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Author Topic: Trying to understand what it means to be a pagan.  (Read 16021 times)

Myst Moonlight

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Re: Trying to understand what it means to be a pagan.
« Reply #45 on: May 19, 2015, 01:59:59 pm »
Quote from: sionnachdearg;164379
I was brought up with Christian beliefs but over the years been dissatisfied and became interested in paganism and thus found this forum. The problem I have now is the definition used in this forum is so extensive that I find it hard to understand what it means to be pagan. Many of the posts suggest a clear desire not to define things, which I can understand, but that makes it harder for someone new to see if they can identify with paganism. There seems to be a wide range of beliefs from worshiping gods and goddesses (including mixing them from different cultures) to animistic to nature worship. Can anyone organize these seemingly different pathways to help me see which pathway I might Identify with?

 
to me it means to practice a nature based religion I celibrate the 8 sabbats and every full moon as well as practice magick

Meliorazeses

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Re: Trying to understand what it means to be a pagan.
« Reply #46 on: June 25, 2015, 12:13:34 pm »
Quote from: sionnachdearg;164379
I was brought up with Christian beliefs but over the years been dissatisfied and became interested in paganism and thus found this forum. The problem I have now is the definition used in this forum is so extensive that I find it hard to understand what it means to be pagan. Many of the posts suggest a clear desire not to define things, which I can understand, but that makes it harder for someone new to see if they can identify with paganism. There seems to be a wide range of beliefs from worshiping gods and goddesses (including mixing them from different cultures) to animistic to nature worship. Can anyone organize these seemingly different pathways to help me see which pathway I might Identify with?

 
I mostly identify as pop culture pagan and I have been considering lately what it is that I have in common with other types if pagans.  For me the unifying thread is that pagans in general have no institutional dogma.  We are all trying to define our beliefs for ourself.  Or if we are involved in a more regimented path it is generally one that is uncommon in the communities we live in, and in that case the parallel challenge is defining our lives to fit our religion, when in general modern notions of what religion is and how it fits are not tailored to the culture and practice of what we do.

I think that there is more to it than that because being a religious outlier isn't automatically paganism
  But I think that what separates paganism from those other paths is often more about the lineage and history of discourse of the various communities and their superficial differences and similarities that separate them more than anything else.  

So in some ways paganism is a catch all category.  But that said, having so many differences makes us more effective as a community I think.

Meliorazeses

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Re: Trying to understand what it means to be a pagan.
« Reply #47 on: June 25, 2015, 03:30:28 pm »
To clarify and expand, I think it is part of a huge paradigm shift away from institutional religion as the hegemonic means of explaining the world.  As science and all manner of popular movements have brought our collective understanding beyond regional (and possibly temporal) biases, I think people have been becoming less and less satisfied with institutional religion and the answers it does and does not provide.  I feel like many of the faiths in the pagan umbrella are a reaction to this shift in thinking that is now over a century in coming on.

I think this trend is why we can lump together such different types of ideas and have it mean anything.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2015, 03:31:55 pm by Meliorazeses »

SunflowerP

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Re: Trying to understand what it means to be a pagan.
« Reply #48 on: June 26, 2015, 08:50:22 pm »
Quote from: Meliorazeses;176468
Last edited by Meliorazeses; Yesterday at 01:31 PM. Reason: Messed up the quote function

 
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What you messed up initially was, you deleted the closing quote code ([/QUOTE]); when you edited, you removed not just all the quoted text, but also the opening quote code. That opening code is especially important, since it's what provides a trackback link to the post being quoted - and that trackback is the thing we most require with the quoting rules.

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popsthebuilder

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Re: Trying to understand what it means to be a pagan.
« Reply #49 on: June 27, 2015, 12:23:28 am »
Hello. I'm curios about Paganism. What is the three fold law please?

HarpingHawke

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Re: Trying to understand what it means to be a pagan.
« Reply #50 on: June 27, 2015, 01:14:34 am »
Quote from: popsthebuilder;176523
Hello. I'm curios about Paganism. What is the three fold law please?

 
Hey there! Here's our Pagan Primer, which gives you a very basic overview of the umbrella term that is Paganism.
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self." - Hemingway

SunflowerP

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Re: Trying to understand what it means to be a pagan.
« Reply #51 on: June 27, 2015, 01:31:46 am »
Quote from: popsthebuilder;176523


 
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popsthebuilder

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Re: Trying to understand what it means to be a pagan.
« Reply #52 on: June 27, 2015, 01:45:42 am »
Is a generalization of ancient Paganism based on worship of the moon and night?

popsthebuilder

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Re: Trying to understand what it means to be a pagan.
« Reply #53 on: June 27, 2015, 01:47:27 am »
Quote from: SunflowerP;176526
A Reminder:
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Tried to quote the first time.

HarpingHawke

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Re: Trying to understand what it means to be a pagan.
« Reply #54 on: June 27, 2015, 01:49:06 am »
Quote from: popsthebuilder;176529
Is a generalization of ancient Paganism based on worship of the moon and night?

 
I would say no, as there is no monolithic "ancient Paganism," but that's neither here nor there. Maybe try starting a new thread to ask your questions--you'll get much better answers that way!

Also, I'd bet a lot of your questions would be answered by taking some time to read through both the board and the primer.
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self." - Hemingway

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