[Sca-cooks] Paganism was RE: A new twist!

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Signora Apollonia Margherita degli Albizzi wrote:
>Okay, I know I am going to sound like a total ditz, but what exactly is
>Paganism?  And what's the difference between Pagan and Wiccan?
>And what's Wiccan?

"Wiccan" is an adjective. The name of the religion is "Wicca". Wicca
is a subset of Paganism - there are many other forms of Paganism.

Ultimately there's no easy answer. Modern neoPagans and other sorts
of theologians have been working this one over with no clear result
for scores of years.

I find that for some effort at clarity, i imagine a Venn diagram - if
you don't know what that is, it doesn't matter.

Anyway, there's this big circle called humanity :-)

Within this circle is a smaller (but still large circle that
represents the religions or religious beliefs or spiritual leanings
that many human cultures and societies and individuals have - this
isn't the place for definitions - i just hope i'm covering most bases.

Within this inner circle is a somewhat smaller circle that i'd call
Paganism. It covers all the beliefs that any humans (indiv., cult.,
or soc.) have had over all the time that humans have existed that
include a multitude of deities - and some have no deities or deity
but have a multitude of spiritual beings (such as "nature spirits").

The beliefs and practices of the ancient Sumerians, Mesopotamians,
Egyptians, Persians, Canaanite-Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans were
forms of Paganism. In other words, the beliefs that preceded and
paralleled the Abrahamic monotheisms of Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam. And many of these Paganisms continue to exist, such as
Hinduism.

The original beliefs of most/all of Europe prior to conversion to
Christianity, but often little is known of these as their cultures
didn't have writing, and they were not or were poorly documented by
their conquerors.

Other Paganisms were affected by contact with monotheisms, such as
Santeria, Voudon, and most Native American beliefs in the US (at
least i know from personal contact with people from a wide variety of
Native cultures)

The traditional beliefs of the indigenous population of Australia are
included - i don't know how much they've been influenced by
missionaries and colonization.

The traditional beliefs of almost all of Africa are included -
although many Africans have been converted to Christianity and Islam.

Anyway, around the middle of the 20th century, at least one person
decided to revive/create a new European Paganism. This was the
Englishman Gerald Gardner, who founded real Wicca.

Gradually his information was spread - some folks tried very hard to
continue what he had created. Others took from him and altered and
and added their own stuff. Other people were influenced and inspired
by him, but made up their own stuff - i live where several modern
neoPagan lines began and know many of their founders.

There were also people like Z. Budapest who decided that the real
Witchcraft was a women's-only thing. Her creation began in the late
60s and its development paralleled the development of quite a few
other American and English neoPaganisms.

Other people have decided to "revive" or "re-create" long dead forms
of Paganism, such as what "the Celts" believed and did (this can
become pretty sticky if one actually studies real history and
archaeology) or what the "Vikings" believed and did. And there are
other revivals - currently there are some very active communities in
former Soviet Bloc countries.

In the early 1980s a number of us were working rather publicly to
have what we did accepted as religion, because various members of the
US Congress (particularly born-again Christians) were trying write
laws to ban what we did - after all, we called ourselves witches and
you know what the inaccurately translated King James Bible says about
witches (which is not what the original Hebrew says). Anyway, to
safeguard ourselves some of us opted to become public speakers and
organizers.

To relieve some of the fears people outside our circles had when they
heard the word "Witch" and "Witchcraft" (and let me add i am not now
nor have i ever been a Thespian Lemonist, err, Dianic), we adopted
Gardner's invented words "Wicca" and "Wiccan" for public use.

Use of these term grew and spread like kudzu, and many people who
were doing things that had very little resemblance to what Gardner
and Gardnerians practiced began to call themselves "Wiccans". I am
not commenting on what they were doing, but it wasn't much like Wicca.

Type "Wicca" into Google and you'll get more hits than you can read
in a lifetime.

The buzzwords in neoPagan neoWicca are thick as flies. I'm trying to
avoid most of them here.

Also, anyone initiated into a British Wiccan tradition will dispute
with me about the beginning of British Wicca - this is not the place
for a debate - this is the Cooks list and i'm trying to keep this
brief yet cover a lot of time/territory.

Anyway, i considered myself a Greek-ish Pagan beginning when i was a
small child in the 1950s. I crossed paths with a number of Wiccans in
the late 60s and early 70s, but Wicca wasn't and isn't for me. While
i became a public Eclectic Witch in the 80s, i have never been what i
consider a Wiccan, although i've been initiated into several
"traditions" some of whose branches, but not all, use that word.

Living in California, i grew tired of celebrating the cycle of the
seasons as everyone around me was doing - with a long cold dark dead
winter with all the trees bare and the ground covered with snow...
This cycle did not reflect the cycles of coastal Northern California
where we have basically three seasons, and no winter dead time.

I grew fatigued of ceremonies bemoaning the death of nature around
me, when i could see that instead cold, barren death, the rain was
making the grass green, and the trees bud (at least the ones that
lost their leaves - many many trees here stay green all year), and
heck, there are roses blooming here now in December! and there will
be roses blooming here in February!

I became annoyed with the people who claim to be "in touch with
nature and the cycles of the seasons", who claim to be members of an
"Earth based religion" and who seem unaware of what nature where they
actually live is actually doing!

I ended up with a large web site devoted to Canaanite and Phoenician
paganism - an ancient religion that existed in a region with weather
and geography much like California's - heck, San Francisco is
practically on the same latitude as Beirut, Lebanon - we are
certainly south of almost all of Europe.

At this time i am no longer active with the larger neoPagan community
for various reasons i see no need to go into on this list. And this
message is already WAY off topic.

I hope i have been inclusive and fair, although i know that i left a
lot out, glossed over a lot, and have recounted things as they appear
to me after many decades of study, but which my not concur with the
beliefs of other neoPagans on this list.

Anyway, feel free to e-mail me privately for additional general
information , if you like. I have been involved in public "relations"
about neoPaganism and i try to be fair. I have no interest in trying
to convert you. It is not part of my belief system.

Anahita
aka Luna Sea