Pagan /ˈpāgən/
A person holding religious beliefs other than those of the
main world religions. The origin of the word is said to be Pagus, Latin for
country dweller. Some say that gentile,
idolater and health are synonyms. Basically
a pagan is someone whose religious views are other than Christianity, Judaism
and Islam.
Pretty simple when you think about it. No matter how you slice
and dice the religions, anything outside those three
religions would fall under the pagan umbrella. Much like how anything outside of a Catholic, would be considered
a Protestant.
When one country conquers another country many of the
customs of the old country are melded into the customs of the new and a new
custom is created. For example if we
look at the yearly calendar for example there is clear evidence of this. Many holidays have transitioned into something
much different than the original.
We can take the American holiday Halloween for example. Halloween is based on a melding of several
different days. Samhain is an ancient
Celtic festival celebrated to prepare for the winter and honor the dead. Being a fire festival common traditions
included bonfires. Some believed that on
this night the veil was the thinnest between the living and the dead and would
leave treats out for the dead to find.
Others would carve turnips into frightening faces to keep watch over
their homes. This laid the foundation
for our modern Halloween traditions, including trick or treating, wearing masks
and of course the dear jack-o-lantern. Other holidays such as Christmas, Easter and even Groundhog
day have Pagan DNA.
I believe the same thing happens with religion.
I’ve been a party to several group discussion around Pagans
who follow Jesus. I read over and over
again how they include Jesus as part of their God/dess collection and consider
themselves to be Christians. This always
confuses me. I can only compare it with
my own belief structure.
1.
I am a Pagan because I do not follow one of the
three world religions.
2.
I am a Witch because I cast spells and practice
candle magic.
3.
I am not Wiccan because I have not been
initiated into an order.
4.
I am Hecatean because I follow Hecate.
Now, looking at those statements I can validate each. When someone says they are Christian these
are what I see.
1.
They am Christian because I believe that Jesus
is the son of the God of Abraham, the one true God.
2.
They believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
3.
They believe that Jesus died on the cross and
arose 3 days later.
4.
They have accepted that I am a sinner and that I
can only be saved by believing 1-3.
Ok, see where I get confused? A pagan by definition is a follower of
something other than the three world religions.
A Christian can only believe that the God of Abrahman is the one true
God. You can’t really say I’m a
Christian who also follows Bast. Well,
let me rephrase, you certainly can say whatever you’d like to say, but based on
what the ‘rules’ for Christianity are, you’re not.
I did do a bit of generalizations on the “What I believe a
Christian is” because each group has different requirements. There are different paths in Christianity. Catholics believe that a person must get Last Rites before they
die. Some believe that if you’re not baptized
you are not a Christian. So I guess
technically one could argue that in their particular “pagan” path Jesus is the
son of God and they have other Gods or Goddesses as well.
Personally I believe its fine to have or not have a religion. A person may be able to embrace what a
particular God or Goddess stands for without having to believe that they were
an actual being. To me I believe that we
are all energy and when we finally get it right, we can all join together in
that pool and be at peace.
Namaste
& Blessed Be
Sosanna
)O(
2 comments
that helped me today....thank you!
I'm with you. I know there are many people who consider themselves Christopagans (River & Joyce Higginbotham have written books on the subject) but I just cannot wrap my head around it. It seems contrary to everything I know (or at least think I know).
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