I'd like to learn more about Pagan beliefs.

[Annamarie_bigham]

I've been searching into religion lately and I'd like to learn more about the Pagan religion. I was raised catholic but I really don't believe in a lot of things they believe in. I know one thing I believe in are ghosts. How do ghost fit into the pagan religion?

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I believe there are certain people who have gifts of connecting and seeing the dead. It tends to run in my family. I believe in visions (as in warning to things), I guess messengers??? I don't believe in satan and I'm really unsure of one god. I believe they're may have been a Jesus, but he was just a really nice man who people followed, but really has nothing to do with as being the son of god. I don't believe in heaven or hell. I believe when we pass away we become spirits who stay on earth is what I believe so far. Can anyone help lead me towards a religion that may suit me?

[Wednesday]

Re: I'd like to learn more about Pagan beliefs.

I'm sure a lot of the different folk religions have their different explanations for the folklore of ghosts.

If you're interested in the greater European area beliefs than I recommend The Return of the Dead: Ghosts, Ancestors, and the Transparent Veil of the Pagan Mind.

[WinterTraditions]

Re: I'd like to learn more about Pagan beliefs.

The practice of speaking and connecting to the dead, is called Necromancy. Those that practice Necromancy are generally called Mediums.

Some Pagans I know believe in a place called Summerland. It is where spirits go to rest between different bodies (After they have died). It is not a Hell nor a Heaven, but simply a sort of "Waiting Room".

[Annamarie_bigham]

Re: I'd like to learn more about Pagan beliefs.

Thanks for the replys! I've also found spiritism, which I've been researching with paganism.

[Louisvillian]

Re: I'd like to learn more about Pagan beliefs.

How do ghost fit into the pagan religion?

There is no one "pagan religion" so that's a complex question. Different pagan religions have different standard views, and different pagans within them have different personal views. Just as Christians have different views on different things.
Generally, though, a lot of eclectic or syncretic Neopagan religions believe in ghosts and spirits of the dead as figures that can interact actively with the living.
Some more revivalist religions that focus on a particular pantheon or ancient culture have specific beliefs, as well. The ancient Romans, for example, had a significant amount of belief and practice involving ancestral spirits and ghosts. Roman Reconstructionists may replicate this belief; just as an example.

Can anyone help lead me towards a religion that may suit me?

What you speak of believing in is actually pretty general, inasmuch as things go with occultists and neopagans.

[Annamarie_bigham]

Re: I'd like to learn more about Pagan beliefs.

Thanks for the information!

[SPhoenix]

Re: I'd like to learn more about Pagan beliefs.

Hi Annamarie.

I'm new here, so I hope that I'm not overstepping boundaries. I know what you mean by your comments about communication with those who have passed. I will politely disagree with it being necromancy, as there are religions that adamantly believe in the ability to resurrect the dead, and that I think of more as necromancy. Communicating with the deceased is Mediumship, unless you want to raise them, in which case, it becomes necromancy.

Regarding learning more about paganism, there are many different definitions and understandings of paganism, as already pointed out.

What I think may help you is to spend a bit of time considering what you think the nature of Gods and Goddesses is. For example, I know that there is one overwhelming, massive, incomprehensible Something that exists in and through everything. I call it God, because it's simplest for me. This GOD is the ultimate God, over and above everything. However, that being said!... I don't believe that it's the end-all, be-all of our experience as human beings. There are other beings, whatever you wish to call them, who are in service to humanity and who provide... um... assistance? perhaps.

So basically, the nature of God (It has no name, just as the sky has no name, since there is only one of It), is Love. The ultimate end of the Universe, the highest function, the highest source, the pinnacle, whatever you wish to consider it... is this over-arching Presence that is ultimate love. Everything else takes place within, and through, and as THAT.

Therefor, in connecting with what you might refer to as "lesser" deities, I view them all through the lens of this great over-arching Presence. If Love gave us Gods and Goddesses, what would they be like?

I've begun researching the Celtic mythos, and I have found myself profound impacted by it (despite why I began researching them, which wasn't in order to find deities, lol). As I learn more about them and their purported purposes (and peccadillos), I see it always from the lens of "how did they serve humanity?"

My point being... do you feel that you serve the deities, or that they serve humanity--after the highest authority, which is... love? Justice? Etc.

Knowing what your core belief is (mine is that the Universe's ultimate truth is Love and that Life yearns for more of itself), will enable you to better connect with a spiritual path.

Hope that helps.

If you'd like to talk more about Mediumship, please PM me. It's not a discussion that I generally have openly, because at best it is met with skepticism, and at worst, outright demonization or stigma.

Best wishes in finding the path you seek.