Pagan Ways, Spiritual Paths, and Diverging Roads

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less travelled by.
And that has made all the difference."

We've all heard the above words many times. Stevenson's poem is as well-known and as often-quoted as the Biblical tenants or some of science's most treasured axioms. As Pagans we should not be strangers to diversity and should in fact be embracing it entirely- for within diversity we are given the opportunity to find the common experience, the common thread, the common core and essence of humanity. Yet this important idea is often ignored by Pagans who are confused- by the popularity of one path within Paganism - about what Paganism is, and it leads them to forget the rich diversity of paths and spiritual practices that all come underneath the umbrella term of 'Paganism'.

"Have a good Lughnassadh!"
"Oh, I'm sorry- I don't celebrate Lughnassadh."
"Well why on earth not? That's one of the Pagan festivals! You're Pagan!"
"I'm an Hellenic Pagan. Why would I celebrate a festival that is alien to Greece and the Greek Gods?"
"Because... it's Pagan!"

And so the overheard conversation went. What the first speaker failed to realise was that not everybody adheres to a Wiccan or British Pagan (here referring to the Celtic/Druidic system of Earth Festivals) path, and therefore not everybody celebrates the eight festivals of Wicca, or casts a circle, or has a Law of Three. Modern times have seen Wicca booming in popularity all over the world, and this popularity, whilst having its many advantages, has also its disadvantages: it has, for instance, caused people to think that Paganism is Wicca, and that anybody not sticking to the Wiccan 'format' of spirituality and practice is doing it wrong.

But Wicca does not have a strangle-hold on Paganism. It is not the only path within Paganism, and its origins in Great Britain mean that its format is often unsuitable for many Pagan paths. When it Rome, do as the Romans do: why should a Pagan who worships the Mediterranean Gods want to celebrate a festival that originally marked harvest season in the British Isles? Why would an Egyptian Pagan want to follow a yearly cycle of planting, growing, and harvesting when the land (and therefore Gods) of Egypt follow a completely different agricultural cycle?

The purpose of this article is to highlight some of the diverse paths that are seen as coming under the umbrella term of 'Paganism', and to discuss their differences, their practices, and hopefully show that there is more to 'Pagan' than eight festivals, an athame, and a pentagram. Later on we shall also be asking the all-important and seemingly impossible to answer question of what all the Pagan paths have in common.

I will not give long definitions of the different paths here, since these can be found easily by a simple search on the internet. However, here are just a few Pagan paths.

Asatru, Thelema, Hellenic Paganism, Celtic Paganism, Faery Faith, Satanism, Gnosticism, Christian-Paganism, Druidry, Hermeticism, Hedgewitchery, Vodou, Gardnerian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca, Eclectic Wicca, Dianic Wicca, Correllian Wicca, Reconstructionalist, Shamanism, Solitary Wicca, Seax Wicca, Family Tradition, Stregheria, Vedic Paganism.

There are many more, not including the off-shoots of all the above and new groups founding their own tradition left, right, and centre. A quick Google search on any of the above will yield interesting results and plenty of information.

They're all classed as Pagan paths, but their practices and beliefs are so different. The Wiccan believes in the Law of Threefold Return and the law of Harm None, yet the Satanist thinks the latter to be insipid and pathetic, preferring the Nine Satanic Principles as a guide. Celtic Pagans and Druids celebrate the Fire festivals and sometimes the solstices and equinoxes, whilst the Asatruar celebrate only a couple of those festivals and Vodou has a holy calendar quite of its own. Wicca in its many forms is seen to include various pantheons for the initiate to 'choose' from, whilst Eclectic Wicca is happy to choose all of them, Celtic Pagans worship only the Celtic Gods, and Christo-Paganism sticks with the Christian mythos. Reconstructionists like to get it all right, and recreate Paganism to how it was thousands of years ago, whilst Family Tradition creates its own path to hand down to its forebears and Eclectic Wicca will do whatever works.

Hedge Witches may only perform magic, whilst the Vedic Pagan may focus on the spiritual/religious aspect of their path. Druidry may be focused on the cycles of the British Land, whilst Hellenic Paganism is concerned with a Mediterranean agricultural cycle. Christo-Pagans may take part in a lot of solitary prayer, whilst Alexandrian Wiccans may take part in many group rituals and workings.

Many of the adherents to the paths mentioned above class themselves as Pagans- but not all of them follow the eight festivals, cast a circle, or believe in the Harm None rule. It is this that demonstrates most the diversity of the Pagan Way, and the ignorance we can easily slip into of other peoples' paths. Wicca may be the most popular and widespread Pagan path today, but it is not the only way, the right way, or the one way that all other ways derive from. It is very much separate from most other Pagan paths, and we should not expect those in the other paths to do the same as a Wiccan.

These paths are so very different: how then, can they all be classed as Pagan? What do they have in common to merit this distinction and habitation under the umbrella-term? We could say that they all involve deities. But we would be wrong. Many Satanists do not worship deities, and many Eclectic Pagans do not acknowledge anything but Universal Energy.

We could say they all practice magic. But again, we would be wrong. Not all Pagans practice magic at all, irrespective of their path. It is not a requirement for a spiritual path.

Are they all nature-based? No. Gnosticism, Stregheria, Family Traditions, and more do not base themselves around the cycle of Nature.

We could even say that they focus on the individual's freedom to choose, but that would be unfair on other, non-Pagan religions that allow choice in the spiritual path. (E.g. Buddhism)

It certainly is difficult to find out what they all have in common, other than the fact that they are spiritual paths. They do have in common the fact that they grew out of man's need to understand himself and the Universe around him, but all religions have that in common, not just the Pagan ones.

Maybe then, the common thread lies in the desire to be put under the umbrella-term of 'Pagan'. Generally, the people who adhere to the above religions get on very well with each other unlike, say, a Satanist and a Christian or a Thelemite and a Catholic. They all want to be under that umbrella-term with people who, despite their diversity, have the same kind of feelings about what spirituality is, what the human religious experience is. Maybe then, the common thread lies not in the definition of the different paths themselves, but in the people who follow the paths? In their response to the world, in their feelings about the world and other people, in their desires and in their preferences of label.

We may not all wave athames around, jump a Bel fire on May 1st, nor believe in our actions coming back to us threefold, but we fit together somehow. We're all classified as Pagans, and we're gradually learning to live with each other and our diversity. It's a slow process, because of the natural human need to be better than our neighbour and to want to be right all the time, but we are hopefully reaching a time of new awareness.