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[Gorm_Sionnach]

Since no one has posted in quite a while, I'm posting this to have the thread show up on the new responses and perhaps draw in some people looking to ask questions or discuss issues and the like?

For those non Pagans out there, have you ever meet or talked with any experience with a Pagan? 

What impressions do you have of Pagans and Paganism?

What do you know about modern Paganism?

What would you like to know?

[Acumen]

Honestly, the only pagans I ever met was on a discussion board.  I've never met people in person who identified themselves as a pagan.

The only thing I know is that they are polytheistic, and that their gods are more like guides than authoritative figures.

[VG59]

Interesting question.  I have only met pagans on line.  I doubt that  in my circles, I'd meet a practicing pagan in real life. 

In conversing on line, I have found that I identify more and feel more relaxed in my conversations with not necessarily the pagans but the folks that come from faiths such as Astaru.  I believe they though refer to themselves as heathens. 

The question on what impressions I have.  Well that is a loaded one.  And perhaps one that I best just leave unanswered.  No point in stirring a hornets nest.

As far as anything I like to know.  To be honest from the times I have taken to listen to what pagans have to say, they have not given any information to me that suggests that being pagan is something that would interest me enough to devote my time to asking more. 

Bottom line is I haven't met on line any pagan that I would say, "wow from what I see in their posts and how they relate to people (in particular to people they disagree with) they have a spiritual quality I seek, I think I will ask and learn more."

On the other hand, I have met on line people of the Astaru faith that I have been very impressed with their self discpline in communication and a sense of steady, calm and even keel that their faith has brought them.  Now these are qualities that I am interested in.

[Gorm_Sionnach]

Many of the Reconstructionist traditions (like Asatru) do tend to have more of a primacy, in that the religious or spiritual aspects are but one part of a greater whole. The culture is of equal importance, and as such it moves from being merely a religion to a literal way of life.

[John T Mainer]

Honestly, the only pagans I ever met was on a discussion board.  I've never met people in person who identified themselves as a pagan.

The only thing I know is that they are polytheistic, and that their gods are more like guides than authoritative figures.

Man is it good to hear someone who got that from speaking with us.  If everyone got only those two points out of discussions with us, the problems of misunderstanding between Pagans and the rest of the community would be 70% gone.  Can we have him cloned?  No, probably not the solution.  Still, its good to hear somebody gets it  .

[LeahOne]

Many of the Reconstructionist traditions (like Asatru) do tend to have more of a primacy, in that the religious or spiritual aspects are but one part of a greater whole. The culture is of equal importance, and as such it moves from being merely a religion to a literal way of life.

Perhaps that is what I find we have in common, and why the 'polytheism' is not so large a stumbling block for me as seems likely?   Or maybe it's as simple as that neither your faith nor mine presumes to be 'universal', so we know we are not forced into 'competition'?

[wiscidea]

Or maybe it's as simple as that neither your faith nor mine presumes to be 'universal', so we know we are not forced into 'competition'?

The world would be a much more pleasant place were it not for faiths that followers presume to be universal. Thank the gods and goddesses for pagans... and others.

[John T Mainer]

Many of the Reconstructionist traditions (like Asatru) do tend to have more of a primacy, in that the religious or spiritual aspects are but one part of a greater whole. The culture is of equal importance, and as such it moves from being merely a religion to a literal way of life.

Perhaps that is what I find we have in common, and why the 'polytheism' is not so large a stumbling block for me as seems likely?   Or maybe it's as simple as that neither your faith nor mine presumes to be 'universal', so we know we are not forced into 'competition'?

By many definitions Jews do qualify as Pagans.  They are followers of the god of their tribe, keeping the ancient covenant between the patron of their tribe and their first sacred ancestors.  The reconstructionsist Pagans simply seek to do the same, restoring the covenants between our own people and the gods of our folk.  That is one of the reasons that I have always found discussing ethics and faith so much easier with Jews than with Christians or Muslims.

[poi]

Would believers in traditional Chinese and Japanese gods count as pagans?

[Gorm_Sionnach]

Would believers in traditional Chinese and Japanese gods count as pagans?

The use of the term "Pagan" is always fraught with difficulties. For the most past no, they would identify themselves as Shinto, or associated with Chinese folk religions, rather than with Paganism, which tends more towards a eurocentric (although many "Eastern" elements have been adopted as well) focus. Keep in mind that in thre case of Japan, Christianity did not make any major inroads into the culture, so much of Shinto is not an overt religion, more than folk customs and traditions.

The use of the term "Pagan" to groups religions like Wicca, Asatru, Druidism, CR, etc. was more of an appropriation of the term Pagan, as a Pejoritive. In the same way, Asatruar's prefer the term Heathen to Pagan, which have similar pejoritive meanings, but Heathen has a specific geographic/ historic context.

However, beyond "Pagandom", many in religions like Hinduism, Santeria, Shinto, etc. may take offense to being labeled as Pagans, since the more familiar definition of "outside the pale of the Abrahamaic faiths". The use of the term "Witch" had similar developmental etymology in its current usage 

[Maya3]

I have never met one either.

My impression of Paganism (not based on any knowledge just my own feeling) is that is a beautiful religion that focus and the shifts of nature.
I picture beautiful women in a moonlit green forest worshiping together.

Maya

[Gorm_Sionnach]

Well to call Paganism a religion is difficult, because it is not, its a group of religions or spiritual practices, related mostly through developmental ties, shared use of mythologies, and some other commonalities, but there are significant differences between Wicca, Druidism, Asatru (to name a few)

[LeahOne]

Would believers in traditional Chinese and Japanese gods count as pagans?

I would tend to think so.  My friend who's Chinese (from Taiwan, with a degree in Chinese classical culture) and I find much in common between her people's traditional values and my own.

[Kemay]

Vodun and other indigenous and syncretic religions seem to have ideas in common with Paganism, too, in many cases.

My understanding is that originally, the Latin words "pagani" (of the hills) and "heathen" (of the heaths/moors) were not pejorative, but simply descriptive words used by the Romans (many of whom were Graeco-Roman Pagan themselves, at first). It was only later that those terms became pejorative and meant "some dang varmint who is not a Jew, Christian or Muslims."

As for knowing Pagans, my oldest (longest) friend is Asatru; he was Celtic formerly but felt the Asatru way was the truer path for him. (Ironically, he's more Latino and First Nations in heritage -- and definitely in looks! -- than Scandinavian or Germanic, though he has some German in the family tree too as I recall).

I also have a friend/ex-lover who is Wiccan, and who has performed weddings for other friends of ours. Another friend/ex-lover might be termed Celtic Reconstructionist, though I don't think he really practices as such. Another friend/ex-lover, like other friends of mine, is "non-denominational" Pagan. I've also chatted with at least one person online who was doing or attempting Graeco-Roman Pagan Reconstruction.

So ... Pagans, Pagans, everywhere!    I probably don't know as much about the intricacies of the faith(s) as I should, but what I have studied and learned, I've found to be interesting.

I myself don't believe in the gods, but I honor my Celtic and Germanic roots and try to keep some of the holidays. I see it as a link with my ancient ancestors and a part of my heritage. 

[Gorm_Sionnach]

Vodun and other indigenous and syncretic religions seem to have ideas in common with Paganism, too, in many cases.

My understanding is that originally, the Latin words "pagani" (of the hills) and "heathen" (of the heaths/moors) were not pejorative, but simply descriptive words used by the Romans (many of whom were Graeco-Roman Pagan themselves, at first). It was only later that those terms became pejorative and meant "some dang varmint who is not a Jew, Christian or Muslims."

As for knowing Pagans, my oldest (longest) friend is Asatru; he was Celtic formerly but felt the Asatru way was the truer path for him. (Ironically, he's more Latino and First Nations in heritage -- and definitely in looks! -- than Scandinavian or Germanic, though he has some German in the family tree too as I recall).

I also have a friend/ex-lover who is Wiccan, and who has performed weddings for other friends of ours. Another friend/ex-lover might be termed Celtic Reconstructionist, though I don't think he really practices as such. Another friend/ex-lover, like other friends of mine, is "non-denominational" Pagan. I've also chatted with at least one person online who was doing or attempting Graeco-Roman Pagan Reconstruction.

So ... Pagans, Pagans, everywhere!    I probably don't know as much about the intricacies of the faith(s) as I should, but what I have studied and learned, I've found to be interesting.

I myself don't believe in the gods, but I honor my Celtic and Germanic roots and try to keep some of the holidays. I see it as a link with my ancient ancestors and a part of my heritage. 

Quite true, the Latin paganus meant rural dweller, and since the new Roman religion was primarily urban in nature, and the last hold outs so to speak were those in rural area's, Pagan came to mean those who were not of the new religion, and so the term became a pejorative and the context understood as such. Modern Pagans have done much to appropriate the term, as they have with Witch, but the considerably long use of the term (and heathen as well) remains, so it is not unusual to hear it used as such.

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