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

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In a message dated 12/17/02 5:56:52 PM Eastern Standard Time,
lilinah at earthlink.net writes:


> And many of these Paganisms continue to exist, such as
> Hinduism.
>
>

Hate to chime in and correct people but Hinduism is technically not a pagan
religion. The definition of paganism is a belief system which has multiple,
INDEPENDENT gods, such as the Greeks, Romans, Sumerians, etc etc. Hinduism
believes that there are multiple deities, but they are all dependent or a
part of one Supreme Essence or existance. At least thats how it is in Saivite
and Vaishnavite Hinduism. I believe the Sakti sect is the same, except they
worship Sakti and her multiple forms as that Supreme Essence. The Smarti sect
is also somewhat monotheistic where a individual person worships one deity as
their own personal deity. There is a word for this where you have multiple
gods but they are all part of one Divine Spirit (Heliotheism or something
like that). Again, I hate to correct (or attempt to correct) people but I
have studied Hinduism somewhat extensively since if I wasn't becoming
Catholic, I would become Hindu.

Question for those who are Pagan/Wiccan:What is the difference between plain
Wicca/Pagan religion and the NeoPagan/NeoWiccan? Is it difference in practice
or difference in the followings of writings (As in maybe the NeoWiccans
follow Aleister Crowley's rules, etc. I'm not too fluent in Paganism and
Witchcraft in the whole, even though I do have Pagan/Wiccan friends)

On the foodie note, I had some good parmesan bread....yum!!

Misha