The term Paganism is actually an umbrella under which many traditions live. It is an ancient religion that venerates nature, believes that everything in the Universe is interconnected and part of the Devine and that this interconnectedness extends beyond the boundaries of space and time.
According to the British Pagan Federation, the definition of Paganism is “a polytheistic or pantheistic nature-worshipping religion”. Put simply, Pagans believe in many deities (gods and goddesses) and that "God is all and all is God." This precludes God being a specific “personality” and includes everything in the universe being of God - in essence God and the Universe are the same thing.
The term Paganism is actually an umbrella under which many traditions live. It is an ancient religion that venerates nature, believes that everything in the Universe is interconnected and part of the Devine and that this interconnectedness extends beyond the boundaries of space and time.
It is a religion but without a centralized, organized church or body, with a great variety of beliefs and practices but without any standardized dogma. Pagans, like many of us, seek answers to life’s great questions - what is the meaning of our lives, is there life after death, is there a God, and what is our place within the greater universe?
Pagans do not generally try to convert anyone. Rather than being converted, Pagans decide to call themselves that because what they already believe fits in terms of their view of the world, the way they live and their spirituality.
For most Pagans, their spirituality is a very personal path, walked either alone or with a small group of like-minded individuals. Paganism believes that we are born with all the skills and tools required to live an ethical and spiritual life without, as many other religions profess, the need to overcome the flaws humanity brings with it at birth, be it original sin or the ego or desire or whatever else one might call it. They do not believe that humanity is spiritually doomed unless purified and “saved”.
Because Pagans place so much value on the earth as their mother, their religion is often called earth-centered. They celebrate seasonal festivals based on the Wheel of Life and the cycles of the moon. Because of their deep connectedness with the Universe, Pagans celebrate belonging to the natural world by adjusting their lives to the cycles of the earth, sun, moon and the stars. In line with this reverence for the natural world, they express themselves by living environmentally ethical lives and many participate in actions to save the eco-systems of the planet.
Through the ages, Pagan came to mean someone who had not yet converted, or refused, to convert to Christianity and its meaning extended to those who did not belong to one of the established religions or someone who was irreligious or anti-religious. Pagans are neither without religion nor against religion, instead they are a distinct religion - different from others but a religion nevertheless; even the American courts recognized Wicca as an official religion in the case of Dettmer v. Landon (1986).
Another misconception is that Pagans worship the devil. While acknowledging life can be difficult and sometimes cruel, Pagans do not believe in evil or the devil, they believe instead in the need to seek ways to end conflict and personal responsibility for one’s beliefs and ethics.
The more we know about Pagans, the less likely we are to fear or denigrate them. In fact there may be much to embrace.
“With its respect for plurality, the refusal to judge other ways of life as wrong simply because they are different from one's own, with its veneration of a natural (and supernatural) world from which Westerners in the age of technology have become increasingly isolated, and with its respect for women and the feminine principle as embodied in the many goddesses of the various pantheons, Paganism has much to offer people of European background today.” - the British Pagan Federation.
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