Pagan or Wiccan?

[Anonymous]

Okay, as I said back in my intro I don't know all the relevent terms, traditions or definitions.  So, in order to clear the fog of ignorance I ask questions.  Some of them will seem dumb, some insightful.  So here goes......

Are all Pagans Wiccan?  Or, are all Wiccans Pagan?

Would this be similar to saying all Christians are Catholics?

What _is_ a good definition of the terms Wiccan and Pagan?  I ask that because it seems to change from source to source.

Please forgive what seem to some of you to be asking the obvious.

[Lark]

In traditional meaning, a Pagan was considered someone who was not a follower of one of the religions of the Book..in other words, not a Christian, a Jew or a Muslim.  That meant that there were a whole variet of Pagan religions, everything from Asatru to Zoroastrianism.  But many of the followers of those faiths would be unhappy to be considered Pagan.  Hindus and Buddhists for example do not consider themselves to be Pagans at all.

In modern parlance, the term Pagan or Neo-Pagan refers to those who follow some of the recreations of Pre-Christian religions.  Pagan in this context is a global term which covers a number of different paths of which Asatru, Druid, Witchcraft, Wicca, and Reconstructionists would be some examples.

Wicca is one particular form of Paganism which was created by Gerald Gardner in the 1940's.  A really good book on the subject of Wiccan history is "Triumph of the Moon" by Ronald Hutton.

And since the next question always seems to be what is the difference between Wicca and traditional Witchcraft, I'll point you to Branwen's excellent essay on the topic:

http://www.branwenscauldron.com/witch_wicca.html

Hope this helps,

-Lark-