The meaning of the word “pagan” is “country dweller” or “rustic”, someone who lives in the countryside or village. It is now used as a blanket term for everyone who lives in areas where polytheistic traditions were common. However, in the current era, pagan refers to many religions including the Eastern religions and those of the indigenous people of Americas, Central Asia, Australia and Africa. The one true belief that is common among pagan religions is that Nature and the environment is of utmost importance and that each individual has the powers that are necessary to live happily in this world without the control and dominance of the three Abrahamic religions which have brought our world to its knees by their constant aggression in the name of an unseen God.
Paganism is not a religion; it is a belief in the magick of Nature, its powers, its glory and its ability to sustain us and everything in the environment. It is only when humans start to meddle with Nature and destroy what belongs to the entire world that this precarious balance will slowly be obliterated.
In pagan religions all living things including animals, birds, rivers, mountains, oceans and other natural phenomena are considered sacred and powerful. It is these traditions that have preserved and enriched the Earth. On the other hand the lack of such sensitivity and vision have created wars and killed billions of living beings. Lack of a true conscience and investment in the very place that sustains us creates monsters such as Hitler who systematically tried to eradicate an entire race from the planet!
A number of corporations are now in the race for systematically changing the food supply by altering their DNA and destroying land using chemicals in pesticides and preservatives. One may wonder what happens to these minds which are constantly focused on one thing – amassing wealth while destroying the planet. To them Nature is something that is meant to be manipulated for their profits.
Paganism was the very first “religion” in the world. The fact that it exists today after millions of years of human existence speaks volumes. Although there was no messiah and no single God in pagan religions, people all over the world simultaneously came together in the belief of a deity (or number of deities) which ruled the Universe. Pagan religions existed in all continents of the Earth at one time or another.
Although the new version of paganism is called Neopaganism, this form of religion also has roots in many of the ancient movements including Celtic Polytheism, Norse Paganism, Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism, Indigenous religions in China, Africa, etc.
As the Christian missionaries spread out and “conquered” peaceful lands, they focused on cities where they could convert the masses quickly. In this frenzy, many of the sparsely populated areas were ignored. That also could be a reason why pagans were usually considered not only “country folk” but also “ignorant” of the new religions and their fervor to control people with a brand new “God’s message”.
The words “Pagan” and “Heathen” have been used historically to disparage others by people who were enamored by monotheistic religions which claimed superiority among all religions for unknown reasons. Although many of the slaves who were forcefully taken away from Africa to other countries such as West Indies and USA were forced to convert to Christianity or Catholicism, they retained many of their original natural religions and continue to follow them to this day.
As the so called “pagan” or natural religions expand and the world gets tired of proselytizing, more and more of the younger generation will be attracted to natural and powerful religions that give the power back to the people.
No amount of imaginary words such as “hell”, “purgatory”, “sin”, etc will scare people into converting to another religion anymore. People are getting sick of the money that the US government gives in the name of “faith based initiative” that goes to other countries where rampant conversion is performed regardless of the consequences. In India, Christians, even after two hundred years of proselytizing, are a small minority and many of these return back to Hinduism after the “gifts for conversion” are used up. It is easy to convince “pagan”
people to accept gifts, but it’s not that easy to change their minds as their belief is not rooted in money or power but in the pure natural joy of existence. For pagan people are all-knowing and are aware of the ways of the Universe.
As a result of these systemic attacks to our planet, many people from Abrahamic religions are slowly being attracted to the pagan religions and at this time, Wicca, one of the powerful pagan religions in the world is the fastest growing religion in the USA. There will always be a balance on Earth so that the people who intend to destroy the planet will always have to contend with those who wish to preserve our home forever.
