What are your favorite "Pagan" religions?

[Gaura Priya]

Stregheria?

 

[Zardoz]

I chose all of them except for Aztec. Really? Human sacrifice? They may very well be part of my actual ancestors but... no thanks.

PS: I see I'm the only one who voted yes to Bon. That's Tibetan shamanism, FYI.

 

[GabrielWithoutWings]

Wicca
Feri Tradition
Asatru
Hellenism / Romana (I tend to blend them together)
Kemeticism
Indus Valley Dharma
Christianity

 

[Breathe]

I voted.

I like the majority of them, but selected only the ones which are my favourites.

I'd pick:

Modern Hinduism
Vedic Hinduism
Tantra
Bön
Shinto
Ásatrú


Despite being of Celtic stock, I don't think I'd select the Celtic gods as favourites, nor would I the Greco-Roman ones.

I actually have a soft spot for some African and Native American traditional religions, too.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

- the religions of "country-dwellers" (i.e. the pagani, literally)

These are the only ones that can be considered as truly 'pagan' from an etymological POV. The same applies to the 'heathen' religions i.e. 'of the heath / moorland'. Both of these refer to a spirituality based on the land.

Do they? I think it's more that they refer to religions classified by someone else based on where the practitioners live.

The word ' pagan' has now come to be an almost derogatory term for anything non-christian.

I think it was probably derogatory from the get-go.

 

[Noaidi]

Do they? I think it's more that they refer to religions classified by someone else based on where the practitioners live.

Yes, I see your point here. The practitioners probably wouldn't have labelled themselves as pagan.

 

[Herr Heinrich]

I picked Wicca, Asatru, Druidry/Celtic, and Shamanism. I find these four to be very interesting. Especially Shamanism with a Celtic flair.

 

[MissDiscerner]

Druidry, Celtic Polytheism and Kemetic religion. I'm too eclectic for being a recon.

 

[JerryL]

Anything which encourages 20-somethings to go skyclad?

 

[Estro Felino]

before I converted to Christianity, I worshiped the Great Mother, aka Cybele. so...
Cybele - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Marcion]

I voted Tantra, but I don't agree that Tantra has anything to do with religion.
Yoga and Mysticism can likewise not be called religion since they are non-sectarian and you don't have to believe in anything in order to practice them.

 

[StarryNightshade]

-Druidry/Celtic Paganism

-Bon

-Shinto

 

[LegionOnomaMoi]

Paganism is word for someone or group of people that don't acknowledge the God of the Torah, Bible and Koran.

"Etymology: < post-classical Latin paganus (adjective and noun) heathen, as opposed to Christian or Jewish (probably 4th cent.: see below), spec. use of classical Latin pāgānus of or belonging to a country community, civilian, also as noun, inhabitant of a country community, civilian (opposed to mīlēs soldier) < pāgus country district ( < the stem of pangere to fasten, fix: see page n.2) + -ānus -an suffix. Compare earlier payen n., paynim n.
The semantic development of post-classical Latin paganus in the sense ‘non-Christian, heathen’ is unclear. The dating of this sense is controversial, but the 4th cent. seems most plausible. An earlier example has been suggested in Tertullian De Corona Militis xi, ‘Apud hunc [sc. Christum] tam miles est paganus fidelis quam paganus est miles infidelis,’ but here the word paganus may be interpreted in the sense ‘civilian’ rather than ‘heathen’.

There are three main explanations of the development:
(i) The older sense of classical Latin pāgānus is ‘of the country, rustic’ (also as noun). It has been argued that the transferred use reflects the fact that the ancient idolatry lingered on in the rural villages and hamlets after Christianity had been generally accepted in the towns and cities of the Roman Empire; compare Orosius Histories 1. Prol. ‘Ex locorum agrestium compitis et pagis pagani vocantur.’
(ii) The more common meaning of classical Latin pāgānus is ‘civilian, non-militant’ (adjective and noun). Christians called themselves mīlitēs ‘enrolled soldiers’ of Christ, members of his militant church, and applied to non-Christians the term applied by soldiers to all who were ‘not enrolled in the army’.
(iii) The sense ‘heathen’ arose from an interpretation of paganus as denoting a person who was outside a particular group or community, hence ‘not of the city’ or ‘rural’; compare Orosius Histories 1. Prol. ‘qui alieni a civitate dei..pagani vocantur.’ See C. Mohrmann Vigiliae Christianae 6 (1952) 9ff."

There is no classical or late antique sense of the word "pagan" in which it simply amounts to those who do not acknowledge the "God of the Torah, Bible, & Koran."

Ancient Greek - Roman paganism

describes religious practices so diverse one might as well refer religious cultic practices in the classical and late antique worlds.

 

[Sariel]

I picked Norse and Shinto, mostly because I like the Gods and myths of those pantheons. I would have picked Greco-Roman, but their gods are like drunk college students.

 

[Brinne]

I have an obvious bias for Shinto, its a lovely tradition and I know a lot of people who practice it (both Japanese and Non-Japanese).

Other than that Asatru is intriguing. The Eddas are a really good read.

 

[Bunyip]

I love the Greco/Roman, Norse and Australian aboriginal traditions. The Indigenous 'dreamtime ' is a truly fascinating and sophisticated concept.

 

[gsa]

Hmm. Good question. Not a pagan, but for personal enrichment at a narrative level I'm probably most familiar with the Greco Roman pantheon but they always seemed aloof. I find the dark inevitability of the Norse mythos kind of fascinating, along with urðr/wyrd. And of course, Near Eastern tradition, with its unusual creation story and especially the story of Erra and the Seven.

 

[Iti oj]

neopagans

 

[Iti oj]

OMG!! I'm not the only one who thinks the LHP is pagan!

 

[Aupmanyav]

I selected every one except Wicca. I do not know much about Wicca and I look in history for religions. Manufactured religions will not interest me. As everybody knows, Hinduism has its LHPs.

Not to mention Hinduism is still technically a "book" group of religions, since pretty much all of them rely on the Vedas and/or other books. Pagan religions don't really have central books.

How many Hindus know about Vedas? 5%, 10%. Ramayana and Mahabharata are stories, they are not religious law books. Majority of Hindu do without Vedas and are happy with their idols of Gods and Goddesses, most of whom are not even mentioned in the Vedas.

Hinduism ultimately believes or professes ultimately in a One Essence, whether that is monistic or nondualist (Advaita Vedanta), or dualistic, or highly personal and monotheistic (Vishishtadvaita Vedanta). The seeming pluralism on a literal level would only exist in the tribal religions of India.

That is the Hinduism of the elite.