Famous Pagans

[Azakel]

I read this on another site and find it quite interesting. Enjoy ^_^

The following is a list of famous people from the past... 100 years give or take, who are Pagan. I have confirmed most of them from reliable sources. There may be many more out there who have not publically stated their beliefs, but I require more than just rumours.

Many of these people are not Wiccan, so please do not claim that they are if you link to this page or such. It just gets too confusing to have even more rumours flying about. They all fit into the umbrella category of "Pagan" which includes Asatru, Celtic traditions, African traditions, etc. Please use this term as such.

* = recent additions to the list

Confirmed

*Alejandro Jodorowsky (Filmmaker, Author)
*Adam Henderson (Musician)
*Aldous Huxley (Author)
*Alice Walker (Author)
*Allison Hannigan (Actress)
*Arun John (Author)
Audre Lorde (Author, Activist)
*Avram Davidson (Author)
Avril Lavigne (Singer)
*Brian Walsh (Screenwriter)
Brigitte Nielsen (Actress)
Camille Paglia (Author, Columnist, Feminist)
Candia Ridley (Musician)
*Chas S. Clifton (Sociologist)
Chelsea Quinn Yarbo (Author)
Chrissie Hynde (Singer, Songwriter)
*Claudia Pastorino (Italian Pop Singer)
Cletus T Judd (Singer, Comedian)
Cree Summer AKA Cree Summer-Francks (Actress, Singer)
Cybill Shepherd (Actress)
*Cynthia Joyce Clay (Author)
*D T Steiner (Author)
*David J Rust (Journalist)
Deborah Harry (Singer, Actress)
Deepak Chopra (Author)
Diana Paxson (Author)
Don Francks (Actor)
*Eric Steven Raymond (Computer Programmer, Author)
Erica Jong (Author)
Fairuza Balk (Actress)
Fiona Horne (Musician)
Florence Farr (Actress)
*Franz Bardon (Magician)
Fred Durst(Musician) Raised Wiccan
Fritz Leiber(Author)
Gabriel Byrne (Actor)
Gael Baudino (Author)
*George Lucas (Director)
George Takei (Actor)
*H P Lovecrat (Author)
Hayao Miyazaki (Writer, Director)
Hiroshi Inagaki (Actor, Director)
Ian Anderson (Musician)
*J M DeMatteis (Author)
*Jeanne Robinson (Author)
Jeff McBride (Magician)
Jimmy Page (Musician)
*Jonathon Barry (Author)
Juzo Itami (Director)
Karri Allrich (Author)
Kate Orman (Author)
*Kathryn A Graham (Author)
*Kim Stanley Robinson (Author)
Louise Robey (Actress)
Luisah Teish (Author)
*M Night Shyamalan (Screenwriter, Director)
Maggie Shayne (Author)
*Margot Adler (Author, Journalist, NPR Correspondent)
Marianne Williamson (Author)
*Marion Woolley (Columnist, Runs Cardiff's Deaf Theatre)
*Maya Deren (Filmmaker)
Mercedes Lackey (Author)
*Michael McKenny (Author)
Michael Tobias (Producer, Director)
Michelle Morgan (Sting's Consultant)
*Morwynn Rooke (Poet)
Nicola Griffith (Author)
Oberon Zell-Ravenheart (Activist)
Olympia Dukakais (Actress)
Pallavi Kasliwal (Magician)
Patricia Kennealy Morrison (Author)
*Patrick Califia (Author)
Rachel Hunter (Supermodel, Actress)
Rainbow Sun Francks (Actor)
Reg Keating (Musician)
Richard Gear (Actor)
*Robert Graves (Poet, Historian)
Robert Plant (Musician)
Robin Tunney (Actress)
*Ronald Hutton (Historian)
Roseanne Barr (Actress)
Rosemary Edghill (Author)
Sirona Knight (Author)
*Somerset Maugham (Author)
Starhawk (Author)
Stephen Grundy (Author)
Storm Constantine (Author)
Sully Erna (Musician)
Susan Griffin (Artist)
Sybil Leek (Author, Famous Red Cross Worker)
Tamora Pierce (Author)
Terry Pratchett (Author)
Timothy Leary (Psychologist, Philosopher, Author)
Tony McKormack (Musician)
Vanessa Carlton (Singer)
Vigo Mortensen (Actor)
Virginia Woolf (Author)(used the term neo-Pagan to describe herself)
W. Somerset Maugham (Author)
Wendy Rule (Singer)
William Butler Yeats (Poet)
*William S. Burroughs (Author, Poet, Actor)
Yoko Ono (Musician)
Z. Budapest (Author)

Maybes

Sarah McLachlan (She has stated that she's not Christian nor Jew...)
Stevie Nicks (has stated that she is not a witch, but has not
specifically identified her religious beliefs)
John McVie
Larry Byrd
Lisa Bonet (practiced an American Indian belief system, may still)
Erykah Badu (Makes references to multiple gods)
Goldie Hawn
Kate Hudson
Sting
Tori Amos
Patrick Stewart
Dar Williams
Marianne Faithfull (Has spent a lot of time with Pagans)
Joe Pesci
Sandra Bullock (It has been claimed that E! stated that she converted
to Wicca after Practical Magic, I can't find the segment though)
Gwen Stefani
Britney Spears (Rumours began in 2005, she has made suggestive comments,
but I can't find a confirmation)
Marlon Brando (claims combination of East Asian, Native American,
Polynesian, Voudon, etc. influences in his religion and philosophy,
but adhered to no one religion)
Gina Gershon (once said she was a witch, unknown if this was literal or
figurative)

Famous Modern Pagans

 

[Azakel]

Oh, and from reading the thread there, some listed are more like Buddhist, or of another religion like that ans most won't considered Pagan really but other then that.....enjoy again.

 

[Magic Man]

Thanks. That's very interesting, and some are surprising.

 

[Father Heathen]

What about Terence McKenna?

 

[Azakel]

What about Terence McKenna?

Thank you for someone else.

 

[Littledragon]

This is a very interesting list.. but there is one name I have to dispute..

Unless the author is counting Athiesm among the pagan religions HP Lovecraft should not be on this list. His belief was that humans were pathetic to believe they were important in the grand scheme of things, thus the reason that in his stories humans were merely toys or pawns of the gods. I know I have some proof of this in letters that he wrote somewhere on my computer.. finding it may be a challenge though. I have found a couple biographies on the web to back up my claim. If you still do not believe me just try reading his work, it is amazing, but the only time I ever have found his stories to be hopeful is during the story "Beyond the wall of sleep"..

now to the links I mentioned

Scriptorium - H.P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft's hostility to religion – for the principal reason that it made false assertions as to the nature of entity ("The Judaeo-Christian mythology is NOT TRUE" [SL 1.60]) – seems to have increased with the years, to the point that he expressed contempt that orthodox religionists would continue to brainwash the young into religious belief in the face of such massive scientific evidence to the contrary. And yet, the findings of modern science did not lead Lovecraft to waver on the issue, as when he spoke of

. . . the new mysticism or neo-metaphysics bred of the advertised uncertainties of recent science – Einstein, the quantum theory, and the resolution of matter into force. Although these new turns of science don't mean a thing in relation to the myth of cosmic consciousness and teleology, a new brood of despairing and horrified moderns is seizing on the doubt of all positive knowledge which they imply; and is deducing therefrom that, since nothing is true, therefore anything can be true.....whence one may invent or revive any sort of mythology that fancy or nostalgia or desperation may dictate, and defy anyone to prove that it isn't emotionally true – whatever that means. This sickly, decadent neo-mysticism – a protest not only against machine materialism but against pure science with its destruction of the mystery and dignity of human emotion and experience – will be the dominant creed of middle twentieth century aesthetes, as the Eliot and Huxley penumbra well prognosticate. (SL 3.53)
​

Lovecraft's ultimate position (derived, as much of the above quotation was, from Joseph Wood Krutch's The Modern Temper) was one of resigned acceptance of the truths of science – the truth that the world and the human race occupy an infinitesimal and unimportant place in the cosmic scheme of things; the truth that one lives and dies and that's the end of it. When Lovecraft sought freedom from the constraining bonds of reality, it was not the fact-repudiating freedom of religious belief but the imaginative freedom of weird fiction. It was precisely because Lovecraft felt the universe to be an unswerving mechanism with rigid natural laws that he required the escape of the imagination

and:

H.P. Lovecraft
'

The Dunwich Horror' was partly inspired by Lovecraft's trip to western Massachusetts in the area of Athol. He tranformed it into the home of decadent Wheateleys. In the story cycle, humans are hapless victims, not important for the incomprehensible cosmic forces. The view was based on his philosophical idea of 'cosmicism', the insignificance of all human affairs in the vastness of the universe. Religion Lovecraft had rejected early but used it myth and images, among others the scene of the crucifixion. "He hated modern civilization, particularly in its confident belief in progress and science," wrote Colin Wilson in The Strength to Dream, 1962.

Sweet water and light laughter
Littledragon

 

[Azakel]

Thank you for that LittleDragon. From what I read there it would seem that Lovecraft would come off more as an Atheist. But then again it could still maybe be a type of Paganism or another type of belief. It should be noted that unlike with Judo-Christianity(which was munched) people within Paganism don't all was really see us Humans has being special or a big part within the grand scheme of things. Oh and like he said, in the end who know we may all just be pawns of the gods......

 

[McBell]

According to Wordnet

pagan

Noun

• S: (n) heathen, pagan, gentile, infidel (a person who does not acknowledge your god)
• S: (n) pagan (a person who follows a polytheistic or pre-Christian religion (not a Christian or Muslim or Jew))
• S: (n) hedonist, pagan, pleasure seeker (someone motivated by desires for sensual pleasures)

Adjective

• S: (adj) heathen, heathenish, pagan, ethnic (not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam)

WordNet home page

​

Given these definitions, would it not be safe to say that EVERYONE who ever lived, is alive, or will be alive is a pagan?

 

[Troublemane]

About HP Lovecraft, although he did not believe in the literal accuracy of mans religious books, and in his youth he railed against theism of any sort (thus his cthulhu mythos came about), he later developed a more fantastic view of things and wrote such marvellous tales as "The Silver Key". In this short story he tells of a character who had lost all faith in religion and then began to believe in science alone, only to later feel that without any heart or soul science was even more destructive to the psyche than the ignorance of the savage who believed in sorcery. this to me does not sound like the writings of a man who was totally against mysticism at the time he wrote it.
An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology: The Silver Key (Weird Tales, 1929)

 

[lilithu]

Umm... so Buddhists are Pagans? ok, whatever...

 

[Father Heathen]

Umm... so Buddhists are Pagans? ok, whatever...

Well, there are people who consider anyone who is neither Jewish nor Christian a "pagan".

 

[McBell]

Umm... so Buddhists are Pagans? ok, whatever...

Please see the first definition in post #8.

 

[Kcnorwood]

Umm... so Buddhists are Pagans? ok, whatever...

Any religion that does not follow the Judeo-Christian path is Pagan.

 

[lilithu]

So then we should close down all the DIR forums except Judaism, Christianity, and Paganism, right?

If the point of the post is to be proud of the number of famous Pagans there are, I would think that one would want it to be a list of actual Pagans.

 

[Kcnorwood]

So then we should close down all the DIR forums except Judaism, Christianity, and Paganism, right?

If the point of the post is to be proud of the number of famous Pagans there are, I would think that one would want it to be a list of actual Pagans.

:faint: Sure & while were at it we can close down all the different denomations of the Christian threads too.....

 

[lilithu]

:faint: Sure & while were at it we can close down all the different denomations of the Christian threads too.....

Are you seriously arguing that Buddhism and Hinduism, etc are "denominations" of Paganism??

 

[McBell]

Are you seriously arguing that Buddhism and Hinduism, etc are "denominations" of Paganism??

The very definition of pagan (Post #8) says that ANY denomination, religion, belief system, belief in general/etc that is not the same as yours is pagan.

Some people use the term pagan to mean ANY religion that is not of the Big Three (Jewish, Christian, Muslim).
Still others use it to mean anything that they do not like/disagree with/etc. regardless of what it is.


So yes, Buddhism and Hinduism are pagan, but then, so is every other religion on the face of the planet.

 

[lilithu]

I feel like I am talking with lawyers here who would argue the letter of the law while ignoring its spirit. Do you honestly feel, given what is written in the OP, that the point was to list anyone who is not Jewish, Christian, or Muslim?

 

[McBell]

I feel like I am talking with lawyers here who would argue the letter of the law while ignoring its spirit.

seems to me that it was YOU who started the letter of the law route...

The thing is, use of the word pagan is based entirely on the users POV.

Do you honestly feel, given what is written in the OP, that the point was to list anyone who is not Jewish, Christian, or Muslim?

Nope.
I think the point of the thread is to list people who consider themselves pagan.

 

[lilithu]

Nope.
I think the point of the thread is to list people who consider themselves pagan.

Then why list people who consider themselves Buddhist??

THAT was my point. And then you guys start pulling out the dictionary...