According to author, folklorist and scholar of magic, Zora Neale Hurstone, "Magick is older than writing. So nobody knows how it started". Although the word "pagan" may be interpreted in many ways, for the purpose of this article, "pagan" refers to the ways of live that existed around the world before the advent of the Judeo-Christian religions.
Many people assume that "pagan" religions existed only in pre-Christian era Europe. However, history has proved that the Sumerian, Egyptian and African cultures, followers of the Hindu ways of life in ancient India, the Native Americans of North America, Aztecs and Mayan Civilization of South America, etc practiced some form of animism including nature based worship.
Most people know that a large cache of papyri was found in Alexandria, Egypt some time ago. This cache helped us understand some of the pagan ways of life in 5th century CE, including the way they lived, their marriage customs, daily problems expectations of life and death and their spiritual outlook.
However, we don't know from where they got this information.
It could've been from anywhere in the world since trade routes were already established millenniums ago. Alexandria had achieved the reputation as a world capital of magick. Diviners, spell casters, dream interpreters, palm readers, etc were living in a city which was divided into many quarters, including the Greek, Egyptian and Jewish quarters.
As you can see from the list of pagan religions in the world, there are still huge portions of the world that have not been "converted" by the monolithic business style religions and which continue to flourish in many parts of the world. Here is the list of Pagan Religions from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/: Traditionally, these faiths have all been classified "Pagan", but scholars prefer the terms "indigenous/primal/folk/ethnic religions".
American
Abenaki Aztec Blackfoot Cherokee Chickasaw Choctaw Creek Crow Ghost Dance
Guarani Haida Ho-Chunk Hopi Huron Inca Inuit Iroquois Kwakiutl Lakota Leni
Lenape Longhouse religion Maya Midewiwin Native American Church Navajo New
Orleans Voodoo/hoodoo Nootka Olmec Pawnee Salish Seneca Selk'nam religion
Tsimshian Urarina Ute Zuni Eurasian
Chinese Japanese Koshinto Siberian
Shamanism Tengriism Estonian Eskimo religion Finnish and Finnish paganism
Hungarian folk religion Sami religion (including the Noaidi) Tadibya
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articleshmarticle.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
