Paganism is a religious practice in that its rituals address the spiritual side of life. That being said, I am not concerned that people may choose to engage in it.

We know that the pagans had a different god for everything, the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Vikings etc had gods for the sun, the moon, the stars, the sea, war, love, peace, food, fire, thunder, water etc etc. Each god had his or her own temples and priests and different holy days. This was a very inefficient system as there were so many temples and priests to pay for, and so many religious holidays that nobody was doing any work to cover the costs. Egyptian pharoah Akenaten therefore invented monotheism, and replaced all those bludgers with one god, and appointed himself as god's spokesman at the same time, a wonderful win-win. Unfortunately for him, the priests and the workers revolted, killed him off and returned to the pagan system. Akenaten's idea did not die with him, however and his grand-son, Tutmoses (Moses to the christians) took off to Israel and re-created monotheism. It took a few hundred years before the Romans saw the benefits of monotheism and promoted it as christianity. It started off as a cost-cutting measure and the rest is history.

I happen to be Pagan. DZhukovin has the best response about Paganism so far. There are hundreds of beliefs that can fall under the Pagan category, and some of them have nothing in common with others. You mentioned Wicca, which is currently the most popular pagan religion/belief/spiritual practice (or whatever you want to call it). Wicca is more of a set of practices than a set of beliefs, but many Wiccans still believe in divine beings. The Spiral Dance, by an author called Starhawk gives a good overall explanation of Wiccan practices. Although Wicca has only been around since the mid 20th century, it has roots in various pre-Christian European traditions. Feel free to contact me if you'd like to know more.

I always picture someone running around naked carrying a bloody piece of meat chanting Pan.

I do not believe in anything which calls for dogma, rituals, lsupernatural superstitions, or anything of that iilk.

Paganism was what founded all the other religions and traditions. It had lots of dark associations with the early cults, Roman, Egyptian, Greek, i.e. because of the sacraficial practices that they procured; according to the Christians and other later religious followings. I think Paganism brings you back to your roots and annoints with the Gaian and Lunar energies that exist within the matrix of time and space, hence the deities and other intelligences that exist. I sure do know that most pagan peoples prefer and love orgiastic and hedonistic sexuality over monogamous-heterosexual relationships. Its probably a better structure to adhere to while you are young and creating your own viewpoints, thoughts, & ideas in relation to the rest of the world around you.

Good Luck in your journey.

@hOtMeSs2017

1. Paganism refers to a collection of pagan religions. So yes, they actually do have gods, whether they are called that or not.

2. To start you off, a pagan religion is any religion that is outside of the abrahamic religions.

seems to have a lot of the downsides of organized religion without a lot of the plus sides on the personal level, but few of the downsides on the large scale.

I have studied the pre-Christian religions of Europe, particularly Germanic, Celtic and Slavic given my personal British and Polish heritage, and admire certain aspects of them and their lore, but obviously relegate their theology to the trash bin. It is neat to learn about how certain plants were valued, cultural practices and so on. It gives you a greater understanding of your heritage and the roots of modern vocabulary, holidays etc.

1 have read about wicca and have visited the [witchvox.com]

I was a practicing Pagan for almost 15 years. I may not be sure that there is a being that we could all see as 'God', but I will say with certainty that there is some strange stuff out there (as well as within). MY best advice is as follows:

(1) Learn your history, and read literary sources from pre-christianized europe where you can.
(2) Avoid the 'teen witch' section of your local Bookland.
(3) grab some time really looking at nature; it is both gentle and vicious, and both must be recognized
(4) lastly, go with your gut. If you feel that something (a lesson, a book, a place) is bringing up something within you that you are not ready to face, just walk away.

... in retrospect, if you replace the word 'witch' with 'missionary', this is also my advice for dealing with the Church.

Read up on it when I was in my teens. Found it as absurd as any other belief system.

Paganism, by definition, includes several non-Christian often polytheistic beliefs. Saying that it doesn't have gods or goddesses is a misunderstanding, probably perpetuated by Christians who believe that if you don't believe in their god, then you don't believe in God, period.

[en.wikipedia.org]

I used to call myself a heathen because I like the idea of standing in the heather admiring the work of mother nature. I think pagan is just a term created by christians to distinguish between their religion and all the other ones.

It is not for the faint of heart.

Don't know much about it.