The word "pagan".

[CuAnnan]

I've read much of this forum, not all of it because Gods it goes back a long time, so I do apologise if this has been raised before.

I don't call myself "pagan" because the word is not a description of what you are but what you are not. I'm Irish, I practice a personal path that venerates ancestors and worships house Gods and a pantheon of other Gods and when asked what my religion is (which frequently happens because of my tattoos), I respond with "I am a Gael". This is not actually a valid answer, linguistically. I have been asked my religion and reply with my ethnicity, but at least it describes what I am.

There are a lot of posts here by people calling themselves pagan and I thought this might be a good place, on this forum, to ask those people why they call themselves pagan.

[Defend the Sacred]

I've read much of this forum, not all of it because Gods it goes back a long time, so I do apologise if this has been raised before.

We had some discussion of it in this thread, which started before I was an active poster here:  http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=190.0  As you see, it got weird. Most of the people in that thread don't participate here anymore, and some seemed to only drop in to argue in that one thread. I could be wrong, but I think most of the people on the forum who currently, actively identify as "Pagan" are new members.

I used to identify as a Pagan, but for many, many reasons no longer do. Some of my views have evolved since I posted in that thread three years ago.

I don't call myself "pagan" because the word is not a description of what you are but what you are not.

Yeah, the word has its roots in Latin (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller", "rustic"), and the Irish and Scottish Gaelic versions are Gaelicised loan-words (Págánacht agus Pàganachd). Neo-Pagans have tried to reclaim "Pagan" on that basis (of the earth, not Christianised like the city people), with mixed results.

I'm Irish, I practice a personal path that venerates ancestors and worships house Gods and a pantheon of other Gods and when asked what my religion is (which frequently happens because of my tattoos), I respond with "I am a Gael". This is not actually a valid answer, linguistically. I have been asked my religion and reply with my ethnicity, but at least it describes what I am.

Yes, Ancestors, Deities and Spirits of the Land. Prayers and songs in Gàidhlig or Gaeilge or Old Irish, keeping things as traditional as possible based on cultural survivals, and carefully reconstructing based on written records when we only have scant survivals or bare mentions of a practice that has been fragmented or lost. I usually say Gaelic Polytheist, or more specific tradition names in Gàidhlig.

The thought among a number of my friends and colleagues a few years ago was to keep some ties to the modern Pagan community by referring to our traditions as Pàganachd or Págánacht (or Págántacht). I now regret having gone with that consensus, as I am really appalled at the degree of racism, cultural misappropriation, and fantasy/confabulation/lies that are accepted as the norm in that community. There are people who post online about being against cultural misappropriation who will then happily participate in a festival that has newage sweats and other ripped off and mangled indigenous ceremonies. Much to my horror, I recently saw some pictures from a thoroughly non-NDN Pagan festival that had always seemed "off" to me and they had built an approximation of a Sun Dance arbor.

[fredvoss]

Dear forum,

The word pagan in Europa means people who are not christs.

Under the summary of the word pagan are, for example, German odinic
religion.

At my knowledge there exist no origin pre-christ religion by life.

For example, the predending, wicca is an old living religion, is not true.

There also not existing old living celtic religions.

The word pagan is unexactly as summary for non-christs people.

greetings
fredvoss

[Defend the Sacred]

There also not existing old living celtic religions.

Well, that depends what you mean. "Celtic" is a linguistic term - an umbrella term for related languages and the cultures of people who speak them. The individual, Modern Celtic cultures survive in  the present day, but have changed as all cultures have over time. Things are no longer the same in the Six Celtic Nations and the diaspora as they were in pre-Christian times, just as they're no longer the same in the rest of Europe, or in the Americas.

Most of the people in the Six Celtic Nations and the diaspora are Christian or Agnostic. As far as Earth-based, polytheistic traditions go, there are culturally-specific customs and beliefs, and some folkloric survivals that some would consider ceremonies or the bare bones of ceremonies, that still survive. And there is a great deal of mythology and descriptions of some ceremonies that exist in primary sources - written down around the time of first Christian contact, or recorded from old people around the turn of the last century. Like with the invasions of the Americas, the people who live in the older way were driven West, and more survived on the Western coasts and Highlands than in the areas where invaders first settled and colonized. But the full religions practiced before Christian contact have been fragmented, or Christianised, and a number of the pieces have been lost. Fuller practices that exist in the present day have all undergone some degree of revival and reconstruction. Some have done this with great care for cultural preservation. But there are plenty others - frauds calling themselves by any number of names, sometimes even the same ones as used by respectful, ethical people - who have concocted things based on fantasy and called them "Celtic". It's a huge problem.

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

Myself, and I believe most of the people I know in my life have always thought "pagan" meant an Earth based religion, but not any one specific belief system. In the way that "christian" is a christ based religion but not exactly specific belief as there are Lutherans, Catholics, etc that practice a 'christ' based belief system. 

I have no experience or knowledge on pagan other than what I have thought it to mean Earth based..

[Camilla]

Hi everybody

Here is one of the more precise explanations of the origin of the term "pagan" from Wikipedia

Etymology
 
The term pagan is from the Latin "paganus", an adjective originally meaning "rural", "rustic" or "of the country." As a noun, paganus was used to mean "country dweller, villager" .....................

The older sense of classical Latin paganus is "of the country, rustic" (also as noun). It has been argued that the transferred use reflects the fact that the ancient idolatry lingered on in the rural villages and hamlets after Christianity had been accepted in the towns and cities of the Roman Empire.........

There is more to read, but on order not to use too much space I indicate the relevant link here below, where there is more info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism

Have a nice day

camilla