Are there any famous Pagans?
356681
Your question made me curious, this is what I found:\nhttp://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Dell/9880/famous.html\nMost of the people on this list are writers, science fiction and such...Alice Walker surprised me by being on this list.
864926
Absolutely you can - a dear friend of mine who lives in Hull just recently got married in a Pagan ceremony there.\n\nCongrats!\n\nMay the Lord and Lady rain blessings on your union!\n\nI'm not sure how you'd find a Pagan Prist/ess, but there MUST be some sort of online networking going on.
704429
It's funny you asked that.  My girlfriend and I were discussing last night what we and our friends will be doing for Yule this year.\nWe always get together at one or the other's house and do a ritual that is kid as well as non pagan friendly because we usually have family and/or friends in attendance who are not pagans.  And of course we eat... a lot.\nI was just about to do a little research and start working on our ritual.  Thanks for reminding me...
394555
chordie.com is my favorite in general. I have a couple of dozen tabsites bookmarked. i do not know what a pagan song is but plenty of good tunes at chordie
958747
Yea I didn't know much about Paganism. I learned alot from Chris J, a user on here, he is awesome. Also I saw that many of my fellow Christians are absolute NUTCASES on here.\n\n():-D\nshadowgirl
786080
I worship Celtic (mostly Gaulish) deities. Taranis, Cernunnos, Lugh (Lugus), and Epona are the deities that I am closest to. I also honor Sequana, Don (Welsh), and Sulis---as well as a few local land and water deities.\n\nThose are the deities that I have been able to make the closest connections to through prayer, meditations, rituals, and personal experiences.
63682
Merry Meet!\nBecause they don't understand what you/we believe in. Unfortunately, there are so many religions, but if you research them, you will find that most religions follow a lot of the Pagan/Wiccan beliefs. Take a look at Christmas, for example. The first Christmas tree was used by Pagans as a Yule Tree in Germany. Prince Albert of Germany, Queen Victorias husband, made it popular when he set one up in Windsor Castle for his family.\nBlessed Be!
1144203
I don't know any group that reads more than Pagans! \n\nThere's a book called Wise Woman... er something about the Child Bearing Year, by Susun Weed that she might like.\nOr Circle Round by Starhawk (I am not a personal fan of this because it doesn't relate to my tradition in the slightest, but alot of people I know rave about it)\nA subscription to Blessed Bee Magazine might be nice. That's a Pagan parenting magazine.\n\nPregnancy is a very special time in a Pagan woman's life as she gets to serve as a vessel of creation, the image of the Goddess incarnate, a living celebration of Her gift to women of the power of creation. Anything that will help her commemorate or celebrate this time will be wonderful as well as anything to pamper her to honor the Goddess in herself, especially in a natural, organic or aromatherapeutic way.\nMotherlove gift basket here might be appreciated http://store.kidbean.com/2000013.html\n\nMeditation or nature sound CDs are nice for the labor room too. If she's into it. Not all Pagans are that far out. Stay away from the Goth and Hot Topic stuff too, though someone suggested it, contrary to popular belief, the majority of Pagans are, in fact, not into the Goth scene. Granted, quite a few are, but if you assume she is, she'll probably just be offended. Wouldn't you be offended if someone bought you a Pilgrim outfit cause they heard you were Christian?\n\nIf you want to go for candles, or candle holders, as so many other folks are suggesting (and it's true we can never have too many) some symbolic shapes relating to pregnancy, fertility and having a healthy baby are the cauldron, a Goddess image with a pregnant belly, of course, anything involving the union of male and female, wells, fruiting trees, any sort of fruit, rabbits, eggs, birds. Mother and child images are also very nice and you can find lots of them. I personally get weepy over these.\n\nYour first poster is ignorant. Most Pagans already own Bibles and have read them cover to cover multiple times.
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I have noticed that many who call themselves ' vampires ' gravitate to Paganism, but all Pagans are by no means ' vampires'. It really depends on what branch of Paganism they practice.
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There is a famous story of an English Pagan king who was visited by a Missionary. He was told about Christianity and immediately accepted it!\n\nThe missionary was curious when the King took a cross from him. He asked why did you accept Christianity without question. He took the missionary to the back of his hall and showed him a table of idols and put the cross among them. \nThe Missionary asked you will have to destroy all these idols now. The King answered, I believe in all these Gods, I do not know which is the right one so I pray to them all. At least one must be the true one.\n\nYour mother is correct there is but one God with many names. Find one image of God that suits you and pray to that one alone.
81028
I am Christian and I don't practice magic, but am interested. I do know that this is the holiday which follows the Roman celebration of Winter Solstice, where the days are getting longer and the sun is returning from battle with darkness (so goes the mythology). I have not read much about Imbolgc, though, except that is something about the celebration of the recovery of the Goddess after giving birth to the God. I'll read up more on it. I have a question for you. Have you ever been able to achieve anything with your practice? I've never run into anyone who actually practiced anything other than Wicca, and I'm curious. I'm not actually interested in learning it, just in learning about it and what you've actually been able to do. And is this more than just a fun thing for you. Is it a spirituality of sorts for you? I'm learning about several belief backgrounds and I'd like to learn something from you. I do know a little about alot of religions, but not pagan traditions.
507472
Hello, little daughter! I'm a Non-Denominational Happy Pagan Person. Be happy to answer if I can.
1052083
A pagan one. :-P Pagan religions were the majority until Christianity came along.
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Modern-day, a Pagan is a person who is polytheistic and/or follows an earth-based religion.\n\nBack a few years, a Pagan was anybody not of the Judeo-Christian faith.\n\nBack a while more, it was a person who lived in the country.\n\nFarther back, it was used by the Romans to describe people in villages who worshipped their local deities.\n\n\nPeople use the first example most often. :)
7433
Yes. In fact, almost all of the traditions of Christmas were "stolen" (if you will) by the Christian religion from the pagan celebration of the winter solstice.\n\nAnd, by the way, "pagan" doesn't mean satanic, nor does it mean "having no religion" in this context. Rather, in ancient Rome, pagans followed a polytheistic religion.\n\nThe winter celebration was called the festival of Saturnalia. "By the fourth century, the pagans were worshipping the god of the sun on December 25, and the Christians came to a decision: if you can't stop 'em, join 'em. They claimed (contrary to known fact) that the date was Jesus' birthday, and usurped the solstice holiday for their Church."\n\nLights were very much a representation of the stars and sun, as a way to celebrate the pleasures of life.
829255
No.  No direct link at all.  It was not his birthday.  It wasn't even a Christian Holiday till after the Roman Catholic Church began to celebrate next to Pagans in hopes of getting converts (which right here shows me that the persecution they claim that went on, was not as wide-spread as they would like us to believe).  They ended up taking Pagan traditions from things like the Roman Saturnalia and other cultural traditions for Solstice celebrations that Pagans had during that time of year (Yule falls on the 1st day of Winter and was usually celebrated for about a week).\n\nAs for the Xmas thing... the X was a Greek symbol, Chi Rho, which meant "good passage" in many Greek writings.  It was later used as a symbol for Christ.  Some say it's the cross turned on it's side and meant to show the defeat of Christ... but I have yet to find any such thing in history that relates to that at all.\n\n\nHope this helped
1151750
"Pagan" is hard to define; a lot of people think of it as "any religion that's not Christianity, Judaism or Islam." I don't think that's quite accurate, but it's okay to start with. \n\nSince your sister talked about a "Wiccaning" (not "wickening), she's talking about the pagan religion Wicca (and here's where I start quoting Wikipedia): Wicca is a religion, and although its adherents often identify as witches, Wicca and witchcraft are not necessarily the same thing.\n\nWiccans may worship a Goddess and/or a God; they observe the festivals of the eight Sabbats of the year and the full-moon Esbats; and they have a code of ethics that most live by. Wicca is thus generally considered to be distinct from witchcraft, which does not of itself imply any specific religious, ethical or ritual elements, and is practiced in various forms by people of many religions, as well as by atheists.\n\nWicca does, however, incorporate a specific form of witchcraft, with particular ritual forms, involving the casting of spells, herbalism, divination and other forms of magic. Wiccan ethics require that magical activities are limited to good purposes only.\n\nAccording to Gerald Gardner [the one who brough Wicca into modern public awareness], the religion derives from a secret but widespread witch-cult of early modern Europe, which incorporated all of the key religious beliefs and ideals and the distinctive ritual structures found in modern Wicca. While this historical interpretation is now much criticised, it makes it difficult to conclusively say whether Wicca is a religious form of witchcraft or a religion incorporating witchcraft.