Misconceptions/ questions about Paganism

[Feathers in Hair]

Hello, all! Due to some other threads about similar topics, I thought I'd open one here. So... to blatantly steal Maize's format - (hehee! )

What do we Pagans think are some common misconceptions about our faith? And how can we work to dispell those misunderstandings?

Secondly, I'd like to invite anyone who has a question about Paganism to ask it here and we will try to answer it for you. (I'm sure this goes without saying, but we welcome questions that help to further your understanding of our path and our understanding of others' beliefs about our path, rather than any attempt to win us over to another faith. )

To stop stealing from Maize a moment, here's another topic to add to the above; what do you wish more people knew about your path?

I'll start with a few of the most-heard misconceptions...

1. Pagans worship the Devil.
(No, we don't- or at least not all of us do. Many Pagans don't believe in the concept of one evil entity, and some simply don't believe in the concept of evil.)

2. Pagans make animal sacrifices.
(Actually, I'm pretty sure that this has been thrown aside as a misconception by almost all people. A great number of Pagans support animal rights, and have a tendancy to be vegetarian.)

 

[Mike182]

all pagans follow the wiccan rede - this is a misconception

"an harm ye non, do what ye will"

C_P

 

[Darkdale]

all pagans follow the wiccan rede - this is a misconception

"an harm ye non, do what ye will"

C_P

It's almost impossible to say "all pagans" and follow it up with something true. It's hard enough to find three or four statements that would fit, "most pagans".

 

[Tez]

Not really a question but about a year ago I was looking after my moms house and a jehovah's whitness came to the door. So I decided to talk to him, we talked for a while about christanity etc... They he asked me what my belifes are so I told him I was pagan and the first thing that came out of his mouth was 'so you believe in the devil'. I couldn't help but smile and I said no, then he asked if that was a normal responce I got when telling people. So we carried on talking and I explained a bit about Paganism, it just felt good knowing that I had cleared up someone misconceptions if you get what i mean.

- Tez

 

[Feathers in Hair]

I do, Tez. It's always so nice when you can clear up something, especially if you can do it nicely. (As it sounds like your conversation was.)

That's very true, Darkdale. I was actually stumbling against that when writing the two misconceptions above. I found myself almost typing 'no Pagan worships Satan', and kept having to correct myself, since all of our beliefs are different.

 

[jonny]

Paganism is a religion I really have very little understanding about. Please forgive me if my ignorance becomes obvious in my questions.

Do Wiccans call themselves witches? Are all Pagans witches? Am I totally off base on this?

If Wiccans do consider themselves witches, what does this mean to them?

 

[Jaymes]

Hope it's okay for me to answer the questions, since I used to be pagan.

Some Wiccans call themselves witches, some don't. It's generally a personal preference, from what I've seen, since not all Wiccans do magic. All pagans aren't witches, but someone can be pagan and a witch.

There may be different definitions, but every time I've seen a Wiccan or pagan use 'witch' they mean that they use magic.

 

[Feathers in Hair]

Jensa answered it wonderfully. (Though I wanna answer, too, since I'm so happy someone came forward with a question!) As she said, not all Wiccans call themselves witches, nor are all Pagans witches. Calling yourself by the term usually denotes that one is "Crafty", that one enjoys working with the physical element of paganism. Usually, this means making use of herbs, minerals and (as Jensa mentioned) magic. For example, I'm not a Wiccan, but I refer to myself as a witch, because I do do these things.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Do Wiccans call themselves witches? Are all Pagans witches? Am I totally off base on this?

I do not consider myself a witch, although some would call me that since I perform magick rituals.

I remember the similiar thread started by C1 had some odd ones, like saying that all Wiccans/Pagans have red hair. I am still wondering how that one came about.

 

[jonny]

Thanks for your answers!

A follow up question, what types of magic do Pagan witches do typically?

 

[Jaymes]

That really depends on what kind of magic the pagan feels it's moral to do... some only do protection spells, others do spells to attract luck, improve aspects of their life, etc. There may be the odd one or two that do spells to try to harm people, but they're not common from what I've seen.

 

[Feathers in Hair]

A follow up question, what types of magic do Pagan witches do typically?

What kind of magic they do is usually influenced not only by the type of person they are, but what kind of a tradition or background they hail from. (Ack! I'm sorry! I started to go into an answer and then realized that I wasn't sure if you meant "what types of magic" or "what is the nature of the magic". Did you mean either or both?)

 

[Fluffy]

Edit: I should point out that these misconceptions are only viewed as misconceptions by a minority of people, myself included, and many will disagree with them. However, to give an idea of what some people view as misconceptions, I shall post them anyway.

Here are some linguistic misconceptions about paganism:

"Paganism is a religion"
"Paganism is a collection of earth based religions such as Wicca etc."
"Paganism is spelt with a capital p"

All of these are wrong in my book. The first one is easy to see why it is wrong as there is no pagan religion yet it is incredibly common. Pagans themselves are often guilty of referring to a mythical pagan religion, often when they mean something more along the lines of Eclectic.

The second is slightly more controversial since this misconception has been around for so long that some dictionaries have started using it as an accepted definition. The original meaning of pagan, however, was a way of describing those people who were not part of a religion that stemmed from Abraham. In other words if you were not a Muslim, Jew or Christian (today the definition of abrahamic would extend to religions like LDS and Rastafarianism) then you were pagan. Hinduism, Atheism etc have repeatedly been referred to as pagan throughout history because of this yet they are not commonly thought of as pagan today.

The third one is probably the most prevalent. However, as far as I have been able to tell, pagan only started being spelt with a capital letter when people who considered themselves pagan began reclaiming the word as something positive instead of the negative that it was generally used as previously. This also caused the difference in meanings that I talk about in 2, and, to a certain extent, 1 (other words that this can be seen happening with are "******" and "queer").

 

[TashaN]

HI there, This is my first visit in your home guys so be pateint with me.

It's interesting enough for me that FeathersinHair is a pagan because she is a wise and lovely person and i want to know more what is the thing that attracted her to be a pagan because usually most of people just stick to what thier family believe in and only few people are brave enough to change thier thoughts and beliefs according to what they really need in this life.

First of all, I would like to know more about what kind of gods do you worship?

Are they idols, elemnts such as wind, fire and water or spirits that you call for example when you do magic?

 

[Unedited]

The second is slightly more controversial since this misconception has been around for so long that some dictionaries have started using it as an accepted definition. The original meaning of pagan, however, was a way of describing those people who were not part of a religion that stemmed from Abraham. In other words if you were not a Muslim, Jew or Christian (today the definition of abrahamic would extend to religions like LDS and Rastafarianism) then you were pagan. Hinduism, Atheism etc have repeatedly been referred to as pagan throughout history because of this yet they are not commonly thought of as pagan today.

The third one is probably the most prevalent. However, as far as I have been able to tell, pagan only started being spelt with a capital letter when people who considered themselves pagan began reclaiming the word as something positive instead of the negative that it was generally used as previously. This also caused the difference in meanings that I talk about in 2, and, to a certain extent, 1 (other words that this can be seen happening with are "******" and "queer").

The thing with that is that language, is a living, breathing entinty. Language is always and forever changing. New words form, old ones fall out of use, and many more change in meaning. I believe there is a book called Frindle which illustrates that people, not the dictionary, decide what words mean.

For instance, I believe the word 'livid' orginally meant 'turned black and blue through bruising.' Later, it expanded to include 'turned black and blue through bruising, shock, or anger.' More recently, it has been used simply as 'angry.' So when I hear someone say, "He was so livid, his face was red!" I cringe inside, but they're not wrong, the word has changed. Even dictionaries now include this meaning.

I think the problem lies in the fact that Pagan as it is used most commonly now, is rather a shorter version of Neo-Pagan. And saying Neo-Paganism is a religion, is just as correct as saying that appliance you use to make popcorn or heat-up leftovers is a microwave.

I was once where you stand on this issue, but now I focus my concerns of the misuse of words on people who say ATM machine. *shutter*

 

[Unedited]

First of all, I would like to know more about what kind of gods do you worship?

Are they idols, elemnts such as wind, fire and water or spirits that you call for example when you do magic?

Another good, but hard question. The gods worshipped differ from person to person, or rather from pagan to pagan. Many take gods from other religions that they feel some how connected with. For instance, I've run across many who worship Gaia, who is a Roman goddess. Many of the gods come from Roman, Greek, Eygptian, Celtic, Norse, Germanic, or Irish mythology. But there's no reason they have to come from one of these categories, they could just as easily come from Japanese mythology, even Christian mythology. Or the gods could come completely from the pagan's own mind. Some pagans seem to take all their gods from one set of mythology, but most seem to take from a number of differing places. These gods can be of all sorts of things, fire, water, luck, love, you name it.

I'm glad you mentioned the idol thing though. Probably the biggest misconception I've run into, is that pagans are 'idol-worshippers.' I believe this comes from the tendancy of some pagans to 'worship trees.' But most pagans I've come across don't actually worship trees, they worship the force that created it, or the force that resides in it. It may also come from the fact that many pagans, or witches at least, tend to have a lot of 'tools.' Of course I've never been certain on the meaing of 'idol-worshipper' enough to form a good argument against it.

For being a Pagan myself, I still feel like I know very little about it, so if I presented any incorrect information, please correct me.

 

[James the Persian]

I've run across many who worship Gaia, who is a Roman goddess.

Gaia is a Greek goddess, not Roman. She was the mother of the Titans who were displaced by the Olympians. Of course, the Roman pantheon is Greek in origin but the names are usually altered. I've no idea what they called their earth mother goddess (it could have also been Gaia, though), but Gaia appears to be one of the oldest gods in the Greek pantheon.

James

 

[Shadow Wolf]

A follow up question, what types of magic do Pagan witches do typically?

I do many types, including protection, weather, summoning, channeling, and healing. I primarily work with Nocturnal energy.

 

[TashaN]

I do many types, including protection, weather, summoning, channeling, and healing. I primarily work with Nocturnal energy.

One more thing please.

When you do magic, do you use foriegn language like latin to do the magic you want?

 

[Tez]

I dont think that it matters what language it is in, it's the intentions behind the words that matters. Well thats what I think.

- Tez