Any Pagans?

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Is anybody here a (neo-)pagan? I'm not, but I don't see it discussed very often and I am curious. Pagan isn't the best umbrella term, so I guess I am asking if anyone is a non-Abrahamic, non-Vedic polytheist/animist?

I dabbled a bit with it in my youth, but eventually decided it was as absurd as Christianity, and now I don't do religion at all, except to study it as a strange curiosity. I have respect for emotion and art, but I don't think "spiritual" means anything that those two terms don't already cover.

Paganism is metaphorically true about reality, monotheism/"life denying" religions are metaphorically true about what we desire. Only religion that seems to hybridize both is Hinduism, though Buddhism does a better job at acknowledging the reality it's denying than the Abrahamic faiths.

I guess in those terms I would consider myself pagan, however I don't know that I'd consider myself 'cleanly' polytheist insofar as I don't know that any conscious thing is truly separate at the lowest / deepest levels.

In a way this is also tricky for me just on how similar Neoplatonism and Advaita Vedanta are in terms of their cosmology. My resting conclusions, after spending five years in both AMORC and BOTA, and then scouring the Hermetic literature, the post Golden Dawn and Thelemic literature, and then looking at the 'Theories of Everything' community such as Wolfram, Hoffman, Kastrup, Friston, etc. - I think we're coming to a modern re-embrace of Neoplatonism and I hear this a lot by way of John Vervaeke as it applies to 4E Cognitive Science and I've also hears now quite a few times the name Thomas Taylor come up as apparently he was an 18th/19th century Neoplatonist who was already dissecting the concepts in modern terms and reframing it in ways that are friendly to modern rigor.

Overall I probably find the most affinity for Hoffman and Prakash's 'Conscious Realism' which is a granular mathematical idealism (ie. existence itself as conscious) that gives rise to Darwinian evolution and game theory but which also 'stacks' in a way that can be best describe as functionalism with multiple realizability - ie. both bottom-up and top-down causation. From that perspective I do consider the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and Qliphoth very interesting and useful concepts and even maps in terms of spiritual self-exploration, really a bit like an organic 'depth psychology' from long before the term was coined. Another thing - the Neoplatonist and Advaitic structures make sense to me, however I'm not 100% sure whether it's just emanation (ie. top-down) or whether it's both top-down and bottom-up, seems to be both really.

If anyone wants to chat more about some of the above concepts I'd be happy to. In particular more of a drill-down on Thomas Taylor might be interesting because he seems like such an interesting link between Plotinus's work as Neoplatonism compared to the current kind of Neoplatonism that some cognitive scientists are attempting to resurface and build in modern framing.

Been pagan/polytheist/animist since 89.

It might be worth mentioning that hinduism and buddhism are philosophical ways of living > religion

The rise of vedism that gave rise to modern hinduism and buddhism is a marriage of Indo-European ploytheistic dieties and priesthood (which was common to those who worhsipped war gods Zeus and Thor). Interestingly the ancient Iranian war god was named Verethragna who was related to the hindu Indra. The root word "Ragnar" means war/warrior in Scandanavian as well. Vedic ritual in it's pure form was practiced in the Indo-European homeland.

I'm an omnist. I believe all deities are linked together in one way or another. Even the "God of Abraham" is really a mix of two different Canaanite deities but most people either are unaware or refuse to acknowledge this.

But if you pay really close attention to every pantheon and concept of things like creation, The Underworld, and The Heavenly Planes you will find too many coincidences in all of these things.

I think when it comes to insepecting the deities of our world the question should not be "Do they exist?" But rather "How do they exist?".

Was. New religions are just the same old religions wrapped in bright, shiny paper.

All religions are linked together one way or another.

Also the older I get the more I realize I dislike the term "neopagan". Paganism was a rather derogatory term to basically blanket anybody who was not Christian (like gentile for the Jews and kafirs for Muslims).

Not only is modern "neo" paganism nothing like the actual religions of old (and despite their utter contempt for Christiainity they think exactly the way same way Christians tend to do), but the people who practiced these old religions probably would have never called themselves "Pagans".

Also the irony is in how neopagans seem to place such a heavy emphasis on witchcraft and 'magick'. When in reality the people living in ancient times worshipping different deities had no more respect for "witches" and sorcerers than the Christians did.

Oracles and Priestesses like the one in Delphine who was speaking to the gods was one thing, but a witch like the Greek Circe , the Slavic Babayaga, or the Yamamba (mountain hags) of Japan were to be deeply feared, not respected.

Of course to the Crusading Christians of the old days it was all satan-worshipping evil and they felt the need to oppress and destroy anyone else's religions but I think you all get my point.

No, I am not a Pagan.

I don't identify as Pagan, but I'm an agnostic with leanings toward polytheism.

I don't believe in any deities, so I am not Pagan. I have a fascination with ancient religions, though, as I do with ancient history in general. When looking into ancient Greek mythology I found out about Euterpe, one of the muses. She is associated with the ancient Greek woodwind instrument, the aulos and in some beliefs was said to invent it and other wind instruments. I love woodwind instruments, so naturally, I really like Euterpe.

I do not believe in her, but when speaking to myself, I'll replace "God" with "Euterpe" in common phrases like "God give me strength" (I'll say "Euterpe give me strength" instead lol).

An actual Pagan might find what I do to be offensive, as I'm just having fun with the idea. Sorry.

If I took offence with that, I'd have to take offence with 95% of my fellow neoPagans who do that. 'Paganism' really is an umbrella term these days. There are atheist pagans and psychology pagans etc.

I'm a little more old school polytheist/animist. But to each their own.

No I am church of Christ not Pagan

Nope.
I was but gradually I came to accept that I didn't believe in polytheism any more than I believed in monotheism.

Being Pagan is a state of mind. It has nothing to do with lame labels or wearing kitch paraphernalia so others think you are somehow cool. If you are emotionally moved by this Bjork song, then you understand the power of paganism.



An emotional connection to the earth and land