[Lady Sidhe]

Well, technically, "pagan" comes from "paganus," which meant, in the day, "country bumpkin." Basically, christianity hit the cities first, and only gradually trickled down into the countryside, where most worshipped a pantheon of sorts. Therefore, anyone who lived in the country was referred to as a "pagan," indicating that they weren't christian.

To put it simply, all wiccans are pagans, but not all pagans are wiccan. Pagan, in my experience, has generally meant any religion that is earth-based--God/dess oriented--balance oriented. Pagan religions tend to see god reflected in nature, and so have a respect for nature. They tend to try to align themselves with nature's rhythms, for instance. Most that I've seen believe in reincarnation, in being here to learn and coming back until we're done; they may believe in a pantheon of gods that, in reality, are only facets of a single being; many believe in karma biting you in the ass for things you do that you know are wrong, and most I've seen are non-proseletyzing and believe in tolerance for all religious paths.

That's what I've experienced being a pagan. It may not be like that everywhere. I don't do covens, so I don't have a lot of experience with hierarchy and groups. Most I know are solitaries, and they range from Greek, Roman, Italian, Native American, Norse, Voudoun, and hedge/kitchen-witch types. All of them, at least the ones that I know, have had the same basic beliefs. Certainly not a massively representative group, but there it is.



Sidhe