Well I can't speak as a pagan, but someone who has adopted many of its ideas into my lifestyle. As well as having a wiccan for a sister.
Paganism is bound by one code only
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Originally Posted by and if it harm none, do what thou wilt<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>
Now paganism is a broad term to cover pantheistic, nature and individual focused religions/spiritualities. The more developed religions within paganism include Wicca (this is witchcraft, female focus BUT there are many men within it. by female focus i mean i respect for mother nature, and all things that follow from that), Druism and Asatru (norse gods). There are many others out there, and many who reject any such titles as wiccan or druid, preferring simply pagan, and choosing what works for them.
The fundamental basis for most pagan spiritualism is a threefold worship. There is 'Spirit'. Spirit is simply the energy of the universe that allows it to exist, and all things are contingent upon it. Spirit is neutral. Spirit is also linked to, for want of a better word, karma. The law of karma in paganism is whatever you do returns back to you three times over.
Then there are the two central gods, which are male and female. Under paganism there are many gods, but an overall pagan acceptance is that these multiple gods and goddesses are simply aspects of these two overarching divine male and females. The divine female is a reflection of birth, creation, compassion and other similar forms. The divine male is a reflection of passion, energy creativity etc Neither female nor male aspect is more important than the other, even if some branches of paganism do focus more on one, usually the female.
Paganism is highly individualistic, in terms of relationship to a divine. There is never, (unless someone is on an ego trip and wants to manipulate people), an intermediary between you and the divine. Part of this individualism comes from the karmic forces, you take responsibility for your own actions. It is also anti-authoritarian, rejecting proper structures, fitting well with your political beliefs in anarchist-socialism.
There are however groups with a loose structure. Covens, groups of witches, or Groves sometimes for druids exist. Here we have some time of leadership in that the most experienced members lead ceremonies, rituals or spells.
Which leads us onto the next main point of most pagans, spells. Now this is usually what gets the unenlightened aggroed about paganism, because they think your asking daemons for help and as such, which your not. Spells are for pagans what preying is to Christians. You are asking your deity for help in something, in pagans case you are trying to bend Spirit in your favour through the divine female or males. You cannot ask for something that is bad, because you are breaking the central and only tenent of pagans, and anything you do try like that is going to end back at you three times. And....
The way spells work is through belief and force of will. You have to believe that, for example, that your friend will get through an illness and that she WILL get through it. On top of that, if your working with other people, they have to believe it too, or you will be working against their own personal energy. This is why negative spells are considered not to work, as the person your trying to affect will not want it themselves, so you can't affect them.
Again similar to buddhism is the belief in reincarnation among some pagans. its not universal, many other believe in going to a heaven, Elysium or Vallhalla. There is very rarely any hell to speak of, this world is bad enough and many consider reincarnation to be like purgatory, one giant groundhogs day, keep going till you've had a decent life.
However, I must say that there is a 'dark side', or potential to magick (the K is always put there to demonstrate that it is real magic rather than illusion). It may or may not be real, but although I do in small ways use positive spells myself (i don't do with all the tools and accompaniments that most pagans do, those things are for focusing, and I never ask for things that are so important that I need all those bits), I will never go near the darker stuff just in case. kind of like in usual suspects when the guy says he doesn't believe in god, but he's afraid of him. Look into Aleister Crowley or John Dee for famous people who stepped into that stuff, and John Dees stuff is pretty terrifying if any of it is true.
Anyway, back to the good stuff. Paganism, as I have said before, is a nature based spirituality. This is why all the festivals, rituals and spells are focused on the natural cycle. The festivals are based upon the four seasons, Beltaine (aspect of fire, april/may time, celebrating early summer), Lughnassa (harvest time, late summer festival, i think its water aspect, also known as Lammas), Samhain (halloween time, feast of the dead, time of remembrance, this one is earth I THINK) and Imbolc (jan/feb time, rebirth, this could be wind but I just read something about it being related to Brigid, who was is represented by water so it all confusing me now).
The above is linked to, and this where I was getting my elemental aspects from, the representations of North, East, South, West. The North is Earth, where the dead reside, its character is humility. East is wind, its mental character is intelligence and cunning. South is fire, representing creativity and passion. West is water, representing wisdom. You can see how North and South demonstrate that these beliefs come from the northern hemisphere.
Erm, thats as much as I feel like doing off the top of my head. If there is anything specific you want please ask.
Much of my knowledge comes from reading my sisters books on wicca and witchcraft, of which the best author was Silver Ravenwolf. Oh, while I mention that, the names are often like that to represent a personal rebirth into the pagan religion, and are reflections of a persons likes and dislikes, or how they feel they are best represented through that name.
Anyway, Silver has a website at
www.silverravenwolf.com
I don't know how good it is because I havn't looked at it, but her books were really good.
I'm not going to say much for Buddhism as you already know plenty about it, but I would reccomend reading Sogyal Rinpoche "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying". Its what got me started into studying buddhism, and is the best I've read so far.
I went through a similar phase of confusion over religion and direction in life, until I decided I wasn't going to define myself so narrowly, which is why I just leave it at personal spiritualist, and follow my conscience.