Paganism 101

Sometimes I forget that outside of the pagan community, most people don't really know what paganism is.

Therefore, paganism has several definitions:

• Any religion that is non-Abrahamic
• Any religion that isn't monotheist
• Any religion that is nature-based
• Any religion that is none of the following:
• Abrahamic
• Indigenous
• Closed to those who don't have a blood tie (i.e. Vodou, Santeria, Hinduism, etc.)
• Asian
• African

That said, these definitions vary! There are:

• people of color who follow their ancestors' polytheist or nature-based religion and identify as pagan
• There are pagans who only believe in one deity, but that deity isn't Abrahamic
• There are henotheists and duotheists who don't consider themselves polytheist
• There are people whose religions belong in the pagan community, but who reject the pagan label for various reasons
•  There are pagan converts who were raised Jewish, Muslim, or Christian and who have syncretic faiths
• There are technopagans and pop culture pagans whose religions aren't nature-based
• There are non-pagans who base their spirituality in nature

So it's confusing, even to us. But wait, there's more.

Most of the pagan community consists of:

• Neopagans, or people who follow newer, nature-based religions such as Wicca
• Reconstructionists and revivalists, who follow modernized versions of long-dead religions practiced by ancient societies, including but not limited to:
• Greece
• Ireland
• Scotland
• Scandinavia
• Rome
• Mesopotamia
• Egypt
• Wales
• England
• Germany
• Various Slavic societies
• The main difference between reconstructionists and revivalists is that revivalists tend to be a bit less strict about it and only adopt the traditions, holidays, and beliefs that work for them, while putting their own modern spin on it. Like giving tequila as an offering to Dionysus or turning makeup into a ritual for Aphrodite
• revivalists are also more likely to be eclectic, meaning that we combine multiple pagan religions

Pagan spirituality and religion can be very fluid. Example: When I first converted to paganism, I was an eclectic neopagan henotheist, believing in one major deity and seeing all the more traditional pagan gods sort of like how some Christians see Mary and the angels and saints. Then I became more focused on Hellenic revivalism, or Greek polytheism, and especially Aphrodite, but also follow some things from other religions, such as Satanism, Christianity, animism, pantheism, and Gaelic polytheism. With Mod Roman, I know it used to be Wiccan and was briefly interested in a form of Satanism that worships Eve as a feminist goddess, but now it's a Hellenic revivalist Aphrodite devotee who, last weekend, celebrated floralia, a Roman festival in honor of the goddess Flora.

A lot of pagan religions have festivals, deities, and practices in common, though, likely because of cultural exchange and societal migration throughout the ancient world. For example, Brythonic and Gaelic polytheism have some gods in common. Norse and Gaelic polytheism both celebrate Ostara, a spring equinox festival. Both Slavic and Greek polytheism historically included hair covering. Greek polytheism also expanded to include deities from other cultures after Alexander the Great, and many Roman deities have Greek names and equivalents.

Today, many of us follow the wheel of the year, a calendar of festivals and holidays revolving around changes in nature, such as solstices, equinoxes, and harvests. I do, loosely, and today I'm veiling and wearing devotional jewelry for Beltaine, a holiday celebrating fertility and new life.

While there are pagan temples, including one a few towns away from me that I might visit if I ever get the chance, many pagans don't have houses of worship the way Sikhs have Gudwaras or Christians have churches. There aren't usually enough of us who are openly pagan in most areas to actually warrant a pagan-specific temple, not to mention that our faiths can be so nuanced and fluid and paganism isn't really one religion, contrary to popular belief - it's an umbrella term for many loosely connected religions. So some of us have communities called groves or covens or something similar, but in my experience it's more common to simply go out by oneself and pray in nature, or to have an altar to a specific deity or deities in one's home. But that's not always the case! Pagans who are ethnically Jewish might go to their family's synagogue, and christopagans might find a progressive church that won't give them too much grief about the pagan aspect of their faith. There are also pagans who attend Unitarian Universalist churches.

Paganism is not the same as witchcraft. There are witchcraft-based pagan religions, it's more common for pagans to identify as witches than non-pagans, and some neopagans consider 'witch' to be their religious identity, but witchcraft and paganism are not inherently connected. Paganism is inherently religious, while witchcraft is a secular spiritual tradition revolving around the idea that everything is connected through fluid metaphysical energy, and that this energy, commonly known as magic (also spelled magick but I don't like doing that because I think it seems pretentious), can be influenced through human means in order to achieve various goals.

Witchcraft, unfortunately, isn't as flashy or glamorous as you see in the movies. It doesn't create big flashes of light, turn people into frogs, or give anyone the ability to fly, as great as that would be. But this post isn't about witchcraft, so, moving on.

So, yes, I'm an Aphrodite devotee. As in, ancient Greek goddess of love, sexuality, and beauty as well as similar domains such as passion, confidence, and intimacy. I don't take ancient myths literally, and believe that most of them were essentially exaggerated stories told among friends that began to spread among the people. But I do believe in the Theoi, the Greek gods, and I most commonly pray to and worship Aphrodite, though I've also been known to pray to Apollo, Gaia, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Persephone, Hades, Hecate, and Hestia. I wear devotional jewelry and currently have on a necklace that I made in devotion to my patron goddess, made with multiple things that I associate with her. It's a copper pendant, roll-printed with lace, with her epithet antheia (friend of flowers) stamped on it, and the chain is a satin cord. I give libations to Aphrodite and try to generally be a good Hellenic polytheist, though like anyone of any religion, I sometimes slack or stray from that goal.

But there are also aspects of my faith and spirituality that aren't Hellenic or even pagan. Like the holiday I'm celebrating right now, Beltaine, originated in Gaelic polytheism but is also associated with Wicca and neopaganism. I also revere Mary as a guardian of women, and occasionally pray to angels and saints, especially Saint Brigid, who is also a goddess in Gaelic polytheism. I identify as christopagan, and am interested in leftist Christianity and biblical revolutionaries, especially Esther and Jesus (as a spiritual teacher and ethicist, not as the Son of God). And I follow the laws of LaVeyan, or atheistic/secular, Satanism, and am definitely interested in the idea of exploring the Satanic worship of Eve and Lilith as goddesses of rebellion and women's liberation and right to knowledge, though I don't have any interest in worshipping Lucifer himself. I still feel connected to capital-G, God, the Abrahamic God, though, and my concept of Her is animist, pantheist, and universalist, and I also feel connected to Catholicism and see myself as culturally Catholic, because Catholicism is my past and it informs my present - but it's not my future.