What Is Paganism?
Paganism is a term thrown around a lot, but rarely defined. It also tends to have a slightly different meaning depending on who’s doing the talking.
Some folks use pagan to mean Druid, or Witch. Others use it to mean someone who doesn’t follow the Abrahamic faiths and still more use it to mean people who adhere to a nature based religion which is majority of the times the case but definitely not always.
Back in ye old times, it was used by the Romans to refer to non-christians and whilst you may have some Christians who use it this way today, I don’t think Atheists or Buddhists would appreciate being called pagans.
This post will give you a thorough intro into what Paganism is, what it looks like, who practices it and the various sub-groups beneath the umbrella term of Paganism.
Let’s begin with an actual definition!
The Merriam Webster dictionary definition of Paganism is;
1: Spiritual beliefs and practices other than those of Judaism, Islam, or especially Christianity: such as
a: The spiritual beliefs and practices of ancient polytheistic religions
b: The beliefs and practices of contemporary religions or spiritual movements based on ancient paganism
2: A religion based on paganism
3: The quality or state of being a pagan
Gee thanks Merriam Webster but it’s not super helpful if you ask me.
Q: Hey dictionary, what’s paganism?
A: A religion based on paganism…. ummm what kind of chat gpt response is that!
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You could justifiably use the term Pagan to mean the modern socio-cultural movement as a whole. Basically, an umbrella term that includes many varied groups of people with not a whole lot in common with one another.
This article on the topic groups Pagans into 4 categories
Religious Witchcraft including Wicca
Reconstructionist paths
Ceremonial derived religions
Other pagan communities
Let’s dive a little deeper into each of these to find the specifics and the commonalities between them.
Witchcraft
Personally I dislike the term ‘religious’ thrown in with Witchcraft even though it can be seen that way. Wicca is absolutely a religion of Witchcraft and it includes both Gardnerian and Alexandrian Wicca. But there are also secular (non-religious or atheist) Witches who call themselves Pagan even though they follow no Gods or Deities in their craft.
Traditional witchcraft is a sub-group here featuring folks who are not Wiccan and often refer to historical documents, myths and folklore to inform their craft. Most often traditional witches are solitary but it’s not always the case. Traditions such as Feri fit into this category.
Then we have Folk Witchcraft (which could also be a sub-group of traditional witchcraft) that includes folklore and a reliance on ‘low-magic’ (as opposed to the ‘high-magic’ of ceremonial magicians as we will discuss below). Folk magic draws heavily on the individual, culture and bioregionalism and is also most often practiced as a solitary practitioner rather than a hierarchical group.
There are covens available for all forms of witchcraft if one wishes to join though.
Again, not all Witches would identify with the term Pagan for themselves and not all Pagans are Witches.
Pagan you see is a highly individual term.
NOTE: I am 100% aware that categorising witches in a succinct manner is akin to blasphemy as many folks who self identify as a category may take issue with the 1 sentence description I have written. Take this instead as a general vibe rather than me prescribing anything and remember that the variations are what make these traditions amazing and unique.
Reconstructionist
A Reconstructionist is someone who through their religious practices or spiritual views, attempts to recreate the religions of old. I’m talking, ancient religions like Hellenism (Greek), Kemeticism (Egyptian), Roman, Celtic, Druidry and Norse (Heathenry) to name a few.
There are of course people working within other ancient pathways as well like Caanaan or Mesopotamian.
Many will use historical documentation to inform their practice, others use the pantheon + a generous heaping of intuition and UPG (unverified personal gnosis) to create a practice that fills in any historical gaps and works in a modern world.
Ceremonial
Ceremonial magic (also known as High-Magick) are Magical systems generally based on Medieval and Renaissance esotericism like the Hermetic Qabbalah, Thelema, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Hermeticism & Enochian.
Other Pagan Communities
Please note that the above is not at all a definitive list of Pagan groups. In fact it barely evgen scratches the surface! Vodoun, Santeria, Satanism, Candomble could all be referred to as Pagan but again it is on an individual basis.
This list on Wikipedia is a much better breakdown of all the possible groups and it lists well over 100 possible groups + sub groups.
One of the topics that deserves broaching in this post is that of cultural appropriation.
It’s a hot topic in the witchy community, pagan community and hell it should be a hot topic in ALL the communities.
If there is a closed religion, practice or ritual that means it’s closed.
Closed means you can’t practice it safely, properly or respectfully without being initiated and sometimes it’s not something you can be initiated into, no matter how much it calls to you.
There is a difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation but most of the time, listen to the folks of the community you’re taking from, or being inspired by and if they say ‘stop’ you freaking listen. Better yet - research before you start!
THIS POST does such a good job at teaching you how not to be an asshole. I highly recommend you read it.
TLDR; Stay in your lane and don’t be an asshole. This applies triple to white folks.
Where to start? Well - you’ve made the first step by reading this post so well done to you! Now it’s time to dive deeper and to do that you need an information source. This can be through books, podcasts, youtube or classes.
For books, you can’t go past this incredibly extensive list of pagan book reviews to figure out what is and isn’t worth your time to read.
I’ve also got a bunch of personal book reviews for a variety of topics, some of which are pagan adjacent that you may wish to explore.
Now you have all the information that you need to get you started in paganism!
Enjoy!
Brightest Blessings,
Hana the Suburban Witch
Meet Hana
Hana O’Neill, the Suburban Witch is a professional Tarot & Astrology reader, Intuitive Coach and the host of the Witch Talks podcast.
