• Through prayer and concentration on God;
• prayer directed toward obtaining knowledge of the mystical significance of the manifested reality;
• self-renunciation, or the so-called "Dark Night of the Soul";
• surrendering of personal will to God;
• a state of union with Divinity in which the person's will and God's will becomes one;
• a state of ecstasy in which the soul is filled with love and joy;
• the mystical marriage with God, where the inner being enters heaven.

PLEASE NOTE:
One of the major problems with 'defining' Paganism and/or its beliefs and practices is that it is an 'organic' movement, in that it is undergoing constant change and re-evaluation from within, and as such any 'one-size-fits-all' approach to understanding Paganism will be found wanting.

Due to the very 'organic' nature of Paganism, and the many differing Paths and Traditions within it, in many cases no one definition may be universally accepted by all Pagans.   Therefore, where such cases of possible conflicting and/or contradictory meanings of certain terms occur I have endevoured to give not only the generally accepted meaning, but also any major 'variations' in belief and/or practice.

Christians who believe this difference in meaning of certain key terms, beliefs and practices to be unique to Paganism need to remember that such conflicts also arise within the Body of Christ - the Church.   Take for instance the differing practices amongst Christians concerning Baptism and the different attitudes towards women in the clergy.