We've gotten a few new member's so I though I'd ask
What does being a Pagan / pagan or witch mean to you? I use the capital Pagan to denote the religion and the small pagan to denote the general umbrella term.
Figure the best way to understand the newer people is to ask. For my generation, i'm 58 it seem's to have had quite a bit of difference in how it meant and defined it.
To give an example to be honest I don't recall ever using the term pagan until the late 80's early 90's prior to that we were basically occultist or just witches. Maybe Wiccan's (Gardernerian's, Alexanderian's, etc in the vein of BTW or Coven based Wicca, or Witches in the sense of familial - family / folkish practices or inspired by the likes of Paul Huson's "Mastering Witchcraft" or Laurie Cabot's stuff perhaps. I guess you could say there was a divide in that some were influenced by the feminist movement stuff while others were also being influenced by the 60's free love and Eastern mysticism movements. It was all present through the 60's and 70's and into the 80's. Not to say we didn't have some awful author's floating around as well or people willing to exploit the eager.
But I also admit it seem's we were expected to understand more or perhaps deeper it seems. In the understanding of where things came from it made understanding what it mean and why it was more important. It's like the "Cup" or "Chalice". Is it the Holy Grail of Arthurian Legend which tied it to the Golden Dawn stories? Is it the Holy Grail and tied it to Christianity and the Virgin Mary stories? Is it the Holy Grail and tied it to the Last supper and the final drink? Is it the collection of blood from the sacrificial altar's of the various gods / goddesses and tied it to the life bloods and made it a fertility / fecundity item? All of which ties it to power, reincarnation, rebirth, fertility, the womb, femininity, the female and in many ways the void where life forms and is created or destroyed. It also tied it to the broken celestial egg or the cracked and broken egg with half of the promise given and half yet retained which goes back to fertility and fecundity. Or the waters of life and the idea of the void with part drained yet part not poured so the promise of life yet remains to be given and fulfilled.
Was it right? Who knows. But it was a deeper idea than just here is a cup and you put the wand (penis - masculine - projecting life force and energy into it) It was also having an idea, even if wrong where it came from and why it was used as it was to understand the significance of it all.
To understand what it was to be an occultist or witch at the time. How we tied to things and the gods / goddesses if we connected to them. Figure to be a witch did not mean one had to believe in the gods / goddesses.
Today very few people it seems, to me anyway, actually have any connections to a lineage that connects them to a coven, a BTW lineage, a familial connection or such. Most it seem's are what I would hear called Biccan's or worse to be honest. Book Wiccan's or some resemblance of that. Self taught, self dedicated and self initiated into an individual practice that is some form of usually Neo-Wicca or conflated version of it. It's not the practices of what I learnt under for certain. It's not even the practices of the pseudo stuff of the Silver RavenWolf Era that so many still make light of.
So I am curious what does being a pagan / witch mean to you?
What does being a Pagan / pagan or witch mean to you? I use the capital Pagan to denote the religion and the small pagan to denote the general umbrella term.
Figure the best way to understand the newer people is to ask. For my generation, i'm 58 it seem's to have had quite a bit of difference in how it meant and defined it.
To give an example to be honest I don't recall ever using the term pagan until the late 80's early 90's prior to that we were basically occultist or just witches. Maybe Wiccan's (Gardernerian's, Alexanderian's, etc in the vein of BTW or Coven based Wicca, or Witches in the sense of familial - family / folkish practices or inspired by the likes of Paul Huson's "Mastering Witchcraft" or Laurie Cabot's stuff perhaps. I guess you could say there was a divide in that some were influenced by the feminist movement stuff while others were also being influenced by the 60's free love and Eastern mysticism movements. It was all present through the 60's and 70's and into the 80's. Not to say we didn't have some awful author's floating around as well or people willing to exploit the eager.
But I also admit it seem's we were expected to understand more or perhaps deeper it seems. In the understanding of where things came from it made understanding what it mean and why it was more important. It's like the "Cup" or "Chalice". Is it the Holy Grail of Arthurian Legend which tied it to the Golden Dawn stories? Is it the Holy Grail and tied it to Christianity and the Virgin Mary stories? Is it the Holy Grail and tied it to the Last supper and the final drink? Is it the collection of blood from the sacrificial altar's of the various gods / goddesses and tied it to the life bloods and made it a fertility / fecundity item? All of which ties it to power, reincarnation, rebirth, fertility, the womb, femininity, the female and in many ways the void where life forms and is created or destroyed. It also tied it to the broken celestial egg or the cracked and broken egg with half of the promise given and half yet retained which goes back to fertility and fecundity. Or the waters of life and the idea of the void with part drained yet part not poured so the promise of life yet remains to be given and fulfilled.
Was it right? Who knows. But it was a deeper idea than just here is a cup and you put the wand (penis - masculine - projecting life force and energy into it) It was also having an idea, even if wrong where it came from and why it was used as it was to understand the significance of it all.
To understand what it was to be an occultist or witch at the time. How we tied to things and the gods / goddesses if we connected to them. Figure to be a witch did not mean one had to believe in the gods / goddesses.
Today very few people it seems, to me anyway, actually have any connections to a lineage that connects them to a coven, a BTW lineage, a familial connection or such. Most it seem's are what I would hear called Biccan's or worse to be honest. Book Wiccan's or some resemblance of that. Self taught, self dedicated and self initiated into an individual practice that is some form of usually Neo-Wicca or conflated version of it. It's not the practices of what I learnt under for certain. It's not even the practices of the pseudo stuff of the Silver RavenWolf Era that so many still make light of.
So I am curious what does being a pagan / witch mean to you?
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