What Is The Difference Between Pagan And Wiccan?

Are you wondering the difference between a Pagan or a Wiccan? Many people believe the two are the same thing and are interchangeable. This is far from the truth.

In fact, if you refer to a Pagan that does not identify as a Wiccan it is not uncommon to get an eye roll. You see Pagan and Wiccans are kind of like rectangles and squares. A square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square.

What is a Pagan?

Pagan is a broad term covering a large range of people that believe in a pre-Christian religion and do not follow one of the large modern religions but do not disbelieve in the supernatural or higher power like Atheists.

Pagans can fall into nearly any path that is right for them. This means they can worship one god, many gods, or even no god at all.

Pagans are usually followers of a nature-based path and can be found following a path of those long gone. Some, but not all pagans practice forms of magic be it simply connecting to the earth or practicing full-fledged spells.

What is a Wiccan?

Wiccans are the followers of a relatively new and modern religion called Wicca. This peace-based religion follows what is referred to as The Wiccan Rede and the three-fold law.

They believe in having free will and the freedom to chose their own path. Wiccans believe that as long as what they choose to do doesn’t harm others then they are free to do it.

Most Wiccans are very careful to think before they act because of the belief that what they do will come back to them threefold through the laws of Karma.

Wiccans follow two gods. The mother goddess and the horned god. These gods represent the divine feminine and the divine masculine respectively. Wicca does have separate traditions that vary in how they practice and worship similar to how Christians have decisions between sects.