Paganism and Wicca

I was on a site responding to a couple of comments left, pretty much you can say “discussing” the bible with two different men, as I started navigating around I noticed this one guy with part of his handle being Pagan. I was reading his thoughts and I felt that him and I were parallel. He is a gay guy and he had interesting things to say. I have to tell you that the first time I had seen Pagan was on a bumper sticker and it brought me back to my upbringing, Pagan’s were referred to those that did not follow the doctrine I was involved in, “worldly people” or like the Jewish would refer to none Jews, “gentiles”. I remember seeing the word and seeing what looked like a pentagram on the other side of the car…so right away I thought, witchcraft. It scared me and I never really looked into it. Today I decided to e-mail Deborah Blake, author of Circle, Coven and Grove and Everyday Witch A – Z. Here is the e-mail exchange:

me: I am a writer for a website and my concentration is religion. I am looking up information to write in regards to Pagans, and I was wondering if you would be able to respond to this question: How do Pagan’s feel about homosexuality? Is being a Pagan, or Witch a religion, per say? and you worship a goddess, yet some Satan, are their different branches, like Christianity?

Deborah: Okay–these are fairly complicated questions, but I’ll give you the simplest answers I can. First of all, in answer to your question about homosexuality–in general, Pagans accept all paths, very definitely including homosexuality. My step-daughter is gay and a Pagan. In fact, many gays, lesbians and transgenders are attracted to Wicca and Paganism in part because it is such an accepting religion. There is absolutely nothing in our beliefs that says that alternative sexuality is bad, forbidden or in any way “lesser” than more conventionally accepted sexuality. And yes, I would call it a religion, although it is perhaps a better term to say “spiritual path” since religion has gotten a bad rep these days:) Most Pagans worship a goddess and a god (or multiple goddesses and gods) although some follow what we call a Dianic path and only worship the goddess. We DO NOT believe in Satan. He is strictly a Christian concept, and has nothing to do with Pagans. Satanists are something completely different from Witches, Wiccans and Pagans. And Witches don’t tend to have much to do with the bible (again, a Christian book). I hope this was helpful. Feel free to contact me if you have more questions, or get my new book, Everyday Witch A to Z, which talks about a lot of the basics of Witchcraft.

Blessed be,
Deborah

I than thanked her for the response, letting her know I really didn’t think she would have responded, her reply was “No problem! I think that it is important to spread correct information and educate others about Paganism, to counter all the lies and misunderstandings out there. Let me know if there is anything else you have questions about.”

From my readings I found that some of their traditions go back to pre-Roman times and they mainly are into nature and living in harmony with the Earth and observing its cycles.

You might be wondering why I am discussing this. My number one reason: I love to find out about other beliefs and how they feel about same sex relationships. My other reason, is that a lot of times Christians tend to say that when we love someone of the same sex we are perverted, we have orgies and we party all the time. Most of the time, those people do not know someone like us on a personal level, and if they did, they would change their views, maybe not drastically but at least to a level of “tolerance”. That is how I feel about other religions or beliefs, it is important to get to know other thoughts out there and respect each other.

p.Johanna is a single lesbian who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her and view her photos by visiting her page on MySpace.