What is a Pagan?

What is a Pagan?  

So, what is a Pagan? I’m assuming that since you’re here, you are trying to find out what a Pagan is. And while I’m not going to go fully in-depth into everything a Pagan is, I am going to give an overview of Paganism and some of the reasons and practices of a Pagan. By definition, a Pagan is a person that holds a religious belief other than those of the main world’s religions. For example, someone that practices something other than Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism. Which to me personally is only partly true. My favorite part about being Pagan is that it can be a melting pot of all different religious practices. Actually, the term Pagan has been used since the 4^th century. It was used by early Christians to label the Roman people that would practice polytheism, or the belief in more than one god. They used the term as a derogatory name in order to try and convert the Romans into following Christianity, which if were being honest, hasn’t really changed with some Christians. What’s entertaining about the situation is that Paganism wasn’t technically a religion at the time, but because of those early Christians labeling the romans, the Paganism we know today was born and now covers a multitude of different path, some of which will be covered in later posts.  

Before we go into this next part, I want to make it very clear that nothing I am about to say will fit every person’s faith, nor should it ever be considered mandatory for anyone that is Pagan to have to do any of these things. One of the best parts about this way of life is that there are no rules. You get to decide how and why you live your faith. With that said, let’s talk about what Pagans do.  

A good part of people that practice Paganism tend to follow a more nature-based faith, worshiping the Earth, Moon, and Sun. Some Pagans will follow more of a polytheistic path, following and worshipping more than one deity while other won’t follow a deity at all, instead focusing on personal divinity and taking complete responsibility of their own destinies. Several aspects of magic and Paganism can follow the moon phases, but again, it doesn’t have to. Just like several types of Pagans follow the 8 holidays or sabbats. (Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lammas, Mabon, and Samhain. Dedicated posts will be coming…) I would say that most practitioners have some form of rituals they perform, whether it’s actual high-power magic or not. Simply waking up and projecting a good blessing for the day could be considered a ritual. Which could be considered a form of magic, but again, doesn’t have to be. Have you caught on to how this is working yet? Lol Everything with this faith is strictly based on how you feel and how you want it to work.  

Personally, I haven’t quite figured out what specific path I follow. When I first started, I was fully committed to being a Wiccan and loved the aspect of doing rituals and magic. At that point, I was fully convinced that I never wanted to do darker magic, it was all love and light. Now… not so much. Lol. I guess with age I realized that sometimes, darker magic is justified. That being said, you need to know what you are doing. While actual magic doesn’t work quite like it does in the movies, you can still do some damage unintentionally. That’s not to say you should run the other way when it comes to magic or rituals. If you take the time to learn and make sure that you are doing it properly, magic and rituals can be a wonderful resource for anyone.  

So, after all that, why would anyone want to be a pagan? Well, there are several reasons. The person could be raised in the faith, they could be looking for more of a hands-on belief, or they simply want to feel like they have more “power” in their lives. No matter what the reason behind the decision to be Pagan, or anything that would be considered under the umbrella of Paganism, regardless of what your person beliefs are, their decision is valid and should be respected.