Nonetheless, now that I've finished telling you how impossible it would be to pin down who modern pagans are and what we believe, I'm going to do just that.
I have to admit I cheated in that I didn't try to come up with a definition all on my own. I would like to quote from the national CUUPS publication, "Contemporary paganism: questions and answers."
"While there is no set of beliefs shared by all Pagans, most would agree that their similarities are greater than their differences, and there are a number of beliefs held by the vast majority of contemporary Pagans. Some of these are:
1. Divinity is immanent in all of nature.
2. Divinity is just as likely to manifest in female form, as "the Goddess", the interconnectedness of life.
3. Multiple paths to the divine, as symbolized by many "goddesses" and "gods", often viewed as archetypes or gateways to the unconscious.
4. Respect and love for Mother Earth as "Gaia", a living being of which we are a part.
5. The goodness of creation, in which all beings are meant to live in joy, love, and harmony.
6. An ethics and morality based on the avoidance of harm to other beings and to the Earth, which mandates environmental activism as a religious responsibility.
7. The knowledge that human interdependence implies community cooperation.
8. The importance of celebrating the solar and lunar cycles, and the cycles of our lives, leading to the revival of ancient customs (and the invention of new ones!).
9. A strong commitment to personal and planetary growth, evolution, and balance.
10. The awareness of making one's lifestyle consistent with one's beliefs ("the personal is political").
11. A minimum of dogma and a maximum of eclecticism.
12. A healthy skepticism and a reluctance to accept an idea without personally investigating it.
13. A distrust of would-be messiahs and gurus."
... Sounds rather Unitarian, doesn't it?
To expand on one point from the list just quoted: "The importance of celebrating the solar and lunar cycles ... leading to a revival of ancient customs." Our holidays revolve around the solar equinoxes and solstices, and the points half-way between them - what we call the Quarters and the Cross-Quarters. Our new year traditionally begins with the holiday that we call Samhain, and everyone else calls Halloween. At that time of year, the Earth is cold and barren, and the sun grows low in the sky. At Yule - the winter solstice - the Sun is reborn, and the light returns and grows stronger at Candlemas, or Brigid, in early February -Groundhog's Day. Spring returns at Ostara, or Eostar, the vernal equinox, and the Earth blossoms with new life and fertility, which we celebrate at Beltane, the first of May. As the sun hits its height at Litha -the summer solstice, we rejoice in the summer but know at the same time that the height is also the time when the sun begins downward again, and that autumn and winter will return. At the first of August comes Lammas, or Lughnasadh. At this first of the harvest festivals we honor the sacrifice of the corn and thank the Earth for her gifts. After this comes Mabon, the second harvest festival, in September at the autumnal equinox. Winter draws near, and again we honor the great cycles of Nature as the year ends and begins again at Samhain. Traditionally, the two greatest holidays of the pagan year - sort of the pagan Christmas and Easter - are Samhain in October, and Beltane in the beginning of May. (That is why we do this service every year at this particular time.)
The holiday we honor today is Beltane. Beltane is a joyous time. The Earth is again living and fertile. The trees bud, the grass grows green again, the floods abate, and the birds sing in the early morning outside our windows. The Earth Goddess is young and happy and She celebrates her joy with her Lover, the strong young God. Together they run laughing through the new fields and the blossoming woods, and where they pass the flowers spring up, the trees bud new leaves, animals couple and bear their young, and the world is renewed: the fertility of the God and the Goddess brings fertility and life to the world. Life has returned; the Earth is renewed. We celebrate with gladness and merrymaking. No solemn hymns or sad meditations, but singing, dancing the Maypole, and feasting together: praising the gods, rejoicing in the season, and honoring the holiday with our gladness.
