Contemporary witchcraft and Wicca are often described as falling under the umbrella concept of being “pagan beliefs”.  As mentioned in another article, the Macquarie Dictionary describes a pagan as an “irreligious or heathenish person”, whereas a heathen as an “irreligious or unenlightened person”. These descriptions are misleading and incorrect. For a more appropriate description as to what “paganism” is, visit this article.

The word pagan originated from the Latin word pagani or paganus meaning “countryside” or “country dweller”. It was a term of ridicule used by the invading Roman military for the local people, who worshipped their Gods and Goddesses in sacred groves and wild places, instead of in “proper” temples. Likewise, a heathen is a Nordic term meaning “one of the hearth who worships the Gods of the land”. Today, the description of a “pagan” refers to various spiritual and religious practices allegedly based on, or inspired by, what we know of the ancient teachings. It should be pointed out that not all witches actually classify themselves as “pagan”. Maxine Sanders (the co-founder of the Alexandrian Tradition of witchcraft), for example, readily states that she is a witch and not a pagan. I personally use the term “pagan” or “earth-centric spirituality” as generalised umbrella terms to describe what I believe in as it is easier for the general public to understand without too many preconceived ideas.

Author John Beckett describes “paganism” as being organic religions that rise from the lived experiences of people in the industrial and post-industrial West that have a reverence for nature and seeing the Divine in all genders.

Paganism is the magick of the learned scholars as well as the magick of the ordinary folk, and it calls us to remember that good religion is a living thing, growing and changing to adapt timeless principles to where we are here and now. In his 1802 poem, “The World is Too Much With Us”, William Wordsworth summed up this concept: 

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. –Great God! I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.”

Just as Christians or Muslins are divided into different sects, so too is paganism. There are a variety of different traditions which fall under the pagan umbrella including witchcraft (of which there are many styles), Wicca (including modern Wicca), Druidism, Qabalah (an ancient Hebrew system of esoteric philosophy), ceremonial magick, Asatru (Nordic tradition) and shamanism, as well as Western Mysticism (based the Arthurian legends), earth mysteries (ley lines), and so on. Though each of these traditions are completely separate in their teachings, most have a similar belief of honouring nature, respecting and endeavouring to understand the needs of the planet and its ecology as a whole. This, in essence, is what paganism is.