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?
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