Four Large Belief Systems

Instructor Note: These are only a few practices of many. If you would like to know more about one, or would like me to address another belief system in a future post, please comment below.

With the many terms today to describe the craft, it is important to note the differences in definitions and practices. Here are some basic points and short summaries of other practices:

• All Wiccans are Witches but not all Witches are Wiccan
• All Witches are Pagan, but not all Pagans are Witches
• Some Pagans practice witchcraft, but not all choose to

Pagan

• From the Latin “Paganus”
• Literally translated to ‘hicks from the sticks’
• Originally used to describe people living in rural areas due to the fact that as Christianity blossomed, the people who lived in rural areas were usually the last practicing the old ways

Wicca

• Founded by Gerald Gardner in the 1950s
• Based off of the old ways but not exactly the same
  • Hence, all Wiccans are pagan, but not all Pagans are Wiccans.
• Polytheistic/monotheistic/pantheistic/duotheistic
  • Depends on sect of Wicca
• Believe in reincarnation with rests in the Summerland between lives

Druidism

• Based on Iron Age practices of the Celts
• Promotes harmony, connection and reverence for the modern world including all beings and the earth itself
• Devotion to ancestors, primarily those from prehistoric ages
• Nature Centered Spirituality
• Polytheistic
• Awen
  • The Druidic concept of spirit or divinity
  • Inspires poetry and art

Heathenry

• Also called Heathenism, contemporary Germanic Paganism or Germanic Neopaganism
• Uses historical, archaeological and folkloric evidence to maintain practices of the Iron Age and Early Medieval European Germainic people
• Polytheistic with different beliefs in different areas of practice