Religion of the Pagan

Paganism typically refers to religious traditions which are polytheistic or indigenous and dates back almost to beginning of historical mankind. The Christian perspective of Paganism historically encompasses all non–Abrahamic religions. The term pagan is a Christian adaptation of the "gentile" of Judaism, and as such has an inherent Abrahamic bias, and pejorative connotations among monotheists, comparable to heathen and infidel. Words such as kafir and mushrik are similarly used by Muslims.  

(The following excerpts below were taken from theurbanpagan.com)  

"Pagan" means different things to different people.

At its broadest, Pagan religion can be defined as any religion that is neither Christian, Jewish, nor Muslim, or even irreligious or hedonistic. (Dictionary.com). However, through common usage, the term has come to mean a practitioner of any earth-based or polytheistic religion. The less used (and marginally more accurate) term for this is "Neopaganism" or the "Neopagan Movement".  

"Pagan" is closely associated, and often used interchangeably, with "Wiccan". However, the two words do not have exactly the same meaning. Wicca is a slightly more specific term, and has been in the news and public eye a fair amount in the past several years. Wicca is a somewhat formalized system of religion that follows a Neopagan framework, but not all Pagans are Wiccan.  

 

I define Paganism as a religious or spiritual faith, primarily defined by respect for the Earth and the cycle of nature, with an understanding that mankind is an integral part of the natural order. A Pagan is someone who follows the beliefs of Paganism. These are fairy broad definitions. Each Pagan tradition varies in the way it treats these basic doctrines.  

Traditions are the various "churches" of Wicca and many other Pagan religions. Each Tradition has its own rituals, initiations and opinions about how things "should" be done.

Brief History of Modern Pagan Religion:  

The Wiccan religion was first openly practiced in England in the 1954 by Gerald Gardner. It was spread into the US in the 1960s by Raymond Buckland, founder of Seax-Wicca. Anyone interested in the details of the history of Wicca can read more about it here. Those who claim to be a Pagan, rather than strictly Wiccan, would not want to speak too strongly on this matter.

There are two major branches of Wicca: Traditional and Eclectic. Traditional Wicca is a Mystery Religion, meaning that the deeper meaning of rituals and certain practices are hidden from the outside world. Most of the Traditional Wicca groups include a decreed initiation system, perform rituals skyclad, and worship both God and Goddess. Eclectic Wicca is harder to define, since the beliefs and practices are always subject to interpretation and alteration. However, Eclectic Wicca is basically an all-purpose term applied to Neo-Wiccan traditions that generally do not fit into any specific category. Eclectic Wiccans generally follow a solitary path, but there are some covens that proclaim to be of this elusive group.

The biggest issue early Wiccans faced was a complete lack of knowledge of their faith by the general public. In the western world of the day, it was generally believed you where Christian, or you were wrong. Other faith generally didn't even enter into the equation. Even the Jewish faith was barely tolerated in most communities. The general public not only didn't know about faiths other than their own, they didn't want to know, and weren't given any reason to need to know.  

Today's Pagan faces a different challenge. Rather than the uniformed ignorance of years past, today there is a massive amount of false [and partly true] information about the Pagan Religion in the media. I'm not talking about slanted documentaries that can be found on educational TV, although those can be bad enough. I'm talking about what movies and popular television are "teaching" people about Paganism through movies like The Craft and Practical Magic, and through TV shows like Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I often say the trying to learn Magic or Paganism from these stories is like trying to learn Catholicism from The Exorcist and John Carpenter's Vampires. The image of Magic, Wicca and Paganism presented by Hollywood is very different than the way it is in the real world.  

For more information about Paganism, please visit the following links: 

Wikipedia: Paganism,
BBC Religions: Paganism,
Religious Tolerance: Paganism