Well Since my Friend TommyElf put out his podcast on this exact subject it got me pondering this for myself. What is Paganism? In the over all scheme of things no one is exactly right for the whole of the pagan community, but they are exactly right for themselves. I think that, that is what makes us such a wonderful community. We are who we are, each of us individually. We each believe and commune with deity in our own individual way that make us feel good, ad for the most part we accept that and join together in our differences, almost reveling in our differences. This is a community where being different is not a bad thing but admired. I think that is the one reason the Christians, the Muslims and the Jews have a hard time understanding us is the fact that we encourage individualism. We as a whole tell people to not follow a set doctrine, but follow what feels right to you. As TommyElf says, "Every path is valid, an individual path may not be valid to you but we must accept that it is valid for that individual." It has to be.
But still "What is Paganism?" Well probably right off the bat people will say "Well there is Wicca!" True, but we must remember 4 things 'bout that: Yes all Wiccans are Pagans, but not all Pagans are Wiccan, Not all Wiccans consider themselves Witches and not all Witches are Wiccan. There are Druids and Shamans, British Traditional Witches and Eclectics and much more that I don't personally have knowledge of. Wicca in and of itself has a mirad of different traditions within it. All of whom I think need to cope with each other much better. I won't even get into Tolerance between the different Wiccan traditions.
Spirituality is a big part of paganism; at least it is to me. TO be able to have the knowledge of something greater than myself, yet of myself out in the world and also within me is one of the most beautiful feelings in the world. To feel the energy of deity within me, and in the trees, and grass and animals and other humans. To know that and feel that deity is everywhere, and feel its existence I can't begin to describe that feeling. To feel the energy of the Earth and sky coursing through your body, to hold hands in a circle and feel everyone's energy spiraling and joining together, individuals now as one, regardless of our own individual paths, for that moment we are one and deity makes it so.
Witchcraft is also apart of a lot of different pagan paths. However not all pagan paths directly use spells, but they do perform rituals and rights and in effect that is what many of us would call Witchcraft too. I look at rituals as group spells, it is a spell to give praise and honor to deity no matter what aspect you call. As an individual do I use spells? Sparingly. I use my friend Heather's outlook on this "Be Careful what you wish for..."
Deity itself... This in and of itself is a HUGE topic... As the Christians might put it "Who is God?" Well for me Deity is life in an energy form, with both equal male and female aspects. It is easier for us as humans to give a human form to this energy and I fall into those trappings. My chosen Goddess for the female aspect of Deity is Cerridwen (Celtic Welsh Goddess) I do not have a chosen form for the God aspect of Deity I tend to just view him as the Horned God, The hunter and that works for me... When we do our rituals when things go wrong the whole of the circle blames Loki... Maybe I can use him. From what I have heard and read he is a most misunderstood God.
I know have kind of rambled about this topic and not really directly answered the question, but I do not think that the question is meant to be answered directly. We are all individuals, we all may have similar views but we all make our "Faith" our "Spirituality" to fit our self. Paganism is different for each of us. This is part of my path and part of what I believe. Revel in and celebrate our differences, be yourself, and as long as it feels true inside of you do not let anyone tell you, that you are wrong for what you know and feel is true.
In Love and Light,
Bill