Art, music, drama, and creativity

Creativity is very important to Pagans, as a general approach to life as well as ritual and story. Many Pagans are poets, artists and musicians and use these skills in Pagan ceremonies. Pagan ritual is a form of dramatic performance, often using scripts, costumes and ‘props’. Drumming is a very important part of Pagan practice when influenced by Shamanic practice (a ‘shaman’ is a general term used by scholars of religion to indicate a person, originally from an ‘indigenous’ society, who is able to reach altered states of consciousness, and for example discover the cause of an illness or communicate with spirits). Dancing is often a part of Pagan ceremony. Artefacts from ancient pagan societies such as copies of goddess figurines discovered by archaeologists may be collected. Art from ‘indigenous’ culture such as native Americans or Australian aboriginal people and Celtic and Germanic art forms may be admired. All the arts are used to stimulate emotion and inspiration, and ultimately bring about change and transformation in the individual, the community and the wider world.