pagan even while practicing magic because they legitimately interpret the Bible as allowing that and therefore aren't borrowing.

[maenad nuri]

That's a good one, although it too falls into the trap of defining us by what we aren't.

[Shippo-chun]

According to the first definition of pagan, anyone who is not a Christian is a pagan. This appearently included the Jews, strangely enough...I wonder if that means that Christ was a pagan by that view... Well anyway I have no better thing to call myself as I have my own beliefs and follow no religion save my own.

[xsparkledovex]

I don't know. People that are pagans after discussing my beliefs with me said I was one too, so I went with that. It seems a very broad term. I would have said nature-based, but deor doesn't seem to think so, so maybe not. I seem to have a fair bit in common with pagans in general apart from not having a specific god with a name and personality or anything like most seem to have. *shrug*

I'm still working on my beliefs so I don't really have a word for them as such. The closest I think I seem to fit into is pantheist, nothing else agrees with me. Maybe I'll have to start up my own new religion =)

[DeesseEnMetal]

Pagan_and_proud

Paganisim is a large umbrella that encompases many different religions. Ask 10 pagans the same question and more then likley you'll get 10 different answers.

The majior Neo-Pagan movement holds much of its basis in "wicca" and thus many preconceptions have been made. They all seem to think that "Wicca" is all paganisim is. THis is of course speaking from a media standpoint.

Wicca is only 50 years old and should thusly be thought of as such. Wicca is actually the baby of the pagan religions.

Celtic and Greek Gods are the ones that every one seems to know in my experiance. I am getting aquainted with Kemet but not yet Norse. Its probabal that this reason is that there seem to be more writings published on the Greek and Celtic Pantheons.

I am an ecceltic Neo-Pagan. I respect other pagans.

Not all Wiccans quite do it the same, though we are the newest "pagan" religion, not all of us do it the same. I worship Celtic gods and goddesses. yet a lot of wiccans do not claim to be pagan( I do) There is a part of wicca that says all the gods and goddesses are different personalities of one god. I only use this excuse when dealing with extremist Christians... it gets the point across.

[DeesseEnMetal]

Shippo-chun

According to the first definition of pagan, anyone who is not a Christian is a pagan. This appearently included the Jews, strangely enough...I wonder if that means that Christ was a pagan by that view... Well anyway I have no better thing to call myself as I have my own beliefs and follow no religion save my own.

Pagans worship many gods, not one. Jews worship one. Christ was a Jew... kind of. He worshiped his daddy (God). Jews are so far from pagan its not funny. I would think out of the whole christian religion, catholics are the closest. They worship God, Jesus, Mary, and all the saints.

[DeesseEnMetal]

SlaineWildfire

Fiddlers Green

Thanks for the imput so far.... Now I'd like to up the Ante a bit, if you don't mind, what is the propper term of address for your faiths?

The technical term for my faith is Tameran, though I consider myself to be an offshoot of Kemetic Orthodoxy. Many people do not know what Tameran is (other than the little monkey-type creature) so I tend to say Kemetic Orthodox.

But no, I don't mind being called Pagan. I think Pagan can be a unifying term in some senses. I mean, when you find someone else who is also a Pagan, one tends to hope that it means that they will actually be taken seriously. It also leads people to hope for a sort of comradre, or companionship.

I am Wiccan. I do somewhat worship nature, but I focus more on the gods and goddesses, I use them more in my "witchcraft" than I do nature. I prefer the Celtic gods and goddesses. But what makes me Wiccan is the fact that I do use some nature in my rituals, and I do "witchcraft".. hahaha such a funny term... I call it worshiping, healing, or cleansing... depending on what I am doing in my ritual.