This is something I thought might be worth posting, if only to help us understand exactly where everyone is coming from when they post about various paths. I don't want to hi-jack any existing thread, and though it mifght be better to start a new one. So.... how do you define words like neo-paganism, reconstructionism etc.?
For me, reconstructionism is when we go back to the original sources (or at least as far back as we can get) and try to reconstruct how it was done, what people thought and believed, recreating what sort of rituals they practised etc.
Again, for me, neo-paganism is taking some of what we know about past beliefs etc., but not perhaps being as finicky as a reconstructionist. Basically, my understanding is that you take the past and are prepared to develop it and run with it. It is a modern version, if you like, of what is understood to have gone before.
Now before anyone explodes, I must stress that these are basic ideas, and they are just my view. I've often come across many terms used in ways that seem alien to me, but the fact is that if we are discussing paganism at all, then we need to define some of the terms we use.
I usually describe myself as a solitary pagan witch because for me, that is the best definition I can come up with. Solitary because I work alone, pagan (as opposed to any of the major religions) and witch because that was how I was brought up and where basically I feel I belong (although not on my family's path because that was something I couldn't stomach.) For me being a witch is the practical 'craft' side, whereas pagan deals more with my spiritual approach.
But I would be very interested to hear others' opinions.
For me, reconstructionism is when we go back to the original sources (or at least as far back as we can get) and try to reconstruct how it was done, what people thought and believed, recreating what sort of rituals they practised etc.
Again, for me, neo-paganism is taking some of what we know about past beliefs etc., but not perhaps being as finicky as a reconstructionist. Basically, my understanding is that you take the past and are prepared to develop it and run with it. It is a modern version, if you like, of what is understood to have gone before.
Now before anyone explodes, I must stress that these are basic ideas, and they are just my view. I've often come across many terms used in ways that seem alien to me, but the fact is that if we are discussing paganism at all, then we need to define some of the terms we use.
I usually describe myself as a solitary pagan witch because for me, that is the best definition I can come up with. Solitary because I work alone, pagan (as opposed to any of the major religions) and witch because that was how I was brought up and where basically I feel I belong (although not on my family's path because that was something I couldn't stomach.) For me being a witch is the practical 'craft' side, whereas pagan deals more with my spiritual approach.
But I would be very interested to hear others' opinions.
) and not because I am uncomfortable with the term (it's a broad term that originally means country dweller, and as I don't live in the city....), but because when the term pagan was applied to non Judeo-Christian religions (Jews called non Jews gentiles, not pagan, and Christians just called Jews Jews), it was used as a means of saying 'This is neither Christian nor Jewish.' When Islam came along, they called them Moorish, Saracens, and Muslims, but not pagan, so the term came to mean any non-Abrahamic religion. Other, non mainstream branches of Christianity were described as heretical and usually were called by their name, rather than being grouped in as pagan.
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