"Some Basic Definitions" (from Starhawk)

[bloom]

‘Pagan’ comes from a Latin root that means ‘land’ or ‘countryside’ and it referred to the people who held on to the local, earth-based teachings and traditions the longest, even after book-based religions came in....For Pagans, the sacred is immanent, embodied in the natural world that we humans are part of, and expressed through the cycles of birth, growth, death and regeneration around us....

‘Wicca’ or ‘Witchcraft’ or ‘The Craft’ is one branch of contemporary Paganism. “Wic’ comes from an Anglo-Saxon root meaning ‘to bend or twist’, and Witches were the shamans, medicine people, healers, and diviners who could bend or twist your fate....For Witches, nature is our sacred text and we practice our religion through ritual and ceremony, traditionally in small groups but today often in larger gatherings as well. Drums, dance, meditation, poetry, art, music, trance, storytelling, and focused energy characterize our rituals. Men as well as women can be Witches, and are called ‘Witches’.

‘Polytheism’ means the belief in many different names and approaches to the sacred. While most of us believe in a deep, spiritual unity at the heart of existence, we also believe in the value of many different names, faces, symbols, and paths to that heart. No one has a monopoly on truth, in our teachings, and every religion and spiritual tradition holds a perspective that has value and is uniquely suited to some individuals’ needs...

‘Magic’ was defined by occultist Dion Fortune as “the art of changing consciousness at will.” Magic is the ancient psychology of identifying and opening to the wide spectrum of states of awareness that we as humans are capable of. Some of these states allow us to listen more deeply to the communications of other beings around us—from the plants and animals in the natural world to spiritual forces. Some states allow us to affect change, but we are bound by strong ethical constraints when we work in those modes. “What you send out magically returns on you three times over,” we say—a kind of amplified Golden Rule....

‘Reclaiming’ is both the name of the particular Pagan tradition I practice and the extended network of people I work with.... See www.reclaiming.org for a listing of groups and projects.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/starhawk/2006/11/some_basic_definitions.html#more

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Thanks

It may interest you to know that one of the ten Sufi thoughts from Haz. Inayat Khan says:

There is only one holy book, the sacred manuscript of nature.

[bloom]

2. "There is only one holy book, the sacred manuscript of nature."

that is a nice quote.

thanks

[silverweb]

3. Starhawk is wonderful.

Starhawk is someone I deeply admire -- even more since I had the opportunity to meet her and feel the sincerity she radiates.

Her many writings, both the scholarly and the more ordinary, have been responsible for many more people understanding the various forms of modern Paganism than would ever otherwise have been the case, and she's done a lot of good for a lot of people.

Thanks for posting this!