What is a Pagan?

1. pa gan(pgn) n. One who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Jew, especially a worshiper of a polytheistic religion. One who has no religion. A non-Christian. A hedonist. A Neo-Pagan. adj. Not Christian, Muslim, or Jewish. Professing no religion; heathen. Neo-Pagan. [Middle English, from Late Latin pgnus, from Latin, country-dweller, civilian, from pgus, country, rural district. See pag- in Indo-European Roots.]
2. paganism \Pa"gan*ism\ (-[i^]z'm), n. [L. paganismus: cf. F. paganisme. See Pagan, and cf. Painim.] The state of being pagan; pagan characteristics; esp., the worship of idols or false gods, or the system of religious opinions and worship maintained by pagans; heathenism.
3. paganism n : any of various religions other than Christianity or Judaism or Islamism [syn: pagan religion, heathenism]

Okay, all those definitions are really nice. But what IS a Pagan?
Being a Pagan myself, this is a very complicated answer to a very simple question. Bear with me while I try and explain. In her book "The Practical Pagan", Dana Eilers states, and quite adequately, “If you put ten self professed Pagans in a room, you will probably wind up with more than fifteen definitions of Paganism.”[1] Keeping this in mind, I have included several different definitions in the section above. So how can you tell what a Pagan is if you have literally hundreds of different definitions for what Paganism is? Let’s start with the basics. What makes a Pagan, Pagan? Common ground that many Pagans share is:

1. The Worship of Multiple Gods: Pagans worship a dual deity such as the Lord and Lady in Wicca. Many Pagans choose patron deities from either a select pantheon such as Greek or Egyptian, or they select the deities that call to them from many different pantheons. We also see this divinity as a dual force, meaning those Gods and Goddesses can be both male and female. Divinity is not only external, as with the Gods, but is also internal as we are all God or Goddess incarnate.
2. A Reverence of Nature: Pagans keep the Earth in mind when they live everyday life. This also links our idea of divinity around us in every rock, tree and creature. We work within nature because we are nature and it is within us. We are a part of the cycle of life. Pagans also tend to be sensitive to the workings of the earth as far as the seasons, phases of the moon, and solar movements as a sort of intuition.
3. Freedom of Choice: Pagans understand that their path is not the one true way for all humans to reach divinity; it is merely the right path for them. It is this freedom of choice that calls many people to Paganism. In this freedom, we respect those who teach, share knowledge, and step forward as leaders, but do not have One Leader to rule us all.
4. Reincarnation: Most Pagans believe that the soul transcends death. We do not truly die but our souls go on in one form or another. What happens in the actual process of Reincarnation is different depending on the beliefs.
5. What Is: Pagans do not believe that each God or Goddess is complete love and light. We accept that they, too, have a dark or negative side. We also do not accept that there is an all encompassing evil force, such as the Christian Devil. We believe in what “is” and what “is not”, such as a person can be a good person and still have negative traits. We also accept that the Trickster deities, who are primarily seen as negative, also have their positive side in the world.

There is no complete universal definition for the word “Pagan”. This word has different meanings to different people, depending on their tradition. At one time, the word meant “all non Christians” and then moved on to an evil term that meant Satan worship. The word can mean anything from those who follow Druidry, to the adherents to Ásatrú, Wicca, and New Age. If you live your life as a tribute to the Gods and in harmony with nature, you will be a Pagan, regardless of the titles, degrees, and initiations or if you come from a long line of Pagans. Really, the term “Pagan” is just a label that each person should be free to use for themselves to identify with others.
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