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Community Information
Below is information about the "Pagans and Wiccans" community on DeadJournal. To join this community, click here. You may leave the community at any time.

User:	paganwiccan (485806)
Name:	Pagans and Wiccans
About	Community Information Deadjournal's Pagan and Wiccan community is open to all paths, traditions and faiths of the Wiccan and Pagan community where ever they may be in the world. This community is for the discussion and general chit chat about Wiccan, Pagan and religious based topics, we welcome all religions, Pagans both the experienced and the beginner to come and discuss, exchange ideas, share opinions and educate each other. Community Rules · Abuse of any person or group will not be tolerated. · Misinformation is not welcomed here from anyone. · Misrepresentation is not welcomed here from anyone. · Off topic posts are allowed as long as they are justified. · No removing comment feature from your posts, please. · No telling users to use Google before first giving them some help. · Keep terms such as 'fluffy', 'tree hugger' and similar terms at a minimum. · Posts promoting sales of goods or services are allowed, please do not take advantage. Community Information audioboxrock ~ Creator/Administrator/Moderator wiccanhope ~ Adminstrator/Moderator What is Paganism? The term pagan is from Latin paganus, an adjective originally meaning "rural", "rustic" or "of the country". As a noun, paganus was used to mean "country dweller, villager". "Peasant" is a cognate, via Old French paisent. (Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquity, 1897; "pagus". In their distant origins, these usages derived from pagus, "province, countryside", cognate to Greek πάγος "rocky hill", and, even earlier, "something stuck in the ground", as a landmark: the root pag- means "fixed" and is also the source of the words "page", "pale" (stake), and "pole", as well as "pact" and "peace". Later, through metaphorical use, paganus came to mean 'rural district, village' and 'country dweller' and, as the Roman Empire declined into military autocracy and anarchy, in the 4th and 5th centuries it came to mean "civilian", in a sense parallel to the English usage "the locals". It was only after the Late Imperial introduction of serfdom, in which agricultural workers were legally bound to the land (see Serf), that it began to have negative connotations, and imply the simple ancient religion of country people, which Virgil had mentioned respectfully in Georgics. Like its approximate synonym heathen (see below), it was adopted by Middle English-speaking Christians as a slur to refer to those too rustic to embrace Christianity. Neoplatonists in the Early Christian church attempted to Christianize the values of sophisticated pagans such as Plato and Virgil. This had some influence among the literate class, but did little to counter the more general prejudice expressed in "pagan". While pagan is attested in English from the 14th century, there is no evidence that the term paganism was in use in English before the 17th century. The OED instances Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776): "The divisions of Christianity suspended the ruin of paganism." The term was not a neologism, however, as paganismus was already used by Augustine. Neopaganism Main article: Neopaganism In another sense, as used by modern practitioners, paganism is a polytheistic, panentheistic or pantheistic often nature-based religious practice, but again can be atheism sometimes as well. This includes reconstructed religions such as Hellenismos, Ásatrú as well as more recently founded religions such as Wicca c. 1960, and these are normally categorised as "Neopaganism". Although Neopagans often refer to themselves simply as "Pagan", for purposes of clarity this article will focus on the ancient religion, while Neopaganism is discussed in its own article. This also includes religions such as Forn Sed, Celtic Neo-druidism, Longobardic odinism, Lithuanian Romuva, and Slavic Rodoverie that claim to revive an ancient religion rather than reconstruct it, though in general the difference is not absolutely fixed. Many of these revivals, Wicca, Asatru and Neo-druidism in particular, have their roots in 19th century Romanticism and retain noticeable elements of occultism or theosophy that were current then, setting them apart from historical rural (paganus) folk religion. The Íslenska Ásatrúarfélagið is a notable exception in that it was derived more or less directly from remnants in rural folklore. Still, some practitioners even of syncretized directions tend to object to the term "Neopaganism" for their religion as they consider what they are doing not to be a new thing. It must be said, also, that since the 1990s, the number of reconstructionist movements that reject romantic or occult influences has increased, even if those Neopagans who make a conscious effort to separate pre-Christian from romantic influences are still a minority. [edit] Modern nature religion Many current pagans in industrial societies base their beliefs and practices on a connection to Nature, and a divinity within all living things, but this may not hold true for all forms of paganism, past or present. Some believe that there are many deities, while some believe that the combined subconscious spirit of all living things forms the universal deity. Paganism predates modern monotheism, although its origins are lost in prehistory. Ancient paganism, which tended in many cases to be a deification of the local deity, as Athena in Athens, saw each local emanation as an aspect of an Olympian deity during the Classical period and then after Alexander to syncretize the deity with the political process, with "state divinities" increasingly assigned to various localities, as Roma personified Rome. Many ancient regimes would claim to be the representative on earth of these gods, and would depend on more or less elaborate bureaucracies of state-supported priests and scribes to lend public support to their claims. This is something paganism shares with more 'mainstream' revealed religions, as can be seen in the history of the Catholic church, the Church of England and the ancient and current trends in Islam. In one well-established sense, paganism is the belief in any non-monotheistic religion, which would mean that the Pythagoreans of ancient Greece would not be considered pagan in that sense, since they were monotheist, but not in the Abrahamic tradition. In an extreme sense, and like the pejorative sense below, any belief, ritual or pastime not sanctioned by a religion accepted as orthodox by those doing the describing, such as Burning Man, Halloween, or even Christmas, can be described as pagan by the person or people who object to them. What is Wicca? Wicca is a henotheistic religion, which recognises its own specific gods, while not denying the existence of gods and goddesses from other pantheons. Wicca itself is a 'hard polytheistic' religion, meaning that Wicca see their deities as specific individual beings. The gods of Wicca are known as the Horned God and Great Mother, these are outer court references meant to be used as place holders for the real names of their gods until the Seeker is initiated and taught those names. Wicca was founded by Gerald Gardner in around the 1930's, although the exact date is open for discussion, also open for discussion is whether Gardner founded Wicca entirely or whether it was an already existing spirituality which he merely re-introduced and re-invented, either way he is considered the founding father of Wicca. Gardner brought together Paganism with influences from many sources including the rituals and teachings of Freemasonry and Golden dawn resulting in a unique orthopraxic religion. Wicca embraces it's early Pagan roots in history, the history of Pagan faiths and the gods whom they followed and worshipped, Wicca also introduces eastern philosophy into it's primarily western path, along with this possibly one of Wicca's best known features, that of religious witchcraft. Wicca is gaining much attention due to a change in peoples approach to religion and the increase in public awareness of the religion through media attention and with this attention there has come much change to the face of Wicca with many forms: Wicca is an initiate only mystery tradition, or more precisely a priesthood, where one can trace their lineage back to Gardner. Initiation is the only way into Wicca, and is carried out by a Wicca coven, initiation into a coven requires formal training after which initiation and a system of degrees is followed. Wicca follows a strong set of doctrines, one who takes on the name 'Wicca' is also taking on these doctrines as well as practices and beliefs of Wicca, the title of 'Wicca' implies more than that you are a member of Wicca, but also that you have worked long and hard to earn that title. Seekers are those who wish to become Wicca however have yet to find a Wicca coven. Wicca covens can be hard to find let alone become a member of, often those whom are without a coven continue to study Wicca and surrounding subjects while seeking a Wicca coven to join. Often Wicca is described as 'Traditional Wicca' or 'BTW:British Traditional Wicca'. Neo-wicca is a new phenomenon, which is usually wholly eclectic, however like Wicca there are various different traditions. Neo-wicca often learn on their own terms, from books and other sources, but have little or no formal training and no initiation into Wicca. The beliefs of Neo-wicca are generally similar to that of Wicca however the details can often vary greatly as it follows the new age idea of personal belief/spirituality over formal religious doctrine. Neo-Wicca have varied views of the divine, either following soft-polytheism seeing all gods and goddesses as one god/goddess, polytheism working with gods and goddesses from various pantheons or pantheism working with a single divine present in all. The 'Neo' in Neo-wicca refers to the New Age approach taken by Neo-wicca that puts emphasis on personal spirituality or belief over the organized religion of Wicca. It also refers to a new take on Wicca, this has less to do with the age of the religion but the idea that this is a belief system which may have come naturally from Wicca if it was allowed to evolve in it’s own time, media influences have brought about Neo-wicca, it develops paralleled to Wicca, but is not part of Wicca. Often Neo-wicca describe themselves as 'Eclectic Wicca' or 'Solitary Wicca', although not actually Wicca.
Interests:	149: altar items, altars, astral travel, astrology, belief, beltane, besoms, blue star, book of shadows, british traditional witchcraft, broom, candle magic, candles, cauldron, charms, coven, crone, crystal magic, crystal working, crystals, dianic, divination, earth, earth based religion, ecclectic paganism, eclectic, elementals, elements, esbat, faith, familiars, folklore, freemasons, gardner, gemstones, gerald gardner, god, goddess, goddess worship, goddesses, gods, golden dawn, great goddess, green man, green witchcraft, healing, health, herb craft, herb lore, herbal magic, herbalism, herbs, horned god, imbolc, incense, kabbala, karma, kitchen witchery, knowledge, lady, learning, lineage, lord, magic, magick, maiden, meditation, monotheism, moon, moon goddess, moon phases, morality, mother nature, mythology, natural healing, nature, nature spirits, neo-pagan, neo-paganism, neo-wicca, neo-wiccan, neopaganism, new age, oathbound, occult, occultism, old ways, open-minds, oral traditions, ostara, other realms, pagan, paganism, pagans, panthiesm, panthiest, pentacle, pentagram, philosophy, polytheism, polythiest, prayer, quabalah, reading, reincarnation, religion, religions, religious debate, rituals, runes, sabbats, sacred, samhain, scrying, seasons, solitary witches, solstice, spell casting, spell work, spells, spirit, spirit guides, spirits, spiritual, spirituality, stars, sun, sympathetic magic, tarot, the earth, the green man, the moon, the seasons, totem animals, traditions, trees, triple goddess, watchers, watchtowers, wicca, wicca countermovement, wiccan, wiccan witchcraft, wiccans, witch, witch craft, witchcraft, witches, yule. [Modify yours]
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