Pagan religion/Wicca religion

[Caladon]

Can someone give me the low-down of these two religions please? I know Wicca started in the 1930's but what does it exactly consist of? And my encyclopaedia merely speaks of Pagan to be a heathen religion. Can anyone elaborate?

[andy hughes]

Wicca has been imortalised in the cult film 'The Wicca Man'. Briefly, Wiccans believe in a deity known as The One, or The All, or sometimes God - the term is fairly elastic. Wiccans don't 'worship' their deity, it's more of a partnership - each needs the other. the Wiccan faith revolves around eath forces, thought to be connected to seasons, harvests and so on. A Wiccan may perform a kind of 'baptism' on a child, although there is no compulsion on the individual, theybelieve the child will make an informed decision as an adult about whether or not to stay with the faith . Some groups do call themselves 'covens' whic h can lead to (unconnected) beliefs that they are Satanists. Paganism is a far wider term - it can be used to refer to any religion that is based on Christian doctrine, so its more of a generic term than a faith in itself. Hope this assists.

[andy hughes]

Sorry, that should read NOT based on Christian doctrine/

[Caladon]

Gotcha, thanks for that Andy! The Wicca Man, ooh scarey movie when i first watched it as a 10 year old! the part was actually written specifically for Sir Christopher Lee. Can't beat seeing him in a dress with long hair lol ;-)

[Tj]

Sorry Andy, but I'll correct you on one or two points if I may. The film you are referring to is actually called 'The Wicker Man', due to the fact that the large figure towards the end of the film is constructed from wicker. It actually has nothing to do with the Wiccan religion. The inhabitants of Summerisle in the film are undoubtedly Pagans, but not Wiccans. I remember reading one definition of Paganism, which was 'any religion not Christian, Jewish or Muslim'. Therefore many religions, including several major ones, could actually be described as Pagan. Wiccan is one of these. This site has some information about Wiccan beliefs. http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_beli.htm For info on the excellent 'The Wicker Man', a standard google search should produce plenty of results.

[andy hughes]

You're quite rigght TJ - I got carried away (again!)

[Caladon]

damn i know that film, yet was still dragged into the illusion of WICCA rather than WICKER lol us.imdb.com is a great film website by the way.

[del_1690]

A Pagan religion is a religion which is not Christian, Jewish or Muslim. But pagan religions have more than 1 god. This is why Muslims are allowed to marry Jews and Christians, as our gods are the same. But are forbidden to marry a pagan, as they do not have a greater single entity.

[Caladon]

So buddists are pagans? Seems as though christians (spit spit...im atheist by the way) are using the word pagan as though its more politically correct than fool!

When referring to the past, time over 200 years ago...Paganism was hip and happening. My grandfather told me that our family around the time of Henry the VIII converted our family to C of E but before that were Pagan. Just wondering what they did.

[happysax]

Wiccans worship nature, it seems. But nature is cruel, as we all know. Nature is something we have to rise above.

[incitatus]

the people in the wicker man were probably druids! because this wa based on an episode in caesars writing about druid sacrifices.

[IanPat]

andy hughes writes that "Paganism is a far wider term - it can be used to refer to any religion that is based on Christian doctrine, so its more of a generic term than a faith in itself." Total rot Pagan was the name given by early christians in tne roman towns to the country folk who were following the beliefs that they had always had