Paganism for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Nature-Based Spirituality for Every New Seeker

by Althaea Sebastiani

While a polytheist believes in distinct and knowable deities Whom we can approach and speak with, and Who will grant us Their favor, a pantheist does not believe in distinct deities, seeing the Divine present in all things.

This is the belief that all things contain an animating spirit—

animism posits you as but one of many beings who share this world and asks that you consider your relationships with these spirit beings.

Animism is a holistic outlook that emphasizes the importance of your physical body and your spirit body, that both are important and necessary for healthy living, and that the physical world and the spirit world overlap.

Paganism doesn’t have any cut-and-dry concepts of good and evil, recognizing that as nature is both creative and destructive, ordered and chaotic, each person holds the potential to do great good as well as great harm.

There is no threat of punishment or reprisal; there’s no spiritual being watching you to make sure you behave; there is only you, doing the work to hold yourself accountable and to live with integrity.

As an independent, powerful, and sacred being in your own right, you make these decisions for yourself, creating a personal code of moral conduct while treating others with respect and affording them the same right to make decisions for themselves.