Originally published in Namaste Magazine, Vol.2 Nov/Dec 1999

This is contrary to current dictionary definitions that state that Pagans are either unbelievers, or non-Christian (which would therefore include Jews and Muslims and many other religions). Paganism has its roots in the ancient nature religions of Europe and Africa. Nature is our Spiritual teacher and holy book. We have no gurus, or intermediaries to "God". All Pagans are priests and priestesses of Nature. We look to this for the inspiration that ignites each and everyone's Divine spark within, for guidance. As such there is little emphasis on dogma and liturgy, and our worship most often takes place in open natural spaces.

The word 'Pagan' comes to us from the Latin 'Paganus', meaning 'country' or 'heath dweller'. After the Roman invasions the country people, gentlefolk, with their simpler forms of Earth worship co-existed peacefully alongside the very sophisticated Roman pantheons. Both types of people would be considered Pagan, as each looked to divinity in Nature for their raisson detre. The derogatory implications which 'country dweller', 'bumpkin', 'hick' and 'heathen' later came to have evolved as a result of the inability of the 'new' religion (Christianity) to gain total control over all of the ancient gods and belief systems. It was therefore ultimately easier to classify any group of people who did not accept this new religion as illiterate peasants without any belief in any god whatsoever, who as such were in dire need of 'conversion'.

It became strategy to usurp Pagan places of worship and rebuilt them into great cathedrals; to morph ancient Pagan deities such as Isis (known as 'Queen of Heaven', 'the Goddess of a Thousand Names') into the saint, Mary, or Pan into the devil; quaint Pagan practices such as painted eggs at Easter (derived from the Goddess 'Ostara' - from which we get the name 'oestrogen', whose symbol is the hare), or the celebration of the return of the Sun at Yule with gifts under the Yule tree to the Christmas tree, into Christian festivals.

The female genocide, popularly known as 'the burning times', in which official statistics of those killed mostly women), reached nine million over a period of approximately three hundred years, most commonly through burning at the stake, is the forgotten genocide of this generation.
It was not so much a genocide of one set of values against another than that it was a genocide of the masculine against feminine, (in its most simplistic form).

Modern Pagans should not hold that the church was the perpetrator of this madness as a sword of Damocles against Christianity. It must be pointed out that every civilization has had its form of cruelty, its chance to dominate others violently and to explore the very depths of human depravity before the climb to self-actualization begins. Pagans are by no means innocent in their Spiritual evolution, either in their actions towards each other, or towards other groups that may have had differing religious or social values at the time.

As with the evolution of any Spirituality, Paganism has moved from certain, perhaps more primal, values by adapting to the more sophisticated needs of the modern urban Pagan. A good example here would be that many Pagans are vegetarians, whereas almost certainly, our ancient forebears were not. The modern revival of the ancient nature religions, known as new-Paganism, brings with it a sense of creating order from chaos through understanding Nature. A return to 'roots', and a 'back-to-basics' approach, typically describes the modern person's Spiritual search for meaning amidst great existential and millennial crises. Ventures into the great unknown, black holes and the deep abyss of space seem to have lost their romantic grip on humanity, now at the cutting edge of such realities. Feeling the sand barefoot on an unspoilt beach or smelling the grass in a beautiful garden are at a premium in the fight against the loss of natural resources and the inevitable search for new dimensions to replace them.

Pagans are people who, from earliest times, have understood the sacrosanct feel of bare feet on warm Earth, the cleansing drops of an angry outburst of rain, the chill wind reminding us to prepare for leaner times, the comfort of a blazing fire when the darkness of the underworld seems to be closing in, We strive to attune ourselves to the tides of nature and their effects on our inner selves. Such harmonization with nature, which is our form of Spiritual union with the Divine (whatever you may choose to call it or however you choose to understand it), is done by adherence and reverence to solar and lunar phases, and acknowledging such at the turning points of each season.

Pagans revere both the Divine masculine and the Divine feminine equally, although the neo-Paganism of today tends to lend itself outwardly to an expression of divinity through 'goddess' in its attempts to correct previous patriarchal imbalances. The duality of male and female, nigh and day, good and evil, are seen through the eastern concept of the 'third eye; that is, Yin and Yang, the Divine dance of polarity, not duality.

A great variety of traditions (or paths) can be found under the umbrella-term 'Pagan', which reflects the individuality of the experience of the Divine within, as a result of Divine inspiration from Nature. Some Pagans follow multiple gods and goddesses (such as the Roman or Greek pantheons); others follow their understanding of the single life-force, consciousness, Wakan Tanka (Great Spirit); whilst others devote their religious and Spiritual quest and understanding to the Divine couple - the God and the Goddess. One therefore comes across terms such as 'druids', 'shamans', and 'witches' (or Wiccans). All are but ways of attempting to connect and redefine Spirit through a nature-orientated way of seeing the Divine. Practice, and worship, is done on a solitary basis or with small informal groups, or sometimes both.

Paganism is a mystery religion and therefore stresses personal religious/Spiritual experience. It does not seek to convert or to proselytize, and does not in any way evangelize. We practice tolerance and in turn request tolerance.

Paganism is bound by a set of ethics, as is any other system/way/path/religion seeking to self-actualize. We believe in 'the law-of-three', which means that that which you send out shall return to you three times. This is based on the principle of karma, or 'what you sow, you shall reap'.
Within the modern revival of old witchcraft, known as Wicca, there is an elaboration of this principle, known as the Wiccan rede: 'an it harm none, do what they will'. This is an extremely strict code of conduct, for whilst it appears to permit anything, it admonishes one not to harm anything, least of all yourself.

Pagans therefore do not have a set of commandments. We have one, which covers all that it means to be truly human. As we are Earth-positive, we operate from what we CAN do rather than can't and should not. We believe in personal power and personal accountability.
This can only happen if there is self-control. We take responsibility for our actions, which means that there is no priest or intermediary to whom we confess our 'sins'.

The concept of 'original sin' is a foreign concept for us, as is the concept of a 'devil'. There is no such thing within Paganism that 'the devil made me do it'. The notion of external good and evil forces doing battle against each other (making us pawns) is alien. The notion of 'hell' is one we do not advocate either. Whilst we accept certain inalienable Universal laws, e.g. that we can't move the sun from its present orbit, we know we can shape our own destiny. Being in control of oneself implies knowledge of oneself, which is therefore quite feasibly the shaping of one's own destiny. We believe that most humans have greater good in them than bad, and that this can be shaped towards global goodness, as it were, through not only the Pagan belief system, but the many other belief systems that strive towards the global goodness of humanity.

Pagans tend to be very practical people who get on with things, having little time to deal with remorse and guilt. Guilt especially, a manifestation of control over your life by another, is something we abhor and actively oppose through healthy approaches to lifestyle and sexuality. Tiresome and energy-sapping debates such as what it will be like in heaven, or how many alien spaceships may be in the garden, tend to be replaced with debates on where to start cleaning up the Jukskei River (especially when you don't live near it and the value of your property could also be increased if the spruit nearby were cleaned out). Where we go when we die and how many planes there are to ascent to, are of secondary importance to us.

Whilst we accept the notion of reincarnation, we do not have elaborate systems or explanations about the concept. We simply find common ground in the concept of a place we call the 'Summerlands', (a Celtic word for 'resting-place), where we shall rest until it is time to move on.
Pagans revere all of Earth's manifestations as equal, whether human, animal, vegetable or mineral, and the idea of 'coming back' as a princess being a higher incarnation than that of a tortoise, for example, is of no great consequence to us.

Pagans are therefore quintessentially practical and positive, yet can be quite militant about environmental matters. Since ancient times, we have comprehended the 'Gaia' concept - the now scientific notion that uprooting the rain forests over there will affect the weather over here. The changes of the seasons are not only honoured as symbolic representation of the changing face of our god and goddess, but also assimilated in a way that makes sense of our beingness in relation to these seasonal changes. We celebrate the four quarterly (and most commonly accepted) seasonal changes - these being the equinoxes (spring and autumn) and the two solstices (these being winter and summer). These are known as the lesser Sabbaths. The greater Sabbaths are celebrated at the cross quarter points in between.

Thus, every six weeks, we acknowledge the shape-shifting forms nature bestows upon herself and see in this our own reflecting changes, needs and plans of action.

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