Paganism ... now and then

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Nature Religion
Many current Pagans in industrial societies base their beliefs and practices on a connection to Nature, and a divinity within all living things, but this may not hold true for all forms of Paganism, past or present. Some believe that there are many deities, while some believe that the combined subconcious spirit of all living things forms the universal deity. Paganism predates modern monotheism, although its origins are lost in prehistory. Ancient paganism tended in many cases to be a deification of the political process, with "state divinities" assigned to various localities (Athena in Athens, for example). Many ancient regimes would claim to be the representative on earth of these gods, and would depend on more or less elaborate bureaucracies of state-supported priests and scribes to lend public support to their claims. This is something it shares with more 'mainstream
' religions, as can be seen in t
he history of the Catholic church, the Church of England and the ancient and current trends in Islam. In one well-established sense, paganism is the belief in any non-monotheistic religion, which would mean that the Pythagoreans of ancient Greece would not be considered pagan in that sense, since they were monotheist, but not in the Abrahamic tradition. In an extreme sense, and like the pejorative sense below, any belief, ritual or pastime not sanctioned by a religion accepted as orthodox by those doing the describing, such as Burning Man, Halloween, or even Christmas, can be described as pagan by the person or people who object to them.

 

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Pejorative
The term has historically been used as a pejorative by adherents of monotheistic religions (such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam) to indicate a person who doesn't believe in their religion. "Paganism" is also sometimes used to mean the lack of (an accepted monotheistic) religion, and therefore sometimes means essentially the same as atheism. "Paganism" frequently refers to the religions of classical antiquity, most notably Greek mythology or Roman religion, and can be used neutrally or admiringly by those who refer to those complexes of belief. However, until the rise of Romanticism and the general acceptance of freedom of religion in Western civilization, "paganism" was almost always used disparagingly of heterodox beliefs falling outside of the established political framework of the Christian Church. It has more recently (from the 19th century)
been used admiringly by those who believe the m
onotheistic religions to be confining or colourless.

The word is also used as a generic derogatory term for an unruly (usually young) person.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism

 

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Heathenry
Heathen, in English and Scots originally meaning someone who lived in the wild, uncultivated heath that was outside the village system and not covered by the parish boundary nor blessed by the protective presence of a local priest, was often used as a synonym of "pagan". Like the word pagan, it came to mean a person holding onto pre-Christian customs and beliefs, often used in a pejorative sense of an unbaptized savage (as opposed to a heretic). Viking raiders were "heathens".

A general term, sometimes still referring to (often in a pejorative sense) non-adherents to a certain religion, it may have originally applied only to those who lived "on the heath," (though this etymology is disputed) or in the underpopulated areas of Europe which were slow to convert to Christianity during its period of expansion.

In more modern, neopagan circles, it often
refers specifically to the ancient religion of the G
ermanic peoples, which in its modern form is in the US more widely known by the term Asatru. In Britain "Heathenry" is the most widely used term for those who are recreating and reinterpreting old Germanic/Scandinavian religious practices and worldviews from the literary and archaeological sources and who describe themselves as "Heathen" in part to distinguish themselves from other pagans whose rituals come from other sources.

Neopaganism
In another sense, as used by modern practitioners, paganism is a polytheistic, panentheistic or pantheistic often nature-based religious practice. This includes reconstructed religions such as Hellenismos, Asatru as well as more recently founded religions such as Wicca, and these are normally categorised as "Neopaganism". Although Neopagans often refer to themselves simply as "Pagan", for purposes of clarity this article will focus on the ancient religion, while Neop
aganism is discussed in its own article.

This also includes religions such as Forn Sed, Romuva
and Slavic Rodoverie that claim to revive an ancient religion rather than reconstruct it, though in general the difference is not absolutely fixed. Practitioners of these tend to object to the term "Neopaganism" for their religion as they consider what they are doing not to be a new thing.

 

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Anthropological terms for Pagan

Paleo-Paganism: A Pagan culture that has not been disrupted by other civilizations or other cultures. This does not include any known cultures. Indeed, this absolutely, by definition, cannot include any sort of living culture, since all cultures have been "disrupted" by their neighbors to some extent or another.
Meso-Paganism: A group, which is, or has been, influenced by a conquering culture, but has been able to maintain an independence of religious practices. This includes Native Americans and Australian Aborigine Bushmen.
Syncreto-Paganism: A culture, which has been conquered but adopts and merges the conquering culture's religious practices with their own. This includes Haitian Vodou, and SanterÃÆ’ ÃƒÆ’”�Å¡­a.
Neo-Paganism: An attempt to by modern people to reconnect with nature, pre-Christian religions, or othe
r nature-based spiritual paths. T
his definition includes Asatru and Neo-Druidism.
This system of classification completely leaves out any possibility of classifying Hindu religions or Shinto as "paganism". Likewise, it would exclude the state religion of the pre-Christian Roman Empire.

 

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Anglo-Saxon Heathenism
http://www.englishheathenism.homestead.com/introduction.html

English Heathenfront
http://heathenfront.org/ehf/

Heathen Folk Revival Forum
http://www.heathenfolk.net/

Odinist Forum

Pagan Identity Movement

The Odinic Rite

Asatru Folk Assembly

Asatru Alliance

Odin Lives Pagan Radio

__________________
WHITE ANGLO-SAXON PAGAN
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles states the following: "Their leaders were two Brothers, Hengest and Horsa, who were the sons of Wichtgisel, Wichtgisel was the so
n of Wicht, the son of Wecta, the son of Woden. From that Woden has descended all our Royal Family. (From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.)" They live on in us. The family or clan is above and beyond the limits of time and place.

 

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A forum specifically for Heathens -- Odinist.com


You see them on the net, but they often are ripe with liberals, race mixers, fags and anti-nazis, or they are lame as hell.

This one will welcome ALL Odinists, whether or not you are a Racialist or not, this is going to be the place for all of us to communicate and expand out ancient ways.

This place isn't going to care if you love the Reich or you hate it, it is only concer
ed with your beliefs as they pertain to Odinism/Asatru/Odalism/Wotanism.

I had a bad experience with the Vinlandic Heathen Front after they insanely rejected any "nazi" even if you offered to keep politics out of the discussion; therefore, this has been a work in progress to have
an Odinist board that welcomes all of our folk.

I will be inviting the OR, AFA, and other US and European-based
groups to participate in this board and perhaps use it for a mass portal for our folk.

Keep in mind, this forum will NOT welcome anti-racism and liberalism as it pertains to race, there will be a subsection for debates of that sort, but the main scope of it is to broaden our walk to teach people, recruit and communicate ideas with other Heathens.

Odinist.com Forum

I want to clarify that in case people think I am going to be hippieish about this. Odinism is a Racialist's religion, and most of the people who practice it are very Racist by nature, or they are in tune with their roots, some are not. Thos
e who want to embrace multi-culti Odinism will be shown the door, as IMO there isn't any room for non-Whites in MY roots.
--Irish Jay