Pagan, Witch, Wiccan
What is the difference?
What is Paganism?
Look up the definition for pagan. Dictionary.com has it listed as “1. One of a people or community observing a polytheistic religion, as the ancient Romans and Greeks. 2. a person who is not Christian, Jew, or Muslim. 3. An irreligious or hedonistic person. 4. A person deemed savage or uncivilized and morally deficient.”
Well, the dictionary sure does speak highly of us, don’t they? As know from ethics class, savage, uncivilized, and morally deficient do not apply to the reality of paganism. So now we are left with three definitions. Since we know Pagans do observe a religion, the third definition also does not apply. So now we have two definitions. Paganism does include ancient
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a person who is not Christian, Jew, or Muslim.”
So, what religions are left?
Buddhism, Hindu, Islam, Druidism, New Age Religions, Shamanism, Taoism, Confucianism, Jainism, Shinto, Spiritualist, Sikhism, Baha 'i, Scientology, Humanist, Wicca, and Witchcraft. These are certainly not all of the pagan religions, but they are some of them.
So, what is paganism?
Paganism is an umbrella term, meaning it is a big category that covers multiple religions and belief systems. True pagan religions are nature or earth based religions. This means, the beliefs in these religions follow the cycles of the earth and nature. Most of the religions and belief systems that fall under the category of Paganism are polytheistic. This means there are multiple Gods and/or Goddesses. Some of the religions are still monotheistic (uses only one God or Goddess) so do not use this alone to determine if a religion is pagan or not.
What is Wicca?
Most of us have heard quite a bit about Wicca by this point, but do you know what it is? Wicca has been accused of being many things that it is not, just as paganism in general has. Let’s look up the definition for Wicca now.
“1. Witchcraft, especially benevolent, nature-oriented practices derived from pre-Christian