What do Pagans believe? Academic definition of Paganism
What is Paganism? What defines it and what do Pagans believe? Stay tuned if you want to find out.
According to the Pagan Federation International, Paganism is a polytheistic and pantheistic nature-worshipping religion. It’s worth clarifying that polytheism means the belief in the existence of multiple gods while pantheism implies that the divine is in everything, is embedded in nature and in everything.
The term Pagan comes from the Latin pāgānos, (pāgāni) which means farmer, countryman, as opposed to an urban dweller. Pagan was a derogatory term used mainly in early Christianity to refer to polytheists and then to all non-Christian peoples in Europe, mainly in northern Europe.
Up to the late Middle Ages, it was a way of defining an “inner” other, somebody who is different but lives within a society which has a different dominant religious system.
According to Ronald Hutton, contemporary Paganism, sometimes also referred to as Neopaganism, sees its origins in 20th century Britain with the birth of Wicca and Pagan Druidry which led to occult revivals in Europe as well as in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Contemporary Paganism is still a young movement in search of its identity and experiences the paradox of wanting to grow and unify while maintaining a substantial diversity of traditions, identities, and rituals. As a consequence, ‘Pagan’ itself is considered an umbrella term rather than a universal label.
The main traditions falling under the umbrella of Paganism are Wicca and witchcraft, Druidry, Heathenry, Ásatrú, goddess worship, ethnic reconstructions, and other animist, earth-based traditions. Among the commonalities found across the different forms of Paganism, we find a non-monotheistic relationship to the sacred which means that Pagans believed in the existence of multiple gods and spirits of various natures and established relationships with them in a non-institutionalized fashion. Also, there is not much importance given to scriptures and revelations as every Pagan usually favours a direct relationship with the spirits and deities. Another commonality that we find is an imminent spirituality: imminence is the belief that the divine is not outside of nature but within everything that we see and we live in our day-to-day life. Everything is living and animated and the belief that Pagans have is that you can interact with the spirits that populate the matter and the manifestation of reality.
Another trait that we find in Paganisms, is the reverence towards the land and the landscape as well as the reverence for all tangible things and the spirits that inhabit them all. As a consequence, it is extremely common for Pagans to believe and in some cases, practice magic. Although not all Pagans practice magic, is quite safe to say that most of them believe in its existence. This can be seen as the direct consequence of the traits that we have just mentioned because if you believe that matter, i.e. every bit of reality is living and sentient and that you can establish relationships with the spirits inhabiting it, you will also be able to renegotiate how the fabric of reality unfolds by becoming an active and interactive actor in its manifestation.
As contemporary Paganism keeps growing around the world, we can expect an evolution in its core features and manifestation. It is likely, that over time, there will be more and more regional variations, that might determine different degrees of divergence from country to country or even from one narrow area to the other. As a consequence, it would be more accurate to speak of Pagan communities – acknowledging the already existing differences as well as the ones which are yet to come.
In future videos, I will be tackling each Pagan tradition in more detail and so if you’re interested in the topic, I’d suggest you activate the notification bell; this way you won’t miss anything out.
This is it for today’s video. Hope you enjoyed this brief overview of the definition of Paganism. If you like this video, smash the like button, subscribe to the channel, and leave a comment down below so that I can know what you think about this video and what you’d like to see next, and stay tuned to follow the academic fun.