After wandering around e2, i found there was actually a fairly decent collection of pagan/wiccan material here, it was just vaguely difficult to find unless you knew exactly what to look for. This is only a collection of large themes/ideas here, there are hundreds more nodes on things like the properties of herbs and stones and somesuch. this is a work in progress, i add nodes as i find them. please feel free to /msg me with any you find, or add them below. if you want a few specific random things there are some links in my homenode

pagan in general:

Asatru
discordia
Eris
Ar nDraiocht Fein
Shamanism
nature religions
paganic
pagans
Mesopaganism
neopaganism
neopagan
paleopagan
paleopaganism
ceremonial magic
Isaac Bonewits
The Laws Of Magic
animism
furry lifestyle
PaganPaths IRC Network
Burning Times
the European witch-hunt
Tips for getting rid of curses
Reformed Druids of North America
Familiars and Totem Animals - Their Attributes
Lord of the Dance
Pagan Holidays
Magickal uses of herbs
E2 Tarot Cards
pagan recipes

Wicca-specific

Wiccan
Wiccan Rede
Perfect Love
Perfect Trust
handfasting
coven
witchcraft
wiccan spirituality
Beltane
Yule
samhain
The Witches' Voice
Alexandrian Wicca
Dianic Wicca
eclectic Wicca
Faery Wicca
famtrad
Gardnerian Wicca
Georgian Wicca
Scottish Witchcraft
Seax-Wica
Traditional Witchcraft
Wiccan Shamanism
Silver RavenWolf
Principles of Wiccan Belief
1734 Wicca
Reclaiming Wicca

Bits and pieces

wicca is like linux
open source religion
What's the difference between pagan and New Age?
blessed fucking BE, asshole
Gods Rest Ye Pagan Gentlemen
The Christians and the Pagans
Witches and Muslims
Religious Variation for Paganism\Wiccan
coming out of the broom closet
“I cast Ceremony as a 4th level Druid”
clan of the cats

*blinks* alright i am officially weirded out. as i hit 'submit' on this node--a node i've had in the works and planning for a while but felt inspired to DO just now--i find a /msg from sleeping wolf with some comments on a wiccan node he'd just made. a node i had stumbled into on random. a few minutes ago. and had used information from here. not realizing he had *just created* said node. i have now officially filled my weirdness quotient for the day.

Pagan is a word having a related family of definitions that can lead to confusion when having a discussion involving the word. To start with, there is the Roman origin Webster 1913 alludes to below. Paganus referred to country dwellers, eventually becoming a pejorative not unlike "redneck" or "hick". Since they were away from the cities, movements that took hold in large cities first (such as early Christianity) would take some time to overtake the area. So, Paganus began to refer to those who followed older religions.

Now we proceed to the sense that Webster 1913 highlights — that of someone who isn't like "us". It is possible to find Pagan used to refer to those who are not of a given Christian sect, those who aren't Christian, those who aren't Jewish or Christian, or those who aren't from the Abrahamic religions, also known as the People of the Book: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. These meanings refer to the idea that the monotheistic religions from Abraham have the One True Path, and the others do not. These definitions envelop atheism and agnosticism as well as Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Shinto, Wicca, possibly even Unitarian-Universalism, etc. Of course, in the modern era it's quite possible that the internalized definition of Pagan for many people has tones of savages, hedonism, and perversion.

Finally, we reach the realm of the modern self-defined Pagans and their definitions. Of course, disagreement still exists even here. Some modern self-proclaimed Pagans use the Abrahamic definition. Some others define Paganism as being all non-monotheistic religions, which decidedly gets rid of Zoroaster and his followers. Others like to make the claim that Paganism is equivalent to Wicca, reducing the usefulness of both words. The best modern definition in my mind is that Pagan is an adjective and membership term referring to polytheistic/pantheistic faiths. This envelopes Wicca, Druidism, Asatru, Hinduism, some forms of Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism, and many others. This use of the term generally excludes Satanism and similar faiths. Some would add the term nature-centered in order to fine-tune it somewhat, which also tends to push out the Asatruars, who favor the similar term Heathen as a rule.

Like any other religious group term, Pagan should be capitalized, and of course has adjectives added to it to help subdivide it, such as Neopagan, Mesopagan, and Paleopagan.

Pa"gan (?), n. [L. paganus a countryman, peasant, villager, a pagan, fr. paganus of or pertaining to the country, rustic, also, pagan, fr. pagus a district, canton, the country, perh. orig., a district with fixed boundaries: cf. pangere to fasten. Cf. Painim, Peasant, and Pact, also Heathen.]

One who worships false goods; an idolater; a heathen; one who is neither a Christian, a Mohammedan, nor a Jew.

Neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man. Shak.

Syn. -- Gentile; heathen; idolater. -- Pagan, Gentile, Heathen. Gentile was applied to the other nations of the earth as distinguished from the Jews. Pagan was the name given to idolaters in the early Christian church, because the villagers, being most remote from the centers of instruction, remained for a long time unconverted. Heathen has the same origin. Pagan is now more properly applied to rude and uncivilized idolaters, while heathen embraces all who practice idolatry.

 

© Webster 1913.


Pa"gan, a. [L. paganus of or pertaining to the country, pagan. See Pagan, n.]

Of or pertaining to pagans; relating to the worship or the worshipers of false goods; heathen; idolatrous, as, pagan tribes or superstitions.

And all the rites of pagan honor paid. Dryden.

 

© Webster 1913.

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