"The term pagan comes from a Latin word for “country or village dweller” and was first used in the
early Christian era in a broad sense to refer to the unconverted.
Paganism is a religion that has been experiencing growth in America since the 1960s, although the number of pagans is difficult to track. Many people don’t openly admit to their belief in paganism, and pagans don’t belong to denominations or structured religious groups.......and pagans don’t go door-to-door seeking converts like the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Paganism is not as concerned about the growth and spread of their beliefs as much as the personal growth of the individual in what some simply refer to as “the craft.”
As a prelude, paganism can be expressed as
In a practical sense, pagans value their own experience above all else.
However, the Internet has helped pagans ... It has moved paganism out of the closet — or should I say, the broom closet. Yes, brooms still have their place among the pagans, and not just at Halloween. They are used to symbolically sweep a place clean for certain rituals and in Wiccan handfast ceremonies.
Paganism employs many different symbols and symbolic actions like jumping the broom, but there is more to it than mere symbolism. Pagans will use various types of incense and candles on an altar to achieve certain objectives. Incense is believed to have therapeutic properties and is used in rites of purification.
Pagans also use black cauldrons as pots to hold fire in which to brew potions. The witches’ spell in Shakespeare’s Macbeth contained the lines, “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”
The world of false religion has many different shades of deception, and the lure of a powerful personal experience is a particularly attractive hue. Satan’s first great lie to Eve in Genesis 3:5 included the promise of power and great enlightenment: “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
This is what makes paganism so dangerous and attracts so many people to the New Age movement.
Paganism has the message: “Here is what I can do for you now.” The payoff is in this world, not a world to come.
Gerald Gardner’s book, Witchcraft Today, published in 1954, was instrumental in the growth of American paganism, although he certainly leaned on others in his writing. He borrowed some of the rituals, which he incorporated into Wicca from a variety of sources including a Rosicrucian group, Kabbalah (a mystical offshoot of Judaism), the works of Aleister Crowley, and Free Masonry. For example, Gardner adopted the three-degree initiation rite of the Masonic order in his witchcraft.
When the Israelites entered the land of Canaan (the Promised Land), they saw an agriculturally prosperous region inhabited by people who worshiped nature gods and goddesses. The Canaanites attributed their agricultural success to these gods and goddesses who had power over the land.
Cuneiform tablets describing the Canaanite gods, including the chief god Baal (“lord” or “master”), were discovered in the Canaanite city of Ugarit (Ras Shamra), located in modern Syria.
Baal was a god who was believed to control the weather.
Other offshoots of the stream of paganism would include pantheism, and Totemism. Totemism is a system of belief in which humans are said to have kinship or a mystical relationship with a spirit being, such as an animal or plant.
In paganism, nature is the temple of the sacred, so pagans, ancient and modern, attach deep reverence to the natural world, which leads many of them to be active in environmental causes today. In Greek mythology, Gaia (or Gaea) was the earth goddess who originated, or created herself, out of primordial chaos. According to some legends she gave birth to Pontus (the sea) and Uranus (the sky).
Earth Day, which has been celebrated in America since April of 1970, has become a pagan holiday of sorts." AIG
Paganism is a religion that has been experiencing growth in America since the 1960s, although the number of pagans is difficult to track. Many people don’t openly admit to their belief in paganism, and pagans don’t belong to denominations or structured religious groups.......and pagans don’t go door-to-door seeking converts like the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Paganism is not as concerned about the growth and spread of their beliefs as much as the personal growth of the individual in what some simply refer to as “the craft.”
As a prelude, paganism can be expressed as
ancient spiritism,
Wicca,
Druidism,
witchcraft,
polytheistic mythologies of the past,
and a host of other variations.In a practical sense, pagans value their own experience above all else.
However, the Internet has helped pagans ... It has moved paganism out of the closet — or should I say, the broom closet. Yes, brooms still have their place among the pagans, and not just at Halloween. They are used to symbolically sweep a place clean for certain rituals and in Wiccan handfast ceremonies.
Paganism employs many different symbols and symbolic actions like jumping the broom, but there is more to it than mere symbolism. Pagans will use various types of incense and candles on an altar to achieve certain objectives. Incense is believed to have therapeutic properties and is used in rites of purification.
Pagans also use black cauldrons as pots to hold fire in which to brew potions. The witches’ spell in Shakespeare’s Macbeth contained the lines, “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”
The world of false religion has many different shades of deception, and the lure of a powerful personal experience is a particularly attractive hue. Satan’s first great lie to Eve in Genesis 3:5 included the promise of power and great enlightenment: “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
This is what makes paganism so dangerous and attracts so many people to the New Age movement.
Paganism has the message: “Here is what I can do for you now.” The payoff is in this world, not a world to come.
Gerald Gardner’s book, Witchcraft Today, published in 1954, was instrumental in the growth of American paganism, although he certainly leaned on others in his writing. He borrowed some of the rituals, which he incorporated into Wicca from a variety of sources including a Rosicrucian group, Kabbalah (a mystical offshoot of Judaism), the works of Aleister Crowley, and Free Masonry. For example, Gardner adopted the three-degree initiation rite of the Masonic order in his witchcraft.
When the Israelites entered the land of Canaan (the Promised Land), they saw an agriculturally prosperous region inhabited by people who worshiped nature gods and goddesses. The Canaanites attributed their agricultural success to these gods and goddesses who had power over the land.
Cuneiform tablets describing the Canaanite gods, including the chief god Baal (“lord” or “master”), were discovered in the Canaanite city of Ugarit (Ras Shamra), located in modern Syria.
Baal was a god who was believed to control the weather.
The Ugaritic tablets credit Baal with sending the rains that make the land fruitful. He is called, “Prince, the Lord of the Earth,” and “Baal, the Mighty One.” In the texts Baal is also connected to the morning dew. 1 Aqht I, 42–46 says,Baal was sometimes pictured with a horned helmet that symbolized power and strength but is not to be equated with the image of a horned devil.
Seven years shall Baal fail,
eight the rider of the clouds.
There shall be no dew, no rain;
no surging of the two depths,
neither the goodness of Baal’s voice.
In paganism, nature is the temple of the sacred, so pagans, ancient and modern, attach deep reverence to the natural world, which leads many of them to be active in environmental causes today. In Greek mythology, Gaia (or Gaea) was the earth goddess who originated, or created herself, out of primordial chaos. According to some legends she gave birth to Pontus (the sea) and Uranus (the sky).
Earth Day, which has been celebrated in America since April of 1970, has become a pagan holiday of sorts." AIG