So the other night I had a very long debate about whether or not Wicca is a form of paganism. Now the first thing we have to look at, is by what definition of paganism are we referring to?
pa·gan (pgn)
n.
1. An adherent of a polytheistic religion in antiquity, especially when viewed in contrast to an adherent of a monotheistic religion.
2. A Neopagan.
3. Offensive
a. One who has no religion.
b. An adherent of a religion other than Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.
Paganism
. a hedonistic spirit or attitude in moral or religious matters.
2. the beliefs and practices of pagans, especially polytheists.
3. the state of being a pagan. — paganist, n., adj. — paganistic, adj.
Or what about one of these?
Paganism is a catch-all term which has come to bundle together (by extension from its original classical meaning of a pre-Christian religion) a very broad set of not necessarily compatible religious beliefs and practices that are usually, but not necessarily, characterized by polytheism and, less commonly, animism.
Or this:
Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller", "rustic" [1] ) is a blanket term, typically used to refer to polytheistic religious traditions; although from a narrowly Christian perspective the term has been used historically to encompass all non–Abrahamic religions. [2] [3]
It is primarily used in a historical context, referring to Greco-Roman polytheism as well as the polytheistic traditions of Europe before Christianization. In a wider sense, extended to contemporary religions, it includes most of the Eastern religions and the indigenous traditions of the Americas, Central Asia, Australia and Africa; as well as non-Abrahamic folk religion in general. More narrow definitions will not include any of the world religions and restrict the term to local or rural currents not organized as civil religions. Characteristic of pagan traditions is the absence of proselytism and the presence of a living mythology, which explains religious practice.
The term pagan is a Christian adaptation of the "gentile" of Judaism, and as such has an inherent Abrahamic bias, and pejorative connotations among monotheists, [4] comparable to heathen and infidel also known as kafir () and mushrik in Islam.
pagan (pen)
— n
1. a member of a group professing a polytheistic religion or any religion other than Christianity, Judaism, or Islam
2. a person without any religion; heathen
— adj
3. of or relating to pagans or their faith or worship
4. heathen; irreligious
[C14: from Church Latin pgnus civilian (hence, not a soldier of Christ), from Latin: countryman, villager, from pgus village]
Definition of PAGAN
1: heathen 1; especially : a follower of a polytheistic religion (as in ancient Rome)
2: one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods : an irreligious or hedonistic person
3: neo-pagan
— pagan adjective
Definition of NEO-PAGAN
: a person who practices a contemporary form of paganism (as Wicca)
So as we can see from ALL the above definitions, though many will debate that Wicca is not a form of paganism, we can see that by definition, the practices and beliefs of Wiccan's as well as shamans, and many other practices that we know of, fall into the category of Pagan and Paganism.
The main argument I come across is that, because Wicca has some general roots in the O.T.O. and Ceremonialism, that, that is the reason behind why wicca can't be pagan. Ceremonialism though, is more of a way of acting out your dedication. It's a way of worshiping your deities.
The Correllian Nativist on Ceremonialism put it into terms such as the following: " Ceremonial Magic is sometimes confused with and has greatly influenced Wicca- though the two systems are very different in both theory and practice. Ceremonialism and Wicca have long had often related histories, and share many common origins. There are important differences too. One of the principle differences between the two systems is that Ceremonial Magic is strongly influenced by the Book Religions (Christianity, Jewdism, Islam), dealing with the ideas of angels and demons, heaven and hell- ideas that are absent from Wicca. Moreover the Ceremonialist often seeks to invoke these Spirits with the idea of controlling or compelling them, and tends to take an almost adversarial role towards them. Another major difference is that while Ceremonial Magic was followed by primarily wealthy practioners, Wicca- or Traditional Witchcraft if you must differentiate Traditional from modern- was primarily a movement of poor country people."
Now that you know a little bit about ceremonialism and knowing the history of witchcraft that you all do, do you still think that Wicca is a form of paganism or not because of the ceremonialism influence in the history? The other thing to consider, is that, even though Ceremonialism has been heavily influenced by the Book Religions, we have always had Ceremonialism in the Pagan culture. Look at the Egyptians and the Three Months of ceremony it took to mummify a kings body.
So, despite the historic influence of ceremonialism (which has it's own roots in paganism), Modern Wicca today still remains in the classification of a Pagan Religion. Many are going to debate this, and many are going to bring up books from the 50's as well as several other different resources, and try to stake the claim that Wicca isn't a pagan religion. If you get down to the nitty gritty of it all. It was Gerald Gardner who started the term "Wicca". He called his followers "The Wicce'", meaning the Wise. Because someone didn't understand, the name stuck and that's where the origin of the name Wicca comes from for the religion. The religion based on the name literally means- The Craft of the Wise, and even though we are still a young and growing religion, All religious practices had to start somewhere.
Everyone please feel free to toss in your own two cents.
Definitions came from several sources and I've included a few extras for personal reading in downtime, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/neo-pagan
http://www.religioustolerance.org/paganism.htm
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pagan
http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/dissent/defpagan.htm
http://www.silver-branch.org/ssbcreations/ssbpagandef.html
http://www.danann.org/train/defs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytheistic_reconstructionism
http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/pagantraditions/p/ReconGroups.htm
Wicca and Paganism?
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