What is a Pagan?

Historical (paleo) Pagans

European Indigenous/Slavic

Shamanism

Middle Eastern Indian Eastern

Polytheistic

Monotheistic

Mystical/Rationalist

State-based/cultic

Polytheistic/tribal

Zoroastrian

Religion

Magic/Witchcraft

Hindu

Buddhism

Taoism

Buddhism

Shinto

Gnostic Christianity Mystical Judaism (Cabbala) Greek, Roman, Egyptian Magical Traditions

Christianity

Folk Traditions

European Occult Traditions

Formal/High/Ritual/Demonic Cunning/Folk/Witch

Secret Societies

Early Christian

Middle Ages

Renaissance/Reformation

1700s

1800s Golden Dawn

Masons

Rosicrucian

Romanticism

Surviving Folk Traditions

1900s

Naturalist movement

Christian

Dying and reborn God

Pagan cultural influences

Islamic

Allah

Judaism

“no other Gods”

Gerald GardnerAleister Crowley Doreen Valiente

CAW/Green Egg/Otter Zell

Z Budapest/Starhawk/Adler

Druid reconstructionist

Traditionalist practices (non-Gardnarian)

Spiritualism

Theosophy

©2007 ED McGrady

Ways to define “Pagan”• Nature worship (worship of the immanent divine) and

humanism

• Paganism includes:– A number of both male and female Gods– Magical practice– Ritual efficacy (i.e. stuff works)– Corprospirituality (divine spark)– The Gods and humans as co-dependent and related

• The immanent divine, as opposed to a transcendent divine

• Veneration of nature, or even veneration as a behavior itself

Etymologies• Pagan: “villager, rustic: civilian non-militant” vs. “soldier, one in the

army” - Tertullian coined the term in 202 in De Corona Militis (Militis = “enrolled soldiers” of Christ)– A “rural rustic” with left over old religious habits has largely been

discredited as Pagan religion was still the law when the word was coined

• Witch: (wicca, wytch) derived from (OE) wiccan -> weg? (awake)– Proposals that it derives from “wita” (OE wise) are not terribly strong

• Witch: (wic, wice, wyc) - Teutonic wik (IE wei) - to bend– Not very clear how it was actually applied, often referred to as “wise”

• Heathen: Perhaps the correct term, meaning “not one of the book religions” but has a pejorative connotation

Exercise - Spiritual Journey• Take a piece of blank paper• Draw a line on it• Put a mark at the beginning of the line• Put a mark at the end• With the end representing death, and the beginning representing birth, put a mark where you think you are

now• Now put marks at the following points:

– Where you first thought of yourself as religious

– Where you first thought of yourself as a spiritual being

– Where you first began to question or doubt what you had been told about religion

– Where you first found out about magic and the “occult”

– Where you thought about earth-centered religions

• Now think about some new milestones, and mark those down– What would you want to experience? When?

– What do you want to change? When?

– What do you want to do? When?

• Now answer the following questions:– What are the key questions, events, or beliefs that led me to where I am?

– What am I interested in exploring now?

– What am I doing here in this class? How does it advance my goals?

– What do I expect to become in the end?