Due to last weeks article and current issues I'm dealing with (waiting to hear back from both Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster Online + running the info booth at Newaygo County Pagan Pride Day) I've decided to write an article about being Pagan. What does it really mean to be Pagan? Many people have different ideas on what it means to be Pagan and I will attempt to explain my definition from my own scholarly point of view (if you disagree feel free to leave a comment explaining where you disagree or how you would define it).

     What is Pagan? A Pagan is one who adheres to Paganism and Paganism is a general term for a religious archetype no different than Shamanism, Buddhism, Hinduism or Judeo-Christian. Within each of these archetypes there are different "sects." For example, Buddhism has Mahayana and Theravada; Judeo-Christian has Judaism, Muslim, Christian (and within Christian there are Catholics, Baptists, Protestants, Lutheran, etc etc); and Shamanism has various "sects" as well, like those of the Native Americans. Paganism has many sects just like the others, such as, Asatru (Nordic), Druid, Celtic, Gaelic, Greek, Roman and so forth. Pagans even encompasses Neo-Pagans, or those who believe in the Pagan ideals but don't necessarily follow any particular sect, deities, or community (very similar to the Non-Denominational Christianity). From my knowledge of American Pagans, most would lump themselves into this Neo-Pagan category due to a lack of knowledge on what it means to be Pagan (and the reason for this article).

     Now Paganism is the second oldest religious archetype (the first being Shamanism) and has it's roots deep in history. The type of religion that Paganism is (with the exception of some Neo-Pagans) is polytheistic. "Poly" meaning many and "theism" means the belief in a deity. Therefore, traditional Pagan religions believed in many gods or more than one. The opposite of this would be monotheism, or the belief in one god, and that can be seen in any of the Judeo-Christian religions.

     The gods of paganism have been labeled many things by other religions, but what are the facts? Well, most Pagan gods are the personification of nature and/or emotions. For example, Aphrodite is the Goddess of Love or Aries the God of War. In nature, the God and Goddess Dianus and Diana are viewed to be the representation of the Earth, Male and Female Polarities, and/or the Sun and the Moon. This is also why the original God of the Woods was a deer (in order to help the original hunters) and as man settled down he became a bull in order to still meet man's needs as a farmer. For more information on how these "mythologies" and gods were attributed their different natural attributes look to my earlier article where I explain the myth creating process (The Myth Making Process).

     Due to man's fondness of travel, the deities of many religions have been at war for thousands of years. Christianity's Satan is a "rip-off" of Pagan Gods, not necessarily due to lack of talent, but because the Christian faith would like to convince people that Christianity is the right religion and Paganism the wrong. This is why Satan is often represented with horns and calves legs (such as Pan), a trident (like that of Poseidon), and the color red (such as Sett). This is believed to create Satan as the direct opposite of good (Satan literally translates to "Adversary"). The only problem with this is that no matter how creepy or frightening some of the Pagan Gods may appear, none of them are evil. In fact, there is no evil deity in any of the Pagan Religions (any of the main ones I'm aware of that is).

     So where do these signs of Satan worship come from? Well I already explained that other religions (especially Christianity) wanted people to accept their religion as the correct religion and thus the "evil" role of Paganism was born. Pagans historically would meet under the moon in the nude and fornicate in honor or worship to their Deities' gift of life. This has created the title of Pagans being "sensual," but is far from the truth (many Pagans today practice family friendly rituals). Pagans are also often said to give offerings, such as cutting a goat's throat. All religions throughout history have given offerings to Gods (even Christianity) and this was a representation of the times and not the religions themselves. No where is it stated that a Pagan must sacrifice to a God.

     Early I stated that Paganism is the second oldest religious archetype (next to Shamanism). Paganism has been around for possibly as long as 10,000 years (if not longer)! Paganism found it's start from Folk-Religion. Folk-Religion is a structure of beliefs adhered to by local inhabitants of an area. A lot of "witchcraft" started out as man's attempt at keeping a relationship with the Earth in order to live in harmony. Farmers who had a "green thumb" would often study nature, the stars, and sun to figure out how to best grow their plants. Travelers (and sailors) would study the stars in order to know where they were going and many could "read the sky" for knowledge of oncoming weather changes. Medicine men would use various herbs to cure and prevent illnesses and injuries. Alchemists (the forefathers of Science) attempted to study the planet in order to alter metals and stones for the betterment of humanity. The myths and folk-lore that surrounds Paganism were due to an unscientific community attempting to explain why certain things (especially bad luck) happened. All of these things were passed down from generation to generation orally and were rarely recorded. Christianity (and all of the Judeo-Christian religions) is actual unique in the sense that from it's very beginning there was scripture to follow.

     Folk-Religion, and Paganism, is a religion that evolves around nature. Due to this, Pagans tend to honor natural events as much as they can (such as Equinoxes, Full Moons, and Seasons). Pagans tend to have a natural love for the Earth and prefer to use all-natural products. They also prefer to give back to the Earth and focus more on a spiritual relationship instead of a physical. This is the exact opposite of materialism (as stated by some dictionaries). Pagans follow their beliefs everyday, they live them, and don't just practice them on sacred days. They attempt to live a life as spiritual as possible and therefore are very religious, even if they don't tend to congregate on a normal basis like other religions.

     Finally, Paganism is far from a rare religion. Pagans do not have a need to convert or outwardly express their belief system. Therefore most Pagans go unnoticed. When Judaism was created, majority of Europe was Pagan. Almost every scholar, politician, and philosopher believed in a pagan religion. This means that historically Pagans were very civilized, knowledgeable, and often times wealthy (and actually most Christians in the time of it's inception were the opposite, they were poor and unschooled... even some of, if not all, the apostles were illiterate).

     I hope you have enjoyed Paganism 101 and hopefully now whether you're a Pagan or otherwise you will be informed when addressing the matter. As I have stated before, it is up to the Pagan community to tell others what being Pagan means, and not let others decide what it is for them. Knowledge is power, so empower yourself. Much love as always and I hope the Harvest finds you all in good spirits!

While Pagans like to maintain a reputation, at least among themselves, of being open minded, accepting and non-judgemental, I have repeatedly found myself in the uncomfortable position of defending Christianity against my fellows. This invariably leads to me being accused of being Christian myself, which puts me on the defensive and later has me wondering why I was so insulted at being accused of being a Christian. After all, my mom's a Christian and so are my in-laws and they're all very nice people.

I understand that many people in the community fled Christianity and found shelter in Paganism. I understand that many Pagans feel the Christianity is so infused into our culture that it's impossible to escape. I understand that many Pagans feel that they are discriminated against by the Christian majority. And I understand that many Christian traditions were originally Pagan traditions. But none of this is an excuse to unleash bigotry and vitriole on an entire religion and all of its adherants.

Perhaps I do not feel the hostility toward Christianity that some of my fellows do because I did not flee Christianity. It is true that I had a very strict Christian father and aunt who I had pretty much determined by age 15 were lunatics. But I also had my own ideas about religion and Christianity itself. I knew that when I was condemned to hell by my aunt unless I repented to God for talking back to her, that she had no authority to condemn me anywhere. I knew that because I had gone to Sunday school and to confirmation class (which I heartily enjoyed) and I knew that no mortal, no matter how pious she believed herself to be, had the power to condemn me anywhere. That was up to God. Besides, the Bible told me to honor my mother and father, not my crazy aunt. I didn't have a problem with the 10 commandments, though I didn't see how anybody followed them and since everybody was a sinner and could be saved if they admitted it, I sort of viewed them as helpful suggestions anyway.

My problem with Christianity was simple. It was the God. I didn't like him. I thought he was a pompous fool and a hypocrite. He meant nothing to me. This big spiritual ghosty guy in the sky who is so seperate from humanity and has no idea what it's like to be human (and no, living on earth for 30 years without any real material responsibilities, knowing you're God the whole time and that you're never going to really die and can't be hurt until you decide to allow it doesn't count as learning what it's like to be human) going around making unreasonable rules and demands and deciding who gets to live and die- no, I couldn't take orders from that guy. I couldn't respect Him. Besides, it was completely illogical to think that He was the only God. The Bible itself contradicted the idea. I mean, if he was the only God, who was he talking to in Genesis before He created anybody? And if Adam and Eve were the first and only people, who did Cain marry? And who created her? And if there were no other Gods, why would the God of Abraham have to say "Though shalt have no other Gods before me"? I mean, that's like me saying, "Though shalt have no other female, brown-eyed, five foot five, chubby white data entry clerks with an Anthropology degree and two kids and a dog named Griffin before me". If none other exists, there's none to put before, and there's no point in talking about it!

Anyway, so yea. I didn't leave Christianity because I hated it, or I thought it was inherently wrong or bad or its rules too stifling. I left it because it was illogical. And so, I don't have hostility the way some other folks do, so it's hard for me to understand how people think it's okay to bash Christians at Pagan gatherings. My fiance said to me one day "Man, I don't like Christianity, you know what? When I go to Christian gatherings with my parents, they don't sit around and talk about what the Pagans are doing."

Our culture is very infused with Christianity, but it's becoming more secularized all the time. You hear alot more about fundamentalists these days because they are responding to the secularization of our country. It's not getting more Christian, I assure you. Once upon a time you could go to jail for adultery. That's not the case anymore, for better or worse. Now you see adultery on the TV all the time. Our leaders are adulterers and we're cool with it. I like to watch old episodes of Star Trek from the 60s and there are all kinds of Christian themes there. Just yesterday I watched one about a civilization that was very much like Rome, but they had sun worshippers and they talked about how weird it was until it dawned on them that they were worshipping the Son of God, and then it was great and wonderful. That wouldn't be on regular TV today, it wouldn't be politically correct. The network would get all kinds of nasty emails.

I know folks who are constantly griping about this puritanical society we live in. Some go so far as to say that if the society weren't so puritanical, that we'd all be able to explore our fantasies in healthy ways and there would be no sexual deviance or rape or other violent crime. I think this person hasn't watched any television lately. Btw. I don't let my kids watch TV, but while I was on vacation there was a TV in the hotel room and I thought, just for fun I'd watch it. About a dozen penis enlargement commercials later, I was convinced that I sure hadn't missed anything in the last 10 years since I watched TV. This is a puritanical society? Where sex, drugs, disrespecting authority and graphic violence are part of everyday entertainment? Mostly naked women are used to sell everything from cars to chewing gum to life insurance. Puritanical my ass. It's repulsive. We're bombarded with images of sex and violence all the time, even those of us who don't watch TV. Do you think the Christians approve of this? I assure you they do not.

I also hear alot of screaming about people being discriminated against by Christians but I honestly don't see it happening very often. Personally, I am out. I have always been out. It never occured to me not to be. I told my minister when I was 14 years old that God didn't make sense to me and I didn't like Him much and asked what other options there were. He told me of course that there weren't any, you either worship God or you don't. But I went looking and found more and I asked alot of questions on the way, shared my discoveries with my family and friends and that doesn't lend itself well to secrecy. I have never been discriminated against. Yes, it's true that there are some family members who aren't coming to the wedding, but they're all coming to the reception, so that's cool. In all the jobs I've had, no one has ever put up a stink about giving me my holidays off and they generally appreciate me volunteering to work Christian holidays. So, I have no experience with discrimination based on my religion (though I have been discriminated against for being white and a single mother.)

Many people are scared to come out of the "broom closet" and insist that they will be discriminated against if they do. They point to isolated insidences, of which there are a few a year, most of which get resolved through litigation. The fact is, you are protected by law. It is legal to be Pagan, it is illegal to discriminate against you for it. The government is behind you on this and if they fail to back you up, the ACLU will. But please, make sure you aren't breaking any actual laws or city ordinances while being discriminated against because then you're out of luck. You are not protected from being Pagan while naked in public, violating city noise and pollution ordinances, abusing animals, creating graffiti art, having sex with teenagers or using illegal drugs. Your job is not protected from religious discrimination while you are chronically late, argumentative, rude to customers, not following the dress code or habitually absent. You are not protected from religious discrimination in school if you are violating the dress code, harrassing Christians, or cutting yourself. Let's just be logical, shall we?

Finally, I come to Pagan traditions "stolen" by the Christians. I have news for you. It wasn't the Christians, it was the Romans. And the Romans did that sort of thing, even when they were Pagan. All the time. It was the Roman thing to do. When the Romans became Christian of their own free will (or rather, by their leadership's command) they continued doing things the way Romans do them.

But you know what? Regardless of who stole what from whom, does it matter? I mean, can't you just hide your Ostara eggs and decorate your Yule tree and shut the hell up about where it came from? Who cares who had it first? They aren't getting royalties. You're not losing anything. Suck it up. And when they say Merry Christmas, you can be smug in the knowledge that decorating trees and exchanging gifts have nothing to do with Christ, who was born when the sheep were lambing (which doesn't happen in winter, generally) and respond "Thank you! And a blessed Yuletide season to you!"

All of this may be irrelevant to you, but here's something else. My mother is a Christian. I love my mother. I think she's awesome. She likes Pagans just fine, assuming they're respectful to her. She doesn't generalize based on religion. She takes the time to learn about the religion and the person before she judges. She goes to church every Sunday and served on the Board of Deacons. So can you please stop generalizing a group to which my mother belongs, because she doesn't hate you. Okay? Lay off my mom, dude.