Glossary - exWitch Australia (formerly 'Born Again Pagan')

PREMONITION

A warning of an impending event, experienced as foreboding, anxiety and an intuitive sense of dread. Premonitions tend to occur before disasters, accidents and deaths. In October 1966, 28 adults and 116 children were killed in a landslide of coal waste in Aberfan, Wales. Over 200 people reported experiencing premonitions about the disaster, according to surveys taken afterwards.

In January 1967, a British Premonitions Bureau was established to collect and identify early warnings in an attempt to prevent such disasters. A similar organisation was established in New York a year later. In the following years most of the tips they were given never happened, and those that did were too inaccurate in terms of time and place to be of any help.

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.

- Jean-Luc