To be honest, in my opinion I think that all the umberella terms should put themselves down as Pagan - at least until we can get some proper recognition from the government. e.g. when they did the census, they gave a total for pagans, but did not include Wiccans etc in the total, which brought the total down really. If all the individual paths had put pagan then there were loads more than some of the smaller religions which are recognised.
As a pagan myself, I don't follow god/gods or godess. I am more nature and earth bound, whilst very scientific.
really dont know what i am ,but admit to being facinated ,but also really confused, def not christian, but havnt got anything against them, believe in right or wrong , be nice to sort out my head and know:confused:
would hindus call themselves pagan as they are worshipping many gods and consider many animals sacred?
probably not. I say this because in spite of the similarities of Paganism/Hinduism (there are many), there is a distinct difference too.
In so far as my understanding of Paganism goes, Paganism teaches to embrace life, passion, experiences, to live life to the fullest. My understanding (very limited) of Paganism is that is epouses followers to live a rich and rewarding life (whatever that means to a give follower, of course) and engage in whatever makes you happy as long as it does not cause harm or damage to others.
Hinduism on the other hand, tends to espouse detachment from life, passions, strong emotional bonds, etc. Hinduism generally believes that the more we entrench ourselves in the passions of life - the more we are bonded to this earthly existence and thus, continued reincarnation - so the goals of hinduism are generally to elevate oneself above the passions and/or to live all passions for God only, and in that sense - to then elevate their spiritual self.
The above is admittedly, very brief abstractions of both philosophies and i'm sure both philosophies could be expounded to no end in regards to the variations of thought that would exist for either given philosophy.
Personally, i feel that if we are drawn to a particular action - we probably need to act on it in some fashion because simply to dismiss the compulsion would not in and of itself negate the deeper inner desire or karma that propels us to wanting to engage in that action (hope that makes sense). So i think we do have to act on the action but the method and manner of the actions we choose to engage in - help to define our future karma. I'll stop there because this is, of course, a Pagan thread and i don't want to take too many liberties expounding on my take of hindu philosophy.
I call myself a Yogic Pagan, I don't worship any Goddess or God, but I am earthly aware and an avid moon watcher. I live in the city and watch the trees through out the year. I can smell the rain before it comes (great when you have to hang out washing) and feel the electricity before the storm arrives.
Occasionaly I sit alone in a small room on my own and cast a little circle around myself and chant/pray/cast spells.
My understanding of the Yogic Philopsophy overlaps my Pagan belief (although there are differences too)
It has been said often enough, it 5 Pagans in a room and ask them to define what i means to be Pagan and you will get at least 7 different replies.
Purplewolf.
p.s In response to Silverbroomrider - The Southern Irish are Irish, not British.
I'm just a pilgrim......on my spiritual path, gathering information, but the path is littered with all manner of trials and tribulations....we have to manoeuvre over and around many obstacles to reach the summit perched on top of our ' Holy Mountain '....but once there it's plain to see........ ' the Divine ' .....is the same in all languages and religions.
Behold the One in all things.
It is the second that leads you astray.
Kabir.