The word “pagan” was first used by the ancient Romans. It was used by city dwellers to refer to the “rustic” folk who lived outside of the cities and made a living out of tilling the earth, hunting, herding, etc. These “outsiders” or “country dwellers” (which, as I understand, is closest to the literal meaning of the word), were strange folk in the eyes of the more conventional Roman citizens. They prayed to different gods and they did so with strange and primitive rituals. They rarely worshipped in any sort of temple. They were just “different.”

Over time, “pagan” become synonymous for “strange” and “different.” As Christianity began to take hold as the majority religion, “pagan” became anyone or anything that wasn’t Christian, excluding Jews, but including and Muslims.

As the people began to seek spirituality in places other than Christianity, the ancient faiths of the world began to resurface. As it is human nature to label everything, these revival religions needed a name. As the early church had deemed all such religions “pagan,” that name sort of stuck. Now, paganism has become “Paganism” – with a capital ‘P’ – or Neo-Paganism, to emphasize the reality that ours is essentially a new version of the old religions. For, as much as many would like to believe that what is being practiced today is all a carry-over from the ancient past, modern Paganism is a reconstruction, at best, but in most cases, a brand new faith with old ideas at it core.

Today, Paganism can be defined as any of several earth-centered spiritual belief systems that acknowledge the presence of divinity within the natural universe and within the forces of nature. These faiths also acknowledge that humanity exists as an integral part of the natural universe, rather than as its master or its adversary.

So defined, Paganism encompasses a wide variety of spiritual paths, including native shamanism (American or otherwise). Some of the specifically Pagan paths that you may hear about are Wicca, Asatru, Khemitic, Celtic Reconstructionist – or just “Celtic,” Druidism, Reclaiming Tradition, and so on. In some of these cases, there are divisions within that break things down even further. Wicca, for instance has a variety of different “traditions” (also called “trads,” for short), such as Alexandrian, Gardnerian, Faery Witta, etc.). As everything filters down, however, it comes down to the individual. Most Pagans generally accept the idea that each individual has his or her own way of looking at the Universe, so that a person’s spiritual path is, ultimately, unique to the individual.

But what is meant by "earth-centered?" Earth-centered refers to the idea that the earth is central to our existence as human beings. Often, those who are very dedicated to this concept refer to the earth in a maternal sense. They will refer to the earth as "the mother of us all" or simply as "Gaia," the the Titan earth and mother goddess of the ancient Greeks.

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