This so-called "paganism" is not an actual religion. Instead, the term "pagan" was a term created by Christians to denigrate those who followed religions that had multiple deities, instead of their own "God."
"Pagan" and "Heathen" were originally derogatory, but have been now been claimed by those of us of the old faiths. "Christian" used to also be a derogatory term that they claimed, so this sort of thing is not unheard of at all.
They are both umbrella terms that can describe a wide variety of faith paths. Those of us in one of the sects of the base faith of the original Germanic tribes (Frisians, Scandinavians, Germans of course and many others) we prefer the general term "Heathen", which can cover everything from Ãsatrú - the largest of the Heathen sects - to Forn Sed, Nordisk Sed, Iriminism, Odinism, Theodism, Vanatrú and a whole host of others. We just all share the same base faith. The term "Pagan" for us is also acceptable, though you may be politely told "I prefer the term 'Heathen'".
Generally speaking, Pagans and Heathens do not "worship" the way Christians, Muslims and Jews worship. We use the term as a convenience, though honestly, we do not worship at all. We honor or work with our deities. Heathenism views the deities as older, wiser, more powerful kinfolk. The types of people you'd invite over for game night, drinks and nibbles. (Careful, Loki cheats!) We certainly don't do the bowing and scraping thing. We were given strength and intelligence for a reason - to use them - and we are expected to do so. For the Heathenfolk, we are to stand proudly before our deities and look them straight in the eye, so the whole "forgiveness" and "repenting" thing is out of the question. If you don't want to pay for dishorable behavior, then you don't do it.
I'm pretty active in Pagan and Heathen circles and have yet to meet anyone who actually does worship animals. Animals do have an important place in many different cultural and religious lores, but worshiping the actual animal - that's probably quite rare outside of India. Even then, I believe they view it only as a representation of the divine rather than a divine being itself. That's a big difference and the two concepts should not be confused. I'll have to ask a Hindu about it more one day to be sure, though.
As always, no one of us has the authority to speak for all of us so I speak only for myself and my understanding of the divine as a life-long member of the Heathenfolk and student of many faiths.
Pagan literally means someone who is not a Christian.
It would have referred to old religious beliefs held by villages and tribes throughout northern Europe that the early missionaries felt they had to "save". Celtic was an example of one of these old religions.
Most of these religions worshiped the Earth, the seasons and therefore, fertility. After all, it was only through the fertility of the earth that crops could grow and feed the people, and it was only through the fertility of females that populations could continue to grow. These people didn't worship sex, but they certainly understood it's part in the larger cycle of life, and their views were that this cycle was repeated everywhere. The sky, the seasons, the planet, people, etc. all go through the same cycle.
The big celebrations in these religions were based on the solstices - which is why Christianity created Christmas and Easter, to better "compete" with those religions. That's the real reason why we have Christmas trees and Easter Eggs - both of which are ancient symbols of fertility from those religions.
It's actually a derogatory that early Christians used to insult white people who still followed their traditional non-christian religions and customs. They had gods like Thor, Odin and the old Greek gods like Zeus.
Comments
This so-called "paganism" is not an actual religion. Instead, the term "pagan" was a term created by Christians to denigrate those who followed religions that had multiple deities, instead of their own "God."
"Pagan" and "Heathen" were originally derogatory, but have been now been claimed by those of us of the old faiths. "Christian" used to also be a derogatory term that they claimed, so this sort of thing is not unheard of at all.
They are both umbrella terms that can describe a wide variety of faith paths. Those of us in one of the sects of the base faith of the original Germanic tribes (Frisians, Scandinavians, Germans of course and many others) we prefer the general term "Heathen", which can cover everything from Ãsatrú - the largest of the Heathen sects - to Forn Sed, Nordisk Sed, Iriminism, Odinism, Theodism, Vanatrú and a whole host of others. We just all share the same base faith. The term "Pagan" for us is also acceptable, though you may be politely told "I prefer the term 'Heathen'".
Generally speaking, Pagans and Heathens do not "worship" the way Christians, Muslims and Jews worship. We use the term as a convenience, though honestly, we do not worship at all. We honor or work with our deities. Heathenism views the deities as older, wiser, more powerful kinfolk. The types of people you'd invite over for game night, drinks and nibbles. (Careful, Loki cheats!) We certainly don't do the bowing and scraping thing. We were given strength and intelligence for a reason - to use them - and we are expected to do so. For the Heathenfolk, we are to stand proudly before our deities and look them straight in the eye, so the whole "forgiveness" and "repenting" thing is out of the question. If you don't want to pay for dishorable behavior, then you don't do it.
I'm pretty active in Pagan and Heathen circles and have yet to meet anyone who actually does worship animals. Animals do have an important place in many different cultural and religious lores, but worshiping the actual animal - that's probably quite rare outside of India. Even then, I believe they view it only as a representation of the divine rather than a divine being itself. That's a big difference and the two concepts should not be confused. I'll have to ask a Hindu about it more one day to be sure, though.
As always, no one of us has the authority to speak for all of us so I speak only for myself and my understanding of the divine as a life-long member of the Heathenfolk and student of many faiths.
There actually was no religion called Paganism.
Pagan literally means someone who is not a Christian.
It would have referred to old religious beliefs held by villages and tribes throughout northern Europe that the early missionaries felt they had to "save". Celtic was an example of one of these old religions.
Most of these religions worshiped the Earth, the seasons and therefore, fertility. After all, it was only through the fertility of the earth that crops could grow and feed the people, and it was only through the fertility of females that populations could continue to grow. These people didn't worship sex, but they certainly understood it's part in the larger cycle of life, and their views were that this cycle was repeated everywhere. The sky, the seasons, the planet, people, etc. all go through the same cycle.
The big celebrations in these religions were based on the solstices - which is why Christianity created Christmas and Easter, to better "compete" with those religions. That's the real reason why we have Christmas trees and Easter Eggs - both of which are ancient symbols of fertility from those religions.
It's actually a derogatory that early Christians used to insult white people who still followed their traditional non-christian religions and customs. They had gods like Thor, Odin and the old Greek gods like Zeus.
It's a term Christian bigots made up to call anyone who wasn't Christian.
Mithra is wrong. Heathen is the term she refers too.
Pagan is another word for polytheistic