I get this question all the time and the only way I personally know how to answer this question is to simply say, that being a pagan is not a disease, but a way of life. How we live our lives everyday determines what we are. I personally live my life the way that I feel it should be lived, open and honest. I do not proclaim to be better than anyone else, or to be more powerful than anyone else, or any such craziness, I am only me, myself & I.
A pagan is your neighbor, your mother, your sister, your father, your brother, your best friend or that stranger standing in front of you or behind you in the check-out line at the grocery store, or the ones you pass in the street or perhaps it’s the person in the car next to you on the highway. We are your everyday average person, who do perhaps some of the same things you do, with one exception, a pagan does not bring harm to any living creature for any reason.
To me being a pagan means, taking care of Mother Nature, planting greenery whenever possible, be it flowers that will bloom, or fruits that will feed or perhaps catnip that the animals can enjoy and have a place all their own to enjoy and make that escape when they need a break from us. Working with the energy forces for the good of all; bringing no harm to anything or anyone for any reason.
Think of life as being like a battery, it needs both a positive and a negative side to work. The same goes for our own lives. However, we must be able to over shadow the negative so that the positive is stronger. We come into contact everyday with a lot of negatives, whether it’s through work, our bosses, play, our kids, our spouses, school, driving (road rage), or simply going about our daily lives. We must be able to focus on the positive so strongly that the negative will stay in its place, but not over power the positive. The people who feel they must use the negative for the betterment of their lives, to me they are not pagans, but manipulators and wanna bees.
I have an old tree that was failed and lie dormant for so many years, so I have taken that tree and converted it into my dragon fairy garden. I have transplanted some indigenous plants, which the locals call weeds, to me they are not weeds at all, because Mother Nature has given them to us, and I put them into this area, made a little chair just for the fairies to have a place to sit and I try to keep the non wanted weeds out, so that this is a caring and loving space in my garden.
I take all the garden rakings out to the vegetable garden to form compost; this also includes all the egg shells, and non edible parts of our cooking. The edible portions either go to the free range chickens nothing is really wasted as it is recycled in some form.
The paper tubes from our kitchen paper towels are all saved and donated to the local schools for their arts and crafts, plastic bags are washed and reused until such time as they need to be replaced.
I save the outer skins of my oranges, dry them and grind them for my natural source of vitamin C. Sprinkle this on my morning toast or put some in my cooking to get that little bit of flavor of citrus or use it for baking bread.
I keep reminders on my office room door of how a pagan should live her/his life each and every day and these are not hidden from view, anyone who walks into my home is able to read them and if they have questions, then I try to answer them in my honest opinions.
I do not hide the fact that I am a pagan, I am open and honest and I simply let them know that they either accept me the way that I am or they don’t, either way I will continue to be who and what I am and I need no ones permission to be who and what I am.
So to me what it means to be a pagan is to be the best you can be, obey the rules from Mother Earth, and give back as she gives us so much. I follow the moon and do my rituals as and when I feel they should be, not because someone says I have to. I keep a daily journal as to the things that happen in my day, or my personal thoughts. I respect each and every person or animal that I have contact with. I treat others as I want to be treated, with respect and without judgment or conditions. I do not posses things that belong to others. When someone gives me good news about their life, I always tell them how proud I am and how happy I am for them, that they deserve only the best that life has to offer.
I am NOT perfect and NEVER will be, but I do the best that I feel is best and ask for nothing in return. I do not make promises and break them, for if my word is not kept, then I am not a pagan and I am a fraud, therefore if I say something, then you can count on it 100%. To me this is what being a Pagan means.
©Windspirit