Wiccanism/Paganism

[Sektor31]

Could someone describe 'em to me? I want to know the average joe's knowledge of them and an explanation from a more experienced person.

[haas mark]

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... t=paganism

[Sektor31]

Ahh, must've missed that post while skimming the forums.

You may ritualistically poke me now.

[haas mark]

Ahh, must've missed that post while skimming the forums.

You may ritualistically poke me now.

[bites] I don't poke.

[meNNis]

i do.

***POKE!!!***

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Could someone describe 'em to me? I want to know the average joe's knowledge of them and an explanation from a more experienced person.

Yes, skim the damned forums first. But since I'm all for shamelessly inflating my post-count, while providing another reference people can quote, here goes:

A pagan is generally somebody that doesn't subscribe to Christianity. That is the most technical definition. It was typically applied to non-Christian faiths of the time, the Roman faiths, and the faiths of the European barbarians. These, especially the barbarian faiths, were very much nature-worship affairs. And the 'pagan' title has stuck to the barbarian faiths that we know of, such as Druidism.

Wicca, is a modern-day revival of some of the old 'pagan' beliefs. Or rather, it is less a revival than a well-intentioned reconstruction that was really mostly made up as they went along, insofar as we really know very little about the old faiths. Typically, there are many references to gods/spirits representing nature and the seasons (such as the moon and the earth.) Some wiccans believe in the concept of magic. So really, when you look at it, wicca is something of a poorly defined mish-mash of old European barbarian faiths, Christian symbolism and imagery, and whatever looked good at the time.

[haas mark]

Those religions are no more or less barbaric than say, Christianity or Islam.

[RedImperator]

Those religions are no more or less barbaric than say, Christianity or Islam.

In this context, "barbarian" refers to the pre-Roman Celtic and Germanic tribal peoples of northern Europe. It was a generic term used by the Greeks and adopted by the Romans for tribes that didn't have a written language. Though the word WAS a pejorative, especially when used by Greeks, it meant uncultured and primitive, the Greek equivilant to a redneck. The modern sense of "barbarian" and "barbaric" has taken on the idea of "someone who kills and destroys for pleasure" after the barbarians invaded and destroyed the Western Roman Empire (and nearly wiped out Classical culture in Western Europe in the process).

[Mark S]

Those religions are no more or less barbaric than say, Christianity or Islam.

In this context, "barbarian" refers to the pre-Roman Celtic and Germanic tribal peoples of northern Europe. It was a generic term used by the Greeks and adopted by the Romans for tribes that didn't have a written language. Though the word WAS a pejorative, especially when used by Greeks, it meant uncultured and primitive, the Greek equivilant to a redneck. The modern sense of "barbarian" and "barbaric" has taken on the idea of "someone who kills and destroys for pleasure" after the barbarians invaded and destroyed the Western Roman Empire (and nearly wiped out Classical culture in Western Europe in the process).

Somewhere along the line I heard that the word barbarian came from the fact that the Greeks thought that foriegn languages sounded like the bleeting of sheep. Bah bah bah. Not sure how true that is though.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Those religions are no more or less barbaric than say, Christianity or Islam.

In this context, "barbarian" refers to the pre-Roman Celtic and Germanic tribal peoples of northern Europe. It was a generic term used by the Greeks and adopted by the Romans for tribes that didn't have a written language. Though the word WAS a pejorative, especially when used by Greeks, it meant uncultured and primitive, the Greek equivilant to a redneck. The modern sense of "barbarian" and "barbaric" has taken on the idea of "someone who kills and destroys for pleasure" after the barbarians invaded and destroyed the Western Roman Empire (and nearly wiped out Classical culture in Western Europe in the process).

Yes, this was exactly the context I was aiming for.

[Johonebesus]

These, especially the barbarian faiths, were very much nature-worship affairs. And the 'pagan' title has stuck to the barbarian faiths that we know of, such as Druidism.

Ancient pagans worshipped nature through personified gods. The idea of a more impersonal nature or mother earth is very much a modern creation. The ancient pagans were not nature worshippers in the modern sense.

[HemlockGrey]

Somewhere along the line I heard that the word barbarian came from the fact that the Greeks thought that foriegn languages sounded like the bleeting of sheep. Bah bah bah. Not sure how true that is though.

Yeah, my history teacher said the same thing 'Bar bar bar bar bar'. Makes sense.

[haas mark]

Those religions are no more or less barbaric than say, Christianity or Islam.

In this context, "barbarian" refers to the pre-Roman Celtic and Germanic tribal peoples of northern Europe. It was a generic term used by the Greeks and adopted by the Romans for tribes that didn't have a written language. Though the word WAS a pejorative, especially when used by Greeks, it meant uncultured and primitive, the Greek equivilant to a redneck. The modern sense of "barbarian" and "barbaric" has taken on the idea of "someone who kills and destroys for pleasure" after the barbarians invaded and destroyed the Western Roman Empire (and nearly wiped out Classical culture in Western Europe in the process).

Yes, this was exactly the context I was aiming for.

Oh. Okay. I'm just not up to date on my archaic definitions.

[SylasGaunt]

Say what you will about Pagans (I know a couple, all of them have been nice enough folks), however their religion has Christianity beat soundly on at least one point... they've never come to the door trying to get me to convert. Btw has anyone ever been tempted to screw around with those people when they show up? Like blast Death Metal when I open the door and screaming at my friends about hiding a goat and a virgin?

[Knife]

Could someone describe 'em to me? I want to know the average joe's knowledge of them and an explanation from a more experienced person.

Pagan actually means peasent and was originally meant to desribe the various splinter beliefs of the country folk durring Classical times. The major cities/states of the time had official religeons with multiple gods and various ceremonies and traditions. When you got out into the country, the people mixed and matched beliefs from various cities that they had contact with and even came up with their own beliefs depending on the situation and trend. So at the time, pagan meant more or less 'hick' or 'redneck'.

When monothesim crept into the world the cities where the first to convert to the one god idea and those in the country where still content with the old ways. At this time, pagan turned from 'hick' to one who worships polythesim. It was a generalization and a sterotype, but hey, thats what religeons do. It should also be noted that Christiananity in its infancy, borrowed heavily (and even outright stole) from the old 'pagan' religeons.

Most modern day 'pagans' are more of a counter culture than a religeon but every once in a while you can find an honest to gods worshipper of polythesim.

[haas mark]

Not just polytheism in general, but regularly, anyone that didn't believe in the Christian faith; that would include Islam, Paganism, Druidism, Native American religions, and everything else in between.