Pagan images create feelings of freedom, excitement, and intimacy. A ring of fires blazing in the night as the moon rises...drums beating as people dry off from a ritual bath...flesh is bared and a sword is raised...Any such scenes could come from a pagan ritual, or none of them because paganism summons diversity and encourages creativity.
Paganism as a religion has proven difficult for academics to define in narrow terms. Essentially a common element among people who practice pagan rituals is that very little restriction is placed upon imagination. Different groups of pagans devise their own ways of performing rituals according to their tastes, region, and ways of thinking about their sacred realms. Paganism has no strict rule book or laws laid down by prophets that must be obeyed by followers.
Because paganism tends to allow its practitioners to explore their own visions of how to worship the sacred, it can be said to allow people great freedom within the religion. Pagan religions make spaces where their members can be imaginative in their philosophies and rituals. This element of freedom in paganism has been identified as a factor that attracts some people to the religion. Wiccan priestess and NPR correspondent, Margot Adler in her classic book "Drawing Down the Moon" described paganism as a "religion without converts" because people decide individually to seek pagan spirituality. Pagans rarely proselytize their faith, and, Adler noted, that a pagan group might even be quite selective about accepting new members.
During her extensive research about paganism, Adler conducted interviews with people who identified religiously as pagans. When asking people what they liked about it, she discovered several prominent reasons.
