Definitions by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫
Totemism
The recognition of a special relationship between a human group or an individual and a class or species of animals, plants, or inanimate objects. The ritual relationship is usually seen as mandated by superhuman forces for the mutual benefit of the human and the totemic objects.
Totemism is a system of belief in which man is believed to have kinship with a totem or a mystical relationship is said to exist between a group or an individual and a totem. A totem is an object, such as an animal or plant that serves as the emblem or symbol of a kinship group or a person. The term totemism has been used to characterize a cluster of traits in the religion and in the social organization of many primitive peoples. Totemism is manifested in various forms and types in different contexts, especially among populations with a mixed economy (farming and hunting) and among hunting communities (especially in Australia); it is also found among tribes who breed cattle. Totemism can in no way be viewed as a general stage in man's cultural development; but totemism has certainly had an effect on the psychological behaviour of ethnic groups, on the manner of their socialization, and on the formation of the human personality.
Totemism by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ August 1, 2010
Pagan
A member of a group professing a polytheistic religion or any religion other than Christianity, Judaism, or Islam.
The word pagan can also be used to describe a person who has no religion or a hedonist, which is someone who is devoted to or pursues pleasure; especially the pleasures of the senses.
Pagan by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 28, 2010
Purgatory
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the souls of God’s people may go to a place called "purgatory" after death, which is a half-way house between Heaven and Hell. They teach that it is a place of purging, in which the soul will suffer for a while before being fit to gain salvation into Heaven. The prayers, candle burning, and financial gifts to the church of a person and his friends is supposed to shorten the length of time that the soul suffers in purgatory.
Purgatory is the place where the soul is purged after death for past sins and thus becomes fit for Heaven.
Purgatory by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 28, 2010
Satanism
Satanism is not one single religion. Satanism is a broad category of religions, worldviews, and literature all featuring a favorable interpretation of Satan. Christians (and Muslims) regard their God as all-good and Satan as evil. But what is good? What is evil? Many of the moral values espoused in the Bible seem very strange from a modern Western point of view. In the Garden of Eden story, Adam and Eve are punished for eating from the "tree of knowledge of good and evil." In other words, blind obedience to the Biblical God is considered "good," whereas independent moral judgment, based on one's own knowledge, is considered "evil." But, like many other educated people in the West today, Satanists do not agree with this idea at all. In the Book of Genesis, "God" seems to be outright threatened by human knowledge and achievement, both in the Garden of Eden story ("And the LORD God said, 'The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.'" - Genesis 3:22) and then later in the Tower of Babel story ("But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, 'If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.'" - Genesis 11:5-7).
According to traditional Christian doctrine, the main “evil” thing Satan is believed to do is simply to lead people away from Christ. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how you feel about Christianity. From a more down-to-Earth point of view, the worst thing Satan is said to do in the New Testament is to drive people insane. (Insanity is blamed on alleged “demon possession.”) Indeed, if one is careless, one can drive oneself insane through exploring the unknown and seeking to “become as gods,” as Satan invites people to do. On the other hand, if one takes reasonable precautions in pursuing one's explorations and ambitions, one can reap great benefits. Thus, most Satanists do NOT see themselves as "worshiping evil." Rather, most Satanists associate Satan with such values as pride, independence, individuality, knowledge, achievement, thinking for oneself, and exploring unknown and forbidden realms. Furthermore, contrary to the portrayal of Satanism in horror movies and sensationalistic tabloids, the vast majority of Satanists do NOT see any need to sacrifice animals or commit violent crimes in the name of Satan. There are many kinds of Satanists. For most of the past forty years, the most public Satanist spokespeople have been atheistic symbolic Satanists, who do not believe in or worship Satan as a literal entity, but who regard Satan as a symbol of independence, pride, individual ambition, etc.
Satanism by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 24, 2010
Animism
The attribution of a discrete indwelling spirit to every material form of reality such as plants, stones, and so on, and to natural phenomena such as storms, earthquakes, and the like.
Animism is a religious belief imputing spirits to natural forces and objects.
The rock has a spirit; the tree has a spirit, etc.
The rock has a spirit; the tree has a spirit, etc.
Animism by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 24, 2010
Pantheism
Pantheism is a belief that the universe/nature and God are identical. The word derives from the Ancient Greek: pan meaning "all" and theos meaning "belief that God is all."
Pantheism by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 24, 2010
Wicca
A polytheistic Neo-Pagan nature religion inspired by various pre-Christian western European beliefs, whose central deity is a mother goddess and includes the use of herbal magic and benign witchcraft. Wicca is a very peaceful, harmonious and balanced way of life which promotes oneness with the divine and all which exists. Wiccans have great reverence for the Earth and for their Goddess and her consort, the horned God. Their main rule of behavior is the Wiccan Rede which forbids them from harming people, including themselves, except in some cases of self-defense. Many, perhaps most, are solitary practitioners. Others form small groups of believers, called covens, groves, etc. Because of centuries of religious propaganda and misinformation, many conservative Christians, and others, associate Wiccans with Satanists even though the two belief systems are as different as Christianity and Atheism. Much of modern-day Wicca can be directly traced back to the writings of Charles Leland, Margaret Murray, and Gerald Gardner. There are many beliefs concerning the origins of Wicca.
According to Gardner, Wicca: 1) began in prehistory, as ritual associated with fire, the hunt, animal fertility, plant propagation, tribal fertility, and the curing of disease; 2) developed into a religion which recognized a Supreme Deity, but realized that at their state of evolution, they "were incapable of understanding It" . Instead, they worshipped what might be termed "under-Gods": the Goddess of fertility and her horned consort, the God of the hunt; 3) continued their predominately Moon based worship, even as a mainly Sun-based faith of priests, the Druids, developed and evolved into the dominant religion of the Celts. They never formed a single political entity, but remained as many tribes who shared a common culture and religions; 4) survived the Roman, Saxon, and Norman invasions by going underground; 5) suffered major loss in numbers during the active Christian genocides, which continued into the 18th Century; 6) reached a low ebb by the middle of the 20th century. Much of the theology and ritual had been lost. Wiccan covens had become so isolated that they had lost contact with each other; and 7) was revived in the UK by himself, his High Priestess Doreen Valiente, (1922-1999) and others, who took the surviving beliefs and practices, and fleshed them out with material from other religious, spiritual and ceremonial magick sources.
Wicca by ♫ Highway to Hell ♫ July 19, 2010