Some Basic Pagan Beliefs

Please note: these beliefs are generally held in Paganism but because Paganism consists of many religions and is so individualistic, beliefs vary. The beliefs summed up here are by no means the only beliefs there are and some Pagans may have different views than these.

Belief in Deities

 

Pagans believe in the existence of Gods and Goddesses that affect our lives. Paganism tends to be polytheistic (belief in more than one Deity).
Individuals often follow a specific pantheon such as Celtic, Norse, Greek, etc. Some Pagans worship the whole pantheon while others choose to direct their worship to a few or even one of the deities. Some Pagans consider the deities to be aspects of reality or personality, which helps them to focus on specific attributes of life or the self such as strength, learning, or love. Other Pagans consider the deities to be external beings who embody certain traits again such as strength, learning, or love. Pagans have very Personal relationships with their deities and so how they perceive them is very personal and individualistic.

Reincarnation

 

Most Pagans believe that after death, the spirit is reborn in another body. Again, a belief in exactly what happens and whether or not you are punished for you wrong doings in this life or the next vary.

Magic

 

The ability to use your will to effect real and positive changes in your life is Magic. You do not have to practice Magic to be Pagan but many Pagans do practice Magic in one form or another (actually, much of today's modern medicine was once considered to be part of Magic until science explained how it worked). Magic is, of course, controversial. Magic, and the fear that it caused (and still causes in some situations), is what led to the persecution of Pagans.

Ritual

 

Like the rituals in most religions, Pagan rituals mark changes and events in human life: birth, death, marriage, and so forth. Ritual can be a ceremony of celebration (as in the holy days) or a way of honouring the Gods and Goddesses and thanking them for their blessings. Offerings made to the Gods and Goddesses often include things of beauty, flowers, art, stones, crystals, or things of art made by the practitioner, poems, songs, and dance. These offerings demonstrate the level of dedication and devotion of Pagan worshippers.

Sabbats

 

There are usually eight major holy days, or holidays, in the Pagan calendar. All are agrarian, four relate more to plants (planting, harvest, etc.) and four relate more to animal husbandry (cycles of fertility).

So what does "Earth-Based Religions" refer to?

Earth-based religions are religions that view the Earth (and nature as a whole) as being the source of universal consciousness and energy. However, it is important to note that each religion has its own unique views as to the importance of the Earth and to what roles it plays in our everyday life.

Source: http://pagansa.org.ohio-state.edu/index.html

The Pagan Traditions

Not all Pagans are Wiccans, and not all Pagan paths are the same. From Asatru to Druidry to Celtic Reconstructionism, there are plenty of Pagan groups out there to choose from. This list is but a few of the many paths to paganism, so I have tried to include some of the better known movements. And like Paganism itself, these individual paths can also have their own various forms.

A note about the sourcing: I was originally going to use my various books to put this together. Unfortunately none give you a simple break down of the individual traditions and so I would have been at this a year from now. So to save time I have visited various sites for the following information. I have also included a link to each of these.

N.B: If you own any of this work and are not happy for us to use this, please by all means PM me and I will remove the segment.

Asatru & Odinism:

 

"Some Odinists consider themselves to be Ásatrú, while others do not, nor are all Ásatrúar Odinists. Ásatrú is a polytheistic religion and the gods and/or goddesses that one chooses to worship or dedicate to among the Elder gods is a matter of individual choice and conscience. Odinism is included in the presentation of Ásatrú although not considered to be exactly the same thing. Heathen is another term that you will come across and refers to religious groups which are based on Northern European pre-Christian Pagan beliefs while Paganism is an even more general term. "

"Asatru is the modern rebirth of the pre-Christian indigenous faith of the Norse peoples -- the ancestors of the Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, and Icelanders. This faith honoured many Gods and Goddesses, some of whose names are still familiar to us today, such as Thor, Odin and Freyja. The indigenous faith of Scandinavia, upon which Asatru is based, fell into shadow after the year 1100, with the advent of Christianity in Northern Europe. The modern Asatru faith practiced by Gladsheim is part of a revival which began in 1973, when the Asatru Free Assembly was founded in the United States. The same year, Asatru was granted official recognition in Iceland, becoming the second recognized faith in that country, alongside the Lutheran Church."

Source: http://www.irminsul.org/as/asr.html

Druidism:

Druidism, or Druidry as it is often called, is for some a spiritual path, for others a religion, and for others a cultural activity.

As a cultural activity, Druid ceremonies provide part of the context and pageantry for the National Eisteddfodau of Wales, Cornwall and Brittany.

As a spiritual way or philosophy, Modern Druidism began to develop about three hundred years ago during a period known as the ‘Druid Revival’. It was inspired by the accounts of ancient Druids, and drew on the work of historical researchers, folklorists and early literature. In this way Druidry’s heritage stretches far back into the past.

Source: http://www.druidry.org/

 Celtic Traditionalism/Reconstructionalism:

This may not be a familiar term to many people, it consists of trying to reconstruct the beliefs and practices of the original Celtic people, as opposed to Druidic learning, this tradition focuses more on the beliefs of the average Celtic man or woman.

Celtic Reconstructionist paganism, is a more culturally specific and historically based path which seeks to recreate, to the best extent possible in the modern world, the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Western Europe and the British Isles. Like Wicca, and like the Celtic culture upon which it is based, modern Celtic paganism embodies a strong reverence for nature.

Celtic Shamanism:

A shamanic path that is based on the Faery Faith of the Celtic peoples of Western Europe and especially of Britain, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, Isle of Man and Brittany.

Source: http://13thdruidofavalon.tripod.com/druidplanet/id88.html

Heathenry:

Heathenry is the term preferred, in the UK (and increasingly elsewhere), by many followers of Germanic paganism or Germanic neopaganism as the name of their religion. While some practitioners use the term as equivalent to Paganism, others use it much more specifically. It is used by those who are re-creating the old religion and worldview from the literary and archaeological sources, who describe themselves as "Heathen" in part to distinguish themselves from other pagans whose rituals come from other sources. Some North Americans use Heathenism with a similar intent.

Heathenry in the UK differs from Asatru in North America in being generally more rooted in the landscape (Blain, 2002a, Harvey 2006 forthcoming), and in this may possibly more akin to Ásatrú in Iceland and similar religious expression in Scandinavia. Heathenry draws on ideas of a living landscape, close to some expressed by indigenous religions elsewhere. Heathenry, therefore, for many adherents, is about creating a connection between humans and landscape, through the acknowledgement of land- and other wights, ancestors (spiritual and cultural, not necessarily physical) and other beings; it is therefore an animist religion drawing on (for instance) the Old English healing charms, the Icelandic Eddas and Sagas, and folklore elements in creating a religion from today from these and other resources. Shamanic or shamanistic elements are evident and practitioners may use seid and galdr, or shamanistic magic and sung magic, in rituals.

Heathenry relates to both the practices and worldviews of Heathens and to the practitioners - thus Heathenry can mean people who are Heathen, or what they do. In general, Heathens consider that people are called to the religion, perhaps by the gods or by the landscape, regardless of their ethnic origins. In this sense, Heathens are new-indigenes (Blain and Wallis, 2002).

Source: http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Heathenry/id/491729

Ceremonial Magic:

"Followers of this Tradition uses a great deal of ceremonial Magic in their practices. Detailed rituals with a flavour of Egyptian Magic are sometimes a favourite, or they may use the Quabbalistic Magic"

(From "To Ride a Silver Broomstick")

Ceremonial Magic calls upon the aid of beneficent spirits and is akin to religion. Ceremonial Magic is based upon a blend of doctrines of Plato and other Greek philosophers, Oriental mysticism, Judaism and Christianity and currently is divided into three forms : Enochian, Thelemic and Eclectic. Enochian Magic originated with John Dee and Edward Kelly in the 16th century and communication with spirits involved the Nineteen Calls (or Keys): incantations in the Enchonian language, a complex language of unknown origin. This system of Magic was revived by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and studied at length by Aleister Crowley. In turn, Crowley developed the Thelemic Magic system from his studies and Ceremonial Magicians have since expanded to develop Eclectic Magic systems based on a variety of different systems, inclusive of Alchemy, Egyptology, Kabbalistic doctrines, Chaos Magic etc...

Ceremonial Magic requires a rigorous discipline and has an intellectual appeal, the mage derives power from God (the Judeo-Christian God) through the successful control of spirits, usually demons, which are believed easier to control than angels. Demons may be good, evil, or neutral. In its highest sense, Ceremonial Magic is a transcendental experience that takes the mage into mystical realms and into communication with the Higher Self, is also known as High Magic, Ritual Magic, Theurgic Magic and Theurgy.

Source: http://13thdruidofavalon.tripod.com/druidplanet/id88.html

Golden Dawn:

"The Golden Dawn system of magic is not a religion, although religious imagery and spiritual concepts play an important role in its work. The Golden Dawn was designed by its founders to be an Hermetic Society dedicated to the philosophical, spiritual, and psychic evolution of humanity. It was also designed to be a school and a repository of knowledge, where students learned the principles of occult science and the various elements of western philosophy and magic. Tolerance for all religious beliefs was stressed, and symbolism used within the G:.D:. came from a variety of religious sources. Today, people from many diverse religious paths consider themselves practicing Golden Dawn magicians--including Neopagans, Gnostics, Jews, and Christians."

Source: http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/index.shtml

Greco-Roman:

"Hellenic Neopagans worship the Gods and Goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome. Although some followers are Greek or of Greek descent, many come from other ethnic backgrounds, yet all consider themselves Hellenic (or Graeco-Roman) Neopagans."

Source:  http://www.joellessacredgrove.com/pagantraditions.html#asatru

Green Witchcraft:

"The central Green element of all Craft expression is the Goddess as undying, threefold, and associated with the earth, the moon, and the living (sacred) waters, and the God as undying, threefold, and associated with the earth, the sun, and the sky. As God of grain and solar phases, he is also the willing sacrifice who "dies" and is "reborn" in the Goddess in the yearly cycle of the seasons. God the Gatherer, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is that concept of the Trinity dating back some 30,000 years to Shiva as the Threefold God. He is both the seed and the eternal energy of life.

'Green' is a somewhat generic term for the elements that can be found in herbal, natural, traditional, or family traditional Witchcraft, and it has great flexibility and variety. The Green elements can be adapted to those Ceremonial aspects you find appealing, and it forms the foundation level of the Odinist tradition (which is very restrictive on what elements are acceptable - Kabbalah and Tarot not being used, as an example.) The key to the Green Facet of Witchcraft is to be attuned to nature and the natural forces surrounding you."

(Taken from "Green Witchcraft" by Ann Moura (Aoumiel)

Hedge Witch:

Hedge Witchcraft, also called "hedge riding" or "hedgecraft," is vaguely based on traditional European witchcraft popularised by Rae Beth, Nigel Jackson, Eric De Vries and others. It emphasises solitary working based around nature, as well as shamanistic practices and herbalism, with hedge-riding referring to traveling to Otherworlds.
Some practitioners claim it to be the continuing practices of the cunning folk and wise-women, while others say that it draws from such sources but is a modern tradition.
Critics have pointed out it has many similarities with Wicca. Certainly, many books published about Hedgewitchery are based upon Wicca, and actual practitioners claim that hedgewitches can come from any religious or spiritual background, and that simply most modern hedgewitches choose to base their practice around Wicca. Some main differences between hedgecraft and Wicca is a significant loss of the formality of Wiccan ritual, the lack of initiation into a Wiccan Coven, and the solitary nature of hedgecraft, with some following a Cochrane based tradition.

According to Rae Beth's 1992 book Hedge Witch - a guide to Solitary Witchcraft, Hedge Witches worship the Triple Goddess and the Horned God. They celebrate the eight "sabbats" of the Wheel of the Year.

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_witch#Hedge_witchcraft

Wicca:

Wicca (pronounced [ˈwɪkə]) is a neopagan, nature-based religion It was popularised in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant, who at the time called it a "Witch cult" and "Witchcraft", and its adherents "the Wica".

Wicca is the largest of the Neopagan religions. Wiccans have great reverence for the Earth and for their Goddess and her consort, the horned God. Their main rule of behavior is the Wiccan Rede which forbids them from harming people, including themselves, except in some cases of self-defense.

Wiccans, as followers of Wicca are now commonly known, typically worship a Goddess (traditionally the Triple Goddess) and a God (traditionally the Horned God), who are sometimes represented as being a part of a greater pantheistic Godhead, and as manifesting themselves as various polytheistic deities. Other characteristics of Wicca include the ritual use of magic, a basic code of morality, and the celebration of eight seasonally based festivals.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca

Witchcraft:

Most Wiccans call themselves Witches but not all Witches practice Wicca. There are many, many witches who consider Witchcraft and Wicca to be totally separate religions.
"Witchcraft is a broad term used to describe many faiths. Also known as "wise craft" or "craft of the wise", Witchcraft is a peaceful, nature-based faith or path. Practitioners of Witchcraft or "witches" are often accused of devil worship due to the prevalence of misconceptions within the general public."

"The witch was usually a midwife, healer, herbalist and/or wise-woman or man who fashioned their way of living around nature and the seasons. Most witches were skilled in the use of herbs and were quite adept at healing those that were ill. Today, modern witches seek the vast knowledge of the ancient wise women and men to return to a nature-focused way of life. "

[Sourced from Witch Wisdom - http://witchcraft.simplenet.com/ This site no longer exists]

Pagans celebrate Halloween as part of the country’s newest religion

By Robert Pigott

BBC News religious affairs correspondent

In a riverside meadow in the Dorset town of Weymouth, a witch is using a broom to sweep a sacred circle in the grass. 


The rest of the coven stand, some in hooded gowns, in a circle around an iron cauldron where a fire is burning.


They've met to celebrate Samhain, pronounced "sah-wen": the turning of the year from light into dark.


Many think of Halloween as a time of ghouls and ghosts, and for some retailers it has become the third most lucrative event of the year.


It is the time of year when some churches remember the souls of the departed.


For the witches of Weymouth it is one of their most important religious festivals, a time when they believe the barriers between the physical and spiritual worlds are at their thinnest.


They invite the spirits of north, south, east and west into the circle, and cut apples to share with the spirits of people who have died.


The leader of the coven, Diane Narraway, bids farewell to the goddess of light, and kneels before the head of a horned ram, holding her hands out as if to a flame.


"I kneel before... the horned god, Lord of Witchdom, as we welcome him back to reign over the dark months," she says.


The coven meets regularly to make spells, using a variety of potions and differently coloured candles in order to achieve particular ends.


Green is for money, pink is for love


They say the spells are exclusively positive, and should be seen more as prayers.


Anouska Ireland, a 35-year-old teaching assistant, is wearing a hooded cloak in pale blue - the colour of good health.


She says: "We sometimes use the cauldron to mix spells... it could be for the purpose of healing, and in harnessing positive intentions for someone who is unwell."


Sarah Sanford, a mother-of-three, uses spells to protect them.


"When my children are going to school I'll do a protection spell for them, so they get through the day all right," she says.......


For the Complete Story Follow This Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11652512

Honouring the Ancestors: Samhain and Beyond

 October 26, 2010 by Galina Krasskova

Samhain by Helene Grasset

There’s a great deal of focus around Samhain on honouring one’s ancestors, and honouring the dead in general. Whether we celebrate Samhain or Winter nights, that’s what this holiday is all about, right? Well, yes….but ideally the celebrations that mark the end of October, should be the culmination of a year spent regularly and consistently interacting with the dead, honouring them, and recognizing their role in the continuing evolution of our spirituality. Honouring and interacting with the ancestors isn’t just a Samhain “thing,” rather it’s an every day “thing,” and one of the fundamental underpinnings of a strong, nourishing, resilient spiritual practice.


Many traditions pay special homage to their ancestors, to those who have come before us, to those who, by their struggles and failures, victories and joys have contributed to the common threads of being we all share. Honouring one’s lineage is the first and one of the most important steps in developing a strong spiritual foundation. It is a place of beginning. We all have ancestors. We can all tap into that connection. Ancestors may include those connected to you by blood, but also those who, while a blood relationship might be lacking, were nevertheless close enough to be kin. These are our teachers, mentors, and friends—our spiritual kin. No one lineage is better than another. Paying homage to one’s ancestors is not, in any way, shape or form an excuse for racism, rather it is a means of honouring the process of one’s spiritual journey, honouring those whose actions and lives helped create our own, shape our own. It means honouring those who shed blood for us, so that we might remember and also learn to craft lives of honour. It is an acknowledgement that we are all connected through the Holy Powers, through the cycle that Hela governs. We honour the continuity of Divine presence throughout the course of our lives. We honour their strength, courage, wisdom, struggles even as we seek to learn from them.

In the Northern Tradition, we have several different types of ancestors. The word “Dis” (plural: disir) refers specifically to the female ancestors of one’s line. These ancestors are very important because they are guardians of one’s luck and one’s wyrd. Luck particularly relies heavily on the female line in passing from one generation to the next. Sometimes the word ‘alf’ (plural: alfar) is used for the male antecedents, but in contemporary Heathenry this is not all that common as it leads to confusion with the denizens of Alfheim, one of the nine holy worlds. So most of us just refer to them as our “male ancestors”…unglamorous but effective! One might also encounter the word “wight,” an anglicized form of the Old Norse ‘vaet’ (plural: vaettir). This is a rather ‘catch-all’ term for nature spirits, elementals, and land spirits. Some use it to imply ancestors, but that is not its most common usage. The Northern Tradition is an animistic one and these beings, somewhat analogous to what Shinto would call ‘kami’ are no less important than one’s ancestors. So we honor not just our dead, but the spirits of the places in which we live, of our home, of the land itself as well.

One does not evolve spiritually in a vacuum. The strength of one’s spiritual House depends on the integrity of one’s lineage. By this, I mean being in right relationship with our ancestors. This is attained by honoring them regularly, rightly, and well. One’s ancestors and the vaettir of our world can assist us in our journey and in our spiritual Work. We can learn much from them but only if we empower them to act with us. A house cannot be built without bricks. Bricks cannot be secured without mortar. Paying homage to one’s ancestors and the spirits of the land is the mortar and clay from which those bricks are formed. We begin in the physical because we are physical beings. Our own physicality, the sense of touch, of sight, sound, smell, and hearing are the primary filters through which we experience our world. The first step in growing strong and whole and heal in this tradition, is honouring those who have struggled to do exactly that before us. This process is helped by the fact that many spirits choose to stay as guides/watchers and protectors.


There are endless ways of making proper offerings. The first step one should take, is the construction of an ancestral altar. This should be a separate altar from anything given to the Gods – a simple shelf will do, dedicated entirely to the ancestors. In my main kindred, we have a communal ancestral altar with offerings from each person. It’s quite a gathering of energies, because we all come from different backgrounds: Celtic, English, Swiss, German, Lithuanian, Cherokee, African, Italian, Polish. We honor our spiritual lineage too. This means that in addition to those actually related to us by blood or adoption, we also consciously honor those people who may have had a tremendous influence on us, who were teachers, mentors, and guides. For example, my mother kept a picture of Wilfred Owen on her ancestral altar, because his war poetry helped her through a very traumatic time in her life. In addition to the shared kindred altar, most of us also have our individual ancestor altars.

For the rest of this article click here: http://www.patheos.com/community/paganportal/2010/10/26/honoring-the-ancestors-samhain-and-beyond/

Preparing for Samhain

Article from A Pagan's Blog

Tuesday October 26, 2010

I've been busy polishing our ritual script for Samhain (pronounced "Sow-win"), which we will celebrate the 30th. I hope every other Pagan reader of this blog will have an opportunity to observe and celebrate this time as well. I think it is one of our two most important Sabbats.


Wicca celebrates and honors the Sacred in all its manifestation throughout life, for it is the Divine as it manifests in the world that serves as our "sacred text." We focus on the meaning within phenomena as symbols of a larger context toward which they point. Life is a cycle, and we see it symbolized throughout the course of a year here in temperate zones. On the equator we would need different symbolism to bring this insight alive, a sign that variety is itself Sacred. Along with the Sacredness of variety, I believe our world's other most fundamental teaching about the Sacred is its eternal linkage of life and death. Everything that lives, dies.


Samhain is when we honor death, as six months previously we honored life at Beltane. Then light was rapidly increasing, each day longer than the one before. Now night is becoming dominant, each night longer than the one before.


In NeoPagan and Celtic traditions Samhain is the last day of the year, as sundown is the end of the day and the beginning of the next. For Wiccans such as myself, the time between Samhain and Yule is the time when death is the dimension of Spirit most present at least symbolically.


For the rest of this article click on the following link: http://blog.beliefnet.com/apagansblog/2010/10/preparing-for-samhain.html

Samhain Blot

Our Alter taken by Chris ~ The photographs are my maternal grandparents

I and some friends had a beautiful Heathen blot last Saturday. It had been a while since we'd been all together for a blot due to family things. Nearly all of us had suffered a death in the family, some closer to us that other. Originally it was going to be our usual Penda Blot but because of our-loses and that we'd not been together for a while we decided to focus mostly on Samhain.

We are only a small group, but we are very good friends who enjoys one another’s company and so we're not just a bunch of pagans but a circle of friends. Paul had added a segment about friendship and an oath of friendship. All this signified by both words and a special ring he had made that we all hold. We said the oath together and then individually made a toast to our circle of friends drinking mead from the horn.



Chopping board decorated by Chris and on the left the pictures of my grandparents



We always have a rune that is appropriate to the blot and we chant it to add power to the circle and to aid this myself and Chris rhythmically hit our drums starting slow and steadily increasing the speed of the chant. It can be a very emotional and powerful moment when we do this.

We also bring something written to share with one another. We go round reading what we have fetched. It can be a song, poem or what ever we feel is appropriate for the blot.

This was one of the best blots so far and most definitely the most emotional. And made all the more special because of the people I share the circle with!