about

Once every people in the world believed that trees were divine, and could take human or grotesque shape and dance among the shadows, and that deer, and ravens and foxes, and wolves and bears, and clouds and pools, almost all things under the sun and moon, and the sun and moon, were no less divine and changeable. They saw in the rainbow the still bent bow of a god thrown down in negligence; they heard in the thunder the sound of his beaten water jar, or the tumult of his chariot wheels; and when a sudden flight of wild ducks, or of crows passed over their heads, they thought they were gazing at the dead hastening to their rest; while they dreamed of so great a mystery in little things that they believed the waving of a hand, or of a sacred bough, enough to trouble far off hearts, or hood the moon with darkness.

W.B.Yeats

So what is the Earth Religions Society about?

The Earth religion society intends to fulfil the following aims:

To promote awareness and tolerance of alternative spirituality.
To provide its members with like-minded contacts within the university.
To arrange social occasions and opportunities to visit sites of interest etc.
To provide an open forum for discussion and exchange of ideas, experience and knowledge.
To, in association with the chaplaincy, provide spiritual support in crisis.

We are not a religious group for the sake of worship, you need not be a practitioner of any particular religion to be a member; you need only be interested and tolerant of others beliefs.

We do not seek to convert people to any spiritual path.

Who are Pagans?

Pagan is a term often used to describe someone following an earth centred spiritual path. Paganism is not a word used by our ancestors to describe their religion, and in many ways, it was derogatory. Outside of Europe the term is often rejected, for instance the indigenous spirituality of West Africa is referred to as Traditional African religion. The term pagan remains in use mainly for convenience.

Pagans come from all walks of life. What they have in common is the desire to celebrate Nature, the cycles of the seasons, the natural cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. The realisation of being Pagan comes from within; it wells up from the depths of the psyche as a response to the beauty of the green earth, the stars, and all Nature.

There are many different Pagan paths: For instance Wicca, Druidry, Asatru/Northern Tradition, and Shamanism are some of the more common European traditions; other examples of earth centred spirituality are found in indigenous cultures worldwide.