A plain-English reference
Pagan glossary
Short meanings for the terms you are likely to meet. Different groups use some of these words in different ways, so treat each as a starting point.
A
- Altar
- A table, shelf or surface used for offerings, candles and objects that matter to the person. It can be as small as a windowsill.
- Ancestor veneration
- Honouring the dead, whether family or the people of a place, by remembering them, offering food or drink, or keeping a shrine.
- Animism
- The view that the world is full of living beings, including animals, plants, rivers and mountains, who can be respected as persons.
B
- Book of Shadows
- A notebook of rituals, spells and observations, kept by a Wiccan or a coven.
C
- Cross-quarter day
- One of the four festivals that fall between the solstices and equinoxes: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh.
- Coven
- A small group, often of up to thirteen, who practise Wicca or witchcraft together.
D
- Deity
- A god or goddess. Pagans may honour many, a few or one, and some think of the gods as real beings while others see them as symbols.
- Divination
- Methods such as tarot, runes or scrying used to seek insight. Many Pagans treat them as aids to reflection and not as prediction.
E
- Eclectic
- A practitioner who draws on several traditions and does not follow one in particular.
- Equinox
- The two days in the year when day and night are about equal, in March and September.
- Esbat
- A Wiccan meeting, usually held at the full moon.
F
- Folkish
- Describes groups, mostly in Heathenry, that tie their religion to ancestry. Most Pagans reject it as racist. The contrast is "universalist".
G
- Grove
- A local group of Druids, or a wood used for ritual.
H
- Handfasting
- A Pagan wedding or commitment ceremony, often with the couple’s hands bound with a cord.
- Heathen
- A follower of Heathenry, the modern revival of Germanic and Norse religion. The word can also mean pagan in older English.
I
- Imbolc
- A festival at the start of February, linked to the first signs of spring and, in Ireland, to Brigid.
- Initiation
- A ceremony that admits someone into a coven, order or tradition.
L
- Libation
- A liquid offering, such as water, wine or milk, poured out for a god, spirit or ancestor.
- Lughnasadh
- A festival at the start of August, marking the first harvest. Also spelled Lammas in English tradition.
M
- Monism
- The view that all things are in the end one. Some Pagans hold it alongside belief in many gods.
N
- Neopaganism
- A name for modern Paganism, used to distinguish it from the ancient religions. Many Pagans simply say Paganism.
O
- Offering
- Something given to a god, spirit or place, such as food, drink, flowers, time or an act of care.
P
- Pagan
- An umbrella word for religions that honour nature, many gods or both. It began as a Latin word for country-dweller.
- Pantheism
- The view that the divine and the natural world are the same.
- Polytheism
- Belief in, or reverence for, many gods.
R
- Reconstructionism
- An approach that bases modern practice on careful study of the historical evidence for an ancient religion.
- Revival
- A modern movement that takes inspiration from an older tradition without claiming an unbroken line.
S
- Sabbat
- One of the eight festivals of the Wheel of the Year, in Wiccan usage.
- Samhain
- The festival at the start of November, marking the end of the harvest and a time to remember the dead.
- Solitary
- A practitioner who works alone and not in a group.
- Solstice
- The two days in the year with the longest and shortest daylight, in June and December.
- Syncretism
- The blending of beliefs or practices from different traditions.
W
- Wheel of the Year
- The yearly cycle of eight festivals, four solstices and equinoxes and four cross-quarter days, in its present form from the mid-20th century.
- Wicca
- A modern initiatory religion of witchcraft founded in 20th-century England, usually honouring a Goddess and a God.
- Witch
- A person who practises witchcraft. Not every witch is a Wiccan, and not every Wiccan calls themselves a witch.