The Devil and the Dictionary

Not that I would ever do it, but what makes so many Pagans adamant about how Pagans don't work with the Devil of the Christian tradition? Some work with the Christian Godfigure. I think Pagans are just too scared that they will be associated with evil (Oh shit! We already are!) and therefor feel the need to be adamant that NO PAGAN EVER WORSHIPPED THOSE CHRISTIANS’ DEVIL. This is about as stupid as saying, “Never again the Burning Times!” since there were no burning times (in that people persecuted the people who were ACTUALLY witches), there is no evidence that they will start soon, and that’s just sickeningly horrid grammar.

Oh fanatics. How I love to scoff at you.

By the way Merriam Webster tells us that the definition of Pagan is:

: 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

            Or

            neo-pagan

            : a person who practices a contemporary form of paganism (as Wicca)

If we take the dictionary's word as many people take the word of God in the Bible, there is no reason a Pagan would be cast out for worshiping the Devil of the Christian faith. Heck, since the Devil seems to revel in hedonistic practices, perhaps a truly dictionary devout Pagan would be almost forced to include the Christian Devil in their pantheon and at the same time be quite irreligious. The dictionary kind of contradicts itself there, doesn't it. How can one word mean "More Gods than all yall b****es! I have a bazillion trap cards!" and at the same time mean "All sex no Gods! Screw being faithful!" Quite a predicament. No wonder people have a hard time figuring out what the real working definition of Pagan is.

Oh gosh, side note again. In reference to the "trap card" thing, there is a story behind that. I was explaining to Ted that some Pagans practice magick and he told me that if I ever tried to mojo him, it would activate his trap card. Jesus Christ GO! And I thought, though didn't bother to mention, that since I worship any number of Gods his trap card is just one among a plethora of mine. Paganism wins! Not that I would ever really "mojo" him. 

Ahem. Back on task.

I was listening to The Pagan Centered Podcast (aka PCP) the other day and they were actually talking about how hard it is for people to define which groups are Pagan and which ones aren't. Watch it if you don't already. That's an order... Kind of. I was actually really surprised that they included in their list of Pagan groups Buddhists. I thought that was one of those religions that they bother to teach in school! And I have to say that Buddhists are organized enough and have a wide enough breadth that they should be separate from Pagans. Same with Wiccans too probably, though there are so very few true ones that I suppose we need to hold onto them for a while too. 

My definition of Wicca by the way is the path of people who follow the Gardernerian or some off branch of that tradition. Wiccans are a slight bit eclectic usually, but the true Wiccans are people who follow a branch that can be traced back to Gerald Gardener or one of his little offshoots (offspring?). 

I am not Wiccan, just Pagan. If it weren't for the fact that to be Shinto one kind of needs to be born into it or spend their life behaving like one, I would probably consider myself Shinto with Nordic and Celtic leanings and a smattering of the Egyptian mythos... Wait... That just makes me Pagan, so never mind!

Anyhoo, today was supposed to be about the wonderful, mythical, magickal mint, but this topic kind of jumped into my hands and typed itself out. I just ran across that comment about how no Pagan worships the Devil on The Pagan Veil and suddenly the world needed to know, or at least my hands thought it did. I'll probably get on that mint topic later tonight or tomorrow.

For now, Hearts, Stars, and Horseshoes to you all!