Your Conception of the God and Goddess

[Esiris]

Staring Berry

This is slightly scaring me away a little sweatdrop

To add to what Morgandria said- you're also not old enough to join a Wiccan coven yet. Wicca has rules about how you're supposed to avoid breaking the Law. Because of some parts of Wicca- including people who are under the age of majority isn't done by most covens. In most places the Age of Majority is 18- so you still have three years to learn as much as you can before you really start seeking Wicca.  

[Erise Crewe]

Morgandria

Staring Berry

This is slightly scaring me away a little sweatdrop

Wicca is only one of many different pagan religions. It very well may be that Wicca isn't for you, but another religion is. Wicca is very unabashed in telling people that it isn't for everyone - it is a very specific thing, and needs a certain type of person. Not everyone is that person.

That's good that you cleared that up for me. sweatdrop Just today I was wondering if wicca was a pagan religion or a stand alone sort of thing.  

[Morgandria]

Erise Crewe

That's good that you cleared that up for me. sweatdrop Just today I was wondering if wicca was a pagan religion or a stand alone sort of thing.

I'm...not sure I understand what you mean.

'Pagan' is an umbrella term. It means 'non-Abrahamic'. That's it. It doesn't serve as anything other than a very broad category. If it's not Judaic, Christian, or Islamic, it's Pagan (roughly speaking).

Under the term Pagan you're going to find many different religions. All of them can and really should be considered stand-alone faiths. There's absolutely not so much common ground between Pagan religions that you can consider all Pagan religions to be branches or parts of an overarching faith. There's more than a few where their ideas about what is holy and what is not completely oppose one another.  

[Erise Crewe]

Morgandria

Erise Crewe

That's good that you cleared that up for me. sweatdrop Just today I was wondering if wicca was a pagan religion or a stand alone sort of thing.

I'm...not sure I understand what you mean.

'Pagan' is an umbrella term. It means 'non-Abrahamic'. That's it. It doesn't serve as anything other than a very broad category. If it's not Judaic, Christian, or Islamic, it's Pagan (roughly speaking).

Under the term Pagan you're going to find many different religions. All of them can and really should be considered stand-alone faiths. There's absolutely not so much common ground between Pagan religions that you can consider all Pagan religions to be branches or parts of an overarching faith. There's more than a few where their ideas about what is holy and what is not completely oppose one another.

Just earlier today in my ignorance I was questioning if Wicca was its own unique type of religion. In other words my understanding of paganism was lacking. It still is to be honest, I don't feel like I know very much about it outside of it's 'umbrella term' definition.

Among the things I'd like to study about it is it's history, and it's most common faiths.

I think my confusion started because of how people call themselves. sweatdrop A few days ago I thought that wiccan and pagan were two seperate things because of how people would say wiccan since it's a very specific faith of paganism it seemed 'separate'. It's silly for someone experienced but I imagine it's a common newbie mistake sweatdrop Sort of like how at one point in my life I wondered which one was smaller- an atom or a cell stare One of those really obvious things but someone who's completely ignorant about it could get confused when they're just learning xd  

[Morgandria]

Erise Crewe

Just earlier today in my ignorance I was questioning if Wicca was its own unique type of religion. In other words my understanding of paganism was lacking. It still is to be honest, I don't feel like I know very much about it outside of it's 'umbrella term' definition.

You have a top-level label: Paganism. It's the umbrella.

Then underneath that, you have a first level of sub-divisions. It's generally agreed that there are three types of paganism.
Paleo-paganism is paganism untouched by another culture, still practiced in its' original form by its' original culture.
Meso-paganism is paganism that's come into contact with another culture or cultures. The meso-pagan culture may be an independant culture, or it may have been absorbed into another culture. Meso-paganism has been influenced by said culture, but still maintains an independant religious practice.
Neo-paganism, which the majority of modern pagan practice fall under, is paganism that is inspired by or draws from ancient sources and cultures but adjusted for the lives of modern people.
Most people's practices will fall under Neo-paganism.

Each of the three types of paganism breaks down further into types of associated religions. You have the various syncretic Yoruban religions of the Caribbean and South America, reconstructionism of various kinds, Heathenry, various kinds of European religious witchcraft, Goddess traditions...there are still many different Native peoples who have meso-pagan paths around the world...I couldn't possibly list them all.

And underneath those associated religions you can break each down to individual traditions of those religions. And sometimes you can get several traditions under those traditions.

I've made you a graphic, to provide you a more visual example of what I'm talking about. It's very very rough but gives you a better idea of the way things tend to break down.

Quote:

Among the things I'd like to study about it is it's history, and it's most common faiths.

Just like paganism isn't a single religion on its' own, paganism doesn't have a single unified history. Essentially you'll be looking at the history and mythology of different peoples around the world - each civilization had its' own pantheon of deities and set of religious practices. Typically people look to the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Norse pantheons to start, to name only a few of the most popular and well-recorded. Other pantheons and mythologies may not be so well-known or easy to uncover.

Also, you will find as you go on that there are two kinds of polytheism commonly found in neo-paganism.

Soft polytheism is a type of belief that all Gods and Goddesses are a single God and Goddess, and that the individual names from different cultures represent 'facets', or different aspects of that singular deity. It runs on the concept that similar deities are in fact the same deities, just filtered through different cultural perceptions and representations. Many kinds of religious witchcraft, and Goddess religions, are based in this kind of theology. However, this perspective was not present historically - it is a product of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Hard polytheism is the belief that Gods and Goddesses are distinct, unique individuals, not aspects or part of an overarching Deity. This perspective is more in line with what we know from the historical lore of various ancient pagan cultures.

Quote:

I think my confusion started because of how people call themselves. sweatdrop A few days ago I thought that wiccan and pagan were two seperate things because of how people would say wiccan since it's a very specific faith of paganism it seemed 'separate'. It's silly for someone experienced but I imagine it's a common newbie mistake sweatdrop

It is separate, but it's not. It's a Venn diagram - the Wiccan circle is fully inside the Pagan circle, but Wicca is still a separate thing from other kinds of pagan religions. Like this:



Just remember:

All Wiccans are Pagans.
Not all Pagans are Wiccans.

All Wiccans are Witches.
Not all Witches are Wiccan.

Witchcraft is not a religion. It is a craft.
Witches can be of any religion, or can be athiests.  

[Erise Crewe]

Morgandria

You have a top-level label: Paganism. It's the umbrella.

Then underneath that, you have a first level of sub-divisions. It's generally agreed that there are three types of paganism.
Paleo-paganism is paganism untouched by another culture, still practiced in its' original form by its' original culture.
Meso-paganism is paganism that's come into contact with another culture or cultures. The meso-pagan culture may be an independant culture, or it may have been absorbed into another culture. Meso-paganism has been influenced by said culture, but still maintains an independant religious practice.
Neo-paganism, which the majority of modern pagan practice fall under, is paganism that is inspired by or draws from ancient sources and cultures but adjusted for the lives of modern people.
Most people's practices will fall under Neo-paganism.

eek This post should be turned into a thread and stickied. Thank you for sharing =D