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Paganism
Any of a number of earth-centered spiritual paths and faith systems, including but not restricted to: Asatru/Norse; Blended (Christo-pagan, Judeo-pagan, etc); Celtic (Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Faerie, Druidism); Ceremonial Magic (Golden Dawn, Rosicrucian); Eclectic; Egyptian; Italian/Strega; Shamanism (North American, South American, European, Asian); Voudoun/Santeria; Wicca (Gardnerian, Dianic, Alexandrian, Solitary, Family Tradition).
904 Questions
What are so things witches can do?
Fly on brooms and tree branches, cause painful pinching towards their victims, cause their victims to have seizures or fits, curse others they dislike, and generally cause mayhem. At least, this is what was believed in colonial times, of course.
What is the meaning of the word pious?
Piety is being good and doing good for the sake of it, and not for selfish reasons. Pious is the adjective form of piety, to describe a pious act, attitude, or person. The Roman Emperor Antoninus Pious was so named for his piety, and his reign was the most peaceful of all the Roman emperors.
Short answer is, they don't. Long answer is they rely on the ideomotor effect. It is so easy to move the rod that even barely noticeable movements will effect the direction it turns. Basically the user of the rod is subconsciously guiding it themselves.
What does the 5 star pentagram represent?
The Pentagram has always had mystical meanings. It has been found scratched in stone age caves as old as man himself. It has been associated with astronomical and religious meaning and at certain points in history with sinister doings. Babylonian,Sumatran and Hebrew writings and drawings were often embellished with the pentagram.
According to the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, five was the number of Mankind.
The five points of the star being elements of fire,water,air,earth and the spirit.
The pentagram was a preferred emblem to adorn the jewelry and amulets of early Christians. They wore the pentagram as representing the five wounds of Christ on the cross while at the same time it symbolized doctrines of Magic, Alchemy and Kabbalah to non-Christian groups.
Lately the pentagram has been most associated with Neo Pagans and Wiccans. In most Wiccan and Pagan rituals, its symbolic meaning is derived from Ceremonial Magic and protection. The five are the four elements ruled by the spirit. In many of these rituals the pentagram also symbolizes unity of the circle within the realm of the spirit and the elements.
It kind of represents how life works.
Was Easter originally a pagan festival?
Like all Christian holidays, Easter was a pagan festival which was subverted to representing a Christian theme, despite bearing no relation to the event it commemorates or the symbols it uses.
Easter is indeed from pagan festival to honor the fertility god. That is why they use the rabbit and the egg. dont believe me look it up.
What is a pagan birthday celebration?
Pagan festivals are like the festivals for any other religion or even any community of people. They consist of a community-wide celebration and there is often music, dancing, games and good food. They are often organized on a yearly basis. Religious festivals they have special customs associated with them involving ritual and worship. This question was placed in the category "Christmas" so it may be worth pointing out that the Christian festival of Christmas often is celebrated with features of the older pagan religions in the same area, such as keep a fire going all night to "help" the sun get through the long night of the winter solstice; and bringing in green leaves and branches from the outside, such as holly, ivy and pine branches.
Are there such people as warlocks nowadays?
No there is no such things as warlocks.
The term warlock means: Warlocks are, among historic Christian traditions, said to be the male equivalent of witches. Likewise, in traditional Scottish witchcraft warlock was and is simply the term used for a wizard, or male witch. A synonym is sorcerer.
Males are called witches not warlocks. I know this because I'm a male and a witch.
Who was the chief of the Viking Gods?
This is a basic list and the subjects they rule over... I'm sure I've missed some, but if someone else thinks of who they are, feel free to add them....
Aegir - beer, gold, hospitality, sea & water.
Baldur - light, wisdom & wisdom.
Bil - destiny & weaving.
Bragi - knowledge.
Eir - healing, medicine & women.
Forseti - justice &. peace
Frey - fertility .& travel
Freya- fertility, prophecy, sex, sexuality (feminine), war, wealth & weather.
Frigg - fertility, marriage & motherhood,
Fulla/Volla - grain, messenger & virgins.
Gefjon - generosity, prophecy, sea & virgins.
Gna - horses, messenger & travel.
Gullveig - gold & triple goddess
Heimdal - guardian, light & watchman of the gods.
Hel - underworld
Hermod - communication, courage & messenger.
Hlin - consolation & protection of men.
Hod - war.
Hoenir - intelligence, light & silence.
Huldra - song, trees, forests & woodlands.
Idun - youth.
Jord/Fjorgyn - earth.
Kvasir - peace, poetry & wisdom.
Lodur - speech.
Loki - the trickster, (a shape shifter)
Lofn - love, marriage & passion.
Magni - strength.
Mimir - wisdom.
Modi - courage.
Nanna -cleanliness, the moon & purification.
Nerthus - earth, peace, poetry, trees, forests & woodlands
Njord - sea & wind.
Norns - destiny & fate.
Odin - god of death, knowledge, poetry, rune magic, travel, war, warriors, & wisdom.
Ran - sea.
Saga - prophecy.
Sif - crops.
Sjofn/Vjofn - harmony, love & marriage.
Skadi - hunting & skiing.
Snotra - gentleness, knowledge, self-discipline & wisdom.
Syn - guardian & justice.
Thor - the life force, lightning, strength, thunder & thunder storms
Tiwaz/Tyr - battle, courage, justice, law, solemn oaths & war.
Ull - hunting & skiing.
Vali - war.
Var - marriage, promises & vows
Ve - speech.
Vidar - freedom, independence & strength.
Vili - will.
Vor - contracts, faith, insight, marriage, promises & vows, self-discipline & wisdom.
Odin, Thor, Loki, Frey, Freya, Idun, Sif and Hel.
You cannot 'get' magic, magic is born into you, much like your hair color.
i love this this is why, wicca and paganism are still trying to find themselves....
getting magic(k) is growing an awareness of the energy and designs that attract to you, without this your as clueless as those about you, and no it isn't born, the memories, desires, thoughts, dreams, and even blood from the ones who understand these things can be...
see how the modern business of magick, charms, talismans, spells, and hopeful chants, had desiccated their own futures.... (anything openly visible for a long time is like playing the mailman game) one says it and 7 pass it on, and in the end it isn't the same message...
however in real magic(k) "sorry to use crowley's K" but i wanted my message to get through....
when a magic(k) person says a message 1,700 persons could pass it and it still will have the original message.... why.... dedication to the message, and not their own will.....
How do you get magic(k).... it gets you....
The Norse Gods resided in Asgard, which was one of one of 9 worlds in Norse Mythology. Each God had their own hall. Valhalla was the hall of Odin, where brave warriors went when they died. There the feasted and fought each day, and when Ragnarok came they helped the Gods fight against the giants. In the end everything would be destroyed by Ragnarok.
Asgard, the sky citadel
Asgard, on the other end of Biforst the rainbow bridge.
Each and every color has its own representation: red is for love, yellow for friendship, etc. Some colors represent goodness where as others something else.
A:From a scientific standpoint, a color is simply how our eyes perceive a particular wavelength of visible light. Red light has the longest wavelength of the colors we can see, while violet has the shortest. So a color represents a particular frequency on the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum.
When was pagan festival observed?
We worship our own personal representation of God (thus giving God the name or names we feel best represents our own tastes). Most worship a Male and Female God and Goddess (after all nature is based on Male and Female coupling why wouldnt there be two dieties?).
Pagans are people who follow their own spiritual paths - in general pagans have a great reverence for nature and the environment, often observing astrological and seasonal festivals, in order to attune with the energies of the planet/universe. Some pagans are members of alternative religions such as Wicca, Druidism etc. Many pagans - though not all - also practice the art of magic and study spiritual development.
What is the name of a person who tells fortunes bye reading your hand?
Those who practice chiromancy are generally called palmists, palm readers, hand readers, hand analysts, or chirologists. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiromancy
Is Halloween a combination of two pagan holidays?
The Celtic culture celebrated All Hallow's Eve around the time we celebrate Halloween. The Celts believed that on that day, spirits could return to the Earth and walk among the living. All Hallow's was also the Celtic New Year celebration. In the Middle Ages, people would fear Hallow's Eve, believing that demons went out to hunt on that night. As the centuries went on, people again adopted the tradition of going out on Hallow's Eve, but took on the Old English tradition of dressing up to scare away evil spirits.
What city in the US has the most pagans?
I was unable to determine an exact number, however, the cities of New Orleans, San Francisco, Salem Mass, New York City, and Minnesota's Twin Cities have the largest population of Pagan people.
Wiccan churches and other Neopagan institutions are becoming more common in the US. However, estimates of their numbers vary widely. Most of the 1990s studies put the number of US Neopagans between 200,000 and 1 million (0.1% to 0.5% of the total population). A 2008 Pew Forum survey put "New Age" religious believers, including Neopagans, at about 1.2 million.
According to David Waldron (2005), roughly 10 million Wiccan-related books were sold in 2000 (up from 4.5 million in 1990), as reported by the American Booksellers Association. However this gives only a rough guide to the size of the Wiccan-related economy and he comments that the added complexity of determining the boundary between Wiccan or Neopagan products and New Age products makes determining the size of the movement from this rather problematic.
More conservative estimates include Helen Berger and Craig Hawkins in Exploring the World of Wicca, who guessed from 150,000 to 200,000. Melton, J. Gordon, Jerome Clark and Aidan A. Kelly in New Age Almanac (1991, p. 340) estimate a total of about 300,000 people associated with the "overall movement" of Wicca, with "tens of thousands" of members active in between 1,000 and 5,000 covens. Conservative estimates arrive at about 50,000 Wiccans in the US (Religious Requirements & Practices of Certain Selected Groups: A Handbook for Chaplains, 1993) while Wiccan high estimates claim several million (Phyllis Curott, The Book of Shadows: A Modern Woman's Journey Into the Wisdom of Witchcraft and the Magic of the Goddess). The largest estimates posit 1 million Wiccans, a fast growth compared to the 100.000/200.000 estimated in late 1990s and early 2000s
As a Pagan can you explain why Paganism is the right religion for you?
well it certainly is hard to explain, believe me.
it's about harnessing all your strength and power into something, be it good or bad, and yeah i can't explain it propperly. I'ts something you have to experience for yourself to understand.
Is jews a ethnic group or a religious group?
Answer 1
The term "Judaism" technically applies only to the religion followed by the Jewish people. Whether or not Jews constitute an ethnic group is a question that has kept many great minds busy for many years.
A look at the physical features of Jews from around the world will reveal very great variation. There are black Jews, there are Indian Jews, there are Oriental Jews, and Jews with hair and eyes of every colour - it is said that people with blonde hair and blue eyes make up a larger percentage of Israel's population than that of Sweden. So it seems that Jews cannot be termed an ethnic group.
What's more, many people convert to Judaism. Somebody who does so is commonly known as a ger or a "Jew by choice." (It should be noted that Jewish law is very clear on the fact that converts must never be considered "less of a Jew" than those born as Jews. A ger is, according to Talmudic law, every bit as much a Jew as someone born to a Jewish mother, which is traditionally the way that Judaism is passed from one generation to the next. Some Reform and all Progressive Jews also consider that somebody born to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother is Jewish, too).
However, there is also a Jewish ethnicity shared by all those who have Jewish mitochondrial DNA. This has led to a general agreement that the Jews are an ethno-religious group, ie; a group that is defined as Jews by either ethnicity or religion, or both.
Answer 2
Judaism is defined as both a religion and an ethnicity. It's an ethnicity because Jews are descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives: Jews, despite their diversity, are related to each other (as has been shown by DNA analyses of far-flung Jewish communities). And it's a religion, because Judaism is defined as the religion of Moses; the religion of the Torah, which includes people born Jewish as well as converts.
What is the population of pagans in the us?
Nobody knows how many Wiccans that there are. I have a hunch that few estimates are accurate within 50%.
Because of the nature of most Wiccans' secrecy it is unknown how many Wiccans there really are.
How do you put a curse on someone?
Answer:
It could be a poem or a simple few words that would make someone suffer. Also ritual can be preformed to curse someone.
Like give a dude a headache by turning their picture upside down then say something like "May your head hurt while you think of the wrong you did me!" Or maybe something worse.
Now remember that all you do comes back to you. If you hurt an innocent, the curse will reverse and hurt you instead. I repeat, magic is not to be used lightly.
Answer:
Buy books on spells. It will show you how to do things.
You can't curse somebody! It's make believe. Unless you're talking about a computergame.
It all comes down to belife, theirs not yours. try telling them you put a curse on them and whatch them mess up their life all on their own.
Caution: What is sent, is returned threefold. Be careful what you wish for.
This will depend on what you refer to as "evil".
Answer 1 (evil defined as harming others): Wicca is a belief system, a religion. It's most basic tenent, "Harm none, do what you Will", is similar the Christian Golden rule, "do unto others as you would have done to you".
ReligiousTolerance org has excellent information about Wicca that is easily understandable for the non-Wiccan public.
Answer 2 (evil defined as following Satan): Satan, the devil, Lucifer; whatever you call him is a Christian belief and has nothing to do with Wicca or its beliefs. Some satanists do use magic for power, but they are Satanists not Wiccans. A real Wiccan uses their power for protection, healing, good fortune, divination, etc. None of those are evil.
Answer 3 (evil defined as religious intolerance): Wicca is not evil at all. Basically the biggest belief is that you can do what you want as long as you don't hurt anyone or anything. (It is worded differently but that is today's translation.) Second of all, WE DON'T BELIEVE IN SATAN SO WE CAN'T WORSHIP HIM! Christians teach that all witchcraft in any way is bad and evil and that includes Wicca. Just to let you know, some Wiccans don't even practice magick. That is DEFINITELY NOT to say that it is bad though. It is just another part of what we do. It is like a form of prayer. Just because we are different doesn't mean we are bad! Some Christians also argue that they suffered more than Wiccans did. I am not about to say that the whole crucification thing was not absolutely terrible in EVERY way. I don't care what you did. You should not be put to death in that way, and if it was just because of your religion then it is even worse!!! I agree completely that it was stupid what happened to Christians, but any "Wiccan" that would do something like that is not a true Wiccan because they won't follow the first rule. "Do as you wish, but harm none." Plus, it wasn't only Wiccans that did that. Also, notice that Christians, as well as others. burned anyone even thought to be a witch at the stake. That also was as stupid as stupid can be. We are also (at least most of us) are very accepting of other religions.
I also want you to know, that I realize that like any religion in the world, Wicca has a few problems. There are always the extremists that think that everyone different than themselves are stupid. Those people should not represent their religion until they change. It also has some problems with the actual religion. I can't think of anything off of the top of my head, but there definitely are a few things, just like every religion everywhere.
I personally am a Wiccan and I do not worship or even believe in Satan, I try and urge other people to try to be kind and gentle towards any other living creature, and I do spells, meditate and talk to our goddess and occasionally our god, but I also do things that any other girl my age would do, talking on the phone, playing on the computer, talking about boys, having sleepovers, occasionally getting sucked into gossip, flirting, trying to get a date, making small unimportant problems into a dramatic event that I have to go cry on my friends shoulders and get hugs about, going to school, listening to music, and MUCH more. I'm a normal person with a religion that is a bit different. I can't share that with almost anyone that I know for fear of losing friends, having friends being forbidden to hang out with me, or of being shunned. I still celebrate things like Christmas with my family. I am very accepting of others, and I am not very different from most other Wiccans. Please just don't be prejudiced against Wiccans because of things you hear from extreme Wiccans that sound like psychos, or from extreme Christians or other prejudiced people. Please don't be prejudiced against other religions either though.
Why do some consider Christmas a pagan holiday?
Christmas given celebration date of December 25th in an attempt to convert Pagans to Christianity. Since the Pagan winter celebration is on Dec. 21-23, the christian leaders decided to place their holy day on Dec. 25 to make it easier to convert pagans to christianity. Everything from the tree to the holly and ivy is stolen from Pagan celebration rituals.
Black magic can be both, bad luck and good luck. The most important and very crucial is how you can deal with it. Because it is very complicated, many people tend to make mistakes with it which make it to be deadly. A good black magic practioner can get very many good things out of it and its better to develop yourself before aiming to do anything with black magick.
Another name for a Shaman or Witch Doctor?
Wise one. Medicine man. Hedge witch.
Depends on your definition. Technically a "Shaman" is a member of the Tungusk tribe of Siberia who communes with the land spirits on behalf of their community, while "Witch Doctor" is an insult applied by early European settlers in America to the healers in the native communities.
