So when do you Pagans do the naked dancing?

8:57am Monday 12th November 2007

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AHH, Pagans. They're the lot who dance around in the buff under a full moon, aren't they? Or don't they sacrifice a goat or something?

Well, no actually.

“Paganism is a broad term covering a range of beliefs, but many Pagans gain their inspiration from ancient pre-Christian religions”

They may be a bit nearer Mother Nature than your average mainstream Christian, but over a cup of hot something in Worcester's Coffee Republic, Math Jones and Suz Winspear seemed pretty normal to me. Give or take the natty first names, which is anyone's prerogative anyway.

Math and Suz are both Pagans and as such are raising an ancient symbol or two as well as a glass, in celebration of a year of moots in Worcester.

A moot is not a first cousin to the antlered creature that wanders its way across parts of North America, but the Pagan name for a gathering. So November, 2007, marks the first birthday of Worcester Pagan Moot's moots. Which is quite enough moots for now.

There have been Pagan groups in the city before. In fact, back in 1999, there was, memorably, a Pagan wedding at Worcester Register Office, when the happy couple received a special blessing from a high priest while standing inside a special circle of candles.

They exchanged pentagrams instead of rings and broke a fruit loaf to share among their friends.

As an event it was decidedly different and knocked the average finger buffet and disco in the skittle alley of the local pub into a cocked hat.

However, despite occasional flourishes of enthusiasm, Paganism has never really lifted off in Worcester and it has taken Math, a Londoner who works in a city bookshop, to light the torch again.

He said: "We have been meeting every month for the past year at the Plough in Fish Street to discuss matters of Paganism, our beliefs, interests and inspirations. We can get up to 12 people come along."

While this may not amount to a religious crusade, it does show that a nucleus of people care enough to miss whatever's on the telly on the last Wednesday of every month. The next Worcester moot is on November 28, by the way.

Pinning down exactly what Paganism represents is difficult and probably leads to some of the more hysterical headlines.

Without getting too deep, Math offered the following explanation: "Paganism is a broad term covering a range of beliefs, but many Pagans gain their inspiration from ancient pre-Christian religions, worshipping a number of gods and goddesses, celebrating the seasons of the year and the richness of the earth and honouring our ancestors.

"Celebrations typically occur at Eostretide (the Spring season), Midsummer and Yuletide. The particular season we are in now, Halloween, is a time for remembering our ancestors, the ghosts and spirits of our forebears."

Pagans treat with some resignation that modern day Christianity has pinched some of their traditions and festivals and adopted them as its own.

For example the Christmas way of decorating homes with holly, ivy and mistletoe, is a Pagan ethos of bringing the outside inside on special occasions.

There is a rusticality and closeness with Nature about Paganism and there's a belief in some quarters the word could be interpreted as a rustic, hick or country bumpkin.

The implication being that in the early days, Christians used it to ridicule country folk who clung to what the more progressive - in their eyes -Christians considered outmoded, or Pagan, beliefs.

During the early spread of Christianity, it was the city slickers who took it up first and looked down on their slower country relatives.

Indeed, at one time, the word Pagan had evolved to include all non-Christians, even to the extent of implying Satan worship. So it's not difficult to see where the rumours start.

There is a strong Scandinavian feel to Paganism, echoing the Nordic worship of gods and goddesses from Valhalla. "ODIN", yelled Ernest Borgnine as he jumped to his death in the mad dog pit in that classic film The Vikings.

Indeed, one of the traditional ways for one Pagan to recognise another is by the wearing of a Thor's Hammer symbol on a neckchain. The insignia is protective in Pagan circles and another is The Pentacle, a five pointed star.

"When you first tell people you are a Pagan you usually get an expression of bewilderment, because most don't really know what it represents," said Math.

"I first became involved because I liked the fact that it is not a strict dogma. It is less rigid and a realisation that there may be more than one god."

To the outsider, some of the Pagan symbols may seem a little intimidating. For example the animal's skull in front of Math and Suz in the photograph is unlikely to have been among the Christmas presents from the Three Kings to the baby in the manger.

But need we be put off by that? It's a moot point.