All Pagans Should Celebrate the Wheel of the Year Regardless of specific Religion?

[Aine Rayne]

their round compared to bananas...O.o what kinda apples are YOU eating?

This orange is round



apples are not lol they're kinda oblong XD

But, I will concede the point that they're a LOT rounder than bananas XD

[spoOk]

This orange is round

apples are not lol they're kinda oblong XD

But, I will concede the point that they're a LOT rounder than bananas XD

yes exactly....

lol

[SunflowerP]

I think that most of the people pushing Pagan unity (especially those pushing it because they want to control the appearance of "Pagan brand" to the non-Pagan world) consider the actual diversity of Pagan religions to be a major complication. After all, if all Pagans celebrated the same holidays or better yet all followed a "Harm None!" moral law, it would be so much easier to convince non-Pagans that Pagans really weren't following Satan.

"You people who aren't like me! Stop being complicated! It's inconvenient to me! It means I have to take you into consideration!"

Yep, that's privilege trying to throw its weight around, all right. (Dear fatphobic concern trolls: that's the weight you should be wringing your hands over.)

Or, what spoOk said.

Sunflower

[MadZealot]

.... if all Pagans celebrated the same holidays or better yet all followed a "Harm None!" moral law, it would be so much easier to convince non-Pagans that Pagans really weren't following Satan.

Naaah, they'd find something else that twists their undies..

[Dark Midnight]

"You people who aren't like me! Stop being complicated! It's inconvenient to me! It means I have to take you into consideration!"

I think that this is what it boils down to. Some people want to put Pagans into a nice, neat little box and label us all the same. Problem is- Pagans don't fit in a box. We are far too diverse a family to do that. Some follow the Wheel and some don't. Some follow certain Deities, some follow others, and yet others follow none at all. Some might worship the Willow tree in my garden for all I know, but we all believe that everyone has the right to follow whatever path they so choose.

[RandallS]

Naaah, they'd find something else that twists their undies..

Agreed -- the idea that one can convince the average person who believes that Pagans worship Satan (or whoever their entity of evil is) by presenting all Pagans as people who have nice holy days and an ironclad "don't cause harm" moral law strikes me as silly.

[Darkhawk]

I think that this is what it boils down to. Some people want to put Pagans into a nice, neat little box and label us all the same. Problem is- Pagans don't fit in a box. We are far too diverse a family to do that.

Fancy the "none of the above" category being too diverse to categorise neatly.

Here I'd have thought that was pretty much fundamental to being in the "none of the above" category in the first place.

[wadjet]

Some might worship the Willow tree in my garden for all I know

I would if I was there.

I've been trying to thing of a phrase to describe Paganism, and the closest thing I can get is "most anything in the Western World that either was a religion a long time ago, or was made up or reinvented recently, that isn't based on one of the current major world religions". Although that last part might need to be rephrased?

The only thing even remotely close you can get with descriptions is to use the words "many" and "most", and that second one I'm always hesitant to use. Many pagans believe in or work with some kind of magic/energy or related concept, but not all. Many have a view that Nature is sacred, but not all. Many believe in or work with natural spirits and/or ancestors, many are polytheistic, etcetera.... I think those are accurate statements to make. But to say "all" or even "most" is ludicrous, because I don't know squat about many under our umbrella.

(Confession: I didn't even know there was an active Egyptian reconstructionist movement until I joined here, and I have Egyptian tattoos. Sheesh.)

EDIT: Also, drekfletch made the best point, which is that this community is pretty awesome.

[FierFlye]

And here we have it: as all long threads on TC do, this one has begun to discuss food.

[bobthesane]

Agreed -- the idea that one can convince the average person who believes that Pagans worship Satan (or whoever their entity of evil is) by presenting all Pagans as people who have nice holy days and an ironclad "don't cause harm" moral law strikes me as silly.

Well, my first response was unprintable. So was my second. E t c.

after inviting that person to kiss my shiny pale European posterior, my only real question would be WHY would I want to present a 'unified' front? What possible purpose would it serve? I can't think of one. We are all just so very different. A baptist and a Catholic have more in common than I do with, say, a Kemetic adherent. At least the first two worship the same deity.